Bunny Baskets

 

I made these while student teaching first grade, again as a service learning project with my high schoolers, and I'm excited to do them again this week with my kindergarten kiddies!

1.  You need a clean, empty milk jug for each student.  I sent a letter home last week asking everyone to bring some in.  Some moms are kindly collecting extras in case someone needs one!

(The most time consuming part of this may be taking off the labels.  As they come in, I am peeling most of the labels off, then rinsing the residue under hot water.  With a little scrubbing it comes off pretty easily.  just painting over the labels with white paint and calling it a day!  Although, I did just read that wiping them down with vegetable oil 24 hours beforehand will help them slide off!)

2.  Draw a pair of white ears and a pair of pink middles for each student.  I used a half sheet of white construction paper and a quarter sheet of pink.

3.  Cut off the top of the milk jug.  Just follow the natural bend of the jug and try to make the edges as smooth as possible.  (I traced the line in black here to make it easier to see.)

4.  Okay, that's all the prep work!  Now, have students cut out the ears and glue the pink middles to the white outsides. 

5.  Set up a hot glue station.  For each student, you need one pipe cleaner cut in half, a pair of wiggle eyes, and two pom pom balls.  I used a small one for the nose and a big one for the tail!  You could also use a cotton ball tail.  :)

(Management tip:  I am going to have the students work on coloring a book about spring animals at their seats and call them over to work with me one at a time!)

6.  Glue the ears to the top of the jug- one on each side of the handle. 

7.  Have the student fold the pipe cleaner halves in half.  Glue them to the outside edge opposite the handle.

8.  Glue on the wiggle eyes and nose.

9.  Glue on the tail on the back.

10.  All finished and ready to use for egg collecting!  For a little something extra, I have plastic baggies of Easter grass ready to send home with each student to put in the bottom of their bunny basket. 

Happy Easter!

Five for Friday- Racing to Spring Break!

 I actually started this post on Thursday night but just didn't get a chance to finish it up until now.  Happy Weekend!

PARCC testing was this week and even though we don't take it, it still affected our grade.  Our specials were switched to first thing in the morning rather than the afternoon.  You know that threw off our day.  The poor kiddies asked for snack after coming back from gym at 9:30am.  And it made for a LONG afternoon.  Wednesday was especially hard, with having library in the classroom and then indoor recess too.  I think we were all a little tired of looking at each other by the end of the day!  On a positive note, the weather is supposed to be warm(er) this week so we will plan on getting outside more! 

We have been saving gallon jugs to make these cute bunny baskets next week as an extension of the end of our animal unit during our last three days before Spring Break...perfect timing!  I'll post another quick tutorial on these tomorrow.

I started incorporating math journals this week with my higher kiddos as an early finisher option.  (I purchased these on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Thank you to The Kindergarten Connection for your fun math journal pages!)  I have SUCH a "hurry up and get it done" class.  Maybe I have too many Type A personalities, or something.  Or maybe they are just five and six years old, I don't know.  But EVERYTHING is a race, especially for my high flyers.  This did not make for very thorough math journal work at first.  Once they got past the reading of the problem, they quickly filled in the equation and flipped the page.  No, no no no.  I showed them all the things we could do...we can fill in the ten frame, we can show the hops on the number line, we can draw tally marks, we can draw a picture and cross off/add objects, we can make them different colors, we can label, etc. etc.  It's starting to sink in a little bit with a few of them.

Also in math, we started measurement this week.  So much fun!  My kiddos moved very quickly past the longer/shorter concept, so we went ahead to measuring and comparing objects with linking cubes.

I was even noticing my high kiddos having a competition with who could get their estimates "right" on our non-standard units of measurement activity, to the point that they were sneaking cubes under the table to measure the object I handed them before filling in their estimate!  I found myself continually repeating "It's not a race.  It's not a contest.  It's not a race.  It's not a contest."  Shew.  They keep me on my toes, that's for sure.  But they are all really enjoying this as one of their math stations this week! I laminated the recording sheets from Crazy for First Grade so we can use them every day.

This has nothing to do with school, but it's so nice to be out running again!  I got in a four mile run last weekend, just before it got dark.

I need to work on strength training again.  I used Sworkit in the past, but it's been a year or so.  I just downloaded the app again and it has improved so much since last time!

However, I have not improved so much since the last time I used it.  So. Sore. This. Week.  Ouch.

 

Last but not least, I've been seeing plastic egg posts everywhere so I know the possibilities with these are endless.  This is just my two cents.  :)

I looked at lots of ideas but ended up with one math and one sight word activity.  I decided to keep it simple, as my class does better with less "stuff" and directions.  :) 

For an addition activity, students will grab one top and one bottom of an egg.  They add the numbers and record the numbers they used and the sum.  I am going to use Kindergarten Smorgasbord's bunny recording sheet here.  He has tons and tons of other fabulous ideas for using eggs, too!

For sight words, they will open an egg and write down the sight word they find inside.  Very simple.  I included our most recent twelve, along with the word so they can make sure they have all of them.  (And so they can close the egg and put the egg back for someone else to use!)

I haven't decided whether I want them to hunt for the eggs, or simply pull them from a basket.  I mean, a hunt would definitely be more fun, but how much chaos would ensue???  Hmmm.... 

Looking forward to three days of school this week!  I'll be taking the week off from writing to enjoy spring break and the Easter Triduum.  Happy Easter! 

Five for Friday- It's All About Reading and Writing

It's been a great week!  Here are some highlights...

This was part of our morning meeting today:

I'm. Not. Kidding. Luckily it was brief and turned to rain by the afternoon!  The kids got a kick out of the contrast though! 

Our writing center is up and running! Thanks to my mentor teacher and some resources from A Cupcake for the Teacher, the kids are really enjoying getting to create and write different projects. I do need to add some vocabulary support and keep monitoring that students are actually writing and using and putting away resources properly. I think I am going to grab a few great writing examples as they complete them, hold them up and talk about them to the entire class for motivation.

Last week I wrote about how we read "Giggle Giggle Quack." In the book, the Farmer takes a vacation and Duck, posing as the farmer, leaves silly notes about what the animals want Bob to do for them. The escapades include ordering pizza and watching movies. So we wrote about what we would ask Bob to do if we were Duck and finished up the writing this week. 

There were lots of laughs while doing this. I love the detail in this one.  In case you are not fluent in kindergarten writing, it says "I would like you to take us to the bowling alley and after that I would like you to take us to the ice cream!"  

A is for apple

On Tuesday I went to a phonological awareness workshop. If there is an area of reading instruction in which I am a bit weaker, it is this one.  I feel a bit "sloppy" at times when implementing our daily five to ten minute PA activities from the reading program, and sometimes they seem pointless or boring for my kiddos who are already up and reading.  The presenter made some interesting points...good phonological awareness activities are essential for all students, and can be done "in the dark," meaning it is all about sound, no letter names or symbols should be connected.  I knew this, but hearing it described in that way was eye-opening!  (No pun intended, of course!)  I know I sometimes let a letter name slip. ("Listen for the B boys and girls!") Although she was conducting her session for a particular company, she introduced many easy little PA activities that I have been implementing during hallway wait time this week.  I think I just need to build up a good bank of activities and make it a habit.  In our reading program we tried substitution of beginning sounds for the first time this week.  I made it sound more like a game and used our puppet.  They loved it!  I am recommitted to trying to work activities like these in throughout our school day! 

We had a slight relapse in our Daily 5 implementation this week. My lowest group keeps complaining that they CAN'T READ and are having a very hard time working with partners.  We did a whole lesson on the three ways to read a book!  I am going to have to try to reteach/model Read to a Partner in their teacher group next week. 

And that's it!  We had a wonderful week. See Doodle Bugs Teaching for all the other Five for Friday posts! 

Math Problem Solving- Task #1

This year our school has been working on implementing math tasks from Marilyn Burn's book 50 Problem Solving Lessons.

 

At first, I have to admit I was skeptical.  I wasn't sure what outcomes I would get or if it would be relevant to my kindergartners.  The tasks begin in 1st grade, but so far my students have been able to handle the first couple of tasks.  As a kindergarten teacher,  I was encouraged to try out one of these per month to track student progress and to help students feel comfortable in solving these types of tasks.  I have tried three of these types of tasks so far.  I have to say, they have given me interesting data on my students and their problem solving skills!

The first task was administered in January.  (This initial problem did not come from the Burns book, but was generated by our teacher team.)  We essentially asked the students to use repeated addition to solve how many buttons would be on five snowmen, if the snowmen each had two buttons for eyes.  I did this task in small groups and had actual buttons at the table for the students to use as manipulatives.  I asked them to show their thinking using drawings, numbers, and equations.  (They were actually familiar with the term equation because we had been using it a lot in reference to addition and subtraction.)

There were some interesting observations...

1. My students are not used to showing their work.  Many of them wanted to just tell me "10" or write "10" and looked puzzled when I asked them to explain with a picture or some numbers.  Many of them ended up writing ways to make 10, since that is what we were most recently practicing.
2. Many students got hung up on drawing snowmen.  :(  We concluded that this was just something that will take a lot of reinforcement.  So many times, in writing, I encourage them to label the picture and add LOTS of details.  And if they are "done" writing, well, they are never done.  Add more details!  But this will not work in math drawings.  I had students adding trees, snowflakes falling from the sky, Olaf-like noses, etc.  While they were lovely drawings, they just don't cut it for math tasks.  :) 
3. My above level students struggled with this!  And many of my mid to low level students did well!  I think the reason is that many of my high students are great "number callers" but need to develop a deeper conceptual understanding as well as how to show their thinking (as described in #1 and #2) 
4. The different strategies they used were so neat to look at and compare later!  Some drew tally marks for each eye, circles for heads with eyes, accidentally counted buttons on the snowman bellies, wrote repeated addition problems, and so on.  I don't think there were two alike, and it was amazing for me to see the differences and their unique ways of thinking! 

So, I guess overall our first task was very enlightening.  We have continued implementing similar tasks since then, and I will continue to write about those, too!

Five for Friday: Spring has Sprung in Kindergarten!

