**There are also a lot of fantastic reading resources on this website. I hope to blog about them soon, but in case you can't wait, check out this link for a lengthy list of fun games to help with sounding out words.
This month, we are highlighting some fun ways to practice your math skills. Here are two websites that have some neat games and/or activities: Coolmath4kids.com has math lessons and games from basic addition and subtraction all the way up to decimals and fractals. The lessons show step-by-step directions that are easy for kids to understand. The main site is geared toward 1st grade and up, but they do have a special section for kids ages 3-5. Internet4Classrooms.com actually has a large variety of resources in many different subjects, not just math. The Grade Level Help tab will take you to a list of resources sorted by grade level. You can also click here to go straight to the list of kindergarten math skills. There are a variety of exercises, games, and quizzes for each skill. I especially like how there is a little description about each activity before you click on it.
**There are also a lot of fantastic reading resources on this website. I hope to blog about them soon, but in case you can't wait, check out this link for a lengthy list of fun games to help with sounding out words.
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Eric Carle is one of my favorite authors. He wrote the famous book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, among others. You can watch a short interview with Eric Carle here. Did you know that Eric Carle has his very own museum in Massachussetts? It is filled with beautiful examples of his picture book art. You can take a virtual museum tour here. The Scholastic website has a long list of lessons you can do that are all related to his books. It breaks them down by subject. (The Grouchy Ladybug is a fantastic book for reviewing how to tell time!) There are many activities that you can do with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Here is a coloring page you can print. We also made caterpillar life cycles out of noodles. You can also create tissue paper collage art, just like Eric Carle did to make his illustrations. All you need are tissue paper, white glue, water, scissors, and a paintbrush. You can find easy directions here. BooksEric Carle has published many books, but here are a few of my favorites. A collection of poems by various writers, illustrated by Eric Carle; contains both real and make-believe animals. A repetitive book suitable for early readers. A cute story about a grouchy ladybug looking for a fight. It is very useful for reviewing how to tell time. The chameleon wants to be like all of the animals in the zoo. This is a rhyming story.
The kids are so excited to learn how to count coins this week! We are focusing on one coin every day. Here are some of the resources I've collected to help learn about coins. VideosYou can't count nickels without knowing how to count by fives! This is a fun song by one of my favorite YouTube channels, Have Fun Teaching, called the Counting By Fives Song. Get up and dance while you learn! Similarly, you can't count dimes without knowing how to count by tens. Here is another fun video to help with this. This video helps children identify which coin is which. It's particularly confusing to kids that a dime is smaller than a nickel, but it's worth more. I like to give the kids one of each coin and have them hold up each one BooksThis book is a good introduction to coins. The author, a former teacher, clearly shows the relationship between denominations. (For example, five pennies equals a nickel, etc.) This is a story about a teacher who paints faces for $0.50. The girl doesn't have enough money and has to take some change from the penny pot to make up the difference. It provides good coin counting practice. In this story, Alexander's grandparents give him a dollar. He is so excited at the prospect of spending that money! This story offers a good lesson on the value of money. WorksheetsEducation.com is a fantastic website that has tons of free printables! You just need to register for a free account. I love these worksheet pages that offer one page for each coin, with writing and counting practice.
Sarah at wishfulteaching.blogspot.com has made a set of colorful posters. There is one for each coin, and she even has a little song for each one. You can download them for FREE in her TeachersPayTeachers store; just click here. Mrs. Bailey at klassykinders.blogspot.com has made some cute mini booklets for each coin. Each booklet has a picture of the front and back of each coin and tells how much it is worth. Grab them here.
February's topic is reading comprehension strategies. Most kindergarteners are just learning how to read, so their focus is mainly on the reading process itself and not on comprehension, but as they progress they will begin to read for meaning. Here are a few websites that may help you work with your student.
1) Reading Rockets (www.readingrockets.org/strategies) This website offers lots of classroom strategies to strengthen literacy skills in print awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. Each strategy offers instructions, examples, and activities you can try. 2) Reading Strategies PDF (http://www.paec.org/david/reading/general.pdf) This is a compilation of several articles containing strategies for before, during, and after reading. Some of them may be rather advanced for kindergarteners, but many of them can be adapted. (For example, you can have your child draw a picture or just discuss with you the setting, main characters, predictions, etc.) I hope you find some of these tips helpful! Hello kindergarten families! Between my maternity leave and the holidays, our poor classroom blog has been neglected. I hope to periodically post some helpful tips, class pictures, and announcements from now on, so make sure to check back often!
