Stars aglow

Let's make stars.

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...)

Hidden Stars
Give students a white crayon to make stars (even just x-line stars) on a white paper.  Be sure to press hard with the crayon.  It's hard to see..but then use water-base dark blue/black paint to paint left to right to uncover the stars.


What's in the night sky?
Star sticker science:
Give students 5+ sticker stars.  Use the kind you need to lick.
Hold them in one hand over a black/dark blue construction paper about 10-12 inches.  One, two, three turn over hand and open up.  Let the stars drop on the paper.  One at a time, students pick up, lick and stick in the same spot.
Then students can connect the stars with chalk or a white crayon.  What does your design look like?
This could be an introductory lesson or conclusion to talking about the constellations and star designs. 

Books
These help introduce sky watching from our science series.

Now I know Stars is good to begin learning the sun is our closest star!  
Then we practice drawing stars in "Counting Stars".  On each page students draw the number of stars, learning number words, to the poem.  A sentence strip shows the step-by-step lines.
"One star twinkles,  Two stars shine, Three stars glow, Four stars sparkle, And five stars fill the sky!"  
I'm sure I adapted the poem borrowing it from somewhere.
I've also copied pages from our science series so each student has their own copy as we learn about the day and night sky.
Together answer questions about when do you:
? Eat breakfast, walk the dog, sleep, eat lunch, go to bed, see the moon, see stars?  Day or Night
Fold a paper in half (hamburger fold) and title each side with DAY  - NIGHT, draw pictures of things they could see in the day sky and in the night sky.  Label.
 
Nursery Rhymes
Of course, include reciting these rhymes.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.  Research the other verses!
Starlight, star bright.  (making wishes)

Count the Stars
Make cards with varied amounts of stars. Use different  color of stars or use same color star stickers on different colors of cards.  Place the cards around the room. Make a record sheet for the students to "count around the room" and color the stars corresponding to the card or star color.
Variation for Sight Words on colored stars and students write the word and color the star to match.  See sample of record sheet below.

Pull a star card with a letter on it from a bag/box/pile.  Write the letter and its pair.  See sample of record sheet below.

Ten Frame counting 
Make ten frame cards, some filled with ten stars, some blank frames and individual star cards.  Gather a small group of students to practice counting together and filling ten frame with stars (can also use star shaped erasers).  When the group conceptualizes the value of 10, substitute the filled ten frame card and use an empty frame to count on, build teen numbers, etc.
Hands-on counting practice helps students conceptualize the value of numbers.

Star cards 
Put sight words, nonsense words, letters on star cards for games such as Lotto (directly matching same) or letters for letter sound matching.  
MEMORY GAMES with star cards to match same word, uppercase to lowercase matching, letter to initial sound picture, rhyming pictures, pictures with same ending sounds.
HIDE IT -Using rectangular word cards facing student, hide a star card and students have to read the word they think the star is behind. Or adapting the letter pair star cards, place a shooting star behind one of the cards.  Put the cards on the floor or a pocket chart.

READ THE STARS - place 'star word' cards around the room and give students a star pointer to take turns reading the words.
 
Fun with stars can work anytime throughout the year.  But during the dark days of January and February, it fits best for my classes.

Reach for the stars! 
 

Dry Erase Boards

I just love dry erase boards in kindergarten!
It is not permanent so this is great for young learners.  They can erase and try again without tearing.

Here's a list of only some things I use them for:

 * Wake up their brains - every day as the students come in after checking in with attendance, helper jobs, and marking lunches, they get a dry erase board, marker and eraser and begin to "wake up their brains before the bell."  Practice varies as their abilities increase.  We start with writing their name, then write letter pairs, (alphabetical order), and numbers as far as they can write.

*Practice writing stokes.  Make straight lines top to bottom, long and short, across the board left to right, make them little lines and making continuous loops, making circles "o's" and starting at the top.  Make bumps (as for h, n) and 'cups' (as for u's).  Make zigzags left to right, top to bottom and even from center and continuing around getting bigger. 
*When introducing a new letter or number or shape, we practice on a dry erase board before writing on paper.  (We start with air writing.)  We chant "START AT THE TOP." It is easy to check and remind to work left to right and top to bottom.  
Remember not all strokes are practiced all at once.  Handwriting is a gradual practice. 

*Write sight words.
*Write number sentences, Story of addition 'facts'.
*Group practice to write dictated numbers, letters, shapes
*Group practice of story problems to listen, record and solve and show your work.
*Play a game "Show me"  

I say a letter pair, number, etc.  Students hold board in the crook of one arm and write.  I say "cap your markers and put them down next to your eraser."  Hold the board close but not touching you so others don't see.  Boards on top of your head (facing backwards) 

then I say "1,2,3 show me"  The students turn their boards around still on their heads.  
I can see at a glance those who get it and those who need help.

