Beginning Reading and Writing Prezis Bundle

I am linking up with Amy at 24/7 Teacher for her first linky party! :)  YAY! Amy!

I thought this was a great picture for everybody to remember about success- especially for teachers, who sometimes might look at a student  and think they aren't "getting it."  We just never know! ;) 

 

I am also sharing my Beginning Reading Prezi and Primary Writing Prezi from  my TPT store.  I just finished updating these and thought I would bundle them together for a bit!  

Here is a sample of my Chunky Monkey Reading Strategy Prezi ( which is part of my Beginning Reading Prezi) so you can see what they are like.

I started making Prezis as just another way to really utilize my Smartboard in the classroom- most efficiently for me.  I was tired of having links all over the place and decided to group them so they would be more "user friendly."  I had taken a course on Technology in the Classroom- and just  had a ball making  Prezis!

I had lots of links to games and activities on these Prezis before- but I  added some of my favorite anchor charts to the them.  I don't have lots of wall space in my classroom. (That is being generous... I have like ZERO! ;)   This way, during Reader's Workshop or Writer's Workshop, I can have up the Prezi and zoom in on an anchor chart that goes along with our mini lesson for the day, and it is up on the Smartboard- without needing wall space! TA DA!  It also makes it so easy to review a concept with the whole group or small groups for RTI - or quickly pull up an activity if we have a few extra minutes.
I love these things because they are just READY TO GO- and I can just add to them whenever I find a new game or activity that would be helpful!


Here is what they look like. If you aren't familiar with using Prezis- the kind I made for these are like zooming posters.  If you touch a picture, it zooms forward on the Smartboard. You can touch a link and go right to that activity.  You can also use them on a computer for links and resources.

The Beginning Reading Prezi includes the Kindergarten Common Core ELA Standards with activities for each, Teacher Resources, Reading Strategy anchor charts, several online sites that provide books to read on the Smart board, different genres of books to read, Sight Word Songs and Videos and other Youtube videos about reading, rhyming links, and a link to Word World videos.

The Primary Writing Prezi has many teaching points and activities to accompany the Common Core Writing Standards. It includes a section for teachers with links to the CCSS for Writing and ideas for each standard, as well as the links to great activity ideas to use in your classroom. It includes story starters; reminders and anchor charts of what is needed to correctly write a sentence (as well as lots of practice game and activity links); practice writing paper so students can practice their writing right on the Smartboard; posters with elements for writing and rubrics; an original punctuation poem that I use every day in my class with motions to help my students learn the names and purpose of punctuation marks; and games and activities to practice writing sentences, labeling, and reading and writing words. 

I use both of these almost every day during our Reading and Writing Workshop time, and actually throughout the day for reminders and RTI-  and thought they would be helpful to sell together.  You can get them here.  I hope you find them useful as well!

OK Here is my last share that I love:

Thanks for stopping by! 
:)  Carolyn

Teaching the Moving Child

We had a very informative class the other day with our OT, discussing the book Teaching the Moving Child by Sybil M. Berkey. 

She shared some great new ideas that I am going to try in my classroom, and other ideas that I have heard, but sometimes forget to use.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. Use golf pencils or broken crayons to help children use correct finger grip.

Broken crayons kind of make me cringe. :)  I could have named my blog "Sharp Pencils and Brand New Crayons,"  because those are two things I LOVE.  OK- even more honestly, it could have been named "Sharp Ticonderoga Pencils and Brand New Crayola Crayons." But that would never fit on a button. :)

 However, cringing aside,  I do see the benefit of using these smaller writing tools for children who need help or reminders using the correct grip.  If a crayon or pencil is small, children can't get all of their fingers around it, and therefore are "forced" to use a correct grip.  This is an especially good tip to remember at the beginning of the year.

I don't have any golf pencils now, but here is a picture of my husband and son on a typical weekend, so I don't think I should have too many problems collecting some this summer! 

2.  Have children write in a prone position (lying on the floor with a clipboard) or standing and writing on a wall space to put their wrists in proper position.
















I tried this one and you can see it does position the child's arm and wrist correctly.  I do have a couple children who have "floppy wrists" or who bend their wrists around when they write.  Lying on the floor makes them rest on their forearm and keep their wrist in the right position.  This isn't practical all the time, but I could definitely have them do this more during center times or certain writing times.  I didn't like the wall writing as much probably because I don't have much wall space and the paper has to be at the perfect height for them so they aren't reaching up  or stooping down, which defeats the purpose. 


