March

This is the goodie bag of air fresheners and soaps that I won at a shower. I am so glad I won it. Now I can clean my room and have it smelling good.

Calendar Time!

Here a student is  pointing to the numbers on the 100's chart helping us count to 100. He did a great job leading the calendar that morning. I pick a student each day to help do the calendar.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss Day!

The students colored hats to wear in honor of Dr. Seuss. They colored them red and cut them out. We stapled them on sentence strips and put them around their heads.

The students wrote about Dr. Seuss in their journals.

Writing Like Dr. Seuss!

We read the book There's a Locket in My Pocket and afterwards the students created sentences on their own with silly rhyming words in them like those from the book. The students love that book. We read it just about every day. The students have the book memorized. It is a good book to help teach rhyming with.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The St. Patrick's Day bulletin board in the room by the computers.

I am reading the students a book call The Leprechan. The students learned what a leprechuan was and how leprechuans are related to St. Patrick's Day.

Sorting Lucky Charms Cereal! For a math activity on St. Patrick's Day I gave the students a hand full on Lucky Charms cereal and had them sort the different pieces in it. They put peices in little piles on the paper towels. The rainbows were in one pile, the pots of gold in another, etc. This helped them review their sorting skills. They ate their cereal  once I checked to see if they had them sorted in the right piles. Eating it was the most fun of all.

 

Some Reading Tubs in March!

Guided Reading - I go over the three sight word lists with students. We read an easy sight reader book together and then the students take turns reading the book on their own. These little books help with fluency and comprehension. At the end I usually teach a comprehension skill and we apply it to the story we read for that day.

Ending Sounds on Trains - The students look at the picture at the front of each train. They say the name of the picture and then sound out each letter sound they hear in the word. They pick a plastic letter to put in the last box for the ending sound/letter.

More Handwriting Practice - The students do this tub independently. They practice writing neatly and correctly on handwriting paper. Some of us are really working hard to try to write neatly  on paper.

Matching Pictures to Words - Here the students matched pictures to words. They practiced saying, sounding out, and spelling the words orally as they matched them. Mrs. Ragan helped the students in this group.

Jack and Jilly Reading

We use the Jack and Jilly reading series in kindergarten. The students are divided into three groups based on reading ability. An adult is with each group. Mrs. Williamson comes in during this time every morning to help out. To begin with I spend about 15 minutes with the students on the rug going over letter sounds, reviewing the Jack and Jilly sight word cards, and the Alpha Motion Song. We then divide up into three groups: Labradors, Cocker Spaniels, and Rottweilers. The students spend about 15 minutes at each table. They rotate to three tables every day.

I work on reading fluency and comprehension at my table. We read the sentences together, the students read them together on their own, and then the students take turns reading a group of sentences out loud individually. We usually read and complete one reading page per day.

When the students go see Mrs. Williamson they work on the phonics section in their books. They practice the letter sounds, sounding out words, and blending sounds to create words. They are timed on this part everyday. This usually takes about 5 to 6 minutes for the entire group to complete. Then she teaches them important writing skills and how to use words to make sentences. The students complete a writing page per day. Once they have written their sentences had them checked they can draw a picture at the top of the page that goes along with the sentences.

Mrs. Ragan works on sight words with the students. They practicing spelling, saying, and reading the sight words together. Then the students read the words on the page individually. They are timed. In order to pass the sight word page they must read the words in at least 30 seconds or less. When they pass a page in their books they get a happy face drawn on it. The students also read and color the coloring pages in their reading booklets with Mrs. Ragan.

Background Music "Somewhere Out There"