Dibels, and starting small groups

Seriously, how does the week go by so fast! This week was busy with testing our students in Dibels in math and reading. I teach at a Christian Private School so I have 9 students. 5 were at risk, 1 at strategic, and 3 above 40% in reading. In Math, 4 were at risk, 1 strategic, and 4 at level. Next week I will start small groups and can help my at risk students a little more!

In reading I am using Babbling Abby’s RTI letter recognition program for my at risk and strategic students. It was $10, but I seen a lot of good reviews so I hope it works for my little ones! You can click on the picture to go to her website.

 

For my students who know there letters and sounds I am going to use Julie Van Alst’s Write-it phonics cards.

This is good to help students learn

The beginning sounds in words.

I’m still researching what I should do in my math small groups. Though, I might have to wait to do small groups. My students need extra help getting started on workstations, so we are starting over and learning the rules again!

~Amber Lee

Butterfly Art

Last week my class did a cute art project that goes along with the butterfly theme. I taught my students about symmetry and how it means things look the same on both sides. I cut out butterflies and my students put paint dots all over the butterfly, when they were done they folded them in half which created both sides to be symmetrical. They turned out super cute! Here is a picture

Amber Lee

Daily 5 week 3

Daily 5 in Kindergarten

I have to say I Love Daily 5. It is such a peaceful part of our morning. This week we added two new pieces. Listen to Reading, and Word Work. My students caught on very fast to Listening to Reading so we added Word Work faster too.

For Listening to Reading my students use our laptops. I only have four so I had half the students do listen to reading and half do read to self, then they switched. This is handy when you only have 9 students.

For Word Work, my students are using the white boards I bought from Target. They are practicing writing their words from theses cute “I Can spell…” cards I downloaded from Caitlin Clabby and Kindergarten Smiles. The students LOVE them!

We have been doing Daily 5 for 3 weeks now, so I am hoping by next week sometime I can let them begin picking their own stations!

I highly recommend using Daily 5 even in Kindergarten. I know I only have 9 students but I know it would work with even more.

Daily 5

In my class we are doing Daily 5 and so far loving it!I have been pretty much following the book. They suggest taking things slowly, which is definitely needed for Kindergarten! So far this is how it is going:

Read to Self: on the first day we made it to 1 minutes but after 5 days we have made it to 7 minutes! our goal is 10-15 minutes. The I-chart is a must, we review it every day before we start (kindergartners long term memory is not wthe best=)) I did as the book said and stopped the class when ever any one began to get off task. I don't scold them, we just talk about ways we can do it better next time. I also introduced my whisper phones. My students loved them! Here is some pictures of my kinders using them.

Writing: On the second week I introduced writing. the first day we only got to 30 seconds lol... they were so excited t tell each other about what they were going to write they couldn't stay silent. We are up to 4 minutes after 4 days. I have not taught them any writing lessons yet, I am letting them write what they would like. 

This week I am going to introduce listen to reading. 

The book boxes I got from Target for $1.00 each! My journals I bought from the Dollar store. 

~Amber Lee

First Week

Wow, what a busy first week! It flew by! I have an amazing group of kids though. This week we did a lot of practicing routines, and learning rules. I even had to learn my own routines, I forgot many things, ooppss=)

A glimpse of some things we did. W started our Daily 5, practiced bathroom routines over and over, did some guided discoveries, did a chicka chicka boom boom craft, and a kissing hands craft. I wish I took more pictures of the kids’ crafts to show, but next week I will for sure! Here are some of the pictures I did manage to take in the craziness!

This is a picture from our Gingerbread man tour. I read the gingerbread man book, and after a clue feel out of the book, which lead us on our tour! I did clues for each room. I had to make my own up since I am at a Christian school, no one had a Chapel clue! Afterwards we left cookies at the playground. The funny thing was my team teacher was supposed to make gingerbread man cookies but found she didn't have the cutout so she made pumpkin shaped! All day the kids asked where the gingerbread man was. We are going to carry it on through the year as a joke=)

On the 2nd day we read No, David! and talked about what makes a good student. 

 

On the first day we read The Kissing Hand and did these anchor charts. After we made a craft with Chester and put our hand print in the middle. Forgot to take a picture of this=( 

Here is a picture of my Read to Self Anchor chart. On the first day we made it to one minute! The first round one student called out I'm done with my book! so we stopped. On the second round one student said he read all of his books after one minute lol...

Here is a picture of my focus wall and calendar area. On top is my WBT rules. On the side is our classroom promise, which I got from DoBeMommy. 

Okay off I go to enjoy my weekend!