Growing Readers

This is the time of year when Kinders tend to really blossom in their reading skills.  It's so exciting to see them with their cute little noses in books!  I usually have several kids following me around with a book that they want to read to me.  :-)

In order to best support student learning I am always thinking about ways to improve and add to our literacy block.  I am fortunate to have two amazing teaching partners ~ we collaborate and share ideas every day.  We all do Daily 5, which has been a great factor in helping our kiddos to become readers. "Read to Self" is such a powerful way for students to practice reading.  Here are a few pictures of some of my little readers.  They are free to choose where to sit ~ as long as they are able to read without getting (or being) distracted.

The little guy in the corner in the upper left picture really likes that cozy reading spot ~he goes there almost every day.  I was a little hesitant to bring in that blue chair ~ I thought there would be squabbles over who could sit in it, but to my delight the Kinders have been great about taking turns!

 More readers.  (I guess the kids in the lower right are reading to someone, not self.)

Another component of our literacy block is writing.  The Kinders in these pictures have chosen "Work on Writing" as their Daily 5 choice.  In addition to writing in their journals I have lots of writing activities and materials available in our Writing Station.  

My latest find is the WONDERFUL new reading program from the fabulous DeeDee Wills & Deanna Jump.  OMG!!!  I am sooooo excited about it!  As I mentioned earlier, I am always trying to improve upon what we do.  For the kids, but also for myself.  Our adopted reading series is so boring, and I found myself supplementing so much that I felt that I was writing my own curriculum.  Well, no more!  Thanks to the work of such talented ladies I now have a comprehensive reading program with trade books that make sense for the month in which they are taught. ( I could never understand why our reading series had My Garden  for the unit we do in late December/early January.  Yes, I know it is warm in some places in those months, but it is still winter...  Why not have a book like The Snowy Day?  Sorry about my little rant.)

Anyway, Guiding Readers is now available for January & February and contain everything you need to teach all the skills with quality trade books.  The units are full of easy prep lessons and materials.

One component I really like is the response to text writing.  Here are some pictures of some of my little cuties' writing in response to The Snowy Day.  (Hey, that's a great book for January!)

I copied the writing pages I wanted to do with my kids & stapled them into booklets.  By keeping the pages together the kids are able to go back and work on a a previous day's writing if they want to.  In this lesson we talked about visualizing as we read the book together.  They shared what they visualized with their partners, and then got their booklets and wrote about it.  This page not only helped my little students, but it served as a "light bulb moment" for me ~ as I was walking around conferring with my students, I came to the little girl who wrote the piece on the left.  I was about to ask her why she drew/wrote herself into the story.  Luckily, I caught myself.  She not only visualized what was happening in the story, she visualized herself into the story!  Pretty cool, huh?

This page is the writing activity that turned "DS" into a writer!  Really.  Up until we did this page, his writing went kind of like this:  scribble, scribble, bother the person near him, walk around looking for words (not ever really sure which words he wanted, but on a word hunt never-the-less), make funny noises, and say "I'm done!"  But, something clicked with this response to literature.  His paper is the one on the right.  

I like that this set has pages for opinion writing.  These kids made me proud ~ they didn't say they liked sunny days because they "like it."  

My little Cutie Pies.  Of course, no post on reading would be complete without some pictures of my darling granddaughters.  Eighteen month old Amelia loves to "read!"  (And she should, her mommy is author Emily Goodwin!)  Sisters, Olivia 2, and Isabella almost 5, share a book.  This was taken one morning after a snowy sleepover at Mimi & Papa's house.  I texted the picture to their kindergarten teacher mommy Sarah of Kinder Cakes ~ of course she loved seeing her girlies reading in the morning!

Mark Down Monday

 

It's time for a markdown!  Get my USA! American themed Literacy Activities for half price! 

Click HERE to purchase!

http://kellyandkimskindergarten.blogspot.com/2014/07/markdown-monday-linky-party-july-14th.html

April Trade and Grade

It's time for the April Trade and Grade blog hop!  I paired up with my talented daughter, Sarah of Kinder Cakes, for this fun hop.  I'm guessing that we are the only Mother ~ Daughter match up!

This month Sarah sent me her fun Under the Sea themed Literacy Stations set.  This set includes so many great activities nine fun activities ~ all aligned to the CCSS!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my kids love Write the Room!  Sarah's fun anchor words Write the Room cards were a great addition to our collection!  I like the record sheet ~ the kids had to figure out where the words went based upon the shapes.

Seaside Sentences ~ I like to have a set of scrambled sentences available for stations/Daily 5 work areas.  I think that having lots of opportunities to build sentences has really helped my kiddos in their own sentence writing.  Sarah's set has colorful cards with cute pictures.

Short vowel practice.  I like how Sarah has included a coloring element to many of the activities ~ students color the pictures to match the circles on the cards.  I have found that this simple addition to the page keeps the kids from rushing through their work. 

Long Vowels!  I like how there are both long & short vowel activities in this set.  The short vowel activity was in last week's word work station & is now available in the Daily 5 word work area.  This week the Kinders worked with long vowels during stations.  Click HERE to see the post about my Literacy Stations/Daily 5.

