Five for Friday, January 27, 2017

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Sorry I will try this again.   Somehow I messed up and lost this post.  Frustration.....
Thank you Doodle Bugs, Kasey, for this link time.

1. It's in the air......and on their hands.....everywhere.....

I am stocking up on my sick supplies.  My kids at school are coughing and sneezing.  Not many are absent so they are really spreading it around.  
After it is through the classroom and my home, I'm sure to get it.
Wash, wash, wash,...oh yeah, and my washing machine just died...It is over 30 years old, I guess it gave its best....

2.  Cover your sneeze!

When I first started teaching kindergarten, we used a program called Letter People.  Since I save everything, I pulled out the Little Miss A story, picture card and coloring page.  We also made faces with hair and eyes.  Glued a tissue where the nose and mouth would be.  Traced our hands and cut them out and glued them over the tissue.  Little Miss A would remind us her sound by saying, "A - a - a -choo!"
I also like the Crawford the Cat videos.  He has a video called "Sneezer pleaser."

3.  Learning More Sight Words

Here are some ideas I'm using to help the children practice their sight words.  The High Five cards are placed by the door so whenever we enter or exit our room, the children can 'tap' and say the word.

During my morning opening, I have written a word with a white crayon and asked them to read our sight word.  Of course they said, "there's nothing there!".  So with a watercolor marker they chanted as I drew a line "from left to right" starting at the top to bottom.  Each marker line would reveal part of the word.  It's those little things that can get them so excited.  So then they had a chance to write and undercover their hidden sight words.

I am lucky to have a girls' and a boys' bathroom in my classroom.  Since some seem to spend so much time in there, (avoidance or out of necessity that it just takes a while..) I decided to put the words of the day on the wall to give them something to look at.

After doing a sight word check, students receive a visor with a word they don't know and they become that word-'visor' for the day.  Their responsibility is to use a clipboard and read the word (also written on the top of the page) to at least 10 others. They say and point to the word on the top, "This is the word ____."  The listener then signs their sheet.  It is a very official job!

4.  Parent Visit Day
Each year we invite our parents to come the last hour of one day.  The children become the teacher.  A task card is given to each child to complete the activities WITH their parent.  Tasks vary year to year but include "Your turn, my turn" writing letter pairs on dry erase boards, writing numbers to 100, writing an entry in their journal, a sight word job (this year it was a hidden mystery word that they just learned), a math job (green bean story of 6), read a story, etc.  
This is an active participation opportunity so the parents do the work with their child.  It is a great PR event and quality time spent is the bonus!
If a child does not have a parent who can attend, then the others are encouraged to share their parent.  We conclude with singing a few of our daily songs.  The last song is my favorite, "Four Hugs a Day."  The last line says "don't forget you've got to GIVE four hugs a day."  At that line, the children go give their parent a hug!  Awwww...  

The parents take the completion of the work very seriously. They can do the jobs in any order.

The first task on the list is always to sit down and practice tying.  Sometimes a captive audience gets the job done!

An extra treat for me, is when former students return as the parent!  Especially when it is the fathers, that warms my heart.

 5.  White Trash

So after a stressful, busy and exhausting week, I treat myself to ......snacking!  Oh well,....but isn't pretzels, rice chex cereal and peanuts kind of healthy?

Janet

 

 
 
 
 

  

Five for Friday, January 6, 2017

Thank you for this link time.  I've missed it!  We have returned to school.  Here's what we did this week and a bit more.

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I am hooked on author Richard Peck's books.  They filled my latest reading frenzy during Christmas break.  Even though I began reading the books from our elementary school library, I've found more at my local county library.  These writings made me laugh.  Try a few.  Hope you enjoy them also.

This door display began with using traced hands to make snowflakes.  And then more hand shapes to make a tree with student pictures.  Practicing tracing and cutting all the way!
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 We did star exercises. (a.k.a. windmills crossing our midlines and making diagonals)

STAR EXERCISES
First start off with our bodies, spreading feet apart (not in the splits).

Stretch out both arms.


 
Wave left hand with elbow straight and twist body.  Waving hand as it moves in front of their body.  (Wave at me.)

Now touch (opposite) right foot and stand back up.



Wave right hand with elbow straight and twist body continuing to wave hand. (wave at me)
Then touch (opposite) left foot and stand up.

 Then I show them with lines repeating their body movements.  Redrawing to show what they did next.


Hey!  They made a star!
They get so excited. 
Practice on Dry Erase boards talk through each movement to practice drawing a star!  
Make a paper full in different colors.  This helps some students who need practice physically crossing their mid line and then on paper.  It is important to be able to cross their mid line to make diagonal lines too.  Young children have the most difficulty with making these lines.  It shows when they struggle to write the letters  A or M, N, Kk, Vv Ww and Yy.
They will be making stars all over.  Use this excitement to have them draw sets of stars or stars in a pattern.  (big, little, colors...)

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I made snow scene cards and used snowflake and snowman erasers for math activities.  Story problems can be solved with lots of hands on practice. 



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I just took the photos of the kids acting out to 'catch snowflakes' for our snowglobe writing and craft project.  Step-by-step we will complete this next week.
Monday we will make our mini pine trees by folding a 3-inch square on the diagonal.  Save one, fold one to make the four parts.  I wrote about this in a December posting.
Tuesday- paint the puffy snow using glue, white paint and shaving cream.
Wednesday- I will show my snowglobe collection and talk about the things we would see, smell, touch, taste and hear in a snowy world.  I will also show many pictures of snow fun and read snow stories.
Thursday - We will write our ideas.
Friday - All parts will be put together to make our own paper snowglobe worlds.
The picture above was last year's class final hall display.  I like the use of the five senses to extend their writing of what they see, smell, touch, taste and hear.