Christmas Coutdown

I had my kids create a Christmas Countdown. We used a Santa coloring sheet for the top and then made a long beard to write numbers on. Every day they cut a number off of his beard. We are working on recognizing and writing teen numbers. This gave them a little extra practice in a fun way.

Coaching a Reading Partner

I love this time of year, all my students are finally reading! Everything that we have been working on really starts to click and their progress begins to soar. Since they have grown to have some independence it is the perfect time to start my mini lessons on coaching a buddy. Every day for 20 minutes I have my students practice reading with a partner that they are assigned to. The sooner I can teach my students that they can be a teacher to the person they are reading with the faster they climb in reading levels. I explain it to the kids that I am only one person and even though I would love to read with each and every one of them every day there is just not enough time.  However, they are very lucky because they have a friend that sits right next to them when they read and they can be the teacher and help coach them!  We talk a lot about how two brains are better than one.  I made a song to help them remember what a good coach does.

We made stop signs to hold up when something our partner reads doesn't make sense or sound right.  On the back of the stop sign is four things for a good coach to remember.  These are sung about in the link above.  I have my kids make motions to go with the song.  I have also posted posters of the four tips for coaches in my classroom.  In addition, I have created a coaches club.  After I catch a student being a good coach to a buddy on five separate occasions they get to sign the board.  These small changes have really helped a lot to get my students to pay attention while their partner is reading.  I think kids learn the most when they are actually involved and part of the teaching process.  They have really been having a lot of fun being the teacher!

  

All of the materials can be found by clicking on the link below.  I would love to hear your ideas on how you get your kids to coach each other!

        

Thankful Turkeys

 Here is a cute and easy turkey for kids to make.  If you click on the picture a template for the feathers and body are provided.  I let the kids make the feet and beak themselves using orange construction paper.  I think those little touches help make each one unique and cute.  I read the book Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks before making the turkeys.  Then we come up with something we are thankful for to write on each feather.  I have the students write in pencil and then after I have checked over their work they can trace in black marker.  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

                                        

Beginning Blends

My students are all doing really well spelling cvc words and we are moving on to practicing blends.  We will still be working on stretching out words and recording the sounds.  I have a morning activity that we will do each morning to practice this skill using blends now instead of cvc words.  Blends are not listed as a kindergarten common core skill however, the books that students are reading in kindergarten contain words with blends.  Since my kids know all of their letters and sounds now, this is the next logical step as far as phonics instruction.  I think of blends as a shortcut for sounding out a word.  We also start to work on digraphs during this time.  I have created a video that has all of the blends we work on.  Students make up a motion to go with each blend.  This has proven to be helpful for some students who are kinestic learners to remember the sound. 

I have created a blends folder that we will work on each morning.  Blends are reviewed during this time and the movement and sound is practiced.  Students also write words that contain a blend in the beginning of the word.  All of this is done with students having their own folder with visuals to point to each blend and a space to write the word.  I have included the link to the activity, this packet also includes posters to hang as visuals in the classroom and several games partners can do to practice blend sounds.  

                                     
                                                                                          

                                     

Turkey Time

We read the book Run, Turkey, Run and then came up with ideas of how a turkey could disquise himself so the farmer would not beable to find him.  This would work with any Thanksgiving book about a turkey not wanting to be eaten.  Click on the link below for a free copy of this activity.

                               

 

                                         

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Run-Turkey-Run-966266

Partner Reading

Update: I have created a resources and visual display for kids to help them remember what a good reading coach does.  These things go right along with the video found below!  Click on the picture for the resources.  Happy Coaching!

Children learn so much from each other and gain new understandings by talking to partners. Each day in my classroom I have students read with an assigned partner that is on the same level as them. Students work on the three ways to read a book during this time. I start my partner reading time with a mini lesson and then tell them the type of reading they will be practicing for that day. As the year goes on and students progress into reading the words of books I phase out the read to pictures type. There are four ways to read with a partner. In the beginning of the year I tell groups which way to practice and as the year goes on students are able to pick.

1. I read a page, you read a page (students take turns back and forth reading the pages)
2. Echo reading (one student reads a page and the other student repeats)
3. Choral reading (both students read the words at the same time)
4. I read a book, you read a book (one student reads an entire book, and the partner reads a whole book)

Here is a link to posters I have in my classroom for students to remember the types of Buddy Reading

I have them practice sitting criss-cross and both holding on to the book.  This way both partners can see the book and whoever is not reading can follow along and help coach their buddy.

