Journal Date Stamp

One of my favorite things about teaching five year olds is watching them write in their journals. Several months ago some of these students only knew a few letters and sounds. Now they're actually composing sentences! It's amazing!

We work in our journals once a week during small groups.  I call three or four students at a time to my teacher table where they spend 15 to 20 minutes writing and illustrating. The kids can see the word wall and I'm there to help with sounding out words as needed.  I'm happy if they hear the beginning sound. It's a success if they write down the ending sound. And I'm over the moon, teacher crazy if they hear any middle sounds!

To track when we're writing in our journals, I use an old fashioned date stamp. I purchased this stamp at a local office supply store years ago when I taught Kindergarten.  It's one of the most useful little tools in my classroom. The kids stamp the date at the top of their journal page before we begin brainstorming what to write about. We don't waste time trying to write today's date. Instead, our focus is writing what's on our mind.

Now that you know this time saving tip using a date stamp, I just have to share a few of our journal pages, too!

I had toast

 

 



I like watermelon

 

I like dessert.

 

I like to be the line leader.

I'm very proud of the progress each student has made this year! I love looking through their journals, knowing they've come a long way and are now writers!

Monday Made It - Sharing Bag

I marked two school projects off my To Do List last week but added at least a dozen more!  Thank goodness for Monday Made It!  It provides us with ideas, inspiration, and incentive to get it all done!

 

My first Made It was somewhat of a re-do on a previous project.  Remember when I printed new my sight word cards? They looked like this...

Well, I loved how they looked and I was just getting ready for the next step to mount and laminate them when I had a major thought.  As I was trying to decide which color cardstock to use, I started thinking it would be nice if they were color coded somehow.  Maybe having the first set of words on one color, the next set on another color, and so on.  The more I thought about a color system, the more I was sure it would work great for me.  It would allow me to group a set of words and then encourage students to learn all the red words or all the blue words.  I still need to figure out how I'll track everyone's progress and make a big recording chart of some sort (that's on my To Do List!) but I'm thrilled with how this step of the color coded sight word cards has turned out! 

 

 

Of course, the whole sight word color system project turned into a need to plan when I'm introducing each word and what color it's assigned to.  I created this Pacing Guide to keep in my Teacher Binder for easy reference.

 

 

 

In my classroom, the line leader for the day gets to do Show & Tell during our Morning Meeting.  The line leader brings an item from home for the Sharing Bag, gives the class a few clues, and then we all try to guess what they brought that's inside the bag.  It's a fun twist on the traditional Show & Tell and I love it because it really helps the kids develop good communication skills.

 

My previous Sharing Bag lasted at least 5 years and it was time for me to make a new one.  I went to Michael's, found a good sized black canvas bag, and some pretty turquoise letters. 

 

After trimming around the letters, I laid them on top of the bag.  I didn't even try to put them on straight because I know I can't possibly get them all lined up!  Instead, I gently tilted and turned the letters for a more random look.  This method helps cover up your uneven mistakes.  I do it with bulletin board letters or when I'm writing on an anchor chart all the time!

 

After ironing according to the directions, I carefully lifted the paper backing to reveal the letters.

 

Success!  They all adhered perfectly!

 

And here's the finished product!  A new Sharing Bag ready for school!

 

Click here to see what other teachers are creating and checking off their To Do Lists!

 

Monday Made It-Print, Laminate, Cut

By the time you read this, I'll be at the beach!  I'll definitely have my share of fun in the sun and relaxing but I'm also taking a big bag of teacher stuff. Little by little I've been working on things for next year.  Let's link up with 4th Grade Frolics to give you a quick look at what I've done.

 

I wanted to update my Word Wall and make new sight word cards.  The Word Wall has a Popcorn theme which I love and I thought these black & white polka dots would be a nice compliment to all the reds and yellow of the popcorn accents. These editable sight word cards are part of a huge classroom bundle of black & white themed resources created by Planet Happy Smiles.  Check it out HERE!

