Ssssttttrrrreeeeeetttccchhh iiiitttt and put it back together!!!!

Last week we got to meet our kindergarten buddies. I was really excited since it had been a few weeks since I had been around the kindergarteners at my main placement. I have missed how loving and sweet 5 and 6 year olds are! When my partner and I walked into our class holding a card with the letter "C" on it I began looking for the student that was holding the corresponding "C" bean bag because the holder of that letter would be our buddy. I did not want to waste any time and wanted to make observations of my buddy right away. My buddy, who I will call  Buddy E, was sitting 5 feet in front of me. He was sitting at his desk very content while the 37 adults from my cohort filled the room. As a matter of fact, I was surprised none of the students were overwhelmed by our presence. After spotting my buddy, my eyes were diverted to his table partner who was happily smiling at me and waving. I looked around to see if he was actually trying to get my attention or some else's. No one else seemed to be looking at him but me so I waved back. This boy continued to wave and smile which made me question whether or not he thought he knew me. However, I think he was just excited and happy to have us all there and I just happened to be the one he connected with to express his joy. If only it would have been appropriate for me to express how excited I was to be there like that boy.

After meeting Buddy E, we walked over to a room down the hall to get to know one another. This was not only our chance to connect with our buddy but also to see what his reading and writing ability was. Right before we met our buddies the teacher had them demonstrate to my cohort how they stretch words. The showed us how "mom" becomes "mmmmmoooooommmmm" (while pulling your hands apart to stretch the word) and when they put it back together its "mom" (moving your hands back together). Since I had been in a kindergarten classroom for my September Experience I was surprised I had never learned this before. I am pretty sure this is something they used in their class a lot because Buddy E kept using it while we worked on our "getting to know you" worksheet.

I was impressed as I observed Buddy E's different techniques and skills when he worked on the worksheet. We showed him what the different categories of favorites there were on the worksheet and how there were also pictures that helped us to figure out what the words said. So for example, on the line where is said favorite animal there was a picture of a frog. One interesting observation I made was when Buddy E began to write his favorite color, blue. On the line he spelled "ba" after stretching the word. After he worked on it for a minute my partner asked him if there might be some place on his place mat that had the word blue. Sure enough he spotted where it was. He was able to read it and spell it properly "b-l-u-e". However, when we pointed to how he spelled it on his paper he did not just jump right in and fix it. I pointed out that there is an "l" and said we should add it so he picked up his pencil to make the new word "bal". This was a reminder to me of what might seem so simple and obvious to me, or even another student the same age, might not be for others. I look forward to working with Buddy E more to his his literacy ability develop.

To end the blog, I want to add one of my writings from when I was beginning to learn to read and write.

This was a message I left for my parents on our chalkboard when I was 6 yrs old. It reads "Stephanie is going to Amy's after school tomorrow"(Luckily my mom wrote what it said on the back of the picture because I was having trouble reading it). At that age I had a decent understanding of isolating sounds and phonemes.