It’s time again for SCHEDULIN SUNDAY with The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. This is our first FULL WEEK and FULL 8 hour days. Yeah, that’s no typo people! Our day is 8 hours long! We are an extended day program so we’ve got a lot of time to fill….so why not overplan, overplan, overplan?
Are ya ready for week 2? Here we go!
As always, you can download a copy of my lesson plans by clicking on the picture. The template is available at A Teacher’s Plan and is called THE GREG.
This year we are trying something new for letters and sounds. Normally, we do a very informal letter a week. It’s more deliberate at the beginning of the year and then we add in our letter/sound chart so the letter a week loses some focus. This year we want to expose the ‘staches to the letters and sounds as quickly as possible….so we’re going to camp.
ABC BOOTCAMP!
Here’s how it will work:
Starting tomorrow we’re introducing 1 letter and sound each day for 26 days. This way the ‘staches will have a letter/sound foundation earlier so that we can start building on that foundation to become readers!
Here’s what we have planned for bootcamp each day:
Letter/Sound Circle Map! I will introduce the letter and sound and the ‘staches will generate pictures for that sound. I will, with my mad artistic skills, draw their pictures. The ‘staches will generate the first sound/letter and then I will spell the remainder of the word and we will read the word.
Handwriting. We will practice each letter on our chalkboards. Custom made by my daddy when I first started teaching kindergarten. I will model how to write each letter and then they will practice.
Silly hat. Of course. It’s a tradition. It’s a requirement. You must use the silly hat!
26 days. ABC Bootcamp.
Monday:
Letter A goes to bootcamp.
It’s also time to meet the scissors. AND THE GLUE SPONGES! This day makes me a nervous wreck. What if they cut off a finger? Or some hair? YIKES!
To help us practice writing and cutting, I whipped up this great freebie!
10 pages of lines to trace and cut!
We will read Chrysanthemum and discuss our names. We will play the name game. The name game is a simple PowerPoint with every child’s (and Mr. Greg’s) name on it. When they see their name, they stand up and sit down. We play it a lot the first few weeks of school! Then we will make a graph of how many letters in our names!
This is the PowerPoint for the name game. Click the picture to download your freebie!
We will also make a circle map of our names! Each child will say their name and spell their name!
Math is all about colors. We will read Brown Bear Brown Bear and find things in the classroom that are certain colors.
Next the ‘staches will sort bears by colors. Before they sort the bears, we will learn about using manipuatlives and counters. We will also get 10-15 minutes of exploration with the bears. Let’s be honest…that means playtime! hehe
Next we will do a color matching activity and a coloring sheet!
Click here to download your freebie!
We will also go on a tour of the school in search of the monster. After we return to our room, we will make a monster!
These adorbs monsters are from Kindergarten Smiles!
Tuesday
ABC Bootcamp: Letter B.
We will read No David and do a good choice/bad choice sort. We will then take those choices and make a class anchor chart!
We will play the name game. We will write our names. We will write letter Bb. We will make a bear hat. We will read our emergent reader. We will make our Bb circle map.
In math, we will read Chicka Chicka 123 and learn about numbers. We will go on a number hunt. Mr. Greg will hide magnetic numbers around the class and we will find them and bring them to the whiteboard. We will put them in order.
We will sing Counting 1-20 by Jack Hartmann.
Next we will get to play with our bears again. And by play I mean free exploration.
After 10-15 minutes of exploration, we will practice counting. I will say a number and the ‘staches will put that many bears on their paper plate. This is a great and easy way to see who has a good foundation for counting!
We will also make a fun pencil craftivity!
Wednesday
ABC Bootcamp: Letter C.
Caterpillar hat. Circle map. Chalkboard writing.
We will read Animal Park ABC. It’s a big book that came with an old reading series. We love it because it’s animals! It’s a great letter book if you can find it!
After the story, we go on a letter hunt. We find the magnetic letters and bring them to the rug. Then we put them in order and talk about why we need letters and how we use the letters.
