Recess, Thank You, Halloween, Addition, Soil, and More!

One of the many things I love about my school is that we still have recess!  

Here are my kiddos enjoying their recess time.

My students get recess everyday for about 10 to 15 minutes.  I really feel my students need this because they are busy working ALL day long.  They need this break to run and get their energy out.

Veteran's Day is tomorrow and I wanted to do something to thank the Veteran's.  We are going to learn about Veterans the rest of the week and then complete a writing about Veterans.  I thought a heart painted as a flag and then a child holding a thank you sign would be perfect to add to our Veteran letters. 

Aren't they adorable??

At my school we always have a big Halloween parade and a costume contest amongst the teachers.  This year my team decided to dress up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I loved this idea since my own child loves the TMNT and he is the same age as our students.  I figured the kiddos would just love seeing this.  Here is how our costumes turned out.

During the parade we would stop randomly and do a little dance and cheer.  Go ninja, Go ninja, Go! (Vanilla Ice sang this song.  We used the chorus of it)  We had a blast!

Last week my kiddos worked on addition.  We had to make 10 to add.  I thought the easiest way to get the students to understand it was to print off ten-frames for the students to use and use manipulatives.  I also came up with a little tune to help my students get the concept.  They would put one number at the top ten-frames and then the other number on the bottom ten-frames. 

 Then we would sing...We're moving on up...moving on up... to the top tens-frame.  We have to move up to make teeeeeennn.  We're, we're moving on up!  

The kids LOVED the song and I really think it helped them understand this concept.  Here are some pics of my kiddos in action learning how to make 10 to add. 

My school uses the Wonders series.  I found this great supplemental work to help my students.  

Phonics Interactive Notebook -Wonders Supplemental from Tammy Wathen-The Resourceful Apple

If you use the Wonders series you need to check it out.

Also, I have been use this...

McGraw-Hill Wonders Writing: 1st grade Language Arts- Writing and Grammar Unit 2  from Having Fun in First

This product is very helpful for writing and grammar.  It gives the students brainstorming maps and papers to complete the students writings on.  Here are some pics of my students using some of the maps.

My students are sharing their work with their partners. 

This year I am uses the Daily 5 frame work.  Here are some of my students doing Read to Someone.  I can't believe how much my students love to read. 

Do your students have to learn about the Earth's surface?  Mine do!

SC.1.E.6.1

Recognize that water, rocks, soil, and living organisms are found on Earth's surface

We spent a couple weeks covering the Earth's surface.  We 

used magnify glasses to look at our soil.

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Investigate how magnifiers make things appear bigger and help people see things they could not see without them.

  The students were 

so excited to do this.  Here are some pics of them checking 

out the soil. 

After we looked at the soil we separated its contents.  They were amazed by what all is in soil.

Then we did some experiments showing how changes can occur to the Earth's surface.

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Recognize that some things in the world around us happen fast and some happen slowly.

Our next experiment had a cup of moist soil and the other cup was dry soil.  We added water to each cup to see what would happen.

My kiddos have been learning SO much!  I am so proud of them. 

I hope you had a great week!!

Have a Wolfelicious day!

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Writing Growth

Writing Growth

One of the things we doing throughout the year in kindergarten is write.  Writing is SO important for my kinders to do.  

I always tell them that if they are great writers, they will be great readers.  And if they are great readers, they will be great writers.

  Throughout the year we practice writing.  Each month we have a writing prompt that all the kindergarten students use to write.  Then we use this writing for a writing grade.  

I keep the beginning of the year writing and the end of the year writing for our school folders.  I was putting the writings together on Friday for their folders and I absolutely LOVED looking at each child's progress.   It seems like throughout the year you forget how they came in.  I always want more and more from my students so I was in aw when I saw their writings. 

The prompt for the beginning of the year was tell me about your family.  The last prompt was tell me your favorite thing about kindergarten. 

Here are some of my favs.

Beginning of the Year
This writing says: Mom (although it looks like he wrote Emma)

End of Year
This writing says: My favorite thing is the flower because we painted. 

Beginning of the Year
This writing says: Red

End of Year
This writing says: My favorite thing was doing the flower because it was fun. 

Beginning of Year
This writing says: August

End of the Year
This writing says: My favorite thing is painting and making crafts.

We worked and worked a writing this year.  I used a lot of oral sentences with my kiddos.  We then added and to our sentences and then because.  I was thrilled that most students used and or because in their final writing.  

I think my kiddos is an excellent job!! I am thrilled with their results.

Thanks for reading!

Have a Wolfelicious day!

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Handwriting and Writing

What do you do with your class to help improve their handwriting? 

 I know I know, I battle with myself sometimes if learning the correct way to write is still important.  But then I remember that my students need to be able to write notes and lists.  People need to be able to read those.  They may not have to write long essays but the will definitely have to write notes and lists for themselves. Therefore, teaching my students the correct way to form their letters is important to me.  With all this curriculum, it is difficult to fit in handwriting.  Here is one of the ways I incorporate handwriting practice into my day.

One of the centers in my classroom is Handwriting Practice.  When it is the students turn to go to this center, they find their Handwriting folder and get started.  They know what to do and they are working on numerous skills.

Cover of the Handwriting Practice folder.

At the beginning of the year I have their first name in the book.

Second quarter I add their whole name to the book.

These pages we use for different things.  I could give them a sound and they write it.  I could give them a letter and they write it.  I could give them a number and they write the number and a picture to match.  Basically, for these two pages there are numerous things.

More name practice and phonogram practice.

Phonograms and Numbers.

 

 

 Letter and Sight Word practice.

Sight Word practice.

Sight Word practice.

This Handwriting Practice folder is so beneficial for the students.  I have seen such an improvement on my student's handwriting.

For Winter, we made adorable Eskimos for our classroom door.

I love how bright the students made their Eskimos.

The past few weeks I have really been working on writing.  Since we have been talking about Dental Health this week, we did a writing about the Dentist.  First we brainstormed what we wanted to talk about.

We used this map to help us.



 

Then we filled out the map together.  Next, we wrote the sentence together using our sounds to help us write words.

The sentence we came up with was...

The Dentist told us to brush twice a day, brush for 2 minutes, and floss.

Then, later in the week I gave the students some pictures.  Then I told them they had to write something about the pictures.

I have a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Brush for 2 minutes a day.

I brush my teeth so I don't get cavities.

I was trilled with their sentences.  They did a Wolfelicious job on these!

Did you read my blog post from last week?  I found out that a lot of us feel the same way!  It is always great to know that you aren't alone with your feelings.  If only we could go back and let our kids be little!

If you missed the post, here is the link to it.

   

I hope you had a great week!