What Worked Well Wednesday: December 9th

Hi friends!

This is Yukari from A Pinch of Kinder.

I'm excited to be here to share my first ever What Worked Well Wednesday post!

I'm going to keep this super short and sweet because I know a close third to back to school teacher tired and end of the year school tired is right before Christmas break teacher tired.  Am I right!?

Since my kids are in full on holiday mode I threw together this holiday themed sensory tub with a task.

The students are instructed to

1. Find a sand timer.

2. Start the sand timer.

3. Tweeze as many peppermint candy erasers out as they can before the timer runs out.

4. Count how many erasers they tweezed out and record their answer in the correct column.

5. Repeat until they have filled out all 3 columns.

My kids work on counting strategies, identifying and writing numbers, fine motor skills and develop an awareness of standard measurement tools (sand timer) all while playing and having fun!

If you would like to do the same activity in your class and would like the recording sheet I made up you can click here to grab it!

Any fun activities you tried out that worked well in your classroom this past week? Link up below with your What Worked Well Wednesday post below!

Linky Guidelines:

1. Grab the W.W.W.Wednesday image from above (the 2nd image from the top in this post) and include it in your post

2. Link back to this blog post (you can link the WWWW image that you included in your post)

3. Optional, but we highly recommend visiting the two posts before you and leaving a meaningful comment on their post.  Nice comments make the blog world go around! :)

What Worked Well Wednesday: Staying Organized

Hello again, teachers!!! I hope you're having a fantastic week!

I'm Emily, from Carnes Corner, and I'm SO GLAD to be popping in again today, for this week's What Worked Well Wednesday link up.  I've definitely missed you!

I've been known to be a bit OCD, and that tends to overflow in to my classroom and the way I "try" to stay organized.  I wanted to share with you how I keep all of my center materials organized.

I have tubs (from Target, similar to these) for each month/or two months that hold all of the center materials for that time frame. (Of course, they're a teeny bit of an investment, but it's SO worth it!)

 Within each tub, I have the center materials divided by week...in a big ziploc baggie if they'll fit.  So, for example, in my November tub I've got three big ziploc bags with all of the smaller things inside for each of the weekly themes: Community Helpers, Scarecrows, and Thanksgiving.  December is a bit of a different month for me, since it's basically one big theme.  (Plus, I've got some of the center materials for this week already out).  Here's a peek inside December...

As I mentioned previously, when it's time for that center, I just pull out that baggie, make the necessary copies that I need to, and stick the individual centers in my FABULOUS rainbow tubs.  

We call these our "center tubs" in the classroom.  The first four (red and orange) are my literacy centers, and the next four (green and blue) are my math centers.  All of the materials they'll need for that particular center is in the coordinating tub, so the group can just grab and go.

This makes it easy, because I can just say "group one, grab the circle tub and take it to the carpet."

The bottom two drawers (purple) are my Word Work and Work on Writing material tubs for Daily 5 rotations.  

I've found its easier to take my Daily Five materials/centers and keep them in a storage bin all on its own because not all of my Daily Five items follow along with our weekly themes.

So, how do you organize your centers? Have I given you any ideas?? I'd love to hear!!

Oh, and make sure to link up below with what's working well in your room. :)

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What Worked Well Wednesday: Writing Offices

Hello friends!  Heather from Learning with Mrs. Langley here to share what worked well for me this Wednesday!

This week I tried out something new in Writer's Workshop.  I read a great article about writing offices and decided to give them a try.  I had an alphabet resource and some other things but I've never put it all together in one easy place to use for my kiddos.  So I gave it a shot!

 I had a bunch of folders in different colors so of course I had to use those!  I color coded them so I would know what table they belong too.  I loved that they immediately worked as a privacy folder too.  My kiddos were not too caught up in playing with them either...which I was worried about. 

With the introduction of this new resource I had a new problem.  CROWDED tables.  Gosh they got crowded fast.  So to fix that I introduced writing around the room (which I did last year, but had forgotten about it!)

