Friday, August 31, 2012

Squirmy Wormy

In science we are learning about habitats.  We started with the wiggly, creepy, crawly, squirmy wormy.  The kids LOVE when I exaggerate their gross-ness and they say things like "Mrs. Schutte, there's a worm in your hair!"  and I scream.  It's a hoot- I stop at nothing to get the kids excited about something.  :)

Anyway- here's what we did:

We read Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser.





And then we talked about all the things in a worm habitat- dead leaves (for them to eat), tunnels, other animals, rocks, roots, etc.

We then made the worm habitats with our crayons and added a yarn worm.  Here's how they turned out:






We are supposed to get the remnants of Hurricane Issac this weekend (about 4-6 inches), so maybe some of those worms will surface and the kids will actually get to see some worms this weekend and be able to recall what we learned.  :)

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

ABC books

My Kinders this year need extra letter recognition, letter formation, and letter sound practice.  I scoured the web, TN, and TPT for an alphabet book that would fit my needs.  I didn't find anything- so here I went and made one!

It's nothing fancy-

a place for letter tracing
 and a place for the students to glue items that start with that letter
My plan is for the kiddos to trace the letters (both upper and lower case) and then we have a few generic pictures (apple, balloon, cat, etc.) that we are going to add to each page, and then we will let them loose with magazines to find their own pictures to put on each page.  After we are finished, I'll have them work with a partner to tell them what they put on each page.  

When you download the book, it may look crazy, but when you print them off and then copy them front to back, you should be able to just fold the entire stack of paper (no cutting involved!) to make a book that goes in ABC order.  (I plan to put yarn through the binding to keep the pages in order, but you don't have to.)  It took me FOREVER to get it just right- ask my teaching partner, I was venting about how crazy it was making me!!!! So, click HERE to get your copy from Google Docs.  If you'd rather me e-mail you the file, just send me a quick e-mail letsteachsomething@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to e-mail it to you via an attachment.

I've also got my Literacy Centers well under way, so stay tuned for the next packet coming up in a couple of days!


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Back to School

OK- so I promised to be not so MIA during the summer on my last post, and I just have to apologize!  I couldn't seem to find time to get on my computer to blog.  I guess that's what happens when 2 little boys, a garden, canning said garden produce, book clubs, photography, cleaning, yard saling, and being pregnant all happen in one summer. Sooo----

Let me apologize and reward your patience with my very first literacy center of the year.  Click here to download it from google docs. Here's what you'll find:

The literacy center agenda:
 Student objectives:
 What you'll need to do to prepare them:
 Writing prompt:
 playdough workmat
 ... and record sheet
 letter tiles work mat
 plus the big books record sheet, teacher center and poetry center materials, etc.  I didn't take screen shots of it all- but it's all right there for you to use, FREE as a reward for your patience with me.  I promise to blog more now that school has started and it's on my mind :)


Here's a glimpse of how I put my literacy centers into action:

If the student is at the Playdough center, they grab the bin.  It has the playdough, cookie cutters, work mats, and record sheets they will need.  They go to a table and get to work.  Before I let them go solo, I do every center as a whole group first to show them what I expect them to do.  It works great!  The only centers that don't have bins are "teacher" and "writing".  Writing is in drawer that sits on top of this cabinet (you can see the bottom of it in the top of this picture.)  It hold the writing prompt and that's all.  They use their pencil bags to complete the prompt.

I collect all the record sheets to make sure they are doing their work.  I staple them together and send them home as a packet for mom/dad to see.

There you have it- August literacy centers.  I'll be sure to update as I get more finished.  Check TPT or TN for more literacy centers I did from last year.

I'd like to close with a recent family pic.  My fam went to Gulf Shores the last week of summer vacation- and it was amazing!  My sister-in-law snapped these family pics for me, and I just love them!  Which should I frame for my house?



* The boys each got a shark tooth necklace, and they just HAD to wear them in the pictures!


Oh, and I just signed up for an awesome giveaway over at Ruby Slippers
She's giving away a custom blog design!  Sign up!