Weather and Temperature Data Collection

Looking for an authentic and fun way to collect data in your Kindergarten class or homeschool setting? We have just the idea for you! :) This is such an exciting way for young mathematicians to collect and organize data daily as well as over time. The best part is that it is all driven by student observation and notation.

The materials can vary based on your current supplies and preference. You can get a large desk calendar like this one:

You can also use a sticky-notes on a blank calendar like the one above. Alternatively, you might create a calendar that can be reused by adjusting the month and days with the post-it notes.

When you have the materials ready to go...

A student can hold the "Weather Reporter" or "Meteorologist" job and draw the weather by observing how the sky looks each day. This job can rotate as you wish. It is important that this student then discusses and reports the weather of the day with the community. When the month is complete, you can have a discussion as a class, asking questions such as, "What type of weather did we have the most?" or "How many days were sunny?" Whichever questions you ask remember to follow it with: "How can we find out?" This will lead to a class conversation about authentic ways to organize the data to find out. This should be student-led, allowing them to suggest ways to categorize the data, for example, cutting the calendar apart so they can sort sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. days.

We also use a temperature graph to record how it feels outside. Students might debate whether it feels 'very hot' vs. 'warm', but you can show them how to access the actual temperature online or on your phone. The temperature graphs are pre-made, but the consistent format supports students in noticing trends and data change over extended time (many months as in the photo above). You can download it FREE in our TPT store!

Remember that these are great ways to promote autonomy with student jobs while also supporting your sense of community buy-in and decision making. 

We hope this is useful and that you and yours have many sunny days ahead! :)

Together in Learning, 

S&C

Letter and Keyword Matching Cards

Download our FREE Letter and Keyword Matching Cards as featured in the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project's Instagram photo!

They go perfectly with our other Alphabet resources that are available in our TPT store!

Vocabulary Charts

Many of our classes consisted of 85+% beginner & intermediate English Language Learners, so we needed to use charts with common pictures and words throughout the day. Even a simple question such as "What do you like?" required a chart so students could point to a picture and we could help them to say "I like to [sing]." When we read aloud books with unfamiliar words, such as "Charlie was devastated when his best friend moved away, " we would refer to the "How sad?" chart.

Charts can be made with:

• photos of students
• student or teacher drawings
• pictures from familiar books
• clip art or photo images

You might even add the words via shared or interactive writing if you can.

Here are some examples...

*We needed charts with common nouns ("People We Love"; "Places We Go") and verbs:

*They especially love the charts with removable words!

these words have Velcro on the back;
great for storytelling and how-to writing

*Ken Pransky's book My Fantastic Words Book, a student thesaurus, is the perfect resource for word lists of kid-friendly synonyms and antonyms.

these charts show feelings by degrees of intensity

size words

*Make the charts accessible in table baskets, binders, or sorted in the Writing Center.

More examples to come!
C&S

Ready... Set..... Writing Workshop!

Hey Everyone! 

We are only 8 days into the school year and Writing Workshop is in full swing! These kindergarten writers are so excited to write and share their stories with each other. It is so fun to see the little ones so engaged and wrapped up in their writing.

Stay tuned as our classroom community of writers grows! 

not pictured: soft classical music ;)

writing center

paper choices

Happy writing,
Stefanie & Chrissa

Star Student Name Study

Now that our Word Walls are up and ready for use, it's time to start our Star Name Study that focuses on each student with the fun and interactive investigation of their first name.

Here's a possible sequence...

STAR STUDENT NAME STUDY

1.  Sing “Who will be the star today?” (Tune of London Bridges)
2.  (drumroll) Choose a name.
3.  Sing in the same tune "[Graham] is the star today..."
4.  Ask the student to spell name as you write it on the board, if they can.
5.  Cheer!

• cheer “Give me an G…G! Give be a R…R!…” while doing hand signs for each letter
• cheer the name in chunks “G-R-A…H-A-M  Graham! G-R-A...H-A-M Graham!!!"

6.  "What do you notice about [Graham's] name?" (What do you see?) Turn and talk. Share out and trace the letters as they point out their noticings. Help students notice shape, tall letters, short, long/descending, capital vs. lowercase, consonants vs. vowels, etc. Outline or cut the shape of name.
7. “How many syllables are in [Graham’s] name? Let’s clap and count.”
8. "How many letters are in [Graham's] name? Let's count each letter as I cut."

Stefanie cuts the student's name apart

as the class counts the letters.

9.  Put the letters in the pocket chart for students to unscramble. Ask, "What's the first letter?" "What's the next letter?"....."What's the last letter?"

Friends help to put the name back together in order.

10.  Cheer one more time to check that the name is spelled correctly.

11.  Add the name to the Word Wall.

Students help Stefanie find where
to put a name on the Word Wall.

12.  Make the name puzzles available for students to play with.

We also add the names to a large pocket chart so we can compare and sort the names as we study them. We follow the name study with students interviewing the star student and then make a page in the "Star Student Book" via shared, and then later, interactive writing. (More on this in our next post!)

SOME TIPS:

*Prepare a basket with envelopes for each student with their name and picture; inside write the name on three sentence strips- 1 for cutting up into a puzzle, 1 for the pocket chart, and 1 for the word wall.

