Literary Experiences

I believe literary experiences are more crucial to educating citizens.  Literary experiences are happening all the time in my classroom.  They are so important in Kindergarten.  For some of my students it my be the first time they have been read to or have held a book, so this is a huge learning experience.  Take for example what we did last week for science.  I read a book about pumpkins and then we carved a pumpkin open to see the seeds, then we had to have a pumpkin seed taste test and graph who liked them and who didn't and wrote about it.  The following day I read the book The Ugly Pumpkin, which is a book about a squash who thinks he is a pumpkin, but in the end finds out he is a squash.  (This is a great book to transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving.)  I was able to use real pumpkins and squash for my students to see the difference.  On Monday we are going to do a comparison chart of a pumpkin and a squish. 

I know my students learned so much information by reading the books and having the realia in front of them, instead of just going straight from a text book.  Lessons like these are the ones my students will remember for the rest of the year!