Squirrels



I think little furry squirrels are just the cutest! I am using squirrel books to help my students learn more about the season of fall. One of my favorite squirrel songs is on an old tape. I haven't been able to find it the past few years when searching for a digital version. I was absolutely thrilled to find one online for FREE! I found it on NAEYC's song and activities list. Scroll down to The Furry Squirrel Song. I use it for a fun morning meeting song as we do silly actions with it.

 

My students observed squirrels on youtube videos. This one is great.

 

They kept track of their observations in their squirrel journals.



Squirrels play. Squirrels climb trees.

 They also added notes from what they learned from books read in class.



Some people eat squirrels. Squirrels can be red.



Here are the covers to their journals.

In math, we worked in groups of threes or twos to make ten with an assortment of brown cubes. Typically I use real nuts to sort, count, and use as manipulatives, but I have one peanut/tree nut allergy. No nuts this year!

Previous years, I have made number lines and my students show the amounts using peanuts.

Before the Thanksgiving holidays, after reading The Squirrels' Thanksgiving, my students wrote text-to-self connections.

I have just completed my Furry Furry Squirrels unit. It is on sale now. You can check it out by visiting my TPT store: just click the first picture below.

 

 



Click above picture to get a Fantasy/Real Quiz-Quiz-Trade activity for FREE.

 

 

I am excited about getting my shop on for tomorrow's TPT sale!

Thank you Krista Wallden for sharing this sale button!

I am adding a couple of the Teachers Helping Tornado Victims into my shopping cart. Looks like lots of great units for a great cause. What will you be adding to your TPT shopping cart?



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Currently October and a Reading to Self Freebie

 



Hubby and I went out this morning to the farmer's market and picked out some yummies for our dinner. I have completed my Reading Endorsement assignments for the week, and getting involved with a little blogging. In the background, it's just the humming of the dryer, reminding me I have more laundry to do!

 

I am so proud of my little kinders when they are reading to self. They use their book boxes (IKEA cardboard magazine holders) to store their reading materials. Inside, I have them keep their Reading Street Buddy Reader, a couple of Reading Street easy readers, a couple leveled readers, and their own books made. They also have a ziplock bag that holds their reading tools: "Keep Your Eye on the Words" pointers and bookmarks for sharing with partners. This was the first year that I incorporated Kim Adsit's Blasting Off with Reader's Workshop. I am loving the anchor charts and ideas for mini lessons! She even has mini anchor charts that I have used for my students to glue into their reading journals for reference.

 

 

 

 

This week will be a sad, yet happy week. It will be my intern's last week with us. We are going on a field trip to the zoo on her last day! Should be fun!

 

I am in need of a teacher work day to catch up on paperwork! Luckily we will have one on an upcoming Monday. I was going to rearrange my classroom furniture then, but yesterday morning, I was inspired. So glad I did. Because of the smaller space, I tried 3 tables of 6 kids. My kinderkids are flexible and great at moving themselves around for different projects requiring space. So I squeezed another table in, and I am loving how much table space they have for themselves. I just don't have a table to catch my clutter!

 

I'm leaving you with a little treat. My reading bookmarks needed some revamping, as my previous ones in the above photo were made over 14 years ago!! I pass them out to my students when I want them to share about something particular about their reading. For example, we have used character and setting bookmarks. While reading a book, they find a picture of the character or setting in the book. When it's time to share, they can turn right to the page and share the character or setting. It's a great way for me to also observe who knows characters and settings.

 

Click picture to get FREEBIE.

 

 

 



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Five for Saturday!

 

I meant to post earlier, but it is now Saturday. As they sometimes say, "better late, than never." Here are my top 5 for the past 2 weeks.

 

1. My county has started to use Reading Street this school year. It really limits what we can use, especially when we are suppose to follow it with fidelity. Last week, we were working with the We Are So Proud unit. In the afternoons, I used Pete the Cat stories with math. Here is one tying in the words (red, white, and blue) with number sense. I found the tracers from Hooray for Kindergarten and I created my own I have ___ blue buttons writing prompt. Click on the picture below to go to Google Docs to get the writing math template.

 



 

 

2. For our writing craftivity, my students copied the words: I am so proud. Then each child drew a picture of himself being proud of something he accomplished. Then we added a head, hand, and legs to our writing to make it look like ourselves.

