We've Gone Batty In Kindergarten!

We have gone a bit batty in kindergarten...but truth be told, kindergarten in and of itself is a bit batty. :)

Some of our Batty Week I talked about in this past week's Five For Friday.

Our centers last week (and into a few days this coming week) are all batty themed.  We postponed centers two days last week because I had so many of my little kiddos out sick..7 one day!

Whole group we did a "Counting on Bats," similar to our "Counting on Apples".  I used this cute bag from Target to hold our batty numbers.  We pass the bag around, write the number we pull in the bat and then write the following three numbers.  We discuss the different strategies, backtracking a bit, using the number lines on the walls, as well as using the number lines on the name tags.  I love that the kids tell me the different strategies, and even better... USE THEM!

You can find a copy of Counting on Bats here.

We used Cara Carroll's super cute beginning and ending sounds Bats.  You find find the link to it here. In addition, you will find her "Rhymes with Bat/Doesn't Rhyme with Bat" mats.  We are loving these in centers this week.

We went batty with graphing.  Students sorted their pieces by shape and then created a bar graph to show the data.

My littles are so good at counting by 10's to 100, we practiced putting them in order.

We are counting and recording numbers from ten frames.

We also went batty over rhymes.  I created this stamping page and then pull out my stamps from Lakeshore. However, I do not see the set I have any more. I bought it a few years ago.

They stamp two rhymes and then in "kid writing" write the words they stamped.

On Thursday, I had 7 kiddos out.  I didn't want to introduce new learning with SO many students out.  So instead I wrote numbers on half sheets of papers counting by 2's.  I gave each of my kids one and the first round we put them in order together.  Then I collected them all and handed everyone a new number.  This time, I did not help and we timed how long it took them to get in order.  We played a total of three rounds and they LOVED it. So simple. Then they cut and pasted bats in order counting by 2s.

In my Five for Friday, I mentioned making a bat craft.  I gave the kids the following papers.  We cut the small brown one into the body.  We folded the big brown one in half, drew a wing, and cut two.  Then we folded each white one in half.  One was for the eyes, one was for the teeth.  I love how with the same instructions, no two bats turned out the same!  They make me smile.

 

Here's to another great week!

Five For Friday (a little late)

Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a Linky Party, just on Saturday.  I don't know about you all, but there is something about the end of the week, that I am wiped out! :)

What a week it has been learning about BATS!  My kiddos LOVE learning about them.

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We started our week out by creating a "Do You Think Bats Are Creepy or Cute?" graph from Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade.  It was an exact split in our room.  12 of my kiddos think bats are creepy and 12 cute.  We then analyzed the data.  I love hearing the kids use math talk to describe the graph.

[2]

We read our scholastic reader about bats, focusing on finding sight words, using the pictures and beginning sounds to help with words we don't know.  We read the book together and then students buddy read.  We also did some EEKK reading/blending with our bat word slide.  Oh my word, the kids LOVED this.

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Right in the middle of the week, I got to have a super tasty dinner with my favorite little guy and his mommy from To Second Grade, With Love.  Could that face be any more adorable!?!

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I pulled out the tree map and the first words out of my of my kinder's mouths was, "There are two sight words!" and then proceeded to read them. Love this!  Another kinder said, "I think we write bats in the top box."  We have done this one other time with Apples, so I LOVE that they are understanding putting the topic at the top.

[5] 

After our graphing, and tree mapping, and reading so many books about bats, we of course had to create bats!  I gave each child a small brown square, a brown rectangle, and two white rectangles.  We first cut the bats body out of the small square.  Then we folded the rectangle in half (either direction) and drew one wing.  I taught them that when they keep it folded and cut once, they will have symmetrical wings.  Then we did the same with the two white rectangles (folding them in half).  One was used to create the eyes, the other the teeth.  With the scrap brown.  They had a blast, and they all turned out differently.  They make me smile as I walk by our room.

Have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!  I'm off to lunch with a friend.

First Linky Party

I meant to link up last Friday as my first linky party, but I was busy doing laundry and cleaning because last Saturday I was off to DC to visit my sister.  It was such a fabulous week.  I am on Fall Break, and it is one of my first *real* breaks in the last two years.  Before over breaks, I would have grad school projects, so this was truly a treat.

Here I go.  I do not have any school related things on my list, but I will be back to that next week!

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I am from Arizona.  Southern Arizona, and we just don't get fall colors.  It was so awesome to see the vivid reds, oranges, and yellows.  This particular tree was on Mt. Vernon property.

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While visiting my sister, I got an early birthday gift.  This super cute scarf!

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Dinner one night was at Luke's Lobster (so yummy!). I had some really tasty root beer.

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George Washington knew how to pick property.  This is the view from behind his house on Mt. Vernon.  A gorgeous view overlooking the Potomac.

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We had a great time on the Ghost Tour around LaFayette Square.  It ended at the White House.  The Washington Monument looks so pretty with all the scaffolding lit up.

Link up at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Back it Up Ya'll

This past week was a busy, busy, busy one.  We had a full school day Monday, then early out the rest of the week for parent teacher conferences.  I love getting to meet with all my kinder's parents and discuss the reason we are there, but gosh darn it, it is exhausting!

We finished up a few things here and there and did a few assessments that are required in my district.  It has been a wild year with two new curriculums (reading and math).  However, I still feel more grounded than I have in a few years.  It is my first time, in seven years that I am in the same grade and classroom for three years in a row, and it feels amazing!

We are working on getting more quick and doing, well basically everything.  I have a few students who are just so on-it, and I have a couple that resemble molasses when we do things... :) My little pokies.  We have been working on completing our math journals in a fashion that doesn't take too long. :)  I have Deanna Jump's awesome math journal prompts.  During the big back to school sale, I *finally* got to get them.  I had been eyeing them a while. :)

Here are a couple student examples from one of our prompts this week.

In other news, I found these ADORABLE bags in the dollar section of Target.  I haven't decided exactly what I want to do with them yet, but they were too cute to pass up!

One thing I love about my hometown, is the beautiful sunsets we get.  This is just one of many I always take. They make me smile on the way home.


I am looking forward to learning about bats and spiders, to name a few things, with my kinders.  I love that we have so much fun while we learn.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Think Pink

It is October, which means it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  I changed my blog to a pink edition for this month.  One of my best friends, found over at To Second Grade, With Love, lost her mom to breast cancer.  It is important to get checked and know the risks.  I know I find myself shopping a little extra this month [or all the time :)] when money goes to breast cancer research.  I just got some super cute pink measuring cups and know I'm contributing to a great cause.

Here is a picture of my beautiful friend and beautiful mom.

We Appled On

It has been so fun teaching my kinders about apples.  They are little sponges that just soak it all up. This coming week is early out days for 4 of the 5, for parent teacher conferences... and then FALL BREAK!  After break we'll be learning about spiders and bats, I can't wait!


I mentioned in my last post that we tasted red, yellow and green apples and then graphed our favorites.  I told the kids before they ate the other half of each of their apple pieces to use their five senses.  To think about what they hear, taste, smell, see, and touch.  They called out their words while I wrote them on index cards.  Then we sorted them according to which sense was used.  Then, a day or so later, I cut the words out and the kids glued them onto the big apple.

We had some fabulous mom helpers hang up our trees we painted on Applicious Day, and then the kids cut out their own apples and glued them anywhere they wanted on the trees.

Here are the apple windsocks the kids made during Applicious Day.  It is so fun having these hang in my room.  As a class, we discussed not pulling on them etc., because we don't want anything to ruin them/break them.  The kids have been doing a fabulous job respecting each other's creation.  I have had two different kiddos put their mouths on them [I could tell because their mouths had changed colors (ew)].

We finished up our apple centers this week.  I created most of these last year from ideas I found perusing Pinterest and Googling.  I am in LOVE for a few years now, with my Silhoutte.  I have used it to create and cut out pieces of my centers.

One of my apple centers has number cards involved and my kiddos pointed out there were doubles in each container, so I had them work together to separate the the cards by putting them in order. Boy, do I LOVE sporadic teachable moments.  Some kids made two separate lines, and some lined them up in two rows right next to each other.  I love that they worked together and problem solved ways to get this done.

Between my awesome student aide and parent helpers, the kids painted the brown trees for our Life Cycle of an Apple Tree.  Then as a class we sequenced the descriptions (they had numbers on them) and then added our blossoms (tissue paper), green leaves (punched out) and apples (also made from a punch).  For winter, we used glue and glitter to make our snow. Isn't glitter a blast?!

Roll and Record is a game in which students take turns rolling a dice and then finding and coloring that number in the picture.  If there are no more of the number rolled, it becomes the other player's turn.

Not apple themed at all but I have been doing this little sight word activity with the kids the last week and a half.  I found this idea a few years ago in one form or another, but FINALLY had a chance to implement it.  The kids "high-five" each hand on their way out and in our room and read the words.  They.love.this.  If they forget to do it, they walk back over to read each word.  I rearrange the words so that they are not always in the same order, or the same words (yay sticky tack!).

We also love to read in our room.  I couldn't help myself but take pictures as the kids enjoy books, because they are just too darn cute.

Looking forward to another day off. Love the weekends!  Then onto next week!

Apple Overload

Reader Alert! Heavily loaded with pictures. :)

What a fun week (just a bit over) it has been learning about apples.  We have a couple more activities to do to finish up with our apple theme, but with having a field trip last Friday, Applicious Day this past Tuesday, and only have some of my kinder lovelies for half a day, we need the next few days to finish up.

Our week started out like any other...by writing in our Monday Journals about our weekend.  I love as through the year, you can see how each child grows and becomes a better writer, no matter where he or she started.  I have already seen so much growth in just our 39 days together.  I always talk about adding detail (right now emphasis on adding detail to pictures) by using multiple colors and eventually adding a setting so that our pictures aren't floating (like a house or a dog).  Here are a few examples:

We always begin by writing the date and "This weekend I..." some students choose to do their picture first, while others write first, and some write the beginning part, draw their picture and then finish their writing.  I am so proud of my kiddos when someone tries to have someone else spell for them, and they tell them nicely they won't tell them, but then proceed to help them stretch it out; my little teachers.

BOY are we having a blast learning about apples.  Monday we did an apple investigation.  We predicted (tough thing for a kinder to do!) and then we measured and documented what we found.

Tuesday was Applicious Day in Kindergarten. Oh. My. Word. What a whirlwind of a morning it was.  Applicious Day came about last year when our little orchard we go to ran out of apples... Yes. It happens...who knew?!  So we came up with Applicious Day to do something special with our little friends.  This year we decided it would be fun to do both!  So each of the four kinder teachers has an apple activity to do with each of the four classes.

Each child was in front of this for a picture.  Some of my teammates do a memory book for each child, I do a slideshow and share the photos I take.

 In my room, we began by painting a red, green, and yellow apple.  Then students went into the hallway with my fabulous mom helpers and painted trees on big butcher paper.  We will hang all of the trees in the hallway and then students will cut out their apples and glue them to the trees.  Once this happens our hallway is transformed into an apple orchard and such a cool sight to see. (Once all is hung, I will post pictures).

By the time all 4 classes were done, there was a narrow pathway to walk down our hallway.

SO messy but such a blast!

The next rotation, students stamped with apples, made windsocks and a few other activities.  I hung the windsocks in our room, and it just brightens it up! (*pictures to come*)

In the third rotation, students made and labeled an apple.

The last rotation, they made apples to hang from a twine string.  The apples are strung across our hallway and look so cute!

You can see mine and my neighbor's.

Today, we had our apple taste test.  The resources we used were not mine, but at the moment I cannot remember who they belong to.  Once I figure it out, I will link it up and give credit where credit is due.

Students predict what will be their favorite and then color the bottom apples according to "favorite, second favorite and least favorite."

We took a bite (one of my kiddos bit right out of the top as his bite, made me giggle), and then colored an apple our favorite color and added it to our class graph.  We discussed our graph and came up with a title (I must be off today because I thought I took a picture, but did not).  Then we at the other pieces of our apples and as they ate, they called our descriptive words and I wrote them on index cards.  Once they were finished we met on the carpet to sort our words by which of the five senses we used to get to that word. (got the idea from the fabulous Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade).

We have a few more things to finish up and then we are done with apples.  Next stop is parent teacher conferences and my favorite... FALL BREAK!  Time to watch some TV and hit the hay.