Fall Fun!

Nothing brightens my day like a surprise when I get to work!

One of my students from last year surprised me with these flowers today!  It is a great feeling to know your students still think of you, even when they are no longer in your class.  To top it off, my boss made fresh cinnamon rolls this morning to share with the staff!

Sorry I didn't get to post last week.  We were busy learning all about fall!  To kick off the fall season, we made a class book about what we like to do in the fall.

The kids sounded out their words and told me what letters to write.  I started by letting them write, but I realized that they were going to run out of space since they write larger than me (understandable since they haven't had as much practice!)  They practiced reading their sentences too.  The second day I gave each child their sentence to cut apart.

 I like to make pumpkin pie in the fall.

 I like to dress up in the fall.

I like to celebrate Thanksgiving in the fall.

 They put the sentence back together again and glued it onto construction paper before creating a beautiful illustration.

I modified the assignment for the first graders by having them write their own sentences.  They still cut them apart and illustrated them the same way though.

I like to make apple pie in the fall.  I like to jump in the leaves in fall.

The last day I made them into a book and read it to the class.    The kids were so excited to see their work in a book!  I will be doing many more of these throughout the year.  If you have done any class books in your classroom that turned out well let me know.  I am always looking for new ideas!

Learning Names and Learning Letters

Happy Friday!  This week has felt exceptionally long, so I am pumped for the weekend.  I think my kids were too because they were telling me all about their plans.  From play dates, to plane trips, to spending all day in their jammies watching college football.  The football one made me laugh, because it came from the mouth of a tiny five year old girl who had a big pink flower in her hair!  Too cute!

I got another laugh this morning while my students said the Pledge of Allegiance (don't worry, I wasn't actually laughing out loud during the pledge).  They didn't say the pledge, they shouted it!  I guess they think the louder they say it, the better they sound.  It made me smile, not only because it was sooo loud, but also because they really have learned it in the last few weeks.  I'm proud of my little kinders!

They have been doing great with learning letters this week.  We have also learned a little bit more about each other.  We have been doing a letter a day, since most of the kids already know the letters.  I demonstrate how to correctly write the letter and they tell me words that begin with the letter.  I record all of this on a paper which gets hung on our wall after I try my hand at illustrating the words.

 I realized as I was drawing the little borders and the box with the dotted line for the letters, that there is an easier way to do this, that would take a lot less of my time!  Make a template on the computer and copy it!!!  It only took me half the alphabet to realize it.  I will be using this template next year.

Click here to get this freebie!

Each of my students is getting the chance to be in the "Celebrity Spotlight!"  This is a get to know you activity, as well as a writing activity.  The students take turns asking the "celebrity" questions, while I record the answers on a paper.  Then we discuss what color hair, eyes, clothes, etc. the "celebrity" has so we can draw him/her accurately.  Each student writes the missing words on their paper and then draws their classmate. 

                          I put the pages together in a book and send it home with the "celebrity."

  They also get their information/picture hung in the hallway!

The kids have been enjoying it, and it is a great way to help teach them how to draw people (even though mine don't look the greatest either).  If you would like to use this idea in your classroom, head on over here to pick up the templates!

Have a great weekend and come back and visit!
--Lauren

Having Fun with our Five Senses!

My kiddos have thoroughly enjoyed learning about their five senses this week.  I think it is because of all of the hands on activities.  They did a taste test during snack time and got to taste something sweet (chocolate cookie), salty (Cheese-its), and sour (lemon).  Each day since, I have asked the kids to describe the taste of their snacks (sweet, salty, sour, bitter).  I think it goes without saying that they prefer salty and sweet, who doesn't?

They did a great job coming up with foods to put on our giant tongue chart!  They even got to stick their tongues out at each other so we could find out what taste buds look like!  I made sure to tell them "No tongue touching allowed!"

We pulled out the "Feely Bags" to explore our sense of touch.  Don't be fooled, these are merely empty paper bags.  I demonstrated how to use the bags and then I partnered my students up.  One partner took the bag and put something from the classroom inside.  The other partner had to sit with their eyes closed.  Next, the partner got to stick their hand in the bag and guess what they were touching.  They took turns, switching roles each time.  They loved this game, and did a really good job guessing what was put inside each time!

I only have 10 kids in my class, so things didn't get too out of hand, but if you have a larger class you may want to do this as a whole group activity, or only let a few kids get up at a time.  They get really excited!

We have also been reading books about how we use each of our senses, and then writing in our notebooks each day.  My kinders have amazed me with how they are already trying to sound out words at the beginning of the year!

Last, but not least, we studied the sense of smell.  I found some different "smelly" items around my apartment and put them in ziplock bags.  I then put the ziplock bags inside paper bags and labeled each of them with a letter.  The paper bags were to prevent the kids from seeing what they were smelling.  They drew/wrote what they thought was in each bag on a recording sheet.  Everybody guessed at least a few correctly, but nobody guessed Bag E--coconut!

Let me know if you want a copy of the "smelly bag" paper and I can send it to you!  We will be doing five senses assessments next week to finish up the unit.  

--Lauren

Back to School with the Five Senses!

Last week was the first week back to school, so I didn't quite get around to writing a post :(  Now that I have had the weekend to recover and regroup, I am ready to go!

I realized over the weekend that I do not take enough photos of my students, so I used today to snap a few shots for you.  I am determined to capture more of our fun moments on film so I can share them here with you!

We spent a lot of time last week getting to know each other and learning the rules/routines.  The kiddos have done pretty well with the rules so far, although we had a little slip today.  I keep track of their behavior on these calendars which are taped to the inside of their daily folder.  They get a green, yellow, or red stamp each day to show how they did, and parents initial each night.  A week of greens means you get in the treasure box!!

I have been completing assessments to see what my kids already know.  They are doing great!!!  All of my kinders know at least some of the letters and numbers, and know how to write their names (although some still use all capital letters).

This week we are learning the five senses!  I think this is a fun unit and it is something fairly easy for the kids to learn at the beginning of the year.  I introduced the five senses today and made an anchor chart.  The kids made their own charts too!  I found this cute idea here!  

We learned the Five Senses song from Dr. Jean to help us remember what the senses are.  You can check out her video on SchoolTube.  I read about eyes and showed them what a pupil is, which they thought was really cool!  We also discussed how to take care of our eyes, and wrote about things we can see.  Sorry I don't have a picture of their writing, but some of them tried sounding out some words, while others drew pictures.

Come back and visit to see what other Five Senses activities we do this week!

--Lauren