"Partner It Up" Working in a Team Everyday in K!

So... I have always had students helping each other and sometimes working in partners, but not nearly enough.  I went to a workshop st the N.CA Kindergarten Conference about working in partners and I watched Fran Kramer's Blog Expo presentation and I had a thought (pretty rare these crazy days!)

I am going to have students work in partners everyday!  They will walk in the door and choose something out of a container. 

They will go to the rug and when I say "Partner It Up!"  They will find the person that they are to be partnered with for the day.  Here are my plans for the week:

*Choose a sight word and find the person with the same word. They will read and spell the word for the class together.
 
*Choose a number and find the person with your same number. They will lead the class in Heidi's number song!

*Choose a rhyming picture card and find the picture that rhymes with yours (Pictures were free from Fran if you watched her presentation)  The partners will say their rhyme to the class.

*Choose a puzzle piece for a shape puzzle.  The partners will show the match to the class.

Whenever I want the kids to work in partners, that will be their partner for the day! They can line up together, sit "Knee to Knee and Eye to Eye" for sharing ideas.  They can learn something new about each other.  The possiblilties are endless!

What do you think of this idea for having  a special partner of the day?  I'd love to hear your ideas of how they can choose an item from a container on the way into class and that is how they will have a random partner for the day.  Make sense?

New Shadow Writing (Groundhog) Freebie

It's almost Groundhog's Day!  I love that cute little critter and all of the fun surrounding his legend.
I have a Groundhog from Build a Bear workshop and he will be visiting tomorrow.  His name is Phil of course and he even has a cute saying when you squeeze him. The kids are going to love him!

                                                                         Click Here

Here is a Shadow Writing page in his honor.  The kids just try their darndest to copy the writing like a shadow below the sentence.  Enjoy!

Please leave me a comment if you download this! Thank you!

This Week in Pictures and Links 1/23-1/27

This week we will be focusing on blending, short vowels (especially e) numbers 11-20, shapes, snow and our sight words he and she.  I will be trying to informally assess my students to find their current reading level range and also testing them on ESGI.  Phew!!! Another CRAZY/BUSY week is in store!

Our  Snowflake Bulletin Board

Our Kindness Self-Portaits

in Honor of MLK

These great little readers are from Rigby
Click Here For A Look

This Week's Reading Center: Vowel sound fluency and reading the little red book 3 times (circling the new sight words on the last reading)

   



Love this story!  The kids will dictate what they will do with their friend.



Sight Word Pattern Block Pictures from

First Grade Blue Skies

 

My PM Partner, Miss Rombach found this great unit from Miss Kindergarten (Hadar)

 

 This great spinner and practice page comes from
the Fabulous Busy Bees

This awesome math practice book comes from none other than Fran from Kindergarten Crayons.  This link is to her post where you can download this as a Number Book Freebie Her post has lots of great ideas! Thank you Fran!
(Sorry the first Link did not work!)



Please leave me a comment if you found something that you liked! 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

I'm A Favorite and Your A Favorite

Sweet Sara over at    Kindergarten is a Hoot  gave me this award and I am so glad to hear that my comments make a difference!  I know how much comments mean to me on my blog!  They help us to know that someone "out there" is reading and appreciating our posts.  I know that it sometimes takes a few extra seconds to post a comment, but if it makes someone feel appreciated or gives them an idea, it is worth the time.

Thank you Sara and Mrs. Cupcake who gave it to her!

I love each and every comment that I have been given and it was fun looking back and reading them all.  I noticed that these lovely ladies commented many times and they were especially positive and Sweet!

Kindergarten Crayons

Time 4 Kindergarten

Little Literacy Learners

Busy Bees

Thank you Again for all of your comments and please remember how much they mean to all of us.  If you feel especially excited about someone's post...leave them a sweet comment and spread that happy feeling around! 

 

(Freebie) Snowman Shadow Writing

Yeah I know, "Shadow Writing" is just a fun way to say copying, but my class seems to like it! I will work on making a few more if these are useful.

Click here

Phonological Awareness Games and Shadow Writing

There have been some questions about these two pictures on my last post, so I thought I would share the answers with everyone.

Here is the program from Super Duper Publications Chipper Chat (Phonological Awareness games)
It was recommended to me by a good friend and fellow Kindergarten teacher.  I believe she was told about it by her speech or reading specialist.  The children love it and I use it as a warm-up before other reading/language arts activities in a small group.  It could also be a big help for intervention!

The Shadow Writing is from Full Color Literacy Reading and Writing Games

Because there has been some interest and I have liked using them in my class, I am going to work on creating some of these to share as freebies.  It may take me a few days...

Hope this helps!  Thank you to all who have left such encouraging comments.  I truly appreciate them!  I find myself checking my blog several times a day just to see if anyone has left a comment!  Crazy I know...

This Week in Pictures and Links (1/17-1/20)

Just Lots of pictures this week as I am running late and I still have homework to correct!  (Yes, we have HW in kindergarten! Do you?)

Here are the math centers/activities

Very old program and materials, but I love the hands-on shapes and matching.

I made a mat for the students to sort shapes



Our math program worksheets made into a booklet.

From Under The Alphabet Tree

Language Arts Activities

 

Kindergarten Hoppenings with Shannon Martin

Word Window from Lakeshore

Snowman Art

I hope the pictures tell the story of our week and that you see something that you like. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about anything you see.

 We will also be drawing self-portraits and painting them in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. with lots of color, reading books and talking about kindness to others.