Make the Letter

There is a big difference between the fine motor skills of a Transitional Kindergarten student and a Kindergarten student. Many TK lack the pre-writing skills needed to benefit from tracing on a dotted line. I had one little girl in my class last year who just couldn't do, no matter how hard she tried. What she could do what trace on a highlighted letter. (I hope you have all tried using a highlighter for tracing, because it is AMAZING for the kids who need extra support in fine motor skills!) And she could stay with in the lines of a letter outline.

I could not print out a highlighted paper without a crazy scary ink bill, but I could prepare letter outlines for my TK students in advance. This mini packet here is called Make the Letter and it is all about staying inside the letter outline to get the fingers and brain working together. Check it out.

These are half sheets because many students just aren't ready for a whole sheet of paper. I also don't want to waste a whole sheet of paper. Students can trace inside the letter outline and write the letter on their own. They can color the super cute pics from Pink Cat Studio (amazing, again!) and get the extra practice in that they need. You could also laminate these or put them into sheet protectors to have students use with dry erase markers. I have mine in sheet protectors with dry erase markers in a binder. This is something they can do at "Choice Time". These will also work with Pre-K students.

Happy Writing!

Journal Assembly

Bug journals are assembled and ready for kids! I took a couple of pics because I thought it might give my amazing audience a better understanding of what I mean by "journal."

Supplies: 

1. My Science Journal - copied and ready. (Remember, you can use any of the animals in the journal...or all of them.)

2. 12x18 construction paper

3. Stapler

4. White Glue

Gather your stuff

 

Directions: 
Folder 12x18 construction paper in half.
Insert journal pages
Staple 3 times along the edge
Use the white glue to adhere the cover. (Make sure you really get the edges.)

Done!

My Science Journal: Bugs

I have finished my second My Science Journal! This one is all about BUGS!

I have had so much success with my Ocean Journal that I knew right away that I had to make one for bugs. My students learned so much and have even improved their writing. They are writing on their own, using their imaginations and the words they know or can sound out. This has been the best year of Kindergarten writing I have ever had!

This unit includes:
1. ants
2. butterflies
3. worms
4. honey bees
5. ladybugs
6. grasshoppers
7. snails

Life cycles include: ant, butterfly, worm, honey bee, and ladybugs.

Labeling the parts of an ant.

 

 Life cycle of a butterfly and the parts of a butterfly.

 

 

Sample of Bonus Activities:

 

 

 

These are few sample pages of My Science Journal: Bugs.

 

Please take a look at them at TpT. Your students will be writing in no time and have so many interesting facts to share about bugs.

The Octopus

The octopus is definitely a favorite animal in the eyes of a 5-year-old. Or in the eyes of a 31-year-old. (Yes, that's me.) I love the octopus because many students know what it is, but don't know much about it. I love teaching them the amazing facts of the octopus.

 

Amazing Octopus Facts!

1. They have suckers on their arms that can actually sense taste.

2. They have no bones.

3. They have a sharp beak to break shells.

4. Some octopus have poisons.

5. They can change color and texture to camouflage themselves.

6. They have a purplish-black ink they can squirt out so they can get away from enemies.

7. A female octopus lays eggs.

8. Octopus can squeeze into small holes.

Like I said, many kids know what an octopus is so I begin my lesson with the book:

 

They love this book! Every year they love it. This year my class actually clapped when I finished reading it. It's a super silly book about an octopus making friends....even with a shark.

 

Then we get into the science of the octopus:

 

And we see some amazing pictures of a real octopus.

Going onto YouTube and searching some videos to show how an octopus swims is also a great idea. They don't swim how the kids expect them to, so they are always very fascinated to see a "REAL OCTOPUS!" swim.

 

After our discussion we do our octopus page in

 My Science Journal: Ocean.

 

 

We talk a lot about the arms or legs. There has been some research that is showing an octopus has two legs (used in "walking") and six arms. I shared this information with my class and you can see that one of my little girls colored her octopus to show that. Haha! I didn't even ask them to do that! It goes to show you that they love learning about ocean animals and remember so much! We also talked about the octopus having their mouth between their arms, but since our picture is a cartoon we can see his mouth.

