Letter Formation

I have gotten some comments asking what I do when I introduce a new letter and wanted to share my response. Other than reading a ton of books and singing frog street press songs (love those!), one of the big things we do is learn how to correctly form each letter. I show them EXACTLY how to write that letter. They each have an ABC handwriting Book with the letters in the order that we learn them (see sample page below).

I show them on my promethean board (or you can use the overhead) how to form the capital letter, then they practice writing the capital letter next to number 1. While they are writing I am going around checking to see if they are forming the letters correctly and if they are touching the right lines. I make sure to have a yellow marker with me so that I can write it for the struggling students and they trace what I wrote with my marker. Then next to number 2 we practice writing the lowercase letter together. On number 3 we usually do a pattern (capital, lowercase, capital, lowercase). For numbers 4 and 5 they come up with a word that begins with that letter and we write it together. In the box is the mystery picture. This is our FAVORITE part. I tell them exactly what to draw, one thing at a time. Ex: Draw an oval in the middle (I draw it and they draw it in their books), draw a triangle above the oval, etc. until the picture forms. The picture begins with the letter we are studying. Then at the bottom on the longer lines we come up with a sentence together (short!) that is about the picture (Ex: I see an apple.)
It is extremely important that the students are quiet during this time so I have "table team points." If I see them writing, working hard, etc. I give their table a tally mark. At the end, the table with the most points gets to go to the treasure chest (or you can give theirs a sticker on their page). I make sure to rotate it so every team gets a chance to get the most points :)

Here is the abc book, if you wanted it!

Letter Books

Part of our ELA time is spent working on letter books. When we learn about a specific letter, each student comes up with a word that begins with that letter and makes a page that says "___ is for ___."  In the beginning this is a shared writing time where they write part of the sentence and I'll write the rest. For example, they write the first letter and I write "is for ____." Then the next week they will write the first letter and the word "is" and I'll write "for ___." until they get to the point where they are writing everything on their own. They illustrate the page and highlight the focus letter with a yellow crayon. When everyone is done, we compile a class book. The fun part is that the students get to take the books home (and bring it back the next day) so they can show off their work/other students' work to their parents and siblings. It's a great chance for the students to practice pointing to and reading the sentences with their parents. The finished product is below.

You can get the explanation page to parents here and the letter book covers here.
The letter book cover font is a Kevin and Amanda font - Pea Hollee, and the border is from DJ Inkers.

Daily 5 - Word Work

I think Word Work is my favorite Daily 5 choice to introduce. The kiddos LOVE choosing it and there's a lot of variety in what they can do (just check out the picture below!). 

I have a hard time getting the students to call this station "word work" instead of "playdoh" :)

The big oil drip pan is GREAT for having the students sort magnetic letters. I got the idea off of pinterest and it was super easy to make.  I put magnet tape on the back of the letter headers but if I could do it over I would use tape instead so the students can't get them out of order. 

Here are some pictures of them in action:

Letters from Lakeshore Learning

letter sorting by diff. fonts

Playdoh names! They can make their own name or a friend's. 

Playdoh names and playdoh cookie cutter letters

File folder game

file folder game

Environmental Print match-up (you can also play this as a memory game)

building words/names

When I first introduced this station, I had every table group (I have 3 table groups) assigned to a different word work choice. Ex: I had group 1 work with magnetic letters, Group 2 work with playdoh names/cookie cutters, Group 3 work with the file folder games, environment print and letter font sort. After every group had a chance to work with each of the tools, I let them choose whatever they wanted.
As the year goes on I switch a lot of games out and put in new games/puzzles.

The letter headers for the oil drip is an already-made dj inkers set.

Environmental Print cards are free printables from Hubbards Cupboard.

Good luck with your Daily 5!

Daily 5 - Work on Writing

More Daily 5 info! I tried to do more pictures, since I know that's what I personally like looking at :)

I have been introducing each one of the Daily 5 choices slowly,  starting at 1 minute of stamina, then moving to 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and then 10 minutes. It usually takes us a few days to build up to that and I don't introduce a new Daily 5 choice until they have reached 10 minutes. Currently I have introduced Read to Self, Work on Writing and Word Work. This week, since we have learned all three, I will let them choose from all 3 for a few days and I will introduce Listen to Reading later this week.

