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?

Monday Meetings

Several years ago I started Monday "How was your weekend" journal writing prompts with my high school ESL students.  The intent had several purposes- I could get to know a little about them outside of our school day, they could let me know anything that was bugging them or exciting to them, and they could practice their writing in a non-threatening way, because the language was coming from their own experiences.

I sort of became infamous for it.  They knew exactly what to expect on Monday when they walked into my room, and actually began to look forward to it.  I had forgotten about that tradition until it occurred to me that I could do the same thing with my kindergarten kiddies.  They always want to tell me about their weekend adventures on Monday mornings, so this way they can get some talking time and I can monitor their language, formation of complete sentences, and other communication skills.  Enter the "Monday Meeting."  I use a little orange dog that I had gotten for our reading buddy basket.  Every Monday we sit in a rectangle on the tape around our carpet.  The dog functions as our "talking stick."  Before we begin,  I remind them that the only person talking should be the person holding the dog.  This works well...until about the 15th student, then they start getting antsy.  We're still working on speeding up the process.  :)  They always have the option to just say "pass" if they don't feel like sharing.  I make the question VERY specific and focused:  "Tell me the BEST part of your weekend- just ONE part, the best part."  I start by modeling a quick, descriptive sentence from my own weekend ("This weekend I made delicious chocolate chip cookies") and toss the dog to the next person.  They love hearing about each others' weekends, and so do I.  However, I do have two or three 'ramblers.'  You know the kind...

Student:  Well.  I had this football.  It's my favorite football ever.  I got it for my birthday.  And me and my brothers went outside.  I think it was like Friday because we got off the bus.  And we started playing football and I fell down and ripped my pants.  And then my dad came.  And he said let's go bowling.  And we got our shoes and went bowling and while we were driving there we saw a dragon.

Me:  Remember...one thing.

Student:  But it's the same thing. 

Me:  OK just the best part.

Student:  Well the best part was that when we went to the bowling alley we started to order a pizza and I asked my dad if I could get some candy too.

Me:  (while checking the time and reprimanding the three students who are beginning to wiggle and talk) Finish up, your friends are waiting.

Student:  Okay well there was music playing and then I saw my friend and he said...

Me:  Sounds like you had a great weekend!  OK pass the dog!

Like I said, we're still working on being concise.

Meet our Monday Meeting helper: Pumpkin.  One day during center time a student came up out of the blue and said, "I know what to name our Monday meeting dog.  His name is Pumpkin.  Do you want to know why?  Because he is round and orange and green." 

It sounded like a logical idea to me.  So now he is Pumpkin.  Really though, you could pass anything around; the idea is that the visual and tactile object helps remind students who should be talking.

We also have our Monday meeting after any holiday or extended break.  Have you tried something like a Monday meeting?  What guidelines do you establish and how does it work for you?

Five for Friday: In Like A Lion!

This is probably getting redundant, but it's another snow day.  Seven and counting, to be exact.  I've definitely appreciated the extra time to catch up on some things and keep up with my two masters classes.  The downside is, I've only been in the classroom two days this week, so there hasn't been a whole lot going on.  

This is what I woke up to on Monday.  I thought that we'd seen the last of winter, but given the fact that we're now getting the biggest snow of the season as I write...nope. 

   

We continued practicing Read to Self this week AND THEY ARE GETTING IT!!  We went over the three ways to read a book the other day and it was great to see them take off with this.  I saw it make the most difference with my lowest readers...demonstrating how to "read" pictures and retell really unlocked the books for them.  They are doing so well that I am going to introduce another component of the Daily 5 on Monday. 

Such good readers! 

  

These are from a couple weeks back, but they are too cute not to share.  We read the book Little Cloud by Eric Carle as an extension at the end of our weather and seasons unit.  We talked a lot about how the illustrator made beautiful pictures using just a few colors.  Then, they created their own cloud pictures and worked on sentence writing.  They did a draft sentence at the teacher table in pencil, then copied it onto their picture in marker (lest you think we always write in marker- we don't!)  I gave each student 6 cotton balls and showed them how to stretch and form them into different shapes.  Initially they wanted more cotton for their pictures, but as they saw everyone's creations, it really drove home the point of how many different shapes a "little cloud" can make.  

We DID read my all time favorite children's book, Horton Hears a Who this week.  And we WERE going to make a really cute craftivity bulletin board, writing words to describe Horton.  But the cold stuff falling from the sky changed all that.  

AnyWHO....we're still waiting, but you can get my quick little writing frame below to use as you'd like, and hopefully I'll have some pictures of the finished product soon! 

  Horton Hears a Who Writing Prompt

This is my new favorite TV series that I've been watching this winter...yes, it is a cheesy romantic Hallmark one, but I watched the pilot movie then bought the whole series!  It's about a new teacher working in a Canadian coal mining town.  I'm hooked...and halfway through the series now, so I hope there is another season coming! 

Happy March!!!  Think spring thoughts!