Sneetches Shirt Tutorial

This Friday my grade level is having a Dr. Seuss celebration.  For the celebration each kindergarten class will switch classes and read a story and have a snack that has to do with the story.  We have seven kindergarten classrooms so this will take all morning.  I am super excited to do this.  I picked to read The Sneetches. (I actually may watch a movie of someone reading the story so it is a little different for the kiddos).  We are going to have a star shaped sugar cookie covered with green icing. Yum!  I decided to make a shirt for me and my intern to where this exciting day.  

Here is what I started with.

2 yellow shirts

2 packages of green iron on letters

1 green shirt

fabric glue 

Here are the final shirts.  One of the shirts is facing forward and the other one is facing backwards.

I think they turned out so good.  I think I will have to walk around with my nose up in the air so I can act like a Sneetch. :)

 

Seuss is on the Loose, Writing Freebie

Seuss is on the loose at my school.  Everyone is reading and doing wonderful activities.  Take a look at the activities that have been completed so far this week. 

Mrs. Brown, a kindergarten teacher at my school read The Foot Book.  Then she had her students create a picture using their foot. Then they had to describe their foot.  

Mrs. Wallace's class created these cute Thing 1 and Thing 2's.

Miss. Burch's class made these adorable elephants from Horton Hears a Who.

My intern, Miss Fairbrother read Are You My Mother? then had groups of students make a collage of mothers and their children. 

Another activity my intern did with our class was she read What Was I Scared of?

 

 
Then she had the students write about a time they were scared.  Once they completed the reading, they glued their writing to a pair of yellow pants.
Writing Freebie

 My class has also made these:

Mrs. Carlson's class made these turtles after reading Yurtle the Turtle.

I hope you enjoyed these activities.  I will post more later in the week.  

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Kindergarten Blogs.

Button and Followers

Do you have my button?  If not, you need it!  Look how great it looks.  It adds to every blog it is on. :) 

I can't believe I am already at 58 followers (The Wolfe Pack).  Who would have thought some many people cared about what I have been up to and what I have to say.  It is a great feeling!  It makes my heart smile.  If you are one of the Wolfe Pack, I wanted to let you know that I appreciate you!  Thank you for following me.

Organizing and Deals

Happy Sunday!!  Why is it that the weekend seems to go way too fast?  I always just need one more day to my weekend.  I think that would help me finish everything I need to each week.  

Anyways I had a lazy Saturday but a very productive Sunday.  My Hubbie and I filed through our paper clutter.  The paper clutter on our kitchen counter was getting out of control!  I wanted to get a new file cabinet because the plastic bin I had cracked and was letting all the files fall out.  I kept searching for a file cabinet but nothing really popped out at me.  So, after thinking about it and after rearranging my son's room and seeing someone else use a chest (Thanks Pinterest), I thought why not use my son's toy chest that is just sitting around.  So then I went to Office Max and got new files and a file rod.  My Hubbie put the rod together and placed it in the toy chest.  We grabbed the paper clutter from the kitchen and started organizing it.  This is how the toy chest looks now!  We had some extra room in the chest so we put the legal sized folders towards the front.  Yay!!  Now I have a file cabinet for the price of the folders and a lot more space on my kitchen counter.   

Sunday is usually the day I go grocery shopping.  I wasn't able to go last week because I was babysitting my mom's dogs so I went today.  I knew I wasn't going to do very well with savings this week because it didn't seem like I had that many coupons for what was on sale.  Here is a picture of what I bought. 

I spent $85.62 and saved $53.79.  I guess it isn't too bad because I still saved money. 

Days of the Week and Pinning

I was reading my blog roll and I noticed a comment about Pinterest that caught my eye.  It was a simple question.  Do you have permission to pin?  What!!!!???  Permission to pin.  I thought Pinterest was an online bulletin board that you pinned your favorites.  We have to have permission?  Over at Corkboard Connections, Laura has read the fine print on Pinterest.  You need to go check it out!!

