To begin the school year, select a few books that you will read several times to your class. These repeating texts become familiar to your class, and the children will feel comfortable joining in on your readings. The familiarity also helps children to develop the confidence to become a reader themselves. Teach a mini-lesson with a focused point. Topics for kindergarten include identifying characters, strategies for unknown words, comparing books, relating to the story and retelling what was read. Make charts with your class during your mini-lessons.
Begin your writing lesson with a mini-lesson where you model for the class the skills that they will work on. Teach children how to illustrate their pictures, stretch out words, add to their story and write pattern books. During the mini-lesson, show students exactly what you expect of them. Write on the same paper that the children will have access to and use your booklet from day to day. It is helpful to write about something the students will have difficulty copying, so that they generate their own ideas. Throughout the school year, introduce non-fiction writing, poetry and short stories. Give students exposure to each type of writing.
Plan time for guided reading groups in which you will work with less than six children who are reading on a similar level. Select a book to read with your group that would be an instructional text, one that they can likely read most of. Point out difficult text and have the students use various strategies to solve new words. Read through the book together and then give students individual copies to practice. Listen to each child while he reads independently to assess his progress.
Provide time for independent reading, during which students may explore and practice a set of books. Model for your class what independent reading time will look like and have the children help you identify distracting behaviors to avoid. Give your pupils time after each mini-lesson to write independently. At the beginning of kindergarten, most children will be drawing a lot of pictures. Encourage students to begin labeling their pictures and adding words to describe their illustrations. As the student's skills progress, they will begin writing short sentences.