Flip the 5 & 10 Frames

Inventions are born out of necessity or maybe out of frustration and clutter.  As a teacher you can probably get a good visual when I describe this scenario.  I was in my living room creating a new project working with 5 and 10 frames to help one of my friends who teaches first grade.  I spent many hours creating it, printing it, and wait for it - laminating and cutting it too.  So there I was sitting in the middle of the floor with laminating strips, scissors, and center pieces everywhere.  Teaching and creating is such a messy job sometimes, isn't it?  How many of you have a dining room table that does not have teaching materials on it? It's Friday.  How many of you brought home a teacher's bag full of things to make or do over the weekend? OK- back to my story.

My friend dropped by to pick up what I had made for her before I had it all sorted into centers.  Enter my friend: Picture all of the apple games, books, literacy centers, apple math cards, apple ten frames, and apple math centers on the floor, couch, chairs, coffee table . . . Are you getting the visual?  It was a sea of red, yellow, and green all over the floor.  Now if you have a partner in crime that shares your passion of creating fun hands on activities for kiddos, then it is ok for that teacher to walk in and see the mess.  Whew, I'm sure glad it was Stacee.  She stepped over all of the mess, and we got to work planning for her students.  When she left, I looked around at the remnants that were left, and an idea just hit me.  I found a way to make 5 & 10 frames that would flip over so there is no need for all of the pieces.  I made 5 in the color version for math stations and 5 for small group.  They come in both 5 & 10 frames so I can different according to a student's or group's needs. Here is the end product.

Once I made the apple ones I just kept going through the themes, holidays, and autumn season. I even went back to the first of the year.  Now I have 5 & 10 frame cards for all of the themes for the first semester of school ready to go and stacked neatly with a rubber band wrapped around each set.  They can be stored in a large baggie or in a small tub.  And you can print the black & white versions for each student in your class to manipulate during whole group time.  Picture everyone participating in the hands on learning. Think of all the math language and discussion as they compare their frames.

Here is a picture of the sample frames in my new packet on Teachers Pay Teachers.  It has 590 pages in it!  That is my biggest packet so far!  I put in at a discount price through this weekend.  CLICK HERE to see it on TpT.

Choose from these pictures for the Give-a-Way at the bottom of the blog.

If you made it this far down to the end of my long post, then here is the exciting news!  I am giving 2 away here along with 2 more on my Face Book page (Click Here).  I had my daughter choose one of the pictures (themes) from the sample shown above.  Here is how you can enter.  Follow my blog and/or my Face Book page.  Then leave your guess as to which theme picture my daughter chose as the secret winner.  Also leave your email address.  This is a HUGE file, so it might be best to leave an email that would not be blocked.  Some school email addresses block large files. You may make one guess on my blog and one on my Face Book page.  Good luck!  I will notify the winners as soon as the secret pictures are named.  So which picture do you think my daughter picked?  An animal? A holiday pic? Another theme?  Shhhh . . . it's a secret! 

Apples, Johnny Appleseed and a FREEBIE

I love apples. I love pumpkins. I love cooler weather. I LOVE FALL! It is my favorite time of the year. Living in Oklahoma, we get brief glimpses of cooler weather starting now. When I say cooler - I'm talking upper 80's for a high and high 60's for a low. But I'll take it. I know relief is in sight and soon we will experience leaves changing colors and hopefully even cooler weather. So what time of the year is it? It's time for apples and Johnny Appleseed's birthday. So I made some things to brighten up your apple units including a FREEBIE.  This cute clip art is from Creative Clips by Krista Wallden. If you haven't seen her adorable clip art, then stop by her store.  Click HERE for your APPLE CENTER FREEBIE.

 If you have been on my blog, you know I am a singing, moving, reading teacher. I love to put learning to songs. So this first packet is an adaption of "Skip to My Lou." It's called "Take a Bite" and focuses on repetitive text and color words. Here's is a preview of this packet called "Reading Fluency for Little Learners -  Apple Set."  It includes a big book, regular size book, guided reading book, pocket chart center, and recording sheet ideas for centers.  UPDATE:  I ADDED A MINI-VIDEO WITH MUSIC. Click HERE to read and see more.

