Three Bears Acting Out

My students love to act out the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  It is so funny to hear them change their voice for each character.  From time to time I like to give them little props they can take home to retell stories to their families.  I run all of the materials for this on different colors of construction paper and quickly cut them out.  They glue the pieces in order and move the bears and Goldilocks around to tell the story.  They keep Goldilocks and the bears in a library pocket I stick to the back.

If you would like to purchase it for $1.00 click on the link below

                                                                                                          

                                                                                                         

                                           

Behavior Plan

I have tried a new positive behavior plan for my classroom this year and it has made a world of difference. I have found that focusing more on the positive things that kids do right is much more beneficial than correcting the negative things. Every child likes attention and this system has made it easy for me to complement good behavior. I have a circus theme in my classroom so I went with a balloon for each child. I fill their balloon with a bingo dabber stamp each time I noticed them doing something good. This might be as simple as the first child who comes to the carpet and sits correctly or someone who uses good manners. Every child has a number in class and the balloons are displayed in the classroom. When a child balloon is full of stamps they are awarded a prize. They can pick from one of eight things including being the line leader for the day, using the super supply bucket for their work, being the class DJ, or picking out of the treasure box to name a few. When their balloon is full it is taken off the bulletin board and they take home a certificate celebrating their accomplishment. Then I replace their balloon with a new one and they start over again.  The materials for the bulletin board, award certificate, and prize cards can be found here.

                                       

Reading Comprehension

I added on to my circus/carnival theme this year and created a train for my reading comprehension strategies.  I feel like I always start off the year covering and introducing the first few great and as the year goes on I get busy with other things and I fall short.  I took these straight form the Kindergarten Common Core Literature Standards.  I hung the train in front of my meeting area and have been referring to a lot already.  This narrowed things down for me and seems more Kindergarten appropriate.  Above the train it says Good Readers Always Stay on Track, you can purchase the posters and make your own train by clicking here.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Comprehension-Train-for-Kindergarten-CCSS-1391630

RL.K.1 , RL.K.2, RL.K.3, RL.K.4,

                                                                                                             
                                         

Good Night Owl Acting Out

After we read Good Night Owl a few times I assigned the kids to be one of the animals and make the noise in the story.  I gave them a printout of the animal they were and they colored it in the correct color.  I had them tape the animal to a popsicle stick and wrote the sound on the stick.  We invited the other k classes over and acted out the story.  I hung a big tree made out of paper from my whiteboard and had the student that was the owl sitting on the carpet already.  Then as each animal is mentioned in the book a student walked over to the carpet, help up their animal on a stick and made the sound two times.  Then they sat quietly on the carpet under the tree.  In the end of the story we turned off the lights, when the words in the book say darkness fell.  All of the animlas made their sound one last time at the very end when it mentions that they all wake up.  They really enjoyed putting it on for the other classes and it was easy prep!

 

                               

March Display

For our March display I assigned each student a vowel pattern and they came up with 6 words that contain that vowel pattern.  We watched this vowel patterns video during calendar this month so it was easy for my kids to come up with their words.  You could also do this with different word families and write a different word family on each cloud.  This could even be used to show math facts that equal the number written on the cloud.  I would love to hear about the creative way you displayed student work.

                                                 

3 D Shapes CC.K.G.1

To introduce my students to 3-D shapes I like to use the you tube song These are the 3 D Shapes That I Know.  This gives examples of shapes in their environment and begins to teach them the vocabulary words for these shapes.  Then we work as a class to complete the sheet.  I play a video for the specific shape we are on and we look at the pictures of things shaped like that.  Then I call on three different students to pick an object we should draw on our own paper.  This activity usuall takes two 25 minute sessions to complete.  If you click on the document you will get a print out of the two sheets I use, one for each day.  This is the video for the cube, once you play it you will see the links for all the other shapes. 

During the week we also sort pictures of 2 and 3-D shapes, make shapes out of clay and popsicle sticks, and play a guessing bag game of 2 and 3-D shapes.  I would love to hear how you teach shapes in your classroom.

                                                        

          

Caps For Sale Acting Out

There have been several stories this year that we have enjoyed acting out as a class after reading a few times. In the story Caps For Sale we had one student take on the role of the peddler and the rest of the kids were the monkeys. I used a large plastic container that had pretzel rods in it at one time for the peddler's hat and a paper plate for the face. The rest of the students cut out the monkey face and we taped a big Popsicle stick to the back. They were assigned a color cap and glued it to their monkey mask. Each child also had a cut out hat piece that they threw down. This was very easy to create and students really enjoyed it!

       Click on the picture of the monkeys to find the printable template for the monkey mask.  I would love to hear about the stories your kids enjoy acting out!

Duck Pond Phonics Game

I have a carnival theme in my classroom this year.  I purchased plastic ducks from Oriental Trading and taped a vowel pattern to the bottom of each duck.  You could use this game to practice word families too.  One student comes up front to select a duck and the class says the following rhyme...
__________ went out one day, picked up a duck and what did it say?
(child's name)
I just placed all of my ducks on a blue lid to a container.  The student holding the duck reads the chunk on the bottom of the duck and we write the word in the pond.  Each student has a copy of the sheet, I put the sheet inside a plastic sleeve.  We use our dry erase markers and erase after each vowel pattern.  I tell them the words we will practice spelling for the vowel pattern  that is chosen.  Here is a n example of the spelling pattern ay.
                           

Here is a copy of the sheet I use.  I would love to hear any other ideas on how to use this game to practice different skills.

                                 

                                                                                                                       

CVCC Words

We have moved on to learning harder word family chunks.  My class is now working on cvcc words.  We are learning the chunks ack, ick, ock, uck, all, ell, ill, ish, ash, ast, ust, est, unk, ump, and, ush, ook and a few others.  I have made a packet of the daily instruction I use to teach these chunks and a few games that they play each week to practice reading and writing the chunk.  I try to incorporate words that begin with blends so we can continue to review previous skills.  I have a few kids that are still having trouble with rhyming words so I also tie in that skill.  I teach the kids that we want our brains to know that when these letters get together they make a sound and the sooner we learn these tricks the better readers we will become.
                 The games and activities in this packet meetthe following common core standards

K.RFS.2.c. (blend and segment onsets and rimes)

K.RFS2.d (isolate and pronounce initial, medial, and final sound of cvc words)K.RFS.3.a. (produce primary sound for each consonant)
K.L.2.c (write a letter for most consonant and short vowel sounds)
K.L.1.a. (print many upper and lowercase letters)K.L.1.f. (produce complete sentences)K.L.4.a. (discuss multiple meanings of words)

These activities would also work well in a first grade classroomand meet common core standards 1.RFS2b, 1.RFS2c, 1.RFS2d, 1.L.1a, 1.L.2d

In the packet I have included posters that I hang up in the classroom.  I notice students looking up at the posters during reading and writing time quite often.  I believe the more they visually see it the faster they will retain it.  This is a picture of some of the posters included in the packet.

 This is one of the games included, there are three different ways to play.  Each way gives students practice reading and spelling words.

 This is my cvcc folder.  I use this format all throughout the school year and change out the phonics skill each time.  It is a quick easy way to practice skills and has been highly effective with my students.  I start with the alphabet folder and progress to cvc words, blends, cvcc words, and long vowel patterns.  This packet includes the directions and pages needed to create the cvcc folder.