Five for Friday September 19th

I am linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Happy, Happy Friday!

Here are some of my favorite moments of the week.

A teacher at school shared this site of  Math Tips for Parents  for all grade levels, and I wanted to pass it on! These are great to send home so parents know what types of activities you are working on in the classroom. They go along with the modules, but are good even if you aren't following the modules, and just want to share the CCSS information.

                                                                    
We worked on sorting and classifying this week.  We made our anchor chart, and sorted all "sorts" of things.

The kids loved the tangrams.  We made puzzles and sorted them by shapes. 

I'm doing some assessments this week, and noticed that naming shapes isn't a  very strong skill for lots of my little guys.  (Well, neither are numbers, letters, sounds, fill-in-the-blank-with-any-other-skills...)  But everything will come in time! I know it will.  

I found this idea from Fran at Kindergarten Crayons.  It was a perfect quick assessment to show who knew (and didn't know) shapes.  The only thing I changed from Fran's Pete the Cat, was that I made a hexagon nose, because I wanted to get a hexagon on there somewhere.  I love how different they all came out when they all started with the same bag of shapes!  I had the bags pre-made, with all the shapes they needed.  They had to follow my directions and put Pete together like a puzzle.  We did this in a small group.  At the end, they added the black dot in the middle of the eye, whiskers, and their name.  It was also a great activity for practice using glue sticks.

I also decided we would make a Shape Town to share different objects that are different shapes. I had the children bring in different shaped items to live in our town.  I have this out at our exploration table, underneath the "I Can Sort" anchor chart, so the kids can talk about shapes, touch them, sort them, and "get to know" them.  

If you would like a copy of my Shape Town picture and the parent note that I sent home, just click the picture below.  I printed my Shape Town picture on cardstock.

I  have several children who need LOTS of help with letter recognition this year.  I am working with a small group of children on a small group of letters.  I started with four letters.  I got all sorts of magnetic letters, rubber letters, and letter squares for the four letters we worked on this week. Any chance I get, I call up my little group to sort the little letters onto the big sheets as quickly as they can.  They have to say the letter each time they put a letter on the big paper.  

They do this right before recess, too- and surprise, surprise that is the fastest sort ever because they want to get outside fast!  We have so much fun with this. As they sort and say the letter name, I say the sound each time, so now they are saying that, too.  I hope it sticks.  It's fun- and seems to be working- until one of them throws out a "P" or "W" when we have been only saying "A,B,E,G" all week.  I try to end when one of them says a correct letter- so I feel good about myself.  Because, the next letter they say, may be "seven."  They are trying SO hard and doing so well.  

Does anyone else ever feel behind already this time of year?  I sort of felt behind on Day 2.  OK- Day 1, when I of course didn't get to all I wanted to get done.  I feel like there are so many demands on these little sweethearts to pass a Level D in reading, write four different genres of books, have a voice, form those letters correctly, add more details, add, subtract, compose numbers, decompose numbers, etc. etc.  that taking time to slowly enjoy a story or song doesn't feel "schooly" enough.  I have to constantly remind myself that my children are four and five years old.  They should not rush through these wonderful experiences and moments.

 I need to let them feel calm, relaxed, unrushed, loved, and happy.  I tell them EVERY DAY, many times, that all I want is for them to do their best. I really mean it.

                                       

But inside I feel like I should always be doing more- teaching them one more thing. If I feel good about a writing lesson (well, drawing and labeling with a letter at this point) then I haven't gotten to reading yet...  

I do know children are amazing.  They grow and flourish not only with the lessons we teach- that's only a part of it, but with love, patience, and time.  Oh- and laughter and fun.  Those are the best part. 

Here was one of my FAVORITE moments this week...

Our monarch hatched RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES!  Oh, what a miracle we got to experience.  The children were absolutely in awe.  We let his wings dry all day long, and then took him out to fly away.  You cannot put any price on the sweetness of the children spontaneously clapping as he flew away.  THAT is what they'll remember. 

The children were fascinated to learn how to tell the girl monarch from the boy monarch.  We watched all of our videos about monarchs on the Fun in Fall Prezi.

Our monarch had very distinct dots and thin lines on the back part, so we knew it was a boy.  We named him Milky, just in case you wondered...

                                           

We made some of our own monarchs to fly above the lockers.

                           

                                                                    

Finally, here are a few more fun things we did with colors this week.  Of course Pete the Cat was Blue Day, and our monarchs were Orange Day.  (The chrysalis even turned BLACK on black day- right on cue!)

