Week 17 of kindergarten means gingerbread, measurement and graphing, phonics, and more. But we also know the importance of keeping our routines and procedures in place. Kids are so excited this time of year so it’s important that we keep things as routine as possible while embracing the magic of the season! Hang in there, ya’ll! Breathe! Have fun!!
You can download our weekly lesson plans by clicking on the image!
You can get our lesson plan templates here:
WORD FAMILY BOOTCAMP
We have a required foundational skills curriculum that we follow and supplement with our TKS BOOTCAMP resource, especially for extra practice and small group work! Our TKS BOOTCAMP curriculum works with ALL curriculums or as a stand-alone resource! This week, we are continuing Word Family Bootcamp to focus on CVC words, blending and decoding words, writing words, and lots of word chaining!
Word Family Bootcamp is about taking the sounds we learned in ABC BOOTCAMP and using them to read words. For 5 weeks, we do 2 word families a week with a focus on using all three sounds to decode, spell, write and read words. After those five weeks, we spend a week (this week) making circle charts for CVC words using each vowel in the middle position. So Monday we will make words like cat, mad, etc. We will be writing and spelling words all week as well. At the end of the week we will assess and use that data to determine next steps.
Word Family Bootcamp is an all-inclusive resource that is aligned with the science of reading! Word Family Bootcamp includes whole group lessons, small group lessons, decodable readers, and centers!
We also have an intervention hour so we will be using this time for our Word Family Bootcamp word match activities and look alike word activities.
We will also be using our Word Mapping mats during this time to work on our segmenting, spelling, and reading words!
We’re also using our Digital Word Building Resource to do word chaining to work on blending CVC words!
Sight Word 60
This week we’re going to officially kick off Sight Word 60. We typically start this early in the year but my class this year wasn’t ready so we’ve held off. And That’s ok! Our curriculum doesn’t start sight words until after winter break, so we’re ahead of what’s expected. The focus of Sight Word 60 is decoding the words. We say the sounds, we use the sounds to read the word, we spell the words, and write the words. We aren’t memorizing the words. We’re mapping the words into our brains!
Monday-introduce the words, segment sounds, blend sounds, read the word, the teacher uses the word in a sentence
Tuesday-Wednesday-segment, blend and spell the words, kids use the words in a sentence
Thursday-sight word grid
Friday-game. This week we’re going to read the words, spell the words, and write the words. The words will be on paper ornaments and we will place them on a tree!
For more details on Sight Word 60, grab our Sight Word 60 resource and check out the blog post linked at the end of this post!
Reading
Once again, this year, we’re using our required reading curriculum and supplementing it with our Read It Up! resources and TKS research projects. This week, we have some “free” days so it’s GINGERBREAD WEEK! We’re using our all-inclusive Read It Up! resource!
Each day we will read a different story and add the details to our story map.
On day 1 we read The Gingerbread Man and sequence the story!
We also do a fun writing activity where the kids generate ideas of what they would run away from and then they write and draw a picture!
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!
Monday will be our assessment for making 10 and then the rest of the week will be lots of fun math
For addition, we will be adding ornaments. I make a giant tree from bulletin board paper. We put on ornaments and solve the equations.
We will also do some estimation and measurement using our Non-Standard Measurement resource! The kids will estimate and measure how many Christmas trees tall they are!
We will also do a fun gingerbread graphing activity! The kids will get a gingerbread cookie and take ONE bite. Then, we will graph the first bites and analyze the data.
Gingerbread Science
We will also do a float and sink activity! Students use a piece of aluminum foil to make a boat for the gingerbread man to see if they can safely help him cross the river!
Christmas
This week we will also have some fun with some Christmas art projects and activities!
We will make these fun santas! The kids choose their skin tone and I model each step and the kids do the step! We also have a couple of new art project ideas that we will share this week!
This STEM activity is great for teamwork and is very low prep. All you need are some peppermints. The kids unwrap the candy so they get some good fine motor practice! They work with their friend to build a peppermint tower!
We’re also going to be using our newest resource! Our Build It Up! December Pattern Blocks and Counting Cubes Puzzles!
My school had math and literacy night last week, and I was asked to come up with a math activity for families, so I made these, and they were an epic hit. Kids and families sat down and made each picture and loved it. Ya’ll. I did some, and it was so relaxing. The best thing about these is that they are so low prep! Print and laminate, add pattern blocks or counting cubes and kids! This will be a stress saver this week!
FREEBIES
WEEKLY RESOURCES
Click below for the resources we are using in our classroom this week.
For more information, check out these posts:
