First Time Authors - Book Talks in Kindergarten

Reading and writing have become a very famialiar in the Kindergarten classroom.  In September the children are introduced to both of these skills at circle time.  As a teacher, I read to them every day from big books.  I talk about the author and what an illustrator might be.  We do author studies...Eric Carle and Lois Ehlert being two of my favorites for fiction and Gail Gibbons for non-fiction.  Research tells us that children at this age should have at least seven books of various genres read to them each day...being only a half a day I tell my parents that I have only time for three or four and they need to pick up the slack.  On the first day of kindergarten, I introduce journal writing.  The children are encouraged to write their ideas each day in their journals...in the beginning they write just pictures...by November I begin to see some letters...maybe the first sounds they hear in the words they want to write.   By January, having covered all the letters and the sounds of the alphabet...they are writing phonetic sentences:  "I rod the bs toda" (I rode the bus today).  I do not spell for them...this only retards their growth as a writer. At the front of the classroom is a word wall where all our high frequency words are posted.  The children are encouraged to use the word wall to find "words" they might need...such as the, saw, went...they are also encouraged to access words from the cover of books or the print inside. 

By April, all this hard work pays off.  During free activity many of the children no longer choose to play in housekeeping, or legos or the big building blocks.  Instead, they choose to write their own books and share them at circle.  We have a set routine:  the children take the author's chair and read their creation.  

  After reading their book the children take questions and compliments from the audience.

 Some of the questions might be:  What gave you the idea to write this book?  Where do you like to write?  How come you always use a purple marker? 

The children are very generous with their compliments:  "You are a good author";  "I like how you draw animals"; "You draw good cats".  All these compliments fuel the writer inside and we have more authors the next day.

  Tyler presenting his book "My Pattern Book"....

 and then answering questions.

Book Talks are just an extension of the "sharing" that goes on in a kindergarten classroom.  We share snacks, toys and most importantly, ideas.  I love teaching kindergarten.