Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Opinion Writing like MO Willems (K.W.1)
On the second day I read Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late then we used the same paper to write things that we say to our parents to try and stay up late. These were hilarious by the way. I had them share what they said with their writing partner at the end of our writing time. During snack time and read aloud I was able to fit a few more Pigeon books in that I found on YouTube. I paused the videos several times so they could pair share schema they had about Mo Willems writing, text to text and text to self connections, and predictions.
On day 3 we were ready to write our own tale of the pigeon and they were excited. I played this video, pausing along the way for turn and talks about how the first graders that made this book used Mo Willems idea but made it their own. Then they could choose if they were going to have their animal be a pigeon or something else. We talked about making sure to start your book with a person in charge that asks you to watch the animal. I was really impressed with their original titles. We had Don't Let the Pigeon Be Santa Claus, Don't Let the Squid Drive the Plane, and Don't Let the Pigeon in the House to name a few.
On Day 4 we watched another example, this time done by a high-school class where I again paused the video for turn and talks. We worked on the same book we started yesterday and decided on somethings that HAD to be part of your book if you were writing like MO Willems.
*has to start out with a person asking you to watch the animal
*then the animal persuades in lots of ways
*one page written in all caps where the animal is really mad
*the person has to appear again at the end thank you for watching him
*animal has to be looking at something new at the very end (what is his next adventure)
On Day 5 we shared our books with the class, reading the book with feeling and gestures. Then we wrote a letter to Mo and told him if we liked his Pigeon books or not with three examples of why or why not. Of course they all wrote that they love his books and some kids even included which book was their favorite. How do you teach persuasive/opinion writing?
Here is a link to the speech bubble paper.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Jeopardy (K.RFS.3b)
Short and Long Vowel Jeopardy
My kids have so much fun playing jeopardy and it gives me a wealth of knowledge of the words they know how to spell. I strive to teach lessons where every kids is engaged and no one needs to "go to the bathroom." We play jeopardy once a week, I have all the kids bring their dry-erase board to the carpet and we sit in front of the whiteboard. We play boys vs. girls, I call on a student and everyone writes the answer on their board. I can easily see who understands the concept and who needs more practice. Try out my short and long vowel jeopardy for $1.00 by pressing the highlighted link.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Fluently Add Within 5 (K.OA.5)
We have been working on our fact fluency for the past few weeks. I was trying to come up with a catchy song to practice the facts each day. I wish I was more musically inclined, here is what I came up with...
I created timed test that the kids take each week if they pass the zero's then the next week they take the one's test and so on. When they pass a test they get to color part of their ice cream paper. We are working towards an ice cream party when we have a at least 80% of the class pass 0-5. This is a picture of their ice cream papers. They color the spoon for passing the zero's, bowl for one's, ice cream for 2's, and start to add toppings of their choice for 3-5.
We also make french fries to practice each week by putting the problems on popsicle sticks. I just used a library pocket to hold the sticks as the fry container. They take them out and practice their facts every day.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Dr. Seuss (K.RFS.2a)
In celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday we have been doing a special activity at the end of each day. If students are good all day and keep their stamp they can participate in the 10-15 minute activity. I read a Dr. Seuss book earlier in the day and then we do the related activity at the end of the day. Here are a few activities.
I read The Cat in the Hat and then we came up with a list of rhyming words and made our own hats.
We read One Fish, Two, Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and then graphed goldfish crackers. Here is the worksheet we used to graph on. It's a freebie on Teacher's Pay Teacher's, click on the link at the bottom of the picture.
I read The Cat in the Hat and then we came up with a list of rhyming words and made our own hats.
We read Green Egg's and Ham and partnered up to play Tic-Tac-Toe. One person was the green eggs and the other was the ham. Click on the link for the printable. This website has lots of cute Dr. Seuss games and activities.
I would love to hear other ideas for Dr. Seuss activities!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Poems (K.RFS.3b, K.RFS.3c, K.RL.5)
Reading: Foundational Skills 3 b c
Each week my students get a new poem to add to their poetry notebook. We sing the poem/song throughout the week as they are transitioning to the carpet. We circle all the sight words in the poem and highlight any chunks or vowel patterns that we find. They each have a folder with prongs in the middle, I put 5 page protector sleeves in each folder at the beginning of the year. Every Friday the kids insert their poem into their sheet protector and it is stored in their book box. They love reading/singing old poems during partner reading and even during read to self time. After the kids get ten poems in their folder I have them take them out and I make them into a book by stapling them inside a large piece of construction paper folded in half. Then they have some poems they can take home and continue to practice reading and some at school to enjoy. Here is an example of one of our poems. I try to pick songs or poems that go with topics/things we are celebrating in class or songs they sing in Music class.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sight Words (K.RFS.3c)
My kindergarten students know on average close to 100 sight words. My district uses the Teacher College lists of sight words. I cut a list of words in half and staple them into a book. Everytime a student learns and gets all 25 words highlighted in their book they move up to the next colored book. We have a student in class that is on the black book (the last book of sight words) they think that is so cool. This is very motivational for my kids and they can see their growth. They love when they move on to the next colored book. I also send a note home so parents are aware of the new words their child is currently working on.
.JPG)
I put this hangman game into a sleeve and the kids flip to a page in their sight word book and play hangman sightword to review words too. The creater of this sight word sheet is listed at the bottom of the picture.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Vowel Patterns (K.RFS.3b)
I can not say enough about introducing Kindergarteners to vowel patterns. Every book out there has words in it that contain vowel patterns. We do this video every day in my classroom to learn the sounds each pattern makes. I have seen a huge difference in my kids reading abilities just from using this short video. I had my daughters do the motions, this helps kids learn them quicker :)
We also work on spelling vowel patterns by using this chart. I put the paper in a plastic sleeve to save paper. We practice spelling words on it once a week. If we come to one that has two different patterns I will tell them to circle the pattern that we are going to use to spell that word.
We also work on spelling vowel patterns by using this chart. I put the paper in a plastic sleeve to save paper. We practice spelling words on it once a week. If we come to one that has two different patterns I will tell them to circle the pattern that we are going to use to spell that word.
None of my kids came in reading. I have 2 on level G, 4 F's, 1 E, 7 D's, 4 C's and 2 B's
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
Follow Me
Popular Posts
-
My kids have been having so much fun learning about opinion/persuasive writing and reading Mo Willems books. We start the week by b... -
I wanted to do a winter bulletin board to hang out in the hall for a while. I used a circle punch to cut out lots of white circles. Then I... -
My kids had so much fun coming up with the clues for bossy r words. I gave them each a half sheet of paper that had a bossy r word written ... -
We have been working on our fact fluency for the past few weeks. I was trying to come up with a catchy song to practice the facts each day....
-
In celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday we have been doing a special activity at the end of each day. If students are good all day and k...
-
K.CC.4 and K.CC.5 Counting and Cardinality (CC) K.NBT.1 Number and Operations in Base Ten (NBT) We have been working on teen numbers and...
-
My kindergarten students know on average close to 100 sight words. My district uses the Teacher College lists of sight words. I cut... -
We had so much fun on our 100th day of school today. For our question of the day I asked the kids if anyone knew someone that was 100 years... -
I can not say enough about introducing Kindergarteners to vowel patterns. Every book out there has words in it that contain vowel patterns....
-
Common Core Reading: Foundation Skills K.RFS.1 I like to provide my students with pointers to use when reading the books in their bo...
My YouTube Videos