3. Have over-active children do "chair push-ups" or push against a wall to remain calm and more focused.

 

   

We do like a good "Chair Push-Up" break now and then!  My whole class does this together. I have a couple children who benefit from this the most, but it is fun and helpful for everyone- as well as a challenge! They love to see who can stay up for a long time.

 

We have a ball with the Wall Push.   I don't have much wall space, but we all line up quietly and walk around the corner in our hall, where there are no classrooms.  We try to push the wall as hard as we can.  I tell them we are trying to make Miss Quick's classroom smaller by pushing in the wall!   They really think we have moved that concrete wall over.  Sorry, Miss Quick, for your shrinking room! :)

 

Again,  this is a great "brain break" for everyone in the class!  Who doesn't feel like pushing a wall every now and then? One good thing about doing this in the hall is that I tell them we have push really hard, but be quiet, so they aren't screaming- but putting the effort into the physical exertion.

 

We had so much fun with this yesterday.  We had a "picky" little week. I think we have had too much togetherness and just got a little cranky with each other, as any "family" does.   I read Mean Soup (another FAVORITE!).



 The story is about a boy who had a very frustrating day. His mother suggests that they make soup together, which he does not want to do at first.  She boils water on the stove, adds a little salt,  and screams into the water.  Then, she has him do it. They both scream louder into the "soup" until they feel better.  After that, the mother decides they should stick their tongues out twenty times into the soup- which, we, of course, did as well. (I actually made tally marks each time we stuck out our tongues-  MATH!)  What a fun idea to get out some frustration! We also took out our frustrations on the wall.  Again, sorry, Miss Quick! :)  We are SURE your room is at least a foot smaller by now. 

                                        

I make it sound like my class was a bundle of FRUSTRATION- but actually, they are fabulous! We just had lots of fun trying out some great techniques to relieve stress.  We all felt better. :)  

  

Other good suggestions for an overly-active child were to have him/her do more physical jobs for you in the classroom, like wipe down tables, push in chairs, or carry heavy objects ( like a small stack of books) for you in the hallway.  Kids love to be helpers, and this is a way for a child to be a helper and have some physical stimulation. 

(ok... maybe just a small stack!)

 

I found some more great songs on Youtube for our Shake Breaks.  Here is the Children's Zumba Dance from The Learning Station:   LOTS of fun!

                                    

We also danced to Going on a Bear Hunt and  this one- Hold Still by Just Dance Kids.









 

I added these to my Get Up and Move Prezi.  I put all of my favorite Shake Breaks together in a Prezi so they will all be right there for any quick minutes we need one!  Sometimes I want one FAST- and I don't want to search  for it.  This way, I have them ready to go! My    Get Up and Move Prezi  is available at my TPT store.

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy Teaching,

Carolyn

 

Happy Earth Day! Celebrating Trees

Some years to celebrate Earth Day, my class has gone outside with another class  to "make the world more beautiful" by picking  up trash around our school. 

We have nice trails behind our school, and in the spring, they can use a good cleaning.  Each year I would think, "Oh I hope there is enough garbage for everyone to be able to pick some up."  HA! Unfortunately I never had to worry!

Each child had a glove on one hand and a bag in the other. They knew our rules well:  Only touch garbage with the gloved hand. Never pick up glass. Stay with a buddy. Always be able to see  me... And, we always had a wonderful time!  Here is a picture of my friend Chelsea, who taught 1st grade at the time, leading the way!

When we go on this adventure, it is always good to have another class with us, so that we have two adults.  The kids are so well behaved because they love going outside and feel grown-up,  realizing  that they can make a difference! I still have children come back and tell me that they remember our Earth Day Garbage Pick Up! 

We would finish up by putting all of our small bags into huge bags to see what collected.

This past week, we have been studying trees, so we took a trip outside for a different reason!

I love studying trees with my class.  I have a special place in my heart for trees, because growing up, my dad owned a sawmill.  He knew everything about every tree, and we loved playing in the sawdust pile and visiting the mill.  When my children were small, one of my favorite memories is hiking in the woods with my parents, while my dad taught my kids all about different trees.  

These are some of my favorite books to read for our tree unit:

Here is a great freebie from Teach With Laughter to go with A Tree is Nice . It is a mini book  where students will print the name of one of the four seasons on each page, write about what they like about a tree during the season and illustrate the pages.  Thank you for this!  :)

After we read The Giving Tree and talk about it, the children finish this picture and design a tree house in the tree, and then write a sentence about it on the back of the paper.



But my FAVORITE tree book  is:



In case you aren't familiar with the book, it is a wonderful story about an oak tree that falls in the woods and becomes a log. Animals and plants move in until the log decays and a new tree starts to grow.  It is another one of our FAVORITE circle stories!  :)

Right after we read and discuss this book, we get outside and look for our own log hotels!  We found lots of them! It is amazing once you start looking for something, how many you find!  We saw the insect, holes, fungi, everything the book talked about!  (Except the snake, thank goodness!!!)

