The Week Before Thanksgiving

Whew. What a week this has been! Last week we had a Grade Prep day on Tuesday and then Friday off for Veteran's day, so I had a really hard time coming back for a full 5 day week, but somehow we made it. Next week we only have two days of school! Woohoo!

Anyways, I thought I would share a bunch of different things that we have been doing since I haven't written in a while and I'll try to link everything I talk about in case you like what you see!

Math

In math this week we have been working on word problems.

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I LOVE Math Workshop. The only thing I don't absolutely love about math workshop is that it takes a LOT of time to create, print, and prep activities and you need a LOT of activities (at least, I think you do). I was struggling this week because Superteacherworksheets, my usual go-to, didn't have many activities for word problems that didn't involve multiplication and division. I ended up making some of my own and you can grab those for free here.

I also found this FABULOUS website and grabbed several of their sample activities for free. I'm considering investing in their grade level math centers because these were so nicely aligned with the standards and they were easy to prep and use! I just printed some of their easier task cards and worked with my kids who needed some review on different strategies for solving word problems.

Science

In Science this week we wrapped up our study of Plants and Animals. After completing all of the Science Fusion lessons, I had students go back and review everything we learned from the book by filling out this booklet, which was also a nice way of introducing/reviewing nonfiction text features.

I sent home the booklets and a study guide for students to prep for the test. I also created my own test because the Science Fusion one didn't really match up with our 3rd Grade Science Standards. Click on the links above or picture below to grab these resources for free!

Reading

In reading we are focusing on nonfiction/informational text this quarter. I used to find this difficult to teach because I personally prefer to read fiction, but so far I have been having a lot of fun with it this year! I did an intro lesson on how to preview nonfiction text and then gave students nonfiction texts at their levels to preview and read with their reading partners.

Next we worked on identifying the main idea and details and every day students met with their reading partners to practice this skill, met with me in guided reading groups, and/or completed a practice activity independently during our reading rotations.

In my guided reading groups I used the Comprehension Skill Packs from Reading A-Z for Main Idea and Details and just used different grade level packs to differentiate for my leveled groups.

I had my kids complete practice passages and questions from Readworks for independent practice and as a informal assessment. I differentiated this activity by pulling passages from different grade levels on the site. (This is a free site, by the way, and it has so many passages that you can search by topic, grade level, or even reading skill or strategy. I just went on and looked up Main Idea & Details passages and printed out 4 different grade levels to match the levels of my reading groups). 

Writing

In writing, we are also working on informational text. We use Lucy Calkins for writing and, while I  really like a lot of her minilessons and find the rubrics very helpful for planning what to teach, I am not the biggest fan of following along with her plans step-by-step.

SO, I decided to try something different this quarter and I created my own writing unit that I thought would work best for my students. I believe that it meets all of the same standards that Lucy does, it just breaks them down into a more strategic, kid-friendly approach.

Each day we completed one of the lessons in my unit. Every lesson consisted of me explaining our goal for the day, modeling how I used the graphic organizer to reach that goal, and then giving students time to talk to partners or groups and then use the graphic organizer themselves.

Here's an example: The first thing we did was choose a topic, so I modeled how I brainstormed a list of topics that I am an "expert" on and then I thought aloud about which one would be the best choice. Once I chose my topic I modeled coming up with subtopics (like chapters in a nonfiction text). Finally I modeled how to teach a group about my topic and use their feedback and questions to jot down notes for myself. Then I gave kids time do choose their topics, list subtopics, and teach their groups.

I also met with small groups to see how they were doing towards the end of the week and to work on writing leads (see below).

I will do a more in depth post on this writing unit soon, but if you are interested in checking it out, you can find it in my store by clicking here.

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Teaching Writing in Kindergarten

Hello friends!

It has been a busy, busy week in Kindergarten. We are finishing up our last Language Arts unit, doing so many tests that I can't even see straight, and trying to have fun with pre-summer activities. Today we finished up our last writing sample of the year and I wanted to share a little bit about how I teach writing in Kindergarten.

When I first started teaching I thought that Five and Six year olds would only be able to write about one or two sentences by the end of the year. Boy, was I wrong. I soon discovered that many of them quickly learned to do much more than what I expected and I decided that I needed to have higher expectations for them.

I purchased this fantastic book and it changed my life (or maybe just the way I teach writing which sometimes feels like it is my life).

