Good Afternoon!
Our PRE-K/K group or large group as we call it, journals everyday for anywhere from ten to twenty minutes depending on the day. This is a time for children to draw and write at their own developmental level, with no pressure to do what the ‘group’ is doing. These kids know that what they’re doing is different than their peer sitting next to them. With our student to teacher ratio, this time is extremely child directed and very one on one driven.
I’ve attached an article that focuses on the literacy component of kindergarten and the start of elementary school: what children are expected to be able to do and how WE can get them there.
This quote from the article encompasses our philosophy almost to a T.
“The best indictor of future success as a reader is actually a child’s ability to use invented spelling as he writes.”
We call this ‘KID SPELLING’ during our group time. This is where children sound out words, writing the letters that they hear. No words are WRONG when children are ‘kid spelling’. There are times where children want to spell using ‘teacher spelling’ but if this is forced onto children before they’re ready, they are not having a meaningful learning experience: ‘e’ sounds like this because an adult is telling me so, not ‘e’ sounds like this because I’m developmentally ready to understand the different sounds an ‘e’ makes.
If you have a chance to read this article, it’s an extremely enlightening article and describes our version of ‘kid spelling’ very well as well as other aspects of early literacy! If you have any questions as how to start implementing this at home with your preschooler, we’d be more than happy to talk about it with you! 
https://www.parent.com/sight-words-are-so-2016-new-study-finds-the-real-key-to-early-literacy/
The rest of our day looked like…THIS!
Breakfast– Whole grain oatmeal with honey and oranges.
Lunch– Scrambled eggs with shredded cheese on whole wheat tortillas, banana/oranges, and fresh broccoli.
PM snack– Blue corn chips and refried beans.
Wee Sprout– PPC cherry tomatoes.
Have a terrific evening!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 11/1