Mystery Box: Students decorate a shoe box and then fill it with items that show interests they have. (or just 1 item) They share with the class or in small groups about themselves. This box is then taken home and is where they store their sight words, reading books, alphabet cards, numbers ect.
Write lists of various common features or interests. Practice writing, counting, and identifying names.
Create graphs to show common interests. Practice counting, Math Talk, and opinion.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Partner Stories
Assign the students into partners.
I have done this 2 ways:
1. I partner up a higher writer with an average or lower student. The higher writer is assigned the job or being the author while the other student is assigned to being the illustrator. Together they make a book!
2. Students pick their own partners. They create 2 books together. For 1 book 1 person is the author while the other is the illustrator, then they swap jobs for their 2nd book. The writer gets to keep the book they wrote!
I have done this 2 ways:
1. I partner up a higher writer with an average or lower student. The higher writer is assigned the job or being the author while the other student is assigned to being the illustrator. Together they make a book!
2. Students pick their own partners. They create 2 books together. For 1 book 1 person is the author while the other is the illustrator, then they swap jobs for their 2nd book. The writer gets to keep the book they wrote!
Sight Word Ideas
Some games and activities to use with sight words.
Sight Word Pointers: (an idea shared by another teacher in my district)
Students get their own sight word stick that they get to take home and practice reading with it.
Example: Sight word stick says "the" and they point to items and read "the table," "the book," "the mom."
Sight Word Kaboom/Tic Tac Toe Class Games:
I have these in my units already organized in the order I have my sight words. Great filler or reward games. These are top games choices when we have extra time or have an older student coming in for a few minutes.
Sight Word Journal: Read more about this under journal. I like how I connect my sight words with their journals. I also think the introduction of journals is pretty helpful for the kids who fight writing or think they can't write.
Sight Word Alphabox Detectives: Students fill sight words in the letter boxes. (or any other words they know how to read.) I give my students the alphabox and a handful of books. They get to use magnifying glasses to find the words.
Sight Word Hunts: The copies for this quick and fun center are in my units. Print the sight word you're learning and post all over the room. Students grab clipboards, fun glasses, and their page and pencil and start their search for the sight word. STUDENTS LOVE THIS! It is super easy of a center and the kids don't get tired of it.
Sight Word Writing Worksheet: I don't believe in a lot of worksheets for kids. I think they are boring and too much paper. However, I do think kids need practice writing their sight words and HeidiSongs has some gread worksheets to help practice. I believe in her books each sight word has up to 6 pages for that word, but I only choose 2 pages as to not overload my students.
Sight Word Card Games: You can find or make LOTS of other card games with sight words such as matching. There are so many other ones that I use that I have gotten from TPT that are just so creative that go with the holidays. There are too many holiday varieties, that I won't be listing them all.
Sight Word Slap It: My kids love this game. Write a bunch of words on the white board. Pick 2 people to come up and "slap it" - the word you say. The students get to hold a fly swatter and the first one to slap the correct word gives their team a point. This is the same as my table slap it except with fly swatters.
Sight Word Bird Hunt (I posted these parrots all over the school and a parent volunteer took them on a bird hunt around the school. The students wrote down the sight words as they found them!)
Sight Word Pointers: (an idea shared by another teacher in my district)
Students get their own sight word stick that they get to take home and practice reading with it.
Example: Sight word stick says "the" and they point to items and read "the table," "the book," "the mom."
Sight Word Kaboom/Tic Tac Toe Class Games:
I have these in my units already organized in the order I have my sight words. Great filler or reward games. These are top games choices when we have extra time or have an older student coming in for a few minutes.
Sight Word Journal: Read more about this under journal. I like how I connect my sight words with their journals. I also think the introduction of journals is pretty helpful for the kids who fight writing or think they can't write.
Sight Word Alphabox Detectives: Students fill sight words in the letter boxes. (or any other words they know how to read.) I give my students the alphabox and a handful of books. They get to use magnifying glasses to find the words.
Sight Word Hunts: The copies for this quick and fun center are in my units. Print the sight word you're learning and post all over the room. Students grab clipboards, fun glasses, and their page and pencil and start their search for the sight word. STUDENTS LOVE THIS! It is super easy of a center and the kids don't get tired of it.
Sight Word Writing Worksheet: I don't believe in a lot of worksheets for kids. I think they are boring and too much paper. However, I do think kids need practice writing their sight words and HeidiSongs has some gread worksheets to help practice. I believe in her books each sight word has up to 6 pages for that word, but I only choose 2 pages as to not overload my students.
