Character Education in Our Universal Pre-K Classroom

Why Bucket Filling? 

To establish student rapport in the classroom it is essential to develop a warm and caring learning environment. There are several different  ways to start, one of which includes Bucket-Filling. The concept comes from the book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, by Carol McCloud. 

The bucket filling concept is simple, we all carry invisible buckets with us everywhere we go. When people are kind to us, our buckets get filled, and it makes us happy. When people are unkind, they are bucket dippers and are dipping into our buckets, which makes us feel sad or upset. A great way to make this idea more tangible for the students is to have them decorated their own individual bucket. I have posted a sample of a classroom bucket filling area that has a bucket with slips of paper that read "I would like to fill ________'s bucket. The kind and thoughtful words that I would like to share:___________________. From _______".

You will notice students slipping these little papers into each others buckets during the day. By the end of each week the buckets are full and ready to be shared.  It's best to encourage students to fill all classmates buckets. 

It's a great way to make new friends!

Character Education In Our Classroom: 

I like to reinforce character education by incorporating a number of books during read aloud time. Its a good idea to discuss the themes common to each book- anti-bullying, kindness, courage, perseverance, and acceptance. Many of the characters in these books share traits that are good examples of a bucket-filler and or citizen in the school by the choices that they make. 

Here are a few good examples of books that I like to share:

 

Why read about good character traits?

By using the concept of good character will really help students to see themselves as part of the school/classroom family, rather than individuals alone in the classroom. The key is to make sure positive character education endures, and is not just a beginning of the year lesson.  

Literacy at Home and in the Classroom

 

You are your child's first and most important teacher!            

Dear Parents:

Reading aloud to your child can be one of your best parenting experiences! We hope that you and your child create many loving memories as you explore children's books together.

Here are some tips from LiteracyConnections.com

Don't wait until you think your child is "old enough" to be read to. You both can enjoy this experience sooner than you think--well before your child's first birthday.
Make reading aloud a daily habit! It's a wonderful routine to help your child prepare for bedtime. Like all habits, this one may take a while to get established, but hang in there until it's a daily (or nightly) routine.
Remember to keep it fun! Try to allow your child to select the books to be read. Yes, it's hard to read a book for the umpteenth time (We've been there!) but your child will gain a lot from these repeated readings--both emotionally and in preparation for his or her own reading development.
Previewing books with your children is part of the fun! Look at the pictures and talk about them. As you chat about the pictures, you prepare your children to enjoy the book, and you can explain some words or names they will hear when you begin reading.
This is an experience that you can really "get into." Roar like a lion, squeak like a mouse, and read your stories with great feeling!
An enjoyable alternative to reading aloud can be the stories that you tell yourself! Your children will enjoy the tall tales you make up, or the family stories that you remember. But be sure to read books or tell a story EVERY DAY!

Literacy in the Classroom:

ReadWorks

ReadWorks is a awesome site to visit and check their balanced literacy resources. Fiction and non-fiction materials all for free! ReadWorks is a site that is designed to helping children learn to read, specifically - reading comprehension.  They have lessons and support materials that are aligned to common core standards. You will need to register first to access all the resources on this free site. The site can be a bit overwhelming so click here for a quick introduction on how to get started with the lessons.  PK-4 can click here and 5-6 can click here for videos explaining how to teach the lessons. There are many wonderful resources found within the lessons that may be helpful to you and your child. 

Fountas and Pinnell

The Role of Text in the Age of the Common Core State Standards

The Eight Components of Guided Reading (2011) align with the key 

components of the Common Core State Standards:

1. Complex, high level reading comprehension is the goal of guided reading instruction.
2. Guided reading centers on a sequence of high quality texts that support individual progress on a scale of spiraling text difficulty.
3. Guided reading lessons increase the volume of independent reading that students do; the goal always is confident, capable independent readers.
4. Guided reading provides explicit instruction in accurate, fluent reading.
5. Guiding reading lessons provide daily opportunities to expand academic vocabulary through reading, writing, conversation, and explicit instruction.
6. Guided reading lessons include teaching that expands students' ability to apply the concepts of print, phonological awareness, access to rich vocabulary, and accurate, fluent reading to the processing of print.
7. Guided reading lessons invite students to write about reading.
8. Guided reading lessons create engagement in and motivation for reading.

With the program designed by Fountas and Pinnell their goal is to support the child's development of self-initiating actions that they will be able to apply to a range of texts of similar difficulty. With daily instruction, the teacher helps the child climb the ladder of text difficulty with success. When the text poses enough challenge, but not too much, the child has opportunities with effective, explicit teaching to build their network of effective problem solving actions.

