Lesson Plans–October 21-25

Better late, than never right? I didn’t include the “visual” part of the lesson plans this week.  But, I will post links below of which units I am using!

I will also post pictures of my centers from LAST week this week!

Here are the units that we are working from:

         

 

I posted this article on my Facebook page a while ago, but I know many of us are feeling a bit overwhelmed with the pressures and demands of teaching, standards, testing, and home life.  If you have a minute or two, click on over and read it….

Sometimes, I think that we are trying to get SO MUCH done just to feel like we are “keeping up.”  We are all human, and we are all doing our best. :)  Get done what you can with the time that you have, cherish every day with those sweet littles, and if you desk isn’t clean at the end of the day, or your bulletin boards aren’t perfect, don’t fret.  Do what’s best for you :)

Happy Wednesday eve :)

PS – Thanks for all the support on my last post.  It’s so nice to read all of your encouraging comments.

Life has been crazy…

My lesson plans aren’t ready.  I had 4 days off, but my lesson plans aren’t done.  I promise they’ll be done soon.  I didn’t post them last week, because I was a bit busy and had a lot on my mind (obviously my blog has suffered!)

My dad has been battling some stomach issues over the past 6 months or so.  He has been in and out of the hospital dealing with medical issues since about last March. It’s been tough.

He was recently diagnosed with bile duct cancer.  If you read anything about bile duct cancer, it’s not good.  At all.  Two weeks ago, he travelled for the second time to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the doctor’s there did their thing.

I have the utmost respect for the doctor’s at the Mayo Clinic.  Six years ago they saved my mom’s life when she was granted a new liver.  Two week’s ago they did the same for my dad.   I believe he is one of the lucky ones – the cancer was caught early and contained.  He’s not out of the woods yet though, he will travel back in 3 weeks for further testing just to make sure…

While we were driving the 6 1/2 hour road trip, this song came on (take a minute and listen, you won’t regret it).

If you know me, you will know that I’m a worrier.  I worry about everything.  When this song came on the radio – I knew that everything was going to be okay. *sigh*

Last Tuesday was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  I lit my candle for my sweet Nora, and all the other babies that left this Earth too soon.

and then this fell this morning….

Really?  Thankfully the snow melted pretty quickly, but it’s just a remind that winter is not far away.

But, here’s what makes me smile… Our final roses of the season from my Nora’s rose garden.  Her rose garden gives us beautiful roses all summer long. 

So, I’ll be back at it this week, I promise.  Because..

Technology in the Classroom

I came across this infographic today from Learnstuff.com.  Which leads me to ask….how are YOU incorporating technology in your classroom?

Daily Focus Wall

Last year our school district adopted the Marzano Teacher Evaluation model.  We are adding domains to be observed on each year. We are taking it slow so that teachers will really understand what they are being observed on.

Soon, we will need to begin posting our student learning goals.  I wanted to give it a go this year.  I originally planned on using these dry erase boards to write I can statements with the kiddos each day.

But then I thought – what good is it for my kiddos if they can’t actually READ what their goals are.  I decided to ditch the dry erase boards and make my daily focus wall more of a giant anchor chart for the kids.

I already had the banner made, and even though I use my interactive white board for my calendar, I still need to have a calendar on my wall for the kids (and me) to see.  I just re-arranged some things and moved my daily schedule to the board right next to this one.

This board is right next to my teaching area, so we look at it every single morning.  We talk about what our target goals are for the day, the vocabulary we are learning, the numbers/shapes/letters we are focusing on, and read our sight words every day.

The children refer to the board all day long! I’m so happy with it! As the year progresses, I am going to add more I can statements.

So, here is the breakdown….

Here are the links to some of the resources I use:

I’m still on the hunt for some great Kindergarten science and social studies vocabulary cards! If you know of some, please let me know!

If you would like to have the headers that I use for your classroom, click below to download them!

If you download, please be so kind as to leave a comment! How do you display your standards/I can statements?! 

Better Late than Never, Right?

Sorry for the delay on my lesson plans this week! 

I have been loving this lately…

The days are cooler and shorter, and I love the crisp smell in the air! But…in the back of my mind, I know that this is right around the corner…

So, I’ll enjoy fall while it lasts with some fun fall centers and lots of time outside!

