People….my new group of ‘staches is amazing. We had 2 half days. 2. Half days. On the 2nd day, they were able to come in and get their carpets, clipboards, crayons and their work and get to work on their own!! (OK there were a couple who wandered aimlessly and looked lost…but…that’s OK!) I am so excited to see how they bloom with our first full week of school.
#happyclassrooms
Hello routines and structures! And that’s just for Mr. Greg….Imagine what it will be like for them!!
It’s the beginning of the year. It’s back to school. It’s the first day. Let’s do this!
So here we go.
You can download a copy of my lesson plans by clicking on the picture.
This week we jump right into the weeds of learning!
ABC Bootcamp kicks off Monday with letter A!
Bootcamp is 1 letter each day for 26 days. We introduce letters and sounds quickly so we can move into word families, cvc words and reading words! (We do review all letters and sounds every morning for the entire school year!)
For each letter we do a circle map, handwriting (I do. We do. You do.) I model how to do each letter. We practice on the Smart board. You practice on your own.) And we make a silly hat.
Circle Maps:
We learn THE SOUND first. Then we learn how to spell the sound (the letter!) How we do spell /b/? B spells B. The ‘staches generate the ideas for the pictures. Mr. Greg uses his mad artistic skills (or not…) and draws the picture. The ‘staches identify the first sound and how to spell the sound. I write the letter. Then I spell the remainder of the word while saying each letter. Then we read the word and say the sound again. When we finish the circle map, we read all of the words and say the first sound.
These hats are available from Simply Kinder on TPT!
This week’s letters are: A B C D E
Alligator hat!
Bear hat!
Caterpillar hat!
Dog hat!
Elephant hat!
This week we’re also focusing on names! We will read Chrystanthemum and graph our names, cheer, spell, clap and fix our names. We will make rainbow names. We will play the name game. And we will build our names.
We count the letters in our name and graph them. This flower is literally from the floor to the ceiling. It’s GINORMOUS!
We make a circle map of names that stays in our classroom all year as a reminder that we’re all in this together and we are a family!
Rainbow names! I write each ‘staches name on construction paper. Then we tear paper to make each letter. Of course we had glitter when we finish. Because everything is better with glitter!
We also play the name game each day!
The name game is great for getting in some movement and learning to read and spell our names!
Make a PowerPoint with each child’s name on a slide. Put them in random order. Click through the slideshow. When a child sees his or her name, they stand up and sit down. After we play the game a few times, we go back and read and spell each name. As we get better, the names go by faster and faster!
Click the picture to download the PowerPoint file and make your own name game!
We will break our first hands on center activity (even though we don’t start centers…or workstations…or hippopotamuses…until next week…)! We practice our letters with our letter discovery bottles!
Click the picture to get your free (DIFFERENTIATED) recording sheet!!!
We will learn our colors with our friend Brown Bear Brown Bear.
We read and echo read the story. Then we located objects in our classroom that our each color in the book.
Then we color our brown bear coloring page as a fun assessment piece. (See…coloring is assessment! #commoncoreisfun)
Click the picture to download your coloring page!
We will also do some numbers and counting!
We read Chicka Chicka 123 and do a number hunt. I hide numbers around the classroom. We find the numbers, we name them and put them in order.
Then each day we get to use different manipulatives to practice counting. I give each ‘stache a pile of manipulatives/counters. They get 10 minutes to PLAY! I used to call this free exploration…but they get TO PLAY! (It’s good for them to play with the materials now so when we’re working, they’re less tempted to play. And play is what they need. It’s developmentally appropriate and it’s OK!)
After play time, our practice is simple. Each ‘stache gets a plate, a piece of paper or a work mat…I change it up every day…I say a number. They count the number of manipulatives and put them on their space. So if I say 3, they put 3 bears on the plate. BAM! Simple. Fun, It’s great for working on procedures for listening and following directions and I’m getting a quick idea of how we do with counting and numbers!
We also spend a lot of time on rules, safety, friendship and acceptance!
And we wrap up our first full week with our first official Foodie Fun Friday!
FRIENDSHIP SALAD!
This is a great lesson on what kinds of friends we want in our classroom and what we don’t want in our classrooms! And it’s yummy. This is also a very powerful lesson for my students. We even reference the rotten banana when people aren’t making good choices!
Here are some back to school resources for you to check out:
