Letter Aa Lesson 4 26 Letters in 26 Days

Today my class learned all about the letter Aa.  They entered the room and began coloring Allie Alligator and the six "a" pictures.  My students have desks, so when they finish coloring, they place all six cards into a zip lock bag. Both the puppet and bag go into their desks.  I have several activities they may select including reading books or getting their STEM/Reading bin.  I am slowly introducing technology.  I was super excited because today I was able to pull a few students over for assessments while they colored.  My kindergarteners are learning their morning routine!

The picture shows the daily materials for letter Aa. 

Click Here to see a video preview of my 26 Lessons in 26 Days TPT Unit

My daily lesson plan looks something like this:

7:55 - 8:45 - Students enter the classroom.  They color their puppets and 6 pictures that begin with the letter of the day.  (Today was Allie Alligator.)

8:45 - 9:10- We meet as a whole group.  We begin at desks singing the daily letter song to the tune of Old MacDonald.

This instrumental version of the song goes perfectly with our verses.  When the song is finished, we place everything in our desks and come to the carpet for two alphabet songs.  We dance to Who Let the Letters Out by Dr. Jean and The Alphabet Song by Jack Hartman.  We touch the sky and say the letter. Touch our shoulders and say the picture name. Touch the ground as we say the letter sound. Then we touch our shoulders again to say the picture name.  There are three times we get to play our air guitars in The Alphabet Song.  It is a work out.  The movements are from Dr. Jean's Phonercise song.  After our songs we quickly review meeting time rules. I do a daily read aloud.  During our read aloud we do some Think-Pair-Share or Mirror Teaching from Whole Brain Teaching.  Today we did Mirror teaching for the role of the author and illustrator.  If you haven't looked at Whole Brain Teaching, I highly recommend it.  Of course our book was Ten Apples Up on Top.

Click here for a link to Whole Brain Collaborative Teaching

I play another phonics song and the children transition back to their seats.  This song is Alphabet Lane from Sing Spell Read and Write.  After the song we go over the stations and seatwork.  During our 26 letter lessons seatwork is making their letter hat and coloring their My Aa Book.

9:15 We begin station rotations.  Each group meets with me for about 20 - 30 minutes.  We take an hour break for special areas and snack at 10:00.  At my table the students:
1.  Match Capital and Lower Case Letters.
2.  Match a beginning sound picture to each letter.
3.  Build words with the 5 letters of the week.
4.  Read their My Aa Book.
5. Practice writing the letter of the day.
6. Build and write a sentence from their My Aa Book.

Click Here for a Free Video Showing my Small Group Lesson

The other two stations are seatwork (Coloring hats and books) and literacy stations (Rhyming, Word Work, Letters, Letter Sounds, and Writing/Vocabulary)

11:40 - We do our math meeting which includes more songs and numerous math skills.  I try to hit all of the math domains: Counting and Cardinality, Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations in Base Ten, Measurement and Data, and Geometry daily.

12:00 - Lunch and Recess

12:55 - 2:00 Afternoon Rotations which include:

1.  Meeting with the teacher for a math lesson

2.  Working on Technology

3.  Play Centers and STEM Activities

Some afternoons I change things up a bit.  For example, today I had the students color an apple instead of doing a math lesson with me.  Then I called three students over at a time to do their Chapter 1 math test.

This art project is part of my Memory Book Unit in TPT.

Click Here for My Memory Book Unit

Tomorrow I am going to meet with the other three students in each group.  The assignment tomorrow will be to glue objects onto the letters we learned this week.  Back when we used to do a letter a day, we always glued Apple Jacks onto letter Aa, cotton balls or Cookie Crisp Cereal onto letter Cc, sequins or stars onto letter Ss, buttons or butterflies onto letter Bb, and macaroni onto letter Mm.  I still love these great fine motor activities.  Therefore, we will do a collage of all five letters at one time.  Check back tomorrow to see how it turns out!

2:00 Clean Up/Pack Up

2:15 Closing Meeting

2:30 Walk to Buses

Each day the children are showing me new skills they are acquiring.  Today one child wrote his name for the first time.  Another child made it through lunch without vomiting, and another shared her red crayon.  It is all the little things, and the not so little things that make kindergarten full of amazing adventures.  Check back to see how our week ends.

Letter Mm Lesson 3 26 Letters in 26 Days

We learned all about the letter Mm on the third day of our magnificent journey through the alphabet.  Since my classroom is full of monkeys and trees, we had to sing "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree."

Tomorrow we will do letter Aa, so the song and props will work really well for that also.  

We also read If You Give a Moose a Muffin. One report card skill in kindergarten is to know the role of the author and the illustrator.  I love the Laura Numeroff books with Felicia Bond's illustrations.  I have several of the books out in our classroom library.  Their books are a great place to learn the roles of an author and illustrator.  We will read many of them on our alphabet journey.  We revisited Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr. and did an M&M activity similar to the Skittle one yesterday.

