The missing post - Literacy: November Booklist

So sorry for forgetting to post this IN NOVEMBER.  Caution . . .  beginning blogger who leaves things in draft folders!!!!

 

 

 November is the perfect time to talk about families, celebrations and Food! 

Celebrate Thanksgiving with outstanding children's literature! 

 

 

I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

Lola is a fussy eater. She won't eat carrots or mashed potatoes and she WON'T eat tomatoes. 

Or will she?

 

 

 

 Bee-bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park

Bee-bim Bop means mix-mix rice. Great picture book about family and food. The book walks you through the making of a traditional Korean dish.

 

 

 

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

I love Lois Ehlert's clean simple artwork. This book talks about the gardening cycle and the joyful conclusion at the end of that cycle. Recipe for soup included.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell

Mrs. Madoff's class puts on an unforgettable Thanksgiving play. Everyone has a role to play and a reason to be thankful.

 

 

 

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano

This is a story about a turkey, who, after many hilarious attempts comes up with the perfect disguise to prevent him from becoming Thanksgiving dinner.

 

 

 

The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty

Mini is the littlest Pilgrim in her village. Too little to sew. Too little to bake. Too little to fish. But not too little to make a friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OOOOPPSS! Be kind to a beginning blogger!

 

OCTOBER CELEBRATIONS: 

 

OOOOPPPSS - I'm new at this "blogging thing" and just figured out the not one, but two of my posts in the last couple of months have been sitting in a draft folder AND DIDN'T GET POSTED!  For those of you collecting the monthly booklists and monthly celebrations, here's the 2 that will round out the montly collection

 

 How many seeds are there in a big pumpkin? Medium? Small? Counting pumpkins is messy business but once the slimy job is done, to everyone's surprise the smallest pumpkin has the most seeds.

 Order Up: Pumpkin shaped die cuts can be used to order the letters of the alphabet.  Attach velcro to the back of the die cuts and matching velcro on a strip of black ribbon. Variation: Instead of all 26 letters of the alphabet, put out the letters starting with K or P . . .  you get the idea.  Do the same thing with numbers.

What's in the Haunted House? After reading the book In the Haunted House by Eve Bunting have a class discussion about all the things that could be lurking inside a haunted house.  Draw a large outline of a haunted house on brown butcher paper and hang in the writing center.  On strips of paper, students write what they imagine might be in there and paste the written strip on the outline.  The finished product becomes a story starter for writing Halloween stories.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? Cut open different kinds/sizes of pumpkins.  Put the students in pairs or small groups to count the pumpkins.  Use portion cups for every 10 pumpkin seeds. Each pair or group should be ready to come back to the large group and report the number of seeds in their pumpkin.  All the seeds are added together for a class total. At the end of the activity read the book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara and see if your class discovered the same thing!   

 

Decomposing Pumpkin: After counting the seeds, cut one section of the pumpkin into small pieces. Put the pumpkin pieces in a tightly sealed clear jar.  Leave the jar in the Discovery (Science) center for the remainder of the month.  Whatever you do, do not open the jar! Have students record the experiment as well as the changes that occur to the pumpkin over the course of the month in their Discovery journals. Writing and Science integration at it's finest.

 

 

 More Decomposing Pumpkin: If your school has a community garden or if you are a brave soul, leave your pumpkin outside and document it every month. Photos of the process make for a very interesting bulletin board display.  Have students document the process monthly in their Discovery journals.

 

 

 

 Jack-o-Lanterns: This Halloween activity has a lot of layers to it and that's what makes it so effective.  Die cut pumpkins from thin orange craft foam.  Also die cut different shapes from the same type of craft foam - only in black.  Put the shapes in a small Halloween gift sack.  First step is for students to sort the shapes.  Then have them make different faces on their pumpkin shape that would represent different emotions.  For example:  Make a mad face.  Talk with the students about what might make them mad.  Remove the shapes and try an excited face.  Repeat.  After the discussion about feelings, students make a variety of different faces using the shapes.  When they have a face they like, they draw the face onto a recording sheet. Repeat.  Lots of skills involved with this activity.  Thanks to the wonderful Kindergarten teachers at Daybreak Elementary in South Jordan, Utah for this one!

