Story Maps, Rubrics and Counting (Random Thoughts)

Conferences Monday, Valentine's Day party Tuesday and getting a weeks worth of sub notes ready.  My head is swimming and my thoughts are scattered.  So, today's post it just as random and scattered as my thoughts are this week. 

I just need to give a shout out to my co-worker Jill for this adorable Story Map poster she created for us!  The kids were immediately excited about it because of the pirate and they didn't even know what it was!  We read a story today and talked about Title and Characters.  Tomorrow we'll read another story and talk about Title, characters and setting and so forth. 

Jill was also the master mind behind these incredible rubrics.  These charts have really helped my kids think about their writing. 

In math we are working hard on counting "big" numbers using "big kid" (skip) counting.  My students have been brainstorming ways we've learned to count this year.  I love that they are 5 and 6 years old and don't find it odd in the least that they can count by 5's and 1's and 10's and 1's.  It's just so natural to them!   If only they knew how hard a skill that is and that their teacher didn't even start practicing those skills until 3rd grade!   My how education has changed!

Ok, random scattered thoughts are still bouncing around in my head.  Time to get organized.....sigh....

Monster Spelling Inventory

I spent 2 days this week at Common Core Training and had the opportunity to sit next to a wonderful teacher from a neighboring school district.  She was so much fun and had so many great ideas.  I'm not sure how long she's been teaching but I'm guessing maybe 20-25 years?  Anyways, I LOVED that she was still excited about finding new teaching ideas and that she was so willing to share all her great ideas!

As we were talking about ways to assess she mentioned what she called the "Monster" test.  (Doesn't that sound like fun?)  Anyways, the Monster test turned out to be a Developmental Spelling Inventory.  It's a test that has been around awhile (at least since 1985) but it's the first time I've ever heard of it. 

I e-mailed my co-workers the link right away and before I even left the meeting for the day Tina (one of my coworkers) had e-mailed a recording sheet for us so that we could give the test the following day.  (I have the best coworkers!)

The next day I returned to work and gave the test.  VERY COOL!  After analyzing my students tests I found that they ranged anywhere from Semi Phonetic to Transitional.  Here are 3 of the tests:

The little girl who took this test is on an IEP and receives resource room help and speech and language interventions.  She and 2 others in my class scored in what would be considered the "Semi Phonetic" range. They could identify the beginning sound of most of the words.

This little guy scored in the "Phonetic" range.  16 of my students scored in this range. You can see they could identify a few more sounds than the kids in the semi phonetic range.

4 of my students scored in the Phonetic/Transitional range.  Again, you can see that they could identify even more sounds than the mostly Phonetic students.

I was an interesting assessment and so cool to hear my kids sounding out these words.  Yeah phoneme segmentation practice!!!

By the way...the words for the test are:

1. monster

2. united

3. dress

4. bottom

5. hiked

6. human

7. eagle

8. closed

9. bumped

10.  typed

If you click the link above to the website it will show you how to score the assessment.

It was a very interesting assessment!

Telling Time (tip)

We started planning for our Time unit in math yesterday.  Time and money are 2 of my favorite math units!   When I introduce the clock to my kinders we'll make a clock and on the hour hand we'll put a picture of a turtle to illustrate how an hour goes slow.  On the minute hand there is a picture of a rabbit to illustrate that minutes go faster. 

I also put a turtle and rabbit on my teaching clock and the kids watch how the rabbit is always running fast around the clock while the turtle is trying it's hardest to catch it.  Usually one or two kids notice that the rabbit can get all the way around the clock while the turtle only makes it to the next number.

Of couse not every clock they see will have a turtle and rabbit on it so I also tell the kids that the minute (rabbit) hand is longer like the ears on a rabbit and the hour (turtle) hand is shorter like a short turtle.




Of course, to a teacher, 15 minutes of recess is more like a cheetah or a jet breaking the sound barrier....how DO they speed up the clocks during that time???

Hope you found this tip helpful!

Word Family -at (freebie)

Over half way through kindergarten and we are hard at work on our word families.  We work on 1 word family a week.  Last week was -at.  This week is -en.  Every day we have a different way to build our words.   In the next few weeks I plan to highlight some of the ways we practice.  Above is one of our centers.  We call this playdough splat.  The kids "splat" a piece of playdough on the pages (which are inside clear sleeves) and stamp the missing letter. (We use lakeshore alphabet playdough stampers.)   Click on the picture above for your free copy of our -at family pages.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I am off to Common Core Training!  Woot woot!

Just finished 2 days of lessons plans- 12 pages!! 

Oh my....is that bad??  Does that make me a control freak??

Random Thoughts About Gloves

It is that time of year....I have a pile of mismatched cheap gloves that no on in my class wants to claim.  They are worthless $1.00 gloves that don't keep hands warm at all and no one seems to know how they got all over our floor!!  Do I find this annoying?  YES!   But, I hate to throw things away...even cheap gloves.  So, here is my list of useful ways to "recycle" these irritating & apparently orphaned articles of clothing:

1.  Use them as white board erasers (I have collected so many over the years that each of my students keeps one in their seat sack as their eraser.  Plus, they keep their marker inside their glove so it's fast and easy to find...theoretically.)

2.  Have students put them on to clap syllables in words

3.  Use them for crafts (seriously, just google "glove crafts" and you'll be looking at adorable gloves for hours minutes about 30 seconds)

4.  Cut the fingers out of them and wear them to keep your hands warm when your district's budget is cut and your building heat is set to 68 (feels more like 65 to me! Brr....) 

5.  Put them on the hands of any nose pickers you have (or hand lickers).

Ok, I'm out of ideas.  I actually only use them for reasons 1 and 2 above but I think #5 might actually work!

Slug Bug....I mean Tag!

Thank you Stephanie, from Kinder Kiddo, for tagging me!  Stephanie drives a VW bug like I do so I feel like I was slug bugged instead of tagged!  tee hee!

So here are the rules:

1. You must post the rules.

2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.

4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.

5. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

 12 "fun" facts:

1.  I have lived in 4 states (Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota)

2.  I've been to Mexico 3 times (can't wait to go back)

3.  We are going on a family trip to Disney World in February

4.  Snakes, spiders and mice petrify me (so do school board members...haha!)

5.  I'm not related to anyone famous...major bummer.

6.  I get bored easily.

7.  Love, love, love to shop but hate to spend money.

8.   I recently (in the last 2 years) lost 30 lbs and have kept it off!  Woo hoo!

9.  I don't collect anything (unless you count books on my nook...got a good collection started there!)

10.  I would wear flip flops year round if I could (yep, even in cold weather)

Oh man....I can't think of anymore!!!

12 questions to go anwer:

1.  What is your favorite store?  I'm more of an Amazon.com shopper

2.  Do you have a class pet? Used to have a bunny but had to let her go live on a farm at the beginning of this year....long story)

3.  Do you prefer Dollar Tree or Dollar General?  Can we call it a tie??

4.  How many pets at home do you have? 1

5.  Do you have kids of your own?   yes

6.  How do you deal with help helicopter parents see your side of life?  Impossible!  I just keep showing their kids they don't need helicopter parents.  Keep telling them "you are smart enough and strong enough to handle this on your own!"

7.  How do you involve absent parents in school activities?  Sometimes the only thing you can control is what happens in your classroom.

8.  What is your favorite sport?  soccer

9.  What is your favorite team of #8's sport?  My daughter's team (yep, I'm a soccer mom)

10.  What is the piece of jewelry you wear most often? My wedding ring...can't wear necklaces because they clink against my class mic all day and bugs the heck out of me

11.  Do you like curtains or blinds?  Curtains...blinds are a pain to clean

12.  What can brighten your day when nothing else can?   My daughters

Ok....I just spent 20 minutes checking all the blogs on my blog roll and everyone has been tagged already!!!   guess I was the last one to show up to the party!  ha!

100th Day...Hip Hip Hooray...It's Over!

Here's our day in a "nut" shell (actually yesterday was the 100th day but I came home from all the chaos fun and fell asleep....exhausting!)

*As a "home" project the kids made 100th Day Posters.  Here's my daughters.  We used band aids to make tally marks.

*We made 100 Day Masks

*We made 100 Gallon hats and drew 10 things in each of the 10 sections.

We sorted beads (10 beads in each section) and made necklaces.

*We finished out Zero the Hero book and ate our 100 day treat that Zero the Hero brought us.

*We searched our room for numbers and colored our hundreds chart to find the surprise picture.

It was an long exciting day and I was thilled relieved when our schedule returned to "normal" today.

If you're interested in the mask, hat or hundred chart art click here.

Going to the Chapel.....a little QU love!

We had our QU wedding on Thursday. 

What can we say...they met, they fell in love, they lived happily ever after!

Our parent volunteers did a great job setting up the chapel!

Our principal officially wed the happy "couple."

The kinder guests all dressed as a letter from the alphabet (the adorable letter "A" is my daughter!)

Lots of kinders brought presents for the occassion!  QU were very thankful for all the quarters, quilts, queens and quaker oats.  They also loved the reminders the students brought them from their "single" days.  Q appreciated the Q-tips and U really liked the uno cards, underwear and umbrellas!

The reception was catered by "Kinder Moms."  (There were even 3 cupcakes left over for the hard working teachers!!!!!  Bonus!) 

The guests also enjoyed the dance following the reception.  The Chicken Dance and Hokey Pokey were enjoyed by all!

One more Dr. Seuss Post....TPT Unit and Freebie

 

I just posted a Dr. Seuss Reading & Math Unit to my TPT store.  I completely got ahead of myself and skipped to March.  Haven't even started my February unit yet.  Oh well, it's a short month, right? 

Click the picture above to check out my unit and click the picture below for a free Dr. Seuss writing prompt paper.



Writing: An "AH-HA!" Moment

I really want to call it a "DUH" moment but "AH-HA!" sounds more positive.   So, my moment came in about October but I just shared it with my coworkers today (I think I was worried I was the only teacher who hadn't thought of this yet.)  They were as excited as I was about my Ah-ha and suggested I share the idea in my blog. (Best co-workers in the WORLD!  Hi Tina!!  Jill, if you check my blog and see this I'll do your recess duty for you....ha!  She never checks it!)  Ok, way off track.

So here's my big revelation:  SENTENCES HAVE PATTERNS.    Duh.  We all know that, right?  You write a word and then you leave a space.  Then you write another word and leave another space.  I showed my kinders how to leave a space between words by using a Space Man, I gave my kinders their own special "Space Man", I reminded my kinders to use their Space Man, I BEGGED my kinders to use their Space Man....so why, why, why, why, why where they still not using spaces consistently???  WHY?

Then, one day we are writing sentences and had just talked about patterns (and don't ALL Kinders LOVE patterns??  Uh...yeah.)  So, I said, "Isn't it fun how every sentence has a pattern:  word, space, word, space, word, space."  And as soon as I said that about 21 little lightbulbs went off inside my kinders heads. (I have 24 Kinders....just being realistic....)  Seriously, their eyes literally lit up and so did mine.  Duh Ah-ha....that's how you explain it!

Now a lot of you are thinking "Oh my, girlfriend, you just now got that?"   Yep, I did...and I'm so glad I did because now I'm only down to begging reminding 3 of my kinders to use their Space Man....and that is SO much better than 24!  Yeah!

You can't see me...but I'm doing a happy dance!

Word, Space, Word, Space, Word, Space, Word, Space

Now...If I can just get them to use periods.

Dr. Seuss Freebie (to accompany posters freebie from yesterday)

Yesterday I created some fun Dr. Seuss quote posters but wasn't sure what to do with them.  So my ah ha moment came today.  I created the page above to use with the posters.  I'm going to put the posters in protected sleeves and use them as a sight word search.  Everytime they find the sight word in one of the quotes they make a tally mark next to the word.  I jumped ahead a little on my word work packs (haven't even done February yet) but these Dr. Seuss graphics were so cute I couldn't help it! 

Thinking About Theodore....a Little Dr. Seuss on my Mind

I bought these adorable Dr. Seuss cliparts from Scrappindoodles with the intent to create some Feb/March word work.  Instead I started fiddling around with some of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes.  There are so many I love!  I made these with absolutely no purpose in mind....maybe I'll think of something....maybe I won't.  Either way, it was a nice theraputic afternoon of vegging and laundry.  Guess I'll have to work on word work another day!  : )  

SO SORRY EVERYONE...but Scrappindoodles was asked to stop selling their Dr. Seuss clipart because of copyright infringement.  Scrappin Doodles was also told to tell anyone who purchased the graphics to stop selling and/or giving away any products that contain the clipart.  I am a HUGE rule follower plus I adore Scrappin Doodles clipart and do not want to get them in any more trouble! So, sadly I removed the poster.  : (


Thanks for understanding!

100th Day....8 days away! (Freebie Alert!)

Our 100th day is getting close so I looked through my 100th day file today to decide what to bring to planning tomorrow with my wonderful co-workers!  Here's run down of what I "usually" do:

*Hundred day necklace:  I have them sort beads by color into groups of 10 and then put them on a string in those groups (good visual for 10 groups of 10= 100)
*Hundred Gallon hat:  Looks like a cowboy hat but it's divided into 10 sections.  The kids draw 10 things in each section (anything they want).  Another visual for 10 groups of 10= 100
*Writing:  If I had $100 I would.....
*100 Day Art:  This is the freebie (click on pic above for download).  Check it out...it's a lot of fun!

Last year I took them to the gym and we did 100 jumping jacks, tried to spin a hoola hoop 100 times (HILARIOUS!), and tried to keep 100 balloons in the air for 100 seconds.  Wore them out....loved it!

Transitions

This time of year my kiddos get "tired" of the same old classroom managment attention getters and transitional poems, etc that we've been using all year.  The first few months of school when I said "Spring a leak!"  I'd have a classroom full of kindergarteners sounding like leaking tires "SSHHH......"  They were so loud and proud that they knew how to get the class quiet quickly.  Now, it's a sad little leak I hear "sshh..."   It was new, it was fun, and now they're done!  


At the same time they need these oldies but goodies they learned on days 1-10 to keep things simple and consistent.  The poster above shows 3 of my consistent transition songs/poems that I could not get through my week without.  Click on the pic for a printable version.  


Another one of  my favorite quick chants for getting kids quiet for the hallway is: 

Big old ________ round and fat. 

(put arms in big circle to mimic a fat belly)

Ready for the hall, just like that.

 (We clap our hands on the words "just like" and then slap our hands on our legs for the word "that.")

The blank part above changes every month (you could use anything but here's what I use):

Sept/Aug:  apple

Oct:   pumpkin

Nov.  turkey

Dec.:  santa or snowman

Jan.:  snowman or penguin

Feb.:  heart or valentine

March:  leprechaun

April:   rain cloud

May:   We usually learn about the planets this month so I use a different planet name each time.

If you have any favorite transional songs or poems, get quiet quickly chants, or a management technique you could not get through your week without I would love to hear them!!  I am probably more ready for "new" than they are!!  : )

New Car and a FREEBIE to Celebrate!

My wonderful husband surprised me this week with a late Christmas present (complete with payments! ha ha!)  Isn't it cute??  It's my first brand new car EVER and I am so excited!  It put me in the mood for a "groovy" themed freebie.  Click on pic above to get a Peace themed Read the Room activity.

It was a long day...complete with 1 very upset kicking and screaming kindergartener.  This was THE perfect way to end my day!  Plus, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!!  : )

This Says It All.....

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered.

Forgive Them Anyway

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motive.

Be Kind Anyway

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.

Be Successful Anyway

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.

Be Honest and Frank Anyway

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.

Build Anyway

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.

Be Happy Anyway

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Be Good Anyway

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.

Give the World the Best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God!

It was never between you and them…Anyway!

My mother-in-law shared this with me recently and I love it.  No idea who the author is so if anyone knows please let me know!

Thank you Janine (see comment) for letting me know the author of this fabulous quote is Mother Theresa.   Makes the quote even more inspirational!

Report Card Procrastination

Should be working on report cards.  Don't want to.

Soooo...instead I am writing sight words on feet.  We walk the feet and say the words as we walk.  Helps promote fluency of the words as the kids do NOT want to have to stop.  I put a few velcro pieces on the back (2-3 pieces depending on the size of your feet...hee hee.) Of course make sure you use the scratchy velcro not the fluffy velcro. I love kindergarten teachers because you know exactly what I mean when I say that!  My husband would crinkle his nose and me and look perplexed. 

I used to tape these to the floor but they still slipped and the "Cleaning Powers that Be" said "no, no."  

I also used to have some fun slippers I let the kids put on while they did this activity but I have a new "issue" with stinky feet smell.  Ugh!  So, no more slippers.

Ok, sigh, back to report cards.

b and d Confusion

Don't have a whole lot to share tonight (pic above is from Really Good Stuff....in case you haen't seen it, it is a poster they sell.)  Back to school tomorrow so that's on my mind.  A little denial going on actually.   Here's a quick feebie...nothing hard to make but thought I'd share.  I love it when I see my kinders put their thumbs up to "make their beds" and check their b's and d's.

You can use this worksheet in lots of ways.  Pick which letter you want your students to find and have them use daubers to mark them,  fun markers to circle them, trace under the letters until you find the letter and then loop the letter without picking up your pencil (anyone remember that from VOWAC?s  It's good way to practice visual tracking), use see through colored chips to cover the letter, etc.

That's it for tonight.  Back to work tomorrow..... sob yeah.

Breaking the Rules for a Good Reason!

I know, I know, I know....I already posted once today but I just got so excited when I saw that Mrs. Egley From Mrs. Egley's Kindergarten nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you!   What a nice way to start the New Year!

So, the rules of the award are:
1.  Thank the person who nominated you with a link back to them.
2. Tell 7 things about yourself (see below)
3. Pass this on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received an award!  (Well that part was easy because I am really new at this so every blog I follow is "newly discovered" to me!)

Here are my 15 nominations (it was hard to only pick 15!)

Kinder Kiddo

Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten

Busy Bees

Growing Kinders

Kindergarten Korner

Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten

Really Roper

Heather's Heart

Crayons and Curls

Lil' Country Kindergarten

Ms. Kerri and her Krazy Kindergarten

Mrs. Greene's Kindergarten Korner

I Heart Crafty Things

Sea Bear's Kindergarten

Tales of an Elementary Teacher

7 Things about me (this is the hard part....I like to share my teaching stuff but sharing about myself is weird for me....who would want to know about little old me??  But I am a rule follower so here I go...)
1.  Only 2 of my friends know I blog...not sure why I don't share that...maybe it's because it would be sharing part of me and, again, that's hard for me!
2.  I like Sci Fi (not Horror) but things like Ghost Whisperer and Once Upon a Time (I think it's a reality break for me)
3.  I teach Faith Formation (Sunday School) classes for kindergarten at my church
4.  I love, love, love to read (again...reality break)
5.  I started dating my hubby in high school.  He's my one and only!
6.  I have 2 beautiful daughters who like to fight and are becoming drama queens (will I survive the teenage years?  They are only 5 & 8!!)
7.  I wish I was more organized! 

Sale and a fun idea!

I found this FUN idea on pinterest where someone took a collage frame, some adorable craft paper and made a message board for their house (theirs was labeled Sunday, Monday, etc.)  They used dry erase makers to write things to do each day, etc.  So of course my mind starts thinking...how can I use that in my classroom?  The one in the pic above I made for my  Holly Bloggy partner Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants.  I had 3 "thoughts" about how to use it in a classroom: 

1. Helper chart (like above) so that you can write the student's name on each frame and then quickly erase and change.  I used pics of her classroom and pics that corrsponded with the "job" b/c our little ones are so visual.    (click here and here and here to see these.)

2. Listing classroom rules (click here and here to see)

3. Word Work Choices (click here and here to see)

Rachelle has a food themed classroom which I why I used the food backgrounds for hers.

(Sorry about the 2 files for each but I had to save these each in 2 files b/c some where landscape and some were portrait.)

I couldn't decide which one to make for Rachelle so I made her cards for all 3 ideas but only took a pic of it as a helper chart.   Now I'm working on making one for myself (although that's not as much fun as making for others.)  Anyone have any other ideas on how to use this idea in a classroom? 

Oh yeah...and I'm having a sale at my TPT store!  20% off until January 4th! 

Happy New Year Everyone!