We always need CVC practice!

Beluga Beginning & Ending Sounds.  This set has a combination of one and multi-syllable words which is great for differentiation.  I used this set in my stations groups ~ I used the single syllable cards with my little strugglers.  They wrote the letters on a white board rather than on the record sheet.

Rhyming cards ~ we played a memory game with these cute bubble & fish cards.  A worksheet is included.

Crabby Blends ~ This cute activity was in one of this week's literacy station.

This set includes one more activity that I don't have pictures of (sorry!).  A fun real & nonsense word sort features sunken ships.

As you can see, Sarah's Under the Sea themed Literacy Stations set includes enough activities for lots of learning!  Get your sample HERE.

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Five for Friday - Busy Week Edition

Whew - this has been a busy week!  (And, it's not over yet...)  It's funny how the weeks that are packed with activities seem to fly by, but also seem incredibly l-o-n-g.  Here's a recap of my week thus far:  Monday - continue quarterly assessments (one kinder at a time), stay after school until 6:30 working on prom decorations, Tuesday - continue quarterly assessments (one kinder at a time), return to school at 6:30 for our spring music program (which was really very cute - we have a great music teacher!), Wednesday - early (7:10) workshop on Prader-Willi syndrome, finish quarterly assessments (do the Happy Dance!), stay after school until 6:30 to work on prom decorations, Thursday - pick up granddaughters from daycare & stay to help with bedtime (I love this part of my week, but there is a reason women have babies in their twenties & thirties...), Friday - stay after school until 7:30 to set up prom decorations, run home to change before heading out to participate in Relay for Life until 12:30 (AM).  Saturday - sleep in until 8:00 to save up energy for tonight's prom. 

Don't get me wrong - I'm not whining...  It's just a lot in one week!

1.  The Sweetest Night...  Our school's tradition has been to have an elaborate Grand March before the actual dance where the community comes out to support the kids (and to see them in all their formal attire).  As each couple promenades to this cute backdrop, a little blurb about them will be read.  The prom queen & king are announced during this event.  This year's theme is "candy."  I think it turned out very cute!  (How many other schools have kindergarten and fourth grade teachers for prom sponsors?) 

 2. Jolly Phonics.  Our PTO has generously purchased three (one for each kinder class) complete sets of Jolly Phonics.  My daughter, Sarah, who teaches kindergarten in a neighboring corporation uses Jolly Phonics and feels that it is a great resource.  My teaching partners and I approached PTO with a request that they provide funding for it, and happily they agreed.  Our PTO is a great support for our students and school!

 3.  Knowledge Quest.  I recently purchased several sets of Scholastic's new Knowledge Quest series.  We had fun with this, Let's Visit a Farm set.  Living in a farming community most of my students were familiar with many of the concepts presented in the books.  The books range from fantasy fiction to non-fiction, but they all had some vocabulary words relating to farms.  I made a Vocabulary Cloud activity to go along with this set (it will be available soon on TpT).  I am looking forward to purchasing and using more of these great collections.

4.  Relay for Life.  The elementary teachers, aides, and principal took part in yesterday's Relay for Life.  We had so much fun!  We walked, talked, ate, laughed, and cried together.  We not only came together to raise money for an important cause, we came together as a group of friends.  I feel blessed to be a part of such a wonderful team of educators.  (My pedometer counted 27,099 steps yesterday!)

5.  Macie's Word Work.  Here's a new product from my TpT store.  I created this as a fun way to practice a variety of literacy skills.

The final slide of the download features a photo of the real Macie!  I'm just sure everyone wants to have a picture of my dog!  lol

Be sure to visit Doodle Bugs to link up your week!

Freebie Friday & Dr. Um... Silly Activities

I have linked up with the wonderful TBA for this week's Freebie Friday!

I also have two new products on TpT just in time for someone's birthday next week.  I know that many teachers have de-Seussified their classrooms, but our school still enjoys celebrating the author's birthday.  One is a Dr. Seuss - inspired nonsense word sorting activity.  (Is is still OK to mention his name?  Or, should I rename this product?)

Nonsense Word Sort

I Have - Who Has?

My other product is an I have - Who has rhyming word game.  This time, I decided to call it "Dr. Silly."  Thanks to My Cute Graphics for the darling cat clip art! 

Even if you don't celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday, I hope you check out these products, and consider purchasing them for your classroom. 

Jolly Snowmen Pack Winner & a Sale

Congratulations to Amy M.!  She won all five of my Jolly Snowman packs.

Amy M. won these snowmen packs.  You can get them on sale at my Teachers pay Teachers store!

Number Bond Flash Cards

Cupcake Literacy Activities

Visit my Teachers pay Teachers store for a sale featuring these, and several other, items.

Hello Again!

It has been a while since I've last posted anything!  Sorry!  As I'm sure you all are, I've been super busy with the holiday preparations - and trying to keep my Kinders on track.  Christmas - and other December holidays - really add a whole other dimension to a Kindergarten classroom!  Really, they have been pretty good.  

Here are some pictures of a few activities we've recently done.

