Star Student

Each day we have a Star Student.  They get a special Star Student crown, of course.  The Star Student program is a way to get to know each other but it also reviews the letters of the alphabet and the sound that each letter makes.  We interview each child with the microphone, notice things about the way their name looks, compare their name to other names on the name chart, and make a list of other words that start with the same sound as their name.  Then we invite the children to write the Star Student's name and to draw a picture of the Star Student.  In the beginning we accept stick figures but now we have begun to talk about adding details, such as fingers, even fingernails, bodies, necks, legs, and clothes that are the same color that the child is wearing.  Today we talked about adding labels to our pictures, such as head (hed), body (bode), neck (nek) by listening for each sound that that is heard in the word.  We teach children that they can write anything that they think because they can sound out the words and write the sounds that they hear.  Soon we will start writing sentences about each Star Student and in this way we will begin to build our Writers' Workshop. Before you know it, we will be writing stories! The pictures that the student draw of each child are sent home for the family to enjoy.