Five for Friday: November 25

Hi friends!

Welcome to another Five for Friday where I share 5 things from my week!

1. I Like Myself Writing


My teammate shared this activity with me and I knew we had to try it too! My kids loved looking at the mirror and drawing themselves. I set out the book "I Like Myself!" and and the prompt "What do you like about yourself?" to encourage discussion and writing :)

I had a lot of questions on Instagram about the faces. My teammate says they are from Scholar's Choice!

2. Measurement Bulletin Board

Last week we wrapped up measurement so we finally put up our learning on our outside bulletin board.

To show our learning we put out comparing names writing, capacity writing...


hot and cold t-charts and heavy and light t-charts. Some of the girls also decided one day to measure the length of the table using unifix cubes so I documented that as well.


All of the printables you see on the bulletin board can be found here.

3. Tower Building


We learned about 3D figures after measurement. One activity they enjoyed was this tower building activity! Students were encouraged to make a tower and record their tower. I also asked the students to tell me about their tower and documented what their knowledge of 3D figures.

I also challenged some of them to find all of the different ways they could build the tower using the figures they were given!

If you want to try this activity with your class, you can grab the sign and recording sheet by clicking here or on the image below:


4. Sight Word Play Dough

Most of my kiddos this year have learned most of their letters and sounds already but they still love play dough so I wanted to make something a little more challenging than the alphabet play dough mats I had been setting out.

So I made these:


I like them because the kids who are still working on letters can still practice forming them and identifying them but the kids who are ready can start to practice making sight words! I also added the "read it" section at the bottom. I used pre-primer sight words and a picture cue so that it would be easily decodable by emergent readers.

If you would like to grab these mats, you can find them in my TPT store.

Click here or on the image below to check them out!


5. Literacy Assessment Binder

So many of you have been asking about my literacy assessment binder after I shared my numeracy assessment binder. You can read that post if you are interested here.

Truth be told, my literacy assessment binder is nearly not as comprehensive. But I thought I'd still share in case it is helpful to somebody.


In my inside pocket I keep my Reading Progress Letters that I send home after I do running records (with the SK's and the JK's who are ready) to help parents understand their child's areas of need and what they can do at home to support them.

Our board's expectation is a PM Benchmark level 6 at the end of Kindergarten, so that is stated on the sheet.


You can grab the Reading Progress letter for free by clicking here or on the image below:


The back of the reading sheet are the reading strategies. Often times I will write a reading strategy to practice on the front and then highlight the strategy on the back.

You can find this sheet in my Reading Strategies pack on TPT here.

The first thing I have in my binder is this clear binder pouch where I keep the letters/sight words my intervention kids are working on. I put 10 letters or sight words on their ring at a time and they practice them for a week. I check their rings once a week and if they have mastered the letter/word it gets a checkmark and I take it off the ring and replace it with a new word/letter from this pouch.


The printables for the letter and sight word rings can be found in the packs below:



The tabs I have in my literacy assessment binder are:

- Whole Class Data
I keep a whole class data sheet of:
1. Letter ID (Uppercase)
2. Letter ID (Lowercase)
3. Letter Sounds
4. Running Records
This helps me see general progress and needs of the whole class.

- Letter ID

I assess all kids on their letter ID at the beginning of the year and reassess as needed throughout the year. I keep track of this using the sheet below (included in the alphabet ring pack above).


- Oct - Concepts of Print
- Nov - Hearing Sounds in Words
- Dec - Word Test
- Jan - Writing Vocal

The four tests above are all taken from Mary Clay's Observation Survey. We submit this data to our admin each month. I keep the originals in each tab.

- RR - Sept
- RR - Oct
- RR - Nov
- RR - Dec
- RR - Jan
- RR - Feb
- RR - Mar
- RR - Apr
- RR - May
- RR - Jun

Each month I do running records with the kids who are reading. They go into each tab by month.

- Writing - Term 1
- Writing - Term 2

Although I am assessing during guided writing, through inquiry writing etc. I also make sure I pull out my writing rubric and assess at least one piece of writing at the end of term 1 and term 2. I staple the writing to the rubric and keep a copy in my assessment binder. My writing rubric can be found here.

- Intervention Planning/Tracking

I keep my tracking sheet for my sight words here so I can highlight them as they master the words on their sight word ring. These can be found in my sight word ring resource above.

I try to highlight in a different colour each week so that I can see how much progress they are making week to week.



I get a lot of questions about the printables I use in my literacy binder.  I pulled them from various files originally, but I recently put them all in one place.

You can find the bundle by clicking here or on the image below:


That's it from me this week!

Click on the image below to check out more Five for Friday blog posts!


SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave
4

10+ Anytime Alphabet Centres

Hi friends!

Today I wanted to share some of my favourite alphabet centres with you!
I'm hoping that it can become a reference for your weekly centre planning :)

1. ALPHABET PLAY DOUGH MATS



Do your kids love play dough as much as mine do? I'm always looking for new play dough mats to add to the mix. I made these this summer and the letters are big enough to use with play dough or other loose parts like buttons or pom poms! Play dough is great for developing finger muscles which will help our kiddos with their writing as well!

You can find these mats in my TPT store by clicking on the image below:


2. ALPHABET TRACING BOOKS



Although I don't like having too many worksheet-type activities, I like having some dry erase activities to help kids who are just learning to print their letters. These printables are super simple and great for beginning writers! It gradually gets harder from top to bottom.

Click on the image below to see these printables in my TPT store.


3. ALPHABET CONSTRUCTION



My old school used to have these and my kids loved them there. Scholar's Choice was having a sale so I finally snagged them for our class! The kids love how tactile these are and the cards are super helpful for the kids who need the support.

You can find this "Letter Construction" set on Amazon or the Scholar's Choice website. Here are the links if you are interested in checking them out!

Amazon.ca
Scholar's Choice

4. ALPHABET PUZZLE



I'm usually not keen on printable puzzles (I like the real thing for puzzles) but the kids surprisingly ate this one up! The picture makes it self-correcting and it was a great opportunity for the SK's to be leaders and help their JK friends match and learn the letters :)

You can find this puzzle by clicking on the image below:


5. ALPHABET Q-TIP PAINTING



I shared this activity last year but I'm going to share it again because it's always a hit! The kids use paint and q-tips to trace the letters! This is another one that is great for developing fine motor skills.

You can grab these sheets for free by clicking on the image below!


6. ALPHABET PATTERN BLOCKS



I have SO many pattern blocks.. so I was super pumped when I found these alphabet pattern block mats! Best of all they are FREE!

They are by Confessions of a Homeschooler and you can download them HERE.

7. ALPHABET TWEEZE & MAKE



I found these letters at Dollarama. I set them out with some centimetre cubes and tweezers and had the kids make the letters!

8. ALPHABET ROLL & WRITE



I put some magnetic letters into these insertable dice and had the kids roll and write the letter they got. Super easy, especially if you already have insertable dice and magnetic letters!

9. ALPHABET READ & SORT



I wrote letters on these white beans, wrote letters on the muffin liners and then had the kids sort the beans into the matching muffin liners. Cheap and the small beans make it great fine motor practice for those little hands!

10. ALPHABET FIND & WRITE



For this one, I put some letter beads in a bottle with black beans and had the kids find the letter beads and write the letters they found on a whiteboard.

11. ALPHABET PICK & WRITE {ON CHALKBOARD}



I love these chalkboard from Handwriting Without Tears! I have the kids pick a tactile letter tile, trace the letter with their finger and then write the letter on the chalkboard. These chalkboards are great because they are double sided so they can flip it over and do another letter while that side dries!

12. ALPHABET MONSTER MUNCH


This centre has been a hit every year! I got some tennis balls from the dollar store and then cut a slit in the middle with an exacto knife. Then I hot glued some googly eyes to make them "Tennis Ball Monsters". 

The kids squeeze the side of the mouth, say the name of the letter and feed the monster.

13. FIND ALL THE LETTERS!


Bingo dabbers are always a hit so I made this centre to incorporate them! Here, students pick a letter out of the bin, say the letter, find it on their sheet and dab the letter. Then they put that letter back and find another until all the letters are dabbed.

If this is too easy, I also set out the same activity but with pictures in the circles so that they pick a letter, identify the beginning sound and dab the letter that makes that sound.

You can download both sheets for free by clicking on the image below:


That's it for now! I hope to add to this post when I can :)

I hope you are able to use some of these ideas!

What is your favourite alphabet centre?
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave
5

Five for Friday: November 11th

Hi! I'm here to link up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching and share 5 things from this week!

1. READING STRATEGIES

Our reading board is finally coming along! We started with our "3 Ways to Read a Book" chart, learned the sight word song (sang to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm) and now we are working on adding Reading Strategies.

*The sight word changes each week to our focus sight word*


Here is a close up of the co-created Eagle Eye poster. Isn't he such an artist? 


You can download these co-created reading strategy poster templates for free by clicking on the image below:


When I first introduce the reading strategy of the week we add it to our Reading Strategies board that we keep on our whiteboard. I add each strategy card as I introduce them.


I also finally made my reading strategy lessons into projectable pdf slides! I throw these up on the projector and we have a quick, easy way to practice and reinforce our focus strategy for the week.


You can find the strategy board, posters and projectable lessons in my "Kindergarten Reading Strategies" pack on TPT. You can check it out by clicking here or on the image below:


2. CVC READ, MAKE & TRACE


My kiddos this year have been quick learners. Most of them are ready for more than just letters and letter sounds in isolation, so I have started to introduce them to CVC word activities and stretching and hearing sounds in words!

These CVC Read, Make & Trace mats are great because most kids can be completely independent with them. And I printed them double sided with a printing option if the tracing is too easily for them, so that they can easily flip it over and self-differentiate (is that a word? lol).

If you like these mats you can find them in my TPT store by clicking on the image below:


3. COMPARING NAMES WRITING

We have been talking about measurement in math. I had originally made these unifix names for the kids to figure out who has the shortest and longest name in the class and to encourage comparing the length of their names.


We also encouraged some of the kids to pick their name and a friends name, compare them by length and write about what they notice.


This writing template and all of my other non-standard measurement activities are included in my "Measure It Up" pack on TPT.


4. SIGHT WORD BOOKLETS

Last week our sight word was "like" so I made these little booklets for the kids to complete at centre time:


They loved this so much and asked for a booklet for this week's sight word "can" as well!

You can download both booklets by clicking on the image below:


5. 5K GIVEAWAY


Last week I hit 5000 followers on Instagram and I wanted to do a giveaway to celebrate. It just started yesterday, so if you are interested in winning a $100 gift card to TPT or Amazon click here on details on how to enter!

That's it for me for this week!

Click on the image below to check out more Five for Friday posts:


Have a great weekend!
SaveSaveSaveSave
1