                                                               Coaching Video

Five Little Pumpkins

   

Our poem this week was The Five Little Pumpkins.  On Friday we made our own Five Little Pumpkins project to take home.  Students had to look at the first letters of each speech bubble and try to read the words to get the speech bubbles in the right order.  I precut brown strips and orange circles to save on time.  We glued the title and pumpkins on the front and the rest of the poem on the back.  Click here for a free copy :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4NZXEPqaqxkYVc1VDVaQnhHTms/edit?usp=sharing

  

                                                                                                                    

                                      

Sorting Mats

I have  my students use the words their way sorts to work on phonics skills in the classroom.  They are partnered up with a student on their phonics skill level to assist them with this work.  They do the same sort twice a week.  On Mondays they are expected to sort out all of the cards and put them in the right category.  If they finish early they can pick up a card and verbally ask their partner what letter the picture starts with or how to spell the word depending on what type of sort they are working on.  If you do not have the words their way program it is very easy to type up a list of words and have students work on categorizing them.  I like to take the sorts and laminate them ahead of time.  This cuts down on all the time it takes for students to cut them out.  Then I place them in a small envelope and rotate the sort through my groups based on their ability.  On Wednesday pairs re-sort their cards and put them under the correct category again, moving faster this time.  After their sort is complete they use a sorting sheet to record their answers.  Partners take turns quizzing each other over how to spell words and this time they write it on their recording sheet.  I like to put the sheets in a page protector and have students use a dry erase marker to play the game.  This allows students much need writing practice along with reading the words.  

CVC Phonics Activities

The majority of my class knows all of their letters and sounds now. We are moving on to CVC activities. This will allow students that need to still learn a few sounds that opportunity, but will teach students how to blend sounds together in order to read and write three letter words. We start each morning using our CVC folders. This 5-7 minute activity packs in a lot of great skill work. We work on reading words, blending sounds, learning onsets and rhymes, identifying nouns and verbs, and writing words. After we complete our "warm up" we move on to a 15-20 minute for each day of the week.



\You can purchase the cvc folder activity and cvc posters that make great references for students by                                                                clicking on the following links.                                   
                      folder                                                                                     posters




                                                                Monday Letter Swap
Each student has their whiteboard out and we start by writing a three letter word. Students write the word large enough to take up the entire whiteboard. Then I pick a new word that is very similar to the one we previously had the board. Only one letter needs to be changed out to make the new word. For example if the word was hot. I might say the new word is pot. Erase one letter on your board to change hot to pot. I call on one student to come up and point to the new letter on the classroom alphabet. The kids sing "letter swap, swap a letter to make a word" while the student finds and points to the new letter we need to make the word. Then I pick a new word changing only one letter again. Pot becomes pat, pat to pad, pad to sad and so on.






                                                                          Tuesday Basketball Plinko

We ordered this from oriental trading. We taped letters on the basketballs and chunks at the bottom. One student comes up and drops a basketball down the board. They read the onset and rhyme and we decide if it is a real word or a nonsense word. Students are given a recording sheet and write the word on the correct side. A new student is called on and the game is repeated. A different letter is written on the front and the back of the basketballs to give opportunities to create different words each Tuesday when this game is played.

Wednesday Slide Show
All of the chunks are put into a slide show and projected one slide at a time. Each week a new letter is picked to put in front of each chunk. I click through the slides having a student read the word. We decide if it is a real or nonsense word. If the word is real we write it on our recording sheet and draw a picture to represent it. If it is a nonsense word we go on to the next slide.  Click on the cvc words game picture to purchase this game for $1.00.

    



                                                Thursday Spin the Wheel

We ordered this prize wheel from oriental trading and tape word family chunks to it. One student comes up and spins the wheel. We write down the chunk that it lands on at the top of our whiteboard. Then we come up with a list of words that you can make from that word family. We erase our boards and have a new student spin and repeat with the new chunk it lands on.

