This week we’re continuing Vowel Bootcamp, working on subtraction, and learning about butterflies! And we’re continuing Backwards Bootcamp! Oh, and it’s state testing for the next two weeks for 3rd and 4th grade so that means our schedule is different again which has been challenging to say the least! But we’re making it!
Here at TKS, we’re all about transparency and being real, so I wanted to show you a sneak peek of where this week’s Schedulin Sunday blog post came together…
Note: This year, my goal is to show you that you can use our TKS resources along with required curriculums and continue to have fun, so you’ll see that happening throughout the school year!
District Guidelines-UPDATED
- Masks are now HIGHLY RECOMMENDED but not required
- We are keeping our enhanced cleaning procedures (wipe down surfaces throughout the day, steam sanitize the room daily, hand sanitizer/hand washing throughout the day, steam mop the floors daily, etc)
- I have added an air purifier to our classroom after reading the research from Johns Hopkins that these can help reduce the spread of Covid and other germs. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PURIFIER I ORDERED!
Lesson Plans
As always, you can download our weekly lesson plans by clicking on the image!
You can get our EDITABLE lesson plan template by clicking on the image below:
Vowel BOOTCAMP
In keeping with the pacing of our foundational skills curriculum, this week we’re learning about double consonants. BUT, I noticed in the last few weeks that my students’ writing could be so much better if they had the CVC-E pattern so I will be adding in Vowel Bootcamp to give my students what they need. We will do a circle chart, work on decoding, and writing words and we will be using our decodable readers.
We will spend this week reviewing vowels and focusing on blending, decoding, and writing.
We will also be using our CVC-E decoding cards for extra practice!
And yes, Vowel Bootcamp and the entire TKS BOOTCAMP curriculum are aligned to the science of reading. And it has been from day 1 because that’s how I was taught to teach reading so it’s what I’ve always done!
Sight Word 60!
This week we are continuing Sight Word 60! After spending the summer learning more about the science of reading, we are continuing with Sight Word 60. We have always had decoding and encoding (writing) of the words as part of Sight Word 60 so we will continue that and will increase the amount of decoding and writing. We will also use orthographic mapping and we’re changing our order of sight words to align to the 109 most frequent words (even though we do 100 words…). You can learn all the details of how Sight Word 60 works on the linked blog post and you can get everything you need for Sight Word 60 in our Sight Word 60 creation!
Explore It Up-Then And Now
As part of our required reading curriculum, we’re studying America Then And Now. This week the focus is on transportation and communication. We’re going to read about transportation and sort transportation and communication items. One of the few things about our new curriculum that I like is the notice and wonder chart! It’s a great tool to get kids talking about a topic!
This is what these lessons look like:
Butterflies Research Project
I was SO excited to bring butterflies back into the classroom after many years and this research project hasn’t disappointed! The kids are so engaged and they’ve learned so much. Hearing them use words like metamorphosis and proboscis and ditching how important butterflies are to our world is so amazing. This week we will do the life cycle of a butterfly and label a butterfly and re-visit our schema map to add new learning. Here’s a peek into our learning from last week:
Math-Subtraction
This week we’re continuing to work on subtraction with some fun hands-on games and activities and a focus on small group work as well.
First up is subtraction bowling! We use our giant bowling set from Wal-Mart. We start with 10 pins. We bowl. And we write the equation 10-(how many pins fell down)=answer. The next equation is based on how many pins are still standing!
The second activity is our Subtraction In The Bag game. Students choose a card, and everyone writes and solves the equation. And we sort the card into the correct bag. The cards are available for FREE in the linked post at the end of this post.
The rest of the week will be in small groups. The students will work in math centers and I’ll pull the students who need extra help and support with subtraction. We will use our MAth It Up! Get Off My Boat and Math It Up! Subtracting Cars in small groups.
Morning Meeting Greeting
This week our morning meeting greeting is a mingle greeting. Students walk around and mingle! We’re using this greeting because our change in schedule limits our time for morning meeting!
Mad Science
For mad science, we will do soda science using sodas and Mentos! Who doesn’t love making things explode?
Backwards Bootcamp
This week we continue our Backwards Bootcamp. I cannot believe we’re at the end of the year. And we’re celebrating the last 26 days of school. This ridiculously challenging year is almost over…and man, we teachers have done amazing things! This week our Backwards Bootcamp activities are:
W-Western Day-dress like a cowboy or cowgirl and eat watermelon
V-violet-wear purple and eat Veggie Straws
U-umbrellas-make an umbrella and eat unicorn cakes
T-wear your favorite t-shirt and eat Teddy Grahams
S-wear sunglasses and eat strawberries
This week’s resources:
FREE FILES!
For more information, check out these posts:
