Five for Friday November 15th

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you, Kacey!

First of all, THIS was the view off our deck on Tuesday morning.  Boo.  When did this happen?!  I am not ready!  I am also not ready for it being dark before five.  

BRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I taught the children what a cornucopia was this week.  I decided to have them try to hear the sounds in the food they saw inside the cornucopia.  I loved hearing all of the words being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out!  They really tried hard, and I think they are doing well for this time of year. 



Just so you don't think they're all ready to skip a grade... yes- he used some '8's' in 'banana.'  



Tomorrow's words are ...   

They'll love them.

 

A while ago, I was asking for ideas for 'small moment' stories to use for my Narrative Writing Unit.   Kathy Griffin told me about the book  Every Friday, by Dan Yaccarino- and I love it. 

The author's story about why he wrote the book may be my favorite part because it is truly a real life small moment:

I guess the Friday breakfasts came about because like most dads, I sometimes didn't feel like I saw my son enough. Some weeks, our Friday breakfasts were the only time he and I had to talk or just share some time together.

I look back on when we started what became our little tradition. He was in preschool and had to start sharing his mom and dad with a new little sister. I wanted him to have some time when he didn't have to put up with a crying baby who yanked his ears, which he patiently tolerated. He and I soon looked forward to Fridays and the diner's owner, Nick, as well as a variety of regulars, warmly greeting us. To their continued astonishment, he consumed an entire adult-size order of pancakes and a side of bacon, of which I was very proud. I have fond memories of us watching people trudging through the snow and rain as he and I were cozily nestled in a booth, a little oasis from the outside world. As much as we loved Nick’s Diner, I think we both preferred the small journey we took each week to get there. It may have been a mere four blocks, but it was full of adventure: greeting familiar faces, window shopping and monitoring the progress of a building on the corner going up story by story.

My other favorite new book is Ralph Tells a Story.  It is PERFECT for writer's workshop.  Maybe everyone already knows about it, but if you don't, it is a winner!  The kids loved it.  They completely related to  the story, and the illustrations are adorable- with lots of speech bubbles and lots of fun.  Hey, it mentions "underwear" twice, so...  it doesn't get much better when you are five.

Nothing ever happens to Ralph. So every day when it’s time to write stories, Ralph thinks really hard. He stares at his paper. He stares at the ceiling. But he has no stories! With the help of his classmates, Ralph realizes that a great story can be about something very little . . . and that maybe he really does have some stories to tell. Debut author/illustrator Abby Hanlon’s endearing text and charming watercolor and colored pencil illustrations prove that writing can be fun! This story works nicely with Lucy Calkins’ Writer’s Workshop model of teaching.

Look at some of the illustrations:                 

                                                                           (I love this teacher! :)

I also found some other good books that I liked about treasures.  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.  I thought this tied in really well with  choosing writing topics, because even though something may seem like a small thing, if it is important to the writer, it makes a good story.  So- because Amazon totally has my number   knew I was a total sucker for children's books was concerned that I got all the books I needed, they  thought that I may ALSO LIKE The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz.  I didn't want to hurt Amazon's feelings, so that is on its way. It looks really sweet, too. They are good, those Amazon people.

 

We kept practicing our Thanksgiving Story this week to go with our bracelet.  We are making  our bracelets next week, and I really want the children to know the story well.

As we move each bead, we tell part of the story.

The Pilgrims left England because they wanted freedom to worship God as they wanted. (1st green)

They left England on a ship called the Mayflower. ( white bead)

It was a very long trip across the ocean. (I say a word for each of the 3 blue beads: very. long. trip.)

Finally, they saw land! (green bead) (The kids love to say "LAND HO!")

They landed at Plymouth Rock. ( gray bead)

When they landed it was Winter. (I say a word for each of the 3 white beads: very. long. Winter.)

Finally Spring came! (light green bead)

They met Squanto, a Native American who helped them learn to hunt and plant. (Light brown bead)

To thank the Native Americans, the Pilgrims had a feast for everyone including:

cranberries (red bead), corn (yellow bead), turkey (brown bead), and pumpkin pie (orange bead).

We read lots of books and watched some videos.  The books I am proud to say I used are:

The other resources I used were great, too- not as "scholarly", but the kids really learned the story and loved them. I'm proud that they learned from them- how's that?

Don't forget this "documentary" told from Plymouth Rock's viewpoint...

If you would like a copy of the paper I send home with their bracelets, just click on the picture.

It's ok that one boy still says the Pilgrims came over on the Cauliflower, right?  He'll get it... The bead is even white, which adds to the confusion.  Oh gee.

Just because I loved this- and it is so true.  

Have a wonderful weekend!



I Am Thankful Activities

Here is a wonderfully simple activity that I look forward to doing with my class every year.  First, we read Bear Says Thanks, by Karma Wilson. 

This book is good for so many things.  First of all, whenever we read ANY book, I always have the children tell me IN A SENTENCE what the author does and what the illustrator does.  They say, "The author writes the words."  "The illustrator draws the pictures."  We check for that all-important dedication page and see which initials match up.  This book is fabulous for a picture walk.  The illustrations are  so rich.  The children noticed the leaves were blowing because they were placed randomly on the page. They noticed the movement, the excitement, and the emotions just from the illustrations.  (Thanks, J.C.!)  I have to say that I am so thankful to teach Kindergarten, because it makes me "notice" things, too.  On my way home from school today, I really noticed the leaves dancing and twirling in the wind, because I had talked about it with the class. It really made me smile.  I hope they noticed them, too.

Next, since we have been learning about punctuation marks, we point them out in the text.  This is a great story for noticing quotation marks.

 

We also talk about what it means to be thankful. That is harder for the children to explain than it sounds.  The story also uses "grateful," which is another good word to introduce.  We came up with words like happy, pleased, appreciating something (although that is a big word, too!)  I finally came up with being happy with something that means a lot to us.  Then, telling someone that you are happy about it, or thanking them for it if it is something someone has done for you or given you.  How does that sound? 

Then, we start our I Am Thankful book.  It is a simple poem to illustrate. It was an old Sunday School poem that I changed to fit for school.  We make a hand turkey on the cover under the title. 

Click on the picture below if you would like a copy. It is SIMPLE- because the kids get to make it fancy. I updated this one to say, "I am" instead of "I'm" since it is yet another way to see those sight words!

I used to do this activity on a sort of scroll. I would glue long white paper together lengthwise, so the children could hang it up when they were done. I actually HAND WROTE each one on construction paper since it was the olden-days. Yes I did...   You could glue this together  if  you wanted. I have started doing it as a book, since we are all about "writing books" in Kindergarten now.  This is a great activity for Writer's Workshop.  We have been working on trying to add letters, words, and sentences to our books.  This little activity lets us S L O W  DOWN and go back to details in our illustrations (under the guise of Thanksgiving).  My kids still need so much work and so many  reminders with illustrations- like remembering that people have arms, different color hair and eyes, clothes...if you draw daddy's head the actual size on the paper, mommy and the rest of the family won't fit  - things like that. 

We started this activity as a whole group, making the hand turkey cover.  I modeled first page illustrations, and we did that together.  ( I didn't model the Jack-O-Lantern.  That is holiday left-overs...)

I finished the rest of the book during our small group center time. Both worked well. I liked having the children draw their families during small group time, because I could talk to each child about his/her family, what everyone looked like, who was biggest or smallest, if there were pets...   

I also love sharing, "I'm thankful for all the good things that I see," with the kids. I love hearing and seeing what is special to them. I do have them label what they draw on this page, so we get a little writing in there.

 This was one of my favorite self-portraits!

If you are looking for another fun book to have your children write for Thanksgiving, Michaela Peterson has a sweet  I'm Thankful For Minibook freebie at her TPT store.  I love her illustrations. 



Have fun!  I just want to tell you all that I am so thankful for all of you reading my blog, leaving me sweet comments, and for the wonderful friendships I have made here.  I am TRULY thankful, grateful, and appreciative.  You really do make me so happy.  So I was right- that is what thankful means!



 



Our Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

My sister shared this Thanksgiving Story Bracelet with me a few years ago, and it has been my favorite Thanksgiving activity each year since.  If you would like a copy of the paper, just click on the picture.

The children really learn the Thanksgiving story, are able to retell it, AND have a new piece of jewelry to boot- what could be better?!

First, we read a lot of books about the first Thanksgiving.  The children have a good background and are familiar with:  the Pilgrims leaving England on the Mayflower, because they wanted freedom to worship God they way they wanted to; the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock after a long, hard trip;  the Native Americans helping the Pilgrims learn to hunt, plant, and survive when they arrived in this country; and the feast the Pilgrims and Native Americans had to celebrate and give thanks for all they had survived and all they now had in their new land.

I introduce my bracelet to the children, and we all retell the story together with my bracelet. We do this a few times each day whenever we have a few minutes.  I want them to really KNOW the story before they make their bracelet, and take it home to retell.

I move each bead as I tell what it is for. 

The Pilgrims left England because they wanted freedom to worship God as they wanted. (1st green)

They left England on a ship called the Mayflower. ( white bead)

It was a very long trip across the ocean. (I say a word for each of the 3 blue beads: very. long. trip.)

Finally, they saw land! (green bead)

They landed at Plymouth Rock. ( gray bead)

When they landed it was winter. (I say a word for each of the 3 white beads: very. long. winter.)

Finally spring came! (light green bead)

They met Squanto, a Native American who helped them learn to hunt and plant. (Light brown bead)

To thank the Native Americans, the Pilgrims had a feast for everyone including:

cranberries (red bead), corn (yellow bead), turkey (brown bead), and pumpkin pie (orange bead).

This is a wonderful book that is very age appropriate to teach about the first Thanksgiving.

 I also like this book by Ann McGovern.

I love to use these books by Kate Waters.  The children love to look at the pictures in her books, and I condense the information to make the books work best for my Kindergarteners.  Click on the picture below to go to the Scholastic interview with Kate.  At the bottom of that page is a link to a transcript where she answers questions from students about writing her history books. Here is a link to her homepage where she shares information about all of her books.

This little cartoon actually does a pretty good job explaining the basics of Thanksgiving, and the kids really like it. It is sort of goofy-but...  I'm not five.

 

After the children retell the story really well with my bracelet, they each make one during our small group center time.  I have the bags with the correct beads already sorted.  They just choose a pipe cleaner.  We string each bead on as we tell the story. Then they retell the story to a friend with their own bracelet. 



 

I send a copy of this paper home with each child, just in case they forget what a bead means.  I don't want anybody to be frustrated! So the parents can coach them on if they need a hint. 

Thank you for stopping by!