Making class books is a favorite of mine and I have not figured out to make as many this year as I did last year! In preparation for closing out our "I love to Read" month I'll be planning one or two and prepare my class to become "rhyming masters!" We'll have to figure out how to form rhyming words as we will interactively write the directions step by step. We're very good at rhyming, but now I want to draw attention to why the rime looks the same and therefore sounds the same and connect it as a strategy to improve their writing.
Last year, we only wrote one direction each day (even though we were capable of more) but modeled changing out the beginning sound and looking at the ending chunk remaining the same (and mentioning that we always keep the vowel because they most often like to snuggle in the middle).
It still brings back a mental snapshot of "Cameron Wameron" along with other white boards that were filling with rhyming words, I saw the intrinsic value in allowing students to feel like they've discovered things on their own. If I can make them think it was their idea to use their names then I can't stop them from noticing larger chunks at the ends of words... and making the connection that most likely the pair of words rhyme!
So my plan is to re-create my official "rhyming master kinders" and use these simple class books to appeal to my kinders' sense of self. How did we make "There's a Flassgroom in My Classroom"? They will be allowed to create any type of head band creation {paper, pipe cleaners, scissors and left over die cuts}to turn themselves into a Seuss-like creature. I'll share the templates to create our own version of There's a Wocket in my Pocket (we're big in my room on creating different version books right now) and their minds began to wander around the classroom. With random scraps and stacks of construction paper in the middle of the tables - free reign will be uncomfortable territory for me, but I look forward to seeing the divergent thinking as they create!
These creatures were revisited the next day as they have to pick a location that matched their location word on the page and simply write the rhyme and the spot within our classroom. Last year we had a fun, silly photo shoot of each child and the next day they were able to paste their photos onto their page. Not only did we have a "muby" in the "cubbie" and a "mathgroom" in the "bathroom" in addition to the vug and the zable seen here - we had fun!
Do you like to have your class taste green eggs and green ham? Last year Sam-I-Am flew through our classroom and dropped some off while we were in gym and most of us were happy he did! After graphing our immediate responses, we captured our tasting response on camera and each kinder used that photo to create their page in our class book. The first two blanks and last blank are for the kinders to write their names. This idea came from my favorite kinder teacher just down the hall.
