The Best Part of Me Opinion Writing

 I am super excited about my little pumpkins writing yesterday.  One of my coworkers found this great opinion writing lesson on the blog  Lessons with Laughter.  Although this lesson was originally for 3-5th graders, we made it simple enough for our kinders. We read the book The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald.  We brainstormed different parts of our bodies. Then, each child thought really hard about which part was the best part of them.

"I like my teeth be cause my teeth go fhrough my food. I like strawberries because the taas is yumee. "

           This one tickled me because  of the vowel pairs.  This little guy knew he heard a long vowel sound and made it by adding vowel pairs. I also love how he spells what he hears himself saying, notice the f instead of t for through.

                                           "I like my feet because they can take me places."

This was an easy peasie lesson. I took the photos with my cellphone, printed them on the black and white printer, and then used black construction paper as a base. How stinkin' cute did they turn out?

Last week, we read What if I had Animal Teeth by Sandra Markle. My coworker suggested a great lesson by Oceans of Firsts.  Students wrote their opinion about which animal teeth they would prefer to have.

If I Had Animal Teeth

   I printed out the teeth choices provide by Oceans of Firsts but also gave my kiddos blank white paper to freestyle their teeth.   I didn't use the face template, instead I took pictures of the students and had them glue the teeth on their pictures.  How stinkin' cute did they turn out?


  We  also practiced counting on.  Most of my pumpkins can count to 100. 

We counted to 100 on our 100 poster.  I put post it notes over random numbers and asked the students to tell me the missing number. I asked how they knew which number was missing. Most said they looked at the number before and counted up. Most of my pumpkins can count to 100.  I strategically gave numbers out. For example, When I had my pumpkins orally count to 100 to me. I wrote down the numbers they struggled with. So lets say little Bobby counted 38, 39...60... He got number 39 and a 100s chart. So .. I gave them a number, a fish and five 1 inch circles... they wrote the number on the fish and counted on putting each number after on the air bubbles.

Next, time I need to do a few things differently, cut 1 inch white circles for the bubbles.. not blue it was too close to the water color and I would have them write their thought process of how they were able to know which number came next.

Yesterday, my little pumpkins had a half day sub.  I was shocked by the behavior of my students with the sub.  Seriously, I saw them running down the hall, screaming. Not acceptable behavior.  So today, I dressed up like Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing.  I wore a wig...a bad, mullet wig...it is the only one I had.  I changed my necklace, rings and earrings. I raided my moms closet for some clothes to wear.  I painted my nails a different color.  I took the cover off my computer and cellphone. I changed out my teacher bag and lunch bag.  I put a pillow in my clothing to make me a little thicker. I spoke in a stern voice. I did not yell. I spoke calmly and firm. 

You can watch it by clicking here

 I explