Chomp! Chomp! Having Fun With Sharks! (and Sh- Freebie)

1. Observation completed! I showed how my students work with words while I worked with a small group with a transition to our whole group reading activity using a Kagan cooperative learning structure, RoundRobin. Since we are learning about oceans, my kinderkids are naturally fascinated by sharks! They did a fantastic job working in small groups to fill out Deanna's Jump shark tree web from her Oceans Fun Math & Literacy Unit. I was in the middle of my observation, so I did not take any photos.

Afterwards, they made shark hats and wrote sentences on the back strip.

 

 

While learning about their sight words, they had fun fishing. I used Growing Kinder's Fun at the Beach unit to make this center. I printed out her fish on different colored papers. My kindergarten team and I use rainbow colors to organize our sight words. Each student picks their level of colored fish to work with. This is a favorite word work center this week! I got my fishing poles from a letter identification game. Each fishing pole has a magnet at the end of it, so it picks up the fish with the paper clips. My kids enjoyed sharing with our principal.

This activity came from Growing Kinder's Fun at the Beach unit.

 



 

2. Student-led conferences were successful! 100% families came to hear their kindergartners tell about what they have learned, as well as their strengths and goals. They enjoy sharing their school experiences with their families.

 

 

I found this journal left open for sharing at her student-led conference. It warmed my heart as she wrote about me. She wrote: " I know about my teacher. My teacher laughs always. My teacher's favorite color is green. My teacher can help us. My teacher has black hair. My teacher is nice. My teacher can not do gymnastics. My teacher gives a lot of reminders. My teacher wears skirts. My teacher has high heels all of time. My teacher has a husband." So cute! We just finished using Deedee Wills & Deanna Jump's Writing Through the Year Unit 5.

 

 

3. Last month, I went to a Kagan workshop, and learned a new strategy called Storyboards. I created my own Storyboard (not Kagan endorsed) for my Australia unit, G'day Mates. The week before spring break, we learned about Australia animals. We also talked about nouns and verbs. This song was on a pocket chart as we changed the nouns and verbs using Australian animals. This week, we continued learning about Australia with the Great Barrier Reef. This time, we used a Kagan Storyboard strategy. Each group got a storyboard, cards, and a pointer. One student from each group passes out the cards. As a whole group, we sang the song and put down the cards as we sang the words. This group didn't quite get it, as they missed putting two of the pictures down.

 

This activity came from my G'day Mates unit.

We continued throughout the week with this activity, and they got better with working together in placing down the word cards as they were sung.

This activity came from my G'day Mates unit.

 

 

4. I used First Grade Blue Skies Pout Pout freebie one day. I had not used this story before, and my kinderkids made such cute smiley fish. When I see the smiling fish, it brightens my day!

 

This activity came from First Grade Blue Skies.



 

5. Today, we used another activity in Deanna Jump's Ocean Fun unit. We used Kagan's RoundRobin to fill out an adjective, noun, and verb tree map. My kinderkids sat in groups and discussed different colors we can find in the ocean. Next, we talked about the animals in the ocean. Afterwards, we talked about what the sea animals can do. Then I read a story called Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea.

 

 

 

After I read the story, my kinderkids went to their seats to finish the activity by using the tree map to make a page for our own classbook called Way Down Deep.

 

This page came from Deanna Jump's Ocean Fun unit.

 

 

 

I had fun teaching and learning about the ocean with my kinderkids. One of my literacy centers was for my students to review "sh" words by making a shell necklace. Click on the picture to get my Sh Necklace freebie.

 

Click picture to get my Shell Necklace freebie at TPT.

 

 

I had such a great week back from Spring break! I'm a little exhausted with the whirlwind of happenings! Good thing a weekend is here to cure that!