We also collected some interesting things to take inside to our investigation trays to study with our magnifying glasses.  We were lucky to find a slice of a small tree trunk so we could really study the lines and even try to count them.

Another similar book that has beautiful illustrations is A Log's Life by Wendy Pfeffer. This is a fun follow-up book to read to review looking for those log hotels. 

I have always loved the saying, "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. "  We talk about this saying and I try to explain to the children that they  can't go back and plant a tree twenty year ago so it is a good size today, but if they plant a tree this year, when they grow up, the tree will be grown up, too.  Here are some pictures of their illustrations of this saying:

I like the tiny little sprout she drew in the lower left corner to show it starting to grow. 

I like how he drew the water cycle in this one!  :)  Look at that evaporation going up!  YAY!



I love the simplicity of this one where she is just dropping her tree seed, but yet she added so much detail in her hat. This one just made me smile.  :)



My Earth Day Prezi  is available at my TPT store for free! 

I have put together Earth Day  songs, games, activites, some nice clips from Sid the Science Kid about trees , as well as The Lorax movie by Dr. Seuss.  I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy Earth Day!

Carolyn

Donald Crews



I love using Donald Crews'  books for an Author Study with my Kindergarten class and revisiting the books throughout the year.

 The children are very quick to see the patterns and same techniques a certain author  and/or illustrator uses and can quickly name the author or illustrator without me telling them.  They love to write books just like the author we study.

My class loves  hearing about different authors and how the authors got their start writing, because my children see how the authors we study used  their own experiences and interests to write books- just like we are doing!  They are fascinated when they realize that Eric Carle started writing books at five, in kindergarten,  and that Donald Crews uses his experiences as a boy for ideas in his books.

Eric Carle at age 5 with his mother



Donald Crews' books are some of my favorites to use as mentor texts when we begin Writer's Workshop,  because the illustrations are so bright, bold, and detailed.  Spending time on illustrations is many of my students' favorite part of writing, and how most of the children begin writing books.  I think I am extra partial to Donald Crews because my daughter Ellie LOVED Freight Train when she was little.  We couldn't read that one enough! 

Donald Crews also  uses labeling, sound words,  motion lines and movement, and fun text (BOLD PRINT!)  His use of the ellipsis is a favorite in my class. We LOVE that ellipsis...   :)

I found this Author Study chart that Melissa Clancy did in her classroom  on her blog,
Joyful Learning in KC . 

Melissa does a lot with Author Studies on her her blog.  I spent a long time there!  I feel like I know her  now!   Thank you, Melissa!

Although his illustrations are perfect for my students who love to study the detail he uses for ideas of their own, Donald Crews'  books also use lots of descriptive words that my children pick up on and try to incorporate as the year progresses.  I use his books all year long for so many different teaching points.

Crews uses so many small moments from his life as ideas for writing his stories.  This has really helped my class realize that they can write about anything! At first, coming up with an idea can seem overwhelming to a child. Seeing how the authors of the books we read can take a small moment or memory in life and use that to write a story helps  open up a world of possibilities in a child's mind! 

I found this poster on Pinterest and think it is great for helping to explain how to use "small moments" for writing a story.

The book Shortcut is a great mentor text for using a small moment to write a story, a great follow up to Freight Train, and also a great opportunity for teaching about safety!

In the beginning of the year, I use his book Ten Black Dots for a simple and fun activity.

I have all sizes of black dots cut out and on each table.  The children can choose how many dots and what size dots to use to create whatever they decide.  We brainstorm together on the rug, and I show some examples I have made- one dot for a bowling ball, four dots for wheels on a car, BIG DOTS for wheels on a monster truck, tiny dots on wings of a ladybug, etc.  On the paper where they create their masterpiece,  they fill in the blanks for the sentence I have written: ___________ black dots can make a ____________.   We always do this activity on "Black Day" during the first two weeks of school when we review one color each day.  Some years I laminate the pictures and make a class book.  This year, we hung them up and I sent them home. 

I made my Author Prezi so that I had the information about the authors that I use most frequently for my  Author Studies all in on place and easy to access.  I put a picture, link or video to biography information, author interviews if available, videos of their work, and then links to all the best Pinterest boards with TONS of ideas for activities for each author. I looked at LOTS of possible videos and picked the ones I thought were the best and most appropriate. 

