I love late spring in Kindergarten. You can almost see Team Awesome's little light bulbs come on as they begin to make connections to and with all the things we have been learning since the fall. And reading and writing are no exception. They begin to use their letter/ sound knowledge to sound out and then blend simple consonant/vowel/consonant words. They can find words we have learned and they want to use on the word wall. They are independently using the reading strategies we have been learning and using as a group, such as looking at the pictures to help with an unknown word and then thinking about whether or not it makes sense or making connections while reading to other things they have learned. They are self-correcting their reading and spelling. They are taking risks and starting to learn to figure out and use language in ways they haven't been expressly taught based on their previous knowledge of how language works. As a teacher, it is very seldom that you actually get to see the knowledge your students have gained over the course of the ten months you have them in your classroom and you have to take it on faith that you have done your job (and they have done theirs). It is one of the perks of teaching Kindergarten that we get to actually see the growth of our students over the course of the year and revel in the learning they have done while in our care.
