Color of the Week- Blue- Dear Mr. Blueberry

This book happens to be one of my favorite books all school year long.  I guess it shows because my students really love it too.  And this past year, my students were using the word migrate all year long.  Yeah, pretty crazy for Kindergarten right????  Well it helped that I was excited about the book, and oh yeah the awesome craft we did for the vocabulary word migrate.

Day 1

We read the book purely for enjoyment on day 1.  If you haven't read it, it is about a girl named Emily who is convinced she sees a whale in the pond in her backyard.  She writes letters back and forth with her teacher Mr. Blueberry telling him all about the whale.

Day 2

We re-read the book and we do a simple journal page about the characters.  The students draw Emily and Aurthur the whale.  You may choose to have students use a cutout like below, this one came from the Dollar Tree.  (I LOVE that place!)  If you do not have a cutout and you don't want your students to draw, the latest version of this pack includes a half page with Aurthur on it.  Since all we see of Mr. Blueberry are his letter back to Emily there is a question mark in his character spot.  

 Day 3

 We read the book once again and this time we will focus on the vocabulary.  I stop reading when we come across one of our vocabulary words from the book.  (Now this is the second week of school with Kindergartners, do I wish I got to every term, of course.  But many of them are still learning to sit for more than 5 minutes.)  So I judge based on the the particular class how many terms they can handle and don't stress.  I'm sure we will read this book again when we have an extra moment (when they can sit for 10 minutes at a time) and we can cover those other words then.  I do make sure I talk about migrate we used the definition- "to move from place to place."  Later in the year, around November when we are talking about Native Americans we added in to our definition that people and animals often migrate to find food.

Day 4

We read the book again.  When we get to the word migrate I stop reading and have the students explain the word to each other.  Then the fun begins, the students get to work on this set of journal pages.  The whale on the page moved up and down- a great illustration of the word migrate.  This one craft is the reason my students owned this word!

 Day 5

We read the book one last time.  Today's focus is on whales.  The students create a whale facts mini-book with simple predictable language.

Also included in my Dear Mr. Blueberry pack is a whale themed counting math center.


A new item that will be making its way into my color of the week plans are my color books.  They are super easy to put together and they fit into a composition notebook.  (Oh, did I mention they are 50% through the end of the week!)

Another part of the color of the week theme are the poetry journals I will be using this year.  I found this awesome poetry pack from Kindergarten Smiles.  In this pack there is a poem for each color of the week and a whole year's worth of poetry.  What I love about this set is that it includes the poems and also pictures for the kids to glue into their journals and then students create the backgrounds.



Some other websites for color of the day/week:

Scholastic- Books for Color of the Week	My Color Pinterest Board

Do you do color of the week?  What books do you use?

Getting to Know Numbers 1-30 Gets a Complete Facelift

One of my very early TPT products was Getting to Know Numbers 1-30.  This set served me well, it had a spot on my calendar wall and I used it daily.  Students were able to see a variety of ways to show a number.  It also got me talking about tally marks way earlier in the year than usual.  But as I looked at the cover and the contents of it is was reminded of how much it needed updating.  So here it is, a product that took me far too long to revamp is finally here.......

Getting to Know Numbers 1-30 Superhero Style 

I have included ideas for how to arrange the pieces on poster board.

Just so you have an idea of what it looked like before.... here you go.  Again, it was functional, but not so cute.

Are there any products you are looking to redo this summer?  I am so glad to have crossed this one off my list, and I absolutely LOVE the new look.  Grab one for yourself by clicking on the image below.

What do you guys think of the new look?  What products do you plan to give a facelift to this summer?

Color of the Week- Red- The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear

I like to start the school year off with colors of the week.  It helps most of my students build their confidence about being in school. It also teaches those who were not in school before or who may be second language learners their colors.  Each week has one main book with activities to introduce literacy, and math skills into the curriculum. 

Day 1  

We'll start by reading the book:The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.  Once we have read the book, the students complete this page from the Mailbox Magazine.  I use it as a recall from the book instead of for predictions. 

Day 2

We reread the book and complete a half page about characters and glue it into our academic journals.  The students trace the words at the bottom and draw a picture of the mouse in the frame.   

