Penguin recap, MLK Peek at my week!

Another week down and a short week in our futures! I wanted to go ahead and post my plans in case you are back to the classroom on Monday! We have a professional development day as well this week so we have only three days…silent cheer everyone 😉

So, let’s talk those adorable penguins? They are a freebie from Miss Kindergarten! You an click HERE to snag it! Below are my plans from last week AKA penguin week!

Click the image below to download the plans…

Our nonfiction close read was a hit this week! Kids always LOVE learning about penguins and I enjoy close reads because I learn something new right along with them! This close read plan is a freebie in my store. If you haven’t tried close reads this one is great one to try out.

Here is our penguin chart…we like to add to it a little bit each day after we’ve learned a new fact!

Our vocabulary words for the week….

Each week I like to have two essential questions that we focus on. I like to have one skill-based question and one “life” question. This week we were focusing on text and graphic features with an emphasis on photographs. We also discussed if we could have a penguin where we live. We made a chart of what a penguin needed and then crossed out those that we could not give to a penguin…and we decided unfortunately we could not have pet penguins 🙁

We also wrote penguin facts each day for writing. At the end of the week we made a cover for our books, stapled them twice {this is a real BIG deal}, and placed them in the hallway for the school to see that we are authors!

Here is a look at the books…

You can download the penguin reports for FREE by clicking below! 🙂

In math this week we continued talking about 2D and 3D shapes. We also take about 15 minutes each math block to build number sense through whole group routines and then always a partner number game! You know how as teachers we always feel that we teach something then move on? Well, that is why I love taking time each day to play number sense “games.” It allows students to continue building those oh so important number sense skills AND the kids love playing games! These number sense routines and activities are in my KinderMath packet! 🙂

Yep, we worked with shapes! It seemed like after that first week they really had a great understanding of the shape names and characteristics of the shapes so this week we took it more hands-on. We worked on deciding what 3D shapes would slide, stack, and roll!

It was fun to give the kiddos time to explore with the shapes but have a purpose for the madness! The 3D shape practice sheets can be found HERE or in my Endless Practice Sheets Bundle!

We combined sliding and penguins..that is easy to do 😉 I poured water on the cookie sheet and placed it in the freezer. During math we experimented with different objects and recorded if they were able to slide or not.

You can download the freebie recording sheets by clicking below…

Last week we started out with 3D shapes then made our way to 2D shapes. Here is our 2D shapes poster…

We also worked on finding flat shapes in the world around us. I placed some shapes on a recording sheet and the students colored real world objects that resemble that flat shape!

And what is flat shapes without pattern block puzzles?

Whelp, that is all I have for last week! Below you can download my plans for next week! We will be reading Ron’s Big Mission- -such an awesome true story, written for children to understand the impact of diversity and persevering!

Click the image below to download my plans with hyperlinks…

Comments

lorena says

January 18, 2015 at 6:07 pm

Great post, thank you for sharing! Was there supposed to be a link to the I'm a Little Penguin' poem?

Anonymous says

January 18, 2015 at 6:10 pm

Hi there Lorena…that link was for last week oopsie! This week we are working on MLK's I have a dream. You can view the poems here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx1AOaFfg51BaEQzUmJZWkg1WVE/view?usp=sharing

- lorena says
  
  January 18, 2015 at 6:24 pm
  
  Thanks, Tara! 😉
  
Anonymous says

January 20, 2015 at 4:04 am

You do such a great job! Thank you for sharing your resources!

Christer says

January 20, 2015 at 5:03 am

Wow. I would love to be in your class!! I like how you mix in fun with learning! 😉 I also liked how you integrated the Math with the ice/penguin investigation. Fun, fun, fun!!