it is NOT a box

On Friday we continued our work with the book Not A Box by building another sentence from the story;

It  is  not  a  box.

First we used our reading powers to study and figure out the words in the sentence on the morning message, circling our noticings. 

Next we read the sentence.

Then each child cut and built the sentence from their own sentence strip. Rereading their sentence again and again!

Finally they added on to copies of their original box, turning the box into a not-a-box!

Through this experience the children used sound power to get their mouth ready for beginning sounds, found words they know, tapped the words not and box and blended the sounds together, and made a plan for what their box would be!

Some of their creative ideas are below; a spaceship, a treehouse, a race car, and a unicorn!

Continuing our work with the word not with a new word family book!

Our closing circle on Friday included an opportunity to practice our growing language skills through some creative thinking and sharing! We passed a small box around the circle, thinking of other things the box could be. We used hand sanitizer first, of course. 

You can play this game at home, too. Find a box (or anything) at home and pass it back and forth, trying to think of other things it could be. 

This is not a box, it is a . . .

Some of the children's ideas; a telephone, a house for a mouse, a hat, a jewelry box, a tiny bed, a mouth opening and closing, a place for lots of chocolates!

sound power!

Part of our work developing sound power is hearing and producing words that begin with the same sound. Remember our leaf alphabet book earlier this year? We can connect back to alphabet books and use alphabet books to add more words. We can do this by writing another alphabet book, with a space for four things beginning with the same sound!

We worked on the first page together, using other alphabet books to help us produce words that begin with the vowel a. We talked about how some of the words beginning with the vowel a sound like the vowel's name and other words have a stretching sound, like we have learned and practiced during Fundations. 

The children then chose a letter from our alphabet to work on at home during one of our remote days. While at home, they used sound power and picture power to draw and label four things that begin with the same sound, just like we did together in the classroom.

On Thursday we put our pages together, using an alphabet chart to check if we were missing any letters. We needed 26 letters and figured out that we were missing some vowels and consonants! The children worked together to finish the final pages and build our book. 

On Friday we will share a copy of our alphabet book with the preschoolers!