Literacy: Literacy Love

October / November Newsletter, our love and confidence in reading and writing is growing leaps and bounds! Take a "picture walk" (much like our growing readers do!) through the fun we've been having throughout all of Literacy.

As mentioned in our

Shaving Cream Spelling - Give it a try at home!


Letter Brainstorms - What other words can we think of that start with the letters in our sort? Some days we use our own Spelling brains to answer this question and some days we use our classroom library as a resource. Encourage your Kinder to make Letter Brainstorms and go on Word Hunts at home.


Playing Scrabble Junior during Center Time.


Gluing Spelling Sorts during Brain Breakfast.


Looking forward to weekly story times with our parents and grandparents. Interested in joining us? We host a visitor each Tuesday morning from 8:45 - 9:05. Our door is always open, so email me if you are interested.


Selecting books for home and for school thanks to generous donations from the Iowa City Public Library.


Taking the Towncrest Bus to visit the public library each month.


Welcoming ICPL librarians to Willowwind. Each month, Kathy Habley visits our classroom for a much anticipated story time. Here, Morgan is hosting a book talk encouraging students to check out a variety of new chapter books hat can be found in our own library or at the public library. Later this month, Kathy will be here to host a picture book talk.


Prewriting Lunch Bunch - Interviewing our partners for our upcoming Partner Books.


Prewriting Lunch Bunch - Being interviewed by our partners for our upcoming Partner Books.


Building Mat Man - Mat Man is fun character that comes to life with our Wood Letter Pieces.


Mat Man!!


Brainstorming answers to the question - What do STRONG readers do? Take a look at our reading and writing brainstorms posted throughout our classrooms.


Making lists in our Dry Erase Board Center.


Making lists - learning how "To Do Lists" can keep our brains organized and on task.


Learning to find "Just Right Books". Ask your child about our "Just Right" Reading Buckets.


Using our Seed Journals to create detailed brainstorms. Seeds start in our brain, are felt in our heart, travel thorough arms, out our hands and into our Seed Journal.


Using black pens to write and label and colored pencils to draw in our Seed Journals.


Visiting the Listening Center. Building fluency through listening to other fluent readers read aloud modeling expression, pacing, and other fluency traits.


Spending time in our classroom library reading a variety of books including books of our own creation!

All around, we LOVE all things literacy. Our love for reading and writing is a team effort. Thank you for your support in helping our confidence and love grow. Through nightly reading to and with your child, to Highlights ordering, and through encouraging the use of the "I Can Read" DVD sent home earlier in the year your at home help is truly appreciated. A big thank you to local educator LaDonna Wickland for her generous DVD donation.

In addition, a big thank you to the ICPL, former Kindergarten families, and my own mother's love for reading for their recent donations to our classroom library. Our library has grown by more than THREE HUNDRED (or more) books in the last two months. If you know of someone that is interested in donating books our classroom and school library is always in need. Thank you for all you do - the love for learning is so apparent.