How An Acorn Grows

 Last week we worked a lot with writing How To stories with directions how to eat a birthday cake. This week the students used the same time order words (first, next, then, and last) to write How An Acorn Grows.

The kids worked on their own and then met with me or my aide to proofread and edit their work. Once the words were written the way the sound, the students got a cover for their story. I am really proud of how they did! 

Life Cycle of Seed Craft

The kinders really enjoyed reading about seeds during reading.  They are learning all about the way that seeds move and the life cycle of a plant.  Last week we read about the life cycle of an oak tree. This week, they are realizing that plants and flowers follow a very similiar life cycle as the oak tree. 

They began working on writing a story about how seeds grow using the words first, next, then, and last. (I will post pictures as soon as they are complete!)

Today we made flowers, complete with roots!

I am ready for Spring and the warmer weather and flowers that accompany the new season!

Skip Counting Gold

I missed yet another day of school!  My older daughter and I both had high fevers on Friday. I am ready to get healthy. Four more days until Spring Break... I'm hoping that the time away from school will allow us to get healthy! 

I wanted to post these pictures Friday, but I was sick at home.  It feels a little late to talk about St. Patrick's Day, but it WAS only yesterday.

The kids made these pots of gold last week. We have been working hard with skip counting, or counting by twos. They wrote numbers to ten counting by 2's on their gold coins. I got this fabulous idea from Mrs. Phillips' blog, Kinder Doodles.

We have been using frog manipulatives in math and frogs are a part of our daily number corner/calendar which is a part of our math series.  This frog and toad eye chart was perfect for practicing counting by 2's! The students had to create a frog or a toad. We worked together to make this chart. I was proud that the students recognized the growing pattern: the frogs increase by one each row and the eyes increase by two.  This week we will do more with frogs, toads, and patterns.
 

Leprechauns and More Leprechauns

We have been making LOTS of leprechauns in kindergarten!  On Friday, we send home the students' agendas with a weekend assignment inside. Last weekend, the kinders had to decorate a leprechaun black line. I was pleasantly surprised to see their work on Monday.

 The kids and their families were so creative!

The other kindergarten class made these. I thought that they were so cute that I had to share!

We made these leprechauns with paper plates and a 9 x 12 inch paper hat.  I planned on having the class write about what they would do if they were leprechauns, but we ran out of time. (The class worked VERY hard on writing how to stories. I didn't want to stop them!) There's always tomorrow! 

Candy Land Sight Word Game

With Spring Break only one week and four days away, I'm trying to think of fun literacy stations that will keep the students engaged and learning. I noticed recently that several students were struggling with reading the color sight, so I came up with this alternative version of the classic game, Candy Land.

I will print the cards on card stock and laminate them before replacing the standard Candy Land cards with them.

Students will read the color in order to move their person along the rainbow candy path.  I am excited to see their reactions when I tell them that they will be playing a board game during literacy stations!

It is now available on my TPT Store!

3D Shapes

 I can't believe that tomorrow will be Friday! (And I'm pretty excited about that!) Between being hit with the flu last week and having it move through my house, and the snow day and delay this week, I feel like I'm just trying to catch up!  This week has flown by and I feel that there are not enough hours in the day to get anything done, blogging included! 

My class has been working a lot with 3D shapes. Last month our calendar featured 3D shapes. Each day we decided if the object was a sphere, cylinder, cube, or cone. 

We talked A LOT (like every day) about the names of the shapes, the number of faces, edges, and vertices. The third quarter report card assesses knowing the name of the 3D shapes, while the fourth quarter report card assesses the number of faces and edges.  I used these see through 3D shapes each day when we talked about the geometric shapes.

The kids love this video on YouTube.

 

We sing it almost every day. And it really helped reinforce the 3D Shapes! I have begun testing for the third quarter report card and almost everyone correctly identified the 3D shapes! :)

 

St. Patrick's Day Lucky Stations

I just completed my St. Patrick's Day Lucky Stations that are now available (and on sale!) on TPT!  I am really looking forward to my literacy stations for the week of St. Patrick's Day!







There are four literacy stations and one math station:

 Students will read cards and unscramble the words to make a sentence that describes a picture card. There is a record sheet for the kiddos to do the same.

 My class has been struggling with ABC order.  They are often very concerned if I "forgot" a letter. I have explained that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and they only have 5 cards in their hand, so they will not have lots of letters. As with anything, practice makes perfect!  My kinders will work on putting the grading quarter's sight words in alphabetical order using a pocket chart. There is a worksheet that has them write five words in alphabetical order.

 My class LOVES telling me all the ways they can get a given sum, so I think they will enjoy this "Sum" Lucky Rainbow center. They will select a rainbow with a number in the cloud. They must choose two coins with the sum that is on the rainbow. A record sheet shows the ways they got the given sum.

 Last week, my class worked on Mrs. Phillips of Kinder Doodle's Word Sorts. I noticed that some students still struggled with determining if words are real or nonsense, so I created another word sort center for them.

We have been working hard on vowel sounds.  The students will sort picture cards based on the short vowel sound in their names. The students will record their work on an activity sheet.

I like having an activity sheet for each station to hold my class accountable for their work during our literacy block. I have a class of 26, so it is sometimes difficult to visit every student during each of the three literacy station rotations. We have adopted a system of earning stars for literacy station packets.  The goal is to always earn a 3 star packet for thoroughly completing the literacy work! 

Please head over to my TPT store to get your copy of this St. Patrick's Day Lucky Stations while it is on sale! :)