Summer Enrichment Academy

I taught "Fly Into First" in the first session.  I had a small group of 7 students which was great because I had a lot of time to work one-on-one with some students.  Before the session began, I met with a friend who taught first grade.  We discussed daily routines and skills students would learn in first grade.  Each day in the SEA, I did lessons to introduce students to new skills so students would have a head start in the new school year.  With such a small group, we had lots of opportunities to share work and partner talk.  We had so much fun playing math games, and practicing numbers, writing and high-frequency words!

I taught "Jumpstart Kindergarten" in the second session.  This is a great opportunity for students to be introduced to the school setting before the school year starts.  I had an amazing Instructional Assistant who knew most of the students from the first session of "Kinderfun."  Each day, we introduced alphabet letters and numbers.  We practiced writing our names and learned to use scissors and glue.  We did fun activities with bubbles and chalk so students could practice social skills too.  It was really cool to see how much students learned in the short summer session!  I'm so excited for these students to start Kindergarten!

IPSF Summer Enrichment Academy- Round 2

This summer, I'm going to teach two sessions at IPSF's Summer Enrichment Academy.  This will be my second time and I am so excited and thankful for the opportunity!  I'll be teaching "Fly Into First Grade" and "Jumpstart Kindergarten."  Only two more days of school and then I'll be getting ready for the summer sessions.  It's going to a busy and great summer!  Like I always say, "Busy is good!"

Fluency Practice

After the second trimester testing, our team decided to focus on building fluency.  We started using these fluency practice worksheets from Shelby County Schools Kindergarten Kove.  At the start of the week, we highlight all the high-frequency words and blend the CVC words.  Students keep this in their morning work folder and will take it home on Friday.  We practice reading throughout the week.  The highlighted HFWs and the blending support has definitely helped students read more fluently.  The repetition has helped build confidence and by the end of the week, students are reading the whole page independently.  I can't wait to see our improved fluency scores next trimester!

During conferences, parents told me how impressed and surprised they were when their child first came home with this handout and read all these sentences.  Proud teacher moment!

Project Based Learning- Bird Nests (Kinder)

We've read a lot of stories about animals; the way they move, their babies and habitats.  We had a field trip to The Living Desert (a local zoo) and got to see lots of different types of desert animals in their homes.

 I planned a PBL project and we made bird nests!  I gave each heterogeneous group a bird and they had to build the perfect nest for their bird.  Our driving question was, "What type of home could we build for our bird?"  The final products turned out perfect!

On the first day, I introduced the project by talking about our past animal stories and reading the book, "Mama Built a Little Nest."  This book was perfect because it has a lot of different types of birds from different habitats.  We talked about the different types of nests; cavity, platform, cup, pendulum.  Our project was focusing on two of the nests, platform and cup. 

On the second day, I told students a story about a bird that got lost during the weekend storm and landed on our school campus.  I gave each group a bird, an eagle or hummingbird, and assigned a captain.  Students made a collage with pictures I printed from the internet and copied from our stories.  As groups were building their collages and talking about the characteristics of their nest, I talked with groups and wrote the items they would need to search for.  Then we went on our nature walk.  I gave each student a pair of plastic tweezers to act as the beak of the birds.  The captains carried the collection bags.

My BTSA mentor came into observe our project and she walked in as we were walking back from our nature walk.  Students started building their nests, using the collages as a guide.  The building was the best part of the project!  Every single student was engaged and participating, even my shy students!  And everyone was on task, which just goes to show that it was a real meaningful learning experience.  I heard lots of great collaborating and academic language.  Students were discussing the items they collected and where they needed to be glued down (we were using glue since we didn't have mud).  They were discussing the shape their nest needed to be; tall, round, flat, big, small. 

I heard a lot of reflecting and once students started building, they were talking about items they wish they would've gotten more of.  The time flew by and before we knew it, it was time for recess.  I let my students use their recess to collect more items, now that they had a better idea of what they needed (No tweezers this time because all the other classes were out there too).  They were thrilled to give up their recess to work on their project, I couldn't believe it!

