Five for Friday (100th Day of School!)

1

Today is our hundredth day of school and Pajama day!

This year we made a Zero the Hero puppet on our 100th day of school.  I am selling these for $1.00 on TPT or TN.
The headband template and the badges they are wearing are free here.

2

I have recently returned from the California Common Core Conference.  The keynote speaker was Donna Whyte (left). I was lucky enough to get to attend one of her sessions involving common core games. I had a very informative session with author Pat Pavelka (below). I learned so much from all my presenters!

3

We have been working in the classroom with winter activities. I made more imitation snow for students to touch and describe on a bubble map.

We also made a mouse project to accompany the Mice on Ice book.

4

This video was very good for introducing snow and I wanted to share it with you.  I did replay and explain the key parts of the video to increase student understanding.

Link to the video.

5
Are you planning President's Day activities?

                                                           

Grab this freebie from TPT to review addition with Lincoln and his hats.

Comparing Numbers in Kinder (K.CC.C 6 & 7)

Free for you. Link is below.

We have been working on comparing numbers for some time now.  We began simply by counting two different sets and verbally talking about which one was more and which one was less.

We used the following sentence starters to make choral responses:

"_____is greater than____."

"_____is less than______."

"______is equal to______."

We did this many times before I introduced the greater than, less than, and equal sign. I introduced them to these using the idea of the monster eating the greater number, but I know that a few prefer to teach this using the dots. I have never encountered a problem using the "monster" or "alligator" method.

This link takes you to TpT where you can get this work mat free by Floating through First.

We have spent a lot of time using the symbols with the concrete objects and pictures.  

The freebie book is to help transition from comparing pictures and items to comparing numbers. Click the image to download.

This is the matching SlideShare book.  I have already used this in my class to introduce comparing numbers. All I did was project it from my IPad to the whiteboard, we have read, reread and I had students write the corresponding numbers on the whiteboard underneath the pictures. They also wrote the symbols on the whiteboard for the last page where there are only numbers.

Alligator, Alligator, What Do You See? By KinderBlossoms from stinablossom

I also have song videos I created on YouTube if interested. 

Yes, I am crazy like that!!

Equal Sign Song

Greater, Less than Song

Finally, I have this for sale on TN or TpT for $1.40 if interested.

TpT

TN

Our Christmas Activities (5 for Fri.)

This year I made a chart that allowed us as a class to analyze each main character in selected books and determine whether they would be placed on Santa's naughty or nice list. This was a really fun way to teach about character and students had to learn to justify their decisions with evidence from the text. My class did so well! I am really excited about what they came up with!

I thought we had finished when it was decided that the gingerbread man was going on the naughty list!  Why? All that taunting he did as he was running away!!

A close-up picture for a bit more detail.

Note:  This the "Ready Freddy" book was not actually the one we read.  I could not get a picture of the actual story.  

Also, Pete is on the chart in two places because of his two different stories: The Wheels on the Bus is the story on the left. Why is he on the naughty list?  I was told by a student that he stood on top of the bus and that was not being safe .

************************************************************************
 Gingerbread Fun!

We started our week off with these fun activities. Here is a copy of the gingerbread pattern for the graph. Just click the image.

************************************************************************

Sorry, still on the headband kick!! Hey, just get on board and grab yours here!!!

****************************************************

Each year a teacher friend of mine and I get together with our Scholastic Book orders.  We accumulate points and order a book for each student in our classes for the holiday.  This year my pick was Mice on Ice.  It is a very cute rhyming book and it was perfect for a younger group of students.  I am very excited to give each child this book!

***************************************************************************

Enjoy this video with your gingerbread activities!

 

Christmas Crafts for my Kindergarteners

Last year I made a Santa and it had way too many pieces to cut out and put together.  This year I made my own simpler Santa.  I have mentioned before that I have younger students and things just have to be easier!!  The list he is holding just includes sight words because I knew my class would be successful writing those. 

My "Santa Craft" is free on my TpT store.

Santa Craft

I simplified this reindeer headband also! I have nearly 30 students, so I have to make things faster, as well as, easier!

Most versions of this involve breaking your back, cutting out each student's individual hands between each finger. This is, of course, after you complete the tedious task of tracing the child's hands on the paper. By using dark brown paint and creating a hand print on light brown construction paper, I was able to cut around the hand quickly and still have the detail of the fingers.  The nose was done using a craft punch and red paper.  Craft punches are huge time savers! The eyes I cut out by hand.  The strip of paper for the headband had to be pretty thick-about 5 inches to fit all the pieces on it.

