Well, our break is over. Wow, that was short and fast! I hope everyone is rested and prepared to hit the ground running next week!! I can’t believe we have just three and a half weeks between now and winter break! And so much to do…Christmas…Hanukkah….gingerbread…Polar Express…testing…parties…WOW! Here we go…buckle up!
It’s that time again…when I blow up your computer with my insanely chaotic week of teaching and learning! I hope you’re ready…I hope the tryptophan wore off…and you’re rested from Black Friday elbow throwing shopping…it’s time again for that Kindergarten Smorgasboard tradition of Schedulin’ Sunday!
I am trying something new today! I posting my plans for you to download in PDF format! Thoughts? Yes? No?
My template came from my friend Mrs. M at A Teacher’s Plan! If you’re in need of great lesson plan templates, check her out!! She is amazing and super sweet!
Monday
This week we are kicking off our blends with TH. We will learn how T and H work together to make the /th/ sound! Yes, we will practice sticking our tongues out to get this sound and differentiate it from the F sound. It is a very thrustrating skill, but we can do it! And of course we will make a silly hat! But this one is special…it is my own creation! We are making…wait for it….a….THUNDERSTORM hat! I can’t wait to show it off!!!! Stay tuned!
We are kicking off our winter and Christmas celebrations with one of my favorite books! Mooseletoe! We are going to spend the whole week with this book! This is very unusual for me because we usually do a book a day or two days…look at me, branching out and changing it up!
We will be using this unit by my friend Lisa at Learning Is Something To Treasure! Be sure to check out Lisa’s blog and this great unit!
Today we will be completing a story map and doing the craftivity included in Lisa’s unit! You know, I LOVE a good craftivity or six a day!
We will work on writing about Christmas this week! We will be using the tree map from my Holly Jolly Christmas unit! We will create a tree map about the people, places and things of Christmas! Click on the picture to get your copy of this unit!
We are also kicking off some subtraction fun! We will spend this week learning that subtraction means taking apart. We start off this challenging skill very easily! With our fingers! As a group, I will say hold up 4 fingers. Now, put down (take away, subtract), 2. How many are left? After we practice with this we will move onto using manipulatives. We will be using our legos because who doesn’t love legos?! I will instruct students to put 4 legos on their plate. Then they are instructed to take away 2. How many are left? I know it seems repetitious but it’s the best way for my monsters to grasp the idea that subtracting means taking away! To close our math lesson, we will do math journals! I created some journal pages that have students using pictures to take away! We will work on these together! You can get your free copy of these pages at the end of this long and riveting post!
Tuesday
We continue our Moosletoe adventure today! We will do some echo reading of the story! We love to echo read because it’s fun and builds our fluency! After echo reading the story, we will do a tree map based on the story. We will make a tree map about what moose can, is and has. After completing the story map, we will do a whole group picture sort for the /th/ sound and then the students will complete a TH picture sort! You can get two free TH picture sorts here!
We will use our tree map about Christmas from yesterday for students to complete individual tree maps and then we will complete a predictable chart: Christmas is…
We will continue working on taking away and subtraction! Today we will again use our fingers to practice the concept of taking away and counting to find the answer! After we practice with our fingers, we will use our legos! Again, this is repetitive from yesterday,but the best way for my monsters to get a new skill or concept is to repeat it again and again! And it’s legos! LEGOS!!!
We will finish our day with, of course, a craftivity! I found this super cute Moosletoe craftivity on….of all places…PINTEREST!
Wednesday
Moosletoe week continues at Monsters Inc! After re-reading the story and disucssng the story, we will sequence the story using a flow map! We will do this whole group and later in the week, students will complete their own flow map as an assessment piece! We will continue working on our /th/ sound and will do another picture sort! I am THE KING OF PICTURE SORTS! And my monsters need a ton of practice with hearing and making the TH sound!
Today we become authors and illustrators! We will publish our sentences from our predictable chart and illustrate our writing to create a class book!!
Math continues with subtraction and take away! Today we will practice taking away ourselves! I will make a box on the floor with tape. I will have students stand in the box and we will count. Then some students will be subtracted. We will count to find the answer! After this very fun and engaging hook, we will use our monster work mats! It’s a simple work mat that you can get by clicking the picture! Students will place a number of manipulatives into the box. Then the subtraction monster will take some away. How many do you have left? The monsters LOVE feeding the monsters!
Today’s craftivity will be from my Holly Jolly Christmas unit! We will be making peppermint candy!
The template and instructions are included in my unit! This is a fun and easy project that looks great in the hallway! And it’s paint so we get messy and that means SUCCESS!
Thursday
Moosletoe week continues! After we review the story and do some choral reading, we will complete a circle map about moose! We will write things we learned about moose on our class cirlce map and then students will complete their own circle map by cutting and pasting sentences about moose onto their circle map! We will do another picture sort today but this one is all about hearing the difference between /th/ and /f/ sounds! I am confident that after a week of practice, my monsters will do well with this! If not, we can re-teach it!
We will use all of what we learned about or Moose friend this week to complete a predictable chart: Moose.
Math continues with subtraction. We will work with our monster work mats on subtraction and taking away!
And our craftivity for the day is a poinsettia! This is also in my Holly Jolly Christmas pack!
This is a more challenging project, but we have done it for three years and they turn out so beautiful! The key is getting the monsters to cut slowly and neatly on the lines!
And finally….you’ve made it!
FRIDAY!
Today we will wrap our Moosletoe mishaps with the original story, Moosestache! We will complete a double bubble map to compare the two Moose stories! We will publish our sentences about moose from yesterday and create a new class book!
Math is just a one on one assessment of students ability to subtract. I will call 1 monster at a time to my table and will tell them count 4 legos and take away 2 and give me the answer! Next week we will move on to paper and pencil subtraction work!
And of course we will cook or have a snack! I am still working on this one. I would love some snack or cooking ideas (we do have a toaster oven so we can cook!) that would fit our theme! Ideas???? Please?!
And for making it all the way through that jumbled mess of teaching madness, here are two more freebies for you!
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