Here is how it works.  

Students. work. around. the. room.  

That's all.  

They don't have to sit at a table at all! 

Doesn't she look comfortable?  Oh my goodness the difference is amazing.  They are completely focused on their writing and they work the whole time!  That was happening before but it is even better now!  We use rugs to give us a designated spot.  If they want to work at a table they can still choose to do that.  It's all about choice!

Ok, what did I include in the stations?  I updated this freebie file with what I have included so far and you can get it for free HERE.  

Thanks friends!
And you can link up too!  Follow the Inlinks tab to connect the Kindertribe to your own blog post!  We'd love to hear from you! 

 

What Worked Well Wednesday: Successful Parent Teacher Conferences

 Oh, parent teacher conference time! Just thinking about them has always made me feel like...

Some are parents you've never met before. Some you've interacted with for years. Some will be incredibly protective and have their defenses up. You will have to have some difficult conversations about the most important people in their world. This is scary for all involved.

But over the last year or so, I've found ways to make conferences run smoothly and successfully for all involved. Today is our fall conference day, and I am using some of the things that have made conferences successful for me in the past.

Just like we spend time setting up our room for seamless learning for our students, put in a little time to set up for your parents.

The environment sets the stage, so make sure it is pleasant. I put on some soft classical music and ensure that the room is tidy and smells good. These little things can make a big impression. I swear by fragrance plug-ins. These Air Wick plug-ins are inexpensive and permeate throughput the room (a huge room I might add). When you walk in and notice that it smells great, you are already at ease.

I always set up a table and chairs outside my room for those who are waiting for the previous conference to end. On the table, I put some of our class books for students to read to their parents, and give them  a sense of what their kids can do. Our class books about our field trips (which include pictures and students writing about their experiences) are always a big hit.

When you walk in, I have a sign in table. I use picture frames from the Dollar Tree for the signs- it looks nicer and keeps the signs in good condition so they can be used again.

At each child's spot, I have a pile of all of their papers that I will go over with parents. It is easy for me to grab when they get there, and helps me make sure that everyone has a copy of everything. There are always a few parents who can't make it, and now I have everything ready for when I can meet with them. There are always several notes to go home, as well as student journals and portfolios. Our district kindergarten "report cards" are very basic, so I supplement with parent reports from ESGI and a talking points sheet.

I love this format because it reminds me of all the positives. When I sit down to fill them out, I think about what I've seen each child improve in, what they are really strong in, and what they struggle with. I leave the "goals" section blank and fill this out with parents. I love hearing what they want to see for their child, and what they are willing to put into this.  This helps solidify that we are a team, and helps us focus on what we want for that child.These talking points help me stay focused  as we confer. 

 Before leaving, I have a little treat for the families who came. Who doesn't love a little something sweet?

Doing these things has allowed me to make conferences seamless and productive. Going into it today, I feel at ease and well-prepared, excited to see parents beam when I tell them the great things their kid can do. Do you have any "must-do's" for conferences? I'd love to hear about them!

What's going well in your classroom? Link up and share with us!

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What Worked Well Wednesday: Nouns

Hey Kinder Tribe!

We have been learning about nouns this past week and I want to share with you a few things that I did with my class. I teach a Kindergarten and First grade combination class this year and so my classroom is a little bit different than it would be if I was full K but, both my Kindergarten and First grade students responded really well to learning about nouns this week so I thought I would share! I forgot to snap pictures of what we did, however, I will take them tomorrow and add them to this post later!

First, we watched the Brain Pop Jr. video about nouns. It's free so you can watch that here! My kiddos just love Annie and Moby! The video goes pretty deep with the different types of nouns so feel free to stop the video where you like!

After that, we came up with some ideas of examples of a person, place, and a thing. I listed them in an anchor chart so we can always refer back to it if we needed it!

