Our Back to School Unit
Chester Visit
We read "The Kissing Hand" on the first day of school. The book is about a raccoon named Chester who is afraid to leave his mother to go to
school. Chester's mother gives Chester a kiss in the palm of his hand so that he can remember how much she loves him while he is at school.
Chester finally went to school and loved it! He left our class a special note in the back of the book which lead us on a tour around the school as we
searched for Chester. The note took us to Mrs. Johnson's room where we found another note leading to another place.
We followed the notes all around the school until we finally ended up back in our room.
When we made it back to our room, we were surprised with a special treat
left behind by Chester. He left the class "Kissing Hand Cookies!"
After we enjoyed our yummy cookies that Chester gave us, we made a picture of Chester out of shapes.
We made hand print puzzles and placed a heart in the middle. The students took these puzzles home as a special gift to their parents along with a poem.
We colored a picture of Chester.
What's in the sack?????
On the first day of school I read the poem "What's In The Sack." After reading the poem, our students tried to guess what I had in my sack. My sack had objects that told about me and the things I like such as: family pictures, a baton, THS band shirt, and so on. I explained each item to my students and told why I placed the item in my bag. The students were given a copy of the poem and a brown lunch sack "bag" to take home. I attached a note asking parents to help the students find items to place in their bag. The students took turns over the course of the week sharing their bags with the class.
This activity helps me to get to know my students and it also lets the students see if they have anything in common with someone else in the class. It is always fun to listen to each student share their bag!
August Book of Hands
Each month the students will make a picture using their hand cut out. These pictures are placed in each student's scrap book. This allows me to view the improvement in each student's cutting, writting, and following directions skills from month to month. The students also enjoy going back to see their improvement.
We read the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and created coconut trees with our names going up the tree.
We made a class book by placing a picture of each student on the following sheet. This will be turned into a traveling book that will go home with each student.
We read "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten" and discussed ways that we all got ready for kindergarten.
Each student illustrated a silly rhyming sentence that tells how they got ready for kindergarten.
These will be put together to form a class traveling book.
The Day The Monster Went to School
We read the story "The Day The Monster Went To School." The story tells of a monster that did not follow the rules and was asked to leave. The monster did not want to leave so he decided that he would try harder to follow all of the school rules.
We sequenced the story after we read it.
We created our own "Good Monsters!"
We have focused a lot on our class and school rules!
The leader starts off with a green flag. We must walk quietly in the hall or our flag changes to red. If we keep a green flag then we get to add a link to our class chain. Once our chain is long enough to touch the floor, we have a special celebration!
What a wonderful quiet line!!!! No monsters in this line!
Raise your hand to take turns talking!
Sit up in the "MAX" position with your good listening ears on!
Circle of Friends
We spent a good amount of time focusing on what a friend is and how to be a good friend.
We made a circle of class friends.
We made a book of our school.
Morning Message:
We start our morning out with a morning message that is written in letter format.
This week during our message time we focused on reading the message, searching for the letter Ll, and discussing any vocabulary word of the week that may be found in the message.
Reading Group:
We have special "Busy Bee" pencils that are used during reading time.
These pencils help make sure that we use our very best writting!
These two students are using their finger pointer to point to each word as we read.
These students have on their smart reading glasses while we put the alphabet in order.
Mrs. Shelton is working hard with her reading group.
Phonics
We will focus on one letter a week. This week our letter of the week was Ll.
We use our alphabet strips during phonics and reading time to focus on our letters and sounds.
Math Groups:
The first two weeks in math are spent experimenting
with some of our manipulatives, working on numbers, and counting.
Center Time!
We have several centers in the class that the students rotate to throughout the week.
During center time, the students are working in small cooperative learning groups communicating with one another while working
on class skills that we are covering for the week.
Our centers are based on our Science / Social Studies theme for the week.
Writing Center:
This week our phonics lesson focused on the letter Ll. Our sight words for the week were: I, see, the, red.
I combined this skills at our writting center for the week. The students were instructed to pick a word that begins with the letter Ll and finish the sentence: I see the red ___________.
Math Center:
Our Saxon Math this week focused on the numbers 0-5. I also focused on the numbers 0-5 at the Math Center for the week. The students made a flip book. They used number stamps to stamp the numbers on the front and they drew the correct amount of dots on the inside of the book to match the number on the front.
Art Center:
The students glued a cut out shape of a bus and a school to a sheet of white paper to create a school picture.
Phonics Center
The students used play dough to form the sight words for the week.
Computers
We have 4 computers in the room that the students rotate to during center time.
Book Center
The books change each week to match our theme.
The students can put on smart reading glasses while reading.
Our week ended with a Renaissance Rally!
Two wizards came to Maxwell to teach the students how they can become a Renaissance Kid!
The wizards created a special Renaissance potion which turned into The Renaissance Shero!!
Shero was once a Renaissance Kid and she challenged all the boys and girls to try their best!
