The Story Box

I have, in my personal collection, some excellent story props. Story props, if you are unfamiliar, are items that have been collected to use while acting out a particular story. Story props can be puppets, masks, items of clothing or objects.
I have made many of my own story props and I had an outstandingly creative Educational Assistant who made the story props for The Mitten by Jan Brett and Thomas' Snowsuit by Robert Munsch.

After I use the story props and we are finished with the story I put them in the Story Box. This box holds 3 to 5 stories and is intended for student use during independent work time. So, one student gets to choose the story box and practice retelling favorite stories. This helps with comprehension skills and vocabulary development (which is key for the English Language Learner).

These are clothing outlines for Robert Munsch's book Thomas' Snowsuit. This book is about a little boy and his refusal to wear his snowsuit and where that refusal takes him.

These are retell puppetts for Jan Brett's version of The Mitten. The large and small mitten are made of felt. All the animal puppets fit inside it and fall out readily when the bear sneezes.

Assessments

It is the time of year for assessments. I have gotten to appreciate the importance of data collection over the years but I still don't really like to collect it! My school uses dibels and MAP standardized testing and I do a number of my own assessments like, letter and sound inventories, skill demonstrations and observations.
Assessing at the kindergarten level takes a lot of time because we have to meet with each child one on one in order that the child show us they have mastered a particular skill.
Once we have this information the next thing we need to do is to plan an intervention for those who have not masted the skill and to make sure the others are being challenged at an appropriate level.
I make the collection part more manageable by doing it in small chunks, assessing a few students each day. Then analyzing and planning with the data before starting the next round of assessments.
Most importantly though is using the data to drive grouping and instruction. The most comprehensive assessment in the world is useless unless the teacher uses it to give the child a better education.
Hang in there

Mitten Match

During the winter months I like to brighten up my teaching with these colorful mittens. To make them you need a few sheets of compressed felt, (available at craft stores, it is the kind of felt that is stiff), fabric glue, buttons, fabric paint and other assorted trinkets. Cut out pairs of mittens and decorate them so that they are identical. These are great to use for math activities like matching, teaching the terms: alike, same and identical. These are also great for pairing students for other activities. Once they have been used in whole group, they can be part of a center or a choice time activity.

Reindeer Toast

Kindergarten cooking projects are one of those things that teach direction following skills, spacial sense and they are just plain fun!

I love doing reindeer toast because it is so easy to prepare and the kids love to assemble the reindeer.

You will need:

A loaf of bread and a toaster. I like to use a 4 slot toaster so that more children can get their toast at a time.

peanut butter or in case of a peanut allergy, chocolate frosting or other spread.

pretzels

chocolate chips

read candies for the nose.

Toast the bread and cut in half forming 2 triangles. Spread the peanut butter on the toast. Add the pretzels, chips and red candies to make a reindeer face. Eat and enjoy!

Gingerbread man word families

During the month of December, I like to spend a week using different versions of the Gingerbread Boy during my literacy block. Scholastic even offers a new version called The Gingerbread Girl, which my class really enjoyed. As an extension activity I created these gingerbread -an family books as an adaptation of sound boxes and word building.
To make the actual book I used a gingerbread man cookie cutter as a tracer. I traced and drew the page pictured here. Then I traced a paper with 9 "boy"shapes, copied them, cut them out and stapled them on the page shown to make the book.

I've used this both as a whole group guided writing activity, or as a small group during a guided reading lesson. It is a fun way to incorporate thematic instruction with phonics!

Advent

Advent started on November 30th, so for all you fellow Catholic School Teachers out there here are some of my favorite ideas for celebrating Advent in my classroom.
First I like to display the stable on my prayer table and add one figure to the nativity scene per day. One child opens the box and places the figure in the scene. It is a nice way to identify all the characters in the Christmas story.
The manager activity helps to reinforce social skills and kindness. Every time a child does something kind or helpful, that child gets to add a piece of straw to the manger. The Children are supposed to do so quietly but in the beginning they need some encouragement from the teacher that it's okay to add a straw.

The advent chain offers a multitude of skill practice. The students create an ab pattern with red and green construction paper strips. The chain can be any length desired. I like to have the students make the chain the same number of links as children in the class. Then I help the students number the links and send a class list home with the chain that corresponds a number to the name of the child in the class. Then when the student removes the link they pray for that child. The star on the top includes the rhyme: "Each night after prayers are said, take off a ring and hop in bed. When only the star is left to shine, you'll know that it is Christmas time!" I also have a chain in the classroom and we do the prayer chain together so that each child knows that they are being prayed for.

The living Advent wreath is my favorite activity. I got this idea from Mary Jo Thureson. You need a green garland or 2 depending on the size of your class. I made "candles" by laminating 3 blue and 1 white 11 x 16 sheets of construction paper and tying yarn through to make them able to hand around a students neck. I also made flames. Each morning we gather in a circle and four students are the candles and we add the number of flames based on the week. When we are in the wreath we say a special Advent prayer or sing "This Little Light of Mine."

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!