No chairs, no tables update!

So for those of you who are wonderingn how my year without tables and chairs is going---it's great! 

I have considered taking away one of the tables I have because we don't even use it that much. However, I think I kind of need to keep it because I have just enough space for my kids to sit in a chair to eat breakfast in the mornings. If I get rid of it then four kids will be on the floor at the carpet... 

Anywho, here is a quick picture of my kids hard at work :) 

American flags!

On 9-11 we read aloud "the man who walked between two towers" aloud. It is a story about a Frenchman name Phillipe who was a street performer and walked a right rope between the twin towers. Wit my kindergarteners we talk about patriotism and the American flag then we make flags.  They did a really good job with these!

Veterans Day is coming up in a few weeks and this is something really simple and works on fine motor skills. 

Halloween Goodies in Math Centers.

October has come and almost gone! This month we practiced making numbers up to ten, shapes and started sorting! 

Family dollar and dollar tree always have little plastic goodies like rings and suh for Halloween and last year, right after Halloween I stocked up. I use these pieces in my math centers as manipulatives. They easily turn a routine math activity into a Halloween themed one! Bam! 

Here are a few pictures of my kiddos sorting. I asked them to first sort by color, very basic and they do this one easily. Next, I asked them to pick one color group and sort the items in that group. 

For some of the kids, we used the whole pile and sorted in other ways (size or shape). 

I even use these for patterns! My kids make AB and ABB patterns too. 

I found some awesome Halloween erasers and my kids use those to count out objects in ten frames. 

(I don't have pictures of these two right now but I will post a few later). 

Study Jams! Science and Math

This post is geared more toward the upper elementary teachers (3-6 ish)...

Scholastic has an awesome website called Study Jams.  It has science and math based learning activities for upper elementary.

When you go to the main screen you will see a bunch of billboards with topics on them. When you click on it a list will show up of skills that are related to the main topic. All you have to do is click on the topic and skill. I have used it in the past to introduce a skill.

Each section/lesson has a video and real life problem to help the kids understand the topic. There is a list of vocabulary words that will also be listed at the bottom of each lesson to review. I do not use it in my kindergarten class but I used it a lot with my third graders. They absolutely loved it!

Visit the website by clicking on the picture below: 

2D Shape book!

http://www.fontspace.com/category/dashed
I may be a little behind on the whole "download your own fonts" gig but.... Go to this website and download PRNT DASHED FONT. It only takes about 2 minutes and you can have the option of creating and printing dashed text straight from a word document!

I was so excited when I discovered this so of course, I had to put it to use!
This week we are going to learn about 2D shapes. My kids will identify them, describe how many sides and corners they have and give examples of them. 

In my shape book I have a page for circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. On each page they will write the word, trace the shape, color pictures of real life objects in that shape, trace the numbers of the sides and corners of the shapes and write a sentences about the shape. 

If you would like a copy of the shape book click HERE.

**When you open this file in google docs the words are NOT dashed, however, once you download it in Microsoft word they will be! 

Here is a sample of something I typed for a shape book I made.

I see a circle. 

SUPER SIMPLE Themed ABC Practice

Alphabetic Principal. That is the term used to describe kids understanding of letter shapes, the names of letters and the sounds each letter makes. I used the die cut machine at our school to make fun shaped flashcards with the letters of the alphabet on them. They were super simple to make and a lot cuter than plain index cards. I can pick whichever shape I want and make them correlate with a holiday that month or a unit we are working on.

This month is October and we celebrate halloween at the end of the month so I cut out ghosts and wrote all of the lower case letters on them. I only did the lower case letters on the ghosts as these are the form they will see these letters most of the time (lowercase). I am going to make pumpkins with CAPITAL letters on them and my kids who know most of the letters will match the upper and lower case... Match the capital A on the pumpkin to the lower case a on the ghost.

It is super simple and easy to make. The kids catch on quickly and if they finish something early they can do it independently by putting the letters in order or they can do it with a partner. Kids that already know all of the letters in the alphabet will use the SAME CARDS to practice letter sounds. These cards really are versatile and so easy to make and use.

Here is a picture of the ghost letters I made earlier today.