Ways to use meaningful print to teach your students emergent reading skills and increase fluency.  I've also included recording sheets too.

Next up is "Reading Fluency for Little Learners:  Johnny Appleseed Set."  This text from this book is to the tune:  She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain.  This one includes a color version to display as an E-book if you have that option.  In fact, this packet has many different book options.  It includes a color version big book, regular size book (black & white and color versions), guided reading or independent reading book (black & white and color versions too).  And in the tradition  of many of my songs it has movement and motions included to get your students moving and thinking.  You have your choice of using the color version of sequencing cards or the black & white version.  Click HERE TO SEE and read more about this packet.  UPDATED:  THIS NOW CONTAINS A MINI-VIDEO SONG TOO.

FREE Awesome App for Research on Endangered Animals

With a greater emphasis on informational text and the Common Core, I wanted to share one of my favorite apps that I use with students for research.  And best of all it is FREE. It is by the World Wildlife Fund or WWF.  Here is a YouTube video of what it is like.

First of all, it has beautiful beautiful photographs. One of my favorite aspects of the app is your students can touch one of the places on the globe, and it brings up the endangered animal and how many miles it is from where the students live. It also has great video clips of the animals too.  Plus your students can research how they can help protect endangered animals.  Love, love, love this app!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Come back again soon.

Quotes for Teachers

It's Back to School time!  How many have already had your first day of school? How many will soon be starting?  I've visited by text, phone, and online with teachers from all over the United States this past week.  And guess what?  Teaching is a HARD job.  Let me rephrase that:  Teaching is an exhausting job!  How soon we forget all of the procedures it took to get our students from the first day of school to the last day of school.  If you have already started, you are feeling it to the core of your being.  If you are getting ready to start, you just think you remember:-)

So I wrote you some words of wisdom and encouragement to get your through the first month of school.  Print up your favorite color, and place it where you can see it every day.  Then in October, reflect on how far they have come. Think of all of the learning that has taken place.  In fact, make a note to reflect on this in December, March, and May.  But one thing is for sure.  You DO make a difference in the lives of your students every day.  You DO matter.  You ARE the reason that they are making progress.  Remember to build a community of learners and get those procedures in place.  And one more very important thing:  Take care of yourself too!  Have a great school year.

If you made it through your first day, congratulations!

Breathe, work on procedures, and get to know your students.  Plus drink tons of water:)

CLICK HERE to download your FREE posters.  There are many colors to choose from.

Chevron Frame Clip Art by:

CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE. 

BAM! POW! WOW! Get Your Students WRITING!

Do you need a motivating way to get your students to write?  Let them become Superhero Writers!    I use BAM, POW, WOW to help young students connect to writing.  BAM is for adding details.  POW is for using powerful words.  WOW is for checking their stories for correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.  For young children, most of their time needs to be spent writing their stories and adding details. If we want our students to value writing and be motivated to write more, we need to encourage them to write about topics they choose instead of having them write to a prompt.  I add a kinesthetic and visual movement with this as seen in the pictures below.

These are the motions we do as we talk about our writing.

Use the BAM! POW! WOW! chart to help students evaluate their own writing.

This is one of the cheers that that we do to celebrate our writing. The students who share their writing at the end of Writer's Workshop get to lead the class in the cheer.  You can also substitute the student's name and say "The name of the student" is a Super Writer Now!

I created these multimedia files to use with the Superhero Theme and writing.  You can view these on my Teachers Pay Teachers store for more information.  I've included a small video clip from each file.  The link will be in the comment after the video file.

IDEA SUPERHEROES Click HERE to read more about this multimedia file.  Teach your students where writers get their ideas for writing.

LETTER SUPERHEROES Click HERE to read more about this multimedia file.  Teach your students when to use a capital letter.

SPELLING SUPERHEROES Click HERE to read more about this multimedia file.  Teach your students when to use a capital letter.