                                                               Friday Letter Vests

Each student is given a vest to wear. To start the game three students are called to the front to make a word. I have each student wearing a letter say their sound loudly and then as a class we repeat the sounds and blend the word. Every child sits at their desk and has a whiteboard, they all write the word down. One child is asked to sit down and a new one comes up in their place. For example if 3 students are standing up front wearing b-u-g. To make the new word I would sing: (Tune: Alice the Camel)
Letter Uu can sit down, Letter Aa can come up, letter Aa can come up,
So we can make a word boom, boom, boom
Students erase the u and change it to an a on their whiteboards. Then the 3 students standing up front say their sound and the class blends the new word.

Class Goals

This year my classroom has a carnival theme. I decided to make my goals board match my theme. I set a reading, writing, and math goal for students to achieve every couple of months. This helps me pace out the year and provides me a good visual of how close the class is to mastering each goal.

I made a sight word tracking board as well. I brake my sight word lists up into different colored books. When a student masters a list they move on to the next colored book. They get to color in one juggling ball each time they move to a new list of words. They color the ball the matching color of the book they are on. See my previous post for more details about what the books look like.

I changed my sight words bulletin board to popcorn words. My students have been noticing popcorn words popping up everywhere. When they find a sight word on a worksheet they butter the popcorn word by highlighting it with a yellow crayon.

Letter Sound Activities K.RFS.1d, K.RFS.2c, K.RFS.2d, K.RFS.3a,

For 20 minutes each morning we work on letter sounds whole group since at least 80% of my class has not mastered all letters and sounds. I use 5 different activities, one for each day of the week.

Bingo
Everyone has their own bingo card. I call out words and they use a chip to cover the letter that begins with that word. I put a bingo sheet under the document camera and shine it on the whiteboard. I circle the letter after I call on a student to say what the word begins with. This is a good visual for the kids struggling with recognizing letters.
* After a few weeks I use this same game to work on ending sounds, saying a word and having students put a chip on the letter that correspondences to the last sound in the word.

Objects in a bag
I love the lakeshore alphabet teaching tubs, but this would work with any small items. I place 20 objects that have 3 or 4 sounds that can be heard in the word into a denim bag. We sit in a circle, every student has their whiteboard and marker. Then one child picks something out of the bag. We all say the name of the object and I chop up the word several times slowly. For example if a goat is drawn. I would say /g/ /o/ /t/. Write the sounds you hear in /g/ /o/ /t/. After a minute or so I write it on my whiteboard saying each individual sound. If these aren't the sounds they thought they can erase and write them. Then we put our finger under each sound and say them slowly then quick to blend the sounds. We usually do 8-10 objects in one setting. I write down who got a turn and who needs a turn to pick an item next week.

ABC template
I put this document up on the whiteboard as a visual and each student has their own copy in a page protector sleeve.
I tell them to put their finger on the row with one of the pictures and then say a word that starts with one of the letters in that row. I call a student to identify the beginning sound. For example put your finger on the smiley face. What does pencil start with? Students trace over the p with their dry erase marker.
* I change this to ending sounds after a few weeks. For example what is the last sound in map or what do you hear at the end of the word map.
I let students be the teacher and tell us what icon to put our finger on and make the sound for the letter we should trace. I call the student by their last name and everyone gets a chance to be the teacher. This keeps everyone engaged!

Sorting cards
I use the lakeshore alphabet sounds photo library cards for this activity. However, any picture cards would work. I choose three different letters aNd hand out a picture card that starts with one of those letters to each student. Then they come to the carpet and sit on their card until it is their turn. We sit in a circle and each child has a turn to say the name if the object pictured and sort it into the right category.
* After a few weeks I move on to ending sounds sorts.

Jeopardy games
I have all of my students come to the carpet with their whiteboards to use as a lap board. I pass out a recording sheet to each student (this can be printed of, it's the last slide on the game.). I divide the class into two teams. We play boys vs girls. I call on a boy to pick a category and point value. Everyone writes their answer on their recording sheet. I check the student who's turn it is and award that team the points. Then I call on a girl to pick a question and repeat the process. We usually do half of the game in one sitting and I collect their sheets to hand back out the next week. Click on the link for beginning sounds jeopardy and CVC jeopardy.