 

Mosaic Pumpkins: Students draw a pumpkin on white art paper.  The wilder the pumpkin, the darker the crayon, the better the outcome.  This might take several days.  When the pumpkins are finished, have students crumple up the paper so it fits in the palm of their hand. (This cracks the wax and helps give the final project a "batiky" look.) Flatten out the paper and paint over the entire paper with black tempera paint.  Quickly wash off most of the black paint.  The paint sticks to the plain paper and in between the cracks of the waxed crayon. These are real stunners! Note: I usually run an old iron over the back of the paper after they've dried for a crisp and finished look. 

 

Magic Show: Turn your Halloween party into a Magic Show by conducting simple but "show stopping" (anyway by Kindergarten standards!) experiments . . . er . . . I mean magic tricks.  Every year I do something different.  Static electricity: "I can make my hair stand straight up without touching it."  Rub a balloon on a piece of wool.  Put it near your hair and - straight up! Same principle applies with making a Cheerio move without touching it.  (In the picture I have the Cheerio tied to a string and taped to the edge of the desk.)  Static Electricity can also be used to move salt and pepper across a table - without touching it!  Can you make an egg float?  I can.  First put an egg in a container with just water.  It sinks.  Add 6 T. of a magic ingredient (We know it's salt, but THEY  don't) and the egg now floats!  Be sure to explain to the scientific principle to the students after each demonstration. Dancing raisins? Color mixing? Which coke can will sink and which will float?  Any simple experiments work - it's all in your delivery!  oo

Literacy: January Booklist

 Let's celebrate Birthdays this month! Use the following books to integrate the topics of time and seasons with the celebration of . . .  Birthdays!

 On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier

This book has been welcoming babies into the world for over a decade.

 

Jenny's Birthday Book by Esther Averill

Jenny is a shy little black cat who lives in Greenwich Village, NY. Her brothers and friends take her out for a birthday romp on the town.

 

Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant

Have you ever stopped to consider what might be revealed in one spot over one year by 12 unique and exquisite moons?

 

Just A Second by Steve Jenkins

What can happen in just a second, a minute, or an hour? This book talks about unique ways to think about time.

 

A Birthday Cake is No Ordinary Cake by Debra Frasier

Companion book to On the Day You Were Born, also by Debra Frasier. This book celebrates every year in the life of a child and of our great, green planet Earth.

 

The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle

It's Tim's birthday and he gets a letter written in code. He follows the code to a wonderful birthday surprise. Full of the fabulous collage type art that Eric Carle is known for.

 



Arts & Crafts - Mural Making/Cooperative Learning





It's Snowing - Arts & Crafts/Mural Making/Cooperative Learning

Make this group project in December. Leave it up through January. Students draw winter scenes on large pieces of butcher paper- use literature with winter illustrations as a starting point. When finished, take the papers outside, lay them on the snow (if you have snow!) and have students take turns spraying the scene with a spray bottle filled with thinned white paint or white liquid shoe polish.  Let it snow!  Let it dry! Hang it up!

 

 

 



 



Teacher Time Saver Kits

If you've been nice and not "naughty" this year, ask Santa for  . . . Teacher Time Saver Kits, created just for Kindergarten teachers. There is a Super 6 Teacher Time Saver Kit for every month of the school year.  Each kit contains 6 activities with directions and materials and comes in an easy to store zippered bag. Teacher Time Saver Kits save you valuable time and energy. The activities in the kits are engaging, sequential, ready to use and are based on best teaching practices and the Common Core. 

Check out the kits for January, February and March 

January Teacher Time Saver Kit





January - Activities and Skills

Pair Them up! - Rhyming Words

Constellation Station - Learning About Our World and Beyond

Sight Word Chains - Sight Words

Toothpicks and Clay - Building and Sculpture

Roll It! - Addition

Winter Writing - Story Writing  





February Teacher Time Saver Kit 



February - Activities and Skills

Magnetic Sentences - Sentence Building

Classifying Animals - Zoo & Farm Animals

Shape Collage - Collage Art

Trace and Space - Handwriting

Abraham Lincoln - American Symbols - Estimation

"Sprout" a Sponge - Farm Animals





March Teacher Time Saver Kit 



March - Activities and Skills

Weather Words - Spelling

Word Cubes - Sentence are made up of words.