To start with, here are a couple of pictures from our 100th Day of School. Enjoy! Reading/WritingOur sight words this week were want and all. Some of the kids try to read too fast and mix up want and went, so just encourage your child to slow down and pay attention to the letters. We practiced writing friendly letters this week. We also practiced writing sentences about Betsy Ross and the American flag. We did a lot of word work with short vowel sounds and word families. We're starting to read some harder word families with blends in them, like -eat. We like to use the rhyme, "When two vowels go a walkin', the first one does the talkin'" to remind the kids that you don't say both vowel sounds. I added some extra long vowel practice this week, too, so the kids wouldn't forget their "magic e" rule. We played the same CVCe game as last week, and we also did a picture sort with long vowel sounds. MathIn math, we've been brushing up on our counting skills. Of course, our whole class already knows how to count at least to 100, but this time around we focused on keeping those numbers in the correct order. On Friday, we learned how to count by 2's. Here's a cute video to help review: Science/Social StudiesIn Social Studies, we've been learning about the American flag. We now know that the flag has 50 stars (one for each state), 13 stripes (one for each original colony), and is red, white, and blue. We also found out it's difficult to color in a flag without coloring over the stars. Betsy Ross must have been quite talented. =) In Science, we learned about ways to conserve water. If your child scolds you for running the water while you brush your teeth, you'll know why! Story WalkOur class had so much fun at the Story Walk on Monday! Many thanks to Miss Brenda, Miss Kelly, Miss Liz, and Miss Sarah for bringing the fun to us. This year's theme was animal habitats, and the kids got to hear three different books. My personal favorite was the book Pinduli because the activity was to get our faces painted! We also got to take home two books to keep! Thank you! Parents, here is a big resource packet that you can use to encourage your child to read. When you get a spare minute, take a look. There are lots of helpful tips.
Reading/WritingOur sight words this week were must and now. The kids are so good at sounding out words now that most of them could read these words already! One of the themes this week was people's jobs. We wrote a lot about community helpers, especially fire fighters. It came as a surprise to some students that girls can be fire fighters, too! One of my favorite activities this week was learning how to read words with a silent e at the end. I made each kid a special "magic e wand" (which of course derives its magical powers from all the purple glitter). I then wrote a regular short vowel word (also known as a CVC word: consonant-vowel-consonant) on the board, like "can", and we read it as a class. Then we waved our magic e wands and placed them at the end of the word, making it say "cane." The magic e wands are so powerful that they make those vowels say their names! The kids then broke into smaller groups and took turns drawing a random CVC word and using their magic e wands to transform them into long vowel words. MathIn math, we practiced our estimation skills. Often, when kids try to estimate, they randomly guess outlandish numbers. We're trying to get them to make more educated guesses. We also reviewed coins and practiced adding mixed coins. When adding mixed coins, always group the coins from greatest value to least value. When we count them, we don't switch counting methods until we get to a new type of coin. For example, if we were to add 2 dimes and 7 pennies, we would count by tens for the dimes, then switch to counting by ones when we got to the pennies, so it would sound like, "10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27." Science/Social StudiesAgain, we talked a lot about people's jobs. We had a class discussion about the jobs that our parents have. We also had the kids draw pictures of what job they think they might have when they grow up. What a wide variety of jobs they came up with! Archaeologist, teacher, basketball player, police officer.... We were impressed! Pirates Game Field TripWe sent home information about our upcoming Pirates game field trip. If your child will be attending, the permission slips and payment (cash only) are due no later than Tuesday, May 15th.
Reading/WritingWe are starting on the /wh/ blend this week. Our sight words this week were who and what. Since most people don't pronounce the "h" in these blends, it's important for the kids to learn that /wh/ just makes the /w/ sound. We've also been doing a lot of word families work with the short /u/ vowel sound. Some of the reading skills that we've been working on were action words (verbs), true and false statements, and facts. We learned how to use a KWL chart to organize what we Know, what we Want to know, and what we Learned. This is a great tool to get kids actively recalling information. MathMath this week was mostly review. Our whole class can count up to 100 pretty well, so once we covered the lessons from the curriculum, we spiced things up a little by practicing our addition and subtraction. We love to play dice games to practice addition! Mrs. Lee made some "roll and cover" games where you roll 2 dice and cover the sum. The kids learn quickly which numbers are difficult to roll, too. We also practice domino addition/subtraction, where you randomly draw a domino and add or subtract the dots. Science/Social StudiesIn Science this week, we learned more about light. We did a room search to see what items light could pass through, which it couldn't, and which ones reflected light. Accordingly, we also learned about Thomas Edison and how he invented the light bulb. One of my favorite morals from that lesson was that he tried and failed MANY times before he finally made a light bulb that worked well.
Today was the last day that Ms. Pickle visited our class for Story Time this school year. The kids were very sad because she always brings funny books and fun crafts with her! She gave us flyers to hand out about the Carnegie Library's Summer Reading Extravaganza, which is a FREE summer festival in Oakland! Here are the details, and you can also visit the library's website here. Sunday, June 10, 2012
12 - 5 pm On the lawn at CLP - Main, Oakland Follow your dreams, Pittsburgh! Imagination and fun await you at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's 12th Annual Summer Reading Extravaganza. The moon is up, the stars are out and summer reading is in. Celebrate summer reading with us, and let's dream big together! Kick off your summer reading with free family fun, including entertainment, crafts and activities for kids and teens! Here's a sample of some of the fun things you'll be able to do at Extravaganza:
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