Literacy and the Kindergarten Child

Perhaps the most asked question I hear from parents with pre-kindergarten aged children is “Will my child be reading by the end of kindergarten?” But what does “reading” actually mean for each child? Can the child blend sounds, recognize sight words, apply meaning to the words? Reading is only one element of any comprehensive literacy program. Literacy includes all aspects of reading, writing, listening, viewing and speaking. In the Zimmer kindergarten, state standards are the foundation for meaningful strategies that engage our children in a stimulating environment, promoting the skills to develop each child’s confidence in order to support a love of reading and learning.


And love to read, our children surely do! Our shared reading books often become a popular choice when the children are in our classroom library. As one child assumes the role of “Morah” and reads from the “Big Book”, the other children read along in the smaller copies. Working together in this comfortable setting, I can often hear a child ask, “What’s that word again?” while another responds, “Oh!, that’s our new sight word, see it’s up on the wall!” As the children learn new sight words through their reading, we add them to our “words we know” wall in the classroom, use them in our morning message and journal writing, practice writing them in our sight word books and notice them in other books we are reading.

 

While it’s certainly fun to read with our classmates, it is even more fun to read to younger children. Recently, the toddler class came to visit and they were treated to a “kindergarten buddy” who read them a story. The kindergarten children selected books they liked from our reading program, and read the book to their toddler buddy. One kindergarten child exclaimed, “I felt happy to read because the little kids felt good to hear a book they will read when they are in kindergarten.” Another kindergarten child said, “I feel like a grown up already because I’m reading to a kid!” This experience gave the children an opportunity to use their new skills in a very meaningful and personal way!

Our daily journal work is a source of great pride for our children. As the children have progressed through out the year, our journal writing has become more and more independent. Each day the children come in to the classroom and read the morning message and the question of the day. As we have developed an understanding of sentence structure, the children now answer the sentence on their own in their journals, using invented spelling, sight words they have learned, and words throughout our classroom. The questions use words we know about topics we are learning! Currently, the children are writing about details they recall from the Passover story. For example, one question asked: “What is one food that we eat on Passover?” A popular answer was: “Matzo is one food we eat on Passover.” Several children choose to sound out the word matzo, while others looked for the word in the classroom. We focus on spacing, proper use of capital letters and ending punctuation when we write our sentence.

Good speaking skills are invaluable in life, and the children have frequent opportunities in which to lead the class in discussion. Our morning meeting incorporates the responsive classroom techniques and the children “share” an object or story through a brief presentation or tale and then engage their classmates in a question and answer session. Each day, one child leads our afternoon calendar meeting. The child leads the reading of the board and the calendar tasks. With these daily routines, the children soon become comfortable assuming leadership roles in our classroom!

Games are a great way to build skills and have fun. A phonics dominoes game was recently introduced, and quickly has become a classroom favorite. The children try to see who can make the most words! Another popular game the children enjoy playing is Build a Flower. The children take turns reading words written on petals and place them on the proper preprogrammed stem. The stems include, animals, colors and number words. The game challenges the children to recall sight words and to blend sounds to read the other words.

Reading helps us build vocabulary. I recently completed reading the chapter book, Stuart Little to the class. By listening to stories the children are not yet ready to read on their own, we gain a richer vocabulary then by only reading books at our own proficiency. Also, it encourages the children to actively listen as they enjoy the story. At the end of each day, we read one chapter until we completed the book. Several children loved this book so much that they secured their own copies to bring to school! They were so excited when they are able to read some of the words on their own. The children often reflected that this was their favorite part of the day! “Why?” I asked. “Because I want to know what happens next to Stuart Little!” they responded. Take a trip to your local library with your child and select a chapter book you can read together each day. I promise, you will both enjoy the journey!

Here at Zimmer kindergarten, the better question is: “Will my child love to read?”

The answer to that is, “Yes!”