I Made It Through!

I made it through my week of teaching kindergarten and got some great family time this weekend as a reward. Now I'm back to the daily grind with some pics on how our first couple of days have gone.

Daily 5: Read to Self

We have started Read to Self as a part of the Daily 5 and so far, so good. The kiddos look like reading experts focusing on their books. When I read stories now, the kids ask if I am going to read the pictures or the words.

Look at all of these readers. I love those little green chairs in my library. Just too cute! The cubbie in the background is what I am using for my book boxes this year. The kiddos just have to put them back by color when they put them away. I also love that they are tucked away and out of sight.

 

Writing Unit: my Pictures Tell a Story

I have been using Deanna Jump's and Deedee Wills's Writing Unit 1: My Pictures Tell a Story this week and let me tell you that I love it! You should most definitely check it out.

Here is what my first demo writing looked like.

I'm sure Miley would be appalled that I didn't spell her name correctly but we need to go with phonetic spelling to get these kiddos started. I really thought that I might lose some of my kids when I went into the details of the picture but they loved it. They wanted to know more about Miley and even had suggestions for what I should add to the picture. Ha!

Before I sent them to do their own writing, I had them do a check in with me to tell me what they were going to write about. I showed the card on the left to spring some ideas. Most kids choose to write about pets or the first day of school. I used the picture on the right to show what good listeners do when someone is sharing. Both these charts are in the first Writing Unit. I can't recommend it enough. I've really enjoyed using it so far.

 

Sharing

 After they had writing time, I picked 3 to share out their writing! They were very sweet and detailed when describing their pictures and writing. 

 

I used just blank paper to start but starting this week we are using an actual writing page with a box for the picture and space for writing.

 

Exploring Math

I put out assorted math manipluatives and told the kiddos to explore. I do this every year because the kids are going to play with them the first time you give them to them regardless. It makes more sense to just give them the time at the beginning of the year and then talk about what a mathematician does with these tools later. I also think it is amazing to talk with the kids during this time. It helps you discover what they already know in math.

 

Pattern Blocks: Lots of kiddos were sorting, making patterns, and stacking the shapes as high as they could.

 

Unifix Cubes: Kids love seeing how long they can make a unifix cube tower. These cubes are also unique because kiddos can connect and build on all sides.

Dominoes: I had a bunch of kiddos make fences and stairs.

3D Shapes: I left out the spheres on purpose! Ha! The kids had a blast building towers.

Books I Can't Plan Without: Debbie Diller Math Work Stations

I talked a little bit last week about books that I just cannot plan without. My 2 picks from last week were the Daily 5 and Café. Click here to go to that post. Today, I wanted to dive a little more into math. One of the books that I cannot plan or teach without is Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller.

I started with Debbie a couple years ago and loved her thoughts and philosophy on teaching math. This last year I tried something new and ended up going back to Debbie halfway through the year. Her math station ideas are so thoughtful.  I love that her math work stations give kiddos time to practice and review taught skills. Plus, the stations are easy for teachers to manage. I have enjoyed having the time to meet with groups and really hone on what kiddos need to be successful. If you haven't picked up this gem of a book, I highly recommend it. I unfortunately didn't take pictures of my centers (I will be taking them like crazy this year) but I can show you how I organized my groups with Work Stations.

How Do I Keep Track of Who Goes Where?

I made this Smart Notebook document that I would put on my screen when it was time to Math Stations. This saved wall space and was very easy to change and manipulate. Debbie recommends that you have no more than 3 kids at a stations at a time. Since I was blessed to only have 19 kiddos this last year, I had 9 stations. In the past, I have had up to 14 stations. Each day, I would start with the kiddos that have the star by their names, rotate them to the next station, and then move everyone one by one to the right. I added the star as well so I could remember when everyone had been though the stations once. My star kiddos originally started at the number one position.

 

How Do the Kids Go to Workstations?

Before my kiddos could start their workstations, they had to complete some type of seat work. My current curriculum is Everyday Math so before stations, my kids had to finish their math boxes. I always asked that they leave their workbooks open on the table so I could see them.  This gives me time to check work and offer one-on-one help. I also pull small groups and work on specific skills during this time.

 

How Did I Group Kids?

