This week is going to be wild because it’s state testing for our 3rd and 4th graders which means our schedule is completely different and we all know how that affects the kindergartners! Our Backwards Bootcamp also continues this week: w for wacky day, v for violet, u for unicorns, t for t-shirt and s for sunglasses!
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Phonics And Phonemic Awareness: Vowel Bootcamp
We are following our required foundational skills curriculum. And we are supplementing with our TKS BOOTCAMP Vowel Bootcamp! Our foundational skills curriculum is teaching uppercase letters (true story. I can’t ya’ll.) and since we’ve already mastered those we will be moving on and working with CVC-E words!
This week will be a_e words. Vowel Bootcamp is the perfect resource that aligns with the science of reading, and is fun, developmentally appropriate, classroom-proven, and teacher-friendly!
Monday is the circle chart. We say the word, segment the sounds, spell the word/map the sounds, and blend the word. We’re also building in vocabulary by defining the words.
Tuesday is word building and blending. We use the large letter cards from Vowel Bootcamp to build and blend words.
Wednesday is word writing. First, we use our whiteboards to practice writing whole group. We say the word, segment the sounds and write the word. Then we blend the word. After we practice students do their own writing which serves as an assessment piece so I can see who needs additional help in small groups.
Thursday students complete an independent activity where they blend the words and match the words to the picture. This also serves as an assessment piece. While this is independent, if I have students who I know will need extra support, I will pull them into a small group and give them some scaffolding as they work!
Friday will be decoding, blending and writing words with a fun game or activity!
We also use our decodable texts in small groups to work on the skills in text. I have seen so much growth in my student’s reading with these decodables. The kids love them and I love seeing their confidence and excitement as they read!
In small groups, we’re using our Word Mapping Mats to really help us segment, spell and read words! Since we started using these I’ve seen great improvement in my students’ ability to segment, spell and read words!
We’re also doing a lot of word chaining with CVC words, blends, digraphs, and double letters! Word chaining is when you change one sound to make new words. This phonics activity is one of the best for helping students blend and write words and understanding how words work. For these lessons, we’re using our Digital Word Building resource! This resource includes a PowerPoint file and a Google Slides file so it can be used on any device!
As the school year has moved along, we’re noticing our handwriting and letter formation is slipping some. This tends to happen every year around this time. Part of it is that we as teachers are overwhelmed with everything and trying to help students master all the things, we just slack off a bit. Ya’ll! It’s ok. We’re human. We recognize the problem and we make a plan to work on it! So, each day for just a few minutes, we’re going to do some explicit handwriting practice using chalk and chalkboards. Here’s why chalk! Chalk creates friction. Friction creates muscle memory. Muscle memory helps us retain information. But we’re not just writing letters, we will add in sound recognition and vocabulary by coming up with words for each letter!
I will show a slide that shows correct letter formation, I will model correct letter formation and then students will practice!
We actually have these little chalkboards that my mom and dad made for my class about 10 years ago! it’s one of the few things left in my classroom that my mom touched and made for me! These are just small pieces of wood painted with chalkboard paint! I ordered dustless chalk from Amazon to use with these!
We will also be using our CVC-E word blending cards during small groups!
Math- Money
This year our district is using Illustrative Math as our math curriculum. We will be completing those lessons and supplementing them heavily with our Math It Up! creations. We started money last week and will continue this week. This week our focus will be one coin a day. For each coin, we make a circle chart or word web about the coin. After we do the graphic organizer, students will do their independent activity where they find and color the coin!
We will also use our money PowerPoint to practice naming coins and their values.
On Friday, we play a money game where students have all the coins on sticks. I say a coin name or value and they hold up the correct coin! This serves an informal assessment as well as being fun!
Each day we use a PowerPoint to quickly practice each coin and its value! Grab the FREE FILE by clicking on the image!
Reading Comprehension: Rainforest Animals Research Project
This week we start our 4th module of the required curriculum and we will use our science block to learn about rainforest animals!
We do one animal a day. We read a book and/or watch a video of the animal. This is the research. We record our learning on our graphic organizer. Students then write about the animal. We also label the parts of the animals. This is great for vocabulary, and discussing animal adaptations and habitats. Finally, we do a directed drawing of the animal!
Our Rainforest Animals Research Project includes 12 different animals: Animals included: sloth, capybara, macaw, poison dart frog, toucan, piranha, anteater, iguana, boa constrictor, jaguar, goliath beetle, and orangutan.
For more animal research projects, check out these resources:
Reading Comprehension: Continents
We will be using our required curriculum which is all about continents. We haven’t don’t his module in the last two years so this is a new experience and from my planning, it looks to be an “interesting” set of lessons. We’re learning about Europe and Asia this week and reading the story Ferdinand. I will be very curious to see how this approach to teaching continents work. So this week we’re doing a notice and wonder chart for Europe and Asia, as well as a text evidence chart for Asia. We will do a story map for Ferdinand. I am working on two new resources for continents/maps and Ferdinand so stay tuned for those as well as updates on how this unit is going…
Mad Science Thursday
This week for Mad Science we’re making sparkly gems! Ice cream salt, glue, and paint! The directions are included in our Mad Science resource!
Foodie Fun Friday
This week’s Foodie Fun Friday will be piranhas in the water. We will spread blue icing on a cookie and add piranhas (Goldfish) to the cookies!
Last week we made an animal parfait that was easy, yummy, and healthy!
Morning Meeting
Greeting-hello neighbor
Activity-find the clothespin
This video was recorded in 2022 when masks were required. The greeting is a snowball greeting but the activity is find the clothespin.
FREEBIES!
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