F is for Farm

For the last two weeks our unit in reading has been about the FARM. We have read several books about farms, our favorite has been Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm. We read and acted out this story many times! Here is a peak at some of the activities that we did over the last two weeks!

We talked about APOSTROPHE S and what it does! We made our own farms adding an 's to our name. Then we cut out pictures of animals we would have on our farm.




We reviewed short i and read short i CVC words. We sorted words by short i and glued them on this worksheet. I got it here.




We sequenced the order of animals getting a scrub and colored by number.

I added a farm, farm books, and a farm puzzle to dramatic play.

Read Barnyard Banter and retold the story in Flannel Board Center.

Put together high frequency words and matched Mrs. Wishy Washy to the correct tub.

Built words from Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm using letter tiles.

F is for Feather

Last week I was browsing in our school library for -new to me- library books about Native Americans and I found The Turkey Girl by Penny Pollock. This is a Native American "Cinderella" Folktale about a girl who tends to turkeys for a living. She has a dream to go to the Dance of the Sacred Bird, but cannot since she has nothing to wear. One day, one of the turkeys in her flock talks to her, offering to help. The turkeys magically dress and clean her to get her ready for the dance. She must keep one promise- to remember to come back to the turkeys before the sun goes down. Turkey Girl promises to come back and goes to the dance. The music and dancing excites her and she soon forgets about the promise. As the sun is setting she remembers and runs back to the flock. Her clothes return to rags and she is left with no job as the turkeys are gone. This has quiet a startling ending for my kindys. They are used to being read stories where the main characters learn a lesson but usually get a second chance and there is a happy ending. We talked about the importance of keeping a promise. We also compared The Turkey Girl to Cinderella. They were both orphans, poor, worked for wealthy people, talked to animals, had a boring job, were dirty, wore rags, wanted to go to a dance, magic helped them, they forgot their promise. One very different detail was Turkey Girl was not looking for a prince! I think they enjoyed the story. I will be sure to include this title to my lesson plans for next year. Since we have been learning Ff, I tied in F is for Feathers with this story.

A Funny From Today

Time can be a hard concept for my kindys. To explain just when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans had the first Thanksgiving I used Grandparents as an example. I started to say, Pilgrims sailed to America before your grandparents were born. One sprout quickly answered WOW! Before the Dinosaurs?! So... in case you were wondering.. Pilgrims came to America sometime between Dinosaurs walking the Earth and your Grandparents being born. One thing is for sure... there were no Wal-Marts, cars, or Wii games.

S is for Science Project

I LOVE the experiments... I DON'T love the science board. This has kept me very busy this week. The good news is I am DONE!

Roll a Word

I use this activity during literacy centers. Go HERE to get it! There are a ton of great resources that go with the Harcourt Reading Curriculum.

D is for Discovery Box

One of the centers in my rotation is the discovery box. It usually contains something related to the Core Knowledge theme or holiday. It is always "hands on" and open ended. At the beginning of the year it was full of foam letters and packing peanuts. In October I changed it to magnets. For November it is full of fall leaves, fake gourds, stencils for leaf rubbings, white paper, and fall colored crayons.

G is for Grass

Last week we studied Gg. Amelia and I had just been to the library and she picked out the book, In the Tall, Tall Grass. I thought it would be a great fit to our study. I read the book and we identified all of the rhyming words. We also discussed each critter in the tall grass. I wanted to use this idea to illustrate G for our ABC book. I had the kids draw and color the critters we read about on their G. Then, I gave each of them a strip of green construction paper and demonstrated how to make grass. We figured out where to place the grass and where to place the glue so we could pull the grass back to see their critters.

B is for Bell Work

What do you do with the 4-10 minutes between the bell and the pledge? I have tried many different things over the years. I have put out worksheets, books, nothing... This year I am trying something new. When my kids come in they unpack and put their backpacks away and sit at their desk. One of the class jobs is bell work. That student puts out 3 tubs (one for each table) with 6 folders, dry erase markers, and erasers. In the duo tang folders are 10 page protectors with old worksheets (so 20 pages front and back). Every folder is different, so students have 18 different options throughout the year. I started saving the extra worksheets last year and I ripped apart old reading and math curriculum workbooks as well, so I didn't make extra copies for this project. This kids like using the dry erase markers (although they are drying out from missing tops... I might switch to wipe off crayons to save money- anyone tried those?) and they like having something new to work on each morning. I'd say they only spend 5 or 6 minutes with the bell work so the novelty hasn't worn off... yet. I like that I don't have to worry about making worksheets and I don't have to keep up with unfinished work for those who arrive late or unpack slowly. This method has saved me time in the morning and has made our morning routine go more smoothly than in years past.