 I am giving permission to anyone to pin my ideas to Pinterest! Days of the Week This week my class is working in math on learning calendar skills.  This always seems like a difficult topic for students to understand.  After watching the math video I decided (on the spare of the moment) to add to my lesson.  I had a lot of my students understand the concept but I had some that didn't so I needed another way for the students to learn this concept.  We were working on yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  I decided to write a day of the week on a piece of paper.  Then I passed out the papers to random students.  If a student received a day of the week they had to stand up and put themselves in order of the days.  Once the students completed the first task I called out one day of the week and had that student stand in front of the others.  This day was the today.  Then I ask random students what yesterday was and what tomorrow would be.  We did this a few times making sure everyone received a turn.  

Here are some of my students standing in order.  As you can tell some students were allowed to wear pjs. 

  Once everyone had a turn with this activity we completed our math worksheet.  We also work on this skill every single day during calendar time.  Sometimes we use the calendar on the bulletin board and sometimes we use the Smartboard Calendar I created. 

Literacy Centers

Literacy Centers

It seems like every year I tweek my Literacy Centers.  I have taught the Daily 5 in my classroom and I loved it, however we got a new reading series last year so I decided to do something different.  Last year I did the Literacy Centers in four different centers.  I liked them, however they just didn't seem right to me.  This year I changed them again.  This year I have 9 different centers.  I know that sounds like a lot of centers, but the great thing about these centers is that each child has a partner instead of a whole group.  Each child has up to four centers per day they can go to.  Before they are allowed to go to their center they have to complete their seat work.  Our seat works consists of worksheets from Read Well, handwriting practice, sight word and phonogram practice.  I do love using manipulatives, but I do think students need to be able to write too.  I have students at centers for about 15 to 20 minutes each.  It kinda depends on how long I need for my reading group that I am working with.  My partner groups can change whenever they need to change and the same as my reading groups.  Here is a picture of the Literacy Center Board I use.  All I have to do each day is move the pictures down one level and then they are ready for the next day. 

 The pictures are for each Literacy Center and the numbers by their pictures are for our Math Centers.  Here is my list of centers that I am currently using.  (FYI- I do switch the centers out to work on things the students should be working on per quarter or things I know they need more practice at)

Computers- students play Education City

Partner Reading- Read with a partner

Writing- Students write a sentence and illustrate it.

Blocks- students are working on sounds.

Sand Table- tracing pictures.

Playdough- rainbow writing sight words.

 

Library- Students choose any book

 ABC- students are working on ending sounds.

 Handwriting- students are putting a sentence together correctly with nice handwriting.

 Star- Review beginning and ending sounds.

 iPad- right now the students are playing Teach Me Kindergarten

My students LOVE centers.  I think it is their favorite part of our day.  They really enjoy being up to get up and go to a spot in the classroom.  I recently just added that the students have to write down what they need in their notebook.  This way they have accountability for what they worked on during their centers.  Plus, I can check to make sure they are understanding the different concepts.  At the beginning of the year when we start centers, the playdough center is actually a playdough center.  The same with the block and sand table.  As the students get smarter and smarter I switch the centers to help them become even smarter.  

Legoland

Yesterday, my son and I went to Legoland.  We had a blast although we were both exhausted.  I really learned how impatient my son is while waiting in line for the rides.  He didn't understand why he had to wait.  He wanted to cut in front of everyone and he couldn't stay still in line.  Very exhausting, but very fun!  

Liam holding his pass.

 We got passes for the whole year since it is so close to my parent's house.  Too bad I took the picture while he was blinking.

 Riding the Merry Go Round.  He wanted one of the horses on the 2 floor but they were taken when we got up there so we sat on a bench.

 Playing area.

 Lego Firefighter at the play area.

 Watch out!  Liam is coming!

 Arrrrrr. Pirates!

Driving a boat.

 Pirate Show!

  Pirate Show!

The next pictures are all made out of Legos!

