Tuesday Reading: "Pledge of Allegiance" Word Work

In my school district, all classes say "The Pledge of Allegiance" every day. I, for one, love this idea. However, the Pledge has a lot of fancy words for a five year old. It's important to me that my students not only remember the words, but also understand them. After thinking about the best way to convey the meaning of lots of "big words" to my students, I decided to spend some quality time working through the Pledge during our word work time in literacy block.

Starting the first week of school, I wrote the words "The Pledge of Allegiance" at the top of an anchor chart. I then announced to the class that we were going to learn to read the Pledge. While we were at the carpet together, I began writing, "I pledge." I stopped there and asked the students if anyone knew what the word "pledge" meant. Of course, they did not. I explained to them that a pledge is like making a big promise--even more important than a pinky promise! We stopped there until the next day, when we added allegiance. We went on adding one or two words at a time until we got all the way through the Pledge this week. Here's our finished anchor chart.

We'll spend a few days reading over the Pledge to practice the words and make sure we have it just right/ Then, to celebrate Constitution Day, we'll have a Pledge Party! Stay tuned for more details on that. If you're interested in going through the pledge this way, here is a list of my kindergarten-friendly definitions.

• I pledge--a big promise
• allegiance--always be loyal, just like a good friend
• to the flag--we are making our promise to the flag
• of the United States of America--lots of countries have flags, but our promise is only to our flag
• and to the republic--we get to have a say in what happens to us, just like voting for which brain break we'll do next
• for which it stands--the flag makes people think of America and freedom
• one nation--we all work together like one big team
• under God--America is important, but it's ok to put God first
• indivisible--no one can ever split up our team. We'll be together forever!
• with liberty--you get to decide what you like and what you want to do: it's freedom
• and justice--everything is fair, which means you get what you need when you need it (We had already discussed fair/equal about a week before, so we were able to connect the two lessons.)
• for all--you, me, and all the other people around us

Do you have any ideas for improving on this? Feel free to comment and share! And as always, keep it class-y, ya'll.