Thursday, November 20, 2014

Winter!

This is my lesson for the week of December 8, 2014, but I finished it early so I thought I'd share for my colleagues who are already experiencing cold weather.  Stay warm!

Intent
Kindergarten studies the season of winter with this investigative lesson featuring science, research fundamentals, and books.

Introduction
Bring students to carpet, get them settled.

Welcome Song (To London Bridge is Falling Down)

        Welcome to the library, library, library. Welcome to the library,
        Please come inside and read. 

        We’re glad to have you here today, here today, here today. 
        We’re glad to have you here today, today’s a special day.


Finger play:  NOW WINTER BEGINS
Into their hives the busy bees crawl.                       (Flap fingers for wings)
Into the ant hills, go ants one and all.                      (Wiggle fingers running up hill)
Caterpillars too, have hidden their heads,               (Spin around )
Safely spun in their snug little beds.                        (Rest head on hands)
The squirrels have all climbed to their holes in the trees.   (Climbing motion)
The bird nests are empty, no birds can we see.  (Flap wings again)
The leaves have all blown away on the wind       (Flap around like falling leaves)
Announcing to all – Now winter begins!               (Hold hands like megaphone
Fires are built in the hearths of homes.                  (Rub hands together )
Hats are knitted and coats are sewn.                     (Pretend to knit or sew)
Harsh winds blow all through the night.                 (Blow)
Lights all flicker, what a sight!                                (Hold up arm and wave hand)
Everyone waits for the first sight of snow,            (Cup eyes, like looking out window)
Then down it comes, soft and slow.                       (Fall gently, twirling to the ground)
The world is quiet, the world is white,                   (Cup ear)
Winter is here, a beautiful sight!    (Fall back and pretend to make snow angles on floor)


Library Expectations- “4 finger rules” of the library: (source M. Lynn)
quiet (finger to mouth)
watch teachers (fingers to eyes)
listen to stories and directions (cup ears)
and always walk (walking fingers.)


Mystery Bag:  What’s inside the mystery box today?  The object inside the bag will give us a clue what our story time is going to be about.  (Mittens, a scarf or a hat would be appropriate.)

We are passing the mystery bag around today.  What does this object feel like?  What words can we use to describe it? (lightweight, soft, mushy.)  What is it?  What do we use it for?  What time of the year do we need this?


Word of the Week: say it, syllabicate it TEACHER draws it in the air, invites students to “air write” with her. 

English:  winter
Spanish:  invierno (in-vee-AIR-no)
ASL signSign language is a real language where people use their hands to communicate.  The sign for winter is also the sign for cold.  Hold your hands in fists by your shoulders and act like you are pulling a coat over your shoulders twice.  This is the sign!  I bet it means you want to stay warm.


Introductory Activity
Have a bowl of hot and a bowl of cold water at the ready, along with a couple old towels or rags.  Have the students take turns dipping their fingers into the bowls.  We compare cold by its opposite, heat. 

A discussion of cold can include beginning research habits.  Have students brainstorm, and you write down, things that are the hottest and coldest.  (If you’ve done this multiple years, you can also get some pictures laminated and ready to post instead of writing.  Hot items have included the Sun, pizza, hot drinks, a stove or oven, a fire, a blanket.  Cold items include the inside of a freezer, snow, air conditioner, popsicles or ice cream.  Students can help with the pictoral research in this way.)

Resource
When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan.  Atheneum, 2000.

a.    Pre-Reading: The title makes a good beginning question.  What does happen when winter comes?  How do we know winter is coming? 
b.   During Reading:  Have students predict the answer (on each following page) to each question the author posits.
c.   Reflection:  What did you learn about how animals and plants spend winter?

Action Rhyme
How we move in winter.  How would you look if you were…

Outside in the freezing cold.
Soaking in a hot bathtub.
Woutdoors in the winter without mittens.
Warming your hands by the fireplace.
Drinking ice water.
Drinking hot cocoa.
Rubbing your face with snow!
Rubbing your face with a warm washcloth.
Making angels in the snow.
Snuggling in a nice, warm bed.
  


Resource

Before Reading: Have students picture in their mind things they like and don’t like about winter.  See if the poet mentions these things.

While reading: Make connection between Florian’s paintings and words.  Listen for rhyme.  Have students softly tap rhythm as you read.

After Reading:  Did the poet mention something you like and dislike, too?

Resource
JOKES:                                  

Knock Knock.           What does a snowman eat for breakfast?
Who’s There?           Snowflakes!
Snow.
Snow Who?              How does a snowman get to school?
Snowbody!                Icicle!