Math is more number practice. We will use The Random Number CD from Kim Sutton. It’s soft music and calls out random numbers. The ‘staches will have a number mat (1-10) in front of them and when they hear a number, the point the number!
We will sing 1-20 with Jack Hartmann and practice counting with cubes.
We will read Officer Buckle And Gloria and make a circle map of safety rules for our classroom!
BUSY!
Thursday:
ABC Bootcamp: Letter D.
Dog hat. Circle map. Chalkboard.
We will read The Crayon Box That Talked and discuss how we need everyone in our class to be successful. We will talk about helping and loving and kindness. Then each ‘stache will get to design a crayon for our class crayon box!
We will make a “How Can I Be A Pal?” anchor chart.
For math we will use our random number CD but this time the ‘staches will hold up fingers! If the song says 3, they hold up 3 fingers. Another fun, easy way to assess counting.
We will make rainbow names using torn paper. Each stache will decorate the letters of their name with rainbow paper so we can display them in our rainbow mustache room!
Friday!
Let’s take bets on how my knee holds up this week…AND GO!
ABC Bootcamp: Letter E.
Elephant hat. Circle map. Chalkboard.
Name game. Name writing.
We will read Rainbow Fish and talk about sharing and caring. We will talk about friendship and make a friends tree map!
We will make our CIRCLE OF FRIENDSHIP by painting our hands and putting them in the circle!
We also get to do our first center like activity. We will use our Letter Discovery Bottles to practice our letters!
CLICK THE PICTURE TO GET YOUR FREE RECORDING SHEET FROM MY FREEBIES PAGE!
We will also do a letter/number sort. We will write our names. We will play the name game.
And then it’s time for FOODIE FUN FRIDAY!
This week’s recipe is FRIENDSHIP SALAD!
This is a super fun way to talk about friendship and the kind of friends we want in our classroom!
You use different kinds of fruit to illustrate the character traits you want in your classroom. Then you use a rotten banana to demonstrate a bully. It’s a great concrete lesson to help the ‘staches with an abstract concept. And it’s yummy. And you can reference the rotten banana all year long. To get the recipe and directions, click on the friendship salad picture.
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8 comments
I'm stoked for our first week! I'm seriously the luckiest K teacher in the world, my room is literally right next door to the infamous Mr. Greg!!! Looks like I have a few more things to prep for the week!
Your kinders will do fine with a letter per day & you'll love the results! When I taught K we used the Jolly Phonics program which is based on a letter/sound each day. The fast pace is great and I believe it makes them better readers & writers. It's great to see all the art activities & hands on learning in your plans!
Learning at the Teacher Table
OMG Greg scissors scare me. We have serious talks about scissors at the beginning, but I need to remember to talk about it once a month. I had a darling cut off a chunk of hair in April. Her mother and I were speechless. I need a snazzy name for it… hmmm time to think!
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for doing Schedulin' Sunday! It is my FAVORITE! It is so helpful. I love, love, love your ideas and am so grateful that you share them. Thank you!!!
Greg, what is your direction after completing the ABC bootcamp a letter/sound a day? I plan on using Kim Adsit's ABC sight word books a letter a WEEK? then BLENDS?? Thank you so much for doing Schedulin' Sundays it has helped this NEWBIE a great deal!
Greg,
I am trying to download the alphabet recording sheet and it won't let me. I downloaded the Alphardy ABC chart just fine, but the recording sheet won't. Let me know if I am doing something wrong-haha.
Hope you're having a great first week. You might need to invest in a gas mask….or Bean-No 😉 haha
Thank you so much for sharing the names power point. That will be so much fun! I can't click on the alphabet recording sheet; is it in your freebie section?
Hi, Greg–
Thank you so much for sharing so many great new ideas with us! Perhaps I need more coffee this morning…but I can't seem to be able to download for the alphabet recording sheet either.