The word helper that we learned today was Flippy Dolphin. Flippy says that if you try one vowel sound, like the short a sound, and the word doesn't make sense, try the other vowel sound, like the long a sound. Our class rarely makes that mistake because they know the silent e rule: If there's a silent e at the end of the word, the vowel makes the long sound, like in "make." They also know that "when 2 vowels go a-walking, the first one does the talking, like in "hear."

Our big buddies went outside with us to teach the rules for playground games such as 4-square, tether ball, basketball, how to use the glider, and how to play double Dutch jump rope. Kindergartners tend to make up their own rules for these games (each individual plays by their own set of rules), so I hope this was helpful.