Well, it’s Kimberly from Loving Kinders and this week I’d
like to...
share some of my valentine resources with you!
When it comes to resources I love to spruce it up with
seasonal additions to keep learning fun and engaging.Here are some of my valentine must haves.
Right now in kindergarten we are working with CVC words. This is a great resource. I print, laminate and place it in a center to use over and over again. I also pull it out for RTI intervention. You can use magnetic letters or whiteboard markers.
WRITING!!!! Yes! WRITING!!!
I use a Daily Five format so I can place this in my writing center or I can use it whole group. Either way it will go into their yearly portfolio for progress monitoring and it is a wonderful way to gauge student growth.
Word Work is essential in developing phonetics and decoding skills. This CVC activity focuses on finding and sorting vowel sounds. This is the short A section.
Last but CERTAINLY not least, I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE {and yes it's valentines day} mini books. I use them all. the. time. I use them in guided reading, supportive writing, or for a whole group supportive read/write. We write, identify sight words, sound out words, and identify end marks. My kinders love them, maybe more than me but probably not.
Hello! It's Allison Stuckey from Stuckey in Second!
This is part of a post that I originally shared on my own blog at the end of the last school year, I'm adding what I'm doing this year to the bottom of the post!
I'm going to share my Response to Literature workstation, which isn't too complicated or involved, but I'd like to share the work I've done with my kids throughout the year (in and out of workstations) to practice Response to Literature using RAPP.
The station that my students do every week includes a question about our weekly story. They have to use their book to go back and use text evidence to answer.
You could write any question from your own stories that your students have read and include "use two details from the text," for example. My students have been taught to use RAPP. If you haven't seen RAPP before, just wait, I have lots of pictures to show you below! :)
In order for you to understand how much I teach and RE-teach RAPP and how students should use it when answering a question, let me show you all of the places that students find RAPP in the classroom:
Anchor chart at the back corner of the room
(near my small group table for me to refer to anytime I'm there)
Randomly posted around the room, in case they need a reminder!
Across this long bulletin board on the other side of the room:
And, last but not least...ON EACH OF THEIR DESKS!!!
Yes, I may be crazy...but guess what? Some of them still forget.
Here are some of the tools that I have used to help me along the way. I use these tools on whole group type assignments first, before I let them try them on their own in workstations.
Graphic organizers:
If you'd like to purchase my RAPP Detective Packet, which includes the posters (color and black/white), bookmarks, desk tags, and graphic organizers, click below:
This year, I'm at a new school, and we are back at it! RAPPing, RAPPing, and MORE RAPPing. My whole 2nd grade team is in on the RAPPing fun!
This is our anchor chart that we created together this year, to help us have a visual all the time!
When we score the RAPP pieces, we do it out of 5 points, so the example piece shows students exactly how I score their pieces.
On this particular day that we were practicing RAPP, there were RAPP reminders EVERYWHERE!!!
We put the bookmarks inside the front covers of our Reading Notebooks, so we always know where our "cheat sheets" are!
On our desks!
If you'd like to see more workstations that I do in my classroom and lessons, please visit my blog. Here is the link to specifically workstations. These were a series of "Workstation Wednesday" posts that I created last school year!
Hello there! It's Tamra and Sarah from First Grade Buddies! As teachers, we know the importance of small group instruction during our Language Arts block. But we also know how hard it is to manage the classroom during this time…what are the other kiddos doing? We wanted to share with you our solution to this problem!
In addition to using Daily 5 in our classroom, we knew we needed a system that…
1. required very little prep (we were tired of changing centers every week)
2. required very little printing (especially in color)
3. required less teacher help and interruptions to answer "what do I do" questions
4. allowed for independent practice of rigorous CC standards
We've been using a system that did just that for Math (Math Bags) but wanted a similar set up for Language Arts.
It’s
that time of the year when everyone is getting a little buggy! So of course you've got to go
with the flow! We're off to
study insects! Insects are incredible creatures. There are
over one million different kinds of insects on our planet! Who would ever have
enough time to study them all? Here are a few engaging activities that we use to incorporate some Reading and Writing Common Core Standards with the study of insects.
This Literacy Center game is a great ACTIVE way to practice Sight words!
Swat the Fly!
Materials needed:
*Skill Cards – White 3" by 5" cards- about 10-12
*Game board – Large Colored Poster Board
*2 Flyswatters
Prep the Cards: Write words (or letters or numbers or math facts) on the cards. You can make several sets of cards with a variety of skills and/or varying levels. Play the game again and again using sets of cards to differentiate between groups of students.
Make the Game board: Glue some large fly clipart pictures onto a poster board. Laminate the board for durability. Lay the cards on top of the flies. The cards just lay on top of the flies and can be easily switched to different sets.
How to play the game: 2 players stand across from each other each holding a REAL fly swatter.
An adult calls out a word and both students try to be the first one to swat the fly. Whoever has their flyswatter on top of the word card first takes that card and puts it in their pile. Keep going until all cards are gone. Count the cards and the player with the most cards is the winner.