Sight Word Card Games: You can find or make LOTS of other card games with sight words such as matching. There are so many other ones that I use that I have gotten from TPT that are just so creative that go with the holidays. There are too many holiday varieties, that I won't be listing them all.
Sight Word Slap It: My kids love this game. Write a bunch of words on the white board. Pick 2 people to come up and "slap it" - the word you say. The students get to hold a fly swatter and the first one to slap the correct word gives their team a point. This is the same as my table slap it except with fly swatters.
Sight Word Bird Hunt (I posted these parrots all over the school and a parent volunteer took them on a bird hunt around the school. The students wrote down the sight words as they found them!)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Insects and Life Cycles
After teaching about plants, I teach a little about insects.
Ladybugs: Ladybugs are the protectors of leaves, so this is a great insect to start with!
Life Cycle and Count the Spots Worksheets
Buy Ladybugs from Earth's Birthday Project (ladybug exploration with magnifying glasses)
Also explore with felt ladybugs to figure out what they can already tell from ladybugs
Ladybug cupcakes (Kids get to decorate their own cupcake like a ladybug!)
Ladybug Spots Equation
Ladybug Story "How do ladybugs get their spots?"
Books: Grouchy Ladybug, Ladybugs (Pebble Books), Ladybugs Red, Fiery, and Bright
Teach: Fiction vs Non Fiction
Venn Diagram Comparison about 2 of those books
Grouchy Ladybug: Talk about times of the day and each student writes a page about what they do
at their assigned time of the day to compile into a book.
Caterpillars
1. Read "A Very Hungry Caterpillar"
2. Make an accordion caterpillar book
I made the book to practice base 20 math, but I'm sure
their are PLENTY of other ways to use this book.
3. Word caterpillar (Students add words to their caterpillar to show all the words they know!
(Sight Words, color words, number words)
Caterpillar Patterns:
Students were given basic caterpillars and were to create a pattern using the dot paints. Some pages had specific patterns on them already (AB or ABC ect) while some were left blank. The day we did blank caterpillars the students were told to do at least 1 AABB and ABC pattern to ensure they had a guide. Something simple and fun.
Butterflies
Buy caterpillars that will metamorphosis right in front of your class in 2-3 weeks!
Caterpillars turn into butterflies, so I go through their life cycle next.
Butterfly Book + Butterfly Wing Creation
Waterfall butterfly life cycle book. (I place this book inside their large butterfly book.)
Materials needed:
large construction paper (any color)
copies of a butterfly cut in half
glue, scissors
coloring materials
variety of colored paper (optional)
Fold the construction paper where the 2 sides reach in to touch the middle. Glue each side of the butterfly on each flap. Decorate each butterfly wing with markers, crayons, paint, or tissue paper. Glue the waterfall page into the fold, so when you pull the butterfly wings apart, you find the butterfly life cycle.
Bees:
Watch Reading Rainbow - BEES (3:45- 4:50)
Watch Magic School Bus - Bees (I own the DVD)
Bees Knowledge Chart Poster
Bee paragraph (3 sentences: Bees have..., Bees are..., Bees can...
(DO AS WHOLE GROUP since it is their first time using an organizer.)
Paper craft bee or paint a bee with information on the back.
Ladybugs: Ladybugs are the protectors of leaves, so this is a great insect to start with!
Life Cycle and Count the Spots Worksheets
Buy Ladybugs from Earth's Birthday Project (ladybug exploration with magnifying glasses)
Also explore with felt ladybugs to figure out what they can already tell from ladybugs
Ladybug cupcakes (Kids get to decorate their own cupcake like a ladybug!)
Ladybug Spots Equation
Ladybug Story "How do ladybugs get their spots?"
Books: Grouchy Ladybug, Ladybugs (Pebble Books), Ladybugs Red, Fiery, and Bright
Teach: Fiction vs Non Fiction
Venn Diagram Comparison about 2 of those books
Grouchy Ladybug: Talk about times of the day and each student writes a page about what they do
at their assigned time of the day to compile into a book.
Caterpillars
1. Read "A Very Hungry Caterpillar"
2. Make an accordion caterpillar book
I made the book to practice base 20 math, but I'm sure
their are PLENTY of other ways to use this book.
3. Word caterpillar (Students add words to their caterpillar to show all the words they know!
(Sight Words, color words, number words)
Caterpillar Patterns: Butterflies
Buy caterpillars that will metamorphosis right in front of your class in 2-3 weeks!