Resource






Winter Days in the Big Woods, Winter on the Farm or Sugar Snow, all part of the My First Little House Books, adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series.  Harper-Collins, 1993, 1995, 1997. 

Any of these books would make a great counterpoint to the animal/plant winter book presented earlier.  Talk about life a long time ago in America and how we enjoy ourselves and stay warm now versus long ago, similarities and differences.
Check Out
Today we continue to check out, using shelf markers, in the kindergarten section.

Wrap-up
Review: word of week and intent. 

Goodbye Song:
Open, shut them.
Open, shut them.
Raise your hands up high.
Open, shut them.
Open, shut them.
Wave and say goodbye.


This Week’s TEKS:  1 (A) words represented by print
                                    1 (C) 1:1 correspondence word/print
                                    1 (F) Conventions of Print
                                    1 (G) Parts of A Book
                                    2 (B) Identify Syllables in spoken words
                                    3 (A) Identify common sounds letters represent
                                    4 (A) Identify what happens next based on cover, illustration
                                    4 (B) Ask & respond to questions about text
5 (c) sort pictures into conceptual categories by attribute
                                    6 (A) Identify elements of a story: setting character, key events
                                    6 (C) Recognize sensory details
                                    7      Poetry has regular beat, similar word sounds (rhyme, alliteration)
                                    8 (a) retell a main event from a story told aloud
8 (B) describe characters in a story and reasons for their actions
                                    10 (D) use titles/illustrations to make predictions about text
                                    10 (B) retell important facts in an expository text
18 (A)  use phonological knowledge to match sounds to letters
19 (A) ask questions of class-wide interest (with adult assistance)
20 (A) gather evidence from provided text sources (with adult assistance)
                                    21 (A) listen attentively by facing speakers and asking questions
                                    21 (B) Follow oral directions that involve a short, related sequence of events
                                    RC(fig 19) (D)  make inferences based on cover, title, illustrations and plot
                                    RC(fig 19) (A) discuss purpose for reading & listening to various texts
RC(fig 19) (A) discuss purpose for reading or listening to various texts
                                    RC(fig 19) (B)  ask and respond to questions about texts

Shelf Marker Song

This is a little ditty for librarians everywhere...

If you use a shelf marker system in your library, we may share the same frustrations!  (Especially when explaining how and why we use them to the smallest kids, who don't think twice about organization!)

Here's a song I found that has helped students understand what a shelf marker is for.  Hope it helps you, too!

(Sung to the tune of Hokey Pokey)

You put your shelf marker in, you pull the book out.
You leave the marker in -- now, will you check it out?
You read a couple pages to see what it's about:
Put it back if you're in doubt!

Of course, a demonstration of what you're singing is the best part of the song.  I've caught a couple kindergarten students singing it to themselves now, so it must be working!

Monday, November 10, 2014

Dinosaurs!




Dinosaurs are fascinating to little kids!  Well, big kids like them, too!  Let’s spend the afternoon in a romping, stomping, roaring celebration of our extinct reptilian friends- the dinos.

Introduction
Bring students to carpet, get them settled.

Welcome Song (To London Bridge is Falling Down)

        Welcome to the library, library, library. Welcome to the library,
        Please come inside and read. 

        We’re glad to have you here today, here today, here today. 
        We’re glad to have you here today, today’s a special day.


Finger play:  I had a little red balloon

I had a little red balloon
Pretend to hold a balloon in between your two hands.
And I blew, and I blew, and I blew.
Pretend to blow up the balloon.
And it grew, and it grew, and it grew.
Spread your two hands further and further apart.
I tossed it up in the air,
Pretend to toss the balloon up with your two hands.
And didn’t let it drop.
I bounced it on the ground,
Pretend to bounce the balloon on the ground with your two hands.
And it went “Pop!”
Clap your two hands together as you shout the word “Pop!”

Variation: Repeat only change the balloon (and your voice) to a great big or a teeny tiny balloon


Library Expectations- “4 finger rules” of the library: (source M. Lynn)

quiet (finger to mouth)
watch teachers (fingers to eyes)
listen to stories and directions (cup ears)
and always walk (walking fingers.)


Mystery Bag:  What’s inside the mystery box today?  The object inside the box will give us a clue what our story time is going to be about.  A plastic toy dinosaur.)

We are passing the mystery bag around today.  What does this object feel like?  What words can we use to describe it? (hard, spiny, small.) 


Word of the Week: say it, syllabicate it TEACHER draws it in the air, invites students to “air write” with her. 