If you want to involve more students, create 2 teams. After the first two students have had their turn, they hand the swatter to their next teammate. Usually 3 or 4 on a team is enough. This is not a quiet activity BUT it sure is a fun way to practice a skill!
Insects can be helpful or harmful. Most people would agree flies fall into the category of pests! The picture shown here is of a funny, engaging ABC book called Old Black Fly. It tells about the adventures of a pesky fly going from food items to stacks of laundry etc. ....until he meets his demise! SPLAT! Oops, sorry to spoil the ending! This book has the repetitive phrase "Shoo fly, Shoo Fly, Shooo!" Have the children say it with you each time you reach that part of the story. The children will be asking you to read this story over and over again! (It is not necessary to have this book to do the following activity.)
Extension Idea: Writing and Art project Students use a straw and watercolors to make a picture that is similar to the book's illustrations. They blow through the straw onto a few big drippy spots of watercolors. Using just 2-3 colors makes their picture turn out great!
After they have created their picture, they look at it and decide what food it reminds them of. (Wow, lots of imagination may be needed here!) Next they write their sentence adding the repetitive phrase from the book. Ex. "He landed on my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Shoo fly! Shoo fly! Shooo!"or"He landed on my ice cream. Shoo fly! Shoo fly! Shooo!"
You might be lucky enough to find some plastic flies at the store to glue on their finished painting. If not, just use a small clip art picture of a fly or have the children draw a fly on their paper.
The Magical Life Cycle of a Butterfly
After we have studied butterflies and learned about their life cycle, use this magical demonstration as an example of metamorphosis!
Materials: *A leaf with an egg: Green construction paper or green felt & a small white pompom
(Ours was made using fun foam with black veins drawn on the leaf and a tiny pompom)
*Caterpillar: Cute clipart caterpillar or 4 large yellow pompoms glued on some paper*Chrysalis: Crumpled up old brown lunch bag
*Butterfly: Cute colorful clip art of a butterfly (Ours is a butterfly puppet!)
Students are sitting on the floor anxiously awaiting the magical butterfly trick. You may have a poem or song that tells about the life cycle of a butterfly. The students can sing along as you perform the magictrick! If not, just say the stages as seen in quotes.
Step 1) Show them the leaf with the egg ("Stage 1-the egg")
Step 2) Turn over the leaf with the egg and set the caterpillar on top ("Stage 2-the caterpillar")
Step 3) Place both items inside the bag and twist the bag around and around for the spinning chysalis "Stage 3-the chysalis")
NOW for the magic!!
Step 4) Reach into the bag and pull out the butterfly and fly it! ("Stage 4-the butterfly")
(As ours was a butterfly puppet, we put a hand inside the puppet after placing caterpillar & leaf inside the bag.) Bring out ONLY the butterfly! Don’t forget you must put
the butterfly inside the bag before you begin this magnificent magical trick!)
Step 5) Ooooo & Ahhhh! A magical metamorphosis has occurred right before their eyes!!
Writing Extension
Black spotted ladybug beetles are always a
favorite with kids! Below
is writing activity that plays off the black dots on ladybugs and helps reinforce the use of describing words. Some creativity is needed to complete the task!
We love the book 10 Black Dotsas
a lead-in to this activity. But you don't really have it to use this writing idea. The book uses dots in the illustrations and text. To begin them thinking about their writing, ask the children to
look around the classroom for things that have dots or black circles or holes. Make
a list. Next, ask them to visualize - eyes are closed and no talking! Ask them to imagine going inside their homes and looking around their house or bedroom. Have them share with the class what they saw. One child said, “I see my Mickey Mouse on my bed. He
has 2 black circles for ears!” That child then wrote about her Mickey Mouse stuffed
animal. The two pictures below are
examples of some student work. One child wrote about a ladybug and the
other wrote about cheddar cheese. (We really think he meant to write Swiss
cheese ...because of the holes!). It is always amazing to see how they “connect
the dots"!
Click {HERE}to link to the FREE writing templates for this activity.
Ladybug Singable
We always have songs and poems to reinforce vocabulary and reading. Below is a short movie we made of our singableLucille the Ladybug, sung to the tune "Take Me Out to the
Ballgame". Just
click and sing away!
Dragonfly & Bee Craft projects
After learning about the dragonfly and bee, follow up with these craftivities! Dragon
Fly Art
Directions:
Body: Clothes pin or popsicle stick
Wings: Colored cellophane or
cut up colored plastic vinyl
Head: PomPom (only on the popsicle stick)
Eyes: Small wiggly eyes
Antenna: Pipe cleaner
Students
may paint the bodies (clothespin or popsiclestick) before gluing on the other body parts.
Bee Art
Directions:
Body: Toilet paper tube- color black and yellow stripes or cover with strips of colored paper
Wings: Cut 4 paper wings (our picture shows only 2. Maybe the other 2 are hiding!)
Head: Glue a small circle at one end of the tube
Eyes: Small wiggly eyes or draw them on with black crayon
Antenna: Pipe cleaners behind the face P.S. The flower pictured above was made using a coffee filter, watercolors, and a colored tongue depressor...or just paint the tan ones!
JK Curriculum Connection