 

 

3. This past week, we made paper bag platypuses to go along with Reading Street's Plaidypus Lost unit. My kinderkids loved this story. The pattern for the paperbag platypus came from Danielle's Place.

 

4. I am really excited how my Rate Your Understanding is coming together in my classroom. I introduced the scale to my students during the second week of school. During the following weeks, we began rating ourselves on how they well they can tell the sounds that each letter makes.

 



 

Then each child graphed where they felt they were at. On top of the quarter page, I created a label stating, "I can say the sounds for each letter." This was printed on file folder labels. The graph has room for a beginning, middle, and ending date. This graph allows me to help my students track their various learning goals in the different subject areas.

 

 

Each child's book is kept on a hook for reference when needed. This is a great way to help differentiate activities at our independent or small group activities.

 

 

For example, at the word work centers, my students use their learning goals books to help them focus on the letters they need to work on. For example, they make the specific letters out of playdough or cubes. Some find matching magnetic letters. They do this by looking at their learning goal books. Behind the graph sheet are specific pages about which letters and sounds they know. Each letter highlighted is one they have shown that they already know. The ones not highlighted are the ones they work on at centers.

 

 

 

We will move on to working with words once letters are mastered. I already have 2 children starting to work with words. I will soon be including these tracking learning goal sheets into my Rate Your Understanding. Check it out for a cheaper price, as it will increase with the new addition. I plan to add them later on today or tomorrow morning.

 

5. I am also excited about my new math station bins. I tried 4 of the bins out last year. I really like them. So I bought more and finally numbered them. I will be working on making a math stations chart for my students. I think my new bunch of kinderkids will love playing math games with their partners. I am really enjoying this new bunch of kinderkids. They are full of personality and fun!

 

 

 





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Five for Friday: 1st Week of School

I feel it has been a whirlwind these past two weeks: preplanning, new classroom, new Reading Series, Kindergarten Parent Orientation Night, Meet the Teacher, First Week of Kindergarten, Gingerbread Man Hunt... oh, in addition on a personal note... my car is still in the shop (was rear ended at a traffic light 4 weeks ago) and my friend welcomed a baby girl!

 

1. Thanks to Amanda from A Very Curious Class for my blogger exchange gift! Love the magnetic board and owl goodies you found! I haven't used the smelly markers yet, but this coming week, I think they will come in handy.

 

 

 

2. On the first day, I introduced the multiple intelligences to my kinderkids. They rated themselves on what kind of smart they thought they were. It gave me insight to what they think about themselves. At the end, I gave each child this freebie note with Smarties attached. Links to the originals are below the photo.

 

The SMART lesson came from Falling From First's Back to School Bash unit.
The Smarties note was a FREEBIE from Technology Rocks.
 

3. I am starting earlier in teaching my kinderkids how to rate their understanding. My good friend Amy and I were talking about creating a pocket chart to hold popsicle sticks so our kinderkids could rate themselves. Here is a picture of what I will be using. Click on the photo to check it out at my TPT store.

 

 

 

Which reminds me that the big back to school sale at TPT starts tomorrow!! Use the promo code BTS13 at checkout to get an additional percentage off products!!

 

 

 

4. I loved how Greg from Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten put his first day in numerals. Here's my attempt...

 

 I was worried that I might have some real criers on Monday morning! Just 2 pairs of teary eyes... no bolting out the door! Phew! I have had my peers' children before in my classroom. Usually it is one or two at a time... not five of them! They are such a cute bunch... maybe I'm partial as they are my new class.I think we will have a wonderful year!

5. Here are some classroom pics:

 

Walking in the main door, in the cubby area, looking to the left of the classroom. I put up my CAFE letters on the 4 cabinets above my students' sink. The main storage closet is a bit full of my big bins... my neighbor's side looks very spacious. I need to find space for the bins! I didn't include a picture!

This is the meeting area of my classroom. The left side has a door to a smaller storage closet that I share with my teammate.

 

Just recently I put up the new word wall.... ready to add our names and sight words!

This is the view of my classroom looking from the word wall corner to the opposite corner.