C is for Conference

This week I have been very busy having parent teacher conferences. I also had my first conference as a parent! It was nice to sit on the other side of the table. My baby is growing up! Too busy today to take photos... here is a brief summary of what we did this week.

-- Read Little Bo Peep and illustrated the poem in our Poetry Journals. I enjoyed showing this clip from Sesame Street. I don't think that my kindys watch Sesame Street but they are fascinated with the clips I show. I loved this one because it has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12... Pinball!! (I may be the only one who has this tune stuck in my head.. I clearly watched A LOT of Sesame Street growing up).
We also made a list of all of the possible places Little Bo Peep's sheep could have gone.

-- We Read Millie and the Mud Hole and acted out the story. There is a good lesson here.. to listen to others when they are trying to help you! Acting it out was FUN!

-- We read The Little Red Hen and watched this old classic on YouTube. We will review this again next week by comparing different versions of the story.

-- We started our study of the Wampanoag Indians and I read People of the Breaking Day.

-- We read Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm... but I'll save that post for next week!

A is for Acorn

I am very lucky to teach at an older elementary school with beautiful Oak trees. I am sure many of my parents have found acorns in their dryer- they are a popular collection among my students. During Core Knowledge I introduced the saying, "Great Oaks From Little Acorns Grow". It fits so nicely into our fall/plants unit. I was happily surprised that many of my students understood this saying right away. I read Dot and Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery. This book explains how an acorn can travel and get planted. I also read The Tiny Seed. This book illustrates this saying by showing the tiniest seed growing into the biggest flower. It also shows seed migration. The students got to go outside and pick out an acorn from the courtyard and illustrate our new saying.

I is for Ice Cream

After studying the letter Ii we read, Ice Cream: The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons. Normally, I like to emphasize the short vowel sound only, but every time I asked for a word that started with an I, someone would give me "ice cream"! You can't fight city hall!~ This was a good opportunity to introduce the long vowel sounds. If you read about Ice Cream.... you are going to want to eat some! So, we all enjoyed a cup of vanilla.. ironically this was in the middle of a cold front and it was a chilly day for south Florida.

Legend Of The Indian Paintbrush

During our study of Sioux Indians we read Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tommie De Paola. It is about a boy named Little Gopher who can't run and wrestle like the other boys. His gift is drawing and keeping the stories of his tribe. One day he has a dream-vision about painting a beautiful sunset. He struggles to find the colors he needs to paint it, until one day he finds paintbrushes in the dirt. These paintbrushes are the perfect colors and he paints the sunset from his dream-vision. He leaves the paintbrushes in the dirt and the next day he finds that the hills of Texas are abloom in amazing color. This is a great story to discuss talent and trying even when it is hard. To end the day we painted sunsets. I wanted my students to be able to paint on something that resembled buckskin. I came up with the idea of tortillas. The kids looked at me a like I was nuts, but they were good sports and enthusiastic about painting. I put out dabs of red, white, pink, orange, and yellow paint for each student to find the right combination to paint their sunset. I really think they look beautiful!

S is for Six Sticks

When Amelia was an infant my mom subscribed her to the Dr. Seuss book of the month club. When 6 Sticks came in the mail I knew it would be perfect for kindergarten. Since we are reviewing numbers 6-10 this week, I raided Amelia's book shelf and snuck it out of the house (she is not happy when I take her things to school!). We read 6 Sticks and watched as the mice came up with many different configurations to use 6 Sticks. The kids were very excited to get their own craft sticks and make a picture. It proved to be quite tricky to incorporate 6 craft sticks into what they wanted to make. I was fascinated to watch their individual planning process. Some drew a picture right away and fit the sticks into their design. Some played with the sticks first, glued the sticks down, and then drew the picture around the sticks. I gave each student the sentence 6 sticks make _______________. and I helped them fill in the missing words.

Create a picture slideshow

T is for Tipi

We have been studying the Sioux Indians this week. We read If You Lived With the Sioux Indians. This book is basically everything your young child could ever learn about the Sioux! We learned that the women were in charge of all of the cooking and making the tipi. The men hunted and the boys learned to hunt around the age of 5. All children learned to ride horses around the age of 1. They were nomads and hunted Buffalo using bows and spears. They used every part of the Buffalo and considered the animal sacred. We learned that European settlers took the Sioux land and forced them to move to reservations. We used markers to color tipis- they turned out GREAT!

W is for Word Building

The reading curriculum I have used the last six years provided card stock letter cards in plastic pouches and 2 cardboard boards glued together to slide the cards onto for word building. Needless to say.. they survived about a year. Another phonics curriculum I use supplied nice laminated letter tiles but I struggled with doling them out, collecting them, and keeping them organized. It also took so much time for the children to find the letters they needed to build a word. The tiles would fall on the floor, get mixed up, or lost. I dreaded word building. While surfing the Internet I came across this idea.. I can't remember where I saw it.. I'd love to give credit so if you know, let me know! I am using Manila folders and post it notes. The vowels are kept on one side of the folder and the consonants the other. I wrote the letters on the folder so it is easy for the kids to put the letters back in the right place. The post its have lasted 2 school years! This is so easy to make and cheap! I used different colored post its for the consonants to keep the kids organized. I made a class set but I frequently ask children to buddy up to word build. Today we made CVC words using the vowel i. I also typed the word on the screen for the groups to check their work.

N is for Native Americans

November is the month for Native Americans! As part of the Core Knowledge curriculum I teach about the Sioux (Plains) Indians and the Wampanoag (Thanksgiving) Indians. I love to read and share the Native American legends with my class. They have a good lesson and usually introduce a lot of new vocabulary words. Today we read The Story of The Jumping Mouse. It is a tale about a mouse that is on a long journey and along the way he gives part of himself to those in need. The magic frog who sets him off on his journey reminds him to keep hope within him. By the end of his journey Jumping Mouse cannot see or smell but he has not lost hope. He gets to the far off land and meets with the magic frog again. The frog tells the mouse to jump as high as he can, to jump higher then he thinks he able.. and the mouse begins to soar and turns into an eagle. This is a heavy story and some kids don't get the message- but there is magic and the ending catches everyone by surprise. We talked about this story before dismissal again, and I think my kids "got it".. ask your kindy to tell you the story of The Jumping Mouse. We also made these ADORABLE mice! I got the idea here. I love how they turned out.

F is for Field Trip!

Today was our very first field trip. We went to The Environmental Learning Center. I was very worried as I drove to work because the sky was gray and it was sprinkling. Thankfully, as soon as we headed East the sky turned blue and the sun came out. We had a wonderful morning learning about black and red mangroves, the Indian River Lagoon, and identifying trees and plants like the Virginia Creeper, Pine, Palm, and Gumbo Limbo trees. We learned more about plants, read a story, and made a flower. We also saw some crabs and fish in the river. The kids were all wonderful and enjoyed their trip! Riding the school bus was a big hit as well! I encourage you to visit as a family.. it is free for everyone until January (then adults have to pay).

M is for Manners

It sounds like all of my kids had a great weekend and collected LOTS of candy. As to be expected on the day after Halloween, they were tired and cranky all morning- wired and crazy all afternoon. We started a new month, new theme in reading, new unit in core knowledge, new chapter in math, and new class jobs. As to be expected I was exhausted by 2:00! I needed something for Character Development so I grabbed this book. What a laugh we all had reading about all of the examples of bad manners. It is definitely a great book to start a discussion. It was also nice to read something that wasn't about pumpkins! Can I just say I am very sick of orange construction paper! :)

R is for Read-A-Thon!

Today we had a Read-A-Thon to raise money to help cover the bus costs for our spring trip to Lion Country Safari. Our class was the TOP WINNER for kindergarten! We raised $142.00! WAY TO GO!! Here are some of the activities and books we read today. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

We read Ghosts on the House! by Kazuno Kohara. This is a new book for me- I picked it up at the library because I LOVE the illustrations. It is black illustrations on orange paper with white translucent tissue paper ghosts. After I read the story we made our favorite scene from the book.

We also Read Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. It is a spin off of the book The Big Turnip. We enjoyed watching all of the Halloween characters work together to pull the big pumpkin off the vine and eat pumpkin pie!

We made Jack-O-Lantern window decorations using clear contact paper, pumpkin cut outs, black construction paper, and yellow tissue paper. This craft had a lot of directions and steps! I think everyone was happy with the results.



After lunch we read Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree. We talked about doubling numbers while we counted the pumpkins. Then we made 10 Little Pumpkin fingerprints with a poem. I just love how these turned out!




To end the day we read Goodnight Goon A Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex. This book gave us an opportunity to learn new words: petrify and parody and we compared Goodnight Moon to our spooky parody. We decorated wooden Halloween ornaments that were donated to our class while we ate snack and watched The Ghost Family Costume Party on nickjr.com.

F is for Friend

Jessica by Kevin Henkes is part of our reading curriculum. This story is close to my heart because I had two imaginary friends (Nina and Joey) until I started kindergarten. My daughter Amelia has followed in my footsteps and has an imaginary mother (Christina), father (unnamed), and brother (Inja). They do not appear all of the time but they always seem to be around. Ruthie has a friend named Jessica that only she can see. When she starts kindergarten she gets a great surprise and finds a best friend named (you guessed it!) Jessica! Today for shared writing we used our imagination and made our imaginary friend. We shared our friend and told the class about them. I typed a sentence and displayed it on the screen. We read back all 18 sentences and then I printed them out and cut the words apart. The class had to glue their sentence back in order. One of my favorites is "My imaginary friend is named Hiccup."

M is for Mom

Today I was just Mom. It was Amelia's Fall Festival at her preschool so I took the day off to help out and just be Mom. It was a wonderful day. I am anxious to hear how my kindys did with their first substitute!

R is for Road

We studied Rr a few weeks ago but we didn't have time to make a paper craft to go in our ABC Book. I had a hard time coming up with an idea and story for Rr. I like to be careful about what I choose because there are so many great books for children and so little time to read them! I decided on Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. When I introduced the story I shared with the class that this book was written by the same author as The Little House. My most observant students pointed out right away that the illustrations of both books were similar. The children enjoyed the story and cheered Mary Ann on as she dug the cellar in just one day! This is a good story to talk about encouraging others to do their best and living up to your word. We made R- roads and illustrated the page to look like the city and country pages of the book. We glued a little Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann on our Road.

C is for Computer Lab

WE DID IT! All 18 of my sprouts logged into their computer in less then 10 minutes. Now, they can't all log in themselves.. Ctrl, Alt, Delete .. is tricky.. BUT with a little help everyone logged in and enjoyed playing Jump Start Kindergarten and collected carrots. Oh! And no one cried.. not even ME :) If you are puzzled as to why this is BIG HUGE FANTASTIC news.... These are the steps to just log into a computer in my district.

1. Wiggle mouse to wake up computer
2.Press Ctrl, Alt, Delete
3. Click in user name box
4. Backspace to erase previous users user name
5. Type user name combination of last name and first initial- sometimes a number too
6. Click in password box
7. Type your 6 digit password (the numbers are hidden and show up as dots)
8. Click OK

NOW... they have to go to the correct folder, select a game, and sometimes SIGN IN ALL OVER AGAIN.

Due to testing in the lab this was only our 4th visit to the lab. I am PROUD!

P is for Pumpkin Play Dough

This weekend Amelia and I made pumpkin play dough. I was hesitant at first because I remember homemade play dough in my preschool class when I was 4. It was smelly and gritty. And, because homemade play dough is requires cooking.. and I am not the best cook. But, I need some creative and fun ways to keep my kindys busy this week... 1-because it is the week before Halloween and 2- I need to finish up assessment for report cards! We made 3 batches, 1 for home, 1 for my class, and 1 for Amelia's class. I am sure my kindy kids will have lots of fun playing with this very yummy pumpkin spice scented play dough. I got the recipe here-- but there are tons online. I am going to trying glitter in the winter holiday batch!

Adventures in Kindergarten This Week

What a Busy Week! Things I want to remember... and things I'll never forget!

-E sharing her dog rescue story and the awe and admiration her friends showed her as she told the story.

-M recalling the day a blue bead mysteriously got stuck in her nose and the heroic efforts of our school nurse.. she told the story as if it happened year ago- when it was actually last month!

-J proudly showing off his 2nd missing tooth of the year!

-L enthusiastically shouting "forever green!" when reviewing which trees stay green all year.

- T telling me all about his favorite place (Disney World) while we conferenced during writing workshop.

-D smiling and confident while reading back his writing to me.

-G and H telling me about their star wars sharing plan.. just in case they ever have a play date at each other house.

-B telling me that I looked pretty when I smiled for my school picture.

-A clutching her visual schedule during pumpkin day and letting it go easily when I pointed out we are not following the normal routine today.

-L's new baby brother!

-J's amazing progress over the last year.

-H inviting me to his football practice.

-A's blue nose from smelling the blueberry scented ink.

-R sad because her mom had to work on Pumpkin Day and A comforting her.

-Z helping D when he was anxious about seat work

-Watching B clutch his shell as he works and plays.

-G showing me his handsome school picture smile

-B convinced that I live at school after discovering my mini fridge