We have been studying plants in our room and have read some great stories, both fiction and non-fiction, to help further our understanding of the needs and parts. I also love Dr. Jean's song "Flower, Stem, Leaves, and Roots" to add some fun to our knowledge =)
I am just tickled with the progress of our writing! The kids have used our Writer's Workshop area to do some great work.
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Who doesn't love "Pete the Cat"? My kids adore him and got a kick out of his Easter Adventures book. I then had them sequence the story with writing about events that happened in the beginning, middle, and end. They did a great job!
Math is getting a little trickier now as we head into the end of the year. I made a Spring math game where the kids had to find the number on the egg while matching it to the corresponding ten frame, math equation, and tally mark. You can find this and many more fun activities in my TpT shop =)
The big highlight for me this week was that I finished creating the extension activities for our Wonders series! Such a relief! It has been a work in progress all year long but activities that were very useful for my Kinders. I have to go back and make the beginning Smart Start section and revamp earlier Units as I continued to add more once I re-evaluated the needs of my students as we went through the lessons being taught. Even if you are not in this reading series, you should check out the Units as it covers each and every Common Core Standard for reading and writing.
I'm in the taper week before my half-marathon and thrilled that it will be here in a week. Planning on enjoying some time with my boys =) Have a great weekend!!
I love the units you've made for Wonders! I used many of the pages during Literacy Centers. How do you manage all of the paper and the high number of copies?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is your writing center a structured writing activity, or a free write?
I agonize over teaching writing. I spend the bulk of the year teaching skills they need to write: punctuation, sight words, handwriting, verbs, nouns, etc, so that they will have the tools they need. I don't know how to get them writing early in the year when they may not know letters, sounds, etc.
I also find that getting them to just come up with an answer to a prompt is the hardest part. They could write if they could think of what to write. Any words of wisdom?
Thank you,
Kelly :)
Hi Kelly!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! I absolutely love writing so we start on the very first day. I begin by always having the kids make simple illustrations. I ask them to tell me what they were trying to express and I write it out for them. By the second and third week, I want them to start labeling their pictures. We practice sounding out our words as best as we can before we make a simple sentence. I try to start them out in the beginning..."I can......" or "I like....". We move on from there. I always have them write about their weekend when we begin the week, I also give them other choices with a free choice once in a while. I collect them everyday to be put into a binder for an end of the year gift. Always so exciting to keep this portfolio and watch their writing grow =)
As for Wonders, I don't print everything....only things that I am utilizing for each group. I try to make as much as I can in those packs for you to hit all of the needs of your kiddos. Just because my class may be able to do one thing doesn't necessarily mean it is right for everyone. I hope that helps. Have a great weekend!!