Here are the different writing tools the students can choose from during Work on Writing:

These tools are right next to the typing paper/dictionaries. I separated these tools from the dry-erase ones so students wouldn't accidentally use markers on dry-erase boards and dry-erase markers on typing paper. 

Goodies:
Write the Room pages are from the fabulous J. Meacham. You can find it under "Write the Room, By Letter, Long Form)

Letter Tracing Pages are from Learning Page. You have to be a member to download the pages BUT it's free to become a member!

Writing tools labels (pdf version) were created using Microsoft Word.  If you want the actual word document you can get that here.

They did such an amazing job with this one! We talked about only writing WORDS/letters on dry-erase boards and typing paper. That was really hard for them to remember but they got it by time we got to 10 minutes of stamina! I am so proud of all of them! Here are some pics of them working.

I was going to group this post with Word Work as well but it's WAY past my bedtime. More to come! :)

Healthy Eating!

I love USDA's new visual for a healthy diet! My kids seemed to grasp this better than the food pyramid. Below is a picture, and it actually makes sense to the students because they can visually see the portioned amount on a plate.

If you go to choosemyplate.gov they have a lot of great printables and resources. The following activities were made using the materials they provided.

After reading a book about healthy eating and the different food groups (basic info), we sorted pictures together so the students can see what kinds of foods go in each section of the plate. I made a flipchart (for the promethean board). 

You can get it here.

Then the students each made their own version of the food plate. I didn't want it to be too time-consuming so I only had one picture for each section that they had to glue on their paper. To differentiate the learning, I had the students who were able to come up with their own food draw on their plates instead of cut/glue the pictures I provided. Below are two examples (sorry for the poor picture quality, only had my phone):

If you want this, you can get the plate here and the pictures to go with it here. 

Again, I got the pictures from USDA's website and the black & white pictures also come in color (they use it for a go-fish game) and you can find that on their website here.

I plan on attaching 10 tips on how to make healthy food more fun to this activity sheet (also from USDA website) to give parents some ideas!

Hope you are able to use this with your students! Happy healthy eating :)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I love the book, love the video even more and that song is SO catchy! If you have never seen it you need to check it out:

Anyway, we made chicka chicka boom boom trees by tearing with our fingers and they had to glue letters of their name on the tree. I got the letters from oriental trading ($8 for over 1000 pieces!) and love how they turned out. The trees are on half sheets of construction paper so the letters don't seem too small on the tree.

 

letters from Oriental Trading

Thank you, little giraffes, for the awesome idea! :)

Marzano Thinking Skills

Wow I forgot how exhausting the beginning of the year can be!  Just wanted to share a goal of mine for this upcoming school year - to be better at questioning! I made examples of different types of questions I can ask during whole group carpet time (during read alouds, etc.) and guided reading groups. They are based off of Marzano's 7 thinking skills: knowledge, organizing, applying, analyzing, generating, integrating, and evaluating. I plan on putting these on a ring and keeping them by my small group and carpet areas. Hope you can find them useful!

You can get yours here!

Lucky Ducks

I saw this idea from Growing Kinders and fell in love with it! She has sticks in a can that she draws names from and calls it her "lucky duck" can. I made my own version of it:

The paper I used is from a scrapbooking paper pad from Hobby Lobby. I bought it a few days ago for 50% off (so it was around $8 for the whole thing) and the best part about it is that the paper is made a little bit longer to have a bumpy border edge! I love bumpy borders and you can cut it off to use for something else and the paper would be back to regular scrapbooking size.

I don't remember where this next idea came from but one teacher painted her sticks 2 different colors so that after you call on someone, you turn their stick around and it's a different color so you know who you've called on. I've been using it for a few years now and works really well.

Multicultural Daily 5

I have had a lot requests for multicultural posters and choice cards so here they are. Thanks for the feedback! Click on the picture to go directly to the Google doc.

