Five for Friday!

I am so excited to be linking up for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!  For me, it is just a small miracle that I remembered to take pictures of five different things.  I am busy getting my room ready for another year.  My first day is Aug. 26th. 

1.  I had to take down the love notes from last year.  Boo hoo!  I had such a sweet group.   I always try to have a little spot in the room for love notes.  They really are gifts in kinder world and they need to be respected as such, ya know...?  Last year they were above my desk area along with all the important calendars and memos from school.  I took a picture of them because I almost posted them on Instagram.  (@mrsbyrdslearningtree)  It was sad to recycle them, but I am sure there will be more to replace them soon enough.  It makes me excited to meet my new sweeties.

2.  I got my weekly communication folders for the year made.  My sweet husband, Duane, came in one afternoon to help me in my classroom.  He taped all the sides of the envelopes to make them indestructible.   They will be decorated on the back by little students on the first day as one of their jobs (that's what I call centers in my room).   Then I laminate them and they really do last all year long.  Duane also helped me by taking apart and completely cleaning my overhead projector.  I haven't used it for three years.  This is the year to either use it or lose it.  I am going to let the kids do open ended activities on it for a choice during center time.  (I took Duane out to dinner to thank him for his help - that's a win win!)

3.  Today I fixed our class book box to get a few more years out of it.  It was falling apart, so it was either duct tape or papier mache and painting it.  I think this was a better option.  I'm not super thrilled with the neon colors, but that's what I had on hand, so that's what went on the box.  We make lots of class books where each kiddo creates a page.  They are great for thematic units, and the kids like to read them.  This is the box where they live in our classroom library.

4.  So this one actually did make it onto Instagram.  I just had to share.  I keep the balls and ropes in a big red bucket/tub/you know...  I took everything out and the bottom of it was DISGUSTING!!! It actually had a layer of dirt in the grooves in the bottom.  I took it outside to rinse it off with the hose.  Yuck!  Thankfully, it was hot today and the tub dried really quickly.   Can you guess my room number and the color of my class' recess equipment?

5.  I did a post yesterday on using your kiddos names for literacy learning in the beginning of the year.  It has lots of ideas and you can get this FREEBIE Name Bingo game too!  You can find this post right here: Name Games! and a FREEBIE!

Don't forget to stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching to see all the other great blogs that are linked up.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy teaching!

Name Games! and a FREEBIE!

Hi there!  This post is about using your students' names as a beginning of the year literacy theme.  In kindergarten, these little students are babies!  They are just learning to write letters, and names are the most important letters in their world right now.  So, using names as a first theme for BTS is a no brainer.  Here are a few ideas to help you do some name activities in your classroom.

OK, first things first... I do not  put pictures of students on my blog very often.  When I do, faces are obscured, and permission has been given by parents.  THESE ARE NOT PICTURES OF REAL STUDENTS.  They are stock photos of kids that I have a commercial license to use.  I wanted a few "pretend" kids to show you what I do in my classroom without using my own students' names or pics.

Just had to get that off my chest.

OK, Back to learning with names...

 I always start my year with several sets of name cards.  It is really nice to make at least one set with pictures of the kiddos.  Here are some activities I like to do with names using the cards:

This fun student made emergent reader is a favorite with my kiddos all year long.  I take each child's photo early in the year.  I print out one color photo for each child.  Then I make black and white copies of all the photos.  I make sure there are plenty to go around.  For centers, we make the pages of this book using name cards.  I only do a few pages in the books, but you can do as many as you want.  The kids simply glue on a picture of a friend and write his or her name in the sentence below.

I use the color picture in each child's book for the last page, "I see me!"  Since there is no writing involved on that page, I make them, and the kids see it for the first time when they read the assembled book.  It's a surprise and they love it!

These are a favorite all year long.  I love these books because they are a great way to teach all those important early reading skills, especially pointing to the words!  It would be really easy to make these yourself.  I am sharing this idea freely.  So, go for it!  If you don't have the time to make it yourself, you can get it in my TpT shop for a buck.  Friends - Student made Emergent Reader for Back to School

After kids have had practice with writing names in the book, they can continue to practice using a sheet like this.  This is super fun to have in your writing center so kids can do it on their own.  Make sure you have a set of name cards with it so they can easily write the names.  This sheet came from my Print and Go! Back to School (NO PREP) set. 

We always sort the names by the number of letters in each.  This is a fun sheet for each child to do after the name sorting activity.  It is a review of writing, number, tally marks, ten frames, and a little face drawing too.  You can find it here: Print and Go! Back to School (NO PREP).

I also use the name cards to play games with my kiddos during attendance or circle time or whenever I have a few extra minutes with my group.  I like to cover the name and just show the first letter.  Then kids need to guess who it could be.  Once they are familiar with the names in the class, this becomes a great critical thinking activity.  When you have two kids with the same first letter, they can then decide who it is by looking at the second letter, and so on.  It is lots of fun for beginning of the year letter learning.  You can also clap the syllables in each name, do a rhyming game with the names, or phonemic awareness poems like Hickety Picktey Bummble bee, or Banana fanna....  you know those poems right?  Just in case you don't, here are examples of them using my name (Katie):

Hickety Pickety Bumble bee
Can you read this name for me?
Katie!
Can you clap it?
Katie (with a clap).
Can you shout it?
Katie (shouting)!
Can you whisper it?
Katie (in a whisper).

