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Kindergarten Sight Words Stamp It!

Hi everyone!
This year is flying by! I wanted to get my Kindergarten Sight Word Stamp It! unit out before Black Friday and here is it! Sweet and simple: Trace it, Stamp it, Write it. I use these in my weekly centers and my students love them. I love that it keep them engaged while they are learning their words and is a great addition to the sight word program I have made and am using. My kids are doing a great job this year with their words!

Owls!

This week we learned about owls.

 We made an owl can, have, are chart.

 We used our chart to write about owls. 

 

Grab the writing sheet here!

We also dissected owl pellets this week! The kids had a great time, even though some started out very timid. By the end they were digging through it with their hands! I purchased by owl pellets from www.owlpellet.com.

I bought the mini owl pellets. You get 20 of them for $19.80. I gave one pellet to each pair of students. They worked as partners and had a lot of fun! The pellets come in the mail very quickly, and are very good. They are filled with bones!

 We used toothpicks to pull the fur apart.

We matched the bones we found to the bone chart. This helped keep the kids on track and got them very excited when they could start identifying them.

 We wrote about our findings on our observation chart. You can grab the observation chart for free here.

 

Owls are always fun and I know my kinders went home and told their parents all about the bones they found and what the owls can do, what they are, and what they EAT!

Planting an Apple Tree with Harry Kindergarten!

Way Up High in an Apple Tree - Apple Song for Kids - Children's Song by ...

Apples!!

Every year I do an apple unit. It actually makes fall seem like it's here (even when it's not quite). We learn about the colors of apples, the parts of apples, the seasons of the apple tree, foods that can be made from apples, the life cycle of an apple seed, and what our favorite kind of apple is.

Every year I do a series of activities, with pieces everywhere. This year I decided to put them all into a notebook. I'm calling it My Kindergarten Apple Notebook and it was a BIG hit with my Kinders this week.

Here are some of our activities we did:

 Homemade applesauce 

 We used a tree pattern and apple erasers to act out the song "Way Up High in the Apple Tree"

Apple Tasting and Apple Graphing

My favorite books to read during this unit are: 

I will also share some great videos that we watched about apples. 

If you like the Apple Notebook it, check it out HERE.

My Science Journal: Dinosaurs!

My Dinosaur Unit is finally out! It took me a while and I tried all of these activities out with my students. It was a big hit and each day my students would come to class and ask what dinosaur we are learning today. 

My Science Journal: Dinosaurs is science for little ones.

Dinosaurs in this unit:
1. T-Rex
2. Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus
3. Triceratops
4. Stegosaurus
5. Pterodactyl
6. Velociraptor
7. Plesiosaur

Activities Included:
1. Dino Journal: What Do You Know?
2. Vocabulary/Display Cards
3. Dino Fact cards
4. Graphic Organizers for each Dino
5. Various activities that included paleontologists, color by number, writing activities, etc.
6. Journal for little ones using describing words
7. Paper plate dinosaur templates.  

Check out the Unit: 

 

 

Paleontologist Hat FREEBIE!

New Donors Choose Project

I have a new project up for Donors Choose titled Kindergarten Techies. I am trying to get a small group set of Dragon Touch tablets for my Kinders. Right now I only have 3 iPads in my classroom and I am not allowed to add my own apps to them. I always have to have Tech come in and do it for me. I want to use the tablets throughout the year, using apps that my kids need at that time. If I have my own set of tablets for my kiddos then I can keep up with their needs. Check it out! I am hoping I can get this funded soon, because my kids are ready to go on technology!

 

These are what they tablets look like. They are small, only 7"! I can't wait to start using them in the classroom. 

Cats and Shoes

 We learned all about Pete the Cat this week. We read every book (and there is a lot of them) and learned all of the songs. I thought I would share a couple of activities as a FREEBIE this week for all of you teachers who are interested. 

The first activity we did was imagining what we could step in that would change our shoes a color. Each student got a shoe and colored it. Then they came up to me and told me the story of what they stepped in. I wrote it down and then they had to write the color word of their shoe.

 We also made Pete of course! I wanted a Pete the students could play with while we sang his songs. Grab the pattern HERE! 

The body is a folded piece of 9x12 construction paper. I drew an arch and the students cut on it. This gives him 4 legs to glue their shoes to and he can stand up! The tail was cut from the scraps of the arch. Enjoy!

Fun Friday

We had our first Fun Friday of the new school year.

What is Fun Friday?
Fun Friday is a day that is designed around having fun while learning. We will take the skills we have learned during the week and either make a Fun Food, a craft, or a game out of it. Sometimes we do all three! This week for Fun Friday we were practicing the color red, shapes, and counting to 10.

Our activities for Fun Friday this week included:
1. Reading Clifford the Big Red Dog and making Clifford ears. Then we sang the song "I Wanna Be a Dog" by Charlotte Diamond. Our Fun Food this week was making a Clifford face from a cracker (peanut free), red frosting, fruit roll-up ears, chocolate chip eyes, and a Hershey Drop nose. Yum!

 This is my son. He is in another Kindergarten class down the hall and made Clifford ears as well. I love having him in K with us!

Our Clifford Fun Food

2. We played our first Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks game, called Square Off. Students work in partners with their dice tray (from the Boxcars website) and take turns rolling the dice. Whatever they roll they put on their game board. The goal is to see who has the most of what number. No one wins, we all learn. It was super fun and the kids did really well with the dice patterns.

 Playing the game Square Off

 Stratedice Tray from Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks. 

3. We did our first Fun Friday Play Time. On Fridays is when my students get to play with the special toys, like the play kitchen, the dinosaurs, Happy Meal toys (yes, I have a collection) and various other fun toys. We rotate through stations and everyone gets a turn playing everything.

 Magformers

This is my son son and my nephew exploring the Magformers before class. 

Just a little about Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks:

This is a great program designed by Jane Felling and her husband. The entire program is game based and uses dice, playing cards and dominoes. If you ever get a chance to go to one of Felling's workshops PLEASE DO IT! It will change the way you teach math in Kindergarten. It's amazing. Check out their website to find out more. Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks.

The First Two Days!

The first two days of Kindergarten are over!!!!!! I would have posted that the first day was over, but I was dead tired and couldn't find the energy. So, I will post today. All went well. I have a great group of kids and only had minor crying. Needless to say, I ALWAYS forget how much direction they need, but I saw great improvement from yesterday to today. Very proud of my little guys.

What are some activities we did the first two days of Kindergarten?

• We read stories.
• We took a tour of the school
• We colored our first initial with markers (yes, we really did that!)
• We sang songs
• We explored the toys
• We made Mr. Circle
• We did some work on the number zero (Counting Sets Set on TpT)
• We wrote our names using the Name Bubbles (which is what I call it)
• We colored things that are red and matched the  color word red to them (Colors Set on TpT)
• We made new friends by playing introduction games like Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee

It has been a whirlwind for sure, but we are learning and having fun!

 First initial coloring (FREEBIE!)

 Coloring the word RED

 Cutting and matching the word to the picture.

 Cutting the pieces to Mr. Circle (Yes, he cut that circle by himself....AMAZING!)

 Our class' Mr. Circle display.

 I was told this Mr. Circle was riding a roller coaster so he was scared.

 This Mr. Circle is very happy. 

Fun introduction game on the first day.