Shapes..Fun and Freebies!

We've been working in our shapes unit for about 2 weeks!

Here are some of the fun things we have been doing with shapes that incorporates math with fine motor work, as well as ELA skills!

PLAY DOUGH!

I can't emphasize enough how important play dough is in a kindergarten classroom!

Each of my students has his/her own container of play dough that they keep in their cubby.  If we have a few minutes at the end of a lesson I will have them get their play dough and make something with it pertaining to the lesson.

Here they were 'challenged' to make a circle, square, triangle and rectangle with their dough:

PETE THE CAT!

We had been reading a lot of Pete The Cat books the first week of school.

Although Pete's buttons were all the same shape in the story, we used it as a springboard to talk about different shapes buttons COULD be!

I gave each of them a rectangle piece of paper (About 4x6 size) in 4 different colors.

I gave clues about a shape using its characteristics we had talked about (Ex. I have no straight sides and no corners- who am I?  CIRCLE!)

They chose the color they wanted for that shape and drew it using a black crayon- I modeled the 'how to' on the board.

Once they were all drawn, they cut them and glued them to a piece of paper that had this phrase glued to it: '____________'s 4 Groovy Shape Buttons!'

And here they are on display in our classroom! 

INTERACTIVE WRITING and SHAPE BOOK

We have been working with the sight words 'a' 'I' and 'see' for the past 3 weeks and are using them during interactive writing.

To connect to math, we made a chart reviewing the shapes we had learned about to display in our classroom as our 'shape' poster!

I had pre-drawn and labeled the shapes.

They identified the shapes and helped complete the sentence using the sight words we had learned.

We them read and completed a shape book!

The students were amazed to see that he sentences they just wrote were the same as the ones in the book!  

'We are writers!  We are readers!' 

MATH JOURNALS

I stared math journals this year and am happy to report that they are going really well!

The students complete them about 3 times a week- depending on how much time we have after each lesson.

They glue the prompt into their books and then complete what it asks them to do while I walk around and date stamp/assist students.

We share our journals with our table friends!

They used their math journals during the interactive writing lesson described above, as well!  As we wrote the sentence and read it, they then drew that shape in their journal!

Yesterday completed our shape unit.

I made a quick assessment for both finding, and naming, the shapes we are required to learn (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, cube, cone, sphere and cylinder).

This was given whole group:

It shows me at a quick glance who has mastered finding the shapes we learned and who needs a bit more practice and with what shapes.

(BTW it is not an issue of not knowing colors- I had them hold the color I asked for up in the air before coloring and if they didn't have the right color, I helped them find it)

This one was completed while they were coloring their shape book (above).  I walked child to child with my shape 'chart' and asked them what each shape was.  I marked it on the recording sheet:

If they knew them all, I just put a big check over the paper,

If not, I slashed it.

I noted if they named it a different name (Ex. 'ball' for 'sphere').

I will pull these out when I pull math skill groups to go over shapes for particular students and then re-visit them when it is time for report card assessments.  I'll use a different color pen to indicate progress and then share the papers with parents at conferences.

We re-visit solid shapes again in a few months too!

In addition to the activities above, I also made a few shape printables I have used for morning work and math stations.

You can find all the printables, the shape book and my shape assessment pieces here:

(I don't have the Pete the Cat craft label or math journal prompts in here- sorry!  Once I have all the math journal prompts for the year made and 'tested' I will be adding them to my TpT Store. For Pete the Cat, I just typed up the header, printed several per page, cut into strips and glued to the top of the paper.)

You can find this FREE reader in my store:

Since Fall is here, this is a perfect craft to review shapes!

And here are a few other shape resources I have:

Hope this helps make your shape unit even more fun!

Until next post,

Fire Safety Fun!

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!

So I made a fire safety reader!

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!

You can find the reader, craft and roll, say, keep in these packs available in my TPT Store:

I am linking up with Kelly & Kim's Kindergarten Kreations for:

 and have decided to put the Fire Safety Roll, Say, Keep on sale for $2!

I also just uploaded my Fall version

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,

Aaaaargh You Ready? It's Almost 'Talk Like A Pirate Day!'

'Aaaarrrgh' You Ready For A Fun Day?

September 19th is 'Talk Like A Pirate' Day!

Last year was the first time I had heard about this and only had 1 day 'notice,' so this year I was determined to plan out some fun stuff to do...

and then I found out I am scheduled for a day of professional development out of the classroom that day!

But, I am going to leave some fun 'treasures' for my substitute to do with my little pirates!

I pulled out my (limited collection of) pirate books:

This one I found as a fairly new release...

and there is a YouTube reading of it that is FABULOUS!

The narrator uses GREAT voices- far better than I could have done myself- and it is PERFECT for 'TALK' like a pirate day!!

I am going to show the kids this video on Thursday during snack to build anticipation for Friday- and especially since I don't want them to miss out on it!!!

Take a look at it here, or you can find it on YouTube by searching:

Pirate Pete's Talk Like A Pirate Narration & Characterizations

by Jonathan Mertz

My kiddos will start the day by making a pirate hat.

Simply color the hat, cut on the dotted line and staple to a sentence strip!

Our 'Word of the Week' this week is 'I,' so I made a quick foldable reader for them to practice writing in the word, and then reading.  I put dots under each word to assist with 1:1 correspondence and pointing while reading.

I also like to leave a little something extra for the sub, so I made a pirate themed cut, stack, staple, read activity.  They will be working with our 't' cut, stack, staple, read activity in centers this week, so they will be familiar with what is expected!

 

You can find all of these printables for free by clicking here!!

Although I show them in color, the free printables are only in black and white (I used colored ones as models for the sub to show my kids).

If you want to grab the graphics to make your own goodies, they are found in Krista Wallden's Pirate Combo Pack.

In addition to what I mentioned above, I have themed a lot of my lessons around 'pirates' for the day...

Our read aloud will be I Love My Pirate Papa and they will then use it as a springboard for Writers Workshop.  We are working on Interactive Writing, so my little 'mateys' will be labeling some pirate clip art I printed.  I will be laminating it and then attaching it to chart paper.

They will then use their 'independent writing time' to draw (and attempt to label) something a pirate has.  I will bind all the pages together to make a class book.

For math we are ending our shapes unit, so I made this review printable for them to use:

They had practiced using a paperclip/pencil spinner last week and it was quite successful- plus they really had fun with it!  

(this is not in the free printable pack, but you can try to save it as a picture/insert into a document)

And for snack time I have a package of 

for each of them, along with a little note and some pirate tattoos for them to take home to continue the celebration!

I didn't want to send the substitute over the edge, so I decided against a pirate craft for this year, but if you are searching for one, there are a ton of really cute ones on Pinterest!

Now I think we 'Aaarrrrgh' all ready for 'Talk Like A Pirate' Day!!!

If you are in search of some more pirate goodies, I just uploaded these two (virtually no prep) pirate 'treasures' to my TpT store that are perfect for literacy and math centers:

Want a chance to win one?

Leave me a blog post comment with a 'pirate' term/saying that you are going to teach your students!

I will select a winner on Monday night so that they have plenty of time to get it ready for Friday!

Don't forget to leave an email address and which pack (ELA or Math) you prefer!

I hope you found some fun pirate 'treasures' to share with all your 'mateys!'

Until next post,