Kindergarten Buddies

It has been a long time since I have spent any time with a five year old and even longer since I visited a kindergarten classroom. I was happy and at least a bit relieved that it was so much fun! Joshua is five and a half and he is a sweet, bright and welcoming child. The 30 minutes we spent together went by all too quickly.


Although we did not get to read a book together, Joshua did some writing for us as we got to know one another. He seems to be using a variety of strategies as he writes words down on paper. In some instances, Joshua used pictures in his writing. For example, he showed us that his favorite color was blue by drawing a blue colored circle. He also drew a picture of a tuna fish sandwich to illustrate his favorite food.


Joshua used a different strategy as he told us his favorite show was MST (monster) as he clearly heard and identified most of the consonants. He seemed very concerned about whether his spelling of Monster was correct. He insisted on knowing the correct spelling of the word and he then inserted the missing letters. He went on to identify all the letters in our nametags that matched the letters in his answers. He also wrote his first name quickly and confidently at the top of the page. He added his last name but used the placemat for reference to confirm that he spelled his last name correctly.


In the readings on phonemic awareness and phonics, Fox describes how children begin to understand the alphabetic principle when they know the names and sounds of most letters. Children in this stage also use one or more consonants to spell words. It will be interesting to work with Joshua on the Emergent Literacy Profile to see where he is on the continuum. In our brief first visit, he seemed to be able to identify all the letters of the alphabet. Also, he could hear sounds in the words and was able to identify and write down some letters associated with the sounds. I look forward to working with Joshua on the Reading Profile to help integrate the readings with actual practice.