Guess what?  We went outside for recess four days this week!!  AND while driving to work after four days off from snow, I saw that Rita's was open for the season!  It pretty much made my sleepy Daylight Savings Time Monday.  :)  It's hard to believe last week at this time, temperatures were in the single digits and six inches of snow were on the ground.  It might be safe to say that spring has sprung. 

Speaking of spring, I opted out of the Horton hallway display and, since we are studying baby animals,  on the spur of the moment, created this instead:

It is modified from a Pinterest idea, but there was just a picture on the image link, no creator or directions.  I first read a little book on the life cycle of a chick to the kids, and we created sentences on a piece of chart paper using our sight words.

1.  They drew an oval on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Then I helped punch a small hole in the center, and they "cracked open" the egg by peeling the paper outwards.

2.  We glued pompoms to the center of a piece of blue paper.  Next time I would like to add a beak and eyes, but I'm not sure how to do it unless I make the chicks from paper.  Any ideas???  I told this kids this would be like a "peek" inside the egg.

3.  They glued the egg over top of the pom poms.  I glued their writing onto a strip of green paper and we shredded the top of the green paper with scissors to look like grass.  I then stapled the writing paper to the egg paper.  

They did a fabulous job and the hallway looks great!  Their favorite part of the whole activity was tearing a circle in the middle of the paper to show the cracking egg.  :)  (My favorite part was punching and hanging all the letters...not.)

 

As I said, we have been studying animals, and I needed to have them do an activity using a fantasy book for one of my masters classes.  So, Giggle Giggle Quack was a perfect fit.

I made a quick template and had them draw and write about what they would say if they were Duck.  They had some creative ideas, including taking the animals to a movie theater, bowling, Pizza Hut, and McDonalds.  Click on the picture to download the template...

A big project I worked on this week was creating a writing center in our classroom!  It's still a work in progress, but it's coming together nicely!  This area has been "closed" to the students this week as I add to it.  I think this is helping build their anticipation!  They love their personal writing journals, and I have lots of budding writers in my class, so I'm excited to capture this and provide some structure and more materials for them to use.  I forgot to snap a picture before I left, so more on the finished version next week. 

 

My high group is loving their new shamrock game.  They are asking me to add different ways to make the numbers, like addition facts and tally marks.  Luckily (no pun intended) Dollar Tree still had shamrocks, so I'm going to add a few more! 

Daily 5 update:  Introduced "Read to a Partner" this week.  They did pretty well, especially with sitting "elbow, elbow, knee, knee."  One of my most difficult students absolutely loves Read to a Partner!  This week I was just having them practice sitting properly and reading the words, pictures, or retelling to each other and especially practicing taking turns with each other.  Next week I will introduce how one partner checks for understanding.  I love watching my students settle in with a good book.  We've taken it VERRRYYY slowly but they're getting into a good routine.  I have a few questions about how to "mesh" this with my current 3 group rotation setup, however.  I want to transition them over, but not all at once.  Any thoughts?

All in all, it was a great, productive week.  It's good to be back into a regular routine! Check out the other Five for Friday posts at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

March Math..."While I'm Waiting" Activities

Just a quick midweek post about some "while I'm waiting" activities that I recently created. These are for those times when you have a small group waiting while you circulate getting everyone settled at their stations. They are nothing earth shattering and literally took all of 45 minutes for me to make. But the kids can easily take them out and work independently while they are waiting for me. 

Half of these have glitter on one side, and half do not. 

Recently I purchased several packs of these foam shamrocks and gold coins, thinking they would make some fun activities. My class is working on composing and decomposing numbers 11 through 19; especially the concept of 10 plus some more.  My below level group is still having a lot of trouble with ten frames...filling boxes in the right order, and realizing that if one frame is full, it simply equals ten and they don't have to count EVERY SINGLE BOX EVERY TIME. 

I laminated work mats from our math program. (So I can't share these, but I'm sure 10 frame templates are easy enough to find!). I have numbers 11 through 19 written on index cards. They each take a work mat and draw a card. They then have to build that number using the gold coins (which, by the way, make everything SO much more special!) 

I wanted them to have a way to self check, so if they flip the card over, I have drawn out circles and they can check their work.

All packed up and ready for the next time!  

My next game I call "the shamrock sort." It is for my high group, which really needs to be challenged. I've written three different ways to represent the numbers 11 through 19 on the shamrocks. The shamrocks get spread out and the group has to work together to sort them. For example, here are the three ways to show 19:  (I may add more 'ways' such as tally marks and more addition and subtraction facts, but this was enough for us to start!)

Again, I wanted a self checking component, so when they think they have found three of the same number, they flip the shamrocks over to check them.  

Tada!

Finally, I needed to use the glitter-sided shamrocks, so I made a little sight word memory matching game for my below level group: 

I used the first 10 sight words for set 1, and made a second set of the next 10 words for my mid level group. The foam does shed glitter quite easily, but the kids don't seem to mind being "sparkled" :).  

They love being able to pull these activities out while they are waiting for me, and I love that they are occupied with a constructive warm up! 

Like I said, nothing earth shattering but simple and fun. I'm sure there are many other ways to use the coins and shamrocks. What else could you do with these?