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....

Valentine's Day

For our Valentine's Day party, we had a Friendship Ice Cream Party. The students had to read the sentences and then find a classmate who agreed with each statement. As the students proceeded through the activity, they earned the items that were needed to create an ice cream sundae! The students and room parents seemed to really enjoy this activity. The clean-up was very easy and the students kept themselves busy!

Dental Health

During our Dental Health unit, we created a cross-section of a tooth to help learn about the parts of our teeth. The students found this activity to be hilarious as they added a "crown" to the top of the tooth! I found this idea on Pinterest and I will definitely be doing this again next year. It is so adorable! 

Here is a close-up of the completed project. We glued on "googley eyes" to make it even cuter!

Chinese New Year

In January, we learn about the Chinese New Year during social studies. We spend about one week studying the holiday by sharing nonfiction texts, showing videos of past Chinese New Year celebrations from YouTube.com, bringing in artifacts, making Chinese New Year lanterns, leisees, and dragon hats. Throughout this week, the students work on creating their own dragon for our Kindergarten Chinese New Year Parade! We discuss cooperative groups and the social language that should be used during this type of whole group activity. At the end of the week, we put on the parade for the whole school and march up and down the hallways with our dragon. If it is still in tact, I try to hang parts of it up on our bulletin board. The students are always so proud of their dragon! 

Gung hay fat choy!

Decorating the dragon head.

This will be the dragon's body. 

Creating dragon hats. 

It's finished! Now we just have to cut it out.

He is making a silly dragon face. His hat was awesome!

Another cute hat.

A couple more...

The students completed the scales for the dragon by rounding the edges of a fourth sheet of paper and glueing it onto the butcher paper.

They are practicing their dragon faces and getting ready for the parade.

Here they are!

Lots of smiles!

Fractions

After introducing fractions, I created a sort for 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 using the Easiteach program for our Interactive Whiteboard. I found all the images on Google and then resized them and rotated them to show the students a variety of fractions and how they can appear. The students used the stylus pen to select a "mystery fraction" out of the blue box on the bottom of the screen. I created the box by overlaying it on top of the fractions and locking it in place (for those of you who use this program). The students enjoyed this very much and it's a great tool to use as a refresher!