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Tip for Teachers:

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Back to ESGI...
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Freebies for the first week of Kindergarten

Hello everyone! It's Cori from Mrs. B's Beehive! I hope everyone is soaking up the last of their summer vacation!!   Today I am sharing a blog series on lesson planning that I did for the first week of school!  Scroll through to see what I will be doing day by day, and grab A TON of freebies to help you with your first week back to school!

I've been wanting to do a series like this for many years.  Every time the beginning of the year comes around, I think about my first year teaching.  I got my position 2 weeks before school started, and to say that I was panicked and stressed is an understatement!  I scoured the Internet for advice and ideas. I gathered everything that I could, and really had no idea what I was doing!

I work at a school where there's only one teacher per grade level, and the pre-k teacher, along with the first grade teacher were newbies right along with me that first year!  I desperately wanted someone to tell me exactly what to teach to get through the first week.  After that week, our regular schedule would start, and I would begin on the curriculum that was given to me (which wasn't much of anything, but that's for another time : ) I felt that if I could make it through that first week, I just might be okay : )

I'm hoping that young teachers out there can find these resources, and that they will help to ease some of those first week nerves and frustrations.  Each day in this blog series, I am going to base the resources off of a common back to school book.  You can read the book to your students, and then do the FREE activities that I have provided.  Today we will be talking about The Kissing Hand.

I have tried so many different activities in the last 8 years for the first week of school.  I have tried a center set-up, I have tried beautiful art projects that require a lot of work ahead of time on my part, and I have tried activities that require a lot of assistance the day of, as the students complete them.  While I do try to incorporate some of these elements into our day, I am also a lot more realistic now about what we can accomplish, and what will keep more gray hairs from sprouting on my head!

Let's be honest, as the students come in and work, you are working like a mad person to put all of the supplies away.  You are also juggling those last couple of parents who won't stop taking pictures from the doorway, kids that are crying and need reassurance from you, and kids that are suspiciously eyeing the door, ready to run the minute you have your back turned (it's happened before, I suggest wearing comfortable shoes for unexpected mad dashes!)

We run on a mini-day schedule for the first week, so here is what day 1 looks like.

A good mix of activities, assessment, and teaching procedures.  We come in and begin work on a simple coloring page.  Sometimes the ability to open up a brand new box of crayons is all that it takes to give a reluctant child some peace!

Next, we come to the rug, and start to go over our calendar routine, and I introduce our first classroom rule.  Here is a product of mine that you can get off of TPT that gives some visual back-up to the rules.

After that, we start on our routines, we walk around the school, practicing that ever elusive straight line.  We have our bumpers up in front of us, and travel around to the different spots on campus that are important for them to know.  At this time, I show them the bathroom and water fountain (we don't have any in our classroom), and we talk about the procedures for dismissal as well.  I created this free list of procedures to help you try and remember all of those little things that you need to go over with your students at the beginning of the school year.

The first week is a great time to get some assessments done, and begin to plan out some of our small group activities.  On the first day I do an upper case inventory to check out their fine motor skills and letter formation.

I cover some more routines concerning recess and the fire alarm, which just so happens to be conveniently located in our snack area.  After we finish with that, I read them The Kissing Hand, and I do a quick check of their color knowledge.

I teach some more routines, and then we move into math.  I want to get a quick sense for which students have the basics down when it comes to number recognition and counting.

Next up is a quick art project that aligns to The Kissing Hand. 

After the art project is all cleaned up, we talk about dismissal routines, and we pack-up and go!  Every year I plan more activities then I will get to.  Things never go according to plan, but if you have all of your materials organized ahead of time, and are over-prepared, it brings your stress level down, and you can enjoy your new little people, and really start getting to know them!

Here is a quick breakdown of all the resources you can find in this post:

Kissing Hand Activities - Google Drive

Classroom Rules Coloring Book - TPT

Back to School Procedures List - TPT (Freebie)

Check out the rest of my Kindergarten week in these blog posts!

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

Kinder Tribe Book Study: The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading Chapter 2

Hello, Kinder Tribe Friends! This is Kelly from My Fabulous Class. I am so excited about this book study. I own the previous version of this book, but decided to purchase the updated version and I have here to tell you, it is worth it!!! I think the layout is easier to follow, there is new information, and I LOVE the spiral bound pages. If you haven't gotten the book, I highly recommend it.You can find it on Amazon HERE.

Today, I am talking about Chapter 2, The Pre A Reader. How many of your kids are in this category in the fall? When are they expected to be out of this stage? I would say, 50-75% of our Kinders fall into this category in August. It seems to vary year to year. The expectation at our school is to be out of this phase by October.

I know from talking to many of you, Pre-Guided Reading lessons can be a challenge, Jan Richardson does a great job of laying out exactly what you should be teaching and for how many minutes.