Caterpillars turn into butterflies, so I go through their life cycle next.
Butterfly Book + Butterfly Wing Creation
Waterfall butterfly life cycle book. (I place this book inside their large butterfly book.)
Materials needed:
large construction paper (any color)
copies of a butterfly cut in half
glue, scissors
coloring materials
variety of colored paper (optional)
Fold the construction paper where the 2 sides reach in to touch the middle. Glue each side of the butterfly on each flap. Decorate each butterfly wing with markers, crayons, paint, or tissue paper. Glue the waterfall page into the fold, so when you pull the butterfly wings apart, you find the butterfly life cycle.
Bees:
Watch Reading Rainbow - BEES (3:45- 4:50)
Watch Magic School Bus - Bees (I own the DVD)
Bees Knowledge Chart Poster
Bee paragraph (3 sentences: Bees have..., Bees are..., Bees can...
(DO AS WHOLE GROUP since it is their first time using an organizer.)
Paper craft bee or paint a bee with information on the back.
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
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
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Word Families
I do most of my word family teaching with the Words Your Way Spelling. When the students get to the sort, I teach them that word family (or those word families). Of course, I continually practice them with the students who need more practice with them.
When my Kindergartners are ready to learn digraphs and dipthongs, I teach those as a whole class even if some of my students are still on basic word families. Introduction is never a bad thing in my opinion, I just don't hold them to knowing those if they are still learning og family (example). It won't hurt them getting the lesson and practice though!
I found a website where I use 1-2 pages from her downloads as worksheets while we're learning that digraph or dipthong. I do not have the time nor the desire to do so many worksheets. But I do like the cut and paste word with picture page for all my students and the sentence page for my higher group. I do like that she has picture and word cards - this will save me from writing the words on the white board everyday. These items are in her "sets" as she calls them. Click here for the website.
When I start to teach these dipthongs, usually more than half my class are ready to read a lot more than 1 sentence per page. Plus I wanted to start saving paper. Instead I wrote little stories to send home as a practice/homework. They have a word bank with the dipthong words. Then the story. On the back, I print the questions that go with the story. This way it practices similar concepts as my sight word books. It is just a tad harder now... being paragraphs - but I believe is doable.
When my Kindergartners are ready to learn digraphs and dipthongs, I teach those as a whole class even if some of my students are still on basic word families. Introduction is never a bad thing in my opinion, I just don't hold them to knowing those if they are still learning og family (example). It won't hurt them getting the lesson and practice though!
I found a website where I use 1-2 pages from her downloads as worksheets while we're learning that digraph or dipthong. I do not have the time nor the desire to do so many worksheets. But I do like the cut and paste word with picture page for all my students and the sentence page for my higher group. I do like that she has picture and word cards - this will save me from writing the words on the white board everyday. These items are in her "sets" as she calls them. Click here for the website.
When I start to teach these dipthongs, usually more than half my class are ready to read a lot more than 1 sentence per page. Plus I wanted to start saving paper. Instead I wrote little stories to send home as a practice/homework. They have a word bank with the dipthong words. Then the story. On the back, I print the questions that go with the story. This way it practices similar concepts as my sight word books. It is just a tad harder now... being paragraphs - but I believe is doable.
St. Patrick's Day
I love how this turned out. At first, I was quite frustrated with the fact that the color printer at the school was not working for a few days which meant I could not print and laminate my St. Patrick's Day games for the kiddos. However, it was changed for the UPSIDE! Keep reading.
On St. Patrick's Day: (or closest day)
Wear lots of green (I love to wear crazy outfits on these days.) Students included of course~
Write a letter as a class to the leprechaun in case he comes to visit our classroom. We write a letter based on what we know about him. We informed him or asked him of something related to what we already knew. Our letter had to be short because it was taking too long for my students to do the writing.
Make their pots of gold filled with their treasures. I downloaded this template for free of TPT. I tweaked it a little to fit what I wanted to do for my class. St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday, so this was a perfect activity for my Friday. The students wrote a list of their treasures in life. Then they glued gold coins on their pots for every treasure they wrote. This inspired a long list! (I laminated their pots because I thought their lists of treasures would be a great memory piece.)