The featured authors include: Jan Brett, Norman Bridwell, Eric Carle, Donald Crews, Theodor Geisel, Laura Numeroff, Robert Munsch, David Shannon, Shel Silverstein, and Mo Willems.

On the left of the title, under "Author Interviews" are two sites with LOTS of other author interviews included. Under the title are two of my favorite sites with very inclusive author site links, and a link to a listing of wonderful mentor texts and topics for Writer's Workshop lessons.   I hope you find this helpful for your classroom, as well!

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy Teaching,

Frog and Toad Free Prezi

I want to try a Linky Party with Smiling Like Sunshine, so I am sharing my Frog and Toad Prezi.   It is a freebie on my TPT store.   I LOVE to use Frog and Toad books in my classroom, especially in spring.  We have a pond in back of our house,  and I am usually lucky enough to find both frog and toad eggs to take into school.  We love to compare the eggs and watch the transformation.  I love to combine my ELA and Science.  I am a "unit person" at heart because it just feels right when everything fits together and all subject areas go with my theme. 

Frog and Toad are perfect books for Kindergarten, to make that bridge between picture book read alouds and simple chapter books.  The humor is right at the kids' level and the stories are wonderful for discussions, making connections, and predicting.   I will post again about our Frog and Toad unit, but here is my Frog and Toad Prezi so  I can make the hour deadline for the Linky Party. :)    Have fun with it in your classroom!

Thanks for visiting!  Happy Teaching!

Also- THANK YOU April Larremore from Chalk Talk for following me.  You made my day!
Your blog is such an inspiration and so full of great ideas, and you are such a kind person! 

Eric Carle and New Eric Carle Prezi

Every year I look forward to my Eric Carle unit.  I use his books throughout the year, but do an actual Author Study using his books in spring. 

One summer, I taught a Summer School class called "Reading and Writing with Eric Carle."  I was so excited,  and extra excited because my sister was going to help me!  The first day, as my sister waited in the lobby for the last of the stragglers to arrive, a mom was sort of hanging around waiting.  My sister asked if she needed anything else, and the mom said, "No, I am just waiting to see this Eric Carle guy."  I won't ever forget that, because I guess I had lived in my "Kindergarten Bubble" just assuming everybody knew Eric Carle!
 He never did show up...   so I had to teach the class.

We always start the year with color review and a take home book of Brown Bear, Brown Bear that we color for morning work.  This year, we read From Head to Toe in the beginning of the year, and we talked about things we CAN do.  I took each child's picture holding the "I" and "can" card and put the pictures around our class reminders. We did an interactive writing lesson with our "I can" statements. 

My sister worked in a Kindergarten classroom and she made this class book.  I love how she made the background of the photographs look "Eric Carlish."  I am going to try this next year!

When we learn the letter "O,"  we read Eric Carle's Opposites book as one of our many books.
 
                                                                            

We make a class Opposites book of our own!  Class books are one of our favorite things.  The children choose to look at them over and over, and can take them home to share.  It gives families a chance to see and hear about classroom friends, too.   Our class books are very loved.  I just laminate regular copy paper and use book rings to hold them together.  They hold up really well.

I  made an  Author Study for Eric Carle, which includes the Prezi, 17 Writing Prompts for 11 of Eric Carle's books (plus 14 prompts to use with any book), and QR Codes for each book!

I love this packet because when I do the author study, we make a book putting all of our prompts together.  It's a great review of all of his books for the kids, too!  I hope you found some fun ideas to use in your classroom.

Each one I make I think is my favorite, but this one may REALLY be it.   For the Prezi, I spent hours looking at every Eric Carle site and video I could find, and put together what I thought were the best ones to go with 20 different Eric Carle books! The books include: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider, The Mixed Up Chameleon, The Tiny Seed, The Little Cloud, Draw Me a Star, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, A House for Hermit Crab, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, The Very Quiet Cricket, Mister Seahorse, Pancakes, Pancakes, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?(with Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?), Hello, Red Fox, Today is Monday, From Head to Toe, My Apron.

 I have wanted my website resources for my Eric Carle together in one place, so now I have that.  I included the link to The Caterpillar Exchange (Eric Carle's official site)  for each specific book with lots of ideas and links to Pinterest boards/pins for each, so you can use the Eric Carle Prezi whenever you get a chance to look at different ideas for each book. 

I love that we are able to combine so much ELA and science with his books, and I included science videos that go with the appropriate books.    The sample book is Little Cloud.  I thought that would be a good choice for "April Showers" and for Earth Day coming up.  This will give you an idea of what the other books include. ( Warning- "The Water Cycle" song will go through your head all day!   :)

Thank you for visiting!  Happy Teaching!