I do that little poem with sight words too.  It is very useful and can be changed up in any way you like, the clapping and shouting part, that is.  I recommend that you always end it with whisper, that way you have your group quiet and listening at the end of each name.  They can get a little excited with all the clapping and shouting.  But, it is lots of fun.

Here is the other one:

Katie, Katie, bo batie,
Banana fanna fo fatie,
Me, my, mo, matie,
Katie!

You can do that one with any word or name.  It can get a little tricky wit the long names, but just go for it!  The rhyming and alliteration make it a fun way to play with sounds in language.  Perfect for our little Kinder friends.  Perfect phonemic awareness practice.  And it's FUN!  Woo hoo!

I also do Student of the Day!  It is the ultimate in literacy learning through student names.  I will do a post on that once I get started with my new group of sweeties.  Stay tuned...


OK, were you really just looking for this?

Here is your Name Bingo freebie.  It's a fun and purposeful way to get some name writing practice into your centers time early in the year.  First, kids write their name on the grid one letter in each box.  Then repeat until all boxes are filled.  The photo at the top of the post is an example of how it should look when it is complete.  THIS IS HARD FOR KINDERS!   So, I highly recommend you do this as a teacher supported activity.   After names have been written correctly onto the grid (and traced with marker if you like), then you can laminate, and use these as game boards for ABC bingo with any set of alphabet cards.  If you need some cards and other games for alphabet learning, you can find some here: ABC Games! Fun Activities for learning the Alphabet.

Just click on the image below to go get your Name Bingo FREEBIE:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found some helpful ideas for your classroom.
Happy teaching!

How do you teach the ABC's? Part One

This is the first of several upcoming posts on how I teach letters and sounds in my classroom.  So, first things first, if you are teaching kindergarten, please tell me that you don't do letter of the week anymore!  I was soooo glad to read this on Cara Carroll's blog too!  I have been thinking it for years now, thank goodness someone just put it right out there.  Kindergarten kids need to have a working knowledge of letters and sounds by the end of the first trimester in order to meet grade level expectations for the end of the year. So, teaching letters weekly just doesn't work.

OK, so... time for true confessions.  Even just a few years ago, I was still doing a poem each week that had a letter reference and activity with it.  Although it wasn't really a "letter of the week" program, I finally came to the realization that it wasn't appropriate any more.  By the second half of the school year, my students were so "beyond" the letter work, I was feeling bad.  It's hard sometimes, as teachers, when we see the value in certain activities, but we know that it is time to move on.  Well, I finally moved on.

So, I tweaked my alphabet program a bit.  Instead of a weekly poem book, my students make a little ABC emergent reader.  It is one of the first books they learn to read.  Not only does it help internalize letter names and sounds, but it also helps my students learn to handle books, point as they read, understand directionality with text, and it makes them feel confident as readers.  Woo hoo!  That's why I love these little books and am happy I made the shift to these.

These books are VERY simple.  You could easily make them yourself by drawing out the pages (wink, wink).  If you have the time and inclination to do that, go for it!  This is not an original idea.  But, if you don't have the time to make them yourself, you can go get these in my TpT store:  ABC Book! Student made Emergent Reader for Letter Learning

I have my kiddos do a page each day as a center activity for the first few weeks of school.  It is nice to have an activity that they feel comfortable doing as we are learning routines and setting expectations.  For each letter, I set out lots of matching picture cards like these (ABC Cards! Letter matching cards for learning) .  I am also in the process of teaching my kinesthetic alphabet to them at the same time.  We are also reading lots of alphabet books.  We are doing lots of hands on activities with tactile letters.  They are getting immersed with letters as we make these books.

The important thing about this book, is that students choose what picture they will draw for each letter.   When the child chooses, she will usually pick something that she has already associated with that letter and sound.  This creates a STRONG connection between letter and sound.  It helps students master letters and sounds quickly.  It has been working well in my classroom.  That is why I am finally sharing this with you.  I have had proven success with this.  (...and I finally made it into an actual product I can share... ha ha!)

You get the idea.  There are also pages with the pictures and words already on them.  Those are for TK or preschool sweeties.  Here are a couple of those:

 

So the pre-K pages do not require drawing, just coloring.  I used these with my TK students last year and they were perfect.  The pictures are aligned with my Kinesthetic Alphabet.  What is a kinesthetic alphabet, you ask?  Well, that is a whole other blog post.  So, keep posted.  It is coming soon.

I hope this idea helps you to teach the alphabet in your classroom this year.  Stay tuned for future posts on this topic.  Letters and sounds are such an important foundation in literacy.  So, it is something we need to share and talk about.  If you want to use this little book in your classroom, you can get it on my TpT shop.  Just click on the image below:

If you have some great ideas for how you teach letters in your classroom, leave a comment below.  I hope we can get a little conversation going.  Let's share best practices to help make us all better teachers.

 

Happy teaching!