Buggin' Out

    Well this week was creepy, crawly, crazy fun!  We learned a lot about insects this week and added to a list of facts each day as we read informational text about them. Did you know ladybugs shed their skin twice before reaching adulthood? And that not all insects lay eggs? The students learned about insects they'd never heard of before and we used all those names to make insect word baskets.  The students led with "I went outside and I found a ___." This time they worked in groups of three. They had to make themselves be attentive listeners to be sure they remembered what the other students said before them. 

 



Much like we did with our anchor chart about clocks a few weeks ago, at the end of this week, we cut the sentences in halves.  The students had to find the student with the matching half and put all the facts back together themselves.  This is such a fun way to practice decoding skills, comprehension skills, and sentence structure. They're having so much fun they don't realize all that their little brains are soaking up.
     As always, the theme found its way into our centers.  In the writing center, the students reached into the mystery box and pulled out a bug - which was labeled.  They had to find the matching bug on their paper and write its name.  We are working so hard on our penmanship; shrinking it down and trying to write in a straight line. Of course, the practice of looking off of something to copy onto their own paper is really important training too.  

    In the math games center, the students practiced their addition using ladybugs.  The students spin the spinners at the same time, place the amounts on each leaf, add them up, and find the card with the correct sum.  When Mrs. Taylor, Miss Hisel, or I am working with them, we ask them higher-order questions such as, "How many more bugs does she have than you?" or  "How many more ladybugs would you need to get to 10?"  It was neat to see one student make the connection after he and his partner got the same sum but with different addends. "There's two ways to make 6!" He was so thrilled with himself.

 

The students used insects to learn estimation in the number work center.  (I didn't even know I owned this game.  I had nothing planned for this center on Monday morning and I grabbed a box from a shelf. Boom, serendipity.) Each player fills a container with bugs and hands it to their partner.  They each make an estimate (which I explain as a 'careful guess') of how many are in their container. Then they arrange them on the counting pad and see how close their estimates were.  They were making some great math deductions from this activity. "Oh, I was two off!" "Man, I was just one away!"

The puzzle center became a pattern center this week. I forgot to take a picture of it, so here's what it looks like via Google images:

     Except, ours doesn't have a sorting tray. The students spread the patterning cards all over the rug and used big tweezers to pick up the creatures (mostly insects) and place them into the patterns.

      Our phonics lesson this week was on the two sounds of /oo/. First we learned about the lovebirds who stare into each other's eyes and say nothing. So all those around them say "ooooooooo." After two days of that yucky luvey-duvey sound, we learned the other sound that the boys really appreciated.  We call them the bully brothers.  They are always wrestling and beating up on each other (as many of the boys could relate to) and saying "ugh, ugh, ugh." As always, we filled up an anchor chart with lots and lots of words. 

    We found some of these words along with bossy r words in our hallway hunt today.  Last week's egg hunt for sight words went so well, I wanted to do it again. But this time I didn't write sight words. I wrote words that used the phonics sounds we'd recently learned. 



      Along with the hallway hunt, we wrapped up the week with our Fun Friday art project. The students made ladybugs.  



 

 

      Next week will be focused on one particular insect, the butterfly.  I'll sign off with a handful of pics from recess. This week's weather was perfect outdoor-recess weather!

Catch Mackenzie and Selena on America's Next Top Model: Kindergarten Edition

 

 

 

Mammal Mania

 

      Our group reading was dominated this week by informational texts about mammals.  The students learned four general characteristics of mammals that they can (hopefully) tell you about: mammals have hair or fur, they nurse their young, they breathe fresh air, and have babies born "alive and well" (to quote the book we read on Monday).  One of our favorite books (not informational text) was "Oh, A Hunting We Will Go." The students all sang along with me and we discussed afterward which animals were mammals that were in the story. Here's the PM class singing along with me.

 

We explored the different mammals we can see at the zoo by participating in a group reading/writing activity called "The Zoo."  It goes a little something like this.



(Hopefully that video works....fingers crossed - if not, trust me, it was super cute and the kids totally enjoyed it). 

After a few days of guessing the animal hiding behind the cage, we chose some questions out of the Magic Fishbowl of Questions. One of the most engaging questions that had them all searching and wanting a turn was "Can you find a pair of matching words?" Here, Tyler found the words, "wonder."

    A few of the centers had a mammal theme as well.  In the Number Work center, there were two tasks.  One, to order the lions and lambs up to 40.  The other was to order the numbers (by skip counting by 5's) to reveal the mammal in the picture.  (They preferred the second task).

    At the floor puzzles center the students worked a wooden puzzle set with silly rhyming sentence halves (most having to do with mammals- such as the The fox is in the box).  When those were finished, they worked on individual word puzzles. 

The rest of the centers had nothing to do with mammals but were fun, nonetheless.  In the writing center, the students made rainbow sight words.  

The math games center was a repeat from the transportation unit several weeks ago: Land, Air, and Sea Subtraction.

 

    While the students are rotating through centers, one group at a time will go to their reading group.  Here's Miss Hisel teaching one of the PM groups.  

     A really great strategy that I've been using a lot recently (that helps both reading and writing) is taking sentences from the book the students just read and cutting them up into the individual words. (This works well with pattern books).  Each students gets a set of mixed up words and has to put them in order to make a sentence from the story. They LOVE this activity and request it now!

    The week, of course, wrapped up with  a mammal art project. Although it was less about art and more about science and sorting. The students were giving pictures of several different animals which they cut. Then they sorted them into the "MAMMALS"  group or the "NOT MAMMALS group".

 

    Our final event of the week was an Easter egg hunt, of sorts.  Mrs. Taylor and Miss Hisel cut out paper eggs and wrote as many sight words on them as they could in 5 minutes (because that's all the time I gave them since it was spur of the moment idea) and taped them throughout the halls). The students took their clipboards and pencils and tried to write down as many as they could find. 

 It is basically like our "Write the Room" activity, but better. This was a winner and we will definitely be doing this one again. I'm thinking we may use it with 'bossy r' words (written on something other than eggs) next week.  By the way, I promised in the newsletter that I would link the video to the bossy r music video we've been watching this week.  And here it is.  It's great.

     Have a great Easter weekend. I want to invite everyone out to the Scott County park tomorrow morning at 10:00 for the Easter Extreme that My Church (which is indeed my church) is putting on. There will be tons of candy, prizes, and bike give-a-ways.  Its all free.  I'll be there and hope to see my kiddos there too! 






An Egg-cellent, Egg-citing, Egg-ceptional, Egg-stravaganza of a Week

     Since spring has sprung and Easter is right around the corner, this was the perfect week to talk about animals that lay eggs.  We read both storybooks and informational texts about egg-laying animals.  One book we even watched on the Smartboard.  Its from Reading Rainbow (there's a blast from the past).  The book is called "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" and it lists dozens of animals who begin life in an egg and it is followed by a cute video of a chick breaking out of its shell.  Here's the link if you're curious.
       We used this new content to build up our working memory, as well.  I recently went to a conference where part of the training was on sharpening the working memory because it is proven to be the biggest indicator of academic success. So, I've been including some of the activities I learned in the classroom ever since.  One of those activities is called 'word baskets' and we used our new knowledge of oviviparous animals to make one.  Students got into teams of two or three.  The first person began by saying, "Out of the egg popped a ____" and then they listed one animal. The next friend repeated what the first said and added on one more animal, and so on, and so on. With this age group, we get to about 5 or 6 items and then start a new basket. We've also used word baskets with numbers, parts of a clock, and spring things. 
      Two of the centers this week were inspired by our egg theme. In the Math Games center, students took turns opening Easter eggs to find varied amounts of ones cubes. They snapped them together and placed them on their hundred grid mat. This game reinforced both addition and the concept that numbers are composed of tens and ones.

In the word work center, students opened eggs that had the letters needed to form the two words printed on them.  The students had to match these words to the Easter basket with the matching rime (again, I promise that's how it should be spelled in this context) family.

Our art project was super fun this week. The students colored and cut out an egg. Then they chose an egg at random and opened it to find a picture of an animal that hatches from an egg. They colored it and glued inside their Easter-y looking egg.  (I explained that animals don't hatch from brightly colored Easter eggs but that our art project was serving a dual purpose as it was going to be displayed in our hallway).

This week and next week, we are learning the r-controlled vowel sounds.  We used this video this week to learn the er, ir, ur sound.

They also heard the story of how they are all three very bad, horrible, no good drivers who have to always hit the brakes. This little picture by a program called 'Secret Stories" helped with that.

 

We did some role play and the students took the wheel and went cruising and BRAKING over and over again all around the room making the "errrrrrrr!" sound.  

 

    Now that its April, we have a new set of calendar math pages.  First, as always, the students reveal the new pattern piece for the day. This month, its all about life cycles so there is no set pattern. 

 

Next: word problems.  I draw a student's name, they choose their spring item, and then I write a word problem. The students have to decide whether we need to use addition or subtraction to solve it, then we work it out together.

The next page reinforces addition and how numbers are composed of tens and ones (just like the game they played in the Math Games center this week).  A student touches an egg. It disappears and reveals a number up to 5.  The student adds that many to the grid. We are trying to get to 100 by the end of the month!

Lastly, just like every month, we track the days in school. 

I'll leave you with pics from some other fun activities this week, The Wulfe Brothers entertained the afternoon class (and all the rest of the school), we had a classroom egg hunt, we recited our Spring poem to lots of classes throughout the school, a student's Marine brother (in the PM class) came for a visit,  and we spent some recess time on the BIG playground.

Miss Hisel is our student teacher for the next 6 weeks.