Elf on the Shelf, St. Nick

Our topic this week was Welcoming the Elf on the Shelf and St. Nick.

We started our week right away meeting our Elf.  Once we met him, we read his note on the board (by sounding out some letter sounds), read his book, and then: he needed a name!  We took a variety of options and then we voted and graphed our choices.  The one with the most votes would be our Elf's name.  Tiger wins!  We then watched the movie, the kids loved it!


On Monday, we also "sewed" our stockings and stamped our hands to have stockings to hang by the fire.  Lacing was a little tricky, but once students got it down, they had the most adorable stockings ready for St. Nick.

We also worked on making snowmen, putting three circles we cut out in size order, small on top, then middle, and then big.  We then used scrap paper and a whole punch (for the first time) to decorate or snow men.  


Tuesday Tiger was hanging out on our dry erase board and wrote nice in magnets.  N is our letter of the week, and he was sending us a message.  We worked really hard at being Nice.

Wednesday, the silly geese were being sassy so Tiger was trying to tell Santa on them.  The geese tried to cover it up, but we still know!  "Put the geese on the naughty list!"

We worked on an early reader of winter clothing and their colors and we will work on reading it in the next week.  We also started reading and practicing our Reader's Theater for Reading with the Stars.  

We also began a measuring activity. Students need to count how many big snowflakes they are tall and then take small snowflakes around the room and measure various objects. This also worked on counting, the concept of measurement, and writing the numbers.  Students are off to a great start in these areas.

It is so great to see the students using the writing center to write letters to Santa and to Tiger.  Any time we can get them to use writing tools, try to get letter sounds, and get the mechanics of writing (left to right, top to bottom, etc) is wonderful!  Tiger takes the notes to Santa when they leave them in Tiger's mail box.

Thursday, Tiger was hanging out by our stockings that were stuffed with love from St. Nick.  He wanted his own stocking too!

The story of St. Nick:

Nicholas' parents died when he was just a teenager. His parents left him a lot of money which made him a rich young man. 

Nicholas heard about a man who had lost all his money.  He had three daughters.  This family was so poor they had nothing left to eat. They were very sad. A daughter washed her stockings and put them in front of the fire to dry. Then all of them went to sleep.  In the morning the daughter saw a lump in her stocking. Reaching in, she found a small, heavy bag. It had gold inside! Enough to provide food for the family. Oh, how happy they were!

The next morning, another bag with gold was found. Imagine! Such joy!

And the next night, the father planned to stay awake to find out who was helping his daughters. He dozed off, but heard a small "clink" as another bag landed in the room. Quickly he jumped up and ran out the door. Who did he catch ducking around the corner?

Nicholas, the young man who lived with his uncle. "Nicholas, it is you! Thank you for helping us—I hardly know what to say!" Nicholas said, "Please, do not thank me. Do not tell others about me."

Nicholas continued helping people. He always tried to help secretly. He didn't want any attention or thanks. When there wasn't any food, he found wheat; so no one went hungry. He always helped people in trouble. All his life Nicholas showed people how to love God and care for each other.

Everyone loved Nicholas. After he died, they told stories of the good and kind things Nicholas had done. Sailors took these stories about Nicholas everywhere they went. Some of the stories were about his special care for children—helping and protecting them when danger threatened. And so more and more people learned about good, kind Nicholas. They wanted to be like him. He is an example of how we should live.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/real-santa/

Kindergarten Guided Math Centers

It is my first year teaching kindergarten.  I wanted to have a way to teach math at the student's level and with the tools/manipulatives they personally needed.  This made me think of guided reading and how well that works that maybe I could make guided math work.

I decided I was going to use my math curriculum Math Expressions with the small groups and the other students would do their centers while we are doing this.  I was doing math tubs and guided math following our math journals, but I found the calendar journals to take to much time.  I teach calendar and then I make that one of the centers they need to rotate to.

