Writing about our Playground

We read several of Donald Crew's books and talked about them as mentor texts.

          

We decided that Donald Crews must like transportation vehicles!  We supposed that he observed the places where the vehicles were to get more information to write.  He must have looked at the vehicles and listened to them.  We also noticed that he used a few words and that he placed the words at the bottom of the page.  He also liked to use colors and details in his illustrations.

For our writing piece, we chose chose a place that we loved at school - the playground. First, we observed the playground and took some notes about what we saw, what we heard, and the actions that took place there.  I took a picture of the students on the playground. Later, they wrote sentences about what they saw, what they heard, and what actions took place at the playground.  They glued their black and white photograph to the top of the large writing paper.  They added color to their picture and extended the playground to the entire space.

For some additional fun and learning, we designed a playground for an ant a few days later. I showed the children a few ways to fold paper to make it 3D.  They took off on the idea and added many ways of their own.  

 

 Enjoy!   Molly

Measure Me!

With Spring here we have been growing sunflowers (see earlier blog), sorting seeds, and comparing heights and lengths.  It's a good time to introduce non-standard measurement activities.  Last week we measured many classroom objects - scissors, pencils, glue sticks . . .  But, the very best kindergarten measuring activity was measuring each other.  What fun!

The children measured each other and recorded how many cubes long the parts were on a body picture (feel free to copy the page below if you'd like to try it).  I left it open to see what they would like to measure. They measured feet, head width, ear length, mouth width, hand length, leg length and even body length!  They giggled and laughed during measuring, but turned into serious mathematicians when recording:)  It was time to end math even before they were finished.

Enjoy!  Molly

Feel free to copy recording paper here:  

Word Family Flowers

I was searching for ways to have children generate word family words.  I found this cute idea from Playdough to Plato http://www.playdoughtoplato.com/a-word-family-garden/ 

 But,  I am working with a whole class of kindergartners, instead of a small home setting.  So, I made a flower template and copied the flowers on bright colors.  We completed a lesson on word families, then I let them make their own word family flowers on their own.  This was a big task for some, but all children were successful.  I differentiated by the number of flowers and word families each child completed.

Here's a flower template if you'd like to try with your class too, feel free to copy it.

Enjoy!  Molly

Rainy Day Drip Art

Oh, rainy April Days!  No outside recess?  Here's what I did yesterday afternoon --drip painting.

I simply made up some thin paint by adding water to tempera and adding some to liquid watercolors to apply with droppers.  Then, I offered a padded tray and white construction paper to drip on.

They loved the break and our room came back to the excited hum of working kindergartners.

As we picked up each drip page, we sang "It's Raining, it's Pouring".  At another table, some children even used watercolor paints to try their own drips and one child made a page illustrating the song!

Over the next few days we'll cut large raindrops from the pages, write sound words, and perform some rain songs.

This lesson and many, many more is available in our Spring Weather lesson pack.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Weather-Kindergarten-Literacy-Activities-1141255

Enjoy!  Molly

Working with Peers - Math

     We are continuously trying to set up opportunities for children to work with each other.  I took a little look at how I am encouraging peer sharing in math lately.  Here's what I found:

This time of year, we are working on adding iconic or symbolic symbols to math thinking.  Each day, I ask children to share how they thought about a problem and to show their thinking.  In my classroom, this is usually done at the white board or easel with classmates sitting at carpet or at the document camera where all children have a white board or their journal to share.  With practice, we are getting better at listening to other's share and at sharing our thoughts.  I like to add a little more to think about to their work.  

We also try to work on problems together at our tables.  After writing or drawing, I sometimes ask them to take a moment to share their thoughts with someone sitting next to them.

After playing a game during math instruction time, I often leave the play materials for them to play more or develop new ways to play with each other.  Here children are trying out subtraction bowling and writing number sentences on their own!

These activities and more are available in our Understanding Addition and Subtraction Book.  Click on the caption for more information.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-Full-of-Kindergarten-Lessons-for-Understanding-Addition-and-Subtraction-1617989

Enjoy!   Molly

ELA the Kindergarten Way

Happy Spring!

Fellow kindergarten teachers....

We are excited to announce that our book of language arts lessons and strategies for kindergarten teachers will be published by Capstone in spring 2017!  

Here is the official book description: 

Kindergarten teachers know that a child's first taste of school should be engaging, active, social and fun!  Yet we are presented with a challenge.  How do we nurture the holistic, exploratory nature of early childhood while teaching with the intentionality and rigor required for meeting specific and ever-higher learning goals? Let this resource show you. ELA the Kindergarten Way contains a year-full of methods for teaching foundational reading skills, building vocabulary, inspiring and developing writing, and for helping children respond to literature and informational text - while inherently fulfilling the needs of the whole child. All activities are classroom-tested and naturally infuse visual art, music, drama, poetry, movement and puppetry - so that kindergartners meet standards their way.

Journals in Kindergarten

     Lately, we've been thinking about using journals in kindergarten.  We are a little concerned that first grade teachers may want to keep the magic of journal writing to their grade level.  We also recognize that kindergarten students need more support with their writing especially at the beginning of the year.  Sometimes, we've seen children drawing or coloring so much that they don't leave time for working with letters, sounds, and words. Sometimes, we've had children who need a lot of support just moving from one page to the next or with keeping their journal right side up!  On the other hand, we always remember the great moments when they leap at the chance to record something wonderful in their journal. Or, when they beg to write in them at choice time too, "I'm just about finished with my story."  And, sometimes, we get lucky as one student in the class blurts out with, "Oh, I can write by myself!"

     Two weeks ago, I took a camera look around during a quick 15 minute write by yourself time.  
   

I am convinced that journals need to be a part of writing in kindergarten!  Children are always so excited to write in them - they have free choice to be an author and illustrator.  Just choosing the topic can be exciting.

