When you find an excellent children’s book dedicated to Kindergarten, you jump for joy and desire to spread the word to all who will appreciate it. So hear me yelling out this book, The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes. It is a wonderfully written and brilliantly illustrated book all about a little boy who starts Kindergarten and quickly becomes The King of Kindergarten. Now, let’s dive into ways to make this amazing book a royal learning treat in your classroom.
The King of Kindergarten Story Sequencing
Since you will most likely be reading this at the start of the year when your new little learners are starting off learning. Plan to go slow and move at the pace your learners need. These sequencing cards are a great way to organize the events of the book.
When you move to small groups over the first few weeks, you can work on sequencing this story with this fun printable. Once your learners get the idea of sequencing a story, they get better and better each time. Plus, you can talk about how this all relates to what that student does at school. For example, we get to play on the playground too.
Word Wall and Writing Prompts
Your little learners will come to school on so many different levels and you will love this variety of writing prompts. My favorite prompt to start the year is the one that read The ______ will _________. With the word wall, my student can work on writing The king will and write what part of the book they remembered such as meet kids or play.
Reading Comprehension Game
I won’t lie, this is my favorite part of these reading comprehension packs… the reading comprehension game. We play this game in a small group. I read the questions and my students answer them. They don’t know that I secretly mark check and X marks to collect data on who understands what they are reading. My little learners LOVE these games and I love seeing them work on some of these harder reading comprehension skills.
Rhyme Time
We typically have to ask our little learners some basic rhyming questions as a beginning of the year assessment. So why not integrate this with the book? I like to practice this with a pocket chart in small or whole groups.
But you can also grab this printable if you need a recording sheet.
The King of Kindergarten Math Integration
Number writing is one major skill we must work on to start the year. It is hard and such a process. Therefore, I modified my typical number writing sheets to reflect numbers 1-10 with LOTS of support if needed with 4 levels to write. It will make a great start to the year-guided learning center.
And this ten frame and number match is also ideal for the start of the year. You get 6 color matching options that are perfect for a small group OR center learning. Drop a piece? The color coding will help your learners to find the pieces that are theirs.
Vocabulary Pieces
After I finished this unit, I couldn’t get out of my head how many great vocabulary words were highlighted in this book. I knew some of my learners would know them but some may not. So I made THREE versions of 10 vocabulary words, including this set of pocket chart vocabulary pieces. I won’t lie, I am now obsessed with this and will be adding them to more units in the future. We will talk about these words, clap out the syllables, and even work on sounding out the words.
Check out this massive FUN and wonderful Unit
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