Alphabet Knowledge

Today we did some alphabet activities. The Kinders were with a partner practicing letter recognition or spelling words! 

Each group received cards of lower case letters from a-z and they had choices for what activities they could do.

Here were the options for what activities they could be doing with their partner: 

1. They can put all the cards face down in a pile and one by one pick up a card and identify the correct letter. If they were right, they kept the card. If they were wrong, it went to the bottom of the pile. 

2. They can put the cards face down spread out on the floor. One by one, they can pick up a card and identify the correct letter. If they were right, they kept the card. If they were wrong, it went to the bottom of the pile. 

3. For those students who already know every letter, this might be too easy! I had those students place their cards face UP and they could try to pick letters and spell a word. They were working on sounding out the word to know what letters they needed. 

Take a look below: 

4 Steps for top-notch cutting

Today the Kinders had a little lesson on scissors. 
We practiced proper grip, techniques, and practiced cutting shapes out. 
I was at a PD (Professional Development) course yesterday that discussed fine and gross motor development and skills. It was a very informative course with new ideas that I can bring back to the classroom. 
We learned a couple tips to help us when cutting: 
1. "Thumbs Up" (make sure your thumb is on top, not on the bottom) 

Thumbs down - WRONG

Thumbs up - RIGHT

 2. "Cutting Half Way" (when cutting, close scissors MOST of the way, not ALL the way) 

Correct - Open (ready to cut)

Correct - Closed (cut down)

Correct - Open (ready to cut)

INCORRECT - Closed all the way (leads to jagged edge when cutting)

3. "Crazy Hand" (This is the hand that is not holding the scissors. We call it the crazy hand because it moves around and helps us by moving the page we are holding. Sometimes the Kinders will try to move their cutting hand, but we want to practice keeping our cutting hand still and only moving our crazy hand.)

4.  "Laying down to cut" (This causes the child to keep their arm in the same place and only move their wrist. We pretended our "elbows" were glued down so we couldn't move them or lift them up. Otherwise, sometimes children twist and bend their arm in every direction when trying to cut) After trying this today, the kinders were very successful with their cutting - especially in September!