Recap of Week 6 and Peek at my Week 7!

Hey, hey hey! So….you did realize it is almost October! All kindergarten teachers know what October means….you were telling yourself all August…”If we can just make it to October we will be in the homestretch!” It’s so true…we are fine oiled-learning machines now! 😀

The following pictures are from this past week…you can download those plans by clicking below! I will also leave next week’s plans at the bottom! 🙂

This week we integrated content studies in with our close read, A Tree for All Seasons!

Of course by no random chance our close read aligned perfectly to the first day of fall. Try to get your big-box curriculums to align to seasons 😉 Here is our fall bubble chart! We added a little to each day we read and discovered new information!

Our essential question for the week! We also focused on how the tree changes throughout the seasons!

It was simply awesome to hear the kiddos discussing the trees for the seasons and hearing them say ..in the spring the tree will bud and in the winter the tree will be bare! Meaningful vocabulary along with actions = success!

On our collaborative learning day the kiddos were broken into groups and they placed these cards in order for the seasons. As I circulated the room I prompted critical thinking questions like… “Will it be okay to move this spring card to the front…does spring come before summer?” I also helped the students realize the cycle of a tree by placing the cards in a “circle.”

We eventually will take our cumulative activity to writing, but this week the students proved their knowledge of the seasons by coloring the tree according to each season.

During our fine motor work we made these adorable fall crafts! Like I always tell you I am un-crafty if that is a word! These are so simple and easy. All you need is construction paper! I pre-cut the trees, but you could have the kiddos do that as well! I just free-cut the trees without a template. The kiddos then got their fingers working to cut the small pieces of paper for their leaves. Open shut, open shut…that’s the way we cut! This little one made a pile of leaves 🙂

I also cut these strips of paper and they then cut out the smaller pieces! You could also have them tear their leaves.

I just love seeing all of them putting their own creative spin on it!

My sister did this fine motor project in her room. She gave the kiddos an assortment of materials; tissue paper, crape paper, construction paper, and pom-poms! They tore the material and glued it to their tree to match the season!

I shared these earlier in the week, but I have changed all of my literacy centers with these farm centers! They are on sale for $4 through the end of the weekend! 🙂 View HERE!

Look how much our KinderPhonics wall has grown! We will finish the alphabet this week and move on to letters Mm and Ss the next week! I shared on Facebook, but I recently reassessed my class and they all improved their letter names and letter sound fluency! What was awesome is their HUGE gains in letter sounds! In just a week and a half the class improved their letter sounds by 214 sounds! That is an average of 11 per kiddo on a minute assessment…{we use AIMS Web}. So, so exciting!!!

We’ve been going strong for guided reading! I really need to get a current post up for this but if you click HERE you can read any and all of my past guided reading posts! 🙂 Below is a picture of my kiddos using mini bingo chips for their tracking!

Below are my plans for next week! You will see a difference in my day! We are starting our intervention groups on Monday…we call this time of day Tiger Time! I LOVE Tiger time…it again is a consistent routine and the kids know what to expect..we switch up the kiddos and get down to learning! We meet back up at the bathrooms, use the restroom, line up with their teacher, and we head to lunch! No time loss for the transitions and best of all…the kids are getting instruction targeted to them! I will share more on the two intervention programs we use soon! I recommend both for sure!