Umbrella Parade

 

 

Each year at the end of our weather unit, every child brings their umbrella and we walk around the entire school and across the street for our annual Umbrella Parade.  It is the cutest thing.  Because we live in  a small town, the firetruck was actually coming by that day and stopped traffic for several minutes so all 106 of us could cross the street.  The kids LOVE it!! The last picture "we K teachers" took a small break to take a picture just for us.  Not only are these my wonderful colleagues, they are my second family and my friends.  What a blessing straight from God to have such wonderful people to surround me everyday!! Is it just me, or when you were in kindergarten did your teachers wear colorful jackets, skinny jeans, and boots.  And did they ever smile???? My how times have changed!!

Concept Boards

LOVE LOVE LOVE my concept board.  It really helps me to focus on the main things I  should be teaching for the week.  We K teachers are a little ADD at times and I have been known to kind of fly all over the place with teaching skills.  We list the stories and place the "skill" that we will be working on under the book title.  The student's work that is displayed encompasses that skill and sometimes other skills as well.  They range from high frequency/dolch words to phonics and comprehension skills. Often times, we kind of back track and re-teach/review  skills from the week  before as well. 

I will post an updated version when it is complete.  I begin a new board each unit that we complete.

Book Buddies

Okay.  This is one of those things that is ALWAYS a question when I do do workshops on the importance of small group and how to incorporate re-reading.  HOW DO I GET MY KIDS TO RE-READ? Here is an idea that proves quite effective!!

This is a Reading Buddy.  The children color it and name it the first part of the year.  Their job is to re-read books from their  small group buckets.  They are color coded.  If a child is a Green Zebra, then they will choose texts from the green bucket.  If they are in the Yellow Cheetah group, they will choose books from the yellow bucket.  These books are texts they have read with me at the small group table.  They have also been taken home (usually on Thursdays) to read to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, dogs, cats,and fish.  :)  When they are finished with reading stations/centers, they are to go read to their Reading Buddy. 

Our Favorite Fairy Tale Book Characters

This graphic organizer is the BOMB!!  I use it in math, reading, writing, vowel review,.. you get the point.  Main idea is in the center, and other details around it.

This week we have been learning about popular books characters.... with a twist.  This is one of my FAVORITE things to teach!!  This was a character attribute chart, both whole group and individual, that the children completed about our favorite girl... Goldilocks.  We also completed a before and after reading chart using our prior knowledge about things we already knew about the BIG Bad Wolf!!  Then we read Big Bad Wolf by Claire Masurel.  Then we made  new list of character attributes based on our new thinking. 

One of most favorite things is to see kids acting out their favorite stories.  What a great way to ensure accurate re-telling of a story!!  I think these cardboard figures may be as old as I am.. thus Wee Small Baby Bear is having to hold his head on. 

Another favorite thing of mine.... princesses and princes.  As a mom of 3 boys, I have very few opportunties to read "fluffy" books with tutus and crowns and other girly twirly things.  BUT I LOVE ME SOME PRINCESSES!! This is a great book by Robery Munsch The Paper Bag Princess.  So we had a before and after reading portion on the re-telling chart and then we sequenced the story.  Each child made a princess or prince, which I thought was pretty doggone cute stuff!! 

 Who doesn't LOVE Super Heros??  What a great way to "twist" the classic villian/hero story than for the kids to think about things that they are Super at doing.  One little boy said "Mrs. McBride, how do I choose?  I am super at lots of things!"  I had legs and shoes, but he/she would have hung WAY off the paper, so we settled for the shirt and cape. 

I think I mentioned this earlier in a previous post but I do color coded blanks so that when we are doing cooperative writing as a whole group activity, it allows the children to know exactly what they need to write on each blank.  "Go to the first red blank and write the word "am", etc. . Just for the record,,,,,, I do not tell them how to spell anything.  However, if the word is posted somewhere in the room, I do expect it to be spelled correctly.  I allow one child to go find the word and they may copy it. 

Pucker UP!

The kids were working on a Valentine project with the cutest lip stickers.  I found these stickers at Wal Mart last week.  The children placed the stickers on the part of the their body that their mom likes to kiss.  If you look closely at the page, you will see blanks that are different colors.  It makes cooperative writing a little easier when it is color coded.   

Rainbow Art

My Students Love Making Rainbow Art and Learning About ROYGBIV.

Rainbows are Made from Sun and Water.  The Colors of a Rainbow are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.  We made the poster using an interactive writing.  The "Crazy" Hair children were ideas from my neighbor teacher... Mrs. Craft.   

What We Wish it Would Rain.

During our Weather Unit, we read the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. After we read the book, the children were asked what they wished that it would rain.  

 

 Some of the answers were Skittles, Chicken, French Fries, Cheese Balls, Bubble Gum, Mac & Cheese, Bread, Carrots, Jello, and Gummies.  

I wouldn't mind if it rained cake myself.  I don't think my windshield wipers could handle it though. Doesn't every woman in America wish that it would rain chocolate??  It has gotten me through a many a day!!

Would You Like some Snowman Salad?

                             I found this idea on Kinder By Kim's website.  www.kinderbykim.com

 

1. Get a Bowl.
2. Put in Ingredients.
3. Stir
4. Eat

 

 Ingredients:

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Onion

Snow Balls

Coal Mouth

Hat

Stick Arms

Soft Scarf

We Designed our own Ice Skates.

 The blades of the ice skates are actually popsicle sticks. We were talking about Winter Activities. This is a difficult unit to teach in LA. (lower Alabama).  We have not gotten snow in 3 years and it rarely gets under 30 degrees for more than three or four nights in a row. We have to use LOTS of non fiction text with explicit pictures.  Snow and frozen lakes and ponds certainly look like lots of fun!!

My Ice Skates are Blue.

Bear Facts

These are a just a few things that we learned about Bears and hibernation.  Who knew that a Ladybug hibernates too.  Thus proving the fact that teachers learn new things everyday! .  

 

 Attributes of a Bear

Student Bear Facts

My neighbor teacher Mrs. Craft had her students come up with three bear facts that they learned.  She got this idea from Teachers Pay Teachers.  .

How to Build a Snowman

 

Things I Need to Build a Snowman

 

First- Get Two Show Balls

 

Then- Put on a Hat

 

Next- Add a Nose, Eyes, and Mouth 

  

Last- Add Stick Arms and Buttons 

Just 4 Easy Steps