Writing Office

I have my students take out their offices during writing time. This has all the resources a writer needs right in front of them while they write. I tape 2 file folders together and glue on the resources. Then I run it through the laminator to make it more durable. On the left side I have all the sight words we learn for the year in alphabetical order. In the middle I put an alphabet chart, blends chart, and color words. On the right hand side I put all the word families or chunks we will work on throughout the year. I also include vowel patterns at the bottom of the office. On the back of the office I put all the things a good writer does. In the beginning of the year the office is mainly used as a way to keep kids focused on looking at their own paper, staying quiet, and thinking about their writing. I refer to the alphabet chart as kids begin to learn letters and sounds. Once the school year gets going and other skills are introduced students start to use all the resources they have right in front of them.

Retelling K.RL1, K.RL.2, K.RL.3

UPDATE: I have added a quick song or chant to visually help kids remember how to use their hand to retell a story.

I have over half of my class reading on a level A now, as soon as the kids can one to one match and use pictures for clues I like to start them on books.  A big part of reading is for a student to be able to comprehend what they have read.  These simple A books do not have much of a story line so students need to look at what is going in the pictures along with the simple text that is read.  We made retelling hands to help us remember how to retell a story.  I have my students use these with their reading buddy to retell a story after they have read a book one of the three ways (read the words, read the pictures, retell a familiar story.)  Having students make their own retelling hand helps them to buy into the task of retelling.  I laminate their hands and have them get it out of their book boxes to use as a visual.  It helps them to remember to stop and talk about the story with their partner when they have finished each book.

I have them trace their hand and then cut it out.  I give them a green dot sticker for their thumb and a red dot sticker for their pinkie finger.  Then they write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on their three middle fingers.  The green dot means go, they start by telling what the story was mainly about (character/setting).  The one, two, and three are used to tell three things that happened in the book (major events or key details) and the red dot means stop, what happened at the very end of the book.  I have found this very easy for kindergartners to use and use my hand as a visual when we retell a story whole group.  I figure they each have a hand so no matter where they go they can use it to help them retell.

I also make a poster for the classroom that hangs on my reading process board in my room for students to refer to as a constant visual.

 

 

Teaching Plus One K.CC.4c

My kids are finally able to identify and know quantities of numbers 0-10. We are moving on to plus one. This is K.CC.4- understand that each successive number name refers to a quantity that is one larger. I plan to group my kids together with one a little higher than the other for the following activities.

Students have number cards 0-9. They flip over a card and build the number that is one more on a tens frame with counters.

Students roll a dice and color in the number that is one more.  Click on the link for a free resource to use with this 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Roll-a-Dice-to-Show-One-More-KCC4-886643 

Students flip a card 0-8 and put that many counters into a cup. Then they roll a wooden cube that I have written 0, +1, +2 on. Then they guess the total number in the cup and next to it. Students dump the cup and count out the counters in and out of the cup to check their answer. They write the

numbers on the sheet.

Learning Numbers 0-10

My students are learning to recognize the value of  and write numbers 0-10.  I developed a sheet for them to practice each number in a variety of ways.  I noticed that some children can identify numbers but they aren't able to produce the amounts, while others might be able to count quantities but do not know number names.  I taught a lesson whole group on how to use this sheet after we spent some time on number sense, forming numbers, and a basic understanding of a tens frame.  This sheet has helped me to determine what concepts different students are struggling with.  It also allows me to meet many common core standards at one time. 

You can find this sheet for $1.00 by clicking on the link below.  These are the common core standards addressed K.CC.A.3   K.CC.B.4a   K.CC.B.4    K.CC.B.4b      K.CC.B.5 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-the-Ways-to-Show-a-Number-0-10-862989

   

                                              

Getting kids to know how to ask ?s

We are working on writing narratives or stories about real things that have happened to us in our own lives. My students pair share a story each day after I share with them a story from my life. The only rules are that the whole story has to be about something that has only happened to you ONE time and you have to be in ONE place the whole time you are sharing the story. We are working on trying to share who, what, where, when, and why during our story.

Check out the video that goes with this....

I laminate this sheet and pass them out to students to use with a dry erase marker.  While their partner reads the story they have written the other student checks off the questions they heard the writer answer.  Then they ask their writing partner any of the questions that weren't addressed in their small moment story.  This helps students know what they need to add to their story.  It also helps kids to really listen while their partner reads the story he or she wrote.

Click here for posters to use in the classroom and student checklist.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Asking-Questions-864799