Weather

The past two weeks we have studied seasons and the weather. This was a fun unit because with the crazy Indiana weather that we experience, students can relate to a lot of different types of weather! 

We began the unit by writing what reminded us of each season. Students then drew many pictures to reflect the seasons.

I created an emergent reader to practice reading questions with popcorn words. This emergent reader requires the students to practice a lot of skills.
*Popcorn (sight) words
*Writing
*Matching pictures to words
If you'd like to purchase this reader, please click HERE.

And today we made a cloud craft to end our unit. They are so cute!

Here are a few of our favorite books we read over the past few weeks!

      

And lastly, here is our favorite Berenstain Bear Video about Seasons.

We are hoping the weather is sunny and warm soon!

~Alissa

Penguins

Last year I was on maternity leave in the months of February and March, therefore I didn't get to teach my penguin unit. Let me tell you, I missed out! This was by far my favorite two weeks of teaching. I decided to approach it in a project based learning way, and going into it I was terrified. As a teacher that values structure, order, planning, etc., it was hard for me to let go of the reins and allow kindergartners to learn in a PBL setting. However, watching them work together, hearing their discussions, and seeing their results made it ALL worth it. I was never so proud of them before!

We spent the first week reading nonfiction texts, writing down our thoughts on anchor charts, learning new vocabulary, and writing about our learning. Here are a few pictures and links of resources that we used.

After reading two texts, the kids generated this "are, can, have" anchor chart. 

A fun activity to do was this "What do you think?" activity. Besides the fact that kindergartners LOVE writing on the board, they loved it even more when their answers were right! Find this activity HERE for free on TPT.

I created a cover for our Penguin Portfolios and then we glued them to a folded 18x12 paper (I think that's the sizing.) The students loved being able to store all of their information in this portfolio. They said that they felt like experts! :) We then used the words from our anchor chart- "are, can, and have" to write about penguins. HERE is the link we used to do this.

The next week was spent researching a specific species of penguins. I split the kids into groups of three and created a list of facts about their species of penguins. My visions for this week of PBL on Penguins came from this TPT packet HERE. It has everything you could ever need. Here are a few pictures from this week.

Students used the information I gave them to fill in their graphic organizers as a group. They took turns writing. I made sure to have one or two strong readers in the group.

After reading and writing about their species, they had to create a giant penguin with the features of their penguin.

Here are a few of the finished products. They are SO cute! :)

I hope you enjoyed reading about our two weeks of penguins. It was so much fun!

~Alissa

Christmas Measurement

Today we practiced measuring different Christmas items. The students learned how to use a non-standard unit of measurement: unifix cubes. Click HERE to download the clip art and answer sheet for this activity. The kids had fun and it was a great activity for them to do this week!

~Alissa

Gingerbread Houses

This will be a post with few words as you can image how an hour of making gingerbread houses went with 5 and 6 year olds! :) CRA-ZY! But FUN FUN FUN! It was a sticky mess by the end of the hour but I loved listening to them sing Christmas Carols as they "glued" with frosting and carefully placed the details on their gingerbread houses. Here are a handful of pictures I took. My heart was overflowing and I saw their creative minds at

~Alissa

Gingerbread Baby

If you teach a Gingerbread Unit, this packet is a must! There are too many amazing resources than there is time to use. I would highly recommend purchasing this one. We spent a few weeks reading different variations of the Gingerbread Man. One that we spent a few days comparing the original to was The Gingerbread Baby. By using this book I was able to introduce character and setting. The link to this packet is HERE.

One of the best things in this packet is the graphic organizer. I used our poster maker to make a large one to do together during guided practice, and then the children did one for independent practice.

 

 



 

On Youtube there is a video of Jan Brett, author and illustrator of the Gingerbread Baby, teaching the students how to draw and paint their own gingerbread baby. They loved this! Enjoy a few pictures of their cute drawings and the link.

 

 

~Alissa

 

 

Gingerbread Stations

Here are our stations from this week. I was caught up with testing so I was able to walk around and observe. If I had it my way, we would do stations all day! I love watching the students interact and learn by working together. The following pictures show the 8 stations they visited this week! :)

This groups is listening to Clifford's Christmas. It's nice having a lot of books on tape and CD to chose from.

 

He is matching lowercase gingerbread men. By now my students (mostly) all know their letters and sounds, but this helps solidify their learning.

 

This Maisy matching numbers game doesn't go with the theme for the week but students enjoyed using it like a memory game.

 

Color by sight word gingerbread man.

Gingerbread Patterns- We focused on patterns this week so this station gave them extra practice.

Reading corner!

Pocket chart- Students built a sentence: "Look! A cookie with (color word) frosting. Click HERE to get the packet!

 

And lastly... Puzzles!

 

 

:) ~ Alissa

Positional Words- Hide the Gingerbread Man

It is important to keep kindergartens up and moving! In order to do this, they were able to walk around the classroom and practice using positional words. Here's what we did:

1. I hid a gingerbread man in the classroom every day for the week. I had a poster that you'll see below and I practice filling it out every day.

2. On Friday, I gave each student a gingerbread man of their own. They had to color it and tape it somewhere in the classroom like I did.

 

3. Next, they were able to walk around and talk about where the gingerbread men were using positional words.

** This was especially helpful for the Amish and Arabic students that need to use the language on a daily basis.

4. The students were given a paper that matched my poster. They had to write a sentence and draw a picture explaining where their gingerbread man was.

** This integrated writing and spelling into our math time. It was very powerful to watch them write their sentences.

5. Lastly, they had to read their sentences to a friend. :)

This was such a fun activity to do in order to reinforce positional words. A great thing about this activity is that it's FREE on TPT. Click HERE to download the pdf file from Becky Castle.

Smiles

~Alissa