Leaves - Autumn

Story of Thanksgiving Movie (youtube.com)

1st Thanksgiving Book

Animals

Introduction
We talk about what a habitat is. Then I show some animals that live in specific habitats.
I like a PP I downloaded from teacherspayteachers.com

I pass out my pictures of animals and have the students sort them into the correct habitats.

The class then gets to vote on 1 animal from each habitat to learn about.



Desert: Elf Owl (video)
Rainforest: Crocodile coloring page & video (only 1st video on land)
Artic:  Killer Whale video (hunting - just 2 minutes) &  How to draw a killer whale

Christmas Around the World

Traveling Around the World

America
Italy
France
Germany
Sweden
England
Israel

Before or Extra Preparation (requires some work) - great for parent volunteers:
Get brown paper bags from the store
Stocking holes (once the kids cut out their stockings) or have someone cut out stockings prior
Once shoes are colored - shoes need to be folded, cut out and stapled
Cut out holly leaves and crown strips (for St. Lucia hats)
St. Lucia frames cut and ready
Star of David Ornament (glue together)
Gingerbread Houses (glue together)
Pre-cut paper ornaments

Ten Apples on Top (apple activities)

I like to jump into this after celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday because it connects with apples which is perfect for fall.

Read the book Ten Apples on Top by Dr. Seuss.

Student picture (or they can draw their face) and add apples on top of their head.  I used tiny di-cuts, but the apples could be drawn too.
   (I have students draw a number and that is the number of apples they get on top of their head)

Five Apples on Top Emergent Reader

Di-cut large apples, hole punch holes around the edge - kids sew around the apple with yarn (fine motor skill)  (Could laminate these and have as a permanent center activity.)

Apple Tree Number Matching (print, laminate and cut)

Apples: Sink or Float?  (science)

Color by Number

Apples on my tree art

Opinion writing and art
Favorite color apple

I have ___apples up on top!

Writing and math activity

Johnny Appleseed and Apples Unit

Johnny Appleseed's Birthday Celebration  My APPLES UNIT for $3
                Celebrate his birthday with a day dedicated to Johnny Chapman!

Celebration Ideas:
Read a book about Johnny Appleseed
Watch a video about Johnny Appleseed  (9 minutes)
Johnny Chapman visits (wearing cut off jeans and plaid shirt and a pot on his head)
     He tells what it was like out planting seeds. Sometimes I get lucky enough where I get a man who
     knows how to play the guitar which the kids love!

Apple Centers (Open centers - students choose which to go to and in what order they want)
    1. Applesauce Scensory Table
    2. Apple Tasting and Graphing
    3. "I like (color) apples." sentence writing and then paint their apple
    4. Apple Patterns
    5. Apple Number Sequencing
    6. Apple Sorting and Graphing
    7. Apple Stamping (suggestion: cut out wedges on the tops of the stamp so they are easier to pull out)
    8. Johnny Appleseed picture (next to a tree with a pot on their head and apple)


Apple Sauce Sensory Fun

    9. Apple tree hand and foot art (then they get to count out and put some apples on their tree with a
    sentence that reads "I see _____ apples on my tree."
10. Scrap paper apple fill art

Apple Tasting and Graphing

Favorite Apple writing and painting.

I put these out on the table for the students to
copy their favorite color in the sentence.

Apple Stamping

Johnny Appleseed pictures

            

I printed the apple labels to show students
which center was what number for their mark
off sheet.

Apple Number Sequencing
plus counting apples

Scrap Paper Apple Fill Art

Johnny Appleseed pictures

Johnny Appleseed Visits!

Discussions:
Why is it so important that Johnny Appleseed help plant appleseeds all over the country?
Why did Johnny Appleseed wear a pot around on his head?
What would be hard about traveling around planting seeds?
What would be fun about traveling around planting seeds?
What was your favorite activity of the day?
Have you ever been apple picking?

Shared Writing: (students help write the words with teacher help)
Describe an apple using scenses on any organizer
Class writing a sentences (We like apples because ___, ___, and ___)
Class writing a paragraph about apples (older than beginning Kindergarten)

Additional Items in my Johnny Appleseed-Apples Unit
*  Apple Opinion (goes along with tasting, graphing, writing and art from above centers.
*  "I see # of apples on my tree."  Apple Tree (hands and feet) art (includes sentence strips)
*  3 various counting apples reader (focusing on the word "have") plus numbers in 5 frames (1-10)
*  1/2 sheet homework or classwork math concept pages (patterns, counting numbers, identifying  
     numbers, number sequencing and writing, adding apples
* Apple Sorting and graphing half pages (also practices tally marks) - need to cut out or di-cut or
   have apples on hand for sorting.
* Apples: Sink or Float Experiment (teacher and parent instructions only)
* "I have # apples on my head" portrait and sentence

Cycle of Apple Tree Life video

Apple Tree Game


The students have 5 seconds to come up and pick an apple off the tree and read the apple. If they read it in 5 seconds they get to keep their apple. My apples had upper and lowercase letters (uppercase on 1 side, lowercase on other side) - some were showing uppercase while some were lowercase. The students got to pick the apple of their choice, so they felt good about knowing the letter on the apple.

Could use this same concept with math or sight words. 

Christmas

Christmas Tree - Color ornaments color game  (Spin for colors)

Math Games:
Silver Bells - match numbers with dots (written on the bottom of kisses)
Sort ornament designs on tree mats
Reindeer Chow - Sort and Graph  (M & Ms, marshmallows, pretzels, chex ect.) in circles
Stockings - count stocking items, mark on page

Animal Report

Student Animal Reports:  
Assignment:  Students create poster, mobile, diagram, book or something else to teach about an animal.

Research: Students pick an animal book from the school library to check out and take home to read. They write down some notes on their brainstorm paper.  They are encouraged to use more research options.

Presentation: 
After the students complete their project they share their animal report with the class and teach about their animal.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Sensory Table: finding letters in the sand/rice

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter Book: paint in letters with paint pens

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Class Book: Student pictures and names (counting and letters)

Coconut Tree Cookie Sheet and magnetic letters: Students retell the story or tell the story their own way

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video from schooltube.com

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter match cut and paste

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom File Folder Game

Colors

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book: Shared Reading 
Kindergartner, Kindergartner What do you see? Color Book - trace and color
Color Days: Students wear the color of the day (I like to dress to my fullest degree of color)
Color Mixing Experiments (primary to secondary)
Crayon Color Graphing (download from TPT)
Color Songs (Heidi Songs) - teaches the spelling of the color words

Brown Bear Activities:
Match Book: words and pictures
Letter Tiles: spell color words
ABC Dot to Dot: shrink and make into little book - students choose 1 picture from pile
Number Dot to Dot: shrink and make into little book - students choose 1 picture from pile
RIDICULOUSLY GOOD - FREE DOWNLOAD: I only used 1/2 and am still quite impressed!

Weeks of Dr. Seuss

Kids love Dr. Seuss -- and I love Dr. Seuss!  So I use several weeks to do Dr. Seuss activities.
I just heard from a friend about Dr. Seuss PE activities that I will be adding to my list next year!

I have a Dr. Seuss Unit filled with ideas and the items needed.


Wocket in my Pocket:
I saw this idea from another blog and loved it. Wocket in my Pocket  (my kids choose their own word with whatever beginning they want instead of wocket)

1 Fish, 2, Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: 

The students filled in their own boxes with 1 something, 2 somethings, red something, blue something. It was fun to see their variety and what they came up with. The two examples are robots and monsters!

Dr Seuss's Birthday Party + plans!

On Dr. Seuss's Birthday (or nearest date) - I plan a day filled with Dr. Seuss books and activities.

The books are placed up front and the parents come up to switch their book with another book and activity. This is really nice if you have multiple copies of one book, but if not just plan an extra activity that they do, so there is always 1 activity there. I give my parents a time cap for an activity that they need to try to stay within to complete all activities. I also had an extra box of Dr. Seuss books that could be read to the students while they waited after finishing all their activities.

We only do 3-4 books for the celebration, then I use the other books throughout the next 2 weeks.