 

Our craft for the octopus is the

 

Curly Octopus

 

 

This is a free printable from Scholastic. Run two octopus onto cardstock. Have the kids cut them out. You staple the heads together and they can curl the arms with their pencil or finger. When they are done, the octopus stands up!

Scholastic has a lot of free ocean printables. Check them out here.

 

Octopus day was a hit! I hope it is for you too!

The Fish

The fish! What better way to start talking about animals that live in the water! I have a fish tank in my classroom that my students have loved since the first day of school. They are fascinated by the little fish and the giant (and blue!) water snail that hangs out in there. Looking at a fish tank has always been fascinating for kids, so I like to begin my talk about fish by reading

Memoirs of a Goldfish.

 

 

This funny little books lets students relate to fish in a setting they are already familiar with. We read several other books about fish, including these three:

 

One of my favorites is The Pout-Pout Fish. And kids love it when he gets a big KISS at the end of story.

 

 

Rainbow Fish is a classic story about being nice to each other and sharing.

 

What's It Like to Be a Fish? is our science fish book.

 

And after we read What's It Like to Be a Fish? we begin talking about the parts of the fish. We talk about what the fins do, what the tail does, how a fish can breathe underwater, and what they eat. After this discussion we do our fish page in My Science Journal: Ocean

 

 

My students have learned more than they realize about how a fish lives!

Next we do our fish craft. I like to tie in art whenever I can. For this craft we are making the

 

Coffee Filter Fish

 

 

Take any size coffee filter and have kids dot them with Bingo dotters, or use washable markers and spray with a water bottle, or simply watercolor! Let the filter dry and then glue it to the back of the fish template.

 

 

 

I like to copy onto cardstock, but it would look jut as great if the kids color the fish themselves. I had my students cut the outside of the fish, but I cut the inside circle.

Glue the fish onto the coffee filter (or vice versa) and let dry. Once it is dry trim the filter so your fish looks AMAZING! Hang your fish in the window for some beautiful color!

 

That's the fish!

 

My Science Journal: Ocean

Every year the Kindergarten does a very fun and exciting ocean thematic unit. This unit takes us about a month and half because there are so many amazing things about the ocean to study. We strive to learn about one animal each day, learning as much as we can. Then, at the end of the unit, we go on a field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

We create an ongoing project during this unit called:
My Science Journal: Ocean

It is kind of like a learning portfolio to have at the end of the theme. This is a journal that allows students to write about the animal we are learning about each day. Students can color, label the body parts, and then write one or two facts about the ocean animal they are studying. The journal can be bound into a book or done one page at a time. Check it out at TeachersPayTeachers!
Over the next week or so I will be posting all of the different activities we are doing in our ocean classroom. Each day we begin with a story about the animal of the day, followed by our Ocean Journal and then we do a fun craft or activity. Keep checking my blog to see all of the ocean fun!

 

My Science Journal: Ocean

 

Here are a few sample pages from My Science Journal: Ocean

As you can see there is the wonderful opportunity to delve into each ocean animal, practice writing nonfiction and writing conventions.

 

 

 There are also some extra bonus activities!

I hope you get a chance to check this out. My students have never done better writing in all of my years teaching Kindergarten (8 in all!!). I do believe that if you get kids writing about what excited them, they will want to write and succeed at it. Make it fun!

 

“I know what I liked as a child, and I don’t do any book that I, as a child, wouldn’t have liked.”

 

- H.A. Rey (author of Curious George)

Daily Reading

 We are reading in Kindergarten!

Kindergarten is not what it used to be! We are expecting our kinders to read and write at a pretty high level. Unfortunately, a lot of kids come in without the skills they need to start kindergarten at a level that the school districts and curriculum expects. My district is currently shopping around for a Common Core aligned ELA and math curriculum. This year I have been creating my own activities so that my kinders are learning with CCSS and will (hopefully) move into a Common Core 1st grade class with ease. One thing we do each morning is journal writing. I give my students a journal (just writing paper stapled into a book). I tape these cards to the front as needed:

These cards are free and give your kids immediate access to words they want to use in their writing. We combine our word family words and sight words to write. I also give a sentence frame to my students that are not ready to write on their own. They look like this:

I like my _________________.