Ten Apples Up on Top for Red Day was a perfect introduction to 10 frames.  We had lots of fun counting and making different amounts on our magnetic ten frame.  We even did some adding and subtracting.

Look what wonderful Mrs. Leeby shared at her blog this week!  A perfect freebie to go with 10 Apples Up On Top.  I'm going to make this when we work on Aa and do some more activities with apples.  Thank you, Irene!  You can get your freebie HERE!

For Yellow Day, I had the children draw what they would like to be if they had a magic new yellow shirt after we read this story.  This was a great way to see where the kids were with drawing and writing.  Lots of the children know what they want to write, and some know the letter they want to write, but they just don't know how.  That's exactly what I wanted to see.  This one wasn't the norm... Honestly.  

Green Day is always my favorite.  I love reading Go Away Big Green Monster, and having he children draw their monster as I read, without seeing the pictures.  Then, I read the story (usually over and over and over) on the rug so they can see the pictures.   Finally, the children do their first sharing time, showing the monster they drew.  The great thing about this share is that there is always at least one fabulous part of each drawing- the big yellow eyes or the long bluish, greenish nose...  It's a great way to have the children start noticing good things about each other's work- (and not saying, "HE SCRIBBLED!")

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Little Blue and Little Yellow. 

We always start with mixing water after I read the story.

I love this idea from my sweet friend  Sandy at Kinder-Gardening.  I think I actually gasped when I saw this idea on her blog!  

 (I found it worked better for the mixing to make Little Blue a little smaller-otherwise the blue sort of dominated.)

This is what happened when they hugged



I put these right in Ziplock baggies and into the mailboxes so they made it home!

And of course, you can do  color mixing with paint!  Suzi has this  FREEBIE at her TPT store ready to go for mixing colors! I use cotton swabs and the kids have a ball.  We didn't do the paint mixing this year. 

I always make these great necklaces for the kids, because they love them. 

Finally, what would Purple Day be without Harold?  After we read some Harold stories, I have the children draw their own Purple Adventure.  I had them try to label some of the things they drew, or write about it - just to get them thinking about using letters.

Each day, I take a picture of us all dressed in our color.  I put these up beside our door in the hall.  I also make a Colorful Class Book- and a CRAZY Colorful Class Book with our silly face pictures. These are always favorites.

I hope you all had a colorful week of your own! Have a wonderful weekend!

The Colors of Me

My friend Susanna from Whimsy Workshop shared a wonderful freebie called All About Me Rainbows that I couldn't wait to use!  It was a perfect activity to tie together our Color Weeks and everything else that we had worked on the past couple weeks. The children loved it! They got very creative with their color choices. Thank you, Susanna!    

Here are some of the activities that we tied together.  Along with reviewing colors, I "formally" introduce Writer's Workshop this week. We talked about caring for our writing tools after we read Harold and The Purple Crayon.

Harold only has his ONE crayon, and he really needs to take special care of that crayon and treat it carefully so that he can continue to have his adventures.  We decided that we are VERY lucky to have all of the colors we have- as well as colored pencils and markers to use.  

We watched Purple, Green, and Yellow on Tumblebooks on the Smartboard.  I like watching Robert Munsch books on the Tumblebooks, because he narrates his own books, and nobody can do it better.
This story is a great discussion starter for the correct way to use ( NOT USE...) and care for markers. 

The children read lots of books and explored our classroom library and reference areas, so that when they are writing and need help spelling a word or drawing a picture, they know where to go.  We have lots of places to find the color words.

We read lots of "Me" books this week, and talked about how important each one of us is to our class family. We talked about how we are the same and how we are different- and that our differences make us so special.  Here are some favorite "Me" books:

(I use this book to introduce "like.")

 (Guess what sight words I introduced with this book?:)

We did lots of math sorting activities last week.  After we had a discussion about how much more fun it is that we are different, rather than all the same, and how our differences make us who we are, I asked the children which noodles would be more fun to sort? Luckily- they got the idea!

As a "colorful" follow-up this week, I am going to read A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

In the story, when the Camilla stops trying to please everyone else and isn't afraid to be who she really is, her bad case of stripes goes away.

I found this idea from I Heart Crafty Things. She printed out black and white pictures of the children and let them add stripes! (I think with chalk.)

I am going to have each child write, "I like me!"  underneath his/her striped picture, because we are practicing those words.  Perfect!

Have a WONDERFUL, colorful week!