Most of my activities for the next couple of weeks are coming from these two packs.  Just click on the images if you’re interested!

We also play a lot of the pocket chart games in this pack – the kids go nuts over them!

Here are my plans for the week!  As always, plans may change! I don’t always get to everything in my plans and some things I just decide not to do!  We have to be flexible as Kindergarten teachers, right?!  I would love to hear your thoughts about these plans – are they helpful to you? Or do they not make any sense at all?!

Have a great remainder of the week.  I’m not sure how my internet access will be over the next few days, so be patient with me if you have any questions!!

Apple Centers and Sight Word Winners

Wow! Thanks for all of the great ideas for sight words!  If you haven’t read all of the ideas, but sure to go back {here} and read the comments!

Here are the THREE winners of my new sight word pack! I used random.org to pick the winners for me! Be sure to e-mail me at growingkinders@gmail.com

*MrsCantwell*

*Donna Barrett*

*Jennifer Cailor*

This week has been a bit crazy for me with our parent/teacher goal setting conferences so I am finally getting a post up with my centers for the week.

I’ve had some questions about how I run my centers, so here goes…I *tried* a daily 3 approach, but ….

1. I felt too rushed

2. With 25 kids in the room, the transitions were long and tough.  I know with practice it will be begin to go smoother, but I guess I’m not that patient. ;)

3. I missed my writer’s workshop. A LOT. <---that was the kicker for me.

So, I went back to what has always worked for me, with one minor change.  I am now doing 8 centers instead of 5.

This is what my rotation chart looks like.  Nothing fancy, here folks! Plain and simple does the trick!

I use this chart for both math and literacy centers. The cards that are on the far right are the kiddos that are receiving some sort of intervention during our literacy center time.  So, for literacy centers, the children are working in partners.  This REALLY helps to keep the noise level down!  I do place the intervention kids in groups for 2 reasons – 1. they will need to be in a group for  math centers, and 2. if their intervention teacher is not at school that day, they will be able to slide right into a group. (We are very lucky, and have an amazing staff that works together to give kids what they need!)

The children do one literacy center each day.  Since there are 8 centers, it will take us 8 days to do this.  We do literacy centers in the morning and math centers in the afternoon.  The kids that were at intervention groups for the morning slide right into their group for math centers.  If you’ve peeked at my plans, you’ll see that I do literacy centers Monday-Thursday, and math centers Tuesday-Friday.  This frees up one math session on Monday for a more in-depth lesson, and one literacy session on Friday for a project or game or something fun! I’m really enjoying having that extra day to squeeze in some fun activities!

So, here’s a peek of what was in my drawers this week and last:

First up, math:

This one is an activity that I made a few years ago.  If I could find it on my school computer, I would share it with you, but I can’t seem to locate it!

This is another page that I can’t find on my computer ;(, But I have a similar one in my It’s Fall Y’all pack!

Sorry, this one is upside down in the drawer! This was great for the kids to practice forming their numbers! (Apples Math & Literacy)

Kids LOVED the dice domes! (I ordered these on Amazon). (Apples Math & Literacy)

We are doing AMAZING with ten frames! (Apples Math & Literacy)

This is another fun game from Cara’s What’s your Number? pack!

This is a write the room activity for literacy centers.  The children LOVE writing the room! (Apples Math & Literacy)

This game is from Julie Lee’s apple pack.

Sight word roll and write! (It’s Fall Y’all)

We love spinners! Beginning sound spin and cover (Apples Math & Literacy)

At this center, the children pulled a card out and found the matching lower case letter and stamped it on an apple! (Apples Math & Literacy)

We also LOVED working with our friends’ names! At this center, we sorted the names by the first letter.

We also explored ABC apps with our ipads this week and listened to an apple book at our listening center. During math centers, the children played a game using the Lakeshore math listening centers (no longer available!)

If you’re working on apples and are interested in any of these activities you can find them here:

 

I’m working on some fun new math and literacy centers for fall too! I’m done with the literacy part, just need to get cracking on the math centers!  Stay tuned!