2. Fox in Socks --  I put rhyming cards in random socks and the group works together to match the rhyming words they found inside the socks.
*  Rhyming Socks
*  Socks Math Page   (greater than/less than)

3. 1 Fish 2 Fish -- 2 books available + 2 parent helpers (if possible)
* Students own book cover
* Fish hands
* Goldfish count = tens equation
Sort those goldfish and graph 

4. Lorax
*Lorax mustache
*Lorax treat

5. Green Eggs and Ham
*Green Eggs balance game - balance green eggs in a spoon across the rug
*Eat green eggs and write opinion 
* Fill in the missing words in the paragraph

6. Foot Book 
* Feet numbers (trace around their own feet, cut out, then we write a number on each foot and see how many feet in the classroom. Then we post the feet along one of the walls.)

7. Horton Hears a Who
*  Video
* Draw Self Portrait - A Person's a Person No Matter How Small
* Take student's picture and put in on a Speck!

8. Wocket in my Pocket
*Class makes -ocket words together and then write the sentence on their pocket.
   "There's a _ocket in my Pocket" 
* Create their own _ocket with paper

9. Apples Up On Top
* Apples up on top self portrait
* Apples up on top math paper

Daily 5 activities:
Green Eggs flip game 

Self Portraits! I print a head template because my students give me better portraits when they have a template.  On the back, I printed the following quote from Dr. Seuss:                        A persons a person no matter how small!

My students were asked to wear a red shirt. They all got to wear a THING #.  We had 20+ THINGS in our classroom and it was a lot of fun. Next year, I am going to try for blue hair ...       As the teacher, I got to be THING TEACHER.

Next year, I'm going to ask my Room Mom to set up Dr. Seuss treats -

I think we'll be using Pinterest for some ideas!

Plants

Plants? Plants. Plants!

I bought the Pebble books to use throughout my unit, but it is not necessary.
As you keep reading below. If you are interested in this unit here is the link. Plants? Plants. Plants!
The link can also be found at the bottom.

What we know about plants: shared writing

Art project: I designed this art project to add to the parts of a plant as we learn about it. I liked the 3d aspect of it.

I teach 1 new part of the flower every day, so I don't overwhelm too much in 1 day.
1. Teach roots
2. Teach stem
3. Teach leaves (and veins)
4. Teach flower
5. Teach seeds

Every day the students add their plant information on with their addition to their art project.

These make for adorable classroom and hallway decor.











Flower Plant Book: Fill in the blanks to recap what they learned.

Flower Art Project and Expanded Sentences Activity:
This is where I teach that flowers have petals. (more vocabulary)


Trees and Art Project! I do this art project just to teach that trees have branches. We also talk about how sometimes we can see tree roots while sometimes we can't. I show them lots of pictures (via powerpoint) of various types of trees. Kids love to see different trees! This is a good time to also talk about how trees help us. (My class did posters for Earth Day telling how trees were helpful - a contest schoolwide/state too.)

Yum! Plants We Eat!  I can't find pictures from these activities, so I am guessing I forgot to take some. We did a lot of activities with this part. They are in my unit.

Growing Plants and Plant Journal: Students plant lima beans and watched them grow!  They record the growth in their journals.


We also talking about building/growing patterns where a pattern grows by one every day. (Part of the math curriculum we needed to teach)  I told and showed the students about a stem growing every day... then they did their own art project with it.

PLANT UNIT ON TPT

Snowmen Ideas

To get my students back in the groove of centers and school after our winter break, I am going to do several snowmen activities and homework assignments that first week. I know I could probably find LOTS of ideas, but I am only doing snowmen for 1 week. Then I move onto my Gingerbread Unit.

Here are a few items, ideas I have found or made.

Math
Snowmen number and pasta snowflakes
Snowmen tally marks (matching I made)
Snowmen ordinal numbers (matching I made)
Snowman ordinal numbers page  (found in a book)
Place Value Snowmen Spinner Game

Snowman Graph - the students use white circles (pre-cut or they cut themselves) and write each letter of their name on 1 circle. They then spell their name vertically. I have my students glue their snowman all on the same long strip. They then can draw their hat and arms and what not. You can use this graph for graphing questions and comparing names. I believe I saw this on pinterest.











