February Fun!

Love is in the air... take a look

Valentine art makes my heart happy! The heart fish and butterflies are what graced the walls in my classroom for February. Simple but adorable.  In addition, to the heart themed art we learned a poem titled Valentine.  

Here are a few of my favorite valentine themed books. 

This months family project was to create a mailbox using recycled materials.  The finished products always amaze me! I love how the children feel so proud of their creation.

It's always a challenge to think of new ways to engage five and six year olds, especially when practicing a new skill.  With that in mind, I set out to create a game that would allow the kids to practice  adding with the help of a number line.  The game is simple - one child throws a heart shaped beanbag and hits a number on the red heart and another student throws the beanbag and hits a number on the white heart. 

  

A student recorded the number sentence on my board (pictured below) and the class recorded the equation in their interactive journal (pictured below). We then used the number line to find the sum.

My class loved this game! 

One of my all time favorite Valentine books is called the Valentine Surprise.  The main character in the story makes a bunch of different shaped hearts while trying to create the perfect heart.  After reading the story we graphed which heart they liked the best.

We analyzed the data in the picture graph (sorry it was cut off in this picture). 

I created yet another game this time to allow my class to practice making/ reading cvc and cvce words.

The life size game board really grabbed their full attention.  Here's how it works - first one student rolls the die and moves the game piece that many spaces. Another student turns over a card in the center of the game board.  We put the onset and rime together and read the word.  The class had their interactive journals in front of the them to record the words.  We made two categories real/ nonsense.  If the game piece landed on "pick a friend" the child who rolled the die would pick a friend to help them make a word.  If the piece landed on "nonsense word" we had to make a nonsense word with the card that was turned over.

Here is another picture of the game board.  The hearts are from the dollar store.

On Valentines Day my class sorted and graphed their conversation hearts.  This activity is always a hit with the kinders!

During writers workshop my class worked on writing two sentences the first one telling who they would give their valentine to, and the second to describe their valentine. 

I love art projects that require the kids to be creative- this one sure fits the bill.  I gave each table a bunch of different materials, and told them to decorate their heart... simple as that!

Happy Valentines Day!

A Whole Bunch of Random

Lately, in Kindergarten world we have been learning a whole bunch of new things like the LOVE story of Q & U.  Have you ever said the word, "LOVE" around 5 & 6 year olds? Take it from me it's one of those words that triggers the "eewww," "ahhhh" and "awww" reaction, which lets be honest is pretty darn funny! I told my class the timeless story of how Q met U and fell in LOVE and eventually got married. What you see below are the story props that I used to tell my story.  Nothing fancy... just Q & U.  

                           

Besides the wedding of Q & U we started our Valentines Day centers! My class...dare I say loved the center below.  They practiced putting the sentence together and then choosing a picture of a classmate to put at the end of the sentence.  

Last week we started to learn about the different parts of a sentence primarily focusing on nouns.  

During center time my class created their very own version of "Noun Town." I gave them a bunch of paper and let them draw whatever nouns they could think of to make our town complete.  I got this idea from the blog First Grader... at Last!.  I love how it turned it out!

Miss H.

Happy Valentines Day! A few days late ...

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

 The month of February is always hectic with the hundreds day of school, Valentine's Day, and the Presidents holiday there is so much to teach and so much fun to be had! Check it out!

What doesn't say love more than a butterfly and fish made out of hearts?  

I used my new app called Bubble Frame to frame these pictures.  

Another cute art project we did was making a heart person.  For the body they were given a piece of paper to write who their valentine was.  I think they turned out adorable!

So many Valentine books to read and so little time!

These were a few of my kinders favorites.

Here is our Valentine's Day poem.  We made up silly movements to help us remember the words and then added it to our poetry books.

We used heart Marshmallows to estimate how many were in a jar.  

I had my kinders guess what they thought was in my present and then write about it in their journals.  They were very excited when we opened it up and the mice popped out!  

During the beginning of February I assigned a family project to make a mailbox to hold their Valentines in.  They turned out so amazing!

Have you ever read the book Valentine Surprise?  It's about a little girl who makes a heart for everyday of the week for her mom.  After reading the book we graphed what heart they liked the best.  As you can see, the fat heart had the most votes!

We sorted and graphed Conversation Heart Candies.  Obviously, this was a huge hit with the kinders!

Here are a few of last weeks centers...

I found this idea on the blog Sprinkles to Kindergarten and changed it to make it work for my class.  The object of the game is to find what cup the bear is hidden under by saying the sight word.

The kinders matched the phrase on the heart to the matching heart on the cookie sheet.  

I found these cute heart glasses at Target and thought they would be perfect for my write the room center.

This idea came from the blog The Wonder Years.  I changed it a bit to challenge my students.  I had them roll two dice, add the numbers together, and then build a tower to put on the sum.  Easy and fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Miss H