Rhyming King

"I love to rhyme - all the time!"

That is how the Rhyming King introduces himself. The only problem is he's not always very good at rhyming. He needs our class to help him out from time to time.

The Rhyming King gives two words to the class. If both words rhyme (rug, bug), the class gives him a thumbs up. If they don't rhyme (rug, sad), they give him a thumbs down. He will then call on a student to give him a word that does rhyme with the first word. Sometimes we can think of more than one word that rhymes (rug, hug, dug, chug...) This activity is a great way to get everyone involved.

At the beginning of the year... the Rhyming King starts of with some crowd pleasers: "Sit. Stinky feet. Do they rhyme?" Oh, the laughter! (Then he has to tone it down before that one kid starts to roll on the floor. You gotta toe the line between having fun and being totally out of control when you teach Kindergarten!)

As we progress through the year, the Rhyming King gives words that require careful listening (sat, sit) to determine if they rhyme.

Happy Rhyming!

Five for Friday!

It's a double Friday week! Wednesday was technically Friday since we only had 3 days of school this week. Why? Because didn't use any of our snow days this year. THAT. NEVER. HAPPENS.

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 highlights from our short week.

We kicked off Monday with a birthday celebration for Dr. Seuss! Complete with none other than GREEN EGGS AND HAM!

Students graphed their answer to "Do you like green eggs and ham?" by placing a green egg with their name under the YES or NO. I don't have a final picture, but the results were16 YES to 1 NO.

Headbanz - Math Edition! My kids love to play Headbanz during free choice time. Which got my teacher brain a-thinkin'....

I modified it a bit...
Whoever is "it" closes their eyes while I take a number out of our hundred's chart. 

I clip it in their headband. Then, they call on other students to give them clues to help them guess their "mystery number".

 It's a great way to grow critical thinking skills and reinforce math vocabulary and concepts:
"Your number is the sum of 3 + 4."
"It's 2 more than 5." 
"It's 3 less than 10."

Be prepared for everyone wanting a turn.

We finished our literacy weather unit last month, but I didn't start our weather journals until the end of the unit. February weather around here is just.... well...LAME! Last year I started our journals earlier and every page was practically the same: "It is cold. It is cloudy. It is very cold. It is very, very, cold...."  *yawn*

This year, I'm hoping March weather has a little more diversity. 

You can get these adorable journals from Tessa Maguire's TpT Store.

Even though we don't write in our weather journals every day, we always check the weather using the Kid Weather App. It's amazing! Totally worth the $1.99. It's kid-friendly, interactive, and.... you can graph the weather each day!

What better way to invite spring... than to make the classroom look like spring!
Take down those snowflakes!

We first watercolored our Rhyming Rainbows then added rhyming raindrops.
(The original "pinspiration" came from The Virtual Vine.) 

I'm looking forward to spending my day off drinking coffee (in my P.J's of course) and reading ahead.

Elizabeth at Kickin' it in Kindergarten hosted the first linky of a blogging book study: Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate. My book margins are filling up as I glean ideas from so many amazing teachers! Come join us tomorrow as we link up with Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten to discuss learning outside of our classroom's walls- field trips!

After reading Chapter 2, I challenged myself to find a way to incorporate drawing and artwork into this week's literacy lesson. We started our plant unit by reading  Oak Trees by Melanie Mitchell.

The writing extension focus skill was steps in a process.

Research states that "drawing is a powerful way to develop the thought processes and perceptions of children", in addition to helping them "comprehend and encode new content for later recall" (Source: Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate)

We made a pamphlet style book by folding a piece of paper in thirds.

 

 I only had my students write one step in the process. (I've learned from previous years, that having them write ALL of the steps can be very overwhelming for some students. I plan to do several more "steps in a process" writing projects later on in the year. Eventually, they will write all of the steps themselves.)

Have a fantastic Friday!