Maybe you would like to do this with your class...

Reindeer Eyes

I recommend a craft punch for the nose, but if you just can't get one...

Reindeer Nose

Have fun crafting with your kids!!

Christmas Emergent Reader Freebie

This reader was inspired by the students in my class. A few weeks ago, we were in the library browsing books, when a few children started to quarrel over a flip flap book! Everyone wanted it! It was then I set my mind to creating flip flap book for my class!  

I also have discovered how nice it is to have emergent readers on slideshare, since it eliminates my need to write up the text on sentence strips for the pocket chart.  All I do is pull up this presentation and project it from the IPad.  You are welcome to use this as well.

Presents From Santa: An Emergent Reader by KinderBlossoms from stinablossom

Get your copy here:

Presents From Santa Emergent Reader

**********************************************************************

We made our Mayflower Ships again this year.  I changed the pilgrims inside.  These ships were filled with snack donations from parents and placed in a clear gallon baggie.  Each student was given one to take home after our class performance and refreshment period.

Last year I only had the picture posted.  This year I will give you more assistance.  It is a little late to do now, but save it for next year! 

The idea and templates are from the dollar tree website.

Link to Dollar Tree Mayflower

But I added these to my projects....

Mayflower Tags

Pilgrims 

(Print on card stock, color, bend, and tape in.)

*********************************************************

Our performance pictures...

These were taken the day before the performance during the dress rehearsal.  Students looked much better in the plain, white, gray, black, or brown shirts they wore as recommended. 

Our performance was simple.  We recited some Thanksgiving poems and sang songs. 

Concepts of Print (Sorting Words, Letters, Sentences) Freebies

If you are coming from the YouTube link, here are your matching printable pages as promised! 

If you are here to visit this blog, feel free to download anything you might find useful.  I embedded the video toward the bottom of the post so you can see what I am referring to if you wish. 

Sorting Posters

Here is the booklet referred to at the end of the video.  The pieces match the print in the video.  The video was intended as a tutoring tool, so the idea was to provide extra support for struggling students. You could have students search for letters, words, or sentences in magazines and place them in the booklet if you feel they are ready.

 Letters, Words, Sentences Booklet

*************************************

 I wrote the book print on sentence strips and copied the numbers so they could be changed for each problem. I also printed up turkeys for visual help. Students came up and put each piece in the correct area. 
When you download the preview file for these math readers you get a free pumpkins place value book!
Click here!

===========================

Remember that headband obsession!! Well now my colleague has it too and insisted I make a turkey version! So I'll post it here if you want it too!

Turkey Numbers

Pete's Thankful Class Book

I hope you are ready for a third helping of Pete!  This is a really simple activity that aligns with Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving and those predictable charts I was talking about a few posts ago.  

(I got my new Pete book from a Scholastic book order and I saw today that it is still available.  The price is better through Scholastic books than at the book store.)

I read the story to my class today.  I had one little boy who was very excited because it is a flap book. He made a point of telling me how much he loves books with flaps! 

The last line of the story Pete asks, "What are you thankful for?" This transitioned flawlessly into this pocket chart activity. Each student gave me an ending response which I wrote on the paper and I added the student's name in Pete's bubble instead of on the bottom of a sentence strip. 

I was very proud of my students. They really understood the concept of being thankful.  I had some terrific responses. Students told me that they were thankful for love, the world, homes, pets- not toys!!

Here is a copy for you to use if you are interested in doing this with your class.

 Pete's Predictable Chart

 I am prepared this time, so we will have a class book made for the  final activity!  

This is a sample page for the inside of the book. There is also a page that does not have the sentence starter, if you have students that are more independent.

 Here is a copy if you would like to use this.

 Pete's Thankful Class Book

*********************************************************************

Here is a link that outlines the steps of this lesson format if you are not familar with it:

Language Experience Approach Steps

We just finished up these activities.  

Our hands-on experience was touching the inside and outside of a pumpkin and our vocabulary was generated on this bubble map.  The dictation portion was done using the map as a guide. We  rehearsed the starter sentence. 

"Pumpkins are__________." We used our generated vocabulary on the bubble map to fill in the blank. That is what was written and read. 

********************************************* 

            

I really like this song for this time of year.
******************************************

I can sum up Halloween with one word!

"Grease" is the word!

Hope you had fun too!