Three Ways to Read a Book--Retelling

It's going to be a busy year in our classroom library!

Students will use this spot to practice reading independently. We learned that there are three ways to read a book:  read the words, read the pictures, and retell a story. We're focusing on retelling a story first. Since school has begun, we have heard many stories.  In the past, I have retold a book, and the students and I retold some stories together.  Today we tried out retelling a story with a few of our classmates.  See?

When we retell, we use the book to help us remember what happened in the story.  We check each page and use clues from the pictures if we have forgotten to help us retell the story. Sometimes we get the words exactly right!  It's fun to read favorite stories over again!

I was only able to catch a few readers this time.  I'll catch others the next time!

Routines and Expectations

We made it through the first week of school!  The students have adjusted well to our schedule, and we're picking up the routines quickly.  Woohoo!

This week we focused a lot on behavior expectations. We learned how to get along with others in the kindergarten classroom. Our big idea:  I can get along with others. 

We broke down some of the components of our big idea, especially listening, sharing, and taking turns.

We discussed the three rules for centers and Daily 5. I hope to take pictures of the students demonstrating these behaviors next week.

We read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems. 

It's such a fun, interactive book.  We learned that when we hear the word "no," it means "no." We learned that when Pigeon pleaded and bargained, it didn't work.  It didn't work when Pigeon got angry and threw a fit, and it won't work for kindergarten students either!  We'll read other Pigeon books throughout the year. He is a favorite character.

We talked about how sometimes people or things can bother us, and we discussed words we can use and actions we can take when we find ourselves in that situation.

Finally, we heard a story about a monster who goes to school and breaks all of the rules. We decided which behaviors would cause us to get clip ups or clip downs on our clip chart.

We're ready for a successful year in kindergarten!