Reading Charts, Weeks 33 and 34 - "where" and "with"

Graphing With a Twist

I've been seeing different graphs show up on Pinterest where the students graph Lucky Charms using just the marshmallow shapes. So I decided to do our graphing just a bit differently, to shake things up a bit. I gave each child a one-hundred chart. I then gave them 1/4 cup of cereal.

Initially they watched as I did one by myself. I had 2 green clovers, so two squares were colored green. I had 4 blue-ish shapes and 1 rainbow (that they wanted to color blue), which made for 5 squares being colored in blue. Once I was done with the marshmallows, I counted out the cereal in groups of 5, and colored in 5 squares at a time. Each time I finished counting and coloring a set, the cereal went back in the cup.

Some children had more than 100 pieces (broken ones don't count), and were inventive enough to draw more squares at the bottom of their paper. In the end, after we were done, we got to eat our cereal.

Penny Make-a-Word Game

Remember those letter tiles I found earlier? I took them and created a new game I call "Penny Make-a-Word".

I took a penny and put it inside two clear pill containers the nurse gave me, and taped them.

Each player starts out with 5 tiles they draw from the box. They need to see if they can make any words from those tiles before the game begins.

Shake the penny. Heads = they get another tile. Tails = No Move.
First person to make 5 words wins (or the person with the most words when I call time.)

There's Something Fishy Going On In Our Classroom!

These past two weeks we've been studying the ocean and marine life, and did two art projects with paper plates. As you can see from the top picture, we cut out a large triangular wedge, which we glued on the back for the tail. Color, don't forget the gills, and you have a fish! (I usually add googly eyes, but I was fresh out.)

For the second project, we colored our plates to resemble aquariums. We free-hand cut strips of green for plants, colored in our sand/rocks, then added our fish. The template fish I found on Google, and shrunk it to fit the plate. (I specifically searched for a shark, since it's our school mascot, but I also found lots of other cute designs.)

From My Kindergarten Dictionary

Dope: "My dope hurts when I fwalloh cuz I was sleepin' wif my mouf open and all my air comed out."

enchilahlahs

kaymaroom

Our Classroom Crossword Puzzle

Using our first names and index cards cut in halves, we made a giant crossword puzzle of our classroom. It was so much fun!

Reading Charts, Weeks 31 and 32 - "why" & "who"

Mystery Word - What's the Last Word? (And Freebie!)

I found an extra bunch of letter tiles in the back of my closet during my spring cleaning, so I created this little language arts game called Mystery Word. The rules are simple. They build each word next to the word, and with the letters that are left, try to make a real word out of it.  I've included the first two word lists here as a freebie to get you started!

(Edited to add, the link should work now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!)

Rhyming Memory Game

Here's another way I added a twist to a familiar game. I made cards with rhyming words. The students turn over two cards, and sound them out. If the words rhyme, they get to keep the pair and draw again.

Math Game - "Fill-er-Up Five"

I'm using this activity during our Ten Minute Smarters. I grabbed some deviled egg platters from the dollar store. I already had the rocks, but another teacher is using buttons.

* Each child gets his own platter. Fill the center with counters.
* First child rolls the die. THE OBJECT IS THEY CAN ONLY PUT FIVE COUNTERS IN EACH DEPRESSION. So if a child rolls a 6, they would put 5 counters in one space, and put the 1 in a new space. Or, for example, if a depression already has 2 counters, and the child rolls a 4, they would finishing filling that depression with 3 counters (to make a total of 5), and put the rest in a new depression.

* A depression must be filled with 5 counters before moving to a new depression.

* First one to fill up his platter wins, OR, when time is called, they can Count By 5s to see how many counters they've placed, and the student with the most wins.

Happy Easter!

Summarizing Our Short Week of Easter Activities

 

 

 

 This was a short week, as Good Friday is a school holiday. Throughout the week we did a variety of activities to celebrate Easter.

* Taking an egg pattern and old wallpaper books, the children got to cut and paste pieces of wallpaper to create egg mosaics.

* Using a rabbit pattern another teacher gave me (she used it on paper plates), the students colored, cut, then pasted it onto a paper bag to create puppets. The back view shows how I let them glue cotton balls on the tail.

* Of course, we also graphed our jelly beans.

* And Thursday culminated with our egg hunt.

   Here's Wishing Everyone a Wonderful Easter!

April Calendar Cheer Poem

April means it's Easter time.
Bunnys hopping,
Eggs to find.
Flowers blooming everywhere,
And raindrops falling through the air.

Reading Charts, Weeks 29 and 30 - "of" & "when"