Spring Is Here!

I LOVE crafts and I would do them all day long if I could! So of course, being a kindergarten teacher, I have all the excuses in the world to get creative with the kiddos and help them explore their artistic side. On Fridays (or at least once a month), I try to plan an extra activity and craft. I usually do this during our afternoon free choice, but the students never mind giving it up once they see what's in store for them!

On the first day of spring, I read a book to the students about the season and the changes that take place. The students shared all the exciting activities they do during this time and all the yummy fruits that they start to eat again-pineapple, cantaloupe, kiwi, berries-yum! We discuss the colors of the season and what nature starts to look like as the snow melts away and the ground thaws. Finally, the students were given the opportunity to paint their own spring picture! I gave them the liberty to paint anything they wanted, but it had to depict the season of spring. 

*I had to enforce this because most of my boys have become infatuated with sharks and it's all they draw, write about, talk about, and imagine! It's so fun to see them so excited about an animal, but I knew that a shark would make an appearance in one (if not more) of the spring paintings. Sure enough, a little boy was going to paint a shark, but someone squealed before he could start his master piece! Ha!

Here are some of the finished paintings on my bulletin board.

More spring paintings.

They are SO colorful! I absolutely LOVE them and I received so many compliments from the kindergarten families at the portfolio conferences. They really brighten up the room and I love how the students designed their picture just the way they wanted it!

We're BUGGY About Learning!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our insect unit! This is one of my favorite units to teach (I know I say this a lot) because the students are so excited to share their background knowledge about insects and all the creepy, crawly bugs! Here is a sneak peak into our unit....there will be a lot more to post once we kick of the unit after spring break! Happy spring and 80 degree weather to my fellow Chicagoans!

Instead of making a typical web of facts or concept map after reading nonfiction texts, I created a butterfly on poster board. I will write the facts inside the wings of the cute butterfly!

This will be the web that I will use to record the students' facts about ants after reading a nonfiction text. Notice the compound eyes! They always laugh so hard when they see all the eyes glued on in one blob--but they never forget what compound eyes are....that's for sure!

After learning about bees, I will record the students' facts in the body of the bee. Again, I have our compound eyes!

I hung the insects on the clothesline that runs across my classroom to display for our portfolio conferences.  I didn't want my room to look bare after taking down all of my St. Patrick's Day decorations! :)

The -ing- Word Family

Using the Interactive Whiteboard, the students practiced using the -ing word family. When creating the lesson, I thought it would be helpful for the students to see the base word and the suffix in two different colors. They really seemed to grasp this concept and have all been implementing the -ing word family into their writing! 

The student is using our homemade wand for the stylus pen so he can reach the top of the board as he drags the suffix to a base word of his choice.

The student is coming up to the Interactive Whiteboard to drag the suffix to a base word. The student will then read the word to the class and use it in a sentence.

The student is reading all of the words that we created.

 After the mini-lesson on the -ing word family, the students were put to a group challenge! They had to put the puzzle pieces together to create words that all end in -ing! Of course, they did it perfectly! :) I'm such a proud teacher!

Here is the puzzle jumbled up, except for a couple pieces of the puzzle that have been solved already!

Success!

Star of the Week

During the second half of the year, all of my students have had the opportunity to be the "Star of the Week." When a student is "Star of the Week," he/she gets to decorate an "All About Me" poster that I purchased from Scholastic and the student shares the poster with his/her classmates. I display the poster on the classroom door for a week, and the student gets to be the line leader all week long (of course...this is what the students are most excited about!). After all the students had the chance to be the "Star of the Week," I decided to start round 2! Instead of purchasing something for the students to work on, I decided to create my own and it turned out so cute! During Daily 5 or free choice time, I pull a student to work on writing his/her favorite things. I encourage the students to use the words around our classroom to help with spelling. Then, I take a picture of the student from the legs down and another picture from the shoulders and up. I cut it out, mount it on construction paper, and attach all the pieces and TA-DA! It's adorable and the students LOVE IT! Plus, everyone who walks by our classroom gets to learn about one of my little friends! 

Here is a picture showing one of the finished posters.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here are some cute examples of some things we did for St. Patrick's Day!

We had about 15 minutes until dismissal and obviously we had to fit in a cute craft! While the students had a little choice time, I pulled students over in groups of three to make 3-5 handprints in the shape of a rainbow. The students loved doing this activity and thought it looked so cool when it was done. Unfortunately, I cannot claim this adorable idea as my own and must thank the many teachers on Pinterest who posted this activity. Boy, do I LOVE Pinterest!

Here is what it looks like displayed in the hallway outside of our classroom. I will definitely be keeping this beautiful rainbow up for the remainder of the year. Not only does it fit for St. Patrick's Day, but also the rest of spring! 

Community Helpers

 During our community helper unit, I used our Interactive Whiteboard to help teach who is a community helper and what tools do they need. Below are some pictures of the activities.

I found this idea on another teacher's blog and unfortunately I cannot recall which blog. After reading about construction workers for our community helpers unit, the students learned about different tools and their use. Then, they created their own tool belts by glueing their colored tools on sentence strips. They also wore the construction vest around the room from our dress-up bin! All the students loved this!

Author Study-Ezra Jack Keats

After we read Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats, we discuss connections we made with the book. The children often express what it felt like when they had to give their "baby" toys to their younger siblings or how it felt to receive items from their older siblings. After our discussion, the children create their own Family Tree project. The students enjoyed sharing their activity with their classmates and telling who lives in their home. The activity really brightens up our bulletin board as well!

Number Practice

On our big classroom window facing the hall, I write a "mystery" math question for number practice. I try to change it everyday. So far, the students have had to come up with the number that is one less than, one more than, and in between two numbers. This is a great way to quickly assess number recognition!

Sight Word Practice

During Daily 5, the students sorted their sight words into two columns.  The sight words the students can read are put under the "smiley" face. The sight words that are a little tricky are put under the "I need some help" face.  The students love this activity and were very busy at Word Work!

Here is another photo showing the sight words. I decided to choose sight words from quarter 3 as well as sight words that we will begin practicing during quarter 4. I chose to do it this way so all of the students' needs are being met. I also put a bonus word: KINDERGARTEN! Of course, they know that one.   ;)

Using Crayola's Window Crayon, I wrote this week's sight words on the window of our classroom door. Every time the students enter the room, they have to read their sight words! They absolutely love this and they get irritated with me if I forget to remind them! It's so funny!

My First Blog!

This is my first blog...ever! After perusing other teaching blogs for hours on end, I have been motivated to create my own. So here it is....My first post on my first blog! I am looking forward to my new project and I am especially excited to get it fully up and running! Stay tuned....