October 5-11th is 'Fire Safety Week' for 2014 so we spent the last week learning all about fire safety! My kinders will be all set with 'background knowledge' for our fire safety assembly presented by the local fire department next week!
We read a few stories this week including:
Flashing Fire Engines
Stop, Drop & Roll
A Visit to the Fire Station
Firefighters
and my Scholastic order with Gingerbread Loose at the Fire Station just came on Friday, so we'll be reading that next week!
I themed a lot of my reading, writing, math and centers around a 'fire safety' theme for the week!
In Readers Workshop we are working on reading left to right and with 1:1 correspondence. We are also practicing finding and reading our sight words in text!
They practiced showing me how to point to the words as they read (using their fancy and fun reading finger) and how to read from left to right:
Another way I had them practice identifying and reading sight words was with this
fun Eno Board activity! I simply inserted some graphics and text boxes into a Power Point slide and projected the slide on my Eno board. I printed a 'squirting hose' pointer. I would call out a word and students would find the word, 'squirt it' (aka slide the pointer under the word) and then 'put the fire out' by pulling the word off the flame! They LOVE doing this and are always in AWE!
If you want to try it with your kids, you can download my file by clicking
here!
One of my favorite fire safety projects is making a shape fire engine!
I have the pieces pre cut and bagged and the students just have to match it to build. I give them a form to glue it down- I have tried it with a blank piece of paper but it caused a bit of frustration for some!
I have them draw in a hose/water. I used to give them a piece of ribbon/string, but have opted for this easier, less stress method the past few years!
As a class we use interactive writing to label the parts of a fire engine. I made a large scale version of their shape truck so that when it comes time for them to label their trucks it looks similar.
The next day we re-read the parts of the truck and I cut apart the labels they would be using and taped them near our interactive writing labels. This year I had more than ever that came up to 'check' their label against the large one before gluing!
They worked together to help each other figure out the labels too!
It was the 'hot spot' of our room!
When they were all done, their trucks mimicked the large class engine!
They did a fabulous job and it makes a fabulous bulletin board display!
In Writers Workshop we are working on using one student's 'story' as the way to model how to write a story and then going off to write our own.
We had read 'A Visit to The Fire Station' this week and talked about things you see at a fire station. So, during writing, I had our star author tell a story about what she sees at a fire station.
We use interactive writing to write the story, but each student is working with his/her clipboard to practice and write the group story.
This idea was our of a professional development workshop we had.
The students 'practice' in the '1' area (letters, sight words, etc) and write the story in the '2' area. I model for them on my board:
Where you see it written multiple times/circled that is because I had them practice writing it more than once and then circle the one they did the best. While they are working, the author is working with me to write his/her story. As the story is being written, the others are doing the same in their '2' section. When the story is complete, they illustrate it.
Then students were sent off to write their story about what they see at a fire station.
So here is a student's clipboard and independent story.
I am so proud...this was only our 3rd attempt at doing this!
Here were some of the other independent stories I got showing all the different levels they are working at:
In math centers, I taught the kids how to play 'Roll, Say, Keep!'
I LOVE this game and as they learn it and practice, it becomes an independent center!
I had them working with 2D & 3D shapes...the 'fire safety' portion came in with the themed mat!
If you have never played it, take a look at one of my kinders learning and practicing how to play:
I know it's hard to hear her the whole time, but there were 18 other kinders working independently in math stations!
As you can see I put dice in little plastic containers...it helps prevent them from flying off the table and kinders crawling on the floor in a quest to find them!
Here are a few more pics of them playing:
In listening center my kids listened to Fire Truck by Ivan Utz!
It is a catchy and fun story and if you don't have it, you can play it on your smartboard for your kids because it is on youtube:
But beware...it STICKS IN YOUR HEAD!!!
We are lucky that our school district plays for a Scholastic Lets Find Out subscription as part of our Science/SS curriculum. This month's pack of magazines and online resources had a Fire Safety set!
So we watched the video and played the online interactive sort for items that are safe/not safe to touch!
We read the magazine and they all had a copy to take home and read with their families over the weekend to review what we had learned.
Phew...it was a 'red hot' week of fire safety learning and fun!
and have put that one on sale for $2 as well!
Find more fun deals and steals for the week on the
linky!
Hope you have a 'smokin' fun' week!
Until next post,
