Connecting What They Know
Every week, the Kindergartners spend time with Miquon’s Language Arts staff. Pictured here, Jen Curyto has children examining vegetables and fruits that can be bought at a typical farmer’s market. During this lesson, Jen read Simone Goes to Market by David Westerlund to each half group, which involved looking at the book’s photographs demonstrating what can be found at a typical farmer’s market. Part of the discussion involved comparing and contrasting a farmer’s market to a supermarket and answering why such a market is called “farmer’s market.” In this way, children were accessing their prior knowledge (about buying produce), connecting what they know to what they’re reading, and making comparisons. Later, the children extended their involvement with the text by using their “kid writing,” an approximation of what they might buy at a farmer’s market. It is part of the Language Arts Coordinator’s role to provide literacy learning experiences through the grades at Miquon, along with overseeing the reading and writing curriculum and coordinating learning support.
