Letter Detectives Play “I Spy”

On this week’s FUN Friday, the kindergarteners from Mrs. Rhone’s & Mrs. Skal’s classrooms dressed up as “Letter Detectives” with hats like Sherlock Holmes and magnifying glasses. After listening to the book entitled, The Alphabet Mystery by Audrey & Bruce Wood, the kindergarteners were ready to solve another mystery. Where are the letters of the alphabet hiding at Blue Ridge? The kindergarteners searched around the elementary school building to find all of the letters in the alphabet. The purpose of this activity was to increase awareness of the letters around us. The students worked in pairs of two to solve this mystery. This week the kindergarteners will also be working on collecting “environmental print”. Environmental print is the print of everyday life. It’s the name given to the print that appears in signs, labels, and logos. Street signs, candy wrappers, labels on peanut butter and the “K” in Kmart are other examples of environmental print. For many emergent readers, environmental print helps bridge the connection between letters and first efforts to read. Environmental print provides lots of opportunities of kid to interact with letters, sounds, and words. This week’s homework asks kindergarteners to search for labels and logos that coincide with the letters in their first name. Raising the awareness of letters in print and reading logos/labels in the community are our goals in increasing reading achievement.