Picture Sort Organization

Sorting pictures by beginning sound is an excellent way to help students develop phonemic awareness, alphabetic principal, and writing skills. It is also wonderful for English Language Learners because pictures help vocabulary development. Pictures can come from any resource, magazines or books that are published for that purpose.

But pictures are useless unless you can find them when you want them. So, take 13 legal sized envelopes, fold them or cut them in half and bind them on a binding machine or with book rings. Label each half of an envelop with a letter of the alphabet and load with pictures. They are within reach whenever you need them!

stretchers

Stretchers are a great way to help teach phoneme segmentation which is one of the building block of early literacy.
You will need strips of elastic (found in fabric stores), adhesive Velcro and laminated letter cards. Attach 3-4 pieces of Velcro to a 5 inch strip of elastic. Attach the other side of the Velcro to the backs of the laminated letter cards. When teaching a decodable word stretch the word out and pronounce each letter sound. Slowly relax the Velcro saying the sounds a little more quickly until the word is said. Note: For this word I would make the sounds of /l/,/i/, /k/ and introduce the concept of the silent e

Word Work

During independent work time, 5 students can choose word work. These are activities that encourage building and writing high frequency words or spelling words. I have chosen activities that are easily differentiated and can be used the entire year. To make the activities easy to access and individual I put all needed materials in a tub along with a white board, marker and sock (which is used as an eraser) The following is a description of the materials I include in a tub. The magnetic letters are great tools for word building. I store my magnetic letters in an old cake pan. The students build their words on a metal burner cover. I bought a set of 4 at a dollar store and I include 2 in the tub.

Squeezers are words written on paint sticks that have corresponding letter clothespins. Students take the clothespins off and build a high frequency word. I add one or two new words per week depending on what words we are working on. As a challenge students can assemble the word while the paint stick is flipped over.

The name puzzles are the names of each child in my class and myself. The names are written on a sentence strip then cut apart to create the puzzle. The puzzles are placed in an envelope. I also include a sentence strip with the student's name written on it so that children who need support can use it as a guide. As a challenge student's can hide the name strip and envelope and assemble the name without support. Students can also look for high frequency words within their classmate's names.

The letter stamps tub does not include a white board. Instead students stamp their words on a blank piece of paper. They can trace the tops of their words for writing practice

The letter beads are simular to the magnetic letters. This is simply another tool for word building.

Classroom Libraries

I had to ditch the bookshelves. Kindergarten students simply can't put books back in shelves neatly and they have a hard time finding the books they want to read on bookshelves

So, I purchased a whole lot of dish tubs. I sorted my book by topic and marked them with colored dot stickers, or arrangements of stickers. The tubs are easy to carry, easy to look through and the stickers help the students with the skill of matching. Students can use the library with a minimum of assistance from me and I can arrange the tubs on tables, shelves or on the floor. This is the most user friendly my library has ever been!

Lets Talk Turkey!

Here are my favorite turkey projects and Thanksgiving related stories.

First, the turkey building station is an addition to my dramatic play. I got this idea at a workshop and it's brilliant. You take colanders of various sizes and attach a turkey head to one of the holes. The students put different colored feathers through the holes to create a colorful turkey.
This is a great way to develop fine motor skills and cooperation.

This turkey was given to me by Merie Elise Silkey. You need paper plates, brown construction paper, feathers,glue and wiggle eyes. The teacher pre-cuts the paper plates to shape. Student color the plate and add feathers. Then the students trace and cut the head and feet.

This is the recycled materials turkey. You will need toilet paper tubes, paper plates, crayons, glue, feathers and wiggle eyes. The teacher cuts the paper plates in half. Student draw the turkey face including wiggle eyes. Then student glue the tube to the paper plate. Add the feather last and viola! A turkey!

Here are my Thanksgiving must reads.

Silly stories:

I Know and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie! by Alison Jackson Illustrated by Juith Byron Schachner (I started collecting the series of I know and Old Lady books. Each one ends with a surprise! These are great for predicting.)

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston Illustrated by Rick Deas (rhyming)

T'was the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey (Also a fun series great for predicting)

Fiction:

Gracias, The Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley Illustrated by Joe Cepeda (A multicultural community helps solve a turkey dilemma.)

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes Illustrated by Doris Barrette (Counting blessings with family)

Thanksgiving Day by Ann Rockwell Illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

Historical Fiction:

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley Illustrated by Holly Berry (Get the real dirt, literally, on life in historical Plymouth Plantation in a fun, interactive comic book style)

Non-fiction:

Feeling Thankful by Shelly Rotner and Sheila Kelly Ed.D. Photos by Shelly Rotner

Gathering the Sun An Alphabet in English and Spanish by Alma Flor Ada, English by Rosa Zubizarrets Illustrated by Simon Silva

ABC's and XYZ's

I love this book and I use it all the time! Hands On Alphabet Activities for Young Children by Robeta Seckler Brown and Susan Carey
This book contains a mini book for each letter that incorporates high frequency sight words. It also has an art activity for each letter and lesson plans.

Honoring Native People

During the Thanksgiving season teacher are called to teach about Native American Peoples. I often feel ill equipped to do this. I want to be so careful not to trivialize or generalize contributions or culture of any Native people. The following are some excellent books that introduce the concept of many different tribes, contributions of individual people and legends.
Legends:
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush retold and illustrated by Tomie DePaola
The Legend of the Bluebonnet retold and illustrated by Tomie DePaola
First Biographies:
Squanto by Sonia W Black Illustrated by Bod Doucet
Pocahontas by Kimberly Weinberger Illustrated by Stephen Marchesi
Many Nations An Alphabet of Native America by Joseph Bruchac Illustrated by Robert F. Goetzl