*Even though we make it appear to students that we are randomly choosing a name, we have purposely selected names in a sequence that will support letter/sound recognition...for example, we might choose names with B, M, R, S, etc. first because these are easy sounds to hear; we might also choose names with the same beginning sound two days apart so, for example, they can hear how Sam and Sophia have the same first sound and begin with letter S.

Word Practice!

Check out our new High Frequency/ Sight Word Practice Sheets!

These high-frequency word (sight word) sheets are great for independent practice! They can easily supplement any classroom's word work curriculum or literacy centers. On each page, students will color, trace, write, cut, paste, build, and search for the words. The skills progress on the page, leading the students to finish the activity by independently writing the word. There are also extra letters to choose from on the bottom of the sheet, encouraging the students to not only unscramble the word, but also identify the necessary letters.

***Remember these sheets are not meant to take the place of valuable instruction and authentic hands-on experiences, so don't put away the gel bags, play dough, paint, sand, magnetic letters, etc.***
;)

FIND THEM HERE: Our TpT Store

DC Comic Children's Books

Check out these amazing DC Comic Super Hero books for children by David Bar Katz! 

These are great books for the little ones. Topics range from opposites, colors, shapes, ABCs and 123s! These durable board books are so engaging for children and will spark their interest, come on...who doesn't love super heroes? These are excellent books to put out as 'look books' at the beginning of the year, as well as for when these topics come up in your teaching curriculum. We got ours on Amazon for cheap, so look there first if you plan to get them.

Let us know what you think or if you have some other good books for us to check out! :)

Cheers,
S&C

Word Walls

According to Patricia Cunningham (2012), who is credited with inventing the word wall, “the word wall is an area in the classroom where words are displayed -– but not just any words -– truly important ones. They are systematically organized and a tool designed to promote group learning.”  

Cunningham, P.M. (2012). Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Top Ten Tips for Setting Up Your Word Wall:

1. Try to put it as close to eye-level as possible...We like to reserve the most visible part of the classroom wall space for the word wall. Ideally the letters would go across in a single row, but try for as few rows as possible, as we know some classrooms are oddly-shaped.

2. The letters should include both capital and lowercase letters, and a keyword picture. The word wall labels (and other alphabet resources) that we use are available in our TPT store!

3. Use visual borders between the letters and solid backgrounds. Our brains are programmed to see borders and the solid backgrounds cut out distractions.

4. Make the words in large, bold, black font about 2" (150+ font size) on white paper; in a typeface similar to the text they will see in their leveled books. Click here for a free editable word list.

5. Cut around the shape of letters to help with visualizing how the words look...and this helps with handwriting- ex. Students will remember that 'the' has two tall letters and one short letter at the end.

6. Back words in various colors of card stock. Make words that begin with the same letter like 'with', 'went', 'when' in different colors to make them more distinguishable; put pictures or clues on homophones.

7. Designate words with common spelling patterns; ex. Put a star sticker next to 'can' because it can help you spell ran, fan, van, etc.

8. Try to make the word wall interactive- ex. Make a word wall with felt and Velcro so words can be removed and used by students; Store words on rings or in library pockets under the word wall; Make personal miniature word walls.

9. Add words gradually. The first words that go up onto the word wall should be the students names. Just like the other words, these are added gradually as you study a name each day. (The names can eventually be moved to a separate name chart- more on that next time.) Later in the year celebrate words can be removed from the word wall because students know them.

Stefanie's Word Wall at the beginning of the year last year.
Notice that it starts with the students' names.

10. Remember to have fun with your students in reviewing words on the word wall in daily via cheers, songs, games, etc.!

Stefanie's Word Wall is ready for the new year to begin :)

Chrissa's Word Wall last year-
made with a giant piece of felt and painter's tape!

Some easy ways to store the word wall words:

in a small photo album

small accordion file pouch

Reading Units of Study

Chrissa's classroom and students are featured in some of the
brand new Kindergarten Reading Units of Study
by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project!

click here to download samplers

Patricia Cunningham's Must-Have Books for Kindergarten

At a Teachers College workshop last fall, Pat Cunningham shared three must-have books for kindergarten phonemic awareness work. Get these classics now if you don't
have them already!

(The Hungry Thing was a little harder to find,
but the kids love it!)

What are your favorites?

1st Day of School Pictures

It's the first day of school and the excitement is electric!
Something that we love to do is document this important occasion. The parents also really love and appreciate the forever treasured 1st day of school pictures. You can see both of our frames and of course add your own flare and style to yours. Remember this isn't just for the teachers out there. Parents, this can be a picture prop that becomes a 1st day of school tradition for years to come... you just won't add "kindergarten" to the frame so it can be used year after year as they grow.
:)  

These frames were fun and easy to make. We got our frames inexpensively from Michaels, which is where we also got the letters, paint, poof balls, etc. The beauty about Michaels is they love teachers (with the constant discount) and they always have sales.

Stefanie's frame

Chrissa's frame

Another first day/first week picture we like to take is the "hello, my name is..." picture. This picture is great for the classroom door with the title: Our (K247) Classroom Community. We printed the signs (from Ketchen's Kindergarten blog in 2012) on cardstock in multiple colors and had the student pick the color they wanted. After the pictures are printed, you can write the name of the student on the picture in the white space. The families really loved it and it was a fun way for others in the school community to get to know our little ones and learn their names quickly. Remember to take the your picture too!