 How many will fit?  My Kinders enjoyed this lesson on volume:  Testing how many items will fit into a small plastic cup "with the lid shut" (a hand placed over the top).  Using a white board & clothes pin to fashion clipboards, they recorded their findings on this record sheet.

 Each table group had the same six *mushroom* tubs of objects.  The little pompons were the most challenging to count.

When they compared their results, they were amazed to find out that their numbers were very similar.
                                        
 Math Art!  I have really enjoyed incorporating art projects into our Math curriculum.  In this activity students sorted large and small triangles, circles, and stars.  After sorting they created these cute Christmas trees for our classroom bulletin board.

We recently read Yoko - a tale of a girl who is teased for her lunch of sushi.  (As it happened on the day I read this - before I read it - a little boy told me that he had sushi in his lunchbox!)  Using manilla file folders (which are on our school supply list) I had my eighth grade helper cut out these lunch boxes, which the kids decorated.  Inside they wrote a menu of what they would like to have for lunch, and then drew the food.

                                  

This little boy has such nice handwriting! 

Autumn Leaves Syllable Sort

Fall is in the air!  It's hard to believe how quickly the leaves have changed.  It doesn't look as if this summer's drought will affect the fall colors too much.  (I hope.)  Thinking fallish thoughts, I created a little syllable sorting activity for my Kinders.  They enjoyed naming their leaf pictures and clapping out the beats.

My students liked sticking their leaves onto the appropriate tree. 

Our current focus wall clotheslines.  I like to write the sight words we are learning on cute shaped notepads.  I have gourds, apples, and pumpkins ready to go for our next unit.

Here is a freebie for a syllable sorting activity.

Learning Stations

Sorry about two posts on the same day.  I never seem to have enough time to get everything done that I want to do.  (Sounds familiar, huh?)  So I figured I should get this posted while I still have time...
My kinders have been working so hard to be able to work in small groups and pairs, and they have really done a great job!  Last week we did a trial run, and now we are all set for the real deal next week.  I am lucky to have some helpers on most days - an eighth grader comes in on Tuesday and Thursday (we are a K-12 building), and two  moms have promised to come in on Wednesday & Friday.  That just leaves Monday without extra help.  Even so, I am very happy to have help four days a week!

We (my two fabulous teaching partners & I) plan our Learning Stations together.  Usually we try to do the same activities, but sometimes we trade off - rotating three activities.  We allot a half hour for Stations, and our shared aide comes into each of our rooms to help run an activity.

Mrs. S's Station.  Read, Write, Stamp!  Sight word practice.

Word Word Station.  Spelling their, and classmates', names with magnets. 

Writing Station.  Rainbow names - roll the color coded cube and write your name using that color crayon.  Simple, but a great way to help them to practice writing their names!

Listening Station.  I got my new jackbox and headphones!  Yay!  Now everyone will hear the story well.

My station.  We will arrange these little (Saxon) number cards in order, and place the appropriate amount of counters below the cards.  I do have some leveled practice pages to use after working with the manipulatives, but I forgot to photograph them - sorry!

My nifty new stacking counters from Nasco.  I was looking for something *cheap* and fun to use instead of always using teddies, linking cubes, or foam counters.  We've used them once so far, and the kids like them.  I did let them play with them for a while - they had to get the sticking them on the end of their fingers out of their system before being able to get to work.  In fact, I usually do allow the Kinders to play with manipulatives before asking them to work.  I've found that by giving them even two - three minutes to play helps them to focus when I need them to work.

Literacy Stations "Test Run"

We have been busy "building stamina" for the past few weeks.  Daily 5 users may recognize this - practicing working in small groups using the "I-Chart" for guidance.  We don't really do a daily five, but a variation that includes a weekly five.  Our Literacy Stations include five activities that help students to practice important literacy skills (we sneak in a little Math Literacy to our stations work).

My Kinders have been working really hard to build enough stamina to be able to work in small groups.  They have done an amazing job!  It is so wonderful to watch them as they work quietly together on the simple tasks in their tubs.  Tomorrow we will do a test run of the real deal - instead of several various activities, the kids will be given specific tasks to do in their small groups.  I am confident that they will do a good job!

Writing Station.  Students will practice reading, spelling, and writing the sight words that we have learned so far.  I found the little magnet boards at Walmart this past summer for 99 cents each, and the little wipe off strips in the Target Dollar Spot (they still had a few the last time I looked).

 Mrs. S's Station.  Some more simple activities.  These all focus on initial sounds.  I didn't photograph it, but they will do a page from Teacher's Helper, too.

 

 Word Work Station.  Students will do a few pre-made letter naming activities and this freebie page.

My Station.  I will check students for letter naming while others use these rhyming activities.

Listening Station.  We still have to use these oldy moldy headphones - I ordered a new jack box and headphones, but they haven't come in yet.  Hopefully, I'll get them this week.  But, until then these old ones do work.

In addition to Literacy Stations, we will begin using our Skill Tubs this week.  So far, we have been working with small groups.  The Kinders work in pairs when using Skill Tubs.  Many of the things in these tubs are activities that they have done before.  I have found that the students are better able to work independently when the activities are familiar.