With distance learning or in person learning while wearing masks- teaching phonics has become so much more difficult in Kindergarten. I found that teaching an isolated sound when the children can not really see my mouth is almost impossible. We are trying so hard at our school to adhere to every health and safety protocol, so not wearing an approved mask is off the table. So in addition to the rest of our literacy programming, we are adding in a video segment to our day. It really is the regular phonics teaching I would do face to face with my students, but I am recording it at home so I can play it in my classroom, or if we end up distance learning, I can embed the links into Brightspace or Google classroom. The first two weeks of school we focus almost solely on routines, kindness, and recognizing our names in print. Then we begin our phonics program.
We start with the letter A for a few reasons. Because it is the first letter of the alphabet, it prevents parents from getting stressed thinking that I somehow missed a bunch of letters. When I send home my calendar I tell them that we start with A and then we move around the alphabet so we can make words quickly so we move from isolated letters and sounds directly into reading and communicating with words. It is very very exciting that in just a few weeks they have words they can build, read and manipulate sounds, even in Junior Kindergarten! Each week I will add a video introducing our next letter and we will begin building our skills together.
Activities for A week
Students get or roll blobs of Red, Yellow and Green paint onto big pieces of construction paper. We often use a really large sheet of paper because they LOVE rolling on the paint, and we can get two apples from a sheet. When they dry we cut out an apple shape. With chalk we draw on an A and they glue dollar store ants onto the apple. One we can hang on our bulletin board, and one to send home to demonstrate their learning. We make applesauce- (Although this year due to Covid-19 we will have to skip this 🙁)We do some data management and an apple taste test. (This too, might not be allowed this year 😢) Even kids who do not usually like fruit are all over this!We learn to self-select our science inquiries. We make patterns by stamping a sliced apple in tempera paint on construction paper.
Letter T- Week 2
Activities for T week
Out Thankfulness Trees were a terrific success. We traced our hands onto watercolour paper and emphasized making the /t/ sound as we traced around our hand with a pencil . We then traced the pencil line with an oil pastel still making the /t/ sound. Then we painted the tree trunk, sky, and grass with watercolours. I interviewed each student over the week and they told me things they were thankful for and we added them to the finger branches. The last part was using the tip of a Q-tip to tap the leaves onto the tree tops with Tempera Paint.
Loose parts play outside- Tiger habitats!
Terry Fox video that is appropriate for Kindergarten and up!
We spent most of our week talking about Terry Fox and how he wasn’t afraid to try. We are working hard at building resilience within our students, and Terry was an excellent example for all of us. We also brought in toonies for Terry, and ran the Terry Fox run in just our cohort on Friday. It was a totally terrific week!
Next week we will be working on the letter S!
Letter S- Week 3
Activities for S week
Sorting is one of the first steps in being able to pattern- here we are sorting by size.Sorting at the light table. Sorting our sea shells.We did a super easy craft this week as we were helping 8 new students join our class after they folded a kindergarten class into mine and added returning students from virtual school. It was also a screening activity to have them identify colours and see who could already make a pattern as we start our patterning unit.
We also studied shadows in our science centre, observed some snails, and built some snake habitats with our loose parts. I would say it was a super week with the letter S. Join us next week as we learn about the letter Ii !
Letter I- Week 4
Activities for I week
We investigated insects this week. Our science centre was a very popular destination.We practiced investigating on these plastic replica insects before we were trusted with the real ones!My literacy set up for the week. We have started sight words as well!Our letter I craft of the week. We made inedible ice-cream! It’s shaving cream foam mixed with white glue (2:1 ratio) with a drop of ink to tint it. We also added pom-poms as sprinkles or a cherry on top. Do this craft early in the week to give it a few days to dry. They looked so puffy and perfect as they went out the door on Friday.Our math centres were also dominated by insects as we worked on number recognition and subitizing. The insects made everything more fun.More subitizing activities.Our outdoor exploration centres included a painting centre where we painted insects. An insect inn was constructed with some of our natural materials outside, and we were so excited when a real beetle came to check it out. He was very camera shy though.