Reading and Writing
Listening center (books about snowmen)
Snowman at Night Book: Write and draw what they would do if they were a snowman at night. Can be used on art of a snowman at night or used on pages to create a book.
Choose 2 snowmen books and read them to the class. Have the students write an opinion writing about which book they liked the most. I require my students to write two "I like..." sentences.
1. I like (title of the book).
2. I like (the reason or part).
My snowman has page. I really liked the idea from msmcbeeskinderbugs.blogspot.com, but needed different tracing letters being I don't teach my students writing with curves. My example shows the students that they can write how many circles are on the snowman or the color of his buttons.
Snowman Blends  This is a great game to play to practice blends!

Phonics
Snowmen Word Families - I have my kids play a word family game with snowmen found from HeidiSongs.


Art

Snowman Painting - First, the kids trace lids (overlapping) to form snowman. They paint their body. 2nd day: they paint the snowman's eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. Last day, the kids use a black rectangle and square to form a hat. They also use thin strips of brown for arms, they draw the fingers on if they want.  The students also use little rectangles in red and green to form a scarf around the snowman's neck.  Next year I would like to use the elmer's glue idea for 3D appearance.  IDEA:  Mix in some epson salt really well and then the snowmen will sparkle!









Snowmen at Night: Students using little squares of white paper to form the face of the snowman on a black or dark blue construction piece.  If you want to connect this activity with Snowmen at Night book, then the students can draw snowflakes and a moon to show nighttime.  At the bottom they attach their sentence about what they would do if they were a snowman at night.  If found this cute idea here.

Marshmallow Snowman
Use marshmallows to paint and design your snowman!  Large marshmallows for the body and little ones for forming eyes, mouth, and buttons! I loved the idea she had of using salt in the paint on one of her snowmen... however, I think I'll do that with my elmer's glue snowman!

Gingerbread Man Unit

It is not yet January, yet I figured it would be easy to just type up my plans on here rather than all my index cards I collect my ideas on! Plus I can always go back and see what I have not done. Of course, I will add to and figure better ideas as the Gingerbread Man Unit actually proceeds. I was given several more ideas from a fellow teacher, but just didn't work for me. (I personally don't like to waste time on something I don't think will REALLY benefit my students or wastes paper- unless its just pure fun it is allowed.)

I have found two online reading of the story of the basic Gingerbread Man story. I have not decided which one I plan to use for the story just yet, but want to keep both options in my memory bank.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/stories/gingerbread.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnAgA1aZGkY&feature=related

Reading Comprehension
We will be learning story elements. (Characters, setting, plot, ending)  I will ask the class questions to practice identifying each of these elements.  I also plan to do a beginning, middle, end story organizer for the stories.

I have found great chracter masks online for the original story that students can wear to act out the story as it is being read or as it is being retold. They could also be put at a center for dramatic play.

For the entire month of January, I plan to compare two different Gingerbread books. My class will make a Venn Diagram each week using paper plates. Being they are just Kindergartners, we will make a class Venn Diagram. 

Book reading Comprehension or Shared Reading
I have reading comprehension questions to go with the following books:
1. Gingerbread Friends  by Jan Brett
2. The Gingerbread Pirates by: Kristin Kladstrup
3. Gingerbread Baby





Writing
Gingerbread Friends
I give the students a blank house that has been printed on brown cardstock. Then give them optional candies (more candies and strip candies) printed on white paper. (Parent volunteers are great to cut apart candies for easy access.) Then have the students copy the words:    
Then the students get to write their own reasons why the Gingerbread baby should go to their house.

If I were a Gingerbread Boy/Girl Book
I print out a gingerbread outline for each student. The students fill in the blanks on the back and color the front.  Then I hole punch each gingerbread man on the head and ring them together. I have heard ideas where the kids can take turns taking class books home, I am still debating on this for our Gingerbread story.

We'll Stop the Gingerbread Man Book
Take a picture of each student posing in a STOP fashion. I show them a bunch of fun poses to tell someone to stop and let them then choose to show me their favorite/own STOP pose. I print those on pages with a repetitive line. My students love any books they can read that contains their pictures!

