Sight word: see printable

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Sight word: see

     Attaching meaning to sight words as they are introduced goes a long way toward helping children learn the words.  Recently we introduced the words, "see"  and  "no".  First, we looked at an art print of a detailed Chinese tapestry available at our school.  Children thought about what they could "see" and what they could not "see".  We wrote some of their responses on the paper.  

     Then, we read a decodable book from our reading curriculum, Harcourt Trophies.

     Next, we asked children to think about what they could see using this activity sheet.  The printable is on the next blog "see printable".  Feel free to copy it for your use too!  Our students were very successful with this activity!  

     Finally, we placed the print and the "see" and "not see" sentences in a center for students to think about and write of things they can see and not see in their writing journals.

Enjoy!

Molly and Laura

Purple Stories!

We read the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.  We discussed the way the boy drew his story as he went along.  Then we watched the video of the story being read aloud, just to see it from another perspective.  Again, we talked about how the boy used drawings to tell his story.

What would YOU draw in your own story?  What kinds of places would you go to and what would you see?

Students came to the board to show what they might include in their own story.  We made purple books for our "purple stories" and used purple markers and crayons.

Once students finished their drawings through the book, they went back and labeled their pictures.

Time to practice reading our stories to a friend and then read to the class!

 

The Mitten

     We love to use the story of The Mitten for kindergarten learning.  The story alone has great potential for discussion - Who are the characters?  What happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story?  Why did grandma not want to make the mitten white?  ... ... We also like to use this story to compare and contrast fiction and non-fiction.  We use this opportunity to do research on the animals in the mitten.  This year, small groups of students read books and watched video clips about a specific animal .  They took notes about facts they learned.  We shared information with our class by completing sentence starters about each animal during circle time.

Moles can dig really fast.

Moles have whiskers.

Moles live underground.

Moles have storage rooms for worms. 

Badgers have babies in burrows.
(Teacher forgot the g!)

Badgers can back off big animals.

Badgers are expert diggers.

Hedgehogs are good seers.

Hedgehogs can eat snails.

Hedgehogs have 7000 quills.

Foxes are wild animals.

Foxes can smell really far.

Foxes have dens.









Students worked with their group to draw and paint their animal as it's actual size.  We combined the animals of all three classes for a display in our school.

  We shared our learning with parents by filming a kindergarten documentary about "Animals of the Mitten".

This lesson in detail and 19 others can be found in our lesson book, "Kindergarten Writing Activities" at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Writing-Activities-An-Entire-Year-of-Lessons-651208

Yours truly,

     Molly & Laura

Valentine's Day

     We love to use natural opportunities to encourage writing.  With all the card giving, Valentine's Day is a perfect time for writing!  Before the holiday, we write and mail a letter home! 

     I provide a mailbox in the classroom and envelopes for children to continue the process of writing notes home and to friends.  A week later, they continue to use the papers and envelopes to write notes and letters!  Our lesson book, Kindergarten Writing Activities, offers 20 complete lesson ideas for authentic, engaging activities in Kindergarten.  It is available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store:

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Writing-Activities-An-Entire-Year-of-Lessons-651208

     We also like to tie Valentine's Day along with 100th Day since they always fall so close together.  One fun way is to try and collect 100 hearts.  Our three kindergarten classes found many creative ways to make hearts this year.

      We have found that many of the cards also come with treats now.  So, this year I found a fun and nutritious idea - heart sandwiches!  I cut out hearts from bread, cheese, salami, ham and cucumbers.  I enlisted my husband's help in the morning before school and between the two of us it really didn't take too long.  We had quite a bit for everyone - my kindergartners ate every bit!

     For math, I purchased Heart Sticker Addition from Maria Manore.   After picking up some heart stickers - the kids loved it.  I have used it in the past with children drawing hearts as well.  When we were working with the problems this year, one of my students said that he couldn't believe how many ways to make 5 there were.  So, I made this composing problem to use the following day with our leftover stickers.  Feel free to copy and use this if you wish!

     Have a LOVEly day!

Yours truly, 

  Molly C.

100th Day of School!

     The 100th Day of School is such a great time!  My students were sure it was the best day ever this year!  We didn't do too much out of the ordinary - it was just so celebratory!  Here's what we did --
     Each student was asked to bring a collection or display of 100 things - Here's a few of what we received.

   100 baby pictures and tattoos.  100 candies made into flowers of 10.  100 fruit loops.

     Each child shared their collections and how they counted the items out.  Some children counted by ones. Some put the items in piles of 10 and counted by tens. Some let their mother count them.  Some saw that there was a 100 on the package and knew there was 100!

     I took pictures of each child to make a book of our 100 day too.

We used 100 as the theme for all our centers:
 * Building with 100 things - cups, blocks, unifix cubes
 * Putting together a 100 piece puzzle
 * Eating 100 things (10 pieces of 10 things)
 * Making a 100 hat with numerals 1 and 0 and 0 cut from die cut then children decorate and    attach them to a band of construction paper.
* Making 10 dots of 10 different colors using a q-tip
* Attaching one sticker to each number on a 100 chart.

 
 

     We set up the day by earlier reading, Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate.  On the day, I read Kindergarten Count To 100  by Jacqueline Rogers. After reading, it's fun to try and see how many steps it takes to get to various parts of the school.

     I found a few videos that were fun as well.

If you need an exercise time, try Jack Hartman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgLtF3PMOc&list=PLwDDRpROK9nTf_D9DVZ42b3SQX_4GTi7S&index=30

This video shows people in order from age 1 to age 100.  My students thought it was great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUHLa1qSy24&index=20&list=PLwDDRpROK9nTf_D9DVZ42b3SQX_4GTi7S

We thought the story of Centipede's 100 Shoes by Tony Ross was really sweet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLuAt7qIiF8&index=19&list=PLwDDRpROK9nTf_D9DVZ42b3SQX_4GTi7S

I hope these ideas are helpful as you plan your 100th day of Kindergarten!

Yours truly,
Molly C

Understanding Addition and Subtraction

     This week I managed to capture some math activities with pictures.  These activities are part of the lessons found in "Understanding Addition and Subtraction in Kindergarten" in our Tpt Store.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-Full-of-Kindergarten-Lessons-for-Understanding-Addition-and-Subtraction-1617989

     We made 10 chips on each pretend cookie.  Our "cookies" had some chips drawn on them and we had to determine how many more chips were needed to make 10.

      We had an exciting time playing and recording subtraction bowling!





     We played +1 or -1 with beans for scooping.

  

Yours truly,

     Molly and Laura