Kindergarten: Learning to spell using phonetics

Just about every month since school started, Mrs. S has put together a classroom book. Each book is made up of one page contributed by each child in the class.

The pages are 100% done by the children. They write their name on their page, draw and color in the page, and fill in blanks of the prompted topic with the sight words they've learned. Some of the sight words they've mastered include: a, me, my, like, the, here, is, go, to, and, an, can, see, said, we, for.

Once finished, the front and back cover is laminated and the pages bound and each child gets to take the book home for one day to share with their family.

Some of the books we've seen were "My favorite food", "I like to run",  and "On Pajama Day".

But the best book yet is the most recent Emily brought home to share with us on her share day titled "What's the weather".


Why is this book so special to me?

This book is the first where the children wrote using phonetics to spell out what they wanted to say rather than simply filling in the blanks with sight words they've mastered trough rote memory. First, they had to decide what kind of weather was their favorite. Next, they had to think about what they like about the weather and had to spell out the sentence themselves. Lastly, they had to draw themselves enjoying the weather as they described it.


How do I even describe what I love most about this work?!?

It puts a gigantic smile on my face for so many reasons:

1. First, they have been working really hard on writing their names, capitalizing the first letter and using lower case for the rest. Also, working on spacing the letters within words and between words. I'm so proud of the writing on this page!

2. I love that she spelled the word sunny as SUNE and the word play as PLA, exactly as they sound. Such innocence and very uncomplicated logic in their spelling as this age. 

3. How adorable is her green face?!? She said she drew herself a green bathing suit (which is exactly what we just purchased for her, she remembered!), red & purple sleeves because her robe is that way (and it is), and a green face so her skin would match her bathing suit because it's her favorite. ha!

Has your child tried spelling anything for you, yet?

Comments

  1. So sweet! What a good mama you are to take pictures of the book and Emily's contribution...a fun keepsake to have.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done, Emily! I can't wait until Owen is at this stage. My mom saved a couple of these from my childhood, which was really neat. Apparently when I was in Grade 1, I was a "scare wich" (scary witch) for Halloween, complete with illustration. Emily did a wonderful job on that :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is purely precious!! What a treasure - keep it safe! She will love to look back at it some day :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts