Kindergarten Secrets
Do ya wanna know a SECRET?? Well, if you are a kindergartener OF COURSE you do!! This is what Secret Stories counts on. The fact that kids can't wait to learn such things as digraphs, vowel pairs, and other decoding rules when they can associate the rule with a story about how the letters do certain, sometimes funny, but totally relatable things when they get together. For example, did you know that the letters t and h should NEVER sit beside each other because they constantly stick their tongues out at each other and say "th". And how er, ir, and ur love to drive their cars wild and fast and always have to slam on their brakes and say that tire screeching sound /errrrr/? Not to mention that sneaky y who, at the end of a word, actually steals the cape (or long vowel sound) of e or i instead of saying its /yuh/ sound.
It is amazing to see this class soak up these stories and start using them so early on in the kindergarten year! Many of these rules would not even be presented until 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd grade, and yet these early learners are decoding big words and using the Secret Story wall to write letters to represent sounds that they wouldn't have had the tools to tackle without this resource. Kids are much more comfortable sharing their big ideas instead of sticking to just the words they know how to spell. We are anxious to share more of our writing in future weeks!