Introducing: The ABCs of Us!

A is for Awesome, B is for Brave, and C is for Crazy! Would these ABCs describe you? They certainly describe our kindergarten class!

Welcome back lovely Kinder Families! A few weeks ago, we officially launched our first Kindergarten project, and it all started with a mystery note taped to our front board! The note asked for some help from some very smart kindergarteners who would need to use their "letter knowledge" to solve clues around the school and find all the "Super Letters" that would spell out the name of our new project! This launch was super exciting and took us all around our K8 campus on a special scavenger hunt. When we finally gathered all the letters, we went back to our classroom and worked together to unscramble the secret message. The focus of our project will be: The ABC's of Us!

"But what does it mean?!" many of our Kindergarteners exclaimed! We decided to take a closer look at a variety of alphabet books to figure out the answer. We asked ourselves these questions: What do we notice about alphabet books? Do they have something in common? Why would an author write an ABC book? Then finally, What could the ABCs of Us mean?

We discovered that all ABC books have a different letter on each page from A to Z, in alphabetical order, and each page has one or more words and pictures that start with that letter. We also noticed that most alphabet books are written with a focus or about a certain topic. Then we found a wonderful text titled ABC I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson about a cute little pig who goes through the alphabet listing positive characteristics about herself for every letter. We loved this book celebrating what is special, positive and unique about a person (or pig!). We had seen an alphabet book written by my kindergarten class last year and wondered - could we make one too?!

We determined that if our class were to write an alphabet book about us, then it would have to be filled with words that describe all the great things about us as well! And so begins our project The ABCs of Us, in which we will investigate the following Essential Questions: Who are we? How can the ABCs help us express ourselves?

During this project, our Kinders will learn about one another, establish and practice community values (kindness, empathy, patience, flexibility, teamwork, grit), and ultimately use this knowledge to write a community alphabet book. To prepare for the publishing of our first book, our Kinders write daily about our "Student of the Day" and practice letter sounds, sight word recognition, and writing in our Literacy Investigations.

Student of the Day is so much more than just a celebration of a different student each day - it is meaningful literacy in action! Each day we use our deductive reasoning skills and knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters to unscramble the mystery student's name, letter by letter. During this time, students are naming, matching, and having conversations around letters in their names. After they figure out the Student of the Day, the class practices their questioning skills by interviewing the student. Afterwards, we work together on an interactive writing piece about the Student of the Day.

The interactive writing process allows children to practice using resources, write high frequency words, and apply their knowledge of letters and sounds. The interview process allows them to find out fun facts about that person. Many children find out that they share the same favorite food, enjoy the same movies, or share a favorite song. We also use this time to discuss positive character traits such as kindness and flexibility. Afterwards, every student writes about our Student of the Day, which is then stapled together in a book that our Student of the Day can take home.

All of these tasks build the foundation towards our final product. In the next few weeks we will continue our work in our Literacy Investigations, look more closely at ABC books, and learn more about the positive traits that describe our community. I look forward to starting our alphabet book! It will be Amazing! With Love, Ms. Jeanine