Down by the Station

This week's poem was called Down by the Station. We completed many activities with the poem this week. One of our favorite activities was using a CAFE strategy that we have been practicing with while reading the poem, Tune in to Interesing Words. While reading the poem, the class "tuned in" to any interesting words.

The poem goes like this:

Down by the station,

Early in the morning.

See the little puffer-bellies

All in a row.

See the engine driver,

Pull the little throttle.

Puff, puff! Toot, Toot!

Off I go.

The intersting words we wrote down were puffer-bellies, throttle and toot, toot! When I asked the students what made these words interesting here is what they had to say.

"The author could have chosen to use the plain word 'train', but instead he used puffer-bellies to make it interesting for us!"

"Toot, toot is an interesting word because it's a sound and it was a word in the poem."

WOW! What great reasons as to why the words they found were indeed interesting words. This is the power of Daily 5 and CAFE in our Kindergarten classroom. We use this type of vocabulary on a daily basis and the students are learning what it means and how to apply them in conversation.