Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Bear Went Over the Mountain


Bravo! Bravo!

I am so proud of my kindergarten friends! 
They did an amazing job at their musical
"Bear Went Over the Mountain". 


Here are some highlights of my owls, squirrels, and mice:

Monday, April 23, 2012

Not too late to join the party!!!



I have been itching to "fix-up" my classroom library and reading corner so I hosted a Classroom Library Linky Party last month. 

It has been such a treat peeking into so many wonderful teachers' classrooms. 
I have been so inspired by all of your creative ideas and organization tips!

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up!

Did you miss the party?
 It's not too late to check out the terrific ideas shared or join in and share your library. 

Check out the party here:

Feeling super inspired and looking forward to revamping my classroom library this summer!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Clean Up Robot

Have you heard of the clean up robot? 
I stumbled across this fab find this week and my students LOVE it! This song has increased the cleaning (and laughter!) at clean up time. 


WARNING! It will get stuck in your head! : ]



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Non-Fiction Writing Celebration

To celebrate all of my students' hard work during our non-fiction unit...

We had a special writing celebration in our school's beautiful butterfly garden.
We shared our books with friends and ate a special snack.
Our principal, Mrs. Weisgerber, enjoyed hearing the children read their writing with topics ranging from Frogs... to Caves... to Dance Class... to Spiders!

Check out more of our celebration below:
Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook
Create your own scrapbook - Powered by Smilebox
This digital scrapbooking design created with Smilebox

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Non-Fiction Writing Unit

We just wrapped up our Non-Fiction unit in Writer's Workshop.













 I am so proud of the work that my students did during this unit. 

They read non-fiction.
They wrote non-fiction.
They know non-fiction.
They love non-fiction. 

One thing that I love so much about teaching is that I am always learning. 
Every year I am learning how to better teach and challenge my students. 

Here are some (new and old) ways that I helped my students learn non-fiction:

Read many, many GREAT non-fiction mentor texts to my students. 

Two of my students' favorites include:

and 

This Super-Sized animals series is THE PERFECT collection of mentor texts for Kindergarten children. It was THE reason many of my students decided to include glossaries!! 



You can check it out here:



I also s-l-o-w-l-y, explicitly taught each non-fiction text feature...

After learning about a feature and locating it in several texts, we had "try-it" time... working specifically on that skill or text feature. 

(labeling)

(captions)





(fun facts)



The students really LOVED this and it helped me guarantee that every student had a solid understanding of the choices they could make and features that they could use as a non-fiction writer...
 BEFORE beginning their actual books.

We made a non-fiction penguin book together:

Then the students were ready to research and write on their own. 
Many students used our non-fiction book collection or 


to collect information.

It was so rewarding to watch their passion and skill grow each week!!
Check out some of their non-fiction writing: 



(really, there is nothing on page 4, ha!!!)


I have to give shout out to Dee Dee as I got several new ideas from her. 
Her non-fiction post was amazing!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Owlets & Talons & Prey, Oh My!


 Last week we did a great owl vocabulary review activity.
I divided the children into cooperative groups. Each group was in charge of one vocabulary word. 
(owlet, talons, nocturnal, prey, predator, and roost) The group had the task of discussing, illustrating, and presenting their word to the rest of the class.





The children did a nice job discussing their word and problem solving to make sure that their illustration gave a clear picture of their word's meaning. 

I recorded their GREAT presentations, but was bummed to discover that the volume is just not loud enough to share. 

Way to go, Kindergarten Friends!
I am so proud of you all! 


We finished up our Owl Fact Books too!

Here are a few of the inside pages:

Labeled Parts of an Owl

Fun Facts: 


Diagrams (What Owls Eat)

Glossary:






 You can check out the post about the Owl Fact Books HERE!