  Each child is successful working at their ability level without any assistance from the teacher other than setting up how to write in kindergarten and how to respond to your own and other's work expectations.

 

They get so much practice for an activity that is so fun for them!

I allow children to share about what they are writing or reading frequently.  This sharing will spark ideas and start peer networking without even trying.  Even though my students are supposed to be writing by themselves, they know who is writing Ninja or Princess stories and sit at the same tables to share ideas.

  So, Laura and I will continue to model reading and writing for children, to share and discuss mentor texts, to set up special writing projects, to teach directed writing to our students, and to teach and allow students to write in their journals!

  Kindergarten teachers - how are journals working for your students?  Let us know!                                        

     Enjoy!  Molly

  

Bridge Building STEM Activity

     Today we read "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" story.  Several children had heard it before. We took our time and discussed the sizes of the goats, who was younger, did they plan to trick the troll?, etc., etc.  

     Then, I introduced the challenge - build a bridge using the materials available with a spot to go over like the goats and a place to go under like the troll.  They were to work together with one or two other people.  I chose the partners because I wanted them to practice working with someone they did not often work with.  I gave each team a box with materials for bridge building.  The boxes had slightly different materials in them.  All had blocks. Some had tape, paper clips, rubber bands, straws, gauze, boxes, ribbon or combinations.  In about 15 minutes we looked at each bridge to see how they worked out the challenge.  I asked each group if they encountered any "problems" and what solutions they found.  Each group was glad to talk about their problems!

This group had a problem getting their two long sides to stand up when they propped them in an A shape together.  They solved it by using tape for the top of the bridge.  The small block on the side is a ladder (paper clip rungs are taped to the side) to help the goats get on top of the tall bridge.

This group designated blocks for their characters.  The goats are ordered by size.  They had difficulty getting a ribbon to surround the bridge.  First it was too long so they cut it.  Then, too short so they taped some back together:)

This group wished they had tape.  The gauze bridge kept falling and they wanted to tape it up.  But, they solved the problem by threading paper clips through the holes in the gauze and using them as weights to hold the bridge up.

This group had difficulty with the under part as they used the tape on the table.  So, they changed the thin line to a trail leading to the bridge.  The block structure is the troll and the wide part of tape is the water.  They needed more time to build the bridge over the troll.

This group used rubber bands to secure the gauze to the blocks.  They wanted to make a flag, but it kept falling over and they ran out of time to fix it.  When we looked at everyone's work, the other children suggested they place the flag into the holes of the gauze to hold it up - it worked!

     The children enjoyed the activity very much - it brought a different spark and learning in context with the story.  There were ample opportunities for language, problem solving, and cooperation!
Enjoy!  Molly

Making numbers with tools

I love this "making numbers" center!  We use it throughout the year and adjust the number set as we learn and grow.  Now, we are exploring teen numbers using ten frames, drawing and a rekenrek.  I asked children to work with their center group to turn over the next numeral, then to make that quantity using the whiteboard easel, the magnetic ten frames, and the rekenrek.  

Enjoy!  Molly

Valentine's Day Fun

      Valentine's Day offers so many great learning opportunities in kindergarten.  This year, we made a mosaic hearts for display.  The first day, I talked about how a mosaic is an art piece made of different small pieces.  We looked at some mosaic pieces and noticed the way the tiles were placed and the grout lines or spaces between the small tiles.  Then, children were given 1/2" squares of different color papers and a background to glue them onto.  They tried different patterns and ways of gluing the tiles.  These papers were hung to dry and later flattened before school the following day.  Then, children were given a template of a heart they could trace around on the back of their paper.  After cutting out the heart, they mounted their hearts on black paper for some contrast.

     This activity could be done with many different colors/shapes throughout the year - consider a star for winter holidays or a shamrock for March!
     
     Of course, writing letters was part of our celebration also.  My students were very excited to write a letter to their family!

     Our school is located about a block from the post office, so we were able to walk over, have a short tour, and mail the letters home!

Enjoy!  Molly

Using Toy Boarders in Math

My sister-in-law found some wonderful new toys - Toy Boarders.  These toys look almost like toy soldiers, but with a twist.  They come in packs of snow boarders, skate boarders, or surfers.  I just knew my kinders would love these!  Besides being a great play toy, I thought they would be fun for math.
We are currently working on composing numbers so I designed a problem using all three types!  I told the children that I'd discovered an amazing new play park where children could snow board, surf, or skate.  But, only 10 children could go in at a time.   I had my children work in small groups. They made combinations of ten using the boarders and printed scenes.

 

Then, after several combinations, they chose one to record.  I thought my children needed a little help with the recording and wanted them to record what they had discovered not a different combination.  So, I made some small pictures they could use to paste to a recording sheet to show their chosen solution rather than having them draw in their journals.

 

The students were very successful and enjoyed sharing their findings later.  When packing up for going home, one boy commented, "That was fun!" as he placed his recording sheet in his backpack.

Enjoy!   Molly

Teen Number Snowflake Math

Learning to recognize TEEN numbers, both numerals and quantities

We had fun filling in the ten-frame with colorful stones to show a quantity between 10 and 20 and coloring the snowflake with the matching numeral!  Some colorful SNOWFLAKE MATH on a dreary winter day!

Visit our TeachersPayTeachers store (Right to the Core) to download this FREE activity!

Speaking of snowflakes....
We read the story, Snowflake Bentley and learned how to look closely at snowflakes.  Then we practiced drawing them different ways, but always with six sides.  We then used acrylic paint in cool winter colors on clear acetate paper - yup, the old stuff we used with overhead projectors!  You can purchase this in larger sizes at an art supply store.  These are gorgeous hanging in the light, either in a window or glass door!