 I think we all start are year off with having students work with their names. Jan says to spend 1-2 minutes working with their names. She suggest using name puzzles, magnetic letters or rainbow writing.  I like to make these simple name puzzles and have all of students work with building their names. I have created this FREE Editable Name Puzzle. You can download it here.You can get the Editable Caterpillar HERE. It comes in color and black and white. I recommend printing it in color without any letters. Then, you can reuse them year after year. You can cut the circles with a 1.5 inch circle.

In the book, Jan provides several examples for working with letters. She suggest picking one activity and working on it for 2-3 minutes to help build automaticity.

I have always been a fan of matching letters to an alphabet chart. I have been known to do this everyday with my lowest kids. You can find this alphabet chart HERE. Jan provides several activities specific to the alphabet chart. I like asking students to find the letter that you here at the beginning of ______ (insert word from alphabet chart).

I really like the idea of asking students to lay out the letters in their bag and simply naming them. Fast and easy, yet so beneficial.

Jan recommends doing 1 sound activity a day to teach phonological awareness.

Clapping syllables is great for building phonological awareness. At first, you will clap with students, but the goal is for them to do it on their own. You can find this syllable activity here.

Hearing rhymes is also important. In the beginning, you will say two words, such as pig and wig. Students will repeat the words then give you a thumbs up if they rhyme.

 Segmenting words into onset and rime will help students to distinguish the ending sounds. You can find these activities here.

Sorting pictures is another way to work on sounds. I start with picture cards and put the letter cards away. In the beginning, I will just layout 3 picture cards, two with the same sound and one that is different. I slowly name the pictures, then ask student which two start the same. 

Once you are ready to introduce letters, Jan suggests starting with two consonants. Pick ones that are meaningful to the students in your group, such as the letter in their first name. You can find both of these activities here.

 Jan talks about doing a picture walk with a book. I know some teachers skip this, but it is CRUCIAL (in my opinion). First, your supporting students vocabulary. Second,you are helping build confidence by previewing the story. After you preview the book, Jan says to do shared reading of the book. Essentially, you corral read with your students. Finally, you work on concepts about print. I like to have students find a letter in their name and find a sight word we have worked on. Other concepts include first and last word, one and two letters, punctuation, and upper/lower case letters

For your Pre-A students, you will focus on share the pen. I like to dictate a sentence related to the book we are reading. Students draw a line for each word (was this in the old book? I have not been doing this!) Use the alphabet chart to help write letters that they here or know. Select one or two letters for letter formation. Cut up the sentence and have students rebuild it.

I created this Pre-A Guided Reading unit. It includes the activities I featured in this post, plus many, many more. I will be adding black and white pages by the end of the week to meet your printing needs. You can buy now, and get the updated version FREE. This unit will remain on sale for 50% off for the remainder of the book study. Enjoy!

Before I go, I want to remind you to enter our Kinder Tribe Giveaway. You could win a gift card to TPT valued at $100!!! Enjoy!!!

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Beginning of the Year Centers

We spend much of the beginning of the year working on routines and assessments, along with building foundational skills that will help our students become successful throughout the year.

When we think of what we want our students to do academically by the end of the year, our answers may vary, but over all we want them to read and solve simple math facts.  But how do we get them there?  In short, we need to pick apart skills that will help lead them to the end result.  What are these skills, you may ask?

In the area of literacy, we take the reading skill and break it down into smaller skills.  These skills include reading strategies, word knowledge, alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. So now on to the question of, what to do now with your students that will help with the goal of reading.  Here are some of my favorite centers that I use during this time to build these skills.

Alphabet:





This is created by Bonnie Kathryn Teaching.  Click here to view this product in her TPT store. This is a great center for children during this time of the year.  Children can work on these independently while you pull kids up for assessing.





Other alphabet center that I like to use include Alphabet UNO, Candy Land, Clip games and sorts.  I like to use games as a way to engage students.  They are not only learning and practicing fluency, they are having fun and ask to play it often.

Here are the images to the products.

                       

Phonological Awareness

Other centers that I like to introduce at this time include syllables and segmenting words.  I will often do these activities as a whole group or small group and then add them to our center collection.

My students love these centers.  The more that they can manipulate words and sounds, the more they are able to remember, engage, and use these skills.  Some of our favorite centers include Snap and Count Syllables by the Reading Mama and syllable clips, syllable cards and segmenting cards.

        

Reading Strategies:

I begin to talk about reading strategies during our small group shared reading time (This is a requirement from my district).  When it came time to teach these skills, I wanted it to be fun, engaging, and interactive.  I was searching for something that would help.  I came across this by Deanna Jump.  It had everything that I was looking for, and once I started using it, the kids loved it and therefore were able to recall may strategies when reading books at their level.

Please click this link to check this resource out in her TPT store!

The beginning of the year can be filled with stress, preparation, meetings, assessments, and getting to know your students (not necessarily in the that order).  It is important that we all remember to build on each student's knowledge, and help to build a strong foundation for each.

I hope you are all having a great start to the school year!

What skills do you focus on during this time of the year?  What are your "Must Do" centers or activities?