It’s week 3 of kindergarten, so we’re officially starting our required curriculum this week, but in a more kindergarten-appropriate way! This week is still focused on routines and procedures as well. But mostly, our kindergarten lesson plans and activities are ABC BOOTCAMP and NUMBER BOOTCAMP!
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Kindergarten Lesson Plans And Activities: ABC BOOTCAMP
We’re continuing ABC BOOTCAMP this week, BUT we’re doing a pivot. For many years, we have followed the order of our curriculum, but it’s a very strange order that makes no sense. We were in our planning meeting with coaches and admin, and started discussing this, and our admin told us to change it and make it best for the kids. TRUTH. (This is one reason I chose this school. We do what’s BEST FOR KIDS!) So this week we’re doing: SIPCN.
We’re using our TKS BOOTCAMP Kit this year! That means new hats, new books, and we get to incorporate embedded mnemonics into ABC BOOTCAMP! We will be using our Letter Sound Cards and our Mnemonic Alphabet resource. Here’s the plan for each day of ABC BOOTCAMP:
Introduce the sound and letter using the letter sound card.
Introduce the mnemonic character with the story.
Circle chart (explicit instruction connecting sounds to known words and objects)
Handwriting
Hats
Our hats are: sun/sock, igloo/iguana, noodles/nuggets, cat/cookie, and pizza/pumpkin. There is a cut-and-paste hat and an assembly-required hat. The kids will choose the hat they want to make.
We also do explicit handwriting instruction for each letter. After explicit modeling, students do independent practice as I support and guide.
Kindergarten Lesson Plans And Activities: Five Senses Activities
This week we are officially starting our required reading curriculum. The first module is the five senses. So we’re teaching the language and skill of the curriculum, but using our Five Senses Research Project to make it more kid-friendly and appropriate.
This week, we’re learning to do a notice and wonder with our wonder wheel. This means we’re going to start asking questions (SEND HELP! HAHA!).
We also create a list of things we can use our senses for, and we do our first sensory jar activity. This activity is from the curriculum, BUT the curriculum uses like 5 pictures (all of our required curricula do this. They have good ideas/activities, but poor execution and not enough practice), so we make it better with real photographs. We identify the picture and discuss if we can use the senses for that object. This week is taste so we decide if we can taste it and we describe the taste!
And you can’t learn about the five senses without Mr. Potato Head so this week we make our own Mr. Potato Head!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans And Activities: Families
This week we’re going to get to know our students and their families with our Families Research Project. This is a great theme or unit for the start of the school year because it’s easy for kids to talk about their families and a great way to get to know the families! BUT REMEMBER TO BE INCLUSIVE. OF ALL FAMILY TYPES. READ BOOKS WITH ALL FAMILY TYPES. INCLUDE ALL TYPES OF HOMES, FOOD, ETC.
This week we talk about who’s in our family, where families live, what they eat and do, and my favorite: how our family irritates us.
We also make a self portrait as part of our family theme. We save these and remake them at the end of the year to show how much we’ve grown!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans And Activities: Numbers And Counting
This week, we continue Number Bootcamp, exploring manipulatives and doing explicit work with numbers and counting!
Each day, we get to explore more math manipulatives, and then we do some counting games. This week we’re counting gumballs, pizza toppings, and counting with egg cartons!
Foodie Fun Friday: Rainbow Parfait
This week for Foodie Fun Friday, we’re making a rainbow parfait!
Week 2 Resources
Here are some more first-week-of-school resources to make your planning and prep easier!
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