Anyways, Randee Bergen is my hero! She has suggestions and resources for starting to incorporate daily writing time from day 1 and helping students continue to improve throughout the year. I read the entire book in about two days and followed her directions step by step the next school year and I have to say, I was blown away by the results. My little ones came in barely able to write their names legibly and left writing me full pages of sentences with capitals at the beginning, punctuation in the right place, proper spacing, sight words spelled correctly, etc...AND they made sense!

I realized that year that (most) Kindergartners love writing and that I love seeing them do so well. I was so excited that I wanted to tell everyone about their amazing progress and I started keeping a writing portfolio that I'm going to share it with you now! :)

Every year I have the kids do a writing sample on the first day of school. I explain that I know they haven't had a lot of practice writing journals yet, but that I would like them to do their very best to draw a picture of themselves and write a little bit about themselves even if all they can write is their name. Here is what the samples usually look like on that first day:

From that day on, we dedicate at least thirty minutes a day to writing time. At the beginning of the year we do a lot of directed drawing and labeling pictures, and as time goes on they each get their own composition journal for primary grades and start doing daily journal entries. I try to take a writing sample every trimester and I show them how much they have improved. They love seeing how great their writing is compared to the last sample and many of them try to go back and fix the mistakes in their old ones so I have to keep an eye out for that!

Here are some mid-year/close to end of the year samples:

And here are some of the end of year samples that we did today:

Here are the pictures of one of my students' work throughout the school year:

here's a closer look at that End of Trimester 3 writing:

The beginning of year writing templates and ideas for keeping a writing portfolio came from Heidi's blog and you can get a copy for yourself here.

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February

Wow, I know I am beginning to sound a little bit repetitive but where is the time going?! Seriously. We are halfway through February and I haven't had any time to sit down and post anything that we've been doing because it's been so busy! Well, here you go - I'll do my best to recap an entire month today.

Groundhog Day

I'm guessing most people don't really celebrate Groundhog day since it is such an odd "holiday", however, I have a special place in my heart for this day since the groundhog is the "unofficial mascot" of my college. I actually managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Dallas to celebrate with my friends and family and made it back in time to celebrate with my class on Monday! 

First we read this book:

Then they all made predictions about whether the groundhog would see his shadow or not:

Then we made these cute little groundhogs from A Cupcake For the Teacher:

Valentine's Day

I let my room mom take the lead for our class Valentine's day party and craft this year. She did a fantastic job and came up with a really cute gift for the kids to make for their parents, provided me with the instructions and all of the materials, and helped out with gluing, taking pictures, etc...she's awesome. We did a few other valentine activities throughout the week that you can see below :)

The kids had a free dress day and this was by far the best outfit in my class:

Here's a little rhyming worksheet that we got (for free!) here.

We did a little letter sound matchup game that we also got for free from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten here.

I loved this writing activity from Crazy for First Grade:

I'll save President's day/Ash Wednesday/Lent/etc... for another day!

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Back to School, Back to School...

I'm finding it a little bit hard to believe that we are already almost done with our second week back to school. We really hit the ground running (literally - I landed at LAX at about 10:00 p.m. and was up and on my way to school by 5:30 a.m. the next morning...clearly I like to live on the edge). We have been busy in Kindergarten since 2015 started! I don't have time to catch you up on everything, but I did want to share just a little bit.

PENGUINS

Even though it is just starting to get a little chilly here in L.A., I figured we could at least pretend it's winter and learn about cold weather through our unit on penguins. Plus penguins are pretty cute and the little ones loved learning about them!

I don't have many penguin books in my library, so I used one of my favorite sites, www.wegivebooks.com, to read See How They Grow: Penguins, Baby Penguins Everywhere, and DK Readers: Emperor Penguins.

*www.wegivebooks.com is an awesome non-profit social enterprise that provides free books for low-income communities, schools, and homes. You can help out just by signing up (for free) and reading children's books on their site! Learn more here.

After reading these two informational texts and a lit text for fun about penguins, we discussed all of the new information that we had learned. Then we put it down in writing and made little penguins to crafts and booklets to decorate the room.

I got the template for the "All About Penguins" booklet from Miss Kindergarten here. I hope all of these amazing Kindergarten teachers who put up free resources for all of us know how much we appreciate them! I would be lost without their last minute lifesavers.

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The First Week of School

Now that our school year is in full swing and the kids are starting to be able to do some independent work, I am looking back at the first week of school and laughing. I was so overwhelmed, stressed, tired, frustrated, etc... I read somewhere that first few weeks of school are similar to childbirth - they are excruciatingly painful, but once you get through them and your kids know the routine you love them so much that you forget the pain they brought you on their way into your world.