The Super Hero to the Writing Rescue Multimedia files also include songs for teaching:

NARRATIVE SUPERHEROES - Teach your students the steps for writing a personal narrative. Click HERE.

OPINION SUPERHEROES - Teach your students the steps for opinion writing. Click HERE.

PUNCTUATION SUPERHEROES - Teach your students when to use a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of a sentence. Click HERE.

I combined them all into a SUPERHERO BUNDLE SET.  Click HERE for more information.  

And what's even better is they are on sale Sunday, August 18, 2013 & Monday, August 19, 2013.  Everything in my store is 28% off.  Use the discount code BTS13 when you check out.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have fun teaching your students about BAM! POW! WOW!

”Letter Superheroes,” “Punctuation Superheroes,” “Spelling Superheroes,” “Idea Superheroes,” “Opinion Superheroes,” and “Narrative Superheroes” are part of the Super Heroes to the Writing Rescue multimedia series by Kathy Griffin. Music performed, recorded, and produced by Lane A. Lollar and Maury Tindle at Studio Two Recording, Tulsa, OK. studiotworecording.com. Words by Kathy Griffin and music by Lane Lollar © Copyright 2013. 

Please Don't Take My Pretend Center Away

I'm often asked by many teachers and administrators if our kindergarten children still have time to "play."  My answer is, "YES!"  Play is children's work.  That is how they learn.  The pretend center seems to be a controversial area right now as we move towards the Common Core.  I am a fan of the Common Core, and I believe that the pretend center is the perfect place to work on those standards.  Math occurs in the pretend center. Language occurs in the pretend center.  Reading occurs in the pretend center. And writing can definitely enhance the pretend center.  When I set up my kindergarten classroom, I put my writing center close to my pretend center.  The reason is they complement each other.  What better way to get your students writing, than to let them have ownership of where they play.   Let them plan and design their centers.  Use rich vocabulary when designing them.  Use real world experiences to create your centers.  How many of you have a doctor office or a vet clinic in your pretend center?  Your housekeeping center can easily transform into many wonderful learning adventures for your students.  Below are examples of my students' writing that occurred from me turning it over to them. Look carefully at their samples and see what kindergarten students can do when you encourage them to write for meaning.  Then look below the pictures for a few Common Core standards that are being met by doing this.

How many words can you read?  You know you're an early childhood
teacher when you can read these words quickly:-)

Some use pictures, some use inventive spelling, and some use both.  

Sure it is easy to place an order verbally.  But encourage them to write their orders while in the writing center and then place in a basket for others to fill the orders.  FUN!  Looks like we need some hamburgers, cheeseburgers, breakfast bagels, chicken nuggets, and some apple dippers.

Now think of all the math that can occur when counting out orders. 
Cardinality comes from authentic practice too.

Common Core State Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1a Print many upper and lowercase letters.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K. Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2c Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2d Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1b Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K1d Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and finals sounds in three-phoneme words.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3b Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings for the five major vowels.

Stretching words apart into their individual sounds when writing is like a child decomposing a number with manipulatives in math.  Writing letters for sounds becomes a manipulative opportunity for our emergent writers.

The child advocate in me is saying, "YES! They need to play.  YES! They need to read and write.  And YES!  They can do all of that in the pretend center.  The motivation to read and write comes from the desire to make their play environment the best that it can be.  If we want our young students to write opinion and narrative writing, then we need to give them many, many opportunities to experiment with words.

I always say that teaching kindergarten is a hard balance these days.  Our children deserve the best environment to learn.  Let's do our best to keep the pretend center in our classrooms.

Thanks for stopping by.  I would love for you to leave your comments below on your favorite pretend center that you have in your classroom.  Let's get the ideas flowing.

Superheroes Group Time Listening Procedures

Do you need a visual poster or cards to help establish group time listening procedures?  I just loaded my new Superheroes Listening Packet to TpT.  These are the procedures I have used in my class for many years.  I just changed to a Superhero Theme for writing, so this worked well.  It's only $1.00 at my store.

 

Click HERE to view this on Teachers Pay Teachers.