R is for Reindeer!

We had some exciting fun this week!  We learned about the letter R which follows our reading series that our county uses.  I don't like that the story is about ducks.  I like to do themes with each letter! Its MORE fun and makes more sense to the kiddos! What's more perfect than... reindeer for letter R week!?! 

I found SO many awesome fun ideas from teachers pay teachers and made up a few of my own.  I wanted to share the activity packet that I purchased from TpT. 

We learned reindeer facts and then made a chart of what reindeer ARE, what reindeer HAVE and what reindeer CAN do.  The next day I asked the kids to look at the chart and write down three things they learned about reindeer. They had to write three COMPLETE sentences example Reindeer can live in snowy places.  I told them they had to include a fact from each section of the chart.  The children blew me away!  It took a little while for some of them to catch on, but they were able to do as I asked.  I wanted to challenge them a little bit ;).  One things I've learned is to NEVER underestimate what they can do.

I stole this idea from a little sister who is also teaching kindergarten for the first time this year!  If we worked in the same building who knows what would happen! She told me to give each child 1piece of brown paper, a piece for the background,  a small square red and a small piece of white paper. I made a sample to give the children a guide to make their own reindeer.  They turned out SO cute and funny!

Here is a color reindeer book we did! It helped my kiddos learn their color words AND rhyming words!  It was a three day Writer's Workshop activity. 


The first day I modeled how to cut out and order the pages. They colored the cover and the color words on the second page. The second day we read the rhymes to fill in each color word.  They colored the nose. 

We did only about four pages and I let them color Rudolph on each page.  The third day we colored another four pages and finished the book!  What a clever little idea for changing Rudolph's nose!

The last thing we did was make reindeer food.  I have never done it before so I didn't really know what I was doing I just thought it was a cute idea.  Well I didn't use glitter which is the whole point right?  So it shines on the grass so the reindeer can see it on Christmas Eve?!  Well I used whole oats, baking peppermint pieces, and chocolate mint chocolate chips.  I told them that real reindeer like the oats but Santa's magical reindeer love sweets and goodies.  Once I mixed up our mixture it smelt SO nice and minty. Orginally was I going to put the "reindeer food" in a plastic baggy, but I was lying awake the night before thinking of what I use to make it look like a reindeer.  Then this came to me!

The children colored a coffee filter with brown crayon (or I'm sure you could the recycled brown filters) and place the reindeer food in the middle.  I folded one side to the other like a taco or semi circle and folded the rount side a little to keep the food from coming out.  Then I twisted the sides and secured it was brown pipe cleaners to look like antlers.  They children drew the face. BOOM! It was Rudolph!  I hung them in our little classroom Christmas tree until our last day.  I knew that if I sent them home they'd lose it and be sad they didn't get to sprinkle it on Christmas Eve.

I found a poem online to go with the reindeer food that used glitter.  Well this didn't work for me obviously so I made up a new one!

Tthe best way to attract a reindeer is with their sense of smell,

and for the taste of reindeer food,

they’ll travel through rain, sleet or hail.

Ssprinkle on your lawn the night of christmas eve,

Tthe reindeer will smell it

and visit those who truly believe.

Websites:

http://www.teachersmousepad.com/Christmas/reindeer_fun.htm 

Count Your Blessings

As part of our math centers, the children had an opportunity to visit this math center.  They had to count the dots on the feathers and put them in order.  They colored a paper plate brown and cut out their own head and beak from construction paper.  It turned out really cute that the turkeys are so different! 

I don't know where I've seen this before but I had the turkey feather patterns for a long time (do not know what I used them for) and I thought that this would be a great art/math center activity.

A Whisper Wednesday

Oops, today is not Wednesday, its Tuesday.  I'm getting excited for the weekend.  ;)
Last night I couldn't fall sleep until 12:30 am! My throat was scratchy and I felt soooo very yucky.  When I woke up this morning I discovered that my voice was gone and what was left of it came out as a squeaky mouse voice.  HOW do you teach kindergarten without a voice!?!  They can't read directions  by themselves or sit and do work very long by themselvesI have several that need constant attention. 
I've always heard that the teacher directs the volume level of the classroom.  Well this morning I whispered, they whispered back.  We sang "Who let the letters out...?" in whisper voices.  Somehow we got through the WHOLE morning and ya know what....it worked.  After lunch I coughed one good time and my voicec was back.  It was a neat experience because I had to use all of my nonverbal cues for getting their attention. 

