Kindergarten

Note: This year I am blogging weekly reflections at my school site (weskids.com) in order to provide more transparency in my teaching for parents, students, and the community (local and global). I will be cross-posting most of the entries here at Bit By Bit as well. You can see the original posts at the “Reflections by Mr. S” blog. _________________________________________________

In this week’s post, I’m going to focus on what Kindergarten has been doing in the Computer Lab.

Wow! We’ve come so far in such a short time! Students started the year learning how to access our lessons on the weskids.com website. I was amazed at how they remembered to do this so quickly as it involves many steps and even some reading. Beginning lessons focused on “mouse practice.” This is difficult for some students as the mice we use have a right and a left click buttons, as well as a wheel for scrolling. Many students have had to learn to not click on the wheel, as it doesn’t open the link they’re clicking on. We worked on identifying links by seeing how the cursor arrow changes to the “hand” when rolled over an active link. We worked on single-clicking, double-clicking, and clicking and dragging. “Clicking and Dragging” is by far the most difficult task for young students as they have to hold the mouse clicker down for an extended period and possibly even lift the mouse up (while still pressing down on the clicker!) in order to get more space on the desk. You can see the exercises we used to practice mouse skill HERE (http://bit.ly/1dVRng2) and HERE (http://bit.ly/15zY0nV).

Students have also had time exploring our “Engagement Links.” These links can be accessed right on the from page of the weskids.com website (http://weskids.com/) and are excellent for at home use. You will want to monitor your student’s usage of the Engagement Links as the links are combined in categories, such as “K-2,” and some of the games may be a bit difficult for Kindergarten students. Games and activities have been selected by me for safety and appropriateness and combine fun with learning.

Next week, students will start exploring the excellent site, Starfall (http://www.starfall.com/). There are many resources for beginning readers at Starfall and Starfall_s_Learn_to_Read_with_phonicsKindergarten students benefit greatly from the “Learn to Read” section. We will be completing many of the lessons on this site throughout the year, and students will enjoy and benefit from revisiting the activities at home.

45 minutes is a long time for Kindergarten students to sit at a computer! So, at the end of every class, I read to the students for about 10-15 minutes. We have been enjoying the amazing work from writer/illustrator, Mo Willems. Willems’ work is incredibly funny and also allows for “higher reasoning” questions to be asked, as well as allowing students to work on identifying the problems and solutions in the stories. Throughout the reading, I encourage students to make predictions, solve riddles/mysteries in the story, make connections to the world, other books, and to themselves and to think about what the characters are thinking. We have finished Willem’s 3 Knuffle Bunny books and are now diving into his hilarious Piggie and Gerald series.

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Things You and Your Student Can Do at Home:

  • Go to starfall.com with your student! There are so many great reading activities and games and books to keep your student engaged in reading all year!
  • Have your student show you the weskids.com website. Explore the “Engagement Links” and find favorites to repeat at home.
  • Ask your student to retell the Knuffle Bunny stories by Mo Willems. Also—be on the look out for information coming home regarding a PTSA family-fundraising event at Barnes and Nobles in Portsmouth, NH. I will be there and will definitely be reading some Mo Willems books to students.
  • Help reinforce the mouse skills we’ve been doing at school, especially, lifting the mouse up to get more table when running out of space.
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