Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Arctic Learning

We did a blubber experiment.  
One hand went into two bags of blubber (shortening)
and the other went into snow.
We discovered which one was warmer and which  was colder.
Ask your child.

 Here is where we measured the K-1 children against the heights of the penguins.
See the papers on the wall next to the charts?
Those were some of the 2nd-5th graders work.
 Here was our Penguins learning chart.
The 2nd through 5th graders shared their learning with the rest of the students by using post it notes.
 Here was some of the info from polar bears:

Our snowy owl learning: 

Our learning goals or LG's were know characteristics of arctic animals.


Sunday, October 28, 2012

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.  



Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Finally the 2012-2013 Homework Calendars

Yes they have finally arrived!!!


This years edition of my 
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.


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