Our school is using Kagan to engage our students with cooperative learning structures. In Kagan, they talk about how to group and seat kids so that they are working with peers that help them grow and meet their intellectual needs. For example: putting the highest math student and the lowest math student will not help either child grow. It is better to put a high student with a mid to mid-low student and a low student with a mid to mid-high student. Obviously, you need to consider every subject as well because every kiddo has their forte and their area of growth.

 

What Do I Put in Stations?

I always start with manipulatives in stations. Kids are going to play the first couple times they are introduced to a new tool so let them! Then, later you can build in the math. I like to make a poster of how we used the mainpulatives and then talk about and star the ides that a mathematician would do. After I have introduced the mainpulatives, I start adding stations slowly that correlate with our whole group lessons. For example: After we did a 3-d shape sorting lesson(whole class) with cards and mainpulatives; I put those materials in a stations with some shape books and a labeling page. Easy! Don't over think it!

 

How Do I Plan for my Math Units?

Here are some tools that I use to help me plan out units and themes for the whole year. I especially use the blank calendar and the unit template to plan my math. You can click here to see the original post or you can click here to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers Page for a preview.

Thanks for stopping by and tell me about math books that you plan with or how you have used math work stations. There are so many resources out there.



Teaching with Math Books: Picture Book Linky Party

After yesterday's post about favorite books to start the year, I started to get a little sad about all of the fabulous books I still hadn't talk about. Then, it was like First Grade and Fabulous could read my mind and created a Week 2: Picture Book Linky for Math Books. Yay! Here are some of my favorite math picks.

 

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

 

First things first...if you are looking for great picture books for teaching math, look up Marilyn Burns. She has dedicated her life to it and she is so thoughtful. Her books have personality and they really teach a math concept well while using math terminology.

 

The Greedy Triangle is one of my all time favorites. It is about this little triangle who decides that he is dissatisfied with his shape and goes to the shape shifter and asks for one more side and one more angle. Can you guess what her is going to be my friends? Oh, that's right a parallelogram. Didn't see that one coming did you? I told Marilyn likes to use math vocabulary. Any hoo... he keeps asking for sides and angles until he basically becomes a circle. Throughout the story, he runs into lots of mishaps and decides that his own shape is the best shape to be.

 

After reading the story, I love to have my kiddos act out the sides and angles the Greedy Triangle adds with gumdrops and toothpicks. I have used marshmallows in the past and let me tell you that they do not hold the shape as well.



 

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews

I love how this story gets kiddos thinking about math all around them. In the story, the black dots create different pictures like flowers or buttons. It is a great book for teaching counting and I love to have my kids create dot pages of their own.

 

After reading the story, I usually introduce dot plates/cards and ten frames. We discuss how to subitize the numbers and add them up quickly. It's a great numeracy exercise and we do it all year.



 

 

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

This is one of my go to books for teaching time to the hour. The Grouchy Ladybug just cracks me up and with my next classroom theme being Eric Carle, guess who's going to be hanging out by my classroom clock. :)

 

The Grouchy Ladybug is all about a ladybug who would rather fight over something then share. She ends up spending an entire day trying to fight different animals and then deciding that they aren't "big" enough. In the end, a blue whale teaches her a lesson and she finds that sharing isn't all that bad.

 

After reading this story, I talk about time to the hour and then we go back through the story and make the different times on our clocks. I love the part with the whale because it really let's you know if kiddos have experience with quarter after, half past, and quarter 'til. It's a great preassessment.

 



Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

 

This is a wonderful story to go with learning names at the beginning of the year. Chrysanthemum is a little mouse who loves everything about her name and then she goes to school. She is made fun of for her name being too long and a type of a flower. She starts to dread school until her fabulous music teacher reveals that she too has a long, flower name.

 

After reading this story, we always play a syllable name game and then we write, graph, and count the letters in our own names.

 

What are your favorites? Does anyone have a great book for base ten?

 

Be sure to link up with First Grade and Fabulous!

 

 

Five for Friday: June 28th

I'm Linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching again for the last Five for Friday for a while. Sniff, Sniff..