In Phonics, we have been working on sounds spelling and tapping out words. So to reinforce that, I dictated a couple of sentences to my students and have them write it on their white board. They then had to go back and find all the nouns in those sentences and circle them.

I have some pretty awesome Kinders and they are always wanting to know more and go deeper, so I decided to introduce them to the concept of common and proper nouns. Annie and Moby mention it in the Brain Pop video but I wanted my students to have a little more exposure to it!

 I got some sticky notes and wrote one of the categories of nouns(person, place, or thing) on the top. I passed them out at random and the students had to write an example of a person,  place, or thing, depending on their sticky note. Once they did that, I had them come to the white board and decide whether they should put their sticky note on the common nouns side or the proper nouns side. I asked them some guiding questions as they were coming up: "Is there lots of these or just one? and Does it start with a lowercase or uppercase letter?." They did really great with it!

I am so excited to read about what has been working well in your classroom! Link up below and share!

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What Worked Well Wednesday Is All About Rekenreks & Common Core Math!

Rekenreks Big and Small:

Since I retired last summer, I decided to write about something that worked in my classroom last October. I made this giant classroom Rekenrek and my students made their own seasonal ones.
Rekenreks are so cool. Students can instantly recognize any number of beads from 1-10 because they have five red and five white beads so they quickly learn that all of the red beads plus one white equals six.
Scroll down to see how to make your own classroom Rekenreks...

Using our big classroom Rekenrek along with our small seasonal Rekenreks.

I just love Rekenreks.  I learned about them just over two years ago and I have included them in my presentations at conferences for about that long.  They just make math real and the small ones are perfect for Number Talks.

My students LOVED using their Rekenreks with ten frame cards, numeral cards, and number word cards. They just looked at the card and showed the same value on the Rekenrek. This worked great with partners.

Rekenreks Big:

Here is my giant classroom size Rekenrek: (and that's Seba, the cat.)

I think my cat was subitizing.  :o)

(Scroll down to see how to make one for your classroom for under $10.)

Rekenreks Small:

I liked making seasonal Rekenreks with my TK class. Last fall, we made pumpkin Rekenreks with only one row of ten beads; five red and five white.  

Fun Foam pumpkins, pipe cleaners, 5 red pony beads & 5 white pony beads.
I drew 2 tiny dots where the pipe cleaners should pierce the Fun Foam.

We made our first Rekenreks with only one bar of ten beads.
Later, we will add a second bar for the numbers 11-20.

Getting to make their own Rekenrek was FUN and they took better care of them because they made them.
They wrote their name on the back with a felt tip marker.

We added an additional row of ten beads when we made our winter Rekenreks.

So, What Is A Rekenrek?

It's a number rack that was designed by Adrien Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland.  By building each row of your Rekenrek with five white beads and five red beads, students can instantly subitize (or instantly recognize the value) the number of beads you slide from the right side to the left side.  

Once students realize that there are five red beads and five white beads, it's easy to quickly slide any number of beads from the right side to the left side without counting.  

They use the 5 red beads as an anchor and they can quickly find six by sliding one white bead, along with the red ones, over to the left side.  It's just as easy to locate the 2nd white bead to slide with the red beads to show seven.

You can download, for FREE, a great booklet filled with ideas for using Rekenreks from the Math Learning Center web site.  CLICK HERE for the direct link.

You should also check out the Math Learning Center's web site by CLICKING HERE.

They have tons of ideas under the <resources> tab.

How To Make A Classroom Rekenrek:

It cost me about $9 for everything and it takes about 30 minutes to make one; 15 minutes if you have help.  

Step 1:  Buy materials

2 pool noodles (The 99 Cent Store still has these.  They are up at the very front of the store.)

2 10-foot lengths of 1/2" PVC pipe  (You need just over 13 feet to make the one above.)

2 elbow joints (for 1/2" pipe)

4 T joints (for 1/2" pipe)

4 end caps (for 1/2" pipe)

A can of solvent (like Goof Off) to remove the lettering on the pipes

Paper towels for removing the lettering

My receipt from Lowe's 

You will also need a bread knife for cutting the pool noodles and a PVC pipe cutter or saw.