If I caught the Gingerbread Man writing page. (Student write what they would do.)

Kind of Gingerbread Man 
Print out several copies of Gingerbread People from Jan Brett's site and allow the students to pick what kind of Gingerbread Person they would be.  She has football player, soccer player, lollipop girl, boy with basket, hiker, boy eating, buckeroo, girl ice skater, and a dolphin trainer. They can then write what kind of Gingerbread Person they would be. You can have them write a sentence expressing why OR have them use that correct to write a story.

Gingerbread Story
Have the students write their own Gingerbread story. Fold 3 pieces of papers in half and cover them with a color cover and staple in the middle to make story books. (parent volunteers!) They can write their very own story. Encourage each page to have some writing from words to sentences (depending on their levels).

Math
We will vote and graph our favorite books each week.
Graphs for Gingerbread Glyph
Gingerbread Buttons Addition Mat - (large) students roll dice and write the 2 numbers down (or use square cards preprinted with numbers). They then put that many buttons on the gingerbread man. They add all the buttons up.
Gingerbread Measuring- students use gingerbread men to measure items around the room and then record their findings. If you wanted to do this activity twice, you could have them practice estimating and then measuring for accurate answer.
Play the Gingerbread Baby Game (practices counting skills)
Play Run, Gingerbread Man, Run Game (counting, data, tally marks, graphing, colors) - I REALLY LIKE THIS GAME with ALL the math practice
Gingerbread Men Pattern Book
Gingerbread number dot stamps
Gingerbread Teen Number Sequence Cards
Gingerbread Man Dot to Dot
Gingerbread Man Color by Number (I added a 1 in front of each number, so it was teen numbers rather than just single digits.
Gingerbread Houses with numbers (can't remember where I found.) The students can make candies with playdough to decorate. Or print and color candies. (These are suppose to be lollipops, but I like them for easy decorating.)
Gingerbread Stamp Numbers - Students could stamp the numbers with number stamps. They could color specific numbers that you instruct.
Gingerbread Man Fact Addition - This blog has a free one that is a good center if you have kids that can do this. I have only a handful of Kindergartners who would be able to do this by themselves.


Listening/Art Skills
We are going to do a Gingerbread Glyph to practice our listening and following directions abilities. I found this idea on www.kidzone.ws   On this same website, there are graphs you can use to show pink/blue buttons and nose amounts in the class. You can also do a blank one and have the students glue the shapes and decorations on the gingerbread man.

I do this one just for fun - Make a Gingerbread Man class chain at the beginning of the unit. Each student gets a Gingerbread man to decorate. Then we hang up our long chain to admire throughout the month! I do this as a center because even having 5 kids work on 1 chain can be challenging.


Social Studies - map skills
Find the 10 hidden Gingerbread Men. (whatever number you want)  Hide your gingerbread men around your room and give the students the mark off sheet. As they find that numbered gingerbread man, they write down where they found it in the correct spot.


Draw out a map of your classroom and have students search for gingerbread men and mark on their maps.  I make 1 gingerbread man and hide him every day and  the person who finds him marks the spot on our map every day. However, you could cut out gingerbread men with students' names on them and have each child search till they all find theirs.

Hide a gingerbread man around the school and have the students follow a map to find him.

Find the Gingerbread Man with clues. You give the class their clue, and they have to guess who has the Gingerbread Man. Then they have to map out how to get to that location. (Count their steps, draw arrows, and X marks the spot.)

If time (and with some help), you can have your students hide the gingerbread man and draw out directions for you the teacher to find the gingerbread man! 

Science
Science Experiment with Gingerbread Man getting wet. This blog has nice science papers already able to be used! My kids love science experiments!

Technology
Starfall has a very fun activity where the students design their gingerbread man. They choose the shapes and colors for his eyes, nose and buttons.

Still debating
I really like this fun idea I found where the students make a book where they are "eating" parts of the gingerbread man. I am just not sure if I want to take the time to have each student make their own book.



Additional Items
If you plan to read, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, consider printing out the masks for this book as well so the students can act out and retell the story.