A Peek At Our Week-Apples!

Apple Orchard Trip

We went to the apple orchard on Friday.  It was a warm but beautiful day!  The kids did such a good job, and our wonderful tour guide, Bob, commented several times how well behaved the kids were.  #proudteacher

Tom from Center Grove Orchard shows us how to pick apples.

This week, we are talking about Apples, as a continuation of our "Fun Grows On Trees" unit from last week.  (Last week we did lots of activities with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

Here's a peek at all the things we are doing this week:

Morning and Math Messages

Monday's morning message

After reading our message, doing the "Build A Bear" (a kindergarten version of hang-man we do with names), and filling in the bottom part (color words again!), we circle all the double letters (pp in apples), and the sight words we have added to the word wall.  This week we are adding be and me.

Monday's Math Message

Our GoMath unit is sorting.  We've been doing lots of math talks on different ways to sort.  We are going to do a quick brainstorming mini-lesson on ways we could sort our class (boys/girls, 5 year olds/ 6 year olds, people who like broccoli/ don't like broccoli).  We will graph our morning helper cards again, make a number sentence with the number of boys/girls who are helpers, and then 2 students will come up and solve Rayyan's problem.  This will be our first JCU (Join Change Unknown; 6 + X = 7) so I'm super excited to see who can unpack this problem.  

Small Group Literacy

My small group time is vaguely modeled from Daily 5....more like Daily 5 for a teacher with control issues.  I do Read To Self at a separate time in my schedule, and Read To Someone on Fridays during that time.

Work on Writing

Work On Writing...Apples

We do a "finish the sentence" book pretty much every week in my class.  Since my journaling time is almost exclusively a time that the students need to come up with their own topics, this is the time that I tell them what to write about. 

I have parent helpers (when available) help with this group, to encourage them to sound words out, use their tools (color word chart, name charts, sound charts), good kindergarten drawings, and write the grown up spelling under each page when they are done.  You can see the parent instruction page I keep in this bin that reminds them of all that.  On the back, it has a chart of writing developmental levels.

This book has 3 pages:  _____ grows on trees   ____grows on trees   _____ does not grow on trees.

They love a silly page where they can write anything.  "Pizza does not grow on trees!"

Work on Words

Work On Words...Apples

This is an easy one.  This time of year, I try to keep things really familiar, so they can work independently.  We've done several of these.  The Apple Pie Tree is the first book I read on Monday.  The students use highlighters to find the sight words and the double letters on this page which is text from this book.  We love highlighters!

Work on Letters

Work On Letters...Apples

This, too, is very similar (just with an apple theme) to something they did last week with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Cut, paste, glue the letters in the right spot.  

Listen To Reading

Listen To Reading...Apples

My Listen To Reading Rotation sometimes is my reading group that meets with me.  I haven't started Guided Reading yet, I'm using this time to pull kids over and assess them still.  This will be the first week we are writing the title in for the listening response sheet, but again, this is a familiar small group activity for them.  I'm working hard on making things familiar for them so they can successfully work independently.

Work On Names

Work On Names

The 5th activity we do every week is "Work On Names".  We are doing Bronson's name this week.  Cut and glue letters in order, write his name, "letters like me" (letters from BRONSON that are the same as your name), and draw a careful, colorful, and detailed picture of Bronson.  We've been doing this from the first week. 

Name Game on TPT 

Math Rotations

After we finish our literacy rotations, we do a quick math mini lesson, then do the same process with math.

Counting and Cardinality

Counting and Cardinality...Apples

We've been doing lots of counting!  On this activity, they color the tree, count out 10 apples, then write how many of each color they have.  Anything to get the idea of 10 as a unit, even this early on!

Patterning Number, and Operations in Base Ten

Patterning and Base Ten...Apples

 I made this one last year, and it ended up being too hard.  I'm trying some revisions.  The kids pick an apple card, look at the number on the back, and figure out how many red and green apples are there to make 5.  We've been working hard on making 5 before we move on to 10.

Geometry

Geometry...Apples

Glue on the squares and triangles to make an apple.

Measurement and Data

Measurement and Data...Apples

I made this one quickly tonight!  They have to figure out a way to sort the apples, cut and paste them into the right groups.  For my higher students, I am having them label what they would call each group (red/green, big/little).

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

This is by far their favorite rotation!  We do a student's name each week.  This week is Reid's turn.  While I'm making sure everyone is settled in the other groups, they complete the familiar first page (graphing and numeral handwriting) then together we do the first problem (Reid soccer one).  Based on their ability to draw and solve the first one,  I give each student in my group a new number.  Some kid's next problem will be 5 games with 2 goals at each, and some will have 10 games with 3 each.  After each student does 3 problems, we move on to the 2nd page of problems.  

Love CGI math and learning how to unpack our problems and explain strategies.

Have a great week!

Apples Activities TPT

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Morning Messages and Math Messages ....Watching It Evolve

I made some changes to my "morning message" routine this year.  We changed our schedule a bit and added a few things (Making Meaning and the vocabulary) and took out a few things (no more rest time!).   Because of that, my day looks a bit different than it has the last few years.  

Because of those changes, I'm no longer doing one morning message a day, but two!  One for language arts, and the other for math as a part of my math mini lesson.

So far I'm loving it!  I feel like we have more time to focus on new concepts and what we need to review, as well as building on yesterday's learning.

I follow my unit plan that has the concepts we are covering, but add things based on what my munchkins are excited about, what they have questions about, and what the next step in their learning might be.  I remember when I was working on my portfolio for National Board Certification, I needed to show why I made decisions in my day.   

"Yesterday, I noticed that one of my students used a counting on strategy when solving a math problem.  I'm giving another problem like that in large group because I want to give him the opportunity to explain that strategy to the rest of the group for anyone who is ready for it.  

I noticed that all but 2 kids in my class recognized all of the 2D shapes.  I'm going to do some quick interventions with those 2 kids (It's a hexagon!!!!), but not spend much more large group time on naming shapes."

Is a whole different explanation than:  "We are talking about shapes in this chapter and I bought this great addition activity on TPT."

I've seen some great new "Morning Message" packs you can buy on TPT.  There are some great ideas out there!  Here is my morning message and my math message on the very first day:

The morning message we filled in the chart, and then circled all of the "double" letters (oo in school, ss in recesses).  The Math message I had volunteers come up and draw a circle at the end of each of the lines.  We do a math problem using the teacher's helper's name every single day.  The helper and a friend come up to the board and solve it on paper, while the rest of the class solves it using their fingers or other strategy on the carpet.

And here is tomorrow's messages:

We are still circling doubles in the morning message, but are also looking for sight words as we add them to our word wall.  So far we have I, can, like, and we.  We are practicing "the kindergarten way" of writing the lowercase letters (to match their mamas and papas and uncles and aunts).  We also do a "Build A Bear" with someone's name each day.  Build A Bear is a more kindergarten friendly game of hangman where I draw a bear.

In te math message, we have REALLY been struggling with teen numbers, so we are going to have a discussion about that.  We have six helpers each day so we make a number sentence (greater than, less than, equal to) with how many girl helpers and how many boy helpers we have.  We are also going to graph the colors of the helper's cards on our helper chart and talk about that data.  Olivia will be excited about her "pony problem" tomorrow!

The best part of morning message (for my kids) is when the teacher's helper of the day gets to take it home!  I love morning/math messages!

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