Novel Engineering Snowy Day

I have been going to STEM training through my school district this year.  I have tried to start incorporating what I am learning in the meetings into my kindergarten classroom.  This post is one of three novel engineering experiences I have tried this year.  I read the book The Snowy Day in January and asked them to come up with an idea of how to help Peter.

For this lesson I posted some of the main problems Peter had on the board after we read the story.  They picked if they wanted to work in a small group or individually.  Then they were given a planning sheet.  I had bags of materials gathered ahead of time for them to use since this was our first experience.  They shared their ideas at the end.  What a fun experience! 

Acting Out The Enormous Turnip

My kids had a blast acting out The Enormous Turnip By: Bridie McBeath.  I made my turnip out of bulletin board paper.  I just bunched it up in the shape of a turnip and stapled it closed.  I added some colored cardboard for the leaves.  I put the turnip in between two desks and had just the leaves sticking up.  The farmer and his wife wore the brown hats, the neighbors and kids didn't need costumes, and the animals wore masks.  As each new character is introduce in the book that person comes up, grabs on the rope, and pulls.  I had two students behind the desks by the turnip, one of my students popped an arm out from behind the desks and held up the mouse stuffed animal.

                                                                                                                                                                               

Numbers 1-10

It always amazes me how little concrete knowledge most of my kiddos have about number sense.  They might have the number three memorized because of the way it looks but they have no idea what three means.  I like to show my kids lots of examples of how a number can be represented. You never know what might click for some students and what works for others, so I like to use many examples.  I created this song to help kids have a better sense of what each number represents.  I have also made posters that hang in my classroom and I refer back to as the year goes on.  In addition I have other sheets I like to use for kids to see numbers in many ways.  Check out the song and resources below to help get your kids to have a clear meaning of the numbers 1-10.           

          

Video

Number Posters

                 

Number Practice

                                                 

                                                                                  

                                     

Rule Breaker Sight Words

My students are pretty good at learning basic sight words but those tricky one that break all the rules can cause them problems!  I made this song to help them remember some of the ones they can not sound out and just have to memorize. I encourage them to yell out the word when they recognize it while the song is playing.  I also made this packet of worksheets so they can get extra practice with each word.

Video

                                                                            Packet
                                                                       
                                                                                               
                                       

Math Strategies

 I have been teaching my kinders math strategies and tools they can use to help them add and subtract.  I explained how just like we have reading strategies to helper readers, math strategies can help mathematicians.  I spend a week practicing using each strategy, make sure they know using tally marks only works well for addition problems.  Then I like to mix up problems and have practice adding and subtracting at the same time.  I made a song to help them remember the strategies, made posters to hang on my math board in the classroom, and created practice sheets to work on each strategy.  I also have them play partner games and participate in whole group activities during the weeks I spend on this unit.    My practice sheets and posters can be purchased by clicking on the link below.  I have 16 different sheets and 5 posters included in the set.  The link to the youtube song is also found below!

                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                 
                                           

Three Bears Acting Out

My students love to act out the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  It is so funny to hear them change their voice for each character.  From time to time I like to give them little props they can take home to retell stories to their families.  I run all of the materials for this on different colors of construction paper and quickly cut them out.  They glue the pieces in order and move the bears and Goldilocks around to tell the story.  They keep Goldilocks and the bears in a library pocket I stick to the back.

If you would like to purchase it for $1.00 click on the link below

                                                                                                          

                                                                                                         

                                           

Behavior Plan

I have tried a new positive behavior plan for my classroom this year and it has made a world of difference. I have found that focusing more on the positive things that kids do right is much more beneficial than correcting the negative things. Every child likes attention and this system has made it easy for me to complement good behavior. I have a circus theme in my classroom so I went with a balloon for each child. I fill their balloon with a bingo dabber stamp each time I noticed them doing something good. This might be as simple as the first child who comes to the carpet and sits correctly or someone who uses good manners. Every child has a number in class and the balloons are displayed in the classroom. When a child balloon is full of stamps they are awarded a prize. They can pick from one of eight things including being the line leader for the day, using the super supply bucket for their work, being the class DJ, or picking out of the treasure box to name a few. When their balloon is full it is taken off the bulletin board and they take home a certificate celebrating their accomplishment. Then I replace their balloon with a new one and they start over again.  The materials for the bulletin board, award certificate, and prize cards can be found here.