Day 3

We once again read the book and the students work on sequencing the events in the story.  They use these pictures from the Mailbox Magazine to sequence the events.  This early in the year a lot of my students do this incorrectly without support.  I usually project the page, have a class discussion about the order of the pictures, and then cut them out and place them in order and keep them projected. (Yes at the beginning of the year I still do have students who cannot place numbers in order, or follow a model on the board, but at least it helps those that are able to and I can spend more time with the really needy ones.)

Day 4

We reread the book and focus on the vocabulary words.  We especially talk about the word disguise. The students complete a half page journal entry about the word and then create the disguised strawberry craft.

Here is an example of what it looks like in my students' journals.  (Please ignore the missing eyeball, it fell off in the middle of the year sometime.  And I only decided it would be a good idea to have a picture of this the last week of school.  Way to procrastinate!)   I just loved these eyebrows and mustache so I had to showcase this one.

You can find the journal pages and the art activity by clicking on the image below.

Another part of the color of the week theme are the poetry journals I will be using this year.  I found this awesome poetry pack from Kindergarten Smiles.  In this pack there is a poem for each color of the week and a whole year's worth of poetry.  What I love about this set is that it includes the poems and also pictures for the kids to glue into their journals and then students create the backgrounds.


Some other choices of books for the color red:
Clifford, Ten Apples Up On Top, The Little Red Hen



Some other websites for color of the day/week:

Scholastic- Books for Color of the Week	My Color Pinterest Board

I would love to hear from you about how you do color of the day/week and what books you use.

FREEBIE! Alphabet Booklets!

My students are officially out of school for the summer.  I have to go back today and finish some cleaning and a tiny bit of packing.  This is perfect for the beginning of the year in Kindergarten.  Introducing *FREE* Alphabet Booklets.  Click on the pictures below to grab it.

Enjoy your summer!

Five For Friday with FREEBIES

I am super excited to take part in the Five for Friday linky party.

1. One way to stay organized for guided reading.  I always start off each school year with the intention of being  more organized that the prior year.  (Sound like anyone else?)  So last summer I created a guided reading database in hopes of using it all year to keep track of and plan my guided reading groups.  The good news is, when I remembered to use it, it made planning super efficient.  But did I always remember to use it? 

If you happen to use Journeys Kindergarten at your school, maybe this will help you stay organized...  It includes the books titles, DRA level, sight words, phonics skill, and vocabulary for each book.  The best part... it's FREE, so enjoy!

2.  The number of vacations I have planned.  I'll admit I have been rather spoiled when it comes to summer vacations.  Although my husband is not a teacher he worked in a job where he would get LOTS of time off.  We would use the summers to go all sorts of places.  Well he got a new job, and with that new job came a lot less vacation.  So this summer he and I will just be taking a weekend trip.  I'll be planning it once school is out. 

I am also going on a shopping/eating/drinking trip the ladies on my mom's side of the family take each year.  This year we are heading to Atlanta.  I am not looking forward to the late July temperatures, but I am looking forward to spending time with my family!


3.  The amount of days I have been feeling totally out of it due to a nasty head cold.  The good news is I am finally starting to feel better.  Hopefully for my last week with the kiddos I will be back to normal.


4. The amount of times I have to wake up to an alarm clock until August!!!!!  (Technically I am signed up for 3 trainings this summer so I will have to get up then.)  But there are only 4 days left for students! 

We have our Kindergarten promotion ceremony coming up this week where my kiddos will be getting awards and performing for their parents.  It has turned out to be very time consuming preparing for this, but I think it will all be worth it.  With the help of an awesome friend at school (I have two left feet) my students are performing a dance from Just Dance Kids.  They have worked SOOOO hard on this, I can't wait for their parents to see it.

 

5. Five freebies for you to kick your summer off right!  I have been working to update my TPT products.  Here are five updates or new freebies for you to enjoy!

Kerry

Word Family Houses

I introduce the short a and short i word family houses to my class starting in October.  I slowly add in short e, o and u.  And starting in about April,  I add in the long vowel set too.  These centers have my kinders working on word families all year long!

Give it a try with the FREE Short Uu Word Family Houses.

Also available are the rest of the Short Vowel Houses.

And the latest addition to the series, Long Aa and Long Ii.  (I put the blue curtains on these so the pieces would not get mixed up with the short vowel pieces).

I hope you find them useful!
Kerry