First ONE DOWN!

Wow!  I just had my first evaluation of the school year! It was announced, but that doesn't take the nerves away.  I wasn't as nervous this time.  I have just decided that I do what I do everyday even when someone steps into my room.  Hey! Just a way for my kiddos and I to show off how much fun we have and how much we learn!

The hardest part about my lesson was that it was math...after lunch...for an hour! You can image that it has to be pretty high energy to keep their focus.  We started off by doing calendar math, karate counting, our Smartie Factory, and our weather graph.  The children have a math folder which has a copy of a blank 100's chart and weather graph.  Each day they color in the weather on the graph and also write in how many more days "smart"er they are (days of school). 

After calendar math, we either do a mini lesson or journal question. For my eval, it was spider web ten frames and candy corn "flies".  They got to eat them at snack! Woot woot!

Lastly, we go to math centers which right now are all spider and pumpkin themed!  They LOVE it! 

We closed our math time by checking in and what we learned and what went well and what we can work on next time.  As each child took a turn we passed around black yarn and made a spider web. 

 "Look at all the learning we caught in our webs today!"

I was VERY pleased with my scores from my lesson! 



Word Wallet

So at target last year I bought 20 of these and I knew I wanted to have the children keep words inside them, but didn't really know how to go about making it work.  So after storing them for many months, I brought them out! I gave each child one in small group time and filled it with words that we have learned and also words to challenge them.  I wanted the words to be differentiated, but it is hard to do when there are 50 words our children have to know and they are all on different levels.  So in small group we played games with our sight words and letter cards to see which ones they need to work on. 

I taught the children how to know if they have learned a word or letter and also if they need more practice on it.  On the inside of the "word wallet" there is a smiley face and a sad face.  The words that they know and can name quickly without hesitation, can go into the smiley face section; they do not have to practice those as much. 
There is also a sad face section (not meant to be negative, but children seem to associate it well with words they don't know). The sad face side holds cards they are unsure about or have to take more than 3 seconds to name.  We discussed this in detail.  I assisted the children with filling their word wallets.  They did really well with filing their words into smiley or sad face.  I use the word wallets to test them on their words and it takes two seconds to note which words they know and do not know. Teaching the children how to identify their sad or smiley face words really makes my job a little easier and gives them ownership of their learning. I don't think I've had a class who cares so much!

So the kiddos think they're are soooo cool with their new word wallets!  They know they have to take them to word work or writing stations around the room.  They also keep them in their "travel bag" that hangs on the back of their chairs.  They just pull out their words to practice identifying and writing.  They have their table buddies check to see if they know the word. 
At the end of the week at small group or individual interview time, we'll pull out the words and see which ones we can move to the smiley side!

Word wallets are also awesome to use with dry erase markers!!!

Pete the Cat Week and A Tree Named Steve

So I've jumped on the Pete the Cat bandwagon... I love using stories that are predictable and fun for my students.  We of course made Pete the Cat out of construction paper and wrote, "I love my _____ shoes."  They out cute, but I didn't plan for how LONG it was going to take and my tables are so small that they would cut something out and it would be mixed into their friend's pile of ears, legs, and shoes.  (sigh) I will have to think more ahead next year. haha  After all is said and done, those Pete the Cats are the cutest things ever!

I read the Pete the Cat stories, but had never listened to the songs.  If you haven't then you SHOULD. They are AWESOME! My Four Groovy Buttons is stuck in my head right now. haha
Here is the website:
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/petethecat/

Go buy the books!

I downloaded a Pete the Cat lesson plan pack from TpT. It was awesome although I think it was meant for first grade.  The children did well with it.  I used the "Groovy" word game with my advanced group who are able to begin blending.  They caught right on.


The Groovy Cat




This is us collecting data at the end of the week.  I first modeled it and then set them FREE! They were able to go around the room and color in their friends choice of favorite Pete the Cat book.  I told them that I was setting the timer and that they had to be at their set with their pencil down when the timer went off.  They also had to collect data from their table friends first.  I was jumping for joy seeing them move around the room, right on task!

