Thanksgiving

Monday we made turkeys that students matched the number on the feathers to the dots on the turkey.  To make this project, I found a turkey body template online.  I printed the template and put dots in the same formation in which a student would find them on a dice randomly around the turkey.  I then cut strips of paper that looked to be the "logical size" of a feather on this size turkey. They ended up being approx. 1"x 6.5".  I then put them in a pattern and wrote the numbers on the feathers corresponding with the turkey's numbers (it would then result in a pattern when the students did it correctly.  A way to self check as well as to make my check quick).  9, 1, 5, 3, 7, 8, 4, 6, 2, 10.  I memorized the pattern by the time I was done making 30 turkeys worth of feathers.  Students were given the turkey, and their pack of feathers and told to match the number with the dots.    If they needed help I did scaffold them to the process to help give them exposure to the number recognition, but also noted the students that did need more help than others.  Also, I found that some students found it easier to count with a pencil in hand to point to the small dots on their own.  We called this their counter tool. When some had their counter tool, I saw their efficiency and correct numbers increase.  

Tuesday we made a Thankerchief--a game of passing around a "thankerchief" and taking turns saying what we are thankful for.  This activity taught us things we are thankful for, worked on our speaking skills, following multi-step directions, and fine motor skills when decorating our "thankerchief." Students were given a white piece of fabric (we had a white sheet in our art closet my principal gave me permission to cut up.  I have also see the activity done where students can all bring in their own white piece of fabric.  We then decorated them however they thought was beautiful with the bingo dotters.  They then colored the poem.  I then applied the poem to a toilet paper tube wrapping the while thing in packing tape.  (I thought it would help with the grease and helping it last longer).  We practiced the game in school so students knew how and so they could take it home and teach their families with my Thankerchief I had made.  When all were dry, I put together and sent home with them.    

For the Thankerchief poem printable click here.

Wednesday, the morning class played Thanksgiving BINGO in our small group time.  We learned a variety of Thanksgiving vocabulary words as well as worked on our listening skills.  

Apple Unit

We started the week with The Biggest Apple Ever.  

We then colored our apples red, cut them out ourselves, and sorted them by size: small, middle, big.

We read: Apple Countdown.

We then made apple cores by cutting out 2 half circles drawn by teacher on a paper plate.  The students then recycled their own extra pieces.  They came back, wrote their name on the back and then made the "bumpy parts of the plate" red with red bingo dotters.  They then picked a leaf with out seeing the number.  Once they chose their leaf, they flipped it over and I stapled it to their core.  They then had to bingo dot that many seeds into their core.  

We read: I am an Apple.  We talked about the life cycle of a tree.  

To reinforce this we did Apple tree Yoga.  

In a tiny seed 

Rain and sun need to go on their backs before they can grow!

Wiggle and grow into a tall tree

5 petals on our blossoms

Petals fall off one by one (count to five 2 times)

When all the petals fall off, you have tiny apples.

and they grow bigger, and bigger....

Huge Apples! 

The apples plop off the tree: plop, plop

The apples break apart and the seeds come out.

 Repeat!

We also labeled an apple:

We then cut an apple in half to see the star.  We then stamped with them, counted our stamped apples, and then counted the points on our stars.  

We watched these videos:

Finally: We used our 5 senses and Looked at, Smelled, Listened to, Felt, and tasted some golden delicious apples.  

Smell

Look

Listen to (shake)

Touch

Taste

And then documented our results:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, 123

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Video
(found from Kindertastic Blog)

 __ told __ and __ told ___, I'll meet you at the top of ___________'s tree!

Students Directions:
"stamp 4 different letters. When you are done go wash your hands and come back."  I then glued the writing sheet on.  when they returned, they were told to write their name on the name line. We then named letters the stamped.  I wrote for those who needed support as they dictated. Students able wrote their own letters.


Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 Video
I can only find the "Trailer" for this video.  I am working on finding the whole thing, but at this point with 4K going to 11 was ok.

Another version.  Has the right song, but the video is a power point.

Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom!  Will there be enough room?  My name _______ has _______ letters in it.

We did this as a whole class project. I had names typed out with lines between each letter.  Direction 1: cut out on lines, put scissors in air (collected)  2: Hand out brown paper. Rip a long skinny tree trunk.  Put your extras in our scrap paper box.  Hands in the air.  3. Hand out green paper.  Rip 3 pieces for leaves.  Any extra pieces go in scrap box.  4. Glue all your pieces on like a tree and your letters can climb your tree like in our books.  5. Write your name on the big line.  6. Lets count number of letters in your name.  7. Teacher shows how to write on scrap paper.  Student tries. 8. Teacher glues paper on blue so that nothing is overlapped.  9.  Put paper in my basket and go have free choice time.

Same vs. Different between "Boom Boom" and : 1,2,3"

I really wanted the children to start talking about similarities and differences (compare and contrast).  After talking to my mentor teacher in the 4th/5th grade room, she mentioned that they compared and contrasted and it went "ok."  I figured if I could add any support now, to help get them ready by 4th grade, it would be fun.  This was fun little books to introduce this concept with!