October in the ASP

Here was the Frog Life Cycle

We used the word bank on the bottom-

I didn't have the answers for all of the children at the beginning.

The Kindergartners and first graders got to have the picture icons and had to glue in the correct order and draw the arrows. The first graders had to write the stages too.

The older students had to draw their own. 

 Butterfly life cycle within a butterfly. 

Once again, the K-1 students got to have the photos to put in order.

1st graders had to label and with the K's I wrote the longer words in yellow so they could trace. 

Here was one that a 5th grader did: 

Another day we talked about the Spider life cycle.

We did talk about the body parts of a spider, plus I taught them to draw a spider web.

We talked about how a spider "molts" so we darkened in a spider and left one very light- that was when we darkened the other one. 

 We played a little "hangman" we recorded this in our science logs.

 Here was a K or 1 science log entry.

Here is what the older students did.

I gave them the animals in the middle, then we shared animals/food

that they ate.   Plus what animals ate the animals in the middle.  

Finally the 2012-2013 Homework Calendars

Yes they have finally arrived!!!

This years edition of my 

Kindergarten Homework Calendars 

have arrived!!

These go from September through May.

They cover a variety of topics- alphabet, colors, social studies, math, science, language arts, and chores. Please check the website for more details: http://www.kinderpond.com/homework.html. Some activities require paper or some are verbal.

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 :}

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.

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

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

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 :}

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

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.

Number Grids 1-100

Number Grids 1-100 with help

Number Grids Bundle

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.

Summer School

I am so excited to be teaching summer school this summer---- I get to teach children who just finished kindergarten.

We need to work on our shapes and colors so I created this game:

I used garage sale dots and drew colorful shapes and placed them on some wooden cubes.

To play the game, children roll the cube and say the color and the shape- then they can color in the correct shape in the correct color:

 Then to work on tally marks, I created this sheet- we will be using the same cubes as the above game.

The best news is that you can have your copies for FREE!!!!!!

Shape Roll

Homework Calendar- May

Here is May's Homework Calendar

Homework Calendar- April

Here is this months Homework Calendar.

There was a request to change parents to families, so this one has been changed :}

Shout Out Saturday's

So for a while now, I have talked about the other Mrs. R.  Yes there are two of us at the same school.

Yes we are related!


I won't tell you how many years she has been teaching, because she tells everyone she is 27 years old, every year!  lol

I will tell you she has taught in Virginia, Illinois, and Wisconsin.  She has taught everything from
pre-school through college.   She teaches district classes and has taught teachers to be better teachers.

When she comes  to observe my class and she gives me feedback, I know that it is honest and since she is still teaching, she knows what she is talking about.

Okay seriously we didn't plan this- this is really the only yellow shirt I own and then we both wear it on the same day?????  lol

Space Day 7

Today we had the students create the real constellations!  So after they realized that they got more than 4 stars like they did from me, they did this awesome work!!!

We got to read this book..... wait for it.... with 3-D glasses :}

 Books that I shared: