HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

The school year started with THREE birthdays within the first week of school!!! Sooooo, I thought I'd share how we celebrate in the Froggy Friends classroom.

The birthday child completes an All About Me book at home and brings it to school on the day we celebrate.  The student reads the book to the class then it is put in the classroom library.  The book is taken home at the end of the year.

 The birthday child cuts out this birthday hat and badge.

 The students make a birthday page for the birthday child's Birthday Book.  In the beginning of the year I do the writing, but soon the students begin to write a phrase then sentences.  When the book is completed, I read it to the class at story time and the birthday child brings it home - so special.

 At lunch time we sing Happy Birthday and pass out the treats (cupcakes or cookies). The birthday child gets a birthday place setting for lunch.  (We eat in our class.)  You can see Birthday Bear. 

He sings a birthday song, too!

A Gift from Mrs. LeBlanc -

 The birthday child picks a book and a crazy straw to bring home.

This is the way we make the birthday child feel special on his special day.  We celebrate summer birthdays in May.

ORGANIZER

Just had to share this successful organizing idea!  I ordered these caddies from Really Good Stuff this year for my students to organize their supplies.  I call it their - ORGANIZER!  (Brilliant!  Right?!)  Anyway, there is a spot for everything and the children can find what they need when they need it! The GREATEST thing is THEY ARE ORGANIZED!!!  Some other advantages -  (1) The students can carry their organizer to wherever they are working.  (2) This handy thing keeps the noise down - no more noise from scrounging around trying to find something.  LOOOOOVE IT!!!

MONTHLY FAMILY PROJECT - August

This month the students made Treasure Book Boxes with their family.  This is where the students store all their emergent readers made in class.  We use our books to practice our reading strategies.

 Below is a picture of what the students receive when they bring their completed Treasure Book Boxes to school.  The key reminds them - THE KEY TO READING SUCCESS is to PRACTICE EVERYDAY!  Also, the students will be given a whisper phone to use as a reading tool.  I make sure to discuss how to use the whisper phone as a reading tool not as a toy. 

READING STREET - Fix-It Duck

This is always a class favorite!  We focused on setting and characters, especially the main character.  Here's our reading response to Fix-It Duck.

Fix-It Duck Reader Response

I also introduce the Daily Fix-It component of Reading Street after reading this story.  I explain to the children that we are going to be like Fix-It Duck and try to fix the sentence.  We start off simple but soon we look for nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  We figure out how to turn a telling sentence into an asking sentence, too.  It's so amazing to see their progress as the year progresses.

P.I.G. (Poetry Is Great) BOOK

We have begun our P.I.G. BOOK ADVENTURES!  Each month the students will have the opportunity to read and sing poetry.  We add some of the selections to our P.I.G. Books for further study and review with tracking print, locating "popcorn" words, finding words that rhyme, illustrating, and writing.  Here is our first entry!

I CAN TRAIN!

Here's a little activity I do each year with my froggy friends.  I read, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.  We then discuss things that we can do and how we had to practice, practice, practice to master that particular skill.  There are so many new skills to be learned in Kindergarten so whenever a child is having difficulty with a new task, I tell my him to think of the little train in the story and say, "I Think I Can! I Think I Can!" as a reminder not to give up!  This usually gives my little froggy friends enough encouragement to keep on trying.

MONTHLY QUILT - August

Each month the students help create a quilt which hangs outside our classroom. Take a look at our August Quilt!

SCHOOL BUS FUN!

We started Scott Foresman Reading Street with The Little School Bus, by Carol Roth.  Here are few follow-up activities.

The Wheels on the Bus Pocket Chart Phonemic Activity

 Whoops... forgot to fold back the letters in the word "goes" so it would say "go."

We painted a yellow school bus using direction cards.

We made a Friends on the Bus Class Book

FRIENDS ON THE BUS CLASS BOOK

Reading Response to The Little School Bus by Carol Roth

THE LITTLE BUS READING RESPONSE - 



 

ON THE BUS ORDINAL NUMBERS

All About Me Glyph

 We wrote about our glyphs, too.

We made traffic lights and talked about positional words.

We ended the week cooking a Tasty Traffic Light.  Yum! Yum!

FROGGY FRIENDS BACK TO SCHOOL!

So this was our first week back and it was pretty busy, but I have a "frog"tastic class!  Our first day of school is always a half day ending with an Ice Cream Frozen Yogurt Social.  Yummy!  Some activities the students participated in were making a name tag and a place mat for lunch time (we eat in our classroom).  Since we are the Froggy Friends Class the students color a frog book page for our first class book, Froggy Friends.

 We also started on our August Monthly quilt by making a circle frog.

Here are a few pockets we read together for shared reading. 

We started buttering "popcorn" words, too!

We are remembering our jobs in the morning.  Here's the job chart!

 

 

We are learning about our daily responsibilities in the classroom.  We discussed what it means to be responsible and how to be a FABULOUS FROG.  Here's our Fabulous Frog sign and our 

DAILY RESPONSIBILITIES.

 

 

Here is the pocket chart that holds the individual student's responsibility cards.  If a student is having difficulties being responsible after I have reminded him, then the student will have to give me the appropriate responsibility card and accept the consequences of his actions.  The next day, first thing in the morning, the student and I will discuss what the problem was the previous day and how the student can solve the problem.  After our discussion, the student may return his/her card to the pocket chart for the new day. 

KINDERGARTEN IS A BLAST!

I host a camp each summer for our new Kindergarten students.  These students have the opportunity to meet new friends, get familiar with school, and brush-up on some school skills while having fun!  We sing, read stories and pocket charts, enjoy art projects and cooking projects, etc.  Here are a few pictures of some of the activities and the link to my TPT store if your are interested in purchasing this thematic unit that includes 23 math & literacy activities.

Arranging the planets on the magnetic board.

Counting marshmallows to cover all the stars on the board for Starry, Starry Night Game.

Mixing red and yellow to make orange to create a sun.

Playing Where's Zeenar the Alien?  The students guess a letter that Zeenar may be hiding behind.

A book page for the class book, A Trip to the Moon.  A great alliteration activity!

A student buttering a word from our pocket chart story, A Trip in Space.

Making a rocket trail pattern!

Buttering "popcorn" words in the student story of A Trip in Space.

Covering and counting stars in the Seeing Stars game.

Blowing bubbles for bubble print moons.

Bubble prints!

Earth blotto

The shape rocket made from the Spin a Rocket game.

Dot-to-Dot star

Almost completed space mobile.

You can purchase my OUT OF THIS WORLD Space Activities packet from my TPT store.

Out of This World Space Activities for Math and Literacy