1. My wonderful friends came over on Wednesday for what I fondly call Cheese Night. We do Cheese Night every time my wonderful, allergic to dairy, man has to be out of town. Each person brings something cheesy over and as you can imagine, it is DELICIOUS! This Wednesday, we sat on the patio and let me tell you, the next morning my legs were eaten alive. Mosquitoes are the worst! I am so itchy. :(

 

 2. I've been really thinking about the beginning of next school year. I will be teaching full day Kindergarten and I worry about how tired we will be by the end of the day. Please note that I used the word we. Then, I started thinking of ways to add in afternoon breaks that took us outside but were still educational. I started with sidewalk chalk ideas and then did bean bags. Click on the links to see what I came up with. Also, please share with me what you do to break up the day.

 

3. I love send my kiddos on what I call a Walk About. This means there is something around the room that they need to find. I use this with all subject areas. This last year to review shapes, we went on a Shape Hunt. I got these shape posters, free I should add, from Intentional Momma and posted them all around the room. Then, I made up a page for the kiddos to write the names of the shapes as they found them. Click here to get a freebie Shape Hunt page of your own.

I have the kiddos use a white board for the paper so they can walk and write.

I love how this friend is checking to see what shape she needs to go find next. So professional!



4. I have turned into a frame addict. I love making things fun and cute. I was as pleased as punch when I found Teaching Super Power on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have been using her frames everywhere. These green frames are a prime example. She has lots of freebies and the frames are just too fun. I love the chalkboard look and the bright colors.

 

 

 5. I'm sure many of you have heard that as of July 1, 2013 Google Reader is going away.  Bloglovin' is a site that will put all of your favorite blogs in one place and it is super easy to add all of your favorite blogs. All you have to do is sign in and hit accept. I did it is less that 2 minutes. I added a Follow Us button on the side of the page and I would be honored if you would follow us on Bloglovin'. :)

 

Happy Friday!

 



Priscilla

Take Learning Outside: Sidewalk Chalk

The beginning of the school year is always tough on kiddos and teachers. We have to start getting up earlier and the day feels so long. Here are some easy and fun ideas that I am going to work into the first couple weeks of school to continue learning but add some movement and teambuilding into the day. Click on the pictures to go to the original links. :)

Write and Read: What an easy way to practice sight words, spelling, letters, math facts. I love it! I'm picturing kiddos drawing out words or letters out of a bag, reading the word/letter,  and then writing it on the sidewalk. Their partner then has to read all of the words/letters on the sidewalk before it is his or her turn.

 

Spelling Hop: How fun! Write all of the letters of the alphabet on the sidewalk and kiddos have to hop to each letter to spell the word. This would help with spelling, letter recognition, and alphabetical order.

 

Roll a Number: Drawing a number line on the sidewalk will help kids with their number identification and counting skills. This would also be fun with a giant dice. Have one person roll for the kiddos playing. You could also have a dice that has addition and subtraction symbols on it. The possibilities are endless!

 

What's my Number: Here's number identification in another way. Hop and say the number. This would be a great activity for kiddos who have trouble with reversals i.e. 14 and 41.

 

Solve It: Call out a math problem and have kiddos solve it on the sidewalk. Then, your class can talk a "Gallery Walk" and see how everyone reached the answer.

 

Here is also a link to 30 Sidewalk Chalk Games to play with kiddos. What sidewalk chalk activities do you do with your kiddos?

 

Priscilla

100 Chart Pumpkin

With Halloween landing on a Monday {ugh!} and an involved party planned by some of my amazing parents, there wasn't much time left in the day to squeeze in some math. So....I created an easy 100 chart mystery picture for my students to complete. The fun part is that this activity is super easy to differentiate! Pass out blank 100 charts, charts with missing numbers or a completed 100 chart depending on your kids' abilities. Plus, you can give the numbers in so many ways it is bound to keep their interest. Announce numbers to color in tens/ones, as addition/subtraction sentences, word problems, 1+/-, 2+/-, 10 +/-...you get the point :)

After coloring in the numbers, a cute little pumpkin appears.

**Side Note** I plan on using the interactive 100 chart found in the Smart Board Notebook gallery to follow model. This is what you are seeing in the image above, I left the side bar open so you could hopefully get a better idea of where to find it!

{Download a copy of the coloring instructions HERE!}

Jennifer