Number of the day practice

We are entering week 5 of school and just finished up numbers up to 9. I created number mats for my kids to practice writing, tracing, building, and making their numbers. I used this same template and printed it out nine times. I will dot out the number in the upper left corner for my kids to trace then put the sheets in a sleeve and then a notebook. This will go into a math center for my kids to practice writing and making these numbers.



Click here for your FREE copy. Just dot out the number you want for them to trace.

sight words sentences

Sight words are something my kindergarteners have to know in order to begin reading emergent reader text and become fluent readers. Sight words make up about 50% of the words we read. Developing fluency is anothe important skill and the best way to do that is to practice reading. My kids practice reading the same emergent reader text for an entire week.

When I was browsing Pinterest (go figure) for sight word ideas I saw a post with phrases and sentences for kids to practice and get timed on each week. I decided I would take my sight words each week and make up sight word sentences to send home with my kids to practice. On Thursdays and/or Friday's I will have them read the sentences aloud to me.

We introduce two new sight words each week and the sentences get progressively more difficult. Here is a copy of the sight word sentences I have used or will be using in my class. These cover about 4-5 weeks of practice. Here is a a list of the sight words covered in this set. It is the same progression used in Reading Street (we dont use the basal but follow the sequence of sight words so we can use the leveled books).

I
am
the
little
a
to
have
is
we
my

I downloaded this awesome poster on TpT for FREE as a quick reference and highlight the words as we do them. You could also send it home with your kids to practice.

Click here to get  a copy of the sentences I made for my kiddos!

My kids want to read to the class

After breakfast these two girls sat in my rocker together and picked up one our class' favorite books- "llama llama mad at mama" and "The Tattle Tongue." They told all the boys to finish up cause they were going to read a story. The boys quickly finished their breakfast and sat at the carpet. The girls told them to be respectful and sit cross cross with their hands still while they read. The girls proceeded to "read" the book aloud to the class. Mind you they could not yet read all the words but the definitely retold the story very well! I just sat back for a minute while I wrote field trip receipts and said to myself "they really enjoy reading... This is why I teach. " 

Autumn/acorn Manipulatives

Ok Friday, we were out on the playground and a few of my girls collected acorns. As I was swinging I got an idea! We should collect acorns and use them to "count how many" in our math centers. So, my kids loved the idea and I sent one to fetch a bucket for our collection. 

We used them in our math centers as manipulatives and today I used them to fill in sight words. I got one of these from a co worker and then made the rest (blue) on my own. If you made these or know who did, let me know.  

This is week two of sight words. So far we have done I, am, a, and little. We've been reading sentences like "I am a little dog" and "Am I little?"  The kids of have been doing pretty good so far.  After they made the word they wrote them down. They got to practice their words and fine motor skills...winning! 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Well, week one is in the books!

We read Chicka Chicka boom boom and Chicka Chicka 123. Here are some of the fun things we did this week... Many of these came from Greg as medley at thekindergartensmorgasboard.com and Elizabeth Hall at kickinitinkindergarten.com. Both are fabulous kinder teachers with great Ideas! 

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and practiced making our names and writing them on white boards. 

We spelled our names out and counting the letters in them. 

This activity doubled for the story Chrysanthemum. We talked about bullying and being respectful. After we practiced making our names and counting the letters we posted them on a big flower on my door. The center reads "How many letters are in your name?"

I put all of the letters of the alphabet in an orange bucket with sand. (Coconut--> beach--> sand) each kid pulled out a letter and we identified that letter and they found it on a large mat with the whole alphabet on it. 

We made coconut trees with our rainbow names in them. 

My wonderful husband brought in two coconuts and we used our five senses to describe them. He even brought a chisel and hammer for them to help crack it open! 

We used our sense of taste and ate a bit of coconut then made a graph to tell whether or not we liked it. If you do these, make sure you don't have anybody allergic to coconut. 

On Thursday we made Chicka Chicka boom boom hats! They were so cute! We wrote our names with rainbow letters and attached long fluffy green leaves to the sentence strips to hang off. I got the leaf cut out from Teachers Pay Teachers. Get your FREE copy of it here. 

I introduced write the room with shapes (vertical lines, horizontal lane, circle, diagonal line, etc) then I found a coconut tree with all of the letters on coconuts. I only did a few at a time but they walked about the room and as they found the letters they colored that coconut on their sheet.

You can get a copy of it by searching on Pinterest... I downloaded a long time ago. Here is a copy for you!!! Click here to download it.