Monday, March 23, 2009

Writing Practice & Letter Identification: Write the Room

Early childhood classrooms are often print rich environments. I had words up all over the place, sight words were on the word wall, we had thematic word posters, words were often added to our bulletin boards. They were in also in our calendar wall, on the alphabet displayed, and on the number line.

A popular center in my kindergarten classroom took advantage of that: Write the Room. The kids get a sheet of paper, clip board, and pencil. Then they go around the classroom and write down the words they see everywhere. At the end of their activity, I'd often come and read their list of words to me.

I made the directed Write the Room sheet shown above. This one was done during November and the students had to find one word in the classroom beginning with each letter and write it next to it. It's very simple to change the word to fit any season, month, or theme. You can also have the students write words that begin with the letter of the week and also do nonstructed Write the Room and just give them a blank sheet of paper and let them go for it.

To change things up a bit some times I'd give the kids markers or colored pencils to write with. Or I might let them wear these fun foam "glasses" I found at the Dollar Store. We also did Read the Room, where they'd go around with little pointers and point to and then read the word aloud to a partner. They'd alternate reading or being read to.

Spotlight Letters was also a popular variation, in this one they'd each take a flashlight and point to a letter to spotlight it before writing it down on their paper. This was often done in conjunction with a letter of the week Write the Room. They'd find our letter of the week anywhere within a word in our room. They'd spotlight it with their flashlight, write it down on their paper, and then circle the spotlight letter.

10 Friends Said:

DomesticDivasFancy said...

Great idea...I am back finally. I missed you all sooo much! Now I just have to get back to the norm and I will feel much better!

Unknown said...

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onegirliegirl said...

Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful tips. I love reading all your posts :)

Unknown said...

Your Welcome! You can use the math pics if you want I could email it to you.

Sarah J. said...

Your good ideas never stop! Thank you so much for linking up. Good luck on the contest Katie!

Kelli said...

Come on over, I left you an award at my place.

Kris said...

I'm sure the children LOVED having their own clipboards! Great idea!

Heidi Boos said...

Love all of the activities...

Obviously I was a little behind in reading up on your blog. I'm trying to play "catch up" on many blogs while the kiddos nap!!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Anonymous said...

Some very cool strategies! Do you have them practice the sound before they go find the word?

I think its a fabulous idea to get them out of their chair and being in charge of their learning (at least a small portion of it). I can see how it would relate to many different learning styles and modalities. Plus, wearing cool foam glasses never hurt!

Fabulous!

said...

Write the room...I've never heard of that but what a smart concept!

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