It is ____________ and ___________.

Students can then use their vocab words that are on the front of their journals to fill in the blanks. A lot of my students are not using the sentence frames anymore because they realize it is more fun to write what they want!

After journal writing we do word family and sight word work. We do our weekly sight words, which are 5 words a week and come from the Kindergarten Pre-Primer and Primer Sight Word Unit I sell in TpT and TN. Grab the Kindergarten Sight Word Bundle, it really gives Kinders the skills they need.

 After our sight word work we get out our fluency folders. These are the folders my students use when we do small group instruction. I have 4 leveled groups. They each do a different center each day. For example: on Monday I will work with my Blue Stars while the other groups do various centers. Tuesday I will work with the Yellow Stars, etc. This allows me to differentiate my instruction so that I can get on-level work done with each student. My groups each have 5 or 6 students. They carry their fluency folders with them during this time so that when they are finished with their center activity they can open their folder and practice their readers. This picture is one example of my readers from my Pre-Primer Sight Word Books.

 I pick out the words that my students need the most work in and give them small activities to do while we read the books. It keeps them engaged.

 

We drew a tongue on our frog, just for fun.

 

If you would like to use these books, click here. They are free. They do go along with my Kindergarten Sight Words Lists 1-8. I am working on sight word books for Lists 9-18. I will post them when I am finished.

I finish morning reading with Word Family Work

I use a lot of Marsha Mcguire's word family stuff. I have her sight word bundle (which is AWESOME). I love the clipart and the different activities that come along with it. Her Word Families Galore Bundle is a great asset to my class. I also use a lot of Heidi Butkus' sight word activities.

I am trying to get CCSS into the classroom and getting my Kinders ready for the upcoming changes. I am looking forward to incorporating more technology into my everyday lessons. Right now we are using the iPads to play word games, but our school just purchased the Flocabulary program, which we will begin using very soon.
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Christmas Activities

Here are some of the Christmas activities we have done this month. We made big paper candy canes. Students had to tear the paper stripes and I helped them glitter their names. (Ugh, glitter.....I use it but once a year!)

Another activity is our Grinch activity. We read the book and did a little brainstorming on what the Grinch could do to make Christmas better. Then we completed the story. Students colored a Grinch topper. I found this activity on a blog, but I can't remember where. The kids love doing it. Then we wrapped up the day by watching the movie.You can grab this activity here or by clicking on the picture.

We also made a Christmas tree by putting our numbers in order. Students colored their tree, then glued on the number ornaments and cut the whole thing out. We put them in our classroom window because they looked so nice. You can get this activity here or by clicking on the picture.

Enjoy your last week of school! I know I am!

Bats and Pumpkins!

Halloween is in full swing in Kindergarten. We have been working, creating and learning new and silly songs. One of the first crafts we made was our bat hat. It is too cute.

When the kids finish and put it on we all walk around saying, "So and so....you have a bat on your head!" They crack up all day long. Here is the template for the hat. I recommend poster board or card stock for the wings so they stand out.

What else are we doing? Pumpkins! We have been learning about pumpkins all week. We have even entered the PTA Pumpkin Decorating Contest. I have yet to think of a good idea, but when I do I will post it.

Here is our bulletin board outside my classroom. Cute huh?

This is a page in our daily journals. We are working on capital letters, spacing and punctuation. Students have cut apart sentences (GRAB here!!) and they have to glue the sentence in their journal. Then they write the sentence, following all the rules, and then they draw a picture.

 

We learn the poem 5 Little Pumpkins and act out the poem with puppets. My students have it memorized in about 3 tries. I got these puppets at Michaels.

We make a 5 Little Pumpkins craft with popsicle sticks. I have them glue the poem on it so they can read it at home with their families. Grab the 5 Little Pumpkin craft here.

And of course, the paper plate pumpkin. We painted the plate and added a face to it, then did the life cycle on the back. To get the life cycle pieces go to my Pinterest Fall Activities Board.


We have a lot more Halloween fun to go !