September Kindergarten Pocket Chart Chants and Activities

Isn’t teaching Kindergarten just magical?  I think so!  I LOVE to watch their little faces light up as they have success re-reading a familiar poem/chant.  I try to give them lots of opportunities for success and use fun pointers too!  There are real photos to enhance their reading process.  I use these poems during the first weeks of Kindergarten to set the tone for a love of reading and word work.  In this packet, you will find the following chants and word work/poetry journals:

•Goodnight (Use this poem by Linda Hoyt as a companion to GOODNIGHT MOON by Margaret Wise Brown)

•Rosie’s Walk (Use with the companion book Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchens.  I adore this book because it’s a great introduction to the use of prepositions in writing.

•Hattie’s Friends (Use with the companion book, Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox).

•Our Clothes (This is an independent poem sung to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress).  My students enjoy interacting with this text and re-building it in the Poetry Center.

•Kindergarten (This is another independent poem taken from Fontas and Pinnell’s work)  It’s a super cute poem that students can use to consider action verbs involved in Kindergarten.

Here's a peek at some of the wonderful poems included...

 Because I can't wait to start this new learning journey, I have a gift for you!  Follow this link to download a sample of this new pack!  If you love this FREEBIE, be sure to leave feedback and grab the whole packet HERE to use for the new school year!

Prepositions and Opposites

Whew!  The year has flewn by!  It's hard to believe summer will be upon us before we know it!  I get sad when I think about saying goodbye to my sweet children, but I know that they are ready to fly.  After testing them this last week, I am once again, AMAZED at how much they change from the beginning of the year. WOW! Kindergarten really is a magical place.  This week, be sure to stop for a moment and tell yourself, "Well done."  I am like you- always wishing that there was more time...always thinking about what else I can/want to do for them, but I need to recognize all the things I HAVE done already.  What an honor it is to be a teacher...celebrate you.

Here's a peek at some new printables I just listed at my TPT store.  Click on the link to hop on over!

PURCHASE it HERE!

Here's a preview.....

PURCHASE it HERE!

Here's a preview.....

Have a fantastic week!  

Be Blessed,

  

Close Reads and a FREEBIE

Who doesn't love a Kevin Henkes book?  My Kindergartners can't get enough of them so..... I have begun the process of putting together a CLOSE READS Bundle of many of his books.  As these things take time, I wanted to give a taste of what is to come.  Be sure to sign up and follow this blog to be the first to know when this is hot off the press!
Here's a sneak preview.....

Click here to grab your Chrysanthemum Writing FREEBIE!

Be Blessed!

Making Shapes, Words and Opinions

We are continuing on this amazing journey of literacy and growth!  Kindergarten is the perfect place to see my students begin to blossom like the flowers in my garden.  Each one, beautiful, amazing and in need of an extra bit of something from this crazy teacher.  It's a reminder of how blessed I am to have a God that is bigger than what I face each day.  Here's a glimpse into our "garden" over the last few weeks.

Hope you all have a great week!
Be sure to check out these awesome, new, math printables available in my TPT Store!

Be Blessed,

Penguins and PLANBOOK, with a New Year's FREEBIE!

Whew!  I cannot believe that it's been so long since I posted on here!  The time flew by in a whirlwind of activity that I'm sure most of you can relate to.  The holidays were filled with opportunities to connect with family and friends, although the loss of my Grandmother continues to be an up-hill climb.  I cannot begin to express the intense loss of her not being apart of Christmas this year.  I've greatly appreciated the rest I have been getting and am looking forward to hitting the ground running come Jan. 5th.  
I wanted to share of the new things I'm excited about!  
First,  is PLANBOOK!  I saw that one of my friends, Marsha McGuire from A Differentiated Kindergarten uses it and I wanted to check it out!  I cannot believe how much I LOVE this gem!  You can upload pdf. files, videos, links, and any other resources, as well as create templates and attach standards right to your plans.  When I needed Emergency Sub plans, almost everything was right there, all I had to do was tweak a few things for the day and BAM...ready to go!  We all know how valuable time is and I was able to purchase two years for $22.00!  

Here's a glimpse into a day of plans.  Click on the picture to download the plans for a closer look!

Second, I've also uploaded new Penguin Resources and a Data Tracker for Student Goal Setting with Rainbow Sight Words!  Be Sure to head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to check them out!  I even have a bundles available to save you some money!  And who doesn't like to save money? You can click on the picture below to grab the Rainbow Sight Words FREEBIE!

I'm super excited to show their growth and bring more color into my classroom next week with this cute resource.  It's only been listed a short time and over 250 people grabbed it already! It's my New Year's Gift to you from There's No Place like Kindergarten!

Here's a glimpse at those Penguin Resources too!

Click on the link above and it will take you to my store!

Or you can Grab this AWESOME

PENGUIN BUNDLE!  

But, Wait!  There's also a New ARCTIC ANIMALS UNIT TOO!

Happy New Year, friends!

Be Blessed!

Peek At My Week 10

Here we are at a brand new week.  We had great success last week studying spiders.  I stand AMAZED at how effective GLAD strategies are for helping my Kinders acquire academic language.  They have already grabbed onto the BIG CONCEPT: The Most Important Thing About Spiders is they eat pests!  That same vocabulary from chants is transferring to their writing and the ideas they generate when given a sentence frame such as:

The little spider is___________________.

The moment when one of my boys stated "eating pests" I was a BELIEVER!  I'm super excited to join many other teachers in our district who have been selected to attend more GLAD BOOT CAMPS to go deeper with these incredible strategies.

This chants will also set up success with our Sentence Patterning Chart, and later be used for writing.

Chants are a golden way to teach academic vocabulary in a non-threatening and fun way!  We have chanted for anyone who happens to pop into the classroom!

Each GLAD unit has a social skill that you are working on the entire 6-8 weeks. We are working on Being Respectful.  Anytime I see a child or a group being respectful and doing what we've determined, then I will add points to my various tables.

 Here is a sentence frame: if the child gave me a verb it was written on white using green.  If it was a prepositional phrase, it was written in orange to be linked to our sentence patterning chart we'd create the next day.

 Our Input Chart: Each Category is "color chunked: to aid comprehension.

Spiders Syllables from A Differentiated Kindergarten

This week we will finish our Sentence Patterning Chart and begin a Comparison Inquiry Chart for two Books:

Just wait till you see how GLAD Compares two books!  I was floored by this new strategy, since it's usually a Venn Diagram used for comparisons.  Nope!  Stay tuned.  

Come link up to other great bloggers at Mrs. Willis' Kindergarten

or click here: http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/

Have a wonderful week!

Be Blessed!