Little Minds at Work

Recap of Transportation and Three Pigs!

Happy Sunday!  First off…so sorry to skip last week – – no excuse beyond teacher TIRED!  This week I am here to recap my Transportation and Three Little Pigs weeks from KinderLiteracy!  I just have to brag on my KinderLiteracy units!  As a teacher myself they have transformed the way I prep and teach whole-group reading each week!  I no longer have to hunt down crafts, follow-up activities, and books each week – – it’s all there for me!  Also, the way I teach has been taken up a few notches to say the least!  Because I am not having to cram-plan my whole-group reading lessons I am able to offer higher order questions, vibrant vocabulary words, and meaningful books talks because – –  it’s ALL there for me!  If you are still needing a whole-group reading program I encourage you to read the feed back from TEACHERS found HERE….don’t just take me word for it, but you’ll be able to see what other teachers are saying as well!

Okay moving beyond my infatuation with KinderLiteracy HA!  Transportation week was a true hit!  We made this “things that go” bubble chart and the kiddos loved that I brought in the pictures to illustrate each way as well!

The vocabulary words for the week really offered a lot of fun and engaging interaction and the kiddos grasped the words very well!

Our essential question focused on comparing and contrasting!  It was our first time to really hit this skill and the kiddos did very well with it!

We also made a personal connection and discussed how we get home but you could easily swap it for how you get to school 😉


Our transportation went to the next level we we got to take a quick trip to our local airport!  The kiddos had a blast and it’s so exciting to be able to offer them an experience they may have never had before!

I also grabbed these blow up airplanes from Amazon and it the kids just about hit the floor when they realized they were THEIRS and they got to take them HOME!

We took the planes outside and the kiddos flew them around in the grass!  It was so special to get to witness them truly PLAYING and being imaginative!

We ended the week with this quick and easy stoplight craft! 🙂

This past week was our Three Little Pigs week and more importantly the first week in our retell unit!  KinderLiteracy is broken down into 7 units and this is unit 2!  If you are working on building/writing units of instructions for your school well this unit is open and shut a retell unit!  I’ve always taught retell, but it was very hodge-podgy…and not this year!  We will have five weeks of retell study…and each week will build on the skills they learned the previous week along with adding a new skill!

Here is our Three Little Pigs living anchor chart and we will be saving these charts through the five weeks so the kiddos see how the weeks build!  This week we only added the characters, but next week will be characters AND the setting 🙂

You can see the two texts I used for this week…the second text is completely up to you, but the Three Cajun Pigs is a must if you haven’t read it before 🙂

Our vocabulary words for the week!  The really got these words quick!

Like I mentioned unit two of KinderLiteracy is all about RETELL!  I’ve included these great retell cards that work perfectly for whole-group retell and I’ve also placed them into a center for the kiddos to retell with!

Below you can see us working on sequencing the cards whole-group!

We also pulled out the retell bracelets to visually see the beginning, middle, and end of the story as we retell!

Each week during the retell unit the kiddos will be completing this culminating task of retelling the story using pictures!  I placed the same printable under the hover came and then slid the go, slow, stop signs we had been using throughout the week to work on retell!  

The then went to town retelling the story on their papers!  I was so proud of how many that mastered it this first week!

After our hard work it was time to have some fun!  Up first we made these adorable and EASY little piggies…oink oink!

Then, we made retell sticks so the kiddos each could retell the story!

We also made these retell houses using our milk cartons!  On each side of the house the kiddos constructed a house!  We used yellow and brown paper for the sticks and straw..and then I created the bricks on red paper for them to cut out!  We will be having a retell celebration with our parents at the end of the 5 weeks so we will be keeping all of our retell goodies in a large ziploc bag until the parent presentation day!

Oink!!!!


In math we continued with work with numbers to 10 and add in 1:1 counting along with more, less, and same!  Below are a few snap shots of the “games” we have been playing…on Friday the kids swore they earned game day Friday because math was just that much fun…little did they know it was planned all along!  I really think that’s how our kids need and want to learn math….through actual HANDS-ON exploration!  All of these “games” below come from my KinderMath Number Sense packet which you can view HERE!

We also did a new color by number sheet!  The kiddos love these and always try their best! You can view them HERE!

We also finished out KinderPhonics unit 1…which means we made it all the way from A-Z!!!!  It is such an accomplishment and I think the best part is that the kiddos get to see the abc “wall” be built letter by letter…knowing that they played a part in that!  Now we’re off to KinderPhonics unit 2!

Whelp…that is all I have for now!  I am off to work on my newsletter and if you’re not signed up for it yet …you’ll want to in order to snag a freebie! 🙂  Have  GREAT week!  We will be continuing with fairy tales – -The Three Bears!

Comments

    • I am 1 of 5 on my team and yes we ALL teach the SAME things everyday …I'm sure everyone puts their own spin on it, but we use KinderLiteracy and KinderPhoncis! 🙂

      Reply

  2. We love our Kinder Literacy time. We had five assistant principals from other schools, our asst. principal and principal in our room on Friday so our principal could hold a training as a Master Evaluator. My kids did everything they were supposed to do and the evaluators loved seeing the kinder-bears do the motions to our Tree for All Seasons vocabulary words and were so impressed as they gave details and used all of the resources we had made together when they talked about the topic. 3 out of 5 of our kinder-teachers are now using Close Reads, but I am the only one using the whole program. That's because I have a fabulous husband who doesn't mind my card stock and colored ink obsessions.

    Reply

    • Love this! It's awesome that they got to see first-hand you teaching the lesson! I always think the more the administrators are able to get into the room to see these programs in action the more they'll love them and support you 🙂 I agree on the cardstock obsession! HA!

      Reply

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