While I am away enjoying my brand new grandbaby,
my substitute is having all sorts of
farm time fun!
Check out our Farm Unit (described in the previous post) and the companion guided reading book set!
26 April 2012
Farm Fun
Check out our Farm Unit (described in the previous post) and the companion guided reading book set!
20 April 2012
Farm Time Fun
Next week my classroom will turn into a farm. We will use the ideas contained within our new unit: Farm Time Fun!
This unit, Farm Time Fun, is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards. it is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. The lessons (games or activities) included are scripted. They are written in a format that can be easily taught by the teacher or readily handed off to a parent volunteer or a classroom aide with complete confidence that objectives of the lesson will be reached.
Contents Include:
Scripted Literacy Lessons With Independent Options:
The Muddy Farm: Naming Alphabet Letters (or Sight Words)
Potato Truck Bingo: Alphabet Letter Identification
Barnyard Flash: Reading CVC Words
Down on The Farm: Segmenting Words into Phonemes
Where’s The Chick? Matching Sight Words
Independent Activities
Writing Words: CVC Words
Digraphs on The Farm: Identifying Digraphs
Scripted Math Lessons With Independent Options:
The Auction: Making Sums of 10.
Farmyard Flip: Greater Than/Less Than/Equal To
Farm Patterns: Extending and Creating Patterns
This Little Piggy: Counting Items to Match a Given Number
Pigs In The Mud: Subtracting Objects
Independent Activities
Farmer Fran: Connecting Numbers 1-20
Number Barns: Reading and Writing Number Words
Guided Reading Books
The Farm -Level A
The Farm- Level C
Class Made Books
The Farm
Science
Making Ice Cream: Changing Liquid Into a Sweet Solid
Is It Alive? Classifying Living & Nonliving
Writing
What I Know About Farms
Farm Animals
Farm Word Wall
Art Projects
Make a Shape Farm
Art School: Drawing Farm Animals
Songs/Fingerplays
Grandpa’s Farm
The Wishy Washy Farm
Old MacDonald
The Rooster
16 April 2012
Alien Planet
After we learned the science of outer space and important real facts, we investigated those crazy Aliens such as "The Jigaree" by Joy Cowley and "Aliens Love Underpants" by Claire Freedman.
Take your students on a trip to "Alien Planet!"
This 99 page unit, Alien Planet, is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards. It is divided into areas of literature, music, art, literacy, math, worksheets, science, creative writing, word wall, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. The lessons (games or activities) included are scripted. They are written in a format that can be easily taught by the teacher or readily handed off to a parent volunteer or a classroom aide with complete confidence that objectives of the lesson will be reached.
Table of Contents:
Scripted Literacy Lessons With Independent Options:
Speak Alien Please: Segmenting Words
Alien Hop and Swat: Decoding and Segmenting CVC Words
Alien Zinger: Reading Sight Words (or Alphabet Letters) Fluently
Sentence Scramble: Reading and Constructing Sight Word Sentences
Alien Attack: Fluently Naming Alphabet Letters
Scripted Math Lessons With Independent Options:
Blast Off Bingo: Numbers 11-30
Teen Time Disco: Identifying and Matching Teen Numbers
Astro Park: Collecting and Recording Data
Aliens Away: Subtracting Objects
Guided Reading Books
The Little Alien
Class Made Books
All About Aliens
Science
Alien Goo: Mixing Substances
Writing
Alien Word Wall
The UFO
All About Aliens
Art Projects
Alien Headbands
Construct an Alien
UFO
Songs/Fingerplays
Five Little Aliens
The Alien
13 April 2012
10 April 2012
Kindergartners Out in Space: Common Core Curriculum
We have had a blast "Out in Space!"
Check out our new 152 page "Out in Space: Common Core Curriculum Essentials."
Now available at our online stores.
