Five For Friday- February 28

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.  I am so happy it is Friday.  It's been a while since we had a five day week...and it seemed every minute of a five day week this week.  But we had LOTS of fun!  Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

This week, I introduced Bossy "e".  A few weeks ago, we talked about Bossy "r", so the children were ready for another bossy letter.  Some of my kids are really ready to take off with Bossy "e," (and not just because they also enjoy being bossy) because they are noticing the silent e at the end of words in their books.

 

We LOVE these videos!

Susanna from Whimsy Workshop does a DARLING Bossy E lesson that I loved from the minute I saw it.  Isn't it the cutest thing?

Mrs. Pollard, from Tales of a Teacherista, has a wonderful, wonderful  Silent E Word Activity FREE at her TPT store that I use.

I made this anchor chart for the children-more plain and ugly much less cute and fancy than Susanna's, but with her idea. I started with two of the same words and no "e."  Then, during morning rug time when I introduced it, a child came up, glued on the Bossy "e," and said, "SAY  YOUR  NAME!" to the vowel before it.

  

During small group center time, we reviewed our lesson. We read both words across the paper and saw that without an "e" they were the same word.  Then, the children added a Bossy "e" to the left side list.

We highlighted the vowel, who would now say its own name, and then read the new words.  This really helped the children get the idea of what that "e" actually does.

Traci  has this great free worksheet at her blog.  You can stop over to her blog and get a copy!

Thank you, Traci! 



We reviewed the words from Mrs. Pollard's activity.  I laminated the papers, and just stuck the "e" on with putty.

We have about fifteen minutes after our specials, before our Literacy Center time.  This is our time for snack, drinks, and a bathroom break.  Sometimes we have a few minutes for a quick game.  Most days, we only have about five minutes left after snack.  This is when I like to wash the tables and get set up for centers.  So while I do this,  I have the children Chit-Chat with a friend on the rug (or in a group of 3 if needed), after they finish snack. The children sit knee to knee with a friend and talk about our topic for the day.  Then, the other friend asks a question about what was said.  We practiced, and I modeled it with some of the kids. They know that they will be chit-chatting with different people each day- or nobody at all if they complain...so...

Every day, we have a different Chit-Chat topic, and the kids love it! Some days they come into the room in the morning before school even starts and ask what we are chit-chatting about today. I guess they like to prepare. :)



 

If you would like a copy of my topics that I use, just click the picture below.  I print out a copy and leave it on my desk.  Then, I check off the one that we use.  I also use this as a writing prompt sometimes for morning work. 

  

My kids have had so much fun reading sight word sentences. I call them FLASH sentences because they read them in a flash.  This group was SO proud because they read every one. I went  around the table, and if they got it right, they got to keep it in their pile.  These boys have worked hard- and they are proud!

If you would like a copy of these sentences, just click on the picture below.  They are SIMPLE.  I just copied them off on cardstock, cut them apart, and we use them all the time.  Sometimes I  pick one out as a sentence that I dictate that they have to write on the back of a morning work paper.

We studied Pablo Picasso this week. This was the favorite artist so far. I introduced Picasso with my Discovering Great Artists Prezi.

I have some of his artwork, a short biography, and some videos about Picasso on my Prezi.

Next, we read this story.  Picasso painted forty paintings of this girl. We didn't discuss the fact that that is really pretty strange... don't you think?! Anyway, it worked out for her- because it was Picasso, for heaven's sakes, but normally, I would be a little suspicious...

I put a few of the pictures of her on my Prezi for the kids to see because it goes along with this book.  They noticed that he painted his faces very differently, and put the facial features in strange places.

I gave everyone a picture of themselves that they had to cut into four pieces.  I chose four because when the cut many more than that, they have a hard time putting the pieces together.  How many? FOUR. Show me. FOUR.  Remember FOUR.  Most of them remembered- FOUR.  Some of them, well, their love of cutting overshadowed their knowledge of the rule to cut FOUR pieces, and it was more like sixteen or twenty. (Note to self- do more listening lessons.) But everyone had a ball!  Before I gave them glue sticks, I had them make different puzzles of their faces so they got the one they liked best. 

After I took this picture of "Picasso Everyon,"  we got in a circle and went around to share our Picasso pictures.  Each child had to stand up, show their picture, and say, "Hi, I am Picasso Jane." (or whatever name- you get it!) As they were making and sharing the pictures, we got a lot of laughs, but when they introduced their picture with their name, we all clapped for each other. (Keeping hands busy clapping was another way for them to keep their picture on the floor and not play with it.)

I posted at PreK-and K Sharing about the other artists we study and projects that we do for each artist.



Finally, we made some pictures to go over our lockers in the hall for March.  I asked each child why they were lucky. I had about five different Dollar Store hats/headbands to choose from to wear. (It just so happens that these three all chose the same one!) I typed up the answers, and they wrote the top part. These were some of my favorite answers:

  

I just hope nobody every bursts this one's bubble about the clovers.  How wonderful to go through life thinking that you are lucky to find three leaf clovers!

OH one more quick thing- my morning glory update! They are ready to climb the string.  Ahhh- inside-spring. 

 Happy, Happy Weekend!