Week 8 of kindergarten is about reviewing all sounds and letters, learning about pumpkins, and reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Lesson Plans

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ABC BOOTCAMP

We have a required foundational skills curriculum that we follow, and we supplement it with our TKS BOOTCAMP resource. Our TKS BOOTCAMP curriculum works with ALL curriculums or as a stand-alone resource! We have finished ABC BOOTCAMP and we always do a week of review focusing on all sounds, letters and letter formation. In small groups, we will be using our sound hunts from ABC BOOTCAMP.

ABC BOOTCAMP has always been aligned with the science of reading and has been used in classrooms for 10 years!

This week we will play games to review sounds and letters. The games focus on identifying the sound, spelling the sound, and writing the letter. An example would be pulling a letter from a plastic pumpkin. We will also use our AlphaPals pillows for a fun letter hunt around the classroom!

And as part of our review week, we continue our tradition of playing giant CandyLand! We turn our classroom into a giant version of CandyLand to practice letters and sounds! Students get a turn to be the game pieces. When they land on a color, we choose a card. We say the sound, and the letter, and write or color the letter or picture! See the blog post at the end of this post for all of the details!

UPDATE: here’s our data from the halfway point of ABC BOOTCAMP!

ABC BOOTCAMP is all-inclusive and includes tools for small groups. We will focus on the sound/letter we’re learning each day.

Reading

Once again, this year, we’re using our required reading curriculum and supplementing heavily with our Read It Up! resources. This week, we’re using Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! When we made the switch to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this late in the year, I was annoyed. But then I realized the timing is perfect since we’re finished with ABC BOOTCAMP! It’s the perfect time to bring all of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom fun into the classroom!

This week we’re focusing on answering questions, drawing and labeling a picture from the story, what we see and hear, and acting out the story!

To help us generate questions about the story, we use our wheel of wonder!

We also act out the story! If you’re not doing this in your class. DO IT. It’s hilarious!

To build fluency, we use our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom predictable chart! We use sticky notes for letters and the names of the kids!

We wrap up our Chicka Chikca Boom Boom week by turning Mr. Greg into the coconut tree!

I wear brown sweats and a brown hoodie. The letters are sticky letters from Amazon. I put the letters in a bag. Kids choose a letter, we say the sound, the letter, and write the letter. Then the kids stick the letter on the tree!

Math

Our district has adopted a new math curriculum (AGAIN!), so we’re trying to figure it out because it’s a lot, and it’s not aligned with our state standards, so there’s that. We’re using the curriculum and supplementing it with our MATH IT UP! resources!

This week we’re starting to compare numbers! We are focused on comparing groups of objects and 1 more and 1 less (which seems like a huge jump to me since we are still working on counting….so we shall see…)

Our first lesson is comparing objects so we make collections of classroom objects and discuss which is greater and less.

This week is some new activities which we are going to make more kid-friendly!

Comparing stamps on envelopes, building towers with blocks comparing which is more or less, and comparing sets of stickers. My plan is to make some envelopes with stamps and the kids will hold them and decide who has more or less. For the towers, they will work in pairs and build towers and decide who has more or less. Finally, I’m going to make sticker cards using index cards and stickers. Kids will play a number battle game to see who has the most. Stay tuned for pictures, resources, and videos!

Pumpkins Research Project

This week we’re using our science block (ya’ll! My new school has a legit 45-minute science/social studies block!!!) to celebrate the arrival of FALL with our Pumpkins Research Project!

We use read-alouds and class discussions for our research. We record our learning on graphic organizers. This week, we kick off our research project with a schema map, we make a can/have/are chart and label the parts of a pumpkin!

Students use their Pumpkin Research Project to record their learning throughout the research project!

Foodie Fun Friday

This week we’re making a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom snack!

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15, so we will be celebrating all month long. We use our Hispanic Heroes Research Project to learn about Hispanic Heroes over the month. We use a read-aloud and video for each hero. We complete our graphic organizer and discuss what each hero teaches us!

FREEBIES

WEEKLY RESOURCES

Click below for the resources we are using in our classroom this week.

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