Daytona 500

NASA

Miami Beach

Sunken Ship

 All made out of Legos!

Guess what the car is made out of???  Yep, it is!! You're right!!  Legos!

Legoland kept a little bit of Cypress Gardens with Legoland.  Liam and I walked through the gardens.  It was beautiful.  Look at this amazing tree.

Banyan Tree

I love this picture.  :)  Legoland is great for 2 years old to 12 years old.  It is really kid friendly.  In the restroom they even have sinks that are Liam level.  

Working on Fluency

Working on Fluency

We use Read Well as our Reading program at my school.  During the guided reading part of Read Well the students have to be able to say the sounds, blend words, know sight words, and read the passage fluently.  I have noticed that my kiddos are struggling with the fluency part so I have been on a mission to help them.  Here are some of the things I have been doing with them.

I copied all of the homework our reading program has.  I clipped them together and everyday I pull for reading groups the students start at the beginning and read as far as they can for five minutes.  I mark where the students left off and then the next day we compare where the end up.  We see if it is further or at the same spot.  I stress to the readers that if they are missing words that they are not helping themselves, so they need to make sure they are reading accurately.  Here is one of my kiddos doing this. 

 

With this reading program there are two types of reading we do each day.  One is the story I read the little words and the students read the big words.  Then after that story there is a solo story for the students to read.  I usually have the students read it all together first and then I call them one by one to read it out loud while the others point and follow along.  Here is a sample of one of my kiddos reading the solo story.

Everyday we practice smooth and bumpy blending.  There are always sounds and words that the kiddos practice.  There are also sight words on the sheet that they practice.  I go back and do the previous pages each day.  I have the students read the words and if they have trouble reading it, they can blend it to figure it out.  I think that repetition is key when working on reading and especially reading fluently.  Here is an example of a student completely the practice pages. 

Every third day in a unit for small group reading the students play a game.  The students LOVE these games.  They ask if they can play the game everyday.  One of the games is like Chutes and Ladders.  The other game is a bingo game.  I usually play the bingo day differently.  Sometimes I say a word or blend a word and the kiddos have to find the word and put a manipulative on it.  Sometimes I have them read and blend each box.  These games are great practice for blending and reading the sight words.  Here is a video of one of the students playing the game.  I have learned with the Chutes and Ladder game that if I flip the dice it keeps the game moving faster.

 I feel fluency is always difficult for students.  The more practice I can do with the students on fluency the better readers and writers they will be.



I am going to leave you with my son singing the ABC's.  

 

Dr. Seuss Ideas

Dr. Seuss Ideas

Here are some of the ideas I do with my class when we talk about Dr. Seuss and celebrate his birthday.  Each activity goes along with a story. 

We make this adorable Cat in the Hat after reading The Cat in the Hat.

Cat in the Hat template.

Then we make our own hat for The Cat in the Hat.

 

 Cat in the Hat template.

Another story we read is Yurtle the Turtle.  After we read the story we make our own turtle.

 Turtle template.

 Another story we read is Green Eggs and Ham.  After we have our own green eggs and ham we make this project.  The student have to write on the egg how they like their green eggs and ham.

 Egg template.

I hope one of these ideas you will use with your class.  Please let me know how your class liked completing them.  I will be adding more Dr. Seuss activities later.

Sweet Story

At my school, we have a lot of people get a tour of our school so they can check it out to see if they want to sign up.  Yesterday the principal brought a tour into my classroom.  When this happens I have a student be the greeter.  The greeter welcomes them to the classroom and offers the tour a piece of candy.  The tours think the greeter is so precious.  Anyways, yesterday when the tour came in, the principal asked the greeter why she liked our school.  She thought for a moment and then said because this school is loving and kind.  HOW SWEET!  The greeter brought tears to my eyes.  Our principal is constantly reminding everyone to be kind and caring.  I guess that is his motto.  It was like they rehearsed what the greeter should say.  They didn't, the greeter thought it up herself.  It just melted my heart!!!  So sweet!