Community Helpers

We recently read the book Trashy Town.  In Trashy Town the garbage man goes around the town to a variety of community locations. The book has a pattern that students love to repeat.  After reading we used shapes we know to create trash trucks.  They are so adorable!

Over Due

Wow, this year has been flying by.  I am sorry I have not been posting regularly.  As I mentioned, we moved.  Moving and working and having your child go to school full day for the first time and homework  was a lot to handle.  Life is finally starting to settle down a bit and so I thought I would share some of the wonderful, fun, exciting things we have done this year.

Many of my students enter the year not recognizing their name so the first several months we do a lot of name work in pre-k.  Below are just a few examples of things we have done.

At first we wanted them just to recognize the first letter of their name.  We have a resource center available to us in my county that has this 8 in letter cut outs, so I ordered enough to have the first letter of all the students in my classroom and then a few extra of each letter, just in case.  Then I would call students over during small groups 2 or 3 at a time with 5 or 6 letters on the table.  I would ask them to find the first letter of their name and then we would trace the letter, say the letter, and say their name.  Next they got to decorate the letter with dot paint.  The kids were very proud of their letters and started to see it everywhere; declaring that is the letter in MY name.

During the week we learned about R, we made rockets with our names spelled on them.  Some students wrote the letters themselves, some traced the letters, and some just put the letters of their name in order depending on where they were in knowing their name.

To address STEM when we read about The Three Billy Goats Gruff we made a bridge that would hold 3 billy goats.  Students worked in groups with a variety of materials.  the bridge had to hold all 3 billy goats and allow a toy car to pass under.  Here is a picture of one group working on their bridge...

This last picture was a surprise.  During free play in centers I am walking around making notes and observing what children are up to and I came across a this picture below, look at it and see if you can see why I was so impressed...

On their own they decided to sort the magnets by color!  I love it!  They worked together, talked it out and were just going to town on their project.  It has to be one of my favorite moments this year.  You should have seen their proud faces when they realized I was interested in their work.  These are the moments we live for people!

Daily Shared Writing

This year for a daily shared writing experience I am taking 5 minutes at the end of every day and having the kids tell me what we did and posting it to my wiki.  The parents can check it and when their child says we didn't do anything today they know what we did.  It doesn't take much effort and I have gotten some positive feedback on it already.  

Another thing I wanted to share is safe share.  Safe share is great, you take a youtube video and plug it into safe share and it take out the adds.  So you can show an educational video without a youtube add for something inappropriate for children popping up.

Getting Ready to Go Back to School

Even though we are not officially back to school I have been in to get my room together a bit.  While it is certainly not finished here are some pictures of the progress.

This is a picture as you walk into the door, the desk in the back is my instructional assistant's desk.  It use to face out the window, but I turned it around this year because we are switching to all day Pre-K and the kids have to take a nap so she will need to be facing out so she can see them while they nap.

This is a little further to the right, the 3 tables in the middle will be used during our small group time and the centers will be wrapped around the room.

This is the morning meeting, reading carpet, whole group area.  My desk is in the back corner.  The whiteboard on the right has a projector that makes it like a smart board, the rolling white board is where I write the morning message.

I will post more pictures when I am done.  I still have a long way to go, but at least all of my bulletin boards are covered and have boarders and my furniture is close to where I want.  I just need to go through all the boxes, finish setting up my computers and put up some decorative stuff.  

There is a small part of me that is having a panic attach though because I may not be able to pull my late nights at school during the first work week for teachers because we are moving.  The timing stinks.  We were suppose to move back in July, but delay after delay has put us into the end of August.  But I set my entire Pre-K classroom up in one day last year after spending 2 weeks getting my second grade classroom up and running (last minute transfer).  I will be looking forward to the day that I am moved in and the classroom is done and I am a week into this full day pre-k thing.  Wish me luck.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We are nearing the end of the school year and students are getting a chance to show what they know.  One activity we did this week was we read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  The pre-k students loved that they knew the letters in the book.  They had a grand time pointing out the letters they knew and repeating chicka chicka boom boom, will there be enough room?  In small groups they made a coconut tree and wrote letters they knew on the coconuts.  Below are some examples of the completed trees.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar today in pre-k.  So many students are familiar with the book, but they all love it.  I let them chime in and say but he was still hungry each time it was repeated.  We counting the fruits the caterpillar ate.  One of the small group activities we did was to make a caterpillar using 2 different color dots and count how many of each color dot was used to make the caterpillar and how many dots there were all together.  Below are the pictures of the end product.