Step 2:  Cut the PVC

You will need 2 pieces for the sides that are 36", 2 pieces for the bars that are 30", and 2 pieces for the feet that are 20".  Cut the 20" pieces in half to 10" each.  Cut the 36" piece into 2 pieces:  1 should be 26" and the other should be 10".

My husband cut the PVC while I cut the pool noodles.
By working together, we were able to complete this project in half the time, just 15 minutes.

Step 3:  Cut the pool noodles

Mark the pool noodles to measure 1 1/4" pieces.  You will need 5 of one color and 5 of the other color.  

Using a serrated bread knife, try to make straight cuts.  You can trim them down with scissors if needed.

A serrated bread knife works best for cutting pool noodles.
Use the extra noodles to share with a colleague or check out Pinterest for all the
amazing things you can do with pool noodles in the classroom.

Step 4:  Assemble your Rekenrek

Slide the pool noodles onto the bars and attach the sides and bars to the joints.

You can add glue to the inside of the joints to make it more durable. 

One elbow joint and one T joint.

From left to right: Elbow joint, 10" of PVC, T-joint, 26" of PVC, T-joint, 10" of PVC, cap.
The next part will be the other 10" piece of PVC for the 2nd half of the stand and a cap.

The feet.  Each side is 10 inches.

One complete side.
The top half is 10" tall.  The bottom is 26" tall.

You can see the writing on the pipes.  Next step is to remove that.

Step 5:  Clean the pipes

Clean the writing off with a solvent like Goof Off.  Spray it on a paper towel (outside) and rub it on the lettering until it is all gone.  Rinse the solvent off of the pipes before bringing it to school.

That's all there is to it !!!

And there's an app for that:

Click the image to view the app.
Perfect for iPads or iPad minis.  Also works on iPods and iPhones.

CLICK HERE FOR THE APP.

  Or you can buy them here:

Click the image to see the product's site.

Looking for more FALL MATH ideas?

Check out the bloggers who link up below:

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What Worked Well Wednesday - Kindergarten Spelling Program

Hi everyone! 

 It's Cori from Mrs. B's Beehive, for our weekly What Worked Well Wednesday post!  Today I wanted to share with you the resources I use for my spelling program!

When I first started teaching, I created a spelling program based on sight words.  As the years went by, I began to feel that a program based on sight words was only encouraging memorization.  I felt like that strategy wasn't getting to the core of what a spelling program should be, which in my opinion was to apply the phonics and language skills that they had learned in my language arts program to spell unknown words.

I searched around TPT for a product that might meet my needs, and came across this one from Khrys Bosland:

My school does not use Reading Street, but the set-up and the structure of the spelling lists were perfect, and I believe that this is a resource that could be used in any classroom, regardless of what basal program you use.

The product comes with spelling lists for each week.  I don't begin my lists until week 7 of the school year, when the students are just starting to get some letter sound knowledge, and we've already established homework packet routines.

The program starts out with 4 words, and by the end of the year, it increases to 10.  Many of the words used for the spelling lists are common CVC, CCVC, and CVCe words.  I take this opportunity to also review word families.  I use Marsha Maguire's word family posters to display words that we have already went over in our spelling program.  At the end of each week, we add the words that we worked on to our word family wall.

During the week, the students have a practice sheet, where they can choose different ways to practice writing their spelling words.  This sheet is turned in at the end of the week.  If  you would like a free copy of this spelling word practice sheet to use, just click on the image below!

