Happy December everyone! If you're anything like me, you're wondering how December got here so quickly and you're a *little* bit stressed when you think about how to fit everything you want to do in at school and at home! I'm really trying hard this year though not to let it bother me if everything doesn't happen, and really enjoy this special season with my own child and my kids at school.
This past week, we had gingerbread week and the kids had a blast {I plan to blog about it, but you can click here to see what we did last year}! They also loved all the new Christmas centers we started during literacy workshops. During workshops, not all my kids always visit the same tub/activity. Because different children need work on different skills, I try to create lots of activities that all focus on different phonics skills so that everyone has something specific to their need. Here's what different partner groups are working on:

Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters and recoding the matches:

Clipping letters for ending sounds {and getting fine motor practice in!}:

Spelling sight words:

A lot of my kids are working on reading cvc words:

{I've tried to start making a lot of puzzle activities this year in which I make random cuts, so that each puzzle is self correcting to give my kids extra support this year}

Determining the middle sound in words:

Matching pictures to their beginning letter:

Matching rhyming pictures:

These centers along with others are in my Christmas packs {click the images below to find out more}:

I'm off to work on the next pack in my Nifty Numbers series...I can't wait to finish and show you!

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Vickie

I absolutely love this time of year! The kids are in a great routine, the weather is cooler, and tons of fun holiday festivities are happening! I especially love November in the classroom. There are just so many fun things to teach and creative ways to teach our standards with the help of the Pilgrims and Native Americans!
We started by reading one of my favorite books {I tried to find it on Amazon and I think it's not in print any longer, but it's worth getting a used copy!}.

It is such a sweet story of a little girl trying to figure out her mom's most thankful thing {I cry reading it every year!}. After we read the story, we charted what our most thankful things are, then made these turkeys to hold our writing. I've been making the turkeys since I was student teaching and I'm pretty sure the idea came from a Mailbox magazine.

Then, we started learning all about the Pilgrims and their voyage to a new land. We read this book, which has a TON of information!

Then, we did a little shared writing where we wrote what life on the Mayflower was like. We used our shared writing to do independent writing that we attached to our Mayflowers.

Then, we talked about what one thing we would take with us on the Mayflower, and made a little suitcase {the writing is from Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Unit}

We read further in the book to find out what daily life was like for the Pilgrims. My kids loved learning about Pilgrim children {they couldn't believe Pilgrim boys wore dresses until they were 6!}. We made a group graphic organizer, then the kids used it to help them with their independent writing about Pilgrims.

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim {another great story} and talked character traits. The kids came up with words that described Mini, but they had to give me evidence from the story to support their adjective. They did great! We also made a super easy Mini craft {thanks to Cara Carroll!}

To round out our week, we made butter! I first showed the kids the whipping cream and asked them to predict what would happen if we put it in a jar and shook it.

Then, we started shaking. I let my kids take turn shaking the jar while we counted to 20. They were amazed when it made butter!

Of course, we had to have a taste test! I just gave everyone a half of a piece of bread with butter spread on it. We tasted, then graphed whether we liked it or not. For this graph, I let the kids tell me what they noticed about the data instead of telling them what I wanted to find...it made for great math conversation!

For our centers, I'm using most out of this pack I made last year. I'm frantically working on an additional ELA pack, but it is slow going!

And just for fun, we've been reading in a teepee {and yes I know the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving did not live in them, but it's for sheer fun!}. The kids love it every year!! My granddad made the base from bamboo 11 years ago when I started teaching, then I let my first class decorate 2 sheets to wrap around it.

 I hope to be back this week to show you the math we've been doing with our Thanksgiving unit...the kids have loved it!

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Vickie

Hey guys! I just wanted to stop by quickly to share a little bit about one of my favorite retelling activities - sequencing!
Sequencing is something we do quite a bit of in kindergarten, and I love it for a variety of reasons. Not only does it help kids retell a story, but it is perfect for training students to go back to a text. So often, it's impossible to remember the exact order of something that happened in a story, so we make a big deal out of going back and looking in the book.
In October, we sequenced some of my favorite stories! The Very Busy Spider, Bug Pumpkin, and The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything are perfect for this skill and they are books the kids love! We always sequence with a big group chart first while retelling the story, then the kids get an individual sequencing page {and we make a big deal out of going back and looking at the chart}.

 {These are all part of my Sequencing Fun Pack}

This month, we'll be doing sequencing activities with some of my favorite Thanksgiving read alouds. Here are a couple of pictures from stories we sequenced last year.

{These are all part of my More Sequencing Fun pack}

My class always loves these activities and I truly think it helps them with their retelling! I have four different packs in my TpT store for sequencing, and I also finally bundled them! If you buy the bundle, you get whole group chart pieces and individual sequencing pages for 17 stories for only $12! 

I would love to hear more about how you work on sequencing in your classroom and be on the lookout on my FB page...I might just be giving a bundle away!

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Vickie

Week 3 is in the books and I feel like things are clicking! I'm not having to repeat morning procedures ten times and the kids are getting adjusted to being in "big" school and not getting a nap everyday! {Those first couple of weeks are rough!}
Since we were learning about the number 3 in math, our team decided to use Goldilocks and the Three Bears in our ELA block {I love teaching thematically!}. I used the traditional version and Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!

Monday, we read the classic tale as a cold read. I was amazed at how many kids had not heard it! They were super engaged while I was reading! On Tuesday, we read the classic version again and sequenced Goldilocks' day.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we read Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks and compared it to the original story.

We also made these cute little Baby Bears to hold our Venn diagrams. {and let me say my kids are already rockin' following directions for crafts!}

We also did a little porridge taste test {a.k.a. cream of wheat} and I was shocked at how much my kids liked it! The majority begged for more! 

 We also started workshops this week and I was amazed at how quietly my kids worked and how on task they were! We need lots of practice with the alphabet, so they worked on matching letters {something about having the characters from the story kept them engaged!}

We also worked on tracing letters and letter strokes.

In math, we worked on the number 3 and triangles. We started the week by using the 3 bears and our ten frame to decompose 3. I didn't get to snap a picture of the kids being the bears on the big ten frame, but I did snap one of their individual ten frames and of these cuties with their equations.

We also did these cute activities from my friend Deeanna's pack. It really does make a difference to start making equations and using the addition and equal symbols early on in the year!

We also used the number bond mats from my new number pack to decompose 3. The kids loved using the little bears!

Since we were learning about the number 3, it was also the perfect week to learn about triangles. We learned triangles have 3 sides and 3 vertices and eating the vertices off pita chips really made the concept stick!

We also sorted triangles and cut the pieces to make our triangle guys {which I also didn't get a picture of yet!}. These are part of my Shape Up pack.

All of the ELA activities and the porridge taste test can be found in my newest pack...

This week, we're moving on to number 4, rectangles, squares, and The Three Little Pigs. I'm hoping to get back into a regular blogging routine now that school is starting to settle down! I hope your week is fantastic!

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Vickie