Wednesday, September 17, 2008

My newsletter- blog #1

I chose to do my newsletter on Kindergarten phonetics. The grade level indicators I decided to focus on were Hear and say the separate phonemes in words, such as identifying the initial consonant sound in a word, and blend phonemes to say words, following simple directions, share finding visually or orally, listen attentively to speakers, stories, poems, and songs, and speak clearly and understandably.
The ways I added these to my newsletter was with the phonemes were to pick words with their parents to understand and help others understand their letter. Following simple directions they were given different directions about making their costumes, the food, and picking the 5 words with their parents to help and remind the students about their letter. The benchmark about sharing went along with them telling the other students in the class about their letter, the words they chose, and the food they made that all went along with their letter. Working on the benchmark of listening attentively to speakers would go along with when another student is sharing the information they chose about their letter. When I decided to use the speak clearly it would also help them with public speaking and getting in front of people while they are speaking while also helping them to speak clearly.
I think my newsletter was good because when you are working with kindergarten students the best way for them to learn is to get up and do things because they have so much energy that when you expect them to sit in a seat all day long and work on worksheets they don't tend to stay as focused. I thought it would be a good way after they learned the letters in the alphabet to be able to show their parents and their friends and other people in the school how much they have learned in the class room. I did the same thing that I used for my newsletter when I was in kindergarten and it was a fun way to really get to put into reality what we learned and showed us that we would use it for more than just class. It was really great to be able to work with our parents and get to have a fun day. It was like show and tell everyone got excited to do it and then we ended up learning from it also but it didn't seem like work for us.
I don't really think it would be very realistic for kindergarten students to be using word processing but I think it would be a cool way to enhance their technology skills if you had someone who was able to work with them on a one on one basis to make a newsletter like this but in a class of 30 students or so it isn't really as possible as it would be for students in 2nd or 3rd grade.