On Friday we take our spelling tests.  We are just starting for this year, so some students are easily writing all the words, some students are just getting the beginning sounds, and some students are writing jibberish : ) The joys of teaching kindergarten, and all the different levels that our students enter into our class with! : )

After setting up my spelling program like this, I noticed a HUGE jump in my students reading scores at the end of the year!  I had all but two students at first grade reading level and many above that at the end of the year.  Every year, my class is comprised of 100% ELL's, some know more English than others.  Their capacity to learn not only how to speak a new language, but to read and write in it as well never ceases to amaze me.  The two that were below, came in with zero English at the beginning of the year, and even though they did not get to first grade level, they made ENORMOUS strides in their reading and writing.  I credit the increase in my students' reading scores to this new spelling program, that encompasses so much of the phonics and word family skills they need to be successful, and utilizes very little class time to reinforce these skills!

I hope this spelling information can be of use to you!  Please link up below with the Kinder Tribe to share what worked well for you in your classrooms!!

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What Worked Well Wednesday: ABC Easy as 1-2-3

Happy Wednesday, Kinder Tribe! This is Deirdre from Mrs. Garcia's Super Scholars! Today I'm showing you how alphabet instruction has been REALLY working in my classroom!

**DISCLAIMER*** It's been a hectic week! Pictures will be up this afternoon! Thanks for bearing with me guys!

Teaching the alphabet has always been difficult for me. Sure, they can sing the ABC song, but do they know the sounds those letters make? Can they identify them in print? Are they able to write them legibly? In most cases, the answer is no. And the way I went about teaching it.... didn't work so well. I used an old list I had from an old basal with a suggested scope and sequence. It was a little too slow and unorganized for me, and my kids struggled as well. They didn't have as solid of a grasp as I had hoped.


Over the summer, I looked into different methods to try this school year, and I came up with a mishmash of a few of them that is working well. A big influence was Kindergarten Smorgasbord's ABC Bootcamp. I liked the idea of focusing on letters in order, and spending time on the sound and the formation of the letter.

Here is how we are learning our letters.

Our Morning Message gives us a hint each day of the letter we will tackle. We hear the sound as we read our message, and we start to see what the letter looks like.

Then, we make a letter chart together. We go over the upper/lowercase letter name, how it is formed, and practice writing it in the air. We brainstorm words that start with that sound, and I (poorly) draw them. We then label each picture, sounding it out together. I really love the labeling- it teachers them what a label is and how to add it to your work (aligning to our Lucy Calkins instruction), allows me to model stretching and writing a word, and gives a little challenge to those who already know their letters and sounds.

We also made an "oddball" chart with words that don't fit in... such as when a little guy suggested "photographer" for our "F" chart. I am proud they are hearing the sounds, and this gives a bit of exposure to patterns the whole group won't get to for awhile.

I stress legible writing to my kids, so obligatory letter writing practice is involved. I use the Moffat Girls Handwriting Packet. On the back, I have Over the Big Moon's Letter Identification Set copied. My kids love to see what they will use to dot the letters that day (will it be crayon... or will she be awesome and bust out the bingo dotters?!?) We do a paper version, and then I add them to dry erase sleeves in our early finisher activities.

The last part- and I swear by this part- is the fun part, the part they are proud of all day and can show off. The part they remember. Some people make cute hats. Some use letter bracelets. Some use stickers. Some people, like me, get major sensory overload when kids are playing with hats and sticking stickers everywhere. These don't work for neurotic old me.

What DOES work and my kids ABSOLUTELY adore are letter tattoos.  My kids are obsessed with rub-on tattoos, and any time I bring ink pads out they are covering themselves in stamps. So, I thought I'd turn it in to something productive. Using a letter stamp and some DIY ink pads, I give each of them a tattoo of the letters (they don't have to, but they all want to)! I catch them tracing them with their fingers, other teachers ask them what their letter says, and it's a reminder to tell their parents about our letter of the day when they get home.

This approach is working very well for me. We are only in week 6 of school, and I am already seeing a huge difference in their letter knowledge. I am starting to see them stretch and hear letters when they label and write, and they have been ROCKING their ESGI assessments.

 How do you teach the alphabet? I'd love to hear about it!

What is working in YOUR class? Link up with us and tell us all about it!

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