Table of Contents
Scripted Literacy Lessons With Independent Options:
Moon Walk: Blending and Segmenting Words
Zoom to the Moon: Alphabet Fluency (Or Sight Word Fluency)
Star Light Star Bright: Reading Sight Words (Or Identifying Alphabet Letters)
Asteroid Belt: Fluently Naming Alphabet Letter Sounds
Planet Race: Fluently Naming Alphabet Letters
The Milky Way: Blending Phonemes
Shared Reading Whole Group Activities:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Sorting Words by Initial Sound
Independent Activities
A Trip to the Planets: Writing CVC Words
Scripted Math Lessons With Independent Options:
A Trip to the Stars: Adding to and Taking Away
Deep Space Ten: Counting by Tens
Blast Off: Addition
Energize: Solving Word Problems
Space Rocks: Matching Quantity to Number
Independent Activities
Planet Discovery: Writing Numbers
Space Addition
Star Math
Star Dot to Dot: Ordering Numbers 1-36
Guided Reading Books
To Space
Science
Creating a Space Science Center
Writing
Word Wall
My Rocket Ship
Out in Space
Art Projects
The Solar System: Construct Project
Tangram Rockets: Using Geometric Shapes
Make a Planet: Coffee Filter Art
Comet, Moon, & Sun: Mixing Paint
Songs/Fingerplays
I’m a Little Astronaut
The Planets
Blast off to Mars
Ten Astronauts
04 April 2012
Make 6 Farm Game
Today we played a game from the Scott Foresman Investigations math program called "Make 6". In the game, children first lay out 12 cards. Then they take turns finding cards that make 6 together, replacing the cards they take with new cards from the deck until all the cards are gone. For example, in the picture above, I might take the card with 4 and 2 to make 6 and then replace those cards with 2 new ones from the deck before my partner's turn. To make the game fit into our theme of plants and animals, I made decks of farm cards to go with the game. So here's another freebie for you: 0-6 farm animal cards!
02 April 2012
The Equal Farm
As we've been discussing plants and animals and enjoying the spring time. I've been trying to incorporate more thematic teaching into my math lessons. Here is the math lesson on the equal sign that we did today, plus the worksheet and examples that go with it as a freebie (that is, if I got google docs working correctly).
Place a large “Equal Barn” on the easel where all of the children can see it. Tell the children, “Welcome to the equal farm. At this farm, the math sign = is very important. The equal sign means the same as. Only equations that are the same on both sides can live on this farm.”
Show the children one of the examples and help them to read it in this way, “5 is the same as 4”. Then ask, “Is that true? No! 5 is not the same as 4. This equation is not the same on both sides. It cannot live on the equal farm.”
Show the children another example, “This one says, 6 is the same as 6. Is that true? Yes! This equation is the same on both sides of the equal sign. It can live on the farm.” Choose a volunteer to tape the equation to the equal barn.”
Continue with all of the example equations.
After all of the example equations have either been added to the farm or discarded, give each child a "Equal Farm" worksheet. They should cut out the equations that are equal and glue them into a "pen" in the farm. The equations that are not equal should be discarded.
The Equal Farm
Place a large “Equal Barn” on the easel where all of the children can see it. Tell the children, “Welcome to the equal farm. At this farm, the math sign = is very important. The equal sign means the same as. Only equations that are the same on both sides can live on this farm.”
Show the children one of the examples and help them to read it in this way, “5 is the same as 4”. Then ask, “Is that true? No! 5 is not the same as 4. This equation is not the same on both sides. It cannot live on the equal farm.”
Show the children another example, “This one says, 6 is the same as 6. Is that true? Yes! This equation is the same on both sides of the equal sign. It can live on the farm.” Choose a volunteer to tape the equation to the equal barn.”
Continue with all of the example equations.
After all of the example equations have either been added to the farm or discarded, give each child a "Equal Farm" worksheet. They should cut out the equations that are equal and glue them into a "pen" in the farm. The equations that are not equal should be discarded.