Matching Monkeys, Magnets

You may have noticed this paper in your child's folder today.  I do not always read directions exactly as a worksheet states them.  So for this sheet, I just told them to circle the ones that were exactly the same in each row (I didn't tell them it could only be two or that it was always the first monkey).  It was a fun worksheet for them, and interesting for me. The whole point of it is visual discrimination - being able to differentiate between pictures/symbols, which is one indicator of reading readiness: will they be able to tell a b from a d?  A p from a q?  A b from a p?  An e from a G?...  Of course an exercise like this can also just show how long/carefully a child looks at something :)  1 child got it entirely right.

The other day we read a nonfiction book about magnets and one page showed a child playing with magnets in water.  We thought it looked fun, so we tried it today.

"School is the funnest thing EVER!"

"School is the funnest thing EVER!" one girl told me at the end of the day today.  We had a great second day.  It wasn't as messy as our first day (we only covered one hand in ink, rather than two feet in paint), but it was still lots of fun.  Here are a few pictures:

Today was our second day of literacy centers and I could already tell that they were catching on to the routine.  Here are some children reading magazines.

Putting (lowercase) letter beads on pipe cleaners.

 Matching letters.

Today we started sharing.  Over the next few weeks each child will be assigned a day that they can bring in their All About Me! poster (watch the calendar/newsletter for when it is your child's turn) and a few pictures and a book/toy to share.

 A big part of Kindergarten is teaching children that learning is fun and that they are capable of learning.  We don't just want to teach children to read, we want to have confident readers, so here is our I Can Read bulletin board.  Everything on it is something they can 'read'.  I only planned to put a few up today, but they kept asking for more and saying it was "easy" even though some are really long words.  They're just so smart!

Reading by memory is an important pre-reading skill as children hone their visual discrimination skills and grow in their confidence as readers.

Why we do what we do

Earlier this week, we did this page. They had to circle the monkeys in each row that were exactly the same. Why? Well, because monkey and match begin with Mm - our letter of the week, and because it was fun, and because it is working on visual discrimination, an important pre-reading skill. Children need to pay attention to details. How else will they be able to tell a b from a d? This page is surprisingly challenging for most children. (And I do not read the part of the directions that say to look at the one on the left first)
If you ever wonder why we do a particular activity, please ask! I would love to share with you...even if the answer is just - "it's really fun" or "I wanted to try something new" :)