Five Finger Retell

The Five Finger Retell is a way for our kinders to tell a more detailed retelling of a story.  It gives the children a framework for a more detailed retelling of a story.  You can use this when you are reading with your children too!

Literacy Station Tour

Here's a little tour of what is happening in literacy stations so far this year.  Literacy stations give students the chance to practice what they are learning in their reading group and throughout the day in reading, writing and speaking instruction. As the year goes on, some of the activities in the stations will change, but the purpose of the stations remains the same. 

ABC  Station

The ABC Station has activities that give students practice in naming letters, recalling beginning sounds, and writing the letters. 

Word Station

In the Word Station, students practice writing Word Wall Words, letter patterns and chunks frequently found in words, and reading

Technology Station

The Technology Station has the Promethean Board, computers, Read Along, and Tag books in it.  The children are listening and responding to stories, practicing reading skills, and enjoying good books being read to them. 

Art Smart Station

The Art Smart Station has four pieces of artwork displayed on the cabinets below our sink.  Although this is not where I'd really like to see this artwork, it gives students space to sit down or stretch out and study and write about the pieces.  They will be zooming in to notice details and zoom out to get the big picture.  They write about what they notice, sometimes with a prompt, other times with what they notice or how they react to the picture.  The artwork connects to what we are learning about in the content areas or to practice thinking and academic strategies.

Writing Station

The Writing Station is where students practice writing lists, notes, stories, signs, and just about anything else involving writing.  They are often practicing whatever type of writing we are doing in Writing Workshop. 

Read and Write the Room

Students use poems, charts, words, and picture word cards they find around the room to practice reading and writing. 

Coming Soon!

Tell It Again Station

This station has props for retelling stories as well as wordless picture books.  One of the best activities for beginning readers is to use picture books to tell stories.  Wordless picture books give students the opportunity to not only tell the story, but develop interesting vocabulary and to tell the story in book language and with good inflection used in storytelling.

The Library Station

One of the favorite stations for our students is the Library Station.  Students are able to choose from collections of books and read, tell the story from the pictures, or study to learn more about a topic.

Coming Soon!

Science and Social Studies Station

This station has materials for students to use in developing vocabulary in the content currently being studied, as well as information books and paper for writing about information learned and questions they have about the content.

Coming Soon!

The Chart Station

The Chart Station has a variety of text and words the children work with on a chart.  The text of a poem may be cut up and the children need to reassemble it, or they may be matching up riddles and answers.  They might be doing a picture sort by sounds or retelling a story with sentence strips.