Letter P
Activities for P Week
Our Pastel Pumpkin Patch turned out perfect!First we practiced drawing a pumpkin on a chalkboard. Once we were drawing a pumpkin we were happy with, we used the chalk to sketch it onto Kraft paper.A ratio of 2:1 school glue and black tempera paint was mixed in squeeze bottles for us to trace our chalk pumpkin lines.After it dried overnight, we used soft chalk pastels to fill in the background. We blended with our fingers and it was very messy which the students loved!Then we filled in the pumpkins! Aren’t they pretty?Panda habitats in our small world area.Our light table became a penguin habitat.We made patterns with pressed fallen leaves from our nature walk. I think these are the prettiest nature inspired patterns we have ever done in our class. I love them!More patterns- but this time with wooden shapes from Dollarama!We had a pumpkin investigation centre open all week.The goal here was to pick up the pumpkin pom-poms with the clothespins and then transfer them to the 10-frame, matching them with the correct number. Fine motor and number sense in one activity.We carved a puking pumpkin for letter P after voting for what we should carve our pumpkin to look like. I have to admit I came to school sure that I would be carving a panda pumpkin- but my class is hilarious this year! It actually turned out pretty awesome.
We splatter painted our night skies and made newspaper Ns.We made name necklaces with each person’s name out of these great natural wood beads from Michaels.We investigated nests at our science centre.Making our own nests was a popular activity at our nature table.On our neighbourhood walk we gathered natural materials and tried to make a nest. We discovered it was not as easy as the birds and squirrels make it seem.Our Letter N literacy teaching station.One of our numeracy exploration centres: What can you make with 9 objects from a loose parts basket?
Letter R
Activities for R week
Light table poppy making provocation for Remembrance Day.We try to give a wide variety of materials for them to explore on the light table.Look how beautiful they turned out!We started with rocks from Lake Ontario that we washed and glued our names on the back with white school glue.After watching a video about how to paint poppies we used acrylic paint to paint a poppy. (I sealed them with a spray-on acrylic sealant outside after school.)Our Remembrance rock wreath. I love how every poppy is different and beautiful. And each person was able to bring home a piece of the wreath to Remember.
This is the video I showed in class to show them how to paint the poppies. It really worked so well- everyone was able to do it- even our three year olds.We created Rangoli in our class to celebrate Diwali as well. The kids also made the most gorgeous Diyas. I will make a separate post about those!Remembrance day bookmarks.Rocks and minerals study at our science investigation centre.We made cardboard rockets at our maker centre from recycled materials.Rainbow rocks at the light table.Our literacy teaching station for Letter R week in Kindergarten.
Letter E
Activities for E week
Our Evening Evergreens was our big art project of the week. Each one turned out so excellent!We started by using painter’s tape to tape down the edges of our watercolour paper to clipboards. Then we used blue and purple watercolours to paint the entire background.Then we glued small pieces of tissue paper onto watercolour paper with white glue. This was a collaborative effort with each child having a turn to add to the collage.The completed collage paper was coated with another coat of white glue then left to dry overnight.We cut various triangles to be our evergreen trees. Then we glued them onto our watercolour backgrounds and added eleven glitter snowflakes.Our science inquiry was all about evergreens. We learned to identify three main types of Evergreens by looking at their needles.
This is one of the videos we watched before our nature walk to help us learn to identify Evergreen trees.This fun activity was one of our math centres. Students had to put the eggs in numerical order, matching them to the numbers written in the carton. Then they had to pick up the correct number of little egg yolks (pom-poms) with the clothes pins and drop them into the carton. Finally they clipped the clothes pins onto the carton to say they were finished. It was great practice for our junior Kindergarten students.This small world activity was very popular. They basically free played with the elephants and built them habitats, etc, but when it was time to put them away they had to put them in order of size.Our big topic this week was empathy- which isn’t the easiest skill to build in Kindergarten, but it is essential. We read about Horton the elephant who heard a who, and hatched an egg- we read about enemies and bullies and making friends. The ripped up and scrunched heart is on the bulletin board to remind us about how words and actions can make permanent damage to someones heart and feelings.
Letter M
Letter M Activities
Moon phases were our main art event this week. This was made by mooshing on paint with a sponge and stencil.Magnet play at the science centre.A guided science centre activity to test out Magnets.Alphabet matching activity.Colour mixing on snow. Students were given spray bottles and squeeze bottles of primary colours. Their goal was to find someone with a different primary colour and create a secondary colour! We then brought in our mixed up coloured snow and watched it melt. We measured and compared the volume of snow to the melted water.Our letter M literacy centre. The kids LOVED the moon globe.
Letter H
Letter H activities for Kindergarten
Popsicle stick houses with our families drawn inside with Pencil Crayons / coloured pencil. We added holiday lights for Hanukkah with blue and white tempera paint with our hands.Some of our loose parts for making animal homes and habitats.Our small world activities included making Hippo habitats.We have been very interested in measurement. We wanted to see how high/long our hands were, and used small blocks as a non-standard measurement tool.We used a piece of wool to record our height then taped them to our wall. Our letter H literacy station for the week.
