Little Minds at Work

Peek Into My Week… Plans, Ideas, & Freebies!

Hey there gals & guys! It’s day 1 of my 3 day weekend…ahhh! My first full week of school is now complete and I’m already ready for the next week! We have a Professional Development work day this Tuesday. So, it’s a 3 day school week coming up. See my complete plans below! I wanted to share with you some of the things we’ve been up to and some things for next week as well!
Before you is 4- $1 trophies from the Dollar Tree…. these trophies make this teacher one happy gal!
We have been working really hard to use our whisper voices while doing seat work.  However, it seems as one table gets noisy…they all get noisy.  So, yesterday I decided to hand out “Whisper Awards” to the quiet tables… wouldn’t you know the room’s voice volume went down…a lot!  All tables won an award yesterday and got to keep it at their tables for the remainder of the day.
Our A my name is… crafts from D. Jump’s Names Unit!  You can see the kids LOVE to use their crayons…you gotta love their creativity ðŸ˜‰
This was our first homework assignment!  I di-cut the letters in their name and send them home.  Students mixed & fixed their names and then glued the letters down & wrote their name.  Click {here} to get the freebie template!
Here it is!! My adorable giraffe tissue holder!!  I picked it up from EBay for $12!  Click {here} to view my original blog post!
Stokes!!  All beginning writers need to know and understand strokes!  It’s hard to tell a kiddo to make the “slant” in the letter K if they’ve never heard of the word slant!  I found these adorable stroke cards via Pinterest!  Here’s the {link}… they are free!!  I laminated mine and the students traced the strokes using their fingers.  We will also be using dry erase markers to make the strokes too!  Before handing out the cards I had the students stand up and make the stroke …we made it little bitty….and then we made it huge!  This movement is so beneficial for students!  After practicing the stroke we worked on stroke practice sheets.  I have these in my Kindergarten Essential Packet!  Click {here} to view the packet on Tpt.  It sells for $6!
Are your parents asking for additional ideas to work with their kiddo at home?  I placed the letters in the their names on plastic square tiles. This way the student can mix & fix the letters in their names…tactile & fun!  Also, you do know all about the free worksheet generators?  So cool!  Here’s the site I used http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/  The cute worksheets in the middle were a freebie from WhatTheTeacherWants!
We’ve had so much fun with these name cards!  I wrote the students’ names on each sentence strip & placed their picture on each card as well. I sent them through the laminate so they would be durable. The first activity was I paired the students up and they had to find their partner by looking at the pictures.  Once they found their partner they got to tell them all about themselves!  Next, I handed each student one of the cards and they wrote the happy birthday song using their friend’s name!  See below for that freebie!!  Now the cards are hanging in the writing center for Daily 5 use!
I placed the happy birthday pages in a book for our classroom Library.  Click {here} for the birthday pages freebie!  The other book was so much fun as well!  It is from D. Jump’s Names Unit!
Here is our Read to Self I-Chart for the Daily 5!  This week we built our reading stamina to 9 minutes!!  It was simply amazing!  I changed out the books in their tubs daily with books from the classroom library.  Eventually, I will have the students change out their own books!
This upcoming week we are starting Work on Writing.  We will brainstorm the I-chart, model & practice, introduce Daily 5 writing folders, and discuss other routines for Work on Writing!  So our Daily 5 block will look like this: Review Read to Self, Build Stamina, Intro Work on Writing, practice work on writing.  This will basically be 2 rounds of Daily 5.  We will build to eventually get to 4 rounds!  Each round will be 12-15 minutes. The following week we will intro Word Work and have 3 rounds of the Daily 5.
Although, I am not starting Work Work in the Daily 5 until the next week I have my tubs already set up!  I have 3 word work tubs!
#1 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letters in the Classroom! 
-Chick Chick Boom Boom Book
– Palm tree placed on magnetic surface using clear contact paper
– Palm Tree templates
-Letter templates
-Scissors & glue
– Teacher Example
This activity is from my Word Work Super pack!  This super pack is made up of 20 activities and over 200 pages….great starter pack for your word work!  It sells for $10.  Click {here} to view!
Keep the letters from getting lost!  I purchased these little containers from the Family Dollar Store!
#2 Alphabetical Order on the cookie sheet!
-Cookie sheet
-Alphabetical Order template {using clear contact paper}
-magnetic letters
I purchased the template {here} from Tpt!
#3 Match the Monkey to the Tree {upper/lower case practice]
– Print out cards, laminate & cut
-Recording Sheet
I purchased this game from D. Jump.  Click {here} to view on Tpt.
This upcoming week we will be working more on rhyming!  We are going to read Sheep in a Jeep and make many new ways to sing the song!!  The kids always love it!  Here it in case you haven’t heard of it before…
Have you ever seen a sheep in a jeep? {clap, clap at end}
Have you ever seen a sheep in a jeep? {clap, clap at end}
No I never, never, never {shake head/finger back and forth}
No I never, never, never {shake head/finger back and forth}
No I never ever seen a sheep in a jeep! {clap, clap at end}
Make different versions- cat in a hat, duck in a truck, snail in a pail, goat in a back, etc
We are also going to do this rhyming sort next week!  It’s is a freebie!! Click {here} to grab it!

If you like my lesson plan format you can download it {here}

If you liked the fonts that I used download them {here}

I used: smiley monster, Oh! Photo Shoot, & Digs my Hart

Comments

  6. Hi Tara! I have questions about the Read to Self stamina. You said that you reached 9 minutes this week. How exactly do you set this up? Do you have them read until even one kid goes off-task? Or do you wait until more than one are off-task? Then do you stop? Do you comment at all about why they stopped? (in a punitive way?) Or do you celebrate–OOHhhh we made it to 3 minutes today? Do they get mad at that one student?

    Reply

  7. Weety- excellent questions! The Daily 5 suggests that you bring the students back to the carpet each time there is an interuption. Well, 1 week into school there will be 1-2 5 year olds that shout out something. I just walk over to that student and remind them of our I-chart {read quietly, read the whole time, stay in 1 spot..etc} It is usually them wanting to tell someone around them about the cool thing in their book. When the timer goes off I make a huge deal about how awesome we did…because 99% of them didn't say a peep! I will usually say something like… "remember we must stay in 1 spot..I noticed a couple of us forget this.." I don't bring attention to the students directly infront of the class.

    Thanks- Tara

    Reply

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