Starry kindergarten students have already been hard at work on their journey to becoming expert readers. Over the past few weeks, they have been engaging in their first CKLA knowledge unit of the year, which focused on nursery rhymes and fables. This unit began with students hearing a number of classic nursery rhymes, such as Hickory Dickory Dock, Jack be Nimble, and Humpty Dumpty. With each of these nursery rhymes, students were introduced to new vocabulary words, and were able to practice important phonological awareness skills, such as identifying and producing rhyming words. Kindergarten students were also taught how to identify the main character in nursery rhymes (when applicable).
After studying nursery rhymes, this unit moved on to fables. As they did with nursery rhymes, students were tasked with identifying and describing the main characters in each of the fables that they heard. In addition, they learned about the concept of main idea, or being able to identify and describe what each story was mostly about. To go along with the main idea, each of the fables that students listened to had a moral, or lesson to learn. Story sequencing - being able to retell the fable - was also a central focus of this unit.
One of the most important components of this unit, which will continue throughout all CKLA knowledge units, is asking and answering questions about the text that is read. Questions range from simple (ie, identifying a character), to complex (ie, comparing and contrasting characters from two different fables). Students have engaged in a cooperative learning structure called Think-Pair-Share, where they talk about their answers with a partner, giving each student the opportunity to share their thinking.
Kindergarteners have had so much fun learning about nursery rhymes and fables, and are now beginning their next unit all about the five senses!