Pin Pictures - Craft Project

How Long is a Minute? - Duration

Daily Task Cards - Handwriting

Bowling Subtraction - Subtraction

 



December Celebration

 Dream Snow by Eric Carle

It's December 24th and the old farmer settles down for a winter's nap, wondering how Christmas can come when there is no snow.  It is in his dream that he imagines a snowstorm coming and covering him and his animals in a snowy blanket.  But . . . the story doesn't end there.

 Countdown Calendar Book Basket: Here's a great countdown to Christmas activity that doesn't cost any money and doesn't involve . . .  chocolate! Wrap Christmas books (use the ones you already have, everyone likes to hear an "old friend" at Christmas time) in Christmas paper and place them in a basket or box. Unwrap and read a book each day.  When the basket starts getting empty, students will be able to see that the holiday is almost here! 

 

"Baking" Cookies: Sight Word Recognition: What's the secret to these cookies: Play dough! Write sight words on cards. Have students roll out the play dough and use alphabet cookie cutters to cut out the letters that spell frequently used sight words.



Mystery Gift: Invented Spelling: Shake, guess and write. Those are the surprisingly simple directions for this activity. Choose items like pencils or bouncy balls, legos, marbles, etc. and put several of the same item in a medium sized box. Wrap the box (or several boxes) in bright colored wrapping paper. Students choose a box (if more than one), shake it, guess what's inside and write their guess on the box. At the end of the day, use the invented spellings for a large group mini-lesson, then open the box and see if anyone guess what was inside.  Put new "gifts" in the box each day.

 

The Gingerbread Man Class Book: Read your students a few different versions of the classic Gingerbread Man story and lead them in a comparison of the stories. Work on comprehension by having students retell the the story, then add their own different text and endings for inclusion in a class book. Thanks Jennifer Vasquez and the Kindergarten students at Wasatch Elementary School in Salt, Lake City, Utah for sharing your class book with me.





Five Senses of Christmas: Science Center: The Christmas holiday season lends itself nicely to a Discovery or Science Center featuring the Five Senses.  Put out different items for children to taste and smell. For example: scented flavorings, smelly stickers, peppermint candies, fresh cranberries. Also include different textures to feel and items to examine under a magnifying glass.  Add some Christmas cards that play a song or make a sound when opened.  For that all important Literacy connection, have students draw and write about their experiences at the Five Senses Center in a Discovery Journal. 



 Service Learning Project: Christmas is a time of giving so December is a perfect time to conduct a food or clothing drive for needy families.

Stained Glass Mosaics: Art Project: Students place a sheet of overhead plastic on top of a simple Christmas picture.  Using the picture underneath as a template, they color the plastic with vibrantly colored markers. Cut the colored plastic picture and a piece of aluminum foil to be the same size as the inside of a colored paper or plastic plate. Students "scrunch" the foil so that it fits into their fists. Unfold, smooth gently and glue in the center of the paper place.  Glue the colored plastic picture over the tin foil for a stained glass look. 3D Art Murals: See how a large cardboard box can become a work of art! Cover a large box (a refrigerator box is ideal, but any large box will do) with butcher paper.  Put an outline of a house, Christmas tree, mode of transportation, etc. on each side of the box.  Each day allow students to use different materials to add to the mural. For example:  Monday, they might add paint.  Tuesday, fabric scraps. Wednesday, old greeting cards cut up and glue on . . .  You get the idea!  

 



Celebrate Winter hoidays with a Book Party.  Make a Hibernation Hut (see directions below) and a Reading Igloo.  Yes, the Reading Igloo IS made out of empty milk containers! Put battery operated votive candles in paper bags. Turn out the lights so everyone can hibernate and read some good Winter themed books.

Hibernation Hut: Turn a simple card table into a place for your young students to read and . . .  hibernate! Measure the top and height of your card table and buy enough simple material to cover your table from the top to the floor.  Felt works exceptionally well because you can cut it and glue shapes on it, but you don't need to hem it.  Don't make this project too hard, a simple dark sheet draped over a card table would work just as well.  Put pillow blankets, stuffed bears and a variety of books about Winter, hibernation and bears into the hut.  This creates a warm, comfortable, semi-dark place for students to read and rest this Winter.