Friday, September 20, 2013

High Five for Friday! September 20th

This was a BUSY week- and I have a back-to-school cold. boo.  Usually I am tougher than this, and I am always surprised that I don't get sick. Well, this year, I am not surprised- cause I am sick.  ANYWAY...

Did any of you notice this?
It was gorgeous.  At night. In the sky.  I bet we could paint different "full moon" pictures of our classrooms.  AND - I don't mean when my little guy pulled his pants all the way  down to "check things out" on Thursday during free choice time.  That is an entirely different picture...

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you so much for hosting this linky party!






This week we finished up our Color Weeks.  I introduced our tens frames, and we used them a lot for black and white.  We read Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.
 
This book is such a great introduction for so many activities.  We used the magnetic pom-poms and drew pictures around them on the white board. I did not have my camera. :(    The children loved making spiders and adding 8 legs.  Trucks were another favorite.



 I cut dots of all sizes- from hole punch dots (perfect for ladybug spots and antenna toppers) to BIG dots (perfect for monster truck wheels).  The children could be creative and use as many dots as they wanted to make anything at all.  They had to write how many dots they used, and I had them try to hear the beginning sound of the word and write that.
Monster truck!
Heidi Songs  has a great Tens Frame Flash Cards freebie at TPT.
Ten Frames 


 These Tens Frames Playing Cards are a freebie from Erin Sample's TPT store.

Ten Frame Playing Cards Ten Frame Playing CardsTen Frame Playing Cards
KTP on TPT offers a great freebie for tens frame practice.  This would be fun to use with Oreo cereal. (My first thought was mini oreos, but this may be less sugary.)

Ten Frame Freebie! 
 I loved Katie Hess's I Can Make Ten book freebie.  I am going to have the children make this using sticker dots next week.
I Can Make Ten - a ten frame counting book
Here is the sample of my Kindergarten Math Common Core Prezi Bundle that includes the Base 10 CCSS activities.  We used the tens frames quick  images video and played a few games before lunchtime.  Dreambox Learning has some great tens frames and mathrack activities. This link is on my Prezi right under the truck.   Great site. 

This little figure reminds me that I had TWO "accidents" on Wednesday. Doesn't he just look like he is rushing to the bathroom- or is it just me?!  Anyway...the nurse said that wetting pants was the "flavor of the day."  She is wonderful and has everything to make the children feel better- including lots of patience.  I am sending a reminder note to parents to send in that extra set of clothes for their children.  It makes all the difference in the world when the child can change into his/her own clothes. It is so much less stressful.  I tell parents that I have an extra set at school, too- ever since the show and tell incident where one little sweetie was so nervous she sat on my lap and peed... It can be a spill, a mud puddle, any number of interesting things that require a new set of clothes.  You all know that!

On a related note, I panicked more than a little when I left the cafeteria Thursday realizing that I had scheduled White Day on Pasta Day... but all was well.  Phew!



We moved from Black Day to White Day but kept the dots theme.  For White Day, we spent a lot of time on clouds.  We read these books:



We painted white paint on light blue paper, and made fork marks through it.  Then, we cut shapes out of the paper to make "Eric Carle clouds" for our project.


For my small group math center, I had the children draw a number card and then complete their tens frame with "clouds."  (Not to be mistaken for the marshmallows they will become in hot chocolate in the winter...)
The plan was to go outside to see our own shapes in the clouds in the afternoon.  Here is a picture of our day. It was the most gorgeous, cloud-free day ever. Not a hint of a cloud in that sky. I am NOT complaining -I'll take it! It was just really so ironic, because it NEVER looks like that!

Instead, we watched some clouds on the smartboard- PRETENDING we were lying out in the grass.  This is the sample of my Eric Carle Prezi- where I have activities and links to 21 of Eric Carle's books.  (I kind of love using Eric Carle's books. My kids know that already...)
We watched some of the videos on here about clouds.

My other focus has been NAMES NAMES NAMES- learning friends' names, recognizing their own names, and writing those names correctly!

Here are my favorite name books to use:


As you may remember, I sent home laminated names , a dry erase marker, and an eraser at the Kindergarten Picnic to practice.  Well...


I tried.    Anyway- job security.  I told you I would let you know if it worked.  Some of the children did say they practiced, but...    They need help writing those names! 

Most of my children can spell their names this year, which is great.  A few need more practice than others, so I have magnetic letters in a bag with a magnetic name to practice on the whiteboard.


Today we read a little name poem, and on the back, the children cut apart the letters in their names from two colors of names I had printed ( I made four colors for each child.) and then made two AB pattern names. 





We also made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom name trees.
It's still early- those names will come, I know it! :)
I will leave you with this because it just made me SMILE!  I loved it!

HAPPY WEEKEND!





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