Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Seuss Again!

I was on the other side of town today so popped into Target.  I found more Seuss stuff- some of the same stuff but new stuff too!

Today I got borders, little plastic Seuss boxes, pencils, stickers, a message board, and purple pocket charts-  I only bought two of them :}

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Daily Schedule

During summer school we arrive at school and exchange our books in our book bins.
We make our choice on a graph.  (Great way to take attendance)
Then begin our morning meeting.

We do our morning cards.  I also added a blends card, but I use it on my computer and shine it on the SmartBoard.

The children point to the blend and then to the word.

After that we do a word family together.
After that, we do a mini lesson using the Emergent Reader Cafe Menu.
We break down into our rotation choices.  Read to Self, Listen to Reading, or Word Work.
Each day they get a sheet from the folder:

We read the words together.  I expect them to read the word of the day with me, but not the other words :}

After each rotation we do a brain break and another mini lesson.

I have 5 different colored dice that we use.   They blindly pick a number cube and roll it.
We do whatever it says on the chart.  I put the dice we used separate from the others and then we get a variety of choices.  The children have to find the color row and then find which square we read.


On Monday's, we do Work on Writing all of our words for that week.  We have 5 words.

I give each child a dice cup and they get a colored pencil, a marker, a high lighter, a crayon, and a pencil.
I have them under line the name with what they should use. :}

After that we have a brief recess.  After that they come in and relax on the floor while I read a book to them.  It has been a very hot summer!

We discuss our graph- how many on each choice ~ which had more etc.

Then on to math.  We used these to start with:
Then we graduated to these:
We did them both together when I used the ELMO.

We started the summer with a money booklet then have worked towards writing our numbers from
1-100.  We gradually built our stamina by adding ten numbers each day.  I do mine under the ELMO.

After that, we practice our take home books.  Yes each and every day, I send home a book to read to the parents. I listen to each child read the book to me and give a small star over each word they know automatically.  While I am listening to each child read, the others can color their books.  We get those books ready to go home and put into their reading bags.

Finally, we gather again to do a math mini lesson and "play" our math game. The students have no idea that they are learning and just think we are having fun- okay so we all know that there is a lot of learning when it comes to playing any game. :}

A favorite is the one HERE.  Another is tally marks. I created this sheet and the kids roll a die/ number cube and tally which one they had.  We have played this game several times and we are still using the same papers!

Another learning game we played was Addition Crossout from Shari Sloane
We played with partners using two different colored crayons.  At then end, we counted who crossed out more boxes :}

After we are done with our math activity, it is time to go home.  Lunch is provided at my school during the summer.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Target Finds

I went to Target to get a two things... and found SEUSS things!!!!!!!!!!

JACKPOT!!!!!

I am decorating my nursery in a book theme. I will be hanging the bags on the wall maybe. :}
Oh and I got more socks- in case you don't know, I love socks.  I don't own any plain white or plain black socks, only cool ones.  A few weeks ago I bought oh about 20 pair of Seuss socks so I really didn't need any more, but Seuss is my favorite author :}
 I got 3 packs of flashcards.
Cat in the Hat pencils
Lorax pencils
Seuss erasers
Seuss Silly Bands
Seuss awards- 2 kinds

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Daily Routines

We do Daily 3 in our classroom.  

~Read to Self~ Listen to Reading~ Word Work~


Here are our TagReaders:

Here is what we do during Word Work. 

They trace the word of the day and then color.
After they color and trace- then they read to me.
I give stars above the words they can read to me.


I got these sheets from Jessica Meacham   jmeacham.com

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Numbers and Math

I wrote the numbers 1-6 on my SmartBoard- how original I know :}
We rolled our giant dice and erased our number.
Our goal was to as quickly as possible identify the number of dots on the dice.

This could easily be done at home either using a dry erase board or 
a piece of paper and cross the number over.
For older children, use bigger numbers and two dice. :}

 Another math activity we did was play good ole dominoes!
This is good for 1:1 correspondence and matching. 
 It did take us a few tries to get it down, but it is a favorite in the room :}

Friday, July 13, 2012

Daily Cards

Each and every day we do several cards in the morning.
We have two alphabet cards and a 100's card.


I have two iPads, and found this awesome FREE 100's chart app.

It is called:  


Montessori Counting Board

By GrasshopperApps.com

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Number Grids

My little froglets just finished kindergarten need to write numbers from 1-100.  I did a pre-test and we need a little help with that, so I created scaffolded number grids. 
We do this right after our calendar.  We have a binder that has our calendar in there along with math printables.  We complete one grid a day, and yes, I let them use their number grids when we do this part, not on their assessments.
There is a grid for:
1-10
1-20
1-30
1-40
1-50
1-60
1-70
1-80
1-90
1-100

For my froglets who need a little more assistance, 
I created these with tracing numbers.
























Monday, July 9, 2012

Cafe for Emergent Readers

My children for summer school are well under their way of hard workers! Most days we have built our stamina up to 15 minutes!  We are only on day 11... that is amazing.  They ask every rotation how long they worked.  I am amazed to say the least- even in our sauna aka our classroom.

We aren't yet to the standard Cafe menu and are using the Emergent readers one.

I have created several helpful tools for assessment.  One I created was recognizing the difference between upper and lower case letters.




Another one that I created was between letters and words.




For one of my students, I did create one that had letters and numbers:

Get your very own copies here:
Upper VS Lower
Words VS Letters
Letters VS Numbers


OPTIONS:
For a true assessment print one of for each child, for a review, project on SmartBoard and use two colors.