February

Incorporating more play into my lessons has been an exciting and rewarding experience for both me and my students. It has energized my lesson planning, and we all benefit from a little boost—especially during these long winter months!

In this lesson, my kindergarten students have been developing their phonemic awareness by isolating the beginning, medial, and final sounds in words. They have also been practicing segmenting and blending words with short vowels. Given their young age, maintaining student attention is always a priority. Integrating play into our lessons has been a powerful way to keep them engaged and focused while learning.

Below are photos and a video from a recent lesson where students worked on blending CVC words with the short vowels a, i, and o. After reading a word from a list, they embarked on a scavenger hunt to find the corresponding picture. One student worked independently since he demonstrated stronger letter recognition skills, while the other two worked together, using their charts and each other as scaffolds for reading.

The next day, students switched roles, with everyone working independently on the scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to record their reflections on working alone versus in pairs. However, their feedback was insightful— the student who originally worked alone preferred it that way, while the two who worked together found it more enjoyable.