After round 2 of their item collection, they got back to work on building their nest.  When our nests were finally finished, I moved their poster boards to the hallway counters to dry.  My students had PE, which was perfect because my BTSA mentor and I had time to discuss the project.  We talked about PBL projects and how they are a lot of planning but well worth it, if you can connect content all together.  For my class, we had all the animal stories from the previous unit and our field trip which made a perfect platform for a PBL project.  I was so nervous for the management aspect and staying on a time schedule.  I think these uncertainties come with the planning of a PBL project.  Every project will be different and I had to just do it with the kids and figure out what would work for us.

On the third day, we made a concluding video.  I filmed each group for about 30 seconds while they presented their nest to the class.  They talked about what type of nest it was, what items they used, and why their nest was perfect for their bird.  I used the VivaVideo app (it's free and I downloaded it onto my phone) to put all the clips together.  Of course, we had to watch our video together and my students were so excited to see it!

Overall, a very successful project.  It was wonderful to hear all the academic language and see students collaborating.  It was a lot of planning but it was so worth it, I can't wait to plan the next PBL project!

ELA Writing Tasks

My district has a big focus on writing and each unit has a "Module" that outlines the writing tasks.  Each week we complete thinking maps and write 2-3 sentences about our story.  This week's story was My Lucky Day and we wrote about which character we thought was smarter.  On the first day of writing, we completed a circle map about Piglet, who we thought was the smarter character.  The middle circle has the main idea, "Piglet," and the bigger circle has details about why Piglet is smarter.  On the next day, I model how to transfer the information from our circle map to the sentence frame.  We do a partner talk to orally practice the sentence frames.

Sidenote- The circle maps are outlined in green and yellow to expose students to "Step Up To Writing."  In later writing tasks, we will also use an outline T-chart.  They use the circle map to brainstorm, the T-chart to organize their thoughts, and the sentence frame to publish their writing.  With guidance and support, of course!

Now we are ready to write!  Students use their own circle map to fill out the sentence frames.  The circle maps have 3 or more details and they get to chose 2 for their sentence frame.

Roll A Sight Word

We are always practicing our high-frequency words!  I found this dice game that is super simple and lots of fun!  I downloaded the freebie worksheet from The Reading Bungalow.  Students roll the dice, read the sight word, and then write it!

I had one student that went above and beyond!  After he filled the chart, he created his own on the back! So amazing!

My students loved the game and practiced reading and writing their HFWs, I love it!  

Snowman Directed Drawing

I love to do directed drawings with my students!  They are always so proud of themselves and impressed with their art.  The end results are adorable and I love how different each one is.  I looked on pinterest to get some ideas on a winter directed draw and found this activity from Proud to be Primary with lots of examples and a step-by-step guide!

We traced our snowman with a permanent marker and used watercolor to paint them.  I drilled in the routine, "Water, Paint, Paper," so students would know how to use the watercolors.  Majority of my students have never painted!  It was a successful December art project and they look so great on our wall!

Number Talks

I love Number Talks!  We do a number talk everyday before our math lesson and it is an amazing way to build number sense.  It helps build those critical subitizing skills because students have to think quick.  It's a great routine that I learned at a district training.  The whole activity takes about 10 minutes and my students love it!

Students look at the ten frame to see how many counters they see.  Then we do a partner talk to discuss the different strategies they used, you know I love those partner talks!  I have students come up and tell the class their strategy and I draw the pattern and write the number sentence.

Say It, Move It

This is a great instructional routine to practice blending and segmenting.  I got this workmat from a fellow teacher but there are different variations.  We start with the blocks in the middle of the circle and I tell students the word.  In this picture, we were doing "jet."  First we segment the word and with each sound, we move a block down to the line and write the letter.  Next, we blend the sounds.  We touch each block as we say the associated letter sound, and then slide our finger across to blend the sounds.  I usually use this routine at the start of the week when I introduce a new story at my reading centers.  It provides a great foundation for the new CVC words we'll be reading throughout the week.

This routine is great for all students because it's kinesthetic and builds phonemic awareness.  My students love "Say It, Move It," and have so much fun with the blocks and dry-erase markers!