I could not agree with this metaphor more. In fact, I loved my class so much last year that I completely forgot the painstaking days of practicing entering the classroom, unpacking, turning in homework folders, finding spots on the carpet, learning to listen, learning to raise our hands, learning our classroom rules, holding a pencil, using a pencil, holding scissors, using scissors, holding a crayon, using a crayon, lining up, moving around the room and the school, following directions, packing up, etc...

I came in on the first day expecting them to get down to business and was slapped in the face with the reminder that before I could expect them to do so, I would have to teach them how to get down to business. So, I scrapped my plans for the first few days of school and recreated a plan that worked for my brand new Kindergartners.

Here is a copy of my lesson plans for the first week of school. Just about every single activity was inspired by another Kindergarten teacher and I will do my best to give you links to their resources and give them the credit that they deserve!

As the students entered the room each morning, I asked them to stay in line and model the correct procedures for unpacking our backpacks one at a time. One by one they would walk to their cubbies and place lunches and snacks inside, turn their homework folders in by placing them in the designated bin, walk outside to hang up their backpacks, and quietly find their seats on the carpet.

Everyday

Morning Meeting: Our morning meeting every day consists of saying a prayer, the pledge of allegiance, singing good morning to each other, taking attendance, and discussing the days of the week (Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow), the date, weather, etc...

Morning Work: For the first week I found cutting practice pages here and made tracing worksheets here for each student to practice writing his or her own first and last name.

Monday

All About Me Graph: I introduced graphs by having the class help me make one of how many boys and girls there are in our class. After we did a few different graphs (favorite colors, shoe color, hair color, etc...) I explained that they would be making a graph filled with information about themselves. They LOVE to share about themselves, and it was a way for me to get to know them a little bit better so this activity worked out nicely. We used this cute "All About Me" graphing worksheet from The Primary Chalkboard's Back to School Survival Kit.

Chicka Chicka Name Craft: First we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, then sang the ABC's forwards and backwards (Instead of, "Next time won't you sing with me," we say, "Next time sing them backwards with me Z, Y, X, W, V, U, T...Now I've sang my ZYX's, bet that's not what you expected!"). Next we completed this really simple craft:

I didn't find a template online for this one, but, as you can see, all you need is a brown rectangle for the trunk of the tree and three green leaves. I told them that they could use different colored crayons and write the letters in their name climbing up the coconut tree just like the letters did in the story.


B.O.Y. Writing Samples: I got this wonderful idea to collect student writing samples at the beginning, middle, and end of the year from Heidi Songs. This has been a really good resource to use at parent teacher conferences. It's also pretty awesome to see how much progress the kids make in writing from day 1 to day 180. I'll share more with you later about how much I LOVE these writing portfolios! You can find the portfolio pages here. 

*I tell them to try their best, but that if all they are able to do is write their name then that is enough for the first day of school. They usually end up looking something like this:

Tuesday

Roll & Graph Back to School: A Teaching Mommy has a great Kindergarten Back to School packet which includes the template to make a dice with different school supplies on it and a corresponding graph to record how many times the dice lands on each item. *If they can handle it I sometimes let the students take turns rolling the dice themselves. 

Brown Bear Craftivity: We read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, reviewed the different colors we could see around our classroom, and made these cute little puppets from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. You can find her template here.

Wednesday

Shapes: We used these shape poems and pictures from Miss Kindergarten to look at and practice the names of each of the shapes.

Behavior Sort: After learning our classroom rules (more to come on that!), we completed this pocket chart activity which required the students to sort pictures of actions into categories - "poor choices" or "good choices". You can pick the pictures up from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten blog here.

Thursday

Chrysanthemum Craft: Since my kids had been practicing cutting every single day, I thought I would give them a chance to put their skills to use and cut out the heart shapes that we needed for our Chrysanthemum craft. They did a great job and their chrysanthemums ended up looking really cute! You can find the template for the craft and other Chrysanthemum related activities at First Grade W.O.W.

Friday

Numbers & Ten Frames: On Friday we did a lot of reviewing - lining up, walking around, walking through procedures step by step, and so on. For math, I used these cute number and ten frame cards made by Fran Kramer to introduce one-to-one correspondence and to play a game of "I have...who has (my ten frame)". 

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