Letter D
Activities for Letter D Week
We made our own dreidels with a print out from Scholastic. I would only recommend this activity in Kindergarten on a day with either a very dedicated and crafty parent volunteer or an older reading buddies group. You can click the picture of the dreidel to be taken to the template we used.We usually make a December gift for the families. This year it was a decoration. We glued craft sticks together and added a string. The next day we painted them white. The final day was glue, sequins and beads. Some of our Snowflake decorations drying.Detail shot of some of the darling decorations. We packaged them up in paper bags to go home.Our letter D literacy station.
Letter G
Letter G activities
Distance learning and virtual teaching
Letter G week was a big transition week for our class as we were all moved from in-person learning to distance learning. It was called a pivot, and teachers were expected to use our Winter break to prepare and be somehow independently trained as we went live the first day back. Teaching at school during a pandemic was tough, and everyone needed a break from that stress. To have to use our very well earned down time to prepare for a whole new way of teaching was brutal. We have such a great group of students and families that were so kind and patient with us as we continued to learn how to teach from home as we were teaching.
Some of our read-alouds for the week.Thinking that it would be possible, if not probable that we could be shut down for in-person learning, we had thought ahead and purchased a few books from Teachers Pay Teachers. We had them printed for our class into books, and sent them home in September with each family with STRICT instructions that the books and supplies were only to be used under teacher direction in a shut down situation. A link to this resource can be found if you click the photo of the worksheet.We never miss an opportunity to make a pattern in Kindergarten!We did a little graphing for letter G week in math!Our mixed media grapes. We used watercolour paints on the backgrounds, then we glued small balls of purple tissue paper into clusters. We then twisted a piece of dark green tissue paper into a vine and puffed the ends out to make leaves!Our Letter G literacy station.
Letter O
Letter O activities for Kindergarten
Some of our read alouds for letter O week.We continued our inquiry into nocturnal animals with a focus on owls. Our JK students printed O’s in their journals, and SK’s added a sentence. A montessori sorting tray, river rocks with letters and some table salt made a great sensory spelling activity.We have been working in our sight word readers.Math was focused on understanding and using 10 frames to represent numbers. A big shoutout to Jack Hartmann for his excellent subitize videos that we enjoyed all week. Click on the photo of the math page to see Jack sing!Our art has to be individually completed at home- from a small kit of art supplies we sent home. These adorable octopuses were made with construction paper and crayons!Our letter O literacy station.
Letter L
Letter L activities for Kindergarten
Letter L weekWe practice doing a bit of seat work each day. On Wednesdays we practice printing the letter L in our workbook, on Thursdays, we write more independently in our journals.We have been working on our sight word reading. This is an amazing resource that I purchased from TPT. If you click on this picture it should link you right to the TPT store. While I believe that phonics and phonemic awareness are absolutely essential and the core of my literacy program, giving our students lots of exposure to sight words can really propel them into becoming a more accomplished reader. I focus on them knowing 100 words by the end of SK- plus all the words they can sound out because they have received strong phonics instruction.My teach from home literacy station- and Trooper the Literacy cat.Books to read for letter L week. Little Humans, Little Red Riding Hood, Log Hotel, Leaves and Light. These books helped to launch our inquiries of the week.Living and nonliving things is a great inquiry in Kindergarten. Ontario Kindergarten Expectation 14.2We launched into our geometry 2D shapes work with a study of leaf shapes!We learned about light and shadows in Kindergarten.In our Senior Kindergarten writers workshop we worked on procedural writing with the steps to making lemonade. The SK writers were so proud to teach the Junior Kindergarten friends how to make Lemonade on Friday afternoon.
Letter F
Letter F activities for Kindergarten
Welcome to Letter F week. Great read alouds are always one of the best ways to start your day in Kindergarten.Letter F Literacy station. Tip for new teachers: When asking students for suggestions, say, “What words do we know that begin with the letter F?” repeatedly instead of “What F words do you know?” That way when they go home they hopefully say, “Ms. Bee taught us words that begin with the letter F”, and not “Ms. Bee taught us F words.” Trust me.Letter F frog craft made with construction paper, school glue and crayons.Our interactive Five senses board.Sink and Float experiments.The kids loved our frog inquiry. Revisiting the theme of life cycles and patterns in nature is an important part of the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum.A few of the books we read this week to launch our inquiries… All about frogs, From Tadpole, Feast for 10, Rainbow Fish…
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