School Transfer

The school year has started!  My room is set up, we're learning our routines and we are in the 2nd week!  Annnnd I'm being transferred.  With all schools in the district offering Full-Day Kindergarten this year, a lot of families left my school and our enrollment dropped.  Two of us Kinder teachers have to move!  I'm being transferred to another school that had to open another Kindergarten class due to increased enrollment. Fortunately, I'll still be teaching Kindergarten, thank goodness!

So after the 2nd week, and lots of back-and-forth with the district office, it's official.  I spent my Saturday clearing out and moving my classroom.  It's sad to take everything down, I feel like I just hung it all up!  I'm really worried about how my kids will feel coming into an empty room on Monday, they were finally starting to feel comfortable!

Our last day was a sad day!  I loved my school so much and had such an amazing Kinder team.  The staff had a little good-bye party and our kids brought us flowers and cards, so sweet!

K3 Classroom

I am loving my room setup and wanted to share some pictures!  This is my second year at my site and I feel that I fixed the kinks that were bothersome last year.

I have a pretty big classroom but this wide shot makes it look huge!

Above is our Focus Wall with all the ELA weekly posters and vocabulary words.  Below is our Writing Wall.  I hang students' writing each week.  I love that this wall is right next to the door because visitors always see our best work!

Above is the Word Wall, a great reference for student writing.  Below is our Dictation Wall.  Each month, we do themed dictations and I take students' pictures.  This has been great for all my EL's because we have the opportunity to talk about and relate to the different months, holidays, and seasons.  My students love seeing their pictures up on the wall and it's perfect for memory books at the end of the year!  I love looking through them at the end of the year and seeing how each student has grown.

This is our classroom library and Calendar Wall (don't mind the extra tables, they will be moved soon).  This is also where extra work or art projects are hung, and we have a little graph area where we graph our favorite things throughout the year.  I am LOVING my new Calendar Wall this year!  The actual calendar set was from the Target dollar spot and the month signs have themed decorations!  Another great thing for my ELs and so much more fun than my boring month signs from last year.  I also downloaded some of these calendar pieces from Wild About Firsties.  We count the days of school with the ten frames and the hundreds chart.  I use dot stickers to count each day and dry-erase markers to write the numbers and the date.  I used different colored dot stickers to help kids count and see the different parts of ten.  I love having the ten frames to count the days because it exposes students to ten frames and teaches them to count by fives and tens.

First Day Pictures

The first day of school is always so exciting and the kiddos always look so nice!  I love to take their picture on the first day and throughout the year, so we can see how they've grown throughout the school year.  This is a fun activity because the students' perception of themselves is really interesting.  I give them a blank kid template and tell them to draw/color themselves, then, I put it next to their photo.  Their pictures are so cute and it makes for a great beginning-of-the-year bulletin board!  You can download the kid template here!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

It's the first week of school and we have been reading lots of stories and practicing different classroom routines.  My students have been loving the story, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?.  Every time I read the story, the kids love to read aloud with me, they just can't help themselves!  We have also been learning how to do partner talks, and this is a difficult concept for my new kinders.  We do partner talks throughout the day, everyday, so it's really important that they master this routine.  I thought I could incorporate the story into a partner talk lesson, since they are so comfortable with the storyline.  We made puppets with the characters, then students took turns telling each part of the story.  I originally saw the puppets in action in Miss Kindergarten's classroom and just had to use it in my classroom!

I was so excited with how well they did!  They took turns with each character and the partner talk concept just came naturally with the taking-turns part, amazing!  The best thing was watching my spanish-speaking students, seriously, these kiddos do not know any English!  They were retelling the story to their partner and with so much confidence.  I was amazed and so excited!  You can download the puppet template here!

Shoebox Centers

We use Shoebox Centers a couple times each week, usually at the end of the day.  I love these because they help students practice the reading and math skills we have been learning.  At the beginning of the school year, some centers help students with their fine motor skills.  We practice our social skills too because they are forced to work together and share.  They are so focused on their center and I rarely have any behavior issues because they are so engaged!

Students can chose the activity they want to do and I allow 2-3 students at each center.  I may assign a student to a specific center if there is a skill they really need to practice.  They take their center and find a working spot in the room.

Pictured above is a center that practices fine motor skills.  I found it at the Target Dollar Spot!  Both bottom pictures are counting centers that use clothespins or beads to practice math and fine motor skills, a two for one!