It’s Sunday so that means it’s Schedulin Sunday here at world headquarters. We’re heading into our 2nd full week of school so that means we’re kicking off our hippopotamuses/centers/workstations this week!
As always, you can download my weekly lesson plans by clicking the picture!
I am super excited about introducing hippos and letting the ‘staches me more independent but it’s also nerve wracking and stressful training them how to handle center time! But…lots of practice…and modeling…and a little of Mr. Greg pulling out his hair…and more practice and modeling…we will get the hang out hippo time!
ABC Bootcamp continues with F-J!
(Original camo theme…or Safari theme…or monster theme!)
BUT…this week is also CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM WEEK!!!!!!!!
Who doesn’t love some CCBB?!?!?! It’s a great book for letters and shared reading. It’s great for art projects and hands on fun! So all week we will read CCBB and work on fun letter activities!
We kick off the week with a very dramatic (have you met me?!) reading of CCBB. And then we get to make some noise. Because….noisy learning is great learning.
(Credit: Mrs. Lee’s KinderKids)
Cut out letters (upper and lowercase) and roll them up. Stuff both uppercase and lowercase letters into a balloon and blow up. (26 balloons requires much hot air…it’s perfect for Mr. Greg!) The ‘staches get to choose a balloon, pop the balloon and identify the letter. Then we put the letters in order!
We also get to go on a letter hunt! Actually…two letter hunts. Because clearly, two is better than one!
We have this CCBB tree from Lakeshore Learning. I put the letters in a bag, each ‘stache gets to pick a letter. We say the letter and the sound. We add it to our tree!
We also get to dig in the sand (coconuts…beach…sand…) for letters. When we find a magnetic letter, we say the letter and sound and put it on the board. This year I’m changing up this fun, sensory letter hunt with….PINK SAND…and GOLD LETTERS! BAM!
We also use this poem for shared reading each day. We read the poem and slide the sentence strips up and down to reveal different letters. It’s great for letter recognition and building reading fluency at the beginning of the year. I also write names on the sentence strips and slide those through so we can work on name recognition!
(Credit: Hubbard’s Cupboard)
We also do some fun and messy art projects! Because art is learning and learning is art and every child has a right to do art daily! And it’s fun. And it’s messy. And it makes for pretty hallways and schools. And it’s fun. And it’s messy.
(Credit: Mamamusingsblog.blogspot.com)
Paint a child’s arm brown and their hands green to make the tree.
Then they have to find the letters to spell their name! See…messy art….letter recognition and names! Art is common core is fun is appropriate is necessary.
Give each child some sandpaper and have them TEAR a piece for the trunk. Use feathers for the leaves. Add letter stickers! BAM! (I’ve used this as our assessment piece in the past. The ‘staches only get the letters they can recognize to put on their tree! Art. Assessment. BAM!)
We use a coconut to learn about our five senses.
We touch it. Thump it. Taste it. Sniff it. And observe it.
We record our findings.
We taste it and vote on whether we like it or not.
Click the picture to get your free coconut science labels!
And of course, we make a silly hat!
(Credit: Mrs. Lee’s KinderKids)
And of course, we end Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with Foodie Fun Friday!
Graham crackers, green apples, Whoppers and ABC Animal Crackers!
And now it’s time for math.
This week is Ten Frame Week! We’re learning all about ten frames and using 10 frames to help us count and practice 1 to 1 correspondence!
We start off with a giant living 10 frame! I make this out of duct tape but SitSpots sells strips of SitSpots material that makes an excellent giant 10 frame!
I project a number on the SmartBoard, we identify the number and then we use ourselves to make the 10 frame. Then we count.
It’s super fun and silly and giggly. It’s super engaging. It gets us up and moving and is a full on hands on, sensory activity for all learners!
Click the picture to get your free number PowerPoint!
We will be matching ten frames to make puzzles.
I use my free counting ants ten frame puzzles as a whole group lesson. Each ‘stache gets a puzzle piece and they must find their partner (number and ten frame). It’s movement. It’s counting. It’s fun!
#commoncoreisfun
Click here to download your free Counting Ants Ten Frame Match activity!
We also do some individual ten frame practice! We use these cute ant 10 frame cards to practice counting to 10 and using 10 frames for 1 to 1 counting!
(The 10 frame mat is included in the counting Ants freebie!)
We also introduce roll and color this week! I freakin love this game. It’s so easy and fun. It’s easily differentiated. It can be used all year as a center, as independent work, as small group and 1 on 1 work. It really is Greg-tastic!
And since it’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom week, we have CCBB roll and color!
Click the picture to get your free roll and color!
And we also use my ten frame fun freebie for more practice and as our assessment piece!
This week we also continue working on behavior and procedures and self control!
We do our annual Miss Nelson lesson where we read Miss Nelson and talk about what kind of teacher we want and what kind of behavior we want to have.
We describe Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp.
We talk about our teacher and describe the teacher!
And then we make a super cute Miss Swamp picture.
We also do a self control lesson using bubbles! Blow bubbles and instruct the kids not to pop them. Discuss thinking before you act and having self control!
Then of course you can let them pop away!
Check out the TeacherTipster on YouTube to see this idea in action!
And that is our week!
These are the creations we’re using in our classroom this week:
I linked up with Mrs. Wills Kindergarten for Peek At My Week! Check out her post for lots of great ideas for the week!