Alphabet Countdown!

I can't believe we are heading into the last 26 days of school!!! I have been working with my friend Genie (who also teaches kindergarten) on our Alphabet Countdown. I read the list to the kids yesterday and they gave me some great ideas to add to the list.  If you have any suggestions let me know! 

This year we have lots of kindergarten and first grade classes participating in the countdown. 

I am working on a bulletin board in the hallway. Here it is at the beginning stages. I plan to put the letters in each box and have students make illustrations to go with that letter. 

click here for the download sheet 

Reading Response

Here are some anchor charts we made to go with reading response.
The kids can find the title on the white board to copy.
We are working on telling why we like a book or may not like a book. 

Click below to hear some responses

Shared Writing and Shared Reading

At the end of our day we have been writing about what we have learned that day. I am the one doing the writing and the kids are helping decide what to share. This is the perfect lesson to model writing, reinforce rereading of familiar text and explore words.

Above you can see that I am beginning to add pictures to some of the words. I know this will help some children when they are trying to read the message.

During meeting time, the students read the text we wrote. The kids LOVE getting up and reading it to the class. I have been calling on three kids at a time.
This is also a station at Daily 5. Click the arrow.

WORD WORK
I have been taking a sentence from the class news for a word work station.

During Daily 5 the kids have to put the sentence together, read the sentence and try to sort the words in two ways. You see above that I am modeling the sorts on the Elmo. We sorted words that ended with ING and words that begin with the vowel A. During meeting time we work together to sort the words in many different ways. I got this great idea from the book Writing Essentials by Regie Routman.

Science Notebooks

 I have blogged a few times about how I have started using Science Notebooks in my classroom. Here are some of the things we have been investigating and recording in our notebooks. 

Grass Investigation
I observed_______.
I noticed________.

This was a simple planting lesson. We planted grass seeds in clear cups. The kids loved seeing how the grass is growing in the middle of the cup with white roots.

 I observed some are long and some are short.

 I observed it has a little part of grass and it has some roots.

Bates Backyard
Finding something to explore in our school yard.

This is Circle Map with a Rock in the center
milky white
black
bumby
gray
flat
smooth
chalk rock

I noticed it could be a fairy raft. It had 

lots of holes. It is a raft for a fare.
Living Things
For this session the children had to find a living thing in our backyard. You can click below to hear some comments.

Poetry Writing In Kindergarten

This week we started a unit of study focusing on writing poetry. We began this study by reading poems written by former students. I also share the many samples of poetry from the book Kid's Poems by Regie Routman. I love Regie's poetry book!!! We read many poems and talked about what we notice. We also wrote a few poems during Shared Writing time. 

 Dolphins
jump
dive deep
blowhole
swim
splash

 The Best Best Water
Water water
water
Water is ice
water is rain
water is cups
water water
water
Water helps us live

Hockey
I shoot
I score
I skate
I pass
I win

At group time we are recording AMAZING WORDS!! 
This is helping us think about the words we use when we write our poems. We are learning that poets use interesting words. 

A child came in this week with a list of amazing words from a book she was reading at home!

How To Write a Poem

A few children in my class are writing poems 

like the Sun (on the left side). 

We talked about how this doesn't sound like a poem. 

We rewrote this poem together on the right side.

Every time we added words we keep rereading the poem. 

It is important for kids to see us add words and take words away.

Counting The Squares In Our Name

This was a simple lesson focusing on our names and counting. 

I found these pre-cut paper mosaic squares at a Lakeshore Learning Center.  

We made our names with these pre-cut squares.
After laminating the kids counted how many squares. 
We recorded our answers on Post-its.

We made a small self-portrait too.
We plan to reflect/record some of our finding after vacation.
The kids enjoyed doing this simple fun activity. 
I plan to do this in the fall of next year. 
Happy Counting!

Thinking Maps Thursday!

We read the book

 Under One Rock by Anthony D. Fredericks. 

Before reading: What do you think the child will find under the rock?

 Later in the day, students illustrated some of our predictions.

I love this book MOVE by Steven Jenkins and Robin Page. 

Before Reading:What words do you think we will learn about the way animals move?

 We wrote our predictions in green. After reading the story we added the words we had not thought of in blue.  

Fingerprint Ladybug Story Problems

We made Ladybug story math problems with out fingerprints! 

I just love how adorable this bulletin board came out! 

First made the background with colored pencils.

 Next, we printed our fingerprints with red paint.

The students could decide how many ladybugs they wanted for their math problem. 

Then, we added dots, legs, wings and antennas with black sharpie.

  We wrote our story problems on an index card.

I typed the book spelling below on an address label. 

Here are some story problems below!

 There were four ladybugs.

How many legs?

 There were 7 ladybugs.

How many legs?

 There were four ladybugs.

1 flew away. How many is there?

 4 little ladybugs. 

How many dots were there?

There were 4 ladybugs.

2 flew away.

How many legs?
I hope to do butterflies after vacation!

Animal Research Writing

At writing workshop time we have been working on animal research books. We have been reading lots of nonfiction books to help us gather information. The chart below helps us remember what to include in our books.

Adding To The Anchor Chart
{Dogs}

Here are some of the things kids are writing about!

The template I used for the class

click here for template