 

 

Printed/laminated classroom helper cards from that same wonderful black & white bundle!

 

Made a number puzzle set with a very cute Back to School theme!  I love these because they are bold and simple.  Great for a quick assessment those first few weeks of school to determine if your kids recognize numerals and can count sets to ten.  These are FREE from Paula Harrell's TPT store Learn + Play = Pre K!  Click HERE to get yours and check out more great resources for preschool and kinder! 

 

 

Using the creations by Mary from Sharing Kindergarten, I made lots of fun things to use when we read the hilarious Back to School book, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books.  You'll find plenty of resources HERE.

 

 

Finally, I worked on several small group math activities from Kim Adsit's "DI...It's Easy As Pie" unit!  Click HERE to see the details of this extensive product. It requires some prep but it's well worth it!

 

So that's what I've been busy making! 

 Lots of printing...cutting...laminating...getting ready for next year! 

Click HERE to see more Monday Made It blogs! 

Wordless Wednesday: Sight Words

I'm happy to see Miss DeCarbo is hosting Wordless Wednesday parties again!  This fun linky is where teachers showcase one photo and then ask you a simple question.

 

 

 

How do your students practice their sight words during centers/Daily 5/small groups?

 

Five for Friday: Weather

Have you had a busy week? 

I sure have but in between Picture day, Easter chapel, a fire drill, and a surprise birthday treat for my teaching assistant...we still found plenty of time to study the weather !


http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

 

We made Weather Wheels to kick off the learning.  I'm always pleasantly reminded how the simplest crafts turn into everyone's favorite activity!  The kids took these home but everyday since then, they've told me where they moved their clothespin clip and what kind of weather we're having.  

 

 

Weather Wheel supplies ...

1. cheap white paper plate
2. small length of yarn
3. hole punch
4. clothespin
5. crayons

Now if those Weather Wheels were one of the simplest crafts...then our Weather Mobiles were one of the most time-consuming and tedious things we've done all year!  Well, it really wasn't necessarily that way for the kids but it sure felt like it was for ME !  Each child made five weather pieces for their mobile...two watercolored raindrops, a glittery sunshine, one big puffy cloud, and a snowflake circle.   Everything needed lots of overnight drying time but I punched a hole in each weathery item and then laced a length of rainbow yarn after school.  The next morning, I tied all the weather pieces on wire hangers.  Took awhile to tie all those knots.

 

I must admit the Weather Mobiles look absolutely gorgeous hanging in our classroom and they were certainly worth the effort!  It was challenging to snap a photo before the mobile  moved and turned so it's hard to see the full effect.  But the kids oohed & aahed when they saw them giving me their seal of approval and they've already asked when they can make another mobile!

 

 

We read numerous non-fiction weather books throughout the week but I had to include the funny story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, too.  The kids laughed & laughed as they created pages for our silly class book. 



Today it is cloudy with a chance of peanuts.

(I think that's due to our recent study of Georgia!)

 

 

Today it is cloudy with a chance of donuts.

 

 

Today it is cloudy with a chance of popcorn.

 

 

 

I've been working on my spring assessments and wanted an incentive to motivate my Young 5's to master our sight word list.  Frankly, I believe that each and every word they can read from our Word Wall gives them a huge head start when they go to Kindergarten in the fall.  But since many students are so very close to reading the entire list,  I came up with a fun sticker chart to encourage them to practice their words and achieve 100% mastery.   

 

I already had a package of reward/incentive charts with a fun Popcorn theme.  These charts go along perfectly with our class Popcorn Word Wall!  Once my little learners  read a word, they'll put a cute popcorn sticker on the chart.  I know they'll be quite excited to fill their charts!

 

 

The sweetie pictured in the middle was my student last year and is an awesome reader.  Her sister (on the left) is in this year's class and is well on her way to reading adventures, too.  As I was chatting with their mom after school one day, we realized how quiet & still the room had gotten.  My little reader held quite a captive audience as she made her way, page by page, through one of our more advanced Weather books.  So proud of all my young readers!