Small Moment Treasures

The books I am using next for Writer's Workshop are all about treasure.

These books help the children think about what  things they treasure in their lives. I thought this fit in well for Thanksgiving, too.  Treasures don't have to be big  to be treasures.  That is the exciting part.  Sometimes small moments and memories are the most special treasures.  Thinking of ideas for stories is still tricky for some of my kids, so having them think of a special thing or time that they 'treasure' is another way to help them think of ideas.


What a Treasure by Jane Hillenbrand and Treasures of the Heart by Alice Ann Miller are very sweet books, about 'treasure' being what is most important to you.



Will Hillenbrand, who wrote What a Treasure, has a great website.  He has a  matching card game, sequencing game, and literary activities to go with this book FREE at his website!

 Alice Ann Miller helps the children think about the special things they treasure.

Poetic author Alice Ann Miller brings sentiment and importance to the treasures a child holds dear as he ever so cautiously shares them with his mother: "It's buried deep and very safe. I have it in my special place. Come along, it's through this door." Combining perspective with intricate detail and fanciful style, artist Kate Darnell allows us to envision our own treasures and to experience sharing them with those we love: "A yellow sock, my lucky rock...my favorite car, my cricket jar."

Another good book is The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz.

Here is a synopsis of the book:
Three times a voice comes to Isaac in his dreams and tells him to go to the capital city and look for a treasure under the bridge by the royal palace. Feeling a little foolish perhaps, but determined to see for himself if the dream is true, Isaac sets out on his long journey. What he finds makes a surprising and heart-warming ending to this retelling of a well-known folk tale. In a few words, Cadelcott Medal winner Uri Shulevitz draws a man who is innocent enough to have faith in a dream, and wise enough to understand the greatest reward of all.





 

 

These books would work really well when I do  My Favorite Things unit.  You can read what I do in this post.  I have each child bring in their favorite thing to write about, and we learn and LOVE the song.  We also watch version after version of the song on my Prezi. 

 

 

 

If you would like the Prezi, it is free at my TPT store.  We have a ball with it. I think I will revisit the books during this unit.  Maybe next year I will work it out so we do this all at the same time, but sometimes it is fun to go back and reread some favorite books.  

 

After we read our treasure books, it's perfect time to send home this Shape Treasure Hunt that the children complete at home and bring back. It's a great way to get the parents involved, and to let parents know the shapes we are learning in class. If you would like a copy of it, just click on the picture below!

I have little prizes for the kids when they finish. I have gotten shape books from the Dollar Store, or a bag of different shaped prizes- like a sphere super ball, cylinder of Smarties, a rectangular pad of paper... 

Of course it is also a great time to get out treasure (aka rocks spray painted gold) at Free Choice!

A Special Kind of Class has some cute Pirate Math Work Stations that would be a great tie in with all this talk about treasures.

 

 

And the kids go on a Treasure Hunt for words in the classroom for Write Around the Room.

 

I  wrote Sight Words on these precious cards from JK Curriculum Connection's Pirate Game.  It is FREE at TPT and adorable!

 

Fredia Shumway  has some cute treasure chest sight word cards  FREE at her TPT store!

 

Finally, this was part of my devotion the other day- from my favorite devotional, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young.  It was too perfect for this post- and also a great reminder for me to look for and "collect" all of those treasures throughout the day!

As you go through this day, look for tiny treasures strategically placed along the way.  I lovingly go before you and plant little pleasures to brighten your day.  Look carefully for them, and pluck them one by one.  When you reach the end of the day, you will have gathered a lovely bouquet.  Offer it up to Me with a grateful heart.  Receive My Peace as you lie down to sleep, with thankful thoughts laying a lullaby in your mind.

Have a wonderful day!  Thank you for stopping by!

 

 

The World of Shapes

This is how my mind works.  I woke up at 2AM and thought about shapes.  Who even does that?!  Anyway, after I did a post about Shapes - and suggested  some changes to everyday phrases that would help out Kindergarten teachers, like "spaghetti and meatspheres,"  my sweet friend from Teaching in the Tongass shared her fabulous 2D and 3D shape clipart with me.

 

 I must have been so excited about that- that I thought of it all night long.  Here is my story.

Circle, Square, Triangle, and Rectangle are the popular group, known and liked by all. 

Star is really popular, too- and you can't help but love Heart.

 

 

Oval hangs around like a wobbly fifth wheel.

Hexagon doesn't even know how he was chosen for Kindergarten Common Core.  Octagon thought he had the job wrapped up, since he'd won that STOP sign job contract.  (For instance, why is an octopus with his 8 legs advertising this hexagon with 6 sides? He should be a bug, maybe, with 6 legs! See how I look WAY too deeply into everything?!)

 

 Diamond was a sparkly, shiny, Prom-Queen type.

I felt bad that Rhombus was taking over and pushing her out of the Math vocabulary spotlight, but then I looked at it from a different perspective and thought of a scenario much more fitting for Diamond, that I can live with much better.

 

Diamond met Rhom Bus. They fell in love, got married, and she took his name!  TA DA!
Mr. and Mrs. Rhombus!  Hey- if  q and u can have a wedding- so can Diamond and Rhombus, right?

As far as the 3D shapes are concerned, Cone and Cube have it made, thanks to ice.  Ice cream cones and ice cubes did all the work for them. 

 

The pyramid is an old soul.  The Egyptians helped him out a lot.

Cylinder is a good, old  shape, always hard at work in the trenches.

Prisms bully their way into every shape!  Rectangular prisms and triangular prisms- then octagonal prisms and pentagonal prisms.  Enough already! 

And calm down, Sphere, with all of your extra sounds.  He acts like the world would stop spinning without him.  OK- that's a bad example, but ...  maybe knowing that some of my kids called him a "fat circle" would bring him back down to earth.

Cuboid is kind of the "nerd" of the shapes.  He tries to be accepted wherever he can, and he desperately wants to be used one day in a real conversation.  I can't bring myself to help him out with that. 

So- that was all going on in my head at 2 AM.  Maybe I need more interests- or more Tylenol  PM...

On to some helpful things...

Here are some of my  favorite shape books to use with my kids. 

I also LOVE  this Solid Shape Sort from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.  It is FREE and my kids have so much fun when we use it.

 

I also love and use Deedee Wills'  Math Fluency Pack all the time with my kids.  It is free at her TPT store, and such a great tool to work on fluency with all math concepts. 

 



After we learn and review all of our 2D and 3D shapes, I send home a Shape Treasure Hunt for the kids to do at home.   It's a great way to get the parents involved, and to let parents know the shapes we are learning in class.  If you would like a copy of it, just click on the picture below!

I have little prizes for the kids when they finish.  I have gotten shape books from the Dollar Store, or a bag of different shaped prizes- like a sphere superball, cylinder of Smarties, a rectangular pad of paper...

I put together my favorite links to activities and videos for each of the 22 Kindergarten Common Core Math Standards.

I made four Prezis that I put together as a Kindergarten Math Common Core Prezi Bundle at my TPT store.  The four are Counting and Cardinality/Base 10; Measurement and Data; Geometry; Operations and Algebraic Thinking.  Here is a sample of the K.G.A.3 Standard(Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, “flat”) or three-dimensional (“solid”) on my Geometry Prezi, so you can see what they are like.  This is just one of the 22 standards. These have been so helpful for teaching, re-teaching, and RTI. 


Have fun with shapes. Thanks for stopping by!