literacy and math tower games

 The game above was an ABC order game.  It was hard for us but I wanted to introduce it to them because in First grade they do ABC order.  We tried to sort them by first letter first.  Then I showed them how sometimes we have to use the second letter to decide what comes first.

 This sheet was in the same tub as the ABC order.  The kids just had to record the last sound.

 In this tub, each child got a baggie with a dry erase marker, abc cards (from saxon phonics), and 6 cards with CVC words.  They were to pick a card, read the word, build the word, and then write the word.

 The children had to build a sentence and then record it in their journals.

In this tub, the kids had to lay out all the jars with pictures on them.  Then each child got 3 bears with CVC words.  They had to decode the word and place it on the correct picture.

BUILD (math tubs)

Books About Math

 The picture above and below and the two book boxes. 

Using Manipulatives

 In the game above, the kids rolled the dice and counted the dots.  They put that many "ants" on the pants.  They recorded the two dice on the page in the book.  After 3 rolls, they counted all the ants and used the spinner to see if the one with the most or least ants was the winner.  Thanks, Deanna Jump!
In the game below, they took a bag of colored animals and colored the dot that color.  They counted the animals in the bag and circled the correct teen number.

 Independent work

 In the game above, the children would roll a dice and move any of the characters toward the top.  The object was to get all the ants to the top on an exact roll.  Thanks, Kim Adsit.
In the game below, the kids rolled the dice, record the two numbers and then add the dots and record the answer.

Learning and Using Numbers

 The kids would roll the dice and add the two together, then take an animal to cover the number in the barn.  They had to get all their animals in the barn before their friend did.
The game below was like many we have played.  I love Kim Adsit for these games.  They are the same concept but the characters are changed.  It keeps the game interesting without having to reteach a new game every time!  The kids roll the dice and move that many spaces toward their end until someone reaches the end making them the winner.

 Doing math

 This top tub was VERY HARD.  Next year, I am going to start very early doing numbers before and after the quoted number.  The kids were supposed to write the number on the sheep and then record the number before and after that number.  ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...but we will practice this some more.
The tub below was matching the addition statement to the correct number on the monkey.  Our color printer was out of ink for awhile so they are in black and white.  :( 



Plants by Randi Morte

We studied plants this week.  We talked about what a plant needs to survive.  Food, air and water which is the same thing we need!  We are learning about the different parts of the plant now.  Randi created this learning center.  Everything goes into a basket and in the afternoon we pull it right outside the door.  She picks the children that have been awesome that day to play in the outside center.  They love it!

Imagination and dirt is a great learning tool!

 Randi made this adorable anchor chart to teach the kids what the plants need to grow.

These two photos show the children's representation of what Randi taught them.  They did great in their picture response to learning.

This is the other side of the anchor chart and it shows the parts of the plants and the purpose for those parts.

Juan and Miguel chose a sunflower seed and glued it to one side of the paper.  They created a picture that showed the soil and the grass.  The first side shows the seed and the roots growing.  The second side shows the plant; roots, stem, flower and leaf.

Mrs. Shelton had these adorable plant pots and she shared with us.  They came from Michaels and include dirt and seed packets.  We planted them and took them home that day to watch them grow!

 We did this paper in math one afternoon.  The kids had to read the number words and glue that many beans to the outline.

 This is a paper we did LA.  I showed each plant on the promethean board.  The kids colored the plant on their recording sheet the correct color.  Then they had to sound out the CVC word for the picture on each plant.  We used "offices" to help with no copying!  Most of the kids are able to sound out the words with confidence. Then we came to the rug with our paper and a crayon and we sounded them out together and wrote the correct spelling so that those that had trouble could have a little extra practice.

 This little girl was sitting across the room but I wanted to show the kids show a ZOOM lens works on a camera.  We are studying the letter Z this week.

We also had zuchinni bread for letter Z.  This was also to show that vegetables (plants) can be used to make something sweet.  We ate carrot cake cupcakes too but we ate them all before I got a picture.

V and Literacy tubs

 As a district, next year we are going to be required to do vocabulary like this so I have practiced all year with my class.  Our word was adjective this week.  We did this together and then they copied to their vocabulary journal.

Vegetable starts with V and we colored and sorted these vegetables by what we liked and did not like.  Most of the kids liked them all!  I don't know if they really did or if they were showing off!

 This was a mini lesson on the teen numbers.  It is such a hard concept for them to grasp.  But I have 38 more days to explore ways to open that door!

 This was a mini phonics lesson on ending word families.  Each child got 2 pies and we had to feed them to the correct pig by looking at the ending.  Then we read the words and talked about how they all rhymed.

 This is a game where the children took turns hiding the sheep behind a barn with sight words on it.  The other children would then guess where the sheep was hiding by saying the sight word.

