Classroom behavior

I have tried a new positive behavior plan for my classroom this year and it has made a world of difference. I have found that focusing on the positive things that kids do right is much more beneficial than correcting the negative things. Every child likes attention and this system has made it easy for me to complement good behavior. I have a circus theme in my classroom so I went with a balloon for each child. I fill their balloon with a bingo dabber stamp each time I noticed them doing something good. This might be as simple as the first child who comes to the carpet and sits correctly or someone who uses good manners. Every child is given a class number and the balloons are displayed in the classroom. When a child balloon is full of stamps they are awarded a prize. They can pick from one of eight things including being the line leader for the day, using the super supply bucket for their work, being the class DJ, or picking out of the treasure box to name a few. When their balloon is full it is taken off the bulletin board and they take home a certificate celebrating their accomplishment. Then I replace their balloon with a new one and they start over again. 

Becoming Readers

Reading can be very intimating for kindergarteners. I want my students to know right from the start of school that they are readers! We have been practicing the three ways to read books. Students practice basic concepts of print by starting from the beginning of a book and turning each page creating a story as they go.

How to read the pictures
I provide short level A, B, and C books where students can have success telling a story just by looking at the pictures. We think about the characters and how they are feeling. Students are encouraged to come up with voices for characters. We use words like next and then to make the story flow across the pages. This is done independently and also with a partner.

How to read the words
Teacher made simple pattern books are used. Students practice pointing to each word, following the pattern, looking at the picture for help, and getting your mouth ready to say the first sound. Students have opportunities with a partner and independently to highlight the first letter of each word and circle sight words.

How to Retell a Story
A book is chosen each week and read to the class each day that week. Then after the book has been read to students five times they are given copies of the book and retell the familiar story with a partner and independently.

Opinion Writing like MO Willems (K.W.1)

My kids have been having so much fun learning about opinion/persuasive writing and reading Mo Willems books.  We start the week by being introduced to the author using this video.  Then I talked a little bit about what persuading means and I read Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus.  They were given a paper with speech bubbles to write things that the pigeon could say to get to drive the bus.  My higher students came up with their own using the style of Mo Willems and others wrote words very similar to Mo's.  Either way was fine with me, since this was a new type of writing I just wanted them to get comfortable.  When writing time was over we made a circle and they got to share their favorite words they wrote in one of the speech bubbles.  We worked on using voice and gestures to act out our quotes.
On the second day I read Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late then we used the same paper to write things that we say to our parents to try and stay up late.  These were hilarious by the way.  I had them share what they said with their writing partner at the end of our writing time.  During snack time and  read aloud I was able to fit a few more Pigeon books in that I found on YouTube.  I paused the videos several times so they could pair share schema they had about Mo Willems writing, text to text and text to self connections, and predictions.

 

On day 3 we were ready to write our own tale of the pigeon and they were excited.  I played this video, pausing along the way for turn and talks about how the first graders that made this book used Mo Willems idea but made it their own.  Then they could choose if they were going to have their animal be a pigeon or something else.  We talked about making sure to start your book with a person in charge that asks you to watch the animal.  I was really impressed with their original titles.  We had Don't Let the Pigeon Be Santa Claus, Don't Let the Squid Drive the Plane, and Don't Let the Pigeon in the House to name a few.

On Day 4 we watched another example, this time done by a high-school class where I again paused the video for turn and talks.  We worked on the same book we started yesterday and decided on somethings that HAD to be part of your book if you were writing like MO Willems.
*has to start out with a person asking you to watch the animal
*then the animal persuades in lots of ways
*one page written in all caps where the animal is really mad
*the person has to appear again at the end thank you for watching him
*animal has to be looking at something new at the very end (what is his next adventure)

On Day 5 we shared our books with the class, reading the book with feeling and gestures.  Then we wrote a letter to Mo and told him if we liked his Pigeon books or not with three examples of why or why not.  Of course they all wrote that they love his books and some kids even included which book was their favorite.  How do you teach persuasive/opinion writing?  

                                                                                                               

                                               

Here is a link to the speech bubble paper.

                                                       

Jeopardy (K.RFS.3b)

Short and Long Vowel Jeopardy

                   

My kids have so much fun playing jeopardy and it gives me a wealth of knowledge of the words they know how to spell.  I strive to teach lessons where every kids is engaged and no one needs to "go to the bathroom." We play jeopardy once a week, I have all the kids bring their dry-erase board to the carpet and we sit in front of the whiteboard.  We play boys vs. girls, I call on a student and everyone writes the answer on their board.  I can easily see who understands the concept and who needs more practice.  Try out my short and long vowel jeopardy for $1.00 by pressing the highlighted link.

Fluently Add Within 5 (K.OA.5)

We have been working on our fact fluency for the past few weeks.  I was trying to come up with a catchy song to practice the facts each day.  I wish I was more musically inclined, here is what I came up with...

I created timed test that the kids take each week if they pass the zero's then the next week they take the one's test and so on.  When they pass a test they get to color part of their ice cream paper.  We are working towards an ice cream party when we have a at least 80% of the class pass 0-5.  This is a picture of their ice cream papers. They color the spoon for passing the zero's, bowl for one's, ice cream for 2's, and start to add toppings of their choice for 3-5.

We also make french fries to practice each week by putting the problems on popsicle sticks. I just used a library pocket to hold the sticks as the fry container.  They take them out and practice their facts every day.

Dr. Seuss (K.RFS.2a)

In celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday we have been doing a special activity at the end of each day.  If students are good all day and keep their stamp they can participate in the 10-15 minute activity.  I read a Dr. Seuss book earlier in the day and then we do the related activity at the end of the day.  Here are a few activities.

I read  The Cat in the Hat and then we came up with a list of rhyming words and made our own hats.

We read One Fish, Two, Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and then graphed goldfish crackers.  Here is the worksheet we used to graph on.  It's a freebie on Teacher's Pay Teacher's, click on the link at the bottom of the picture.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/One-Fish-Two-Fish-Graphing

We read Green Egg's and Ham and partnered up to play Tic-Tac-Toe.  One person was the green eggs and the other was the ham.  Click on the link for the printable.  This website has lots of cute Dr. Seuss games and activities.

http://www.seussville.com/activities/GREEN_TicTacToe_2.pdf

I would love to hear other ideas for Dr. Seuss activities!