I made felt pieces for Pete I Love My White Shoes.  I changed the shoes when he stepped in the different things in the story.  I put the pieces in a bag and placed the book and the pieces in my felt board center so they can retell the story to themselves. 

The thing I love about predictable texts is that the children can read the "pictures" and remember how to retell the story.  We discussed this at the beginning of year when started the Daily 5.  I let children who are willing and most are :), to come up and read the stories to the rest of the class.  The class reads some parts with the reader "goodness, no!" I noticed that the reader pauses to let the class answer, just like I do! 

FYI Sorry the picture is blurry, I try to cover my student's faces. 

We also read the story A Tree Named Steve.  It is a sad one! I like reading these types of books sometimes because it has the children talking about feelings and it teaches them how to write a letter.  We have been doing a morning message each morning.  They recognized that the story was written as a message.

TpT Free Worksheet:
A Tree Named Steve

Makes me smile

Every Friday I take my kindergarten kids to a second grade classroom.  They love working with the older kids and they do so many fun activities with them throughout the year.  Since it is my third year teaching there are a few students in the class who I had in kindergarten my first year.  It was so hard to let my first kiddos go.  :(  Now they are so big! I always wonder about if my students will remember me when they grow up.  Looking back I only remember a few things from when I was in kindergarten. 
One little girl in the class gave me a big hug and said that she was doing great in the class but she had to read a lot of books over the summer.  She said that she read the Junie B.Jones books that I used to read.  She said that she remembered the time I stood in the chair to read and how funny it was.  She also said she missed the "Snuggle bugs" rhyme I would say to them as I tucked them in for nap time and that she wishes she was still in my class.  It made me smile that she remembered the things that I NEVER thought to be remembered for.  Standing in the chair!?  I can't even remember why I did that.  I think in one Junie book Mrs. does that.  Children are always watching and sometimes they remember and hold on to the things that we seem to forget about. 

Arrgh you ready to see my classroom?

Our theme is pirates this year!  Last year I did a unit on it and the children LOVED it.  I thought about how many traits of building character I could draw from this...besides looting and plundering.  We are a crew and we all play our roles and have our important jobs.  I like that!  We all have a goal to get the gold! In my classroom the gold is learning! 

Bless my heart, I made my own curtains.  Welcome to Miss Cox's Crew!

Welcome to room 9!  This is the password (sight word) they have to whisper before entering the classroom everytime we enter. Yes, it does take  a little more time but it enforces those words!

Make sure and sign in!   We started this from day one.  I can watch their writing enhance over the corse of the year.  I even started signing my name in a pattern of two colors and asking the children to sign like me.  Throw a few extra skills in there...


Cubbies

Cute pirate themed books!

This is my closet door! I had too much time on my hands to make this sign, not sure how that happened. :)

Everyday they have to "flip" their fish to swimming.  I am going to try a daily graph question now that they're more into the school groove. 

This is my small group reading table.  I got the reading strategy signs from an awesome kindergarten blog:  Under the Alphabet Tree



Math buckets with blocks on the bottom.  We are still able to have "play centers", but I call them discovery centers. 

Math centers! We incoroparte the rules of Daily 5 of how we work in our math stations as well! Stay in one spot, work quietly, work the whole time, etc.

This is our classroom library.  The children love it with the twinkling lights and the soft pillows... and don't forget the tent.   We our a Daily 5 classroom, so they get to read to self in the tent. 

These are special books that  are leveled.  Once they start learning to read more they will be able to pick their color book in the correct basket.  They range from ABC books to easy readers.  I got the basket from TJ Max because it had one broken wheel.  I secured it to the side of another bookshelf.

My calendar is very BUSY, but I like to have everything we need ready at all times.  I tend to lose things so I like to keep it where I'll  need it.  :)  I have drawers labled, calendar math that I use at math time, literacy & phonics materials, and attention getters.  I have that filled with a flashlight, microphone, and Mr. Bean (a beanbag with a face on it). 