Literacy Tubs

 This tub was for those finger muscles and the children had to lace and unlace the shoes and practice tying.

 This is a sight word game.  The children would pull out a card and try to read the word.  If they could read it, they kept the card.  If they could not read it, they lost the card and the next child picked a card.  If they pulled out the card that said fire, they lost all their cards.  It is so helpful to have a student teacher with games like this.

 This game was syllable count.  I had the kids count the syllables and circle the correct number.  THEN they got the hole punch and punched that number out.  Note to self-little hands have to struggle with a hole punch.

This last tub had sets of letters and cards.  The child picked a bag and found the two letter cards in it.  They sorted the pictures by beginning sounds.

Farm Unit and May Farm field trip

I always try to introduce everything I do with a book.  I have a wide collection of personal books and I can usually find everything I want.  I did not take as many pictures this week.  We have STAAR testing as many schools in Texas did and we left the campus as much as possible.  It is very hard to keep 130 kindergarten students quiet!!  I took lots of pictures of the kids but I try very hard not to put their faces on the blog!

We read this adorable book about a horse that didn't have a friend.  It was a great opportunity to talk about being friends with everyone.

 This is the page we created for our nonfiction book about farm animals.  It includes three facts about horses.

This is the page for the sheep with three facts as well.  I read Charlie Needs a Cloak and we talked about wool and that it was very warm.

We also made a page for a pig and a cow.  I did not get a picture somehow and they have gone home!  :(  We watched how to make ice cream on You Tube and then we ate ice cream!  It was great!

These are the shirts we painted to wear to the May Farm.  Each child will bring 3 shirts and we paint them to wear for various times of year.  Miss Morte and I drew the pig outline and the kids painted the pink part.  We added a black oval when it was dry and the kids added two black eyes and two black nostrils.  They were adorable.  Each of the 6 classes chose a different animal so we could tell by looking at the shirt where that child was SUPPOSED to be!

 We went to May Farm in Hawley.  Brenda May has invited most of the children in this area to her place at one time or another.  She takes rescue animals and has created a petting zoo.  There is a fee for each child which helps pay for food for the animals.

 This is Mrs. May holding a 10 day old lamb that was born blind.  They are going to try to train it to follow another lamb with a bell on it.  It was sooooo cute!

This is another baby lamb that had the run of the place.  We caught it several times on the picnic bench checking out our lunches!

Letter W and Farm

This is one of the games in the literacy tubs this week.  The kids had to look at the mouse cards and then sort the words on the hearts on to the correct mouse.  I had an extra helper this week and it was very helpful with this tub.

 This was a word game.  The kids had to pick a sight word out.  If they could read it, they got to keep the card.  If they drew a card with a cheese, they got an extra turn.  If they drew a cat, they lost all their cards.  My student teacher, Miss Morte, was a great help with this game.  I found both of these games on teacherspayteachers free downloads. 

 I created these games!  I love all of Mrs. Lee's games from her blog and decided to try my own.  It took me a long time but I love them.  The kids had to pick a pig with a picture on it.  They would color the pig on the answer sheet so I knew which pig they were looking at.  They had to sound out the CVC words.  It was a lot of fun.  I did sit with this group but I am hoping they will become independent on this game by the end of the year!!

 This was a farm book.  The kids had to color the pages and read the book. 

We watched the clip from YouTube of Where the Wild Things Are.  We listed as many adjectives as we could think of to describe the wild things and then created one of our own.  Deanna Jump has a great unit on teacherspayteachers about this book.

We still sing the frog street press songs for our letter of the week.  This week was Wanda and Willie Walrus.  We made a mask and planned a big wedding.  All six classes stood in the hall and pledged to be great friends forever and to respect each other and be kind. 

 We had a feast of watermelon and we had ring pops and bubbles to end our celebration!

 We read the story of Mrs. Wishy Washy.  The kids loved this story.  I had a small tub and three animals which I put in a center so they could retell the story later. This was for W and farm!  Love it when it works out that way!!

 This is another syllable sort from Mrs. Voss.  The kids are so good at counting the syllables.  Then we try to spell each section.  I let them tell me what sound they hear and I write on one under the elmo.  I don't correct them at this point.  I am trying to give them the power to write freely and not be afraid of spelling something wrong.  I call this "kid writing"!!

Deanna Jump's farm unit is amazing.  We are creating a book about the farm animals.  We record what we know about the animals on a tree map and then use that data to write a paragraph.  The book will have 5 animals and include a table of contents.  Love this idea!!

 This book is precious.  We read as many books as we can squeeze in but this was one of my favorites along with the Little Red Hen.

 We read Rosie's Walk and then recorded all the words the author used to show Rosie's movement in the story.

 We pretended this bag was our barn and we drew a picture of ourselves as a farmer on the front.  We sang the EIEIO song as we put the animals in the barn.