Writing for Fun

We started in our reading groups when we came back from our Thanksgiving break and I was trying to come up with some center ideas. I wanted something simple and fun (well at least something the kids would think was fun). I also wanted something that would help with their handwriting. I would have to say for some, handwriting is their least favorite thing to do.

So I decided to write some simple sentences on sentence strips and cut them up. I placed the cut-up sentences in zip-lock bags and place a bag in the center for each student. The students had to put the words in the correct order to make the sentence and then illustrate the sentence.  I encouraged them to use our "Smiley Sentence" rules to help.

Rubric can be found on TPT

As I was looking through their papers today I felt my heart smile. Something they do not enjoy very much during our "handwriting" time turned out to be something they enjoyed during reading group center time and they actually took the time to make sure their sentences were Smiley Sentences. Their handwriting looked awesome. They were using capital letters and punctuation and SPACING. I just had to post some of their writings. Oh and take a look at their illustrations they had to draw to go along with their sentence. I am one proud teacher right now!! I can't wait to praise them tomorrow when I get back to school and to let them know their writings were blog worthy! They are going to be
super excited.

The dog dug.

The bat sat on the mat.

The frog can hop.

The frog can help.

Ned has a bug.

The sun is hot.

The sun is hot.

The bat sat on the mat.

The bat sat on the mat.

Ned has a bug.

Ned has a bug.



The dog dug.

Out Handprint Owls

Pumpkin Investigation

How much fun did we have today with one little pumpkin? Too much fun!!!

We measured it, described it, counted it's lines and even tested to see if it would float. Guess what?

                              It did!!!

We opened it up and felt inside! It was so gooey and slimy!

Bat Facts

We learned some pretty cool things about bats and we hope you learn something too!

Alphabet In My MOUTH

So after attending Dr. Jean's workshop last year I could not wait to make a big book with my class.  I decided to use the song The Alphabet In My Mouth and we started collecting food labels. I thought this would be a great way to reinforce letter recognition at home and get the kids on "the lookout" for the different letters we were learning in the classroom. I did not know how much fun they were going to have and I did not know they were going to turn into "trash collectors". They started asking to keep their food labels from snack time and lunch time. They did not want to throw anything away.

So after collecting all the labels I used construction paper for the pages, each page had its own letter. The kids sorted the labels and added them to the different pages of our book. 

It was interesting to see what type of foods they had been eating. I think our letter K page was full of Kool-Aid!

 The sorting helped with teaching beginning, middle, and ending sound. They might find the letter I in the middle of the word and want to add it to the letter I page, so we would talk about beginning, middle, and ending sounds.

This was a great Phonics lesson and pssstt... they didn't even know I was teaching. They just thought Mrs. Skidmore was letting them sort through trash. LOVE IT!









This was so much fun that I decided to take their pictures with their mouths wide open and add them to the book and we talked about how we eat letters everyday. Of course, we didn't stop with just the book. My kids love to sing songs, so I had to create a song/video to go along with it. Today was the first day we watched the video and it was hilarous. I can't wait to start on our next class book.

Johnny Appleseed Day

Johnny Appleseed Day

We had so much fun celebrating Johnny Appleseed Day. The kids enjoyed finding the stars inside their apples and making apple prints. We also tasted some different apple "stuff" and talked about the life cycle of the apple. Thank you Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman for planting all those appleseeds for us!

FAMILY FUN

For the past couple of weeks we have been learning all about families in our Kindergarten class. We have talked about families throughout our curriculum including Bible where we learned about the very first family Adam and Eve and their children Cain and Abel. 

We even found out our numbers live in families too. WHAT? Numbers have families? I know right! I love seeing the students' faces when I tell them the numbers have a father.

We learned how much families love one another and how God gave each family member a different role to serve. They really enjoyed bringing in their family pictures and telling the class about their family. It was a special time for them. 

We also did an "All About Me" glyph and they created a "self portrait" to show some of the similarities and differences that we have in our families and we got to learn a little about them as well. They were very proud of their "mini me's".