Room Updates

Our room is always changing with new resources and exciting elements! 

Here are a few things we've added since the begging of the year. 

This is our "I can..." board! We change this board weekly to correspond with our our objectives. We put the objectives in student friendly terms so that they can make the connection between our learning goals and the lessons we do. Each morning during our hook ups, we review our 'I can' statements for the week. The students say "I CAN" and then the teacher reads the statement. This is a great resource to use when stating objectives during and after lessons!

These are just a few pictures of our room! We are in an open classroom environment so there aren't many walls but we do have plenty of floor space!




We also have a brand new rug thanks to donorschoose.org!

It is great because each student can sit in their own square and have enough room to themselves. We are working on incorporating games with the colors to make our lessons more interactive! I have also seen some teachers assign color spots to each student. Which ever color you are on is your team for that 9 weeks! Assigning spots helps with quick transitions and cooperative learning groups.

Predictable Chart

Each week, we complete a predicable chart to hang in our room! The sentence pertains to our unit study or out letter of the week. The sentences are short and, of course, predictable!

Right now, we are spending a lot of time on letter knowledge so we are exploring 1 letter each week. For these charts, the sentence always reads..

"(letter of the week) is for ________________ "

ex: "Bb is for brain. (Ms. White)

This predictable chart is from when we had our family unit study. Each student counted the number of people in their home and we wrote the number into their sentence. 

Ex: "I have three. (Ms. White)"

There are a few things we do to make the predictable chart a knowledge packed lesson:

• Allow students to choose which color they would like have their sentence written in
• during our color study, we have the children spell the color they want to use!
• Ask higher order questions to increase sentence structure awareness 
• "Why is the 1st letter capitalized?"
• "What sound will your word start with?"
• "Is there a place in the classroom that can help you spell your word?"
• "What do we need at the end of every sentence?"
• Show students how to stretch out the sounds in their word and help them spell it correctly
• Add a period after the sentence is written
• Add the student's name in parentheses at the end of their sentence to show ownership 
• we have them read their name after reading their sentence ex: "by Ms. White" 
• When their sentence is completely written, we ask students if they would like to read it by themselves or if they would like some help from the Nemos
• if students ask for help, read the sentence together and then let them read it by themselves
• once they read if by themselves, we give each student a 'picture cheer'!

Inquiries- Week 2

This week, the inquiries were all based on 1-5 numbers and the value they hold. It is so important for students to see that the number 5 actually represents a value of 5 individual items. I loved seeing students go from not seeing this correspondence to actually understanding the meaning of a number! For each of  the activities below, we would check for:

- the numbers being in the correct order 1,2,3,4,5

- the correct number of items corresponding with the number

- counting in order 1-5

- identify/recognize numbers out of order ("can you tell me what number this is?" & "where is the 2?")

1:1 to 1 Correspondence Counting Bear (1-5)

Students placed counting bears on the dots of number cards. We didn't stress that students used the same size bears or the same color. As long as the 4 card had 4 bears, we said it looked great! 

2: 1 to 1 Correspondence Beans Match (1-5)

Someone spilled the beans! Students put beans on mats. As you can see, some of the activities are a bit large and take up some space. We let them get on the floor and use the manipulatives so that they feel free to play with the sequencing. We also encourage them to organize numbers in order and in a straight line so that they can begin seeing how 5 is more than 2. 

3: 1 to 1 Correspondence Dot Paint (1-5)

We put dots of paint into circles to match the numbers. I thought about what would happen in we did not have the dots so students were thinking about the value rather than filling in the dots under the number. This could be a good activity to start with and talk about value with. You can show students that the 1 box has only 1 dot and the 3 box has only 3 dots. 

4: 1 to 1 Correspondence Family Match (1-5)

Only 1 person can live in the 1 house and only 2 people can live in the 2 house. Put the correct number of people into each home! This activity was a bit confusing for some students because they wanted the people who looked alike to all live in the same house. The students were not necessarily concerned about the numbers at first so we would let them play with the families and then encourage them to do the work.

donorschoose.org

donorschoose.org

This is a site where teachers can apply to receive resources from companies that want to give back! It is pretty simple to do and you can get some really great things- we just got 4  exercise balls for our students to bounce on while they sit! All you  have to do is take a few pictures of how the resources are being used and write a note to say thank you to the company who donated to your class.  

Wibbly Wobbly Woo

wibbly wobbly woo,

an elephant sat on you!

wibbly wobbly wee,

and elephant sat on me! 

wibbly wobbly weve, 

and elephant sat on....Eve! 

wibbly wobbly watie,
an elephant sat on....Katie! 

The students absolutely LOVED this activity! We were learning about rhymes and used this game to make up nonsense words with students' names. We went through and said the rhyme with every single student and teachers' name. It took a few tries to really get them into it but after about 5 names they were standing up and trying to figure out who's name we were rhyming with! This activity really points out the fact that rhymes are created by similar middle and ending sounds.

Inquiries- Week 1

We did a lot of work on our names during the 1st week of school so our inquiries were all name based. Unfortunately, I didn't think about taking pictures of the inquires until this week had passed so I don't have pictures of the activities.

