Learning Stations, Solid Shapes & Initial Letter Cookies

Whew!  What a week we had...  On Tuesday we had a 2 hour delay because of the bitter cold, and then on Thursday we had another two hour delay because of snow!  On Tuesday I went in at the regular time and got lots of work done.  It was so nice and quiet.  I organized my Skill Tubs and straightened up the counter behind my teaching table.  I had hoped to take care of my "Bin of Shame" (you know the one - the little tub that sits on the floor behind my desk into which I toss things that "I'll take care of soon").  Well, I didn't even touch it.  Yesterday I went in at the two hour delay time because our country road wasn't cleaned early enough to go in any sooner.

Despite the shortened days, we did get a lot done this past week.  Here are some pictures of our Literacy and Math Centers, a writing prompt, plus a fun Cookie letter sound activity.

Word Work Station.  The kids sorted CVC words by initial letter, and then wrote some (those beginning with our most recently studied consonants) onto a record sheet.

Math Station.  For our math center activity this week, we are using my Snowman Ten Frame activity.

My Snowman Ten Frame pack includes ten frames and counters for practice making numbers to 20.

After completing the ten frame activities above, students did this page from Deanna Jump's Sneezy pack.  They loved using colored pencils!

Mrs. S.'s Station. This week the kids are working on rhyming words with this Learning Mat from The Mailbox.

I love how learning center activities from The Mailbox include a worksheet for extra practice.  These pages also let parents know what their kiddo does at school!

Flat or Solid Shapes?  This is something I whipped up on the fly.  The Kinders sorted solid shapes and flat shapes (left over Saxon calendar pieces) into two groups. They enjoyed identifying solid shapes in common objects such as a block and a pencil.  This tub is now in one of our Skill Spots for independent practice.

Literacy Small Group activity.  This week some of my small literacy groups practiced sight words using this spinner activity from The Mailbox.  I changed the provided words to some that we are currently studying.

Two Kinders writing words with colored pencils.

Baker, Baker!  My kids flipped for this activity - using a spatula, they lifted a "cookie" from the cookie sheet, read the letter, named the sound, and then placed the cookie on a pocket chart.  I purchased this cookie bulletin board kit (it has a big cookie jar cut out) a few years ago at Target, and never used it until this week.  It is laminated, so the letters I wrote in Sharpie will wipe right off with rubbing alchohol.

 The baker places the cookie on the pocket chart behind the matching initial sound picture cards.  (This pocket chart is part of a Skill Spot - the kids can rearrange the the mixed up sentence strips shown above.  Below you can see some poems in write on/wipe off protectors hanging on the side of the pocket chart stand.  The kids love to look for sight words an letters, circling them with dry erase markers - which are also hanging on the stand.)

This baker means business!  :-) Kinders love to pose for my camera!

This book is a favorite of mine, and my Kinders.  I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Laminack several times - he visited our school, and I attended two of his workshops at our local university.  I have an autographed copy of this book!

After reading Snow Day! by Lester Laminack, we wrote about what we would do if we had a snow day.  The kids used lots of strategies to do their writing - sounding out words, and writing the letters they heard, looking around the room for words, using our Idea Snowman, and asking a friend for help.  Here are a few examples.  I think they did a good job!  Get the writing page here.