English:  Dinosaur
Spanish: dinosaurio (DEE-noh-SOAR-oreo) (yeah, I know.  My phonetics can be funny!)
ASL signWe’re going to make a letter D with our hand (like Dog last week) and he’s our dinosaur.  Now he’s going to take three heavy, big dino steps across our body… ready, DINOSAUR!)

TODAY we are doing RHYMING WORDS, too.  What words rhyme with dinosaur?  (Roar, soar, more, explore, oar, door, shore…)

Resource
 Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton (Harper Collins, 1989.)

a.    Pre-Reading:  What do you know about dinos?  This is a very simple picture book.  It might be fun to have kids use their hands and arms to make themselves look like the dinosaurs on the page?
b.   During and After Reading:  Note similarities to animals and people today, even though they’ve been gone a long time.
Action Rhyme
Dinosaurs Lived Long Ago (courtesy Perry Public Library)

Dinosaurs lived long ago
Some walked (stomp feet)
Some swam (pretend to swim)
Some flew, you know (fly)
Some were big (hands high)
And Some were small (hands held low)
Some were Gigantic (hold hands wide)
And VERY tall! (Stretch both arms high)

Resource

If you can get a copy of this book, it’s full of great dino poems, many only a few lines long and all with pretty great pictures by the late Arnold Lobel.

Before Reading: Poem today is about T Rex: what do we know about him?

While reading: Listen for rhyming words.

After Reading:  Is this poem true?  What were the rhyming words?  Does the picture “go” with the poem?

Jokes
                 
·         What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?  A Dino-SNORE!
·         What do you call it when a dinosaur makes a goal in soccer?  A Dino-SCORE!
·         Where do dinosaurs buy their groceries?  At the Dino-STORE!


Resource






Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins.  Houghton-Mifflin, 2005. 
Pre-Reading:  The first book we read had some basic facts about dinosaurs.  This is a non-fiction book, and it’s called non-fiction because everything in it is true.
During Reading:  Compare animals to things in the child’s world.
After Reading:  Show students the other Steve Jenkins Actual Size books in the library – they can check them out during checkout time!
Action Rhymes
Action Rhyme: “Dinosaurs” by Nancy Klein.

Spread your arms way out wide, fly like a Pteronodon, soar and glide.
Bend to the floor, head down low, Move like Stegosaurus long ago.
Reach up tall, try to be as tall as Apatosaurus eating on a tree.
Use your claws, grumble and growl, just like Tyrannosaurs on the prowl.

Activity:
Dinosaur Hunter’s License (downloaded and adapted from http://www.visitdinosaurland.com/School-Reports

For learning their facts, kids earn their DINO HUNTING LICENSE and can take it home!

Activity
While they do art projects this week, there are a lot of great ebooks on Tumblebooks and PebbleGo about Dinosaurs.  I kept them engaged with art and video while we checked out books in small groups.

Wrap-up
Review: words of the week. 

Goodbye Song:
Open, shut them.
Open, shut them.
Raise your hands up high.
Open, shut them.
Open, shut them.
Wave and say goodbye.




This Week’s TEKS:  1 (A) words represented by print
                                    1 (C) 1:1 correspondence word/print
                                    1 (F) Conventions of Print
                                    1 (G) Parts of A Book
                                    2 (B) Identify Syllables in spoken words
                                    3 (A) Identify common sounds letters represent
                                    4 (A) Identify what happens next based on cover, illustration
                                    4 (B) Ask & respond to questions about text
5 (c) sort pictures into conceptual categories by attribute
                                    6 (A) Identify elements of a story: setting character, key events
6 (b) themes of well-known folk tales and fables
                                    6 (C) Recognize sensory details
6 (d) recurring characters and phrases in folk tales
                                    7      Poetry has regular beat, similar word sounds (rhyme, alliteration)
                                    8 (a) retell a main event from a story told aloud
8 (B) describe characters in a story and reasons for their actions
                                    10 (D) use titles/illustrations to make predictions about text
                                    10 (B) retell important facts in an expository text
18 (A)  use phonological knowledge to match sounds to letters
19 (A) ask questions of class-wide interest (with adult assistance)
20 (A) gather evidence from provided text sources (with adult assistance)
                                    21 (A) listen attentively by facing speakers and asking questions
                                    21 (B) Follow oral directions that involve a short, related sequence of events
                                    RC(fig 19) (D)  make inferences based on cover, title, illustrations and plot
                                    RC(fig 19) (A) discuss purpose for reading & listening to various texts
RC(fig 19) (A) discuss purpose for reading or listening to various texts
                                    RC(fig 19) (B)  ask and respond to questions about texts