The month of November is wrapping up with balloons, a feast and farms! We spend the month working on activities included in our Thanksgiving Research Project! This project incorporates reading, research, writing, vocabulary, and higher-order thinking skills. Our kindergarten lesson plans for Thanksgiving week include a lot of art projects and snacks.
This year is a little different for me because I get to be a stay-at-home dad, so I can spend more time with our daughter and prepare for our second daughter, due on December 21!! So, each week for Schedulin’ Sunday, I will post ideas and resources that I use in my classroom for that week in the school year. Each post will also contain links to previous years’ lesson plans!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Week 14
Click the links to download our FREE Kindergarten October lesson plans for week 14!
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2024-2025
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Kindergarten November Activities And Lesson Plans: Phonics and CVC Words
We are continuing to work on CVC words in phonics. We are using Word Family Bootcamp for explicit phonics instruction. With Word Family Bootcamp, we are segmenting, spelling, decoding, and writing CVC words and reading them in decodable text! One of the gaps or areas of weakness that we start to see at this point is the middle vowel sound. Our students struggle with this so we now switch our focus to the middle vowel sounds. Our circle charts are now medial vowel circle charts so we are focused on that sound!
We will be doing turkey cvc words using this low-prep, hands-on activity!
This week we are using our newest creation to work on CVC words! We are using our new mnemonic sound cards for word building! These cards use embedded mnemonics to help students remember sounds and decode and encode easier! They’re not only aligned to the science of reading but they’re so cute and fun!
Teaching Sight Words
Here’s what I want us to remember: don’t memorize words. We segment the sounds, blend the sounds, decode the word, spell the word, write the word, and use the word in context, all to help our brains map the word so we actually learn it!
Each week, we learn four words. We learn the word on Monday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, we use the words in sentences. On Thursday, we do a sight word grid, and on Friday, we play a game to practice the word!
Kindergarten November Activities: Math-Making Numbers-Composing Numbers
This week, we continue working on composing and decomposing numbers and ways to make numbers! This is our required curriculum, so we used the same themes for the lessons. However, instead of using slides, we made the lessons hands-on. These lessons focus on helping kids recognize the pattern of creating numbers and how the equations can be flipped.
Each lesson features large manipulatives that students use to demonstrate various ways to create numbers. Once the students present a way to make the number, we add it to our anchor chart for that number.
And to give the kids more independent or partner practice and let them play, we do shake and spill for each number!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans For Thanksgiving Week: Being Thankful
This week, we spent some time discussing what we are thankful for. We read The Thankful Book by Todd Parr and share all the things we are thankful for. Studetns write and draw about something they are thankful for.
Kindergarten Less Plans For Thanksgiving Week: Balloons Over Broadway
This week we get to be in a parade! And learn the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade reading one of my favorite bookes: Balloons Over Broadway! I will never forget my first time reading this book a few years ago and how excited I was to learn about the parade.
We use the book and videos to learn about the parade, the balloons, and the man himself, Tony Sarq.
Then we get to design and create our own balloons and walk in our very own parade! For the balloons, we recently started mkaing them from foil and I have to say I love this method compared to the latex balloons! It’s easier (no popped balloons) and faster!
The kids get a cricle of aluminum foil and use Sharpies to design their balloon. Then I laminate two pieces of foil together, inflate them, and add a stick!
However, if you want to read the book and do a very simple balloon activity, we have you covered with our print and color balloons!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans For Thanksgiving Week: Stone Soup
Thanksgiving week in our classroom traditionally ends with a feast. We gather together to enjoy a meal that we make together. The essence of this time is family, friends, gratitude and that’s what our Stone Soup feast is all about.
We read various versions of the book Stone Soup and work on comprehension skills.
The kids get to make their own artistic representation of stone soup!
Then we make our own butter and our own stone soup! For the soup, we use cans of vegetable soup. It’s fast and easy and delicious. We add a stone to our pot and then we add soup. We use heavy whipping cream and salt to make our own butter. True story. We shake that cream until we have butter! Then we enjoy our feast!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans For Thanksgiving Week: The Year At Maple Hill Farm
Our required text this week is The Year At Maple Hill Farm. This is a challenging book for kindergarten so we focus on the main text on the pages. This week we read the story a few times and work on what we notice, key details and we do a clothing sort!
This week we
Turkey Phonics Project
This week, we will finish any of our turkey phonics projects that need to be completed! This is a great activity if you need something to keep the kids busy, and you get a cute, standards-based project to display!
WEEK 13 RESOURCES
Here are some more resources that can make your planning and prep easier!
Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities: FREE RESOURCES
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