Welcome to week 12 of kindergarten, which includes Halloween and the day after Halloween lots of kindergarten learning activities to keep some normalcy! Our goal this week is to keep learning and make learning as engaging as possible to keep us focused and, of course, have FUN!
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Lesson Plans
You can download our weekly lesson plans by clicking on the image!
You can get our lesson plan templates here:
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Word Family BOOTCAMP
This week, we’re continuing to work with CVC words using our Word Family Bootcamp, along with out required foundational skills curriculum. This week we’re doing -it and IP words. We do two different word families a week, focusing on all three sounds in the word! We do circle charts, word chaining, and word writing, and we ‘re using decodable texts! Throughout the lessons, we’re saying the word, segmenting the sounds, mapping the sounds, spelling the words, decoding the words, and we’re writing the words.
One of the tools we’re using in small groups are these word mapping mats. These are so effective at helping students read and write words. They also promote the mental process of orthographic mapping.
This week we’re also introducing our Digital Word Building tool! I like to introduce this resource the week of Halloween so it excites the kids and brings something new into the classroom!
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp
This week, we also continue Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp! Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp is all about hearing the sounds and the oral language. We start with sentences and work our day down to sounds in words, segmenting, etc. This research-based resource is designed for each lesson to take about 10 minutes. Then we move to Word Family BOOTCAMP, which has explicit phonics instruction focused on blending, decoding, spelling, and writing CVC Words. This week in Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp, we’re working on skill 4, which is Rhyming or the same ending sound.
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Sight Words
This week, we’re continuing sight words in our classroom using our science of reading-aligned resource: Sight Word 60! And yes, you can still teach sight words as long as you teach students to decode, spell, write, and read the words in context! We’re not teaching them to memorize words anymore.
Here’s the routine:
Monday: I will introduce the words by segmenting the sounds, decoding the words, spelling them, and using the word in a sentence.
Tuesday and Wednesday-review the words with segmenting and decoding the words; kids use the words in a sentence
Thursday-sight word: Students find and color the word!
Friday-we play a game to practice the words!
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Creepy Week
This week, we are celebrating Creepy Week! This has become a little tradition in our classroom at Halloween! Three days this week, we read one of the creepy books: Creepy Carrots, Creepy Pair Of Underwear, and Creepy Crayons. Each day is dedicated to that one particular story! We do reading comprehension lessons, graphing lessons, art projects, snacks and of course there might a costume for each day!
Monday is Creepy Carrot Day!
To work on comprehension skills we do a story map. We do the story map as a whole group lesson as we read the book. Then the students complete their own story map and they have to retell the story to me using their story map.
Then we graph whether we think carrots are creepy or yummy!
We make our own Creepy Carrot! For this art project, we don’t use any templates or patterns. The students make their own carrots!
Tuesday is Creepy Pair Of Underwear Day!
To work on comprehension skills we retell the story using sequence words. We do this whole group and the students are pushed to add details to their retelling. Then the students complete their own retelling page and use that to retell the story to me!
After reading the story, we make our own creepy pair of underwear!
And we graph whether we like Jasper or the underwear better!
We also make a creepy pair of underwear snack!
Wednesday is Creepy Crayon Day!
To work on comprehension skills we do a story map. We do the story map as a whole group lesson as we read the book. Then the students complete their own story map and they have to retell the story to me using their story map.
After reading the story, we make a creepy crayon and then we make our creepy crayon snack!
And yes, there are costumes! Stay tuned for the newest creepy crayon costume!
Kindergarten Lessons: Addition And Subtraction
This week, we’re wrapping up this part of our work on addition and subtraction. Monday is small group work, and the rest of the week is completing our assessment. The assessment is pretty intense, so we do it in a small group setting. The kids complete it independently, but I monitor them to make sure they’re getting it done.
For our small group lesson, we will be adding and subtracting goldfish!
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Halloween
Thursday is Halloween so we’re prepared for the excitement and chaos of the day! We have a tradition to read aloud a story and work on some comprehension skills in the morning to keep some sense of normalcy. We will be reading There Was An Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid Of Anything and sequencing the story.
And then we do our annual Halloween pumpkin project! This is our 15th year for this activity and it’s always a huge hit!
Each student gets a pie pumpkin. I cut the top off and they have to clean out the guts. After they’re cleared out, we fill them with potting soil and plant a pansy inside.
Kindergarten Learning Activities: Dia De Los Muertos
On Friday we will celebrate Dia De Los Muertos! We read a book to learn about the day. As we read, we completed a circle chart based on what we had learned. Then we draw a sugar skull.
Kindergarten Lessons: Morning Meeting
This week, our greeting will be a jack-o-lantern greeting. Students will pull a card from our jack-o-lantern and greet that friend!
Our activity will be find the clothespin.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
Click below for the resources we are using in our classroom this week:
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