Click Here for the Skittle and M & M sorting activity

Along with our phonics songs and story we also sang our Molly Monkey puppet song during circle time.

The children used their puppets and pictures to change out the verses with me.  When we meet daily for small group time, the sorting beginning sound pictures are the same ones from their hats and puppet songs.  

 

Here is a short video showing the picture and letter sorting.  These materials are available in my TPT store, but you can use whatever materials you have.

Click here to see the full materials I am using.

After lunch we did three stations.

Station 1: Six students worked at the sand and fossil  station hunting for spiders.  This stations was introduced yesterday.

Station 2: Six students explored the Marble Works and magnets.  They really love both activities.  I have tubs above each child's cubby. When students finish their work, they can grab a tub. Each tub has a manipulative and some books.  Some have coloring books or little stuffed animals.  The magnet tub is always one of the favorites each year.

Station 3: Technology  The students had the option of Kindle Fire Tablets or Laptops.  I needed to be at this station to help them understand how to navigate through the apps and websites.  It is a slow process, but we are learning.  I had wanted to practice number writing with mud bags. However, we do testing next week on the computers, so they really need to practice these technology skills. To create mud bags, I place a small amount of brown finger paint or chocolate pudding in a freezer bag.  I squeeze out all the air and tape the bags shut with the 2 inch packing tape.   I saved the mud bags for use later.  Maybe we will do them tomorrow as they enter.   I could call them alligator swamp mud bags!

The day was marvelous.  Keep checking back for future letter adventures.  I am blogging daily during our alphabet lessons.

Letter Ss Lesson 2 26 Letters in 26 Days

Today we learned all about the letter Ss with Sailor Skully.  The students made little sailor hats.  They turned out so cute.  My students are still really struggling with writing letters by themselves and cutting on lines.  It is going to take a lot of practice.  I ordered some golf pencils with erasers from Amazon to help those who are struggling with gripping the pencil correctly. The children are really enjoying the nightly homework as well.  They told me all about hunting for Bb things last night with their Baby Bear puppets.

Here you see the puppets and the 6 picture cards for the letter Ss.  As the children arrived this morning, they colored their puppets.  Today we stayed at our seats to sing the song.  I found an instrumental version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.  I played that in the background as we sang the Ss song.  I projected the song on the document camera and moved my pictures in place as we sang each verse. After singing the seal verse, the children put the seal picture into a sandwich zip lock bag.  We repeated this for each of the pictures.

Click Here for my 26 Letters in 26 Days materials.

Next was our whole group carpet time.  We sang our phonics songs.  I'm using a Jack Hartman song this year that goes through the entire alphabet, but we are doing the movements from Dr. Jean's Phonercise to it.  The other songs we sing are Dr. Jean's Who Let the Letters Out and Sing Spell Read and Write's Alphabet Lane. I made a playlist on YouTube.

Click Here for My Phonics Songs Playlist

We are learning numbers and shapes also.  I made a math circle time playlist for the beginning of the year.

Click here for a Beginning of the Year Kindergarten Math Calendar Meeting Playlist

One of our stories this week is Building with Dad by Carol Nevius.  Since we did Bb yesterday, it was a good fit.  The father is part of a construction crew building a new school, so we tied that in with letter Ss.  Our playground was closed today. At first we were all sad, but then we noticed some of the building equipment from our book.

We came inside and took some extra time with our free choice centers.  Today I added spiders to our sand box.  I added pinchers to pick up the spiders.  This should help strengthen our fine motors needed for writing and cutting.

We did a fun Skittle Sorting activity with our other book this week, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. I added a few leftover Teddy Grahams from our Baby Bear snack yesterday.  It made a delicious but sugary snack.

Click Here for the Sorting Mats

Meeting with small groups is such a challenge at this point in the year.  One third of the class meets with me.  Another third colors their daily hats and little books for the letter.  So, what do I do with the final third of the class?  Last week we tried using the laptops.  It was really hard for me to focus on my groups. The students kept closing out the programs.  Then they couldn't log back on.  One of my laptops wouldn't work and had to be sent for repairs which left one student in each group without a computer. I debated on using Kindle Fire tablets, but the kids struggled using them independently.  In the end, I decided on my literacy stations.  I have them all set up, and we worked on training at each station the first two weeks.  They are doing phenomenal with them. 

Each center has an activity that goes with our story and some fun extensions if they finish early.  For example the children can do alphabet puzzles at the letter sound station or build with foam blocks at the vocabulary and writing station.

Click here for Building With Dad STEM and Literacy Stations

Tomorrow we do letter Mm. Since we did the Skittle sorting today, I have M&Ms all ready for tomorrow.  Check back to see how the day goes and what other fun activities we do.

My Letter Bb Lesson 1 Post has a link to a video showing a sample of our small group guided reading lesson.

 

Letter Bb: Lesson 1 26 Letters in 26 Days

Today we began our journey through the alphabet with 26 letters in 26 Days.

Click here to view the TPT Unit 26 Letters in 26 Days

As the students entered today and for the next 25 days, they will have a puppet and beginning sound pictures to color.

I have so many students who are having trouble cutting this year.  Therefore, I go ahead and pre-cut most of the materials for them.  It really doesn't take that much time and saves the puppets from losing an arm, ear, or head!

I had several fun things for the students to do throughout the day.  We bathed babies with baby blue blankets in bubbles.  We ate Baby Bears (Teddy Grahams.)  Our story was Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.  Tomorrow we are doing letter Ss and will sort Skittles on Brown Bear Sorting Mats.

Click Here for Sorting Mats for Skittles and M & Ms.

At circle time we sang three phonics songs that teach the alphabet.

Click Here for a Link to Alphabet YouTube Playlist

Our other letters this week are Aa, Cc, Mm and Ss.  This photo shows the 5 puppets for the week.  Today we sang the Bb song.  The song goes to the tune of Old MacDonald.  The children really enjoyed using their pictures and their puppets as we sang.

We used our puppets and pictures to change the verses.  The children took their puppets and cards home for a letter scavenger hunt.  We also read our Bb book.  The scavenger hunt and reading will be the homework throughout the alphabet lessons.

The students also meet with me in groups of five or six for a more individualized alphabet lesson.  This video shows the first day of small guided reading groups in kindergarten.

Keep following this Blog to learn more about our journey through the alphabet.

Preparing to teach 26 Letters in 26 Days

The First Week of Kindergarten

The first week in kindergarten really is a wild place.  We had so much fun building our foundation.

I always read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn the first day of class.  We began our Memory Books.  Most of my students brought in a 1 inch 3 ring binder and plastic sleeves.  I will only have to buy about 5 this year with my own money.  Thankfully, the Dollar Tree had them this year!!  If you are interested, I have a memory book for sale in my TPT store. I am trying to be more organized this year.  I am determined not to have to sort hundreds of pages into these books in May this year.

Memory Book

This summer I read a couple of The Responsive Classroom books.  I loved The First Six Weeks of School and Rules for School.  In fact, we are going to use them for our first PLC this year.  I had my parents write down their hopes and dreams for their children this year at orientation.  The children made their own list the first few days.  Each child drew a self portrait, and I added their hope and dream to their illustration.  

Next, they came up with a great list of rules to insure everyone meets his or her hopes and dreams.  After all, a student needs an orderly classroom to learn and work.  We consolidated the list into three main rules. Then I typed them up into posters.  Everything is now hung up in our windows.  It looks fantastic and the children are so proud.

I didn't get much sleep this week.  I have been working long hours.  I finally finished our kindergarten scope and sequence.  This will be the blueprint for my lesson planning.  The more detailed the scope and sequence, the easier lesson planning becomes!!

I will start the 26 letters in 26 days lessons in week 3.  I have had my sweet mother-in-law and her cousin working hard to assemble books and puppets.  My binder is all printed and ready to go.  If you purchased my TPT unit, this is the time to get organized. I put the letter cards inside trading card sleeves with little Velcro dots.  I bought the A-Z dividers and a 3 inch notebook.  Behind each letter, I put 2 plastic sleeves.  The first sleeve has my puppet and song.  The 2nd sleeve has the letter copies.

26 Letters in 26 Days

Overall, the week was a huge success.  I was able to assess my students ability to recognize letters and sounds.  With this done, I was able to form my groups for the 26 letter lessons.  We spent a little time learning how to rotate through stations on Friday. Keep checking back to get more kindergarten ideas.

A Great Year begins with Great Modeling and Planning

Monday is the big day!  Eighteen young children will walk through the door and our lives will forever be changed.  The hours we spend together will impact our future tremendously.  The foundations we lay in the first days together will steer our direction for the remainder of our 180 days in kindergarten.  Creating a nurturing and safe environment takes tremendous planning and patience.  
I try to make my room fun and exciting.  Choosing a theme that you will enjoy turns a classroom into a happy place.  My kindergarten learning safari has become a hobby.  Searching for jungle bargains is just as much fun as searching for the perfect first day outfit.
I've made a video to show you some ideas for early finishers, how to introduce stations, and how to manage your students as they rotate through the stations.  Feel free to leave a message with any questions.

The room decorations, learning stations, and assessment tools can be purchased at my Teacher Pay Teacher Store.
Coogle It

Teach Kindergartners to Read in 26 Days!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/26-Letters-in-26-Days-for-Kindergarten-3965921

For the past decade I have moved to a letter a day to teach children how to read.  I have put what I know into a unit.  Check it out on Teacher's Pay Teachers.