Fountas and Pinnell take a different approach to determining text difficulty, which includes the length of sentences, length of words, and complexity of letter-sound patterns, and many other characteristics (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011).

Fountas & Pinnell:

Ten Text Characteristics for Guided Reading-

1. Genre/Form: Genre is the type of text and refers to a system by which fiction and nonfiction texts are classified. Form is the format in which a genre may be presented. Forms and genres have characteristic features.
2. Text Structure: Structure is the way the text is organized and presented. The structure of most fiction and biographical texts is narrative, arranged primarily in chronological sequence. Factual texts are organized categorically or topically and may have sections with headings. Writers of factual texts use several underlying structural patterns to provide information to readers. The most important are description; chronological sequence; comparison and contrast; cause and effect; and problem and solution. The presence of these structures, especially in combination, can increase the challenge for readers.
3. Content: Content refers to the subject matter of the text-the concepts that are important to understand. In fiction, content may be related to the setting or to the kinds of problems characters have. In factual texts, content refers to the topic of focus. Content is considered in relation to the prior experience of readers.
4. Themes and Ideas: These are big ideas that are communicated by the writer. Ideas may be concrete and accessible or complex and abstract. A text may have multiple themes or a main theme and several supporting themes.
5. Language and Literary Features: Written language is qualitatively different from spoken language. Fiction writers use dialogue, figurative language, and other kinds of literary structures such as character, setting, and plot. Factual writers use description and technical language. In hybrid texts you may find a wide range of literary language.
6. Sentence Complexity: Meaning is mapped onto the syntax of language. Texts with simpler, more natural sentences are easier to process. Sentences with embedded and conjoined clauses make a text more difficult.
7. Vocabulary: Vocabulary refers to words and their meanings. The more known vocabulary words in a text, the easier a text will be. The individual's reading and vocabulary refer to words that she understands.
8. Words: This category refers to recognizing and solving the printed words in the text. The challenge in a text partly depends on the number and the difficulty of the words that the reader must solve by recognizing them or decoding them. Having a great many of the same high-frequency words makes a text more accessible to readers.
9. Illustrations: Drawings, paintings, or photographs accompany the text and add meaning and enjoyment. In factual texts, illustrations also include graphics that provide a great deal of information that readers must integrate with the text. Illustrations are an integral part of a high quality text. Increasingly, fiction texts include a range of graphics, including labels, heading, subheadings, sidebars, photos and legends, charts and graphs. After grade one, texts may include graphic texts that communicate information or a story in a sequence of pictures and words.
10. Book and Print Features: Book and print features are the physical aspects of the text-what readers cope with in terms of length, size, and layout. Book and print features also include tools like the table of contents, glossary, pronunciation guides, indexes, sidebars, and a variety of graphic features in graphic texts that communicate how the text is read.

I.C. Fountas and G.S. Pinnell. 2011. The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades PreK-8, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas and Pinnell Web Site Resources:

http://www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinnell/reading-intervention-resources.aspx

http://www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com/aboutLeveledTexts.aspx

Guided Reading Sample Classroom Designs:

In my Pre-K classroom, I will be conducting interactive read alouds daily.

Research has demonstrated that the most effective read-alouds are those where children are actively involved asking and answering questions and making predictions, rather than passively listening.

With read alouds books students can:
- Make predictions
- Discuss problems and solutions
- Building Schema
- Review characters traits and settings

*Schema

Using your schema means thinking about what you already know, what is already inside your brain.  When we teach our students to use their schema, it gets them excited about reading and learning and helps build their comprehension, making it easier for them to understand text.

*Making Connections

Making connections means relating an experience, thought text to another experience to help make predictions and build comprehension. Making connections helps deepen students  understanding and love for books.  

Cute posters to print and place in the guided reading area:

Helpful Student Resources for Home

Here are a few wonderful resources for 

your child to use to build their academic skills.

These STAR PreK Binder sheets can be printed and placed in a binder for your child review on a regular basis. The Star Binder sheets consist of  Calendar & Weather Work, 
Alphabet Linking Chart, 
Counting with the tens frame, 
Left and right hands
, Time
, Shapes, 
Colors, and 
Math Concepts: Sort, Compare, and Patterns.

 

 

These sheets can also be printed and used as a fun family game to do together. 

Sight Word Practice:

Practice writing your name:

Reading Log:

These worksheets can be printed and laminted. Your child can used a dry-erase marker to work on building their skills. 

 

Number Recognition:

At home, you should practice to count to 20 with your child and practice writing numbers from 0 to 20. You can use shaving cream, sand, gel bags or anything you have on hand to make this activity highly engaging.