Back when I taught Kindergarten we always had a writing center and a part of that center was the “Read & Write the Room” activity. I did this with PacMan when he was in Kindergarten and it is now time to begin with Krash! I am working on adding printable sets to go with our different themes, some will be included in new Preschool Packs, others will be grouped in with the Tot School Printables themes since I often base our whole theme for school around Ladybug’s current theme.
The idea is simple and one that can be expanded on in many creative ways-this is just one way to do it.
- Print the image/word cards and cut apart.
- Tape these around the schoolroom or school area in your home.
- Give your child a clipboard, and a pencil and have him/her go around and find the words and record them on either the tracing sheet (younger kids) or on the blank lines (older kids).
- For fun, allow your child to use funny glasses, a fun word pointer, and a special pen or pencil! You could even slip the recording sheet into the Crayola Dry Erase Center and have your child use that to write on with a dry erase marker!
This past week Krash had his first experience. I made cards to go along with Ladybug’s theme: nature. I hung the 10 cards all over the school room…
I gave Krash a clipboard and his recording sheet and sent him on the hunt.
The goal of Read and Write the Room is to reinforce print awareness. It is not for spelling practice {although it could be for older children}. It is a way to connect pictures with words and practice handwriting in a fun way.
You could expand on this idea to hang up sight words and have your child hunt for them, use just letters or any theme. There are MANY possibilities to this idea!!
You can find word cards to download for free in the Tot School Printables units starting with letter Jj.
You can also see the new Read & Write the Room webpage here for even more free printables!
. He worked on this rough draft for a long time…
Then when he finally finished he asked me if I would help him edit it. He is learning what an editor does, and what publishing means, it has been a great learning time together. I sat him with me as I re-wrote his story for him in Microsoft Publisher. He read it out loud as I typed. I showed him what I was doing, he helped me choose and place the graphics. Here is how it turned out…
After printing, he had to color a few of the graphics, he loved doing that…
Here is the final book, can you tell how proud he is??? I am pretty proud of him too!
I hope he keeps it up, I created a 3 ring binder for him to keep his rough draft and final copies in, what a great keepsake it will be for him when he is older!!!
I am SOOOO proud of him, his handwriting is usually awful, and he usually could care less. He didn’t even want to write the final copy (the rough draft was horribly sloppy by the way). I had to drag the 1st two final draft sentences out of him, but then he got into it and copied the last sentences entirely on his own, I couldn’t believe it!
)…
He also hated this the first day I gave it to him, but now he claims it is the reason for his new improved handwriting. Who knows? I am just happy.
I left the school room to leave him to his “job” and he completed his story on his own, only coming to me a few times for tiny bits of advice. Here is the finished story, entitled, “The Rainbow.”
To say he was EXCITED is a complete understatement! After his first sale, he couldn’t wait to get back to work to produce another book in case another customer came to the door! 
