January/February Photo Haul!

The last few months I have been terrible about updating the blog with photos! So here is a "photo" update of what's been going on the last few months. Enjoy :)!

Two students are working on a recording beginning sounds center.

BOGGLE JR. is a great literacy center that the kids really enjoy!

Below is a student who is working on addition through rolling two dice and recording the results.

Here a student is working on the pre-primer sight words by building them with play-dough!

Tallying is always a tricky skill to learn, however when the students are given a manipulative to help them master the skill, it makes math come to life.

Valentine's Day crafts are always fun, especially when you can get a little messy :)!

Fun With Gingerbread Men, December Centers & Tallying

We kicked off the month with the always fun and interactive, gingerbread unit! The kids enjoyed reading many different versions of the gingerbread man and even got to decorate their very own gingerbread cookie!

Below is a picture of a sequencing activity that the class worked on after reading, The Gingerbread Boy.

This year was the first year I read Jan Brett's, The Gingerbread Baby. It was a huge hit! I would highly recommend adding this book to your personal library..such a fun and cute twist on a classic, holiday story! Below is another picture of a sequencing mini-reader we worked on together. We will be spending a lot of time working on sequencing the remainder of the year. The ability to comprehend and retell a story is an extremely important skill needed for kindergarten.

After reading about gingerbread men all week, we summarized some of the things we read about and made a craft to go along with it. I must apologize for the craft looking a little on the spooky side! I'm still trying to figure out why they ended up looking like clowns. Teacher oopsie :).

The only way to end a week about gingerbread men is by eating gingerbread! Everyone enjoyed decorating their cookies and sneaking in some M&M's :).

Below are some pictures from our December centers. The kids will be working on: beginning letter sounds, greater than/less than, addition, non-standard measurement, numbers 1-20 recognition, number writing, tallying and sight word games.

Last week we started our "tallying" math unit and we will continue with it the next two weeks. We are using popsicle sticks to help make this tricky concept a little more hands-on. Not only is tallying challenging because it involves some unusual steps, but it also requires the ability to count by fives. We learned a short poem/song to help us remember when to "slash" the group of tallies. We also played a game called, "show me the tallies" (I write a number on the whiteboard and they have to show me the number in tally form with the popsicle sticks). 

With all this work, we had to throw in a little fun :). Below is a picture of a student who is working on a "countdown to Christmas" chain. 

October Update

October is such a busy month (both in school and life), so I apologize about this long overdue update. Enjoying the pumpkin patches, spending time with family, eating everything pumpkin and renovating a home took over this past month!

We have been a group of busy bees this month. We started the month learning about the different types of community helpers, specifically the firefighter. The Lake Zurich Fire Department even paid a visit to our school! We also learned all about pumpkins and even carved one for our classroom. Enjoy a little snapshot of the beginning of the month :).

Sight word readers are always a great way to kick off a unit. It allows for sight word reinforcement, all while learning about our topic for the week.

Labeling helps children recognize that words have meaning. Below is a picture of a student's work from our firefighter unit.

My (funny) attempt at drawing a firefighter :). We talked about the different parts of a firefighter and then labeled it together.

Wearing firefighter attire is no joke! That stuff is HEAVY and HOT! Hats off to our servicemen who put their lives at risk to help keep us all safe. 

We loved learning about all the different parts of the fire engine!

And we had to have one funny face picture :)...

We read the story, The Five Little Pumpkins and worked on sequencing the parts of the story. We sequenced the speech bubbles and created a cute, little craft to go along with it :)!

Can you guess what we will end the month learning about :)?

Academic Centers

Every afternoon the students are paired together and they complete "academic centers". These centers build upon what we are working on in the classroom. The centers also change every few weeks depending upon the material. I love center time for three huge reasons:

1. It is a GREAT way to differentiate a child's work.

2. I meet with my "small group" (a time where I meet with two students at a time). 

3. The students learn how to problem solve and work in a "team" setting.

I could go on and on about how valuable this time is, but I will spare you the chatter and just show you how great they are :).

Below is a picture of two students playing a letter name/phonics board game.

Here is a child working with bears on completing AB, ABBA and ABC patterns.

Number 1-20 number recognition is a lot more fun when you are fishing for them!

These two are working on color words while playing a game of memory.

This group is working on letter formation with allergen free playdough (greatest creation)!

Color words are a lot more fun to learn when you get to stamp them out!

These are only a few of the great centers we are working on. 

Check back this week for even more :).

Fun with Ten Frames!

As a teacher, I find that ten frames are the greatest teaching tool in math. Not only are the kids learning how to subitize, but they are also learning how to slow themselves down while counting items (one to one correspondence). For the next two weeks we will be working with ten frames. We have spent the last week learning what a ten frame is and how to count each circle within a ten frame to find the amount. This week the students will continue working on that skill, however they will also learn what to do when they are given the number first as opposed to the circles.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I See Colors Everywhere!

For the past two weeks we have have learned all about our color words. We spent the week focusing on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear story series which is all about the color words. It is also a great series for teaching fluency. We learned how to use the word wall in our classroom to help us spell things, as well as the color anchor charts. Below is a little snapshot of some of the fun things we did in class :).

We used a die that only had color words on it. The kids really enjoyed learning their color words, all while playing a game with a friend!

Below is the project we ended the unit with.....our crayon friends! Each student responded to the prompt, "My favorite color is ________". Aren't these the cutest things you have ever seen? 

Happy birthday, Jill!

Happy 5th birthday to this little gal, Jill! I love that your cute, chevron leggings match our birthday backdrop :)!