*Winter Wonderland!*

Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on two very fun themse - Winter and Bears. Obviously there are many items from both of these that overlap and because of this, we just roll with it! Today I have included pictures of some of the lessons focused on winter, however, you will have to wait for a post about bears in the days to come, as we are still working on some really exciting lessons!

"The Hook" - I begin each new unit by opening the floor to my students (I talk enough during the day, it's there turn!) and giving them the opportunity to share what they already know or to offer any questions they have. I love seeing the reaction of students when they enter the classroom and see something new. They can barely contain themselves as they wait to hear what the newest topic is! In the slideshow below you will see a few highlights from this unit including two seperate charts to help organize and support our learning, as well as activities that we completed integrating reading, writing, math, and science skills and objectives.

OLE! Our Trip to Mexico!

My students and I recently completed one of my favorite units of study in our Kindergarten curriculum - MEXICO! This unit typically takes 4 full weeks to complete and is one of the most talked about memories of kindergarten among students. Many ask why we cover this in the winter vs. around Cinco de Mayo, which would seem like the logical choice. Well in all honesty, in an effort to be politically correct, we are able to have a very fun and festive celebration at the end of December!

To begin, we hook students by transforming our classrooms with bright, colorful decorations and artifacts from Mexico, for example posters, maracas, banners, music, and more. We begin by reading Blue Bug Visits Mexico by Virginia Poulet and discussing the different lands of Mexico, as well as the climate. With my assistance, students color a map of Mexico and use the key to make note of these special lands. Students also make a suitcase and pack it with items they can't survive without during our travels. We display our suitcases on a large bulletin board, as we will need to access them throughout our trip (i.e. store completed projects and papers in them for easy take home!). A picture is worth a thousand words! Enjoy the picture walk below that will help guide you through our recent travels. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about particular lessons and I can explain further!

Our Suitcases:

Land of Mexico Book

  

    

Mexican Flags:

Flag Compare and Contrast

Student Engagement

When you walk into our classroom, you will find students sitting in silence at desks  organized into rows. FALSE! This is kindergarten! Students are learning when they are engaged. Plain and simple.

Throughout a day in our kindergarten class, you will find students learning new skills on our carpet, reinforcing skills in small groups, and applying learned skills independently or with a partner at their seats or on the floor. More importantly, you will see students using a variety of modalities to accomplish these tasks. Students are learning when they are talking, moving, and participating in hands-on activities.

Talking - Yes it is in my job description to teach the students in my class, however, I am not required to talk from the 8:30 bell to the 3:20 bell! I have found that the more opportunity I give my students to talk with one another and share their ideas, the better listeners they are when it counts. Strategies such asthink-pair-share always work well, but switching it up keeps students on their toes and prevents the rolled eyes and "I'm bored!" For example, rather than having students simply raise their hands and share when called on, I may have them sit in a circle and pass a ball around sharing on their turn. Another way to make sure students are engaged and attending is to have them share in pairs and then report their partner's thoughts to the class.

Movement - Kindergarten today is drastically different from what adults today remember. Even so, it is important to remember that my students are only 5 years old and need to opportunity to be kids! Between activities and during transitions, you can find my students engaged in songs, dances, and academic games. Not only does this help students get their wiggles out, but it's also just fun! I also give students the opportunity to find a work space that matches their needs. For some, a chair does not work well for their learning style, as can be seen to the left. Students are given the opportunity to use a clipboard on the floor, sit in a bean bag, move to a table by themselves, or even sit at my desk. 

Hands-On Learning - I find that when my students' hands and bodies are busy, their minds are busy, and therefore engaged in learning. I do anything I can to involve students in the modeling and teaching process, as well as provide them different ways to approach each task and still getting to the desired outcome. To the left is an example of a student using one of our many math manipulatives to help support his completion of the assignments. For the same activity, some students worked independently with no manipulatives, while others chose to collaborate with a partner, sharing the responsibilities. 

2. Everything Has a Purpose!

Before doing anything in my classroom I take a minute to think – why am I doing this and what can be gained from it? Clear examples of this are the bulletin boards in my classroom. Bulletin boards should be meaningful and used for two purposes - to support student learning and to display student work. The majority of the displays in our classroom are used to enhance student learning. For example, our word wall and math tools board offer support to students during lessons and activities. 

Word Wall: When students enter our classroom, the word wall is empty, aside from the headings and strips of Velcro. As we learn each others name and begin to read new words as introduced through our reading program, we add them to the wall to reference during reading and writing lessons. As I stated, I have placed a strip of Velcro under each letter. Each word is laminated and backed with a piece of Velcro, which makes for adding words to the wall a quick and easy task!

Math Tools

 This is posted in our math center. Students reference the tools on this board throughout the day during all math related activities. Numbers and shapes are posted year round. As new skills are introduced, images, descriptions, and/or examples are added into the existing sleeves. 

Student Work: In addition to being resources, our walls are covered in student work. Not only does this help students feel proud of their accomplishments, but it also allows parents and family members the opportunity to see what their child is doing in school.

To the left are examples of student work that can be seen on the walls of our classroom at some point during the school year. First is an activity we do at the beginning of the year to help learn the letters in our names. After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Each student has the opportunity to build their name on the Smartboard, which they will then transfer to a sentence strip. We finish the project by illustrating our own coconut tree and adding it to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom bulletin board.

 Second is our Look At Us bulletin board. Before coming to kindergarten, students draw a self-portrait of themselves and bring it to school with them on the first day to add to our board. At the end of each month, students make another self-portrait to add to our board. At the end of the year, I assemble the portraits into a book and students give them to their parents as a gift. Parents LOVE seeing how much their child has grown throughout the year!

1. Organization

A little bit of organization goes a long way in creating a successful and smooth running classroom. Not only does it keep me sane, but it also fosters independence in my students. In my first year of teaching I often felt like a chicken with its head cut off. In preparation for the next day’s lessons, I would run around each afternoon grabbing paper from my closet by the door, markers from the writing center by the window, and getting distracted by a million other things along the way. You know you need to make a change when you are too winded from work to go to the gym!

 How I Stay Organized:

• Location, Location, Location! Everything in my classroom has a place.  After my first year of running here and there I realized I needed to give each area of my room a theme. For example, everything related to math is found in or around the math center, all reading materials are located behind and next to our reading table.  It seems obvious, but it has turned my life around.

• Always Plan Ahead! It took a great deal of trial and error to establish my planning system. Plan books that can be purchased at teacher stores just didn’t work for me. Teachers are much like students in the sense that we each have our own learning style and therefore, there is not just one way in which we should all plan and document our day’s lessons. In addition to my weekly plans, I also (for my own sanity) fill out a grid to organize my reading block including Weekly Objectives (letter, word, skill, book, vocabulary), Literacy Centers(what are the activities, who is going where), and Reading Groups (who am I meeting with each day and when). 

• Save the Good, Toss the Bad! After my first year of teaching I switched classrooms with another teacher. As I was packing up my room, I quickly realized I had become a hoarder. Anything and everything that colleagues passed along to me I held onto as though it were gold. This did not make the move very enjoyable. The light bulb went off in my head and I made the decision to cleanse! My filing cabinet is organized by month. each hanging file contains the folders for the lessons and activities that fall within the month. The front of the hanging file lists these lessons, which makes it easier to find them, as well as put them away. At the start of each month, I pull the corresponding file and store it in a basket on my desk for easy access. When I am finished with an individual folder, before returning it to the monthly file, I will sort through the contents and consider which lessons were successful and worth holding on to, which need to be adapted, and which should just be tossed. By going through this process, I am not only reflecting on my own teaching, but also preventing any future hoarding situations! The system I currently have in place has worked well over the past three years and I don’t see myself changing it in the near future. Unless of course I find another brilliant idea from stalking other teacher blogs! :) 

How My Students Stay Organized:

Everything should have a place and should be labeled with words and/or pictures. If this is done, students are able to find things on their own, as well as clean up after themselves, without needing to depend on me!

• Baskets – Everything has a home. During the first few weeks of school, we spend a great deal of time walking around the classroom and noticing what we have, as well as where it all goes. It is important for students to know where to find/put things before we begin using them.
• Labels – Each basket has a label, identifying what should be inside. Again, seems obvious, but not everyone does this – and they wonder why students are unorganized or always interrupting them! Some baskets I have labeled ahead of time, while others are labeled with words and pictures during shared writing time.
• Guided Discovery – Allowing students the opportunity to explore and discovery the tools in our classroom, as well as their purpose and/or function is extremely important. I have found that if I just tell what something is, they are less interested in utilizing it to help their learning, than if they have examined and discussed its purpose with my guidance.