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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Eric Carle Extravaganza!

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommas!  I am telling ya what, being a Momma is exhausting & exhilarating, energizing & depleting, emotional & aggravating.  It is positively THE best, most toughest, most rewarding, and biggest blessing of my life!

Before I begin my "Peek at my Week," I have to say that we begin DIBELS, our program practice (YAY!) and our end of the year Fountas and Pinnell running records/reading assessments.  SO, we are doing a ton of what I call, "productive busy work."  We need our students independentally working for longer than normal in order for testing to be completed.  I SO wish we could get a sub for a half day to knock it all out and move on to teaching, but that's a whole other ball of wax.....

So, onto my week!

Monday in Math we are continuing with place value, math fluency and a review of addition and subtraction.  We will be testing the sweet nuggets every day on their fluency with these awesome tests made by my good buddy, Kindergarten Smorgasboard!  I have been doing these for the past couple of weeks, my kids LOVE it!  I put an online timer on the projector, I think they feel like they are big kids!  I have noticed a ton of growth, these tests truly take the guesswork out of who "gets it" and who is struggling!  I plan on doing these MUCH earlier next year with my students!  Seriously ya'll, BUY this!  Best $6 I have spent for true formative and summative assessments! 

In Reading we will read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  This is one of my favorite Eric Carle books!  We will discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story.  I made this for my graphic organizer, I mean, seriously, TOO CUTE! 

The students will then make their own caterpillar using a freebie from my store!

On Tuesday we will do our "Flash" math fact fluency tests.  We will put the numbers 1-20 in order using this FREEBIE from The Bubbly Blonde! 

In Reading the sweet nuggets will sequence The Very Hungry Caterpillar by making this caterpillar! 


I found the pictures of for sequencing here.





The Very Hungry Caterpillar sequencing activityOn Wednesday we will continue our fluency "Flash" tests and then review subtraction from 10 using gloves, similar to this activity! 

 Counting Hands Math Activity...very "hands on"!

 The sweet nuggets will use a math subtraction sheet to assessment purposes from this spectacular unit!  Go check it out!  I am in LOVE with everything in this packet!  I love that it is all interactive!

In Reading we will move onto The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.  We will talk about the sequence of the story using what the grouchy ladybug did in the morning, afternoon and night.  The fantabulous site, Golden Gang Kindergarten offers this free download to help the sweet nuggets organize their ideas!  We will also make a ladybug and write what makes us grouchy!  Too cute! Here's the Golden Gang Kindergarten grouchy ladybug craftivity that my sweet nuggets will be  doing!

Grouchy Ladybug Activities- this site has great ideas for other centers and thematic units
 On Thursday we will continue with our "Flash" math fluency test and we will do a math review page from the Subtraction Fun, by From the Pond

In Reading, we will read The Very Lonely Firefly we will make a big story map of the book and then listen to a myon story about fireflies and we will all make a firefly and pick one fact to write about it!  These ideas came from Mrs. Plant's Press, go check her out!




On Friday we are going to the Nashville Zoo for a field trip!  It is going to be a great week!


Friday, May 2, 2014

If you give a.........teacher muscle relaxers


I thought I was never going to get out of bed.  Seriously ya'll, I could NOT move last night. My neck was KILLING me!  It has been for three days now, I went to the doctor today and she asked if I was under stress...HA! Me, a Kindergarten teacher with three boys under the age of 7, nah, no stress here.  Really, I am having muscle spasms in my neck down my should blade and back, this is miserable. On the BRIGHT side, I got muscle relaxers, which I am going to take tonight.  Maybe I will get some SLEEP! I figured I better get this blog post out BEFORE the muscle relaxers so I make a little sense. 

So here it goes! A Peek at My Week: 


Laura Numeroff (if you didn't catch that from the title post) and we are continuing on with those Tricky Teens/Place Value.

On Monday in Math I made a little review game for the Sweet Nuggets. You can get that FOR FREE here!
 Spin and Write:  Tricky Teens

 In Reading we will be reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and discussing Circle Stories.  I found cute sequence pictures here (for FREE, score!!!!) that I am going to use to show the kiddo's the sequence of the story going in a circle, like this idea I found on Pinterest:Circle Stories
 We are then going to talk about Cause and Effect, I made an anchor chart that you can get the font/border from my tPt store!  I am going to use the pictures from the circle story illustration to show the cause and effect relationship within this story.  The students are then going to make their OWN cause and effect using the pictures from the story. 


On Tuesday we are continuing with those Tricky Teens, I found this wonderful idea from Keepin' it Krazy with Mrs. Berns in Kinder and knew I just had to have it!  Go check it out! 









In Reading we are going to read If you Give a Pig a Pancake!  Love this story! Just like Monday, we will make the circle story using sequence pictures and make a Pig Craftivity!  The example shows the writing to be If you give a Pig __________, I am changing it to have a "Cause" in one hand and the "Effect" in the other!  ADORBS!  Go check this blog out and snag this freebie!




On Wednesday we will do a little Rainbow Math!  We will start by reading the story A Rainbow of My Own.  Then I will pass out rainbow patterns to each of my sweet nuggets, toss markers their way and I am a SUPERSTAR!  I will give them 4/5 minutes to color and then pass out base ten blocks to get our "Math on!"  This wonderful blogger, Kroger's Kindergarten posted this Freebie and I knew I had to do it!  Talk about hands on!  Love it!  AND it is already differentiated for me!  Woot!  AND it has a record sheet that I can grade!  DOUBLE WOOT!  Seriously ya'll, go check this blog out, you will find some gems, including this one!
A Rainbow of My Own. Click for more picture books about #rainbows #kidlit


In Reading we will read If you Give a Cat a Cupcake and "circle" sequence the story using the pictures I found at Fairy Tales and Fiction by 2.     We will then make our OWN cupcake using shaving cream, yep, SHAVING cream!  I love me some messes, and to top it off, it makes the whole room smell good!  Anyway, mix up some shaving cream, glue and your fave color food coloring and voila you have a puffy cupcake picture! 
 


I found this cutie patootie cupcake from here. I just put it into powerpoint, made it as BIG as it could get to fit onto a piece of paper.  We will "Shaving cream paint" it and then put the pictures of the story in sequence around it!  Messy?  Yes!  Fun?  Yes!  Based on standards?  OF COURSE! 
http://www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Birthday-Cupcake-Coloring-Pages.jpgIf you give a cat a cupcakeWe will also write about what happened First, Next and Last in the story using this FREEBIE from Rulin' the Roost!  



On Thursday we are going to do a "Grab Bag" of Teens!  I saw this on Pinterest and I thought, sheer BRILLIANCE!  This will be super fun! This activity came from Froggy Friends Fun!
 Grab bag Teen Numbers- change the "leftovers" to ones. Awesome idea! If you click on the link there are some great math talk ideas too, to go with the activity
I will make ten bags with different amounts of various objects.  I will partner my sweet nuggets up (above average student with an average/below average student) to do this activity.  The students will take the objects out of the bag, place on the tens frame until it is all full and the "leftovers" will be put below.  The students will write down how many objects are in the bag total.  The above average kids will have to write 10 + 5 = 15, my average/below average kids will simply write the total amount. 

In Reading we will read If you Give a Moose a Muffin and make this adorable craft from my good pal Kindergarten Smorgasboard!  On the back of this moose, we will add causes and effects of the story.  We will also complete a venn diagram comparing this story to If you Give a Cat a Cupcake.
On Friday we are having Muffins with Mommies!!!!  This is always a special day for the Moms and kids! I love it!  As a Mommy myself, I get all choked up around Mother's Day.  Kids grow up too fast.  Guess the saying, "Time flies when you are having fun" is true!
{Inspiring} What will YOUR kids see when you aren't looking?
In Reading on Friday we will make our very OWN circle story!!!  I found this cute idea from Mrs. Bumgardner's 1st Grade Class  Blog.  What a PERFECT way to end the week!  circle story 7