The bulletin board is now decorated with my students' owls and my positive classroom management behavior chart (Filling Buckets). I forgot to take a picture of the cute little owls that came from Michelle Oakes's Back to School behavior unit.

Next to the classroom library and bulletin board is the real kitchen with a real stove and oven. So fun to actually bake a gingerbread man in the oven!

Next to the kitchen, there is a bathroom door. Inside is a HUGE bathroom!! I could do a cartwheel in there! It has a tub, changing table, and toilet. The toilet is in the far right corner- I choose not to take a picture of it! I will need to make it look more "home-y" in here. Recently, I stacked some bins and crates on top of the changing table. I will need to move them, because it looks not so good. I'm thinking the next move may be in the tub. :0)

I really love my classroom library area with my newly Monday Made It READ letters and the special homemade gift from a special room mom! Makes me smile every time I look at it.

These are the owl cookies I used this year to make for Meet the Teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cooperative Learning #9 & Little Bus Flash Freebie

Today is my last day of summer break. I am going into my new classroom tomorrow to organize and put things where I need to. Next week is teacher planning week, and I have so much to do!

Storyboard is a cooperative learning structure that I have introduced earlier on my blog. For the Throwback Thursday part I'm focusing only on the Storyboard part of my post. Click HERE to see that full post.



Not sure if she is having this today? She joined others in a big giveaway for August 1-5th.

----- Below part was originally posted on April 5, 2013. -----

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.

 

Now back to the present...

 

After the first week of school, we will be following the new Reading Street Series in my county. I made a thematic unit to go along with the first story, The Little School Bus.

 

Link to TPT store will be added once it's there!

 

In it, I have included a storyboard structure with using the letters. I will first introduce this on a pocket chart during whole group activities. After a few days, I will give each group their parts to review one letter. We will do this activity in small groups, but still whole group. When they are ready, I will add more letters. After they are familiar with this structure, I will put the storyboards at a literacy center for students to practice their letter recognition and sounds. Here is a preview.

 



 



 This unit also includes:

 

1. Who Rides This Bus?- A letter and beginning sound sort for small groups or independent work. There are 4 different variations included: color or black and white in either Basic Print or D'Nealian.

 

 

 2. Letters on the Bus Pocket Chart & Storyboards- in Basic Print or D'Nealian.

 

3. Road Rally- Even though there is a free set of road letters at Making Learning Fun, I used Charlotte's Clips to create a learning center for my students.

 

 

4. Bus Stop: Write the Room- Just a simple write-the-room activity for copying words onto paper.

 

 

5. Bus & Letter Webs- These are to be printed out and used on class charts.

 



 

6. How Do We Go Home Graph- Parts to make a graph on how students go home. Use bulletin board paper to glue parts onto. Students write name and draw picture on sticky note to place on graph. Then collect data and write about it on the bulletin board paper. See example below:

 

 

 

7. Five on the Bus- Use counters, beans, or children pictures to make 0-5 on the bus mats.

 

 

 

8. Ordinal Numbers- Pocket Chart pieces to tell story of The Little School Bus (Reading Street story) and practice ordinal numbers.

 

 

 

9. Putting the Buses in Order- Students put buses in order and find number matches.

 

 

 

10. Shape Bus Craftivity- Students use shapes (rectangle, circle, square, octagon) to make a bus.

 

11. Little Yellow Bus Snack- Students make a little yellow bus out of a graham cracker, yellow icing, Oreos, and Chex cereal.

 

If you are interested in this packet, I am offering it as a FREEBIE to my followers until Sunday evening 6PM Eastern time. I am almost done with it, so Saturday I will start sending it out to you. Just leave me a comment to this post or email me at learningwithmrsbrinn@gmail.com to let me know how you follow me and your follower name: Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin. Make sure you leave an email address too, so I can email you my newest digital packet.

 

If you would like to link up a post about cooperative learning, please do. I would love to hear how others are using these strategies in their classrooms. If you ever get a chance to go to a Kagan workshop, I highly recommend it. It has helped me to better manage my classroom, and get my students to interact and be engaged more often. I am not being paid for this statement. It is my opinion, and definitely worth an educator's time. I was fortunate to have my workshops paid for through school funds. :0) This is the last cooperative learning linky of this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

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