Day after St. Patrick's Day (over the weekend in 2012):
Leprechaun messes up our classroom:
The kids come in and some things are a mess! The calendar is upside down, posters are upside down, and all our chairs are stacked which we never do! Our color crayons on the cabinets are all over the classroom instead! There are a few other items. I immediately asked the kids why they made a mess. They swear it wasn't them, but I just don't believe them! They point out a letter left by the leprechaun. OH, THAT EXPLAINS IT! The kids didn't make a mess. To add to the fun, there are boot prints and a couple hand prints all over the classroom, showing where the leprechaun went running. To add to THAT FUN - all adults that enter my class CAN'T see the leprechaun foot prints and hand prints. This drive the kids NUTS! I just LOVE it! The next day, a few footprints aren't there anymore and then the next day they are all gone.
The leprechaun leaves us a GIFT!
Leprechaun's mess up things and trick us, that's just what they like to do. However, the leprechaun that visited our class wrote a little extra note telling us that he left us some games to play for the rest of the month! (It worked out perfectly to have games made up late... we could use them for a couple more weeks because the Leprechaun gave them to us.) Mr. Leprechaun gave us green playdough because he loves green. He gave us yellow with gold sparkles to us to make gold coins for the pots. Playdough had GLITTER!
The leprechaun also left us supplies to make Leprechaun Juice! We just needed to write out the directions!
Other activities:
Writing:
How would you catch a Leprechaun?
What would you want to find at the end of a rainbow?
How to make Leprechaun Juice!
Reading:
The Little Leprechaun (A rebus story)
I'm a Little Leprechaun Poem
ar/oo gold coins
Art & Writing:
My Pot of Treasures (shown above)
Art and Sight Words:
Sight word Shamrock Surprise
Paint a rainbow
Math:
St. Patrick's Day Patterns
100 clovers
Pots of Gold - Students pick up some gold coins in 2 groups and then adds the coins together (recording sheet)
Rainbow coloring sheet: I wrote in color words to help them practice
Have you ever seen a Rainbow? graph
I found almost all of my printables on TPT... no time this time to make stuff myself. Plus so many great activities and games out there!
On St. Patrick's Day: (or closest day)
Wear lots of green (I love to wear crazy outfits on these days.) Students included of course~
Write a letter as a class to the leprechaun in case he comes to visit our classroom. We write a letter based on what we know about him. We informed him or asked him of something related to what we already knew. Our letter had to be short because it was taking too long for my students to do the writing.
Make their pots of gold filled with their treasures. I downloaded this template for free of TPT. I tweaked it a little to fit what I wanted to do for my class. St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday, so this was a perfect activity for my Friday. The students wrote a list of their treasures in life. Then they glued gold coins on their pots for every treasure they wrote. This inspired a long list! (I laminated their pots because I thought their lists of treasures would be a great memory piece.)
Day after St. Patrick's Day (over the weekend in 2012):
Leprechaun messes up our classroom:
The kids come in and some things are a mess! The calendar is upside down, posters are upside down, and all our chairs are stacked which we never do! Our color crayons on the cabinets are all over the classroom instead! There are a few other items. I immediately asked the kids why they made a mess. They swear it wasn't them, but I just don't believe them! They point out a letter left by the leprechaun. OH, THAT EXPLAINS IT! The kids didn't make a mess. To add to the fun, there are boot prints and a couple hand prints all over the classroom, showing where the leprechaun went running. To add to THAT FUN - all adults that enter my class CAN'T see the leprechaun foot prints and hand prints. This drive the kids NUTS! I just LOVE it! The next day, a few footprints aren't there anymore and then the next day they are all gone.
The leprechaun leaves us a GIFT!
Leprechaun's mess up things and trick us, that's just what they like to do. However, the leprechaun that visited our class wrote a little extra note telling us that he left us some games to play for the rest of the month! (It worked out perfectly to have games made up late... we could use them for a couple more weeks because the Leprechaun gave them to us.) Mr. Leprechaun gave us green playdough because he loves green. He gave us yellow with gold sparkles to us to make gold coins for the pots. Playdough had GLITTER!
Other activities:
Writing:
How would you catch a Leprechaun?
What would you want to find at the end of a rainbow?
How to make Leprechaun Juice!
The Little Leprechaun (A rebus story)
I'm a Little Leprechaun Poem
ar/oo gold coins
Art & Writing:
My Pot of Treasures (shown above)
Art and Sight Words:
Sight word Shamrock Surprise
Paint a rainbow
Math:
St. Patrick's Day Patterns
100 clovers
Pots of Gold - Students pick up some gold coins in 2 groups and then adds the coins together (recording sheet)
Rainbow coloring sheet: I wrote in color words to help them practice
Have you ever seen a Rainbow? graph
I found almost all of my printables on TPT... no time this time to make stuff myself. Plus so many great activities and games out there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