1: Shaving Cream Name Writing

Students spread around shaving cream with their hands and then practice writing their name using their finger. They thought it was too messy at first and were reluctant about touching the shaving cream but once they try playing, they absolutely love it! Afterwards we just wiped off the shaving cream with a dry paper towel- it cleaned the desks at the same time! 

2: Cotton Ball Name Gluing

We wrote the students' names in pencil on a poster board paper cut into 4 inch tall pieces. We then traced the 1st letter in black marker. The students were instructed to glue cotton balls onto only the black letter. Most of them ended up gluing their whole name with cotton balls but that's okay because our goal was for them to explore their name & they did that either way! If the students only glued the first letter, we asked them to use a marker and trace the rest of the letters. 

3: Dot Paint Names

K ___ ____ ____ 

(Kate)

We had a piece of paper for each student with the first letter of their name printed in bubble letters and the rest of the paper were just blanks for students to fill in the remaining letters. The students used dot paint to fill in the first letter and then used markers to write the rest of their name. This was a bit confusing for some because many names started with the same letters so they ended up using other's names on accident. I would help the students find their names next time instead of letting them try to figure it out. 

4: Name Sequence Puzzle

Last week we read Chrysanthemum and made a name graph with our students to see whose name was the longest, shortest, or the same. For this inquiry, we used the name papers from the graph and cut them apart. We then put the names into baggies and wrote the students' names on the baggie. This was a pretty easy task for most students, however; some would get confused when their baggie was upside down and the name on their baggie was also upside down. They would then put their names upside down too and even backwards! 

Center Time

We have 40 students so we need plenty of centers. Here they are! 

Before we get started, you should know how it all works. The yellow dots show how many people can be at the center. Each student has a clothes pin with their name on it and they clip the pin to the dot when they want to be at a center. Student can only go to 1 center per day. My mentor teacher says that some years he has let students change centers if they would like to but that 1 per day is working right now. 

Sand Tubs

This is probably our most popular center! We have another one called the rice tub and it is full of just rice and a few beans. The tubs can get a bit messy so we have a small broom and dust pan the students can use to clean up. We also tell them that if a center gets too messy and a teacher has to clean it up then we have to close it for a few days. 

Bucket Toys

These are played on the ground and can be mixed up to create lots of fun games! Our students needed just a little help getting started with this center because they didn't see what all could be done with the toys. Once we gave a few suggestions, like building a boat or a super store, they took right to it. 

Blocks

It's all in the name, just lots and lots of blocks! There are a few railroad kits in there too plus the barns with a handful of animals. These animal have lived in some of the most elaborate block barns I have ever seen. 

Tub Toys

In the tubs are interesting things for students to explore such as keys, tiles, strings of beads, buttons, and more!  

Games and Puzzles

This center has board games, matching games, and puzzles. I like to check in on students in this center because they sometimes don't know the rules to the games. Also, there are sometimes four students in this center but they are all playing different board games. I help them choose one and then play with them all for a few minutes until they are into it and understand how to take their turn. When deciding who takes the first turn, I like incorporating a little education by saying "the shortest person goes first" or "the youngest player goes first". This lets them learn a bit about each other and themselves while practicing basic math skills. 

ABC Center

There are big ABC foam blocks, ABC puzzles, white boards, phonics games, and magnetic alphabet letters. In my Reading Education class we learned that it is important to let students explore letters without an academic aspect. Taking this into consideration, I don't always go to this center and help students put the letters in order or help them practice writing. Instead, I'll ask what they are doing and just see if they would like any help with what they are working on. 

Home Living

Another very popular center! Students love getting out food, stuffed animals, old cameras, and old cell phones to play house with. This center needs a bit of room for the students to get everything out in. Also, this center can get very messy because a lot of people can play here and there are a lot of pieces to the center. We tell the students that if it takes too long to clean up then their mess might be too big. 

Doll House

That's it, just a sweet pink doll house! I was surprised that both boys and girls like to play with the families in the home. 

Reading Center

There are books, magazines, and student made books in the center. There are also whisper phones for students to practice using. The bench seat is filled with puppets and stuffed animals that the students can practice reading with or reading to. 

Free Art

This is a creative place for students to draw, cut, glue, and tape! We use scrap paper and some construction paper from our recycling bend. 

Cleaning Up

Our clean up procedure is the same every day so students know exactly what to do. First, a teacher blows a train whistle when there are 3 minutes left until clean up time. We ask the students to begin cleaning up if they have made a large mess. 3 minutes are put on the timer and the students keep playing. When the timer goes off, we announce that it is time to begin cleaning. We then play our clean up song and let the students clean. When the song is over, everything should be put up and all students should be on the carpet. We also like to remind students that it is nice to help others clean up but, if you just want to tell them how to clean, then it is time to come sit on the carpet. If it takes a center a while to clean up and they are late to the carpet, we help them clean and talk to them about making smaller messes. There are a few centers that students need help putting away such as the heavy rice and sand tubs.