Kindergarten Has A Fairy Tale Ending

I have ended the kindergarten year many different ways, but probably my most favorite is to end the year with fairy tales. Besides being a lot of fun, fairy tales are filled with great examples of bravery, persistence, problem solving, ways to react to adversity, and much much more! We then list what we have learned from fairy tales to help us find our "Happily Ever Afters."

We sell a great unit filled with fun and learning that is, as all of our units are, strategically linked to the Common Core Standards.

The Three Little Pigs

More great folk tale fun today.

I honestly could do folk and fairy tales all year long. It is always amazing to find just how many students have never heard of story of the Three Little Pigs. At first, these students enjoy this story with simple thrill and excitement. The other students that are familiar with the story, are ready for deeper study, such as story elements, author's purpose, and character study.

Here are a few of the activities that we enjoyed today.

Dramatic Play

Read a CVC Word, but watch out for the Big Bad Wolf!

Shake a Pig. Which word will he land on next?

Making puppets for retelling at the art center.

Reading a leveled guided reader.

These activities and many more are included in this thematic unit.

 I am currently working on Folk Tales: Part Two. Watch for more Folk tale fun to come...

Jack and The Beanstalk, Abiyoyo, and Other Giants

I love teaching Folk Tales to kindergartners!

 We began the unit with one of my favorite books, Abiyoyo. Kindergartners LOVE this book, especially the slobbery teeth, stinky feet, and the dirty fingernails. There is a great short from Reading Rainbow that tells how the author came up with the story (another Common Core Standard taught, check).

The last two days we have spent on Jack and the Beanstalk, that other little boy, Jim and the Beanstalk, and Kate and the Beanstalk.

These books are great introductions for "The Land of Big and Small," also know as measuring.  Today we made cooperative BIG giants and posed for a SMALL version of us. These creations along with some stories about giants are now proudly displayed outside of our door.

If you work with any fables you may want to check out our unit, Giants, Trolls and the Big Bad Wolf. For more Fairy Tale Fun, check out both thematic units.

Bears in Kindergarten

We have been studying bears this week, and will continue into next week. Bears is a great unit to study fiction and non-fiction and make comparisons.

The non-fiction study easily lends itself to studying key details in text. The fiction study is a great way to make the elements of a story come alive!

Story Elements

Key Details in Text

Bringing Story Elements to Life

The Three Bears

Who doesn't love The Three Bears! This thematic includes fun and engaging common core based activities.

Contents include: 

Shared Reading Lessons

Three Brown Bears: Analyzing Directionality and Word Spelling
Story Element Cards: Analyzing Key Details

Literacy Lessons:
A Bowl of Porridge: Naming Letters (Alternate: Decoding Words)
Rhyming Friends: Matching Rhymes
Goldie Comes to Visit: Blending Phonemes into Words
Bear School: Speaking Complete Sentences

Math Lessons:

Bear Play: Decomposing Numbers less than 10
Porridge Yum Plus One: Adding one to create a sum that is one larger
Race in the Woods: Comparing Numbers
Sweet Baby Bear: Counting Forward

Independent Activities
Three Bear Number Hunt: Writing Numerals to match quantity.
Goldilocks Goes to School: Identifying quantity using Ten-Frames and writing numerals

Art Projects
Three Bear Construct
Goldilocks
Three Bear Puppets

Writing

Three Bear Word Wall
I Can Label It
I Can Write a Story
Writing Prompts: 
The Three Bears
Goldilocks

Social Studies

My Family: A Family Home-Connection Sheet

Guided Reading Books

The Three Bears (Two Levels)

Songs/Fingerplays
Goldilocks
Three Brown Bears