How we go home, pirate themed! I got this off of pinterest where I spent most of my time this summer, I sound like I'm talking about an exactual place.  Pinterest world! lol 

There are more pics to come... 

If you give a monster a muffin and a glass of spilt milk.

Visit my TpT site for this free download of my activities!

If Give a Monster a Muffin and Spilt Milk


What an excited week it has been!  I was very excited to plan for letter M week! Last year I focused mostly on the story, If You Give A Moose A Muffin.  There are so many fun wonderful letter M books out there!  The picks of this year were:

Amazon

Amazon

If You Give...Amazon

Monday and Tuesday were our Big Green Monster days! The children loved it!  I found an app on the itunes store that reads the store and has a jazzy little song that the children LOVED!  It was so cute to see them snap to the music and sing it all week long!

I made felt pieces of each part of the monster so I could put him together while we read the story.  I used a large stiff piece of black felt for the background, cut out two yellow circles for eyes, blue nose, mouth and teeth, etc. 

I put up the two yellow eyes and then turned off the lights!  I used a flashlight to show the two big yellow eyes.  We started a discussion what the children would do if they saw this in the dark.  Then we read the story on the ipad app with the lights out.  Then we reenacted the story by putting his face together as he appeared.  (Keep in mind that the face shows up later in the story, so you'll have to make a face with all the parts glued on. This will keep you from having  to move all of the facial features when you get to part where his face comes in.  I learned the hard way.)

Felt pieces:  (You may need more, if you want to put one face together for the one part of the story.)

2 circle yellow eyes

1 blueish green nose

1 red mouth

4 white triangle shaped teeth

1 large green circle (face)

 2 green ears

6 purple wavy hairs (I used the glitter felt)

Yes, the children commented on the fact that the hair was not squiggly enough and I had one too many teeth! :)

The first math activity that we did, was that we analyzed all of the monster's facial features and recorded how many of each.  Then the children had to "add" all of the things on his face together to draw a picture of him.  I will have this up for download if you want to see what I did. 

This one is scary! (wooOOO)

The one in the middle REALLY made me smile!

 We also made glyphs.  I've seen other teachers today this and I thought it was an awesome idea to get the children thinking and counting. 

They had to graph the different shapes they used to make their monster.  I did the monster I made first and modeled how to fill in the graph.  They did theirs independently.  I was so EXCITED!

At the end of the week, we graphed our favorite M story. 

Here is the symmetry activity we did.  The children had to trace the sentence, "It looked like spilt milk, but it was". 

This is the pocket chart chant we did this week.  Five Little Monsters.  I got this from Deanna Jump's Back to School Literacy and Math Fun.  I added the clipart monsters. 

Here is a copy of my worksheets that I made! It is free!

Letter M Books Monsters, Muffins, and Milk

Gummy Bear Math

Gummy Bear Sort and Graph


This is a little sorting and graphing activity I like to do when we learn the letter B or talk about bears! I love to do activities that they children can eat when they're finished! It seems to hold their attention on the lesson too! :) In the download there are directions on how to use the worksheets. Everyone has their own way, this is just a way that works best for me! Enjoy!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Fun

There isn't kindergarten without Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We read the story over and over throughout the week. By the end of the week all the children could "read" the story with me.

Activities:

Watched the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video
My kiddos really got down!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Song- Schooltube

Coconuts Math!
I bought a coconut from the local grocery store. First, we sat in a circle and passed around the coconut. We used our five senses to describe the coconut. The kiddos got a good laugh when I brought up tasting it! They told me to wait until we opened it! haha We shook the coconut and could hear the milk inside.
We also used coconuts to describe light and heavy. I let them hold and apple and coconut. Which is heavier? Which is lighter? Why?
We made a bubble map to describe coconuts.
We used a banana, beach ball, and a coconut to see which objects sink or float. Check out my free worksheet on TPT.
The Great Coconut Investigation

The final math activity was to open up the coconut and then tastes foods made with coconut.


I got some newspaper, hammer, a bowl (for drainage). With one smack, the coconut opened up and this is what I heard "OOOhhh!" They were so excited!

We tasted shredded coconut, coconut milk, Mounds bar, etc.
We were split 50/50 on who liked and who did not. We graphed it by using colored post-it notes on large bulletin board paper.