Parts of a Flower

We are learning about flowers in pre-k this week.  We have read books about flowers, we are planting and caring for flowers, and we are learning about the parts of a flower.  I taught the children the parts of the flower through a poster and a song.  Then the students used some stamps with the flower parts (root, stem, leaf, flower) to create a plant.  At another table the made flowers on a board and talked about each part of the flower and what it did.  Below is a picture of the flower part boards...

The song is sung to Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Roots, Stem, Leaves and Flower, Leaves and Flower
Roots, Stem, Leaves and Flower, Leaves and Flower
Roots, and Stem, and Leaves, and Flower
Roots, Stem, Leaves and Flower, Leaves and Flower

I used the song to review the parts while we were working with the flower parts board.  We also sang it and pretended we were a flower and our feet were the roots, our upper leg and torso were the stem, we stuck our hands out to the side for leaves, and then we put our hands next to our face for the flower.  The kids really took to the song and it helped them remember root and stem, which for most of them were new vocabulary words. 

Five Little Ducks

One of my favorite songs is Five Little Ducks, the students love it too.  We have been reading about ducks in our classroom.  Some of the books have been fiction and some non-fiction.  Some of my favorite ducks books are One Duck Stuck, Come Along Daisy, and Do like a Duck Does.  During our time reading about ducks we sang Five Little Ducks and we acted it out.  We acted it out first using the mats in the picture below.  To make the mats I used green and blue construction paper and this website's resources to make the ducks.

Then we acted out 5 little ducks using students.  They loved pretending to be ducks and wanted to do it over an over again.  When we acted it out we use a life size 5 frame to help them visualize what 5 ,4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 look like in a 5 frame.

Building sets

As a follow up activity to the counting and cardinality frog and lily pad activity seen here, we built a set on a lily pad today.  Students rolled a die and then wrote that number and their name on a lily pad.  Next students built a set of that many dots and placed them on the lily pad.  In order to differentiate this activity the lower group rolled a die that had the numbers 1-6, the middle group rolled a die with numbers 1-10, and the high group rolled a die with numbers 7-12.  The kids really loved the activity and they are proud of their number pond. 

Movement

We have been learning about movement and directions.  During story time we have read several books about movement.  We have sung movement songs, rolled dice and then done a movement that many times, sorted movements as big or small.  Students have really enjoyed this subject matter.  We have also been learning about the letters H and J which have lead to some interesting talks about hopping and jumping.  Today we thought about animals that hop or jump.  Next I showed students pictures of animals that hop or jump on the Smart board and we sounded out the words and I erased the white over the letters to expose the word.  Below is a picture of my smart notebook page....

Next students wrote and drew about what they jump like.  They really enjoyed talking, writing, and drawing about what they jump like.  Below are some examples of the students work...

Counting and Cardinality

One of the main clusters for pre-k students in the common core standards is counting and cardinality.  The student need to be able to counting to 10, recognize numbers 0-10, and build sets 0-10.  I have been working on these skills with them in many ways throughout the year.  Today I made a really fun and academically rigorous activity for my pre-k students that helps them to practice these standards.  I plan on incorporating it into my lessons next week.  I made lily pads that had 10 frames on them with the numbers 0-20 (I went past 10 because some of my students are ready for it).  Then I took a mini notepad with frogs on it and wrote the numbers 0-20 on them.  The students will count the dots on the lily pad and then match it to the correct frog with the number on it.  Below are some pictures I took before I laminated the materials.

Then as a follow up each students will draw a number and make a lily pad with that many dots on it.  In order to differentiate this activity I will give my working towards level students only numbers 0-10 and then my on level students I will give numbers 0-15 and my above level I will give numbers 0-20 to match.  When it comes time for the students to make the lily pad and put the set of dots on it I will have the working towards level pick numbers 1-5 and my on level pick numbers 6-10 and my above level pick numbers 11-20.   

Number Quilt

We read the book Cassie's Word Quilt.  There are a variety of follow up activities you could do to this book.  You could make a word quilt like the ones in the book in which students draw a picture of something and then wrote the word under it.  I wanted to go in a slightly different direction and have my students make a number quilt.  I have 15 students in my class so we did a number quilt 1-16 and I did one sample quilt square for the students to see.  I had some students absent so I did a few more to fill in the blank spaces.  Each student got a quilt with dotted numbers on them and I gave each child a number and had them trace and read the number and then count out a set of circle stickers and put them on the square and then decorate it.  I selected the squares for each small group starting with the lower numbers for my small group that is working towards level, numbers in the middle for my on level group, and the highest number for my above level group.  They all did a great job and really enjoyed the activity.  They have referred back to the number quilt bulletin board a few times and are very proud of their work.

More 1-10 QR codes

Recently I made some more QR codes for practice with numbers 1-10.  My kids love using these and are completely engaged in any activity we do with them.  Here is a link to my transportation themed QR codes.  I would suggest using a pocket chart or a magnetic board in which students match the QR codes to the numbers 1-10 after scanning and counting the images that appear.

Word Work with Names

I know Daily 5 is a big thing in classrooms grades 1 and up at the moment, but we even in pre-k we do some Daily 5 like things.  Recently I was at a PD lead by Linda Scott on literacy that left me inspired.  I hope to share several things I was inspired by over the next few weeks.  One of the things that was so quick and easy to incorporate was some word work you could do with names.  I immediately made a chart like the one we saw being used and then started using it in my classroom.  We are on our second day of using it and the kids LOVE it.  Below is the name chart...

As you can see the names are grouped by the first letter of the name.  This will be important.  I introduced the chart by pointing to each name and asking whose name it was and that child instantly lit up and said something like 'Me, that is my name it says ______".  Once we had done that we talked about the boxes and why were some boxes bigger than others and how did I decide where the box should be.  They quickly saw that all the names in the box began with the same letter.  Then I picked 1 student to come up and find their name.  I asked them what the word said (it is important that they realize their name is a word).  Then I asked them how many letters were in their name and they counted them.  Next I asked them what the first letter was, followed by what the last letter was.  Then they sat down and we all clapped how many parts (ie syllables)  there were to their name.  The kids love it, they are so excited to see who I will pick each day.  My goal is to do this with two students a day.  Today I added the question for Addyson, who has a name that begins with the same letter as your name.  She pointed to Allah but she wasn't sure what it said.  I said is there anyone who can read that word.  Allah's hand went up instantly and he proudly let everyone know it said Allah.  We listened closely to Addyson and Allah and noticed that we heard the same sound.  It is something so simple but it is making all the difference in my classroom and it only takes me about 5 minutes.  I hope this will help you as well. 

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is such an inspiration. He wrote such wonderful books, from the simple and funny to get children interested in reading to the more complex but yet still funny books that keep them reading.  His birthday is March 2nd and this year due to snow days and delays we will be celebrating him tomorrow.  We will work on patterns by making Cat in the Hat hats that are red and white striped, we will work on counting by putting fish in a bowl after reading One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, we will write recipes after reading Green Eggs and Ham, we will also practice rhyming with a song and a game.  The song is one I learned from another educator but I took it and turned it into an interactive smart notebook file.  Students sing the song with you and then choose the word that rhymes.  Here is the link to the Dr. Seuss smart board song.The song is sung to Do your Ears Hang Low.  If the link doesn't work, or you are not a smart board type of person, below are the lyrics.....

Oh, Dr Seuss is a really silly guy
He likes to say things that rhyme all the time
If I said ______
Then he'd probably say _________
Oh, Dr Seuss

Have fun celebrating Dr. Seuss!

QR codes in action

This is another set of QR codes I made which link to pictures of sets of objects.  Students scanned each one, then they counted the set, build a set of that many and placed the QR code card next to that number.  It helped them to practice counting sets, building sets, identifying numbers, and using technology.  It was a powerful lesson, they loved watching the picture magically appear on the screen.

Snow and Sickness

Sorry there has not been anything posted lately, between snow days and sickness I just haven't gotten around to posting much.

Counting Sets 1-10 with QR codes

If you have tablets in your school a great way to use them is QR codes.  You can set the QR code to send students to a website, text, etc.  I wanted to create sets 1-10 for my students to count.  I first created a power point that had slides with a different number of animals on each slide.  Next I uploaded those pictures onto my google account.  After that I copied the image location of each picture and put the URL in QRme.com.  Then I copied each of the QR codes created and pasted them in a word document.  Next I printed the QR codes and cut them out and placed each one on a different color paper and laminated them.  Now they are ready to go.  Students used i-pads with a QR scan app on them and scanned each QR code, an image appeared on the screen and they counted the set of animals and let me know how many animal were on their screen.  They loved the magic of watching an image appear and they got experience with both counting and using technology.  Here is the link to my QR codes.

Dear Zoo

I have not posted in a while because first we had Christmas break and then we had snow after snow after snow.  But I made an effort to get a picture of something we did this week that I loved.  We have been learning about animals of all types and one of my favorite books about animals is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. Before reading the book I gave students the instruction to pay attention to the order that the animals came.  While reading I let the students announce what animal was in each container.  They loved joining in with me and feeling like a part of the story.  Then we sequenced the story using the following story props.  Next we matched the vocabulary from the story to each animal and talked about what each word meant.  There were some great vocabulary words for pre-k students like fierce, scary, and grumpy.  During centers students responded to a writing prompt that said "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet.  They sent me a ______."   Students were told they could use an animal from the story or one they were familiar with.  I will include some pictures of students work.