Sorting School Work that comes Home and Our Word Wall

My younger son is in Kindergarten and comes home with lots and lots of paperwork! His teacher has a great approach to keeping monthly Math Journal where the kids do math work nearly everyday. She's thematic so we have Winter based projects, like Penguins theme or the Gingerbread man. Then there is my favorite work - popcorn words - which have allowed us to build our word wall.

One year later.

I often find my younger son standing in front of the wall, where we have taped up his word projects that he taped and wrote, and he is reading his words! My favorite moments are when his lil' sister stands next to him repeating what he says.

Most recently my younger son read a bedtime book to me!! It was "Hop on Pop." He needed some prompting to sound out words like WHere and THere, and then after we read the page with corrections he said: "Mom, I got this." And he reread the page again on his own, sounding out the words. I know now that my happiness tears were because I was so proud of his determination to reread the page correctly and without help!

Sorting School Work that comes Home & Our Word Wall, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

The "popcorn words" strategy that his Kindergarten teachers uses is not a rote memorization technique. The kids interact with the words, building them by cutting out and sounding out the letters and words. My older son had to memorize 150 words in his Kindergarten class, he also had to write sentences even tho he wasn't sounding out words (as we wrote because I didn't know better as a new mom). 

Older son didn't read until 1st grade. I can see the difference in how they learned the words and did and didn't interact with the words directly impacted how they learned to read, and how quickly.

This other photo is of my younger sons school work. I kept many pages of my older sons school work with his binder bursting at the seams. My younger son will have photos of ALL his work with select pieces he and I choose as our favorites in his binder. 


Sorting School Work that comes Home & Our Word Wall, a photo by areyousureaboutthatblog on Flickr.

I just love when the kids hit these milestones with leaps and bounds.  

Update: In 2015 My younger son entered school "behind" in reading (level B instead of C). He has since caught up and made leaps and bounds in reading. More importantly he loves books. And now that he has started reading he is reading by choice, for his own pleasure. 

I have my older sons 150 kindergarten sight words which we use to supplement his school list in 1st grade this year. Learning those base of sight words really did make a smoother reading transition for my older son. At the time i was anti-flashcards, feeling they PUSH information versus actually learning it. I was wrong. I think flashcards and sight words have a place...we just have to make it fun. 

• Play memory with the sight words
• Speed race once my son learned 60-70% of the words list
• and learn it in manageable portions of about 5-8 words per week.
• Keeps last weeks mastered words and add more words next week, now having 10-16 words. 
• Continue every week. Through summer as well.

Make Mistakes, Breathe, Reflect and Laugh.Out.Loud.