*Write the number that comes after ___?
*Write the number that comes before ___?
*Write the series of numbers beginning with ____. (counting on)
 *Write the series of letters beginning with _____. (alphabetical memory order)
*I say a series of random  numbers (4 or more) to write from auditory memory.
*Write the numbers ____, ___ ,__.  Practice putting a comma between the numbers.
*Write the numbers _____, ____.  Circle the number that is more/less.
*Write a dictated sentence using sight words.
*Write a question.  Trade board with someone and they have to write the answer (in a sentence).
*Say the sounds and students write the letters for the sounds.  Does it make a real or nonsense word."
*Circle the vowel in the word you wrote.
*Write word families lists.  
*Make a word ladder.  Change the "letter" to a "__" to make a new word.
*Practice making tally marks while listening and counting...
*Write a number line.
*Use the number line to add-on, take away, count backward.

*Students can take surveys in the class asking yes-no questions and tally responses. 
*The children love to play school during their free choice times.  They make up their own activities and always choose the dry erase boards.
*They love making lists of classmates names and writing words around the room. 
*They love to use the boards and markers when their parents visit to show them what they can do.
 
*Use the board to learn directionality and vocabulary of: tall, "long way up & down", vertical, horizontal, "long way sideways", short side, long side, front and back
*Practice positional words.  Put the eraser above your board.  Put your marker between your board and your eraser.  Put your marker to the right side/left side, below your board.
AND these boards are used on the backside as 'table tops' when we do use paper with our rug groups.


The children learn how to properly cap the markers until they click.  
We go through a lot of markers.  So far I still like the Nasco and The Markerboard People dry erase markers. We buy them in bulk sets of 30.  
They are cone tip and easy for the children to hold and use.  Since we do use them daily, these last a bit longer. It is December and we have gone through about 2 per student so far.  I rotate between the black and blue ink. 

The children want to use them all the time.  They are learning routines of putting them away and responsibility for the care of materials.
 
The more they practice right, the better they will get.

Five for Friday November 4, 2016

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Thank you Kasey at Doodle Bugs for linky party this week.
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My colleague Pam Cochran has shared a 'lesson' on coloring that she did with her kindergarteners.  

We have found that they need specific of guidance and a rubric to understand what they should be striving to do.
 We put this on a large chart tablet so they can refer to it while they work.

The more they practice RIGHT, the better they will get.


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 It is still pumpkin harvest time these first early days of November.  

The students traced or wrote their numbers in the pumpkins. (Differentiated lesson) 
Then they learned a partner game.  One player rolls a die and counts out the number of counters (Pumpkin erasers, candy corn or uses a bingo dobber) to cover the pumpkins in number order.  The game ends when the first player to cover-up all their numbers.
We knew these needed lots of review this week as they worked out their sugar highs from Halloween Monday.   

  

More review of matching letters.  I selected the letters that were most missed when checking letter recognition.  Students remove a letter from the pumpkin on the left and matched it to their paper.  Students could also trace the letter with a marker or use a bingo dobber.  Then place the plastic letter in the bowl on the right.  (Reinforcing the left to right habit.)

The next step is writing letter pairs and saying the letter name while they are writing.  
We have found that repetitive writing of the letter pairs whether in alphabetical order and/or as shown above, helps the students learn the letters and sticks in their memory.  It has also greatly improved their ability to write the letters.


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For the past few years, I have asked the children to bring in their candy wrappers and we have sorted and graphed the various kinds.
Thanks to Dr. Jean to remind and extend this to more sorting.  It inspired me to write up a list of activities.
The day after Halloween I sent home a note in a baggie requesting empty candy wrappers.  I specifically asked them to cut the end rather than tear it.  They need MORE cutting practice anyway.

They sorted the wrappers.  I found a bit more control sending one row (table, group) at a time prevented a chaotic scramble.

I taped 26 pages on the chalkboard and labeled with the alphabet.  Students took turns getting a wrapper and finding the page to tape their wrapper on.  It was clear who could and could not identify the beginning letter of the words.

The next activity was to make SETS of candy wrappers.  Again, row by row, (table or group of 5 at a time) picked up a wrapper and decided where they were adding theirs.  As each group came, it was becoming more challenging to make sure not "too many" or "not enough" on each set page. I was excited when the students used the math vocabulary words we've identified as they described each page during our conclusion.


Woohoo....CUBS win............by the way!

Fire Prevention Week

Invite fire fighters into class to show their gear as "friendly fire fighter".

Fingerplay
5 little fire fighters
Standing in a row
1,2,3,4,5
There they go!
Hop on the engine
With a shout!
Quicker than a wink
the fire is out.

Color, cut and sequence the five firefighters.

Stories

Clifford the Fire House Dog

 and many more....

