Stations & Skill Spots (Plus an Update on our Heifer International Giving)

My Kinders were busy not only with holiday activities, they were hard at work last week practicing important skills with our Literacy Stations and Skill Spots.

Our Independent CD Books Skill Spot is a favorite for listening to reading.

All of our Skill Spots, Skill Tubs, and Centers have books.  The kids love to practice reading books - which they read to me during our "Book Club" time so that they can contribute a dollar to our Heifer International Read to Feed program.  **Update**  In response to our Day of Giving Challenge (click on this link to watch our AWESOME video), our wonderful middle/high school students, spectators at the 2/2/13 basketball game, two local businesses, and an anonymous donor we greatly surpassed our goal of raising $1000 dollars...  In one day our little community raised $6426.72!!

Looking for letters.  I have several of these write on - wipe off pockets with poems in them available for the Kinders.  This little boy is looking for the letter r.

Popcorn Word Wall.  This bulletin board features all of the sight words from our reading series written on popcorn shaped note paper. 

 Spelling sight words.

Pocket Chart Skill Spot.  I have several pocket charts hanging on clothing racks (much cheaper than the real ones) in this Skill Spot.  These boys are working on making numbers with the smiley face counters.

"This" Writing Station.  In this station, the kids practiced writing the word this and wrote sentences using the word.  I think by now everyone can spell this!

Word Work Station.  In this station, from The Mailbox, the students sorted -an and -ap word family picture and word cards.  They also did a worksheet featuring the word families (not pictured).

Kinders love to write with dry erase markers!  I laminated the cards from the above station to make them wipe-off for reuse.

A file folder center from Lakeshore Learning gives additional CVC word practice.

Rhyme time!  Students match rhyming picture and word cards from Apple & ABC's Valentine pack.

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.

Number Sense Activities

We have been busy working on building number sense this year.  As mentioned in an earlier post, our corporation has adopted Math in Focus - a Singapore approach to math.  This method of teaching math focuses on using lots of manipulatives - something that really makes a lot of sense for kinders!  They have really  enjoyed working them.  Here are some pictures of a few activities we have done.

Dino Math Mats.  I made these to help my kinders to practice today's lesson on "How many more?"  Partners took turns rolling the die and placed that many spikes (wooden blocks) on the dinosaur.  They then determined how many more were needed to make six.  After working for a while, some of my little smarties figured out that they were making number bonds!  *yay!*  I added ten sticker spots to each dino - for decoration - but also with the thought that these prehistoric pals could be used when making ten.

Match me!  Partners take turns building a tower of cubes for the other to match.

Roll & build.  Roll a die and make a cube tower with the specified number of cubes.  Gerber baby food containers make a great "shaker" for die - they can be sufficiently rolled, but don't get away.

Laminate construction paper to create durable work mats.  Mine are color coded for our four tables and have been in use for three years.  They give the kids a defined work space and help to keep their materials organized.

 

 Playing cards are a fun alternative to dice and number cards.  (Remove the face cards and be sure to tell the kids that the Ace card stands for 1.) 

One more - select a card and then add one to get a new number. 

Final Stations for the Year

We are in the home stretch, and needed something sort of simple for our Literacy Stations.  We each selected quick to set up activities for our Stations.  Yesterday at PLC our principal asked us to reflect on our year.  Each team shared some success stories.  One of ours was our Literacy Stations.  By working in small groups our students were able to practice five different skills each week through fun and engaging activities.  These small groups also allowed us to differentiate lessons for our various learners.  Each week at our Team Planning Meeting, we discussed what skills were coming up, and which skills needed to be retaught.  Using this information, we worked together to create and share some wonderful activities.  I want to say THANK YOU! to my wonderful team.  It has been a great year!

Reading Station.  This is a Plural Noun game from a Mailbox book (I don't remember the title, but it had ten different game boards and ten different games.) 

The students did this page after playing the game.

Literacy Station.  I absolutley love The Mailbox!  There are so many wonderful ready to use activites in each issue.  This sorting activity is a great follow up to the past few weeks' color and number word activites.

Writing Station.  This sentence writing activity was pulled out of a Mailbox magazine and laminated. 

Once the Kinders worked together to put the sentences in order, they wrote them onto lined paper.

Math Literacy.  This is one of the nifty Lakeshore activities we have.  Students used realistic looking ladybugs to act out simple addition story problems.

After completing the activity above, the kids did this addition page from Teacher's Helper.

Listening Station.  For a change, the Kinders listened to a phonemic awareness CD from Lakeshore.  See the box below.

Literacy Stations for this Week

It's hard to believe that the end of the school year is near!  We have only two more weeks of Literacy Stations!  There will be a few days left after we complete these next two rounds of stations, but we will be busy with other activities.  I like to wrap up my year with some nice closing activities and crafts.  The kids always enjoy helping to clean up and put away things on our final day.  Kinders love to help clean up and tidy the classroom for the "little kids" who will call our classroom home next fall!

Reading Station.  Popcorn flip-over game.  Students take turns pulling a card from the popcorn container.  If they read the word correctly, they "pop" the word over and replace the card.  Click on the link below for this activity.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9MDNKX0hULWprS2c

This is the record sheet for the activity above.

Literacy Station.  Groovy Short Vowel Word Sort from www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/kidsrcute

Record sheet for above activity.

Writing Station.  One of my wonderful partners came up with this fun activity. After creating a flower, students choose sight words to write onto them.  The cards are two sided - one side has the correct spelling, and the other is wrong.  They must decide upon the correct spelling before writing the word onto their flower.   I chose some of the more frequently misspelled words for my cards.

Math Literacy.  Dominos again!  This time they are being "parked" according to their sum.  This parking lot was included in a recent link, below is an updated link that includes the record sheet below.  https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9QmF3bG1hYjRwb00