I woke up this morning full of ideas and energy for Schedulin Sunday and then I hit a wall. And lost my mojo. So, this week’s lesson plans are not quite as full as usual, but we’re still gonna ZOO it up in the kindergarten smorgasboard! This week we’re going WILD for animals and monkeying around with the common core! Guess what we’re doing? Animals! We’re going to learn about animals so we can be ready for our Earth Day Zoo field trip!! There are some freebies and some fun ideas for animals and the zoo, so read on. Be inspired. And help me get my mojo back!
click to download my weekly plans
Monday
We kick off with meerkats. Um, they’re cute. Enough said.
We will read the book Meerkats and complete a tree map of all of the information we learn about meerkats!
We will write an opinion piece (see, monkeying with the common core!) about our favorite animal. I’m breaking this down into two pieces. Today we will write about which animal is our favorite. Tomorrow we will write why it’s our favorite.
In math, we will work on skip counting by 10. We’ve been doing this as part of our calendar routine so today we’re going to do a little independent activity (cut and paste!) to make sure we can do it and have it mastered. Guess what?! FREEBIE TIME!
click to go to the freebies page!
We will end our meerkat day with a meerkat craftivity. This craftivity is hand made by ME! WOOHOO! Sadly, I do not have brown construction paper at the world headquarters (I must speak to the CEO so he can speak to the supplies manager and restock the world headquarters!) so I can’t show you how cute this meerkat will be. But check back tomorrow for pictures and your very own copy of the craftivity!
Tuesday
Zoo week continues with Zebras! This is appropriate because we kick off our end of year alphabet countdown today! It’s Z for Zebra day!
We will read the book Zebras and complete a tree map about zebras. After reading about zebras, we will continue our opinion writing by writing about which animal is our favorite. Today we will write about why our animal is our favorite.
In math, we continue our skip counting fun with counting by 5. FREEBIE TIME!
click to get your freebies
We end Z day with a zebra puppet made from a lunch sack!
Wednesday
Zoo week continues with giraffes. Of course, we will be singing Tall Giraffe by my dear dear dear friend Debbie Clement. We will read Giraffes and make a tree map about giraffes.
In math, we will switch our focus to numbers to 20. We will be counting sets and graphing our results. The monsters will roll a cube and count the pictures. They will then color their graph. This will be done in small groups while the rest of the monsters work quietly in their centers. (I almost said quietly with a straight face!)
We will end giraffe day with a giraffe craftivity!
Thursday
Zoo week slithers on to Flamingos! I love these pink beauties. Simply because they’re pink and beautiful and unique. It’s like me…I love pink…I’m beautiful and very unique!
After we read about flamingos we will do a tree map about flamingos.
We will write about what animal we hope to see at the zoo and why. We’re working hard on opinion writing and our reasons why.
In math, we will work in small groups with our numbers to 20. We will be using my Nashville Stamping numbers creation and we will be working on ten frames. I still have a few that are really struggling with this so we are gonna keep practicing every day!
click to download
We will wrap up our flamingo day with a flamingo craftivity! How cute! But we’re adding GLITTER! And lots of it!
Friday!
Zoo week wraps up with Monkeys! Who doesn’t love monkeys?!
We will read Chimpanzees (yes, I know, they’re not monkeys. But it’s what we all think of as monkeys! And I promise not to teach the monsters that monkey’s are chimpanzees!)
We will whip up a tree map about monkeys and then the monsters will have to choose two of our animals and complete a double bubble map about those animals. On. Their. Own. But guess what? I know they can do it!!
We will wrap up our opinion writing by illustrating which animal we want to see at the zoo and why!
Math will wrap up with some fun animal cracker addition and subtraction fun! (Stay tuned for the freebie….I am waiting on clip art!) It will be a set of cards/practice pages and the monsters will use animal crackers as manipulatives.
We will make a cute monkey craftivity!
And of course we will have our Foodie Fun Friday! This week we will enjoy alligator pie! We will be using the recipe from Deanna Jump’s Zoo Animals Unit! A must have! Check it out!
Of course we will do word study and work on our vowels. We will of course make a hat! And we will use our QR codes more and more and more! And do centers and sing and dance! And meet those common core standards while having fun, being creative and loving learning!
Check out the freebies page for your freebies!
click for your freebies!
Be sure to check out my Earth Day creation and my newest set of centers for The Kentucky Derby!
And my April Ten Frames are now half price!!
