Weather

You never know which way March will go...especially in upstate New York.  I just heard that we might get out of school early today.  Some freezing rain is heading our way.  That explains all the CRAZINESS with the children....vey unsettled today!

Speaking of weather... We are working on our new thematic focus Wonders of Weather!  Today I read The Wind Blew by Pat Hutches.  This is a great book for sequencing, foreshadowing and making predictions!  I am attaching a little writing book that we did... CLICK HERE!  I left the book in a word format so you can differentiate for your students.  The book is a clozed writing book.  Some of my students are still working on beginning sounds so I would write ____ind for wind.  Some are working on ending sounds  so I would write  win____ for wind.  I also have a group that can stretch and write words using kid writing or the weather wall. 

If you need more weather ideas, I just posted a new unit Wonders of Weather.  This unit is aligned to kindergarten common core standards.  The Wonders of Weather Unit is over 90 pages long.  It contains 5 Literacy Centers with follow-up sheets, 5 Math Centers with follow-up sheets, weather graphic organizers and a wind experiment.
You Are My Sunshine- is a game board with CVC words and picture cards. This comes with a follow-up sheet to check for understanding.
Stormy Sight Words- over 30 sight words that students need to know. This comes with a stamp and write follow-up sheet. I left one blank so you can customize it for your learners.
Go Fly A Kite- Works on short vowel sounds. Students will add picture cards to the kite tails. Then show their thinking with a follow-up sheet.
Marvelous Mud- Students will look at beginning sound dominoes and place them on the correct mud mat. Students will complete a color record sheet.
Drizzling Diagraphs- CH/SH/TH sort and a follow-up sheet to show their thinking!
WRITING-
Wicked Wind Experiment and Write- students will test various objects to see if they blow in the wind and then write a conclusion.
6 Graphic Organizers- bubbles for writing descriptive words about the weather.

Smart Board Subtraction- Students will use the smart board to show their understanding of simple subtraction to 5. Students will have mats to use with manipultives for acting out. This comes with a follow-up sheet.
Weather Write The Room- Students work on numbers to 30 and the concept of what comes next.
Additional Accumulation- Students work on addition using a spinner game mat and record their thinking.
Twisted Tornadoes- Place value cards to 20. Students can use the cards for a matching game. Then use just the place value cards and the number mat to cover the spaces. This also comes with a follow-up sheet.
Over The Rainbow- Students raise to 30 using tens and ones.

Lunch is over... and the kids are back!!!

St. Pat's Day

Sorry blog friends it has been a little while since I last posted.  Work has been very busy and stressful!  My district is about to make some major changes and cuts in staffing!  I feel like I have worked harder this year ... I can't imagine what next year will be like!  

I did find some time to create a new unit for one of my favorite holidays- St. Patrick's Day.  I hope you you enjoy it!

Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  We are getting ready to kick off our new unit- Dr. Seuss.  I just finished some exciting new lessons and posted them on TPT- Learning with Dr. Seuss.  This unit contains 4 ELA and 4 Math Centers all aligned with the common core standards.  

Here is a game board that you can use with just about any skill.  You can put a stack of sight word , numbers, and place value cards and when a student lands on a hat they take a card. My students always enjoy learning with a game. 

My Cute Graphics

I am sharing a little secret with you!  Every time I go to this website I get so excited and want to design new lesson plans!  This wonderful site has great clip art, backgrounds and page borders.  My secret place is  http://www.mycutegraphics.com!  It is filled with wonderful images and best of all it is free to teachers!

My EK students have been working on sight words.  I made this cute Friend Sight Word Search using the graphics from this site. My students use magnify glasses to locate the tiny words.  They record to a piece of paper and read the list to a friend.    I hope you enjoy this lesson and find this website inspiring!  

Character Traits w/ Mo Willems

I just LOVE snow days!  I was looking at some upcoming plans and thought I would add more to my MoWillems- author study.  When we finish our unit I thought we could look at CHARACTER TRAITS.

I made a page for each character we will be reading about.  I made an extra page if you would like to add a character.  I thought we could draw a picture of the character in the frame.  Then, we could come up with a list of words that describe the character.

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Author Study~ Mo Willems

My EK students engage in weekly sharing to help build on communication skills and asking questions.  This week's topic was~ What is your favorite book?  One of my students brought in a book called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  As part of the sharing experience, I read the book to the students and they asked "WH" questions.

During this whole group time, I realized a couple of things...
One... my students are EXTREMELY EXCITED by the book and had lots to say about the character.
Two... I did not really know anything about the author Mo Willems!

So I decided to do some research on the author.  I purchased TWELVE of his books- hide the credit card bill!  Then I developed an author study unit about Mo Willems.  We will be completing this  unit after Valentine's Day. I thought the timing is a perfect way to introduce a couple more characters- Piggy and Elephant.  I hope you like the unit.  It is geared for EK and K grade levels.

Love is in the Air

I am ready for the weekend!  We had a short week ...only 4 days with MLK!  It felt like a full week with my crazy schedule.  I did get a chance to make a couple of  lessons for our thematic focus on Valentine's Day and Friendship. 

My EK students are still working on mastering our ten sight words.  I made this cute sight word search to keep them busy.  We use magnifying glasses and go on a search for hidden words.  The student will find a word, write it down and read the list to a friend.  They just love it!  Click here to get your copy!  Enjoy! 

Also, some of my K students are working on ending sound manipulation.  I made this breaking hearts game for them to play.  You will need to cut the heart with the ending letter so it will make a new word.  For example, students will take a heart and read the CVC word.  Then students will take a "broken" heart and lay the letter on top to make a new word.  The word is fan can be changed to far, fat and fast.