Full page posters

6 to a page choice cards

Computer Choice Time Cards

UPDATE: Click on the first computer cards to download! Thanks, Tracy, for the cute computer kids!

Emilys, I have not forgotten about y'all! I'm still in the process of trying to get permission for these cute kids on computer clipart so in the meantime, here is a preview of what it looks like.

Not sure if you were interested in them all looking the same so I made this one as well.

Hopefully I'll hear back soon!

Reading Log

In Kindergarten we ask all parents to read with their child for 20 minutes, 5 nights a week. We used to have parents list out the date, what books they read, and how long they read for. To make it easier for the parents and for me this year, I decided to create a Calendar-style reading log, where parents have to fill out what they read/how long on an actual calendar so they can visually see which days they read/did not read with their child and if they met the goal of 5 nights a week. I think it will also be a great visual for the kiddos to see as well. Spacing was a little tight so there wasn't room to make it cute!

This explanation will go in front of the whole packet. I have also included a blank reading log instruction sheet incase you have different reading goals.

This is what each month looks like. This reading log calendar goes to the end of May.

You can get the .pdf version here
and the Word version here.

Ongoing Assessment Tool

We're starting something new this year as a tool to monitor the students throughout the year. Each student will have a file folder where they can decorate the outside to make it personalized and inside will look like the picture above. The right side is based off of what The Sisters have in their "pensieve", but modified so that it is a little simpler. On the left are things that we will continue to monitor the students' progress in (letter/sounds, number recognition, counting, etc.). The hundreds chart is for when listening to the students count - circle how far they counted to. I like it because it lets the students visually see how far they counted to. 

I'm excited about this file folder idea because it lets anyone coming in to work with that student know at a glance how he/she is doing. There is a section called "all about me" where you can write what you have learned about that child - likes, enjoys, etc. so that another teacher working with that child will automatically be able to make a connection. I really wanted to make something that will not be seen as "just another thing to fill out" but something that you can actually use in small groups (math, reading, writing) and have all that data in one place. I plan on punching 3 holes in them and keeping it all in a binder. Anyhow, you can click on the pictures below to download the pdf and if you want the .doc file to modify that will be available below the picture. Hope you can use this somehow!

Version 1

Version 2

Student File Version 1 - Word Document

Student File Version 2 - Word Document

Goals - Word Document

The fonts are from Kevin and Amanda - Pea Hollee and Smiley Monster. I also used a basic print one that was on my school computer - abcprint. 

Blurts!

Came across a new blog by Mrs. Orr - Cardigans & Curriculum. She had a GREAT idea on managing unwanted blurts!

She made a Blurts poster with velcro dots and every time a student blurts out, they put a blurt next to their name on the poster. She makes a note of the students who have went all day/week without a blurt for an extra prize. I especially like it because it makes the students aware of their blurts (number of blurts) and it worked so well that Mrs. Orr said she didn't have to use it after the first 6-8 weeks. Click on the pictures below for more information from her blog!

Now is a really good time to buy from Really Good Stuff.

I finally bought these book baskets from Really Good Stuff, thanks to a 10% discount. Enter in the code "save3" when you checkout to receive the 10% off. I have no idea when this coupon code will expire but I just checked on their website and it's still good! Have fun back-to-school shopping!

Beginning of Year Pre-Writing Practice

Before brilliant minds came up with Pinterest I used to save all the pictures of great ideas I found. I have been scouring the internet for where this idea came from but couldn't find anything (this was from a few years ago...) so if this is yours, please leave a comment so I can give the credit to you!

These pictures are the ones I had saved (not my own!) and I put this activity in my Work on Writing Station in the beginning of the year:

I made a set of pre-writing strips based on these pictures. I hope that this is ok for me to do. After what happened with Fran, I'm really paranoid that I'm breaking blogging etiquette so let me know if this is frowned upon...(still new to this whole blogging thing!). Anyhow wanted to pass this great idea along so click on the picture to download.

Update: Thank you Barbara for finding the source of this great idea! Shelley Lovett from Childcareland came up with this and you can find it by clicking on the link and scrolling to the bottom.