Here is what a math lesson looks like:
1. Students come in the room, and get out their math binders.
2. Students erase the page protector holding their Calendar Journals (by: Erin Eberhart) **I use a page protector so they can use dry erase markers and reuse the paper every day.**

3. Students put materials down and we cover the calendar, days of school, tally marks, 120 chart, and place value chart.

4. Students open to the newest Math Journal page from Primary Possiblilites.  I read the directions, they complete the activity and leave at their spot.

5. Students then turn to the board for "job assignments"  I got their "job charts" from Reagan Tunstall's blog: Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.  I printed one for each student and laminated it so they could write on them with a dry erase marker each day.

•  I declare the group that I am giving jobs to (right now I have 5 students total so this is two groups of two and one friend on his own, but if I have a larger class, I would have them be in groups noted by a shape or color and tell that shape or color which one we are working on)
• For example: Group RP here are your job assignments today. 1. Teacher Table, 2. Math Tub #6, 3. Math Journal. Group SG 1. Math Journal, 2. Teacher Table, 3. Math Tub #4 J 1. Math Tub #6, 2. Math Journal, 3. Teacher Table.
• Ready, Go!

6. Once they go to their assignment they work through their assigned area/tub.  To show evidence of

learning, they take a picture with their pre-made (laminated) name cards.

7. When I am done working with my first group, I state, "it is clean up time, I need you to move to number 2 on your job list."

8. When all the centers are done, they leave all their binders out and go to their specials.  While students are in specials, I read their Math Journal page and note understanding of that common core standard.  I then read their Calendar journal and draw a fun picture in dry erase to let them know I saw it and I note their progress.

If you have more math time, you can do more than one center, maybe two tubs and a technology or one tub, and one math technology.  Students are doing GREAT with this process. As I said, rather than initials, students can be put into groups and giving that group a name.

I hope this was helpful and please comment or email me (contact information at right) and I can help you out! Good Luck!!

New Year, New Grade, New Material, New Kids, New Hours, OH MY!

I realized today that I have not blogged since the back to school sale.  I contribute this to my title of this post.  Since the back to school sale, the school year has started, I have both 4k and Kindergarten to teach and though I know my 4K curriculum, I am learning kindergarten as I go.  Also, we got our math curriculum the second week of school and I am still waiting on my teacher's edition so that has been somewhat stressful.  I have 5 of my students from my 4k class last year in my 5k class so that is nice, but I have 19 new faces in my 4k room, and finally, I have committed myself to working less hours this year to spend more time with my family.  Thought that is a long list of excuses, I am not ready to put a blog up.

In Kindergarten, we have started using Math Expressions: Common Core.  I like the series this far and do feel it is developmentally appropriate for the kindergartners.  I have one little guy who is struggling with the concepts of numbers so we are using touch counting with him.  He took it on Thursday night home and is already showing GREAT improvement on Friday!  I am so excited!

Though we are using Math Expressions, I do run it like centers and have some extras I add in.

For a Friday fun project we made a class book, Ten Black Dots.  First we read, Ten Black Dots and then I made a book for them to make. I was amazed at some of their illustrations!  My book is available FOR FREE on my TeachersPayTeachers store.  Click HERE.

I also made some numbers cards to have students practice counting, correlating the numbers to the dots (in 10 frame locations) and can also be flash cards if printed more than 1 to a page.  This is also Free and can be found HERE.


We do not have a Social Studies Curriculum, so I spoke with our first grade teacher about what they would want the kids coming in knowing.  They said basically they want them to know the groups they belong to and how they are a part of something larger.  This reminded me of some activities I have seen where they start with a small circle and get larger as the group does.  Our principal also said that this is the time the holidays are covered (we are in a Catholic school so celebrating the holidays is common place).  This also goes toward my circle concept--how the holidays came to our country and trickle down to affect them.

I then am going to have them create their own text book through out the year.  Each section has a title page, and it is labeled with the circle in the correct side.  Through out the entire year, when we do something that fits into one of those sections we discuss what section it belongs to and then put it in there. It is available on my Teacher pay Teachers page, HERE. 

Happy planning in Kindergarten!  I hope to be back soon!