Kacey is taking a well-deserved break from Five for Friday, but I have 5 simple things from my week to share- so here I go!
Our class Christmas tree... The kids could write the sight words on their Christmas tree paper or ornament paper. Then, after we did this, they've just been playing with the blocks. It's amazing the sentences and words I hear as they play. Note to self: Put sight words on EVERYTHING.
Since the children are getting so good at writing their names, and since they write names on every paper all day, I have the kids do different, quick things in the morning when they arrive to "sign in." One of the things we do is Rainbow Class Sight Words. I watch as each child writes each word with a marker to be sure everyone forms the letters correctly and can read the word to me. It takes no time at all, and is a great quick assessment. In the new year, the children will begin writing their first and last name as they "sign in" each day. They love that, too. We do all different things. Some days, I'll write a "5" on top of the paper when they sign in, and they have to write an addition fact for five. Arrival time is a great time for quick review - that really doesn't take any time from your day!
My friend Amy got each of us on our grade level this fabulous gift. I don't know how much she paid for them, but they are worth a million dollars. Thank you, Amy! <3 Our lines are straight as an arrow and quiet. (Well- as straight and quiet as they can be in the middle of December when everyone is full of EXCITEMENT...) I hold it as I walk around and watch them work sometimes. They love it! During free choice, I "scanned" in pictures of all the great things the kids built so I could send the pictures to Santa.
I wrote about my Holiday Homework HERE (it's free) and send one idea home for fun each night in December.
Some children bring papers back, so I wanted to have a special something for them. I use double sided tape to stick a Starburst to a cut out star, and then onto their paper. They love it. Sometimes I'll tape a pack of Smarties to the paper. It's just fun.
These! I actually made these for my family Christmas party for little place cards. They're not done, but I wanted to show you in case you wanted to use them for your home or students. I still need to add some little scarves to the penguin and pompoms to the elf and Santa hats, I think- but I loved them. Here is a link to the print outs. They are FREE from Fe Fi Fo Fama! Just click and save the image at her post and print as a full size picture. Then cut and wrap around a full size candy bar. Again, I used double sided tape to adhere them in back.
And finally, I loved this idea shared by The Bubbly Blonde Teacher. We have deliveries all day, several times a day thanks to Amazon Prime. And boy do we appreciate our delivery drivers! My lettering isn't as fancy as hers, but idea is all hers!
I hope you had a wonderful week! Thank you for stopping by!
The kids are so precious and excited for Christmas. It's a fun energy to be around. It's just lots and lots of energy to be around and try to gear toward learning until December 23rd!
Here are some ways we found to make it fun last week!
The kids had so much fun with Snowball Pass! Since we don't have any of our own REAL snow, we made some of our own. Each child got a piece of scrap paper with a sight word written on it.
Once they read their word, they crumpled it into a "snowball."
When I said, "Pass," they passed the snowball. Sometimes I said it fast- sometimes slow.
When I said, "Read and Wrinkle!" they had to open and read their word to their neighbor, then wrinkle it back up to go again.
When we were done, I said, "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" After they threw their snowball, they had to pick one up and read it to me before they could go to their seats.
Here's some more fun with sight word practice. We love practicing sight words with our Rocket Word activity! It's a great brain break- simple/fast/fun- and requires nothing but little bodies. The kids really have to think how many letters they are going to be saying and how low they need to go! Here's a little sample.
It's one of the ideas in my book with Dr. Jean, by the way...
Our math book comes out in January. I'm so excited! I love the ideas we put together for math, too!
We don't send homework home at our school with the kindergarten students. We send a book home to read each night, and sometimes we send a special activity to complete. When I send home an activity, I like to put something special on their paper when they return it.
This was one of the holiday homework pages that I sent home. I sent this paper with a special Christmas paper plate to eat dinner on, and then the children had to draw and label what they ate.
This is a fun activity to do anytime of the year with any paper plate- even a plain white one!
You can get the worksheet that I used HERE with my other holiday homework ideas. (It's Number 5 on that week's Five for Friday- so you can just scroll down to that.)
I put on a star Post-it with a Starburst stuck in the middle with double sided tape when they brought it back.
My kids are having so much fun with the Vet Center. They make appointments, take care of the sick pets, weigh and measure the pets, feed them, and write a report about each pet they take care of. I love, love, love that it is so real to them. They learn so much working together and see why knowing how to write is so important. They need to get down all the information about those pets! I love switching out my free choice centers.
And sometimes the little animals just need to have a story read to them!
Here is the little vet sheet that I made for the kids to use. I have clip boards for them to use or just these sheets on the table so they can write about the pets they see. If you would like a copy, just click the picture below!
Here are some of the reports from last year's vet center that still make me smile.
"Her head is bleeding. Puttin pressure in and stitch and put on a bandaid."
"She is dying in 54321. Use every tool in the world."
This one is pretty self explanatory... he's fat and needs kitty liposuction.
But this one may be my favorite... It was on my desk after free choice.
We have been working on writing true stories during Writer's Workshop. Here are the anchor charts that I made. The bottom "playground scene" idea is from the Lucy Calkin's books.
Thank you for stopping by! If you are off for break, enjoy every second. If you have three more days, hang in there. We can do it!
