Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pumpkin Patches... I LOVE FALL!

This week, my husband and I took our baby to the pumpkin patch in our town to take some pictures. He was so intrigued by all of the pumpkins and he especially liked the small ones that he could pick up and play with. :) 



This inspired me to do all sorts of fun activities in my classroom because we are learning about pumpkins. We are going to weigh pumpkins, measure them, even see if they float. 

We also make these really fun bracelets with beads and the kids go home and tell their parents, or anyone at home, the stages of the pumpkin's growth by looking at the beads. 

White: Seeds
Dark Green: Vine
Yellow: Flower
Light Green: Small Pumpkin
Orange: Large Pumpkin
Orange with Face: Jack-o-lantern

Here are some other things I do during pumpkin week.



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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Have Fun Teaching

I wanted to share this website that I use everyday!
http://havefunteaching.com/


There are many cute counting songs, like count by 10's, 5's and 1's. They are often a fun rap song or some other type of cute song.
We sing these everyday and the kids memorize the different ways to count!

There is also a song for every letter of the alphabet. We do one a day, according to the letter that we are learning that week! It really helps ingrain the letter sound, and also goes over which letters are vowels or consonants.

This is great for kinders!

Halloween is coming!

Since Halloween is approaching and my kids have been having so much fun with the spiders unit, I decided to do a bat unit the week of Halloween. We usually do Halloween safety, which I will still do, but I thought it would be fun do be able to compare and contrast spiders and bats. I LOVE teaching science units, because you can do so much with vocabulary words and the kids really pick it up, the more you use it. 

Our reading and math specialist came in and played a game with my students the other day and they absolutely LOVED it! It was called "Make a Five" and it was the easiest way to get them thinking about different ways to make five, but they really got into it. I decided to create a Halloween version and have been giving the game to partners to play when they finish their work early. Here are the instructions:


Directions:

The object of this game is to find the missing add-in pair to make a five. Using this activity will help promote students’ number sense, while learning about all of the ways to make five!

Students will find pairs in this matching game according to which add-in will help them to create a five. For instance, if the student draws a 4 from the pile, the object will be to look for the missing add-in, which would be a 1.

The pairs will include:
5 and 0
4 and 1
3 and 2

You will notice that there are two set of each number. This is to reinforce with the students that there is also more ways to make five by switching the numbers.

0 and 5
1 and 4
2 and 3

This game should be played whole group for a few days before it is placed in a center.

Another game can be played with these five frames. The number cards can be placed in a pile and the five frames placed in a separate pile, each upside down. The object will be for the students to find the equal or equivalent five frame that matches the number card. The student will turn over one number card and one five frame and see if it is a match. If it is a match, they get to keep the pair.

Cut each five frame into strips and laminate. Cut the number cards into squares and laminate. Place in a center, after enough modeiing has been done!        



Go to my teacher's store to see that and more!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Eek!

This week in preparation for Halloween, we will be learning about spiders. I use the terms arachnid and exoskeleton a lot throughout the week, and the parents are super impressed when the kids go home and use these vocabulary words. 

When we do a great science unit like this, I like to use many kinds of graphic organizers.

I also make a spider word wall in front of them by writing important words and drawing pictures to go with them on chart paper. We keep this up in the room all week, so that the kids can write about spiders in their journals. I put out lined paper for the writing center of 3 different ability levels and the kids can choose which one best suits them. 
Check out my Eek! Spiders! packet at my Teachers Pay Teachers store:






Sunday, October 2, 2011

Fire Truck... Fire Truck...

Every year, I read this book to my class called Fire Truck by Ivan Ulz. The book came with a cd that sings a song as the pages go along. The kids absolutely LOVE this song and end up singing it all week, and sometimes for the rest of the year. :)
I've been doing this every year, and didn't realize that it's on youtube with the pictures from the book and the song! I'm so excited to use this in my class!


I also created another sound box lesson to go with the last one I posted. This time, the kids have to look at Halloween picture cards and move candy corn pieces into the spots as they hear the sounds. 
Here are the directions:

1.          Print the sound boxes into strips (5 boxes per strip) and laminate.
2.          Print the candy corn pieces and cut into individual pieces (each piece only containing 1 candy corn). Laminate pieces.
3.          Print the picture cards and laminate.
4.          Each child will get a baggie with a sound box strip and five candy corn pieces.
5.          The teacher will hold up the picture cards.
6.          Each child will move a candy corn piece into each spot for every sound that they hear, starting from the left. (Ex. cat has three sounds/phonemes= /c//a//t/, so the child will put three candy corn pieces in starting from the left side and filling in each spot next to it until three spots have been filled.
7.          Show each picture card and have the students listen for the sound and fill in the appropriate number of boxes.
8.          This can be used in small group, as a whole group lesson in a pocket chart and then placed in a center!





Fire Safety Week

This week, we will be learning about fire safety and fire prevention.  I love this unit! On Friday, fire fighters will be coming to show the kids how the fire truck works and to show them how to put on their fire suits. 

I made some sight word reading cards for this week that the kids love! The red words are the sight words we have gone over so far, and they should be able to read these. Then I teach them that they can use the clues in the illustrations to figure out the rest of the sentence. 


I have also posted some more things to my TpT store that I have used in the past and plan on using this week in my classroom.

This sound box activity is really great to get them to start listening to the sounds in the words in preparation for writing. I give each child their own sound box and manipulatives so that they can participate with me as the powerpoint goes.



Check out these and the other new fall activities I've posted at my TpT store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Proffitt