Category Archives: Morning Messages
Bats Day #1 and Day #2 2009
This week, we’ve been learning all about BATS!! We have several students in our school who do not celebrate the fall holidays, so I always try to keep things neutral and not offend anyone. In October, we learn about bats, spiders, pumpkins, and leaves, all kind of tying into the holidays, yet we do not discuss ways in which they might relate–these are just things you might see in our area in October! Some pictures which are probably self-explanatory!
This is our Big Book this week! I also created a PDF file to help re-tell this story. There are 5 bats and an equal and minus signs to help the children understand the math.
These are some other Big Books we will be reading this week.
This is the “-at” cave (not the bat cave mind you!). We made a list of -at family words in our morning message on Monday and then made bats today and they seemed to belong together–so the “-at” cave was born!
I’m in the process of finishing it, so I will take new pictures once it’s done.
Kristen 🙂
Rosie’s Walk
Our Big Book this week is Rosie’s Walk.
We started our day by taking a picture walk through the book–I have never seen Kinder. kids so excited about a book. They were very curious as to why some of the pages did not have words on them, so we had a nice little talk about that. They were also surprised that there was no mention of the fox anywhere in the story. The Kinder. kids hung on every word once we started reading the story!
Here is our Morning Message for the day.
In January, the children will be writing it by themselves (I’ll be there to help!!). We’ve moved our focus away from identifying letters (we all can do that and will return to it as needed) and on to letter sounds, studying words, sentences, punctuation, and finding sight words.
We then had time for Writer’s Workshop where the children continue to do a great job at writing and using their knowledge of letters and sounds. I’m holding off on teaching any new lessons at this point because they are all at a comfortable, successful level right now. In January, I will pick back up with more structured lessons. Now I am doing different mini-lessons with individual or small groups of children based upon needs.
We also started a new Predictable Chart titled, “I am thankful for…”. I figured there would not be time next week to get it all in, so we’re doing this one this week. We had a talk before we began the chart about what things we are truly thankful for and those things that are special (video games, extra toys, etc.). We also talked about how some children do not have some of these things and they all became very thoughtful with their responses! 🙂
I kept the same poem from last week in our pocket chart station–I haven’t rotated everyone through it yet. You can see it in this post: I Like Turkey Feathers
We also make Native Americans using math facts. I differentiated this lesson by making three groups of children get the same answers in different ways.
One group matched numbers to numbers, another matched dots to numbers and a third completed simple addition facts to get their answers. The answers all matched up to the same key, so in the end, they all looked the same:
After the children were done, we got out some of our Lakeshore Math Boxes and rotated around different stations:
Here are some various pictures from the children working on them:
Simple Addition
Measurement
Although I think these boxes are fabulous, I think that you could make them just as easily and have them change or fit in with your concepts/themes.
I’ll be out tomorrow but my kids will be echo reading Rosie’s Walk, completing a Thanksgiving themed graph, reading our Scholastic News “Food In The Forest” and the usual things!
I am attending a Science Workshop tomorrow–what themes do you do for science this time of year? We’ve already done leaves, we might do turkeys, and will head towards animals in winter. I have to bring a theme to keep working on tomorrow. I was thinking of beefing up my seasonal changes theme–any great ideas you can’t live without for this theme?
Kristen 🙂
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (day#3)
Here are the pictures I promised! We used the Little Old Lady props to tell the story together today instead of reading the book. We also used our pointer to point and read our Predictable Chart, ” I know an old lady who swallowed a…”
Here is the milkweed we planted–pre planting of course! 🙂
Here is a look at the pocket chart that we used yesterday to sequence the story. I will scan the pictures and the Little Old Lady tonight so you can print them off and use them. Directions will be below for the Little Old Lady.
Here is the front of the Little Old Lady–this is my copy, I laminated her and she’s holding up very well after 8 years!
Here is the back–you take a sandwich baggie and cut the zipper/seal part off and tape or staple it to the back for her “stomach”.
This are the items that she eats…posted later tonight
Here she is “full!”
Our pocket chart in use this week!
This is a set of cards that I got from the Dollar Spot at Target that I will use in my Math Stations for patterning. I think I may laminate them before using them.
This is our greenhouse full of milkweed to be plants–we hope!! 🙂
Here is how I use the Little Old Lady/Pie story over the course of the week:
Monday: Introduce the story with a picture walk, then read aloud
Tuesday: Re-read story (choral or echo read) and then tell the story using pocket chart and sequence the story.
Wednesday: Introduce Little Old Lady prop and tell the story with the children using her
Thursday: Use the Little Old Lady again and the children make their own Old Ladies–I model how to cut out her stomach and attach the baggie to the back.
Friday: The children color and cut out their Little Old Lady foods and we practice telling each other the story and then take the props home.
Questions?
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 