Patterning
Use pictures of hydrants, firemen hats, boots, to continue a given pattern or make your own.

Put coloring pages in a folded book as a matchbook, to learn about fire safety.  Write 911 on front cover for emergency reference.

Envelope games
Count the spots on the firehouse dogs and match them to their firefighter with his number.

Sequentially order by number the firehouse dogs to help Fireman Frank.

 
 Put the firehouse dogs in ABC order.






Directed drawing
Direct students to make a fire truck by drawing shapes.

Don't forget to check your smoke alarm batteries!

Syllables

Concentration
It occurred to me one night, that we tend to clap out syllables with our students.  However, some have difficulty understanding the 'word parts' when we begin our introduction and clap willy-nilly and some can't clap and count at the same time to remember how many sayllables.                    
I remembered an old camp clapping game called "Concentration."
We would begin with slapping our legs with the first syllable.
Con (slap thighs) -cen (clap hands together) -tra (snap fingers with right hand) -tion (snap fingers with left hand)
Then repeat the sequence as we said:
Con-cen-tra-tion
Keep in rhy-thm
All in rhy-thm
con-cen-tra-tion
Now be-gins (ok, just hold both hands out palms up without snapping.)
 (If children can't snap yet, then just flick hand up )
Teacher says a word   
Students repeat word parts (syllables) beginning with slapping thighs, hands and right, left hands.  This will work with words up to 4 syllables.
Some how these different body movements helps students remember the 'how many' count easier. 
Once children get the hang of syllables and counting, then just clapping the word parts is ok.

Counting with fingers
Sometimes I have the students use their counting fingers to
tell how many syllables in selected word. 

Syllables verses phonemes 
I learned just don't do them at the same time.  Begin with syllables and practice, practice, practice.  There are oodles of  resources for pictures, envelope games and group activities available.  
Some children get confused when moving to word phoneme segmenting. So just make sure you've practiced the idea of syllables until they can do it.  
Explain that phoneme segmenting will be used for reading and writing big words from their word parts/syllables. 

Nursery Rhymes
Recite nursery rhymes by speaking in a rhythm can also help children with saying word parts.  I sway side-to-side while reciting a rhyme.  
You can put one elbow in the other hand in front of your body and move your hand as a metronome while repeating rhymes to emphasize the rhythm of syllables.

If you have a student who is rhythm challenged, try having them walk (stomp) to step count the syllables.  Making larger movements may help them.  
Walk on a numberline beginning off the numberline each time.  
 

 The more they practice (right),

the better they will get!

Trees and seasons

Continued Spring Seasons
Throughout the year we have been doing a picture of a tree each season.  As we trace our arms and hands to make the trees we have been hearing the vocabulary of the tree parts.

So we can make our flip book to label the tree parts.  

As I look at this, I may have students put the name of each part on the inside of the flipped piece also.

More tree themed activities:

Practice writing sight words and color the trees to match.

Look at the shapes of trees.  Sort other pictures or objects or pictures of real trees to shape.  Learn the words of shapes, circle, oval, triangle. to describe the trees.

Count the tree rings. 

Some of my favorite tree books.

 

 

 

Hand-in-hand we grow!

Trees and Seasons go hand in hand

Make a 4 season tree book.
Summer Tree

Beginning at the bottom of the paper trace arm and hand with fingers close.  This is a challenging task for many early kindergarteners.  Color the hand as the tree top leaves and the arm as the trunk.  Color the green grass that grows around the tree.  (I feel a song coming on  "The green grass grew all around")  Use the vocabulary terms trunk and body parts wrist.
Save each season tree to put into a book in the spring.

Fall/Autumn Tree

For the Fall tree trace arm and hand with fingers spread for the larger branches.  Draw smaller branches and twigs (again using vocabulary terms, trunk, roots that you cannot see)  Show students how to tear a leaf by holding paper between thumb and finger on one hand and tear around. The part still held is the leaf.   I combine this with a counting to 10 informal assessment.  Glue some leaves on the branches and some 'falling.'    Technically most trees don't have the color variety of yellow, orange, brown and green leaves.  

 

For higher ability students they can write a complete sentence "I see a fall tree."

Winter Tree

Winter trees we discuss how the snow falls from the clouds in the sky down so snow sticks to the top of the branches. Too much snow will make the branches break.  Use a small paint brush (or Q-tip) to make snowflakes falling and on the tree.  Cover the ground with the white snow paint.  Some years there hasn't been a lot of snow for us so we still draw grass and paint a little snow over the grass. 

Spring Tree

Spring trees are just budding so we use our 'pinkie' and do little touch dots for the buds. 

Make a book

 Make a cover and staple all the saved tree pictures.  This is a conclusion to our seasons unit.  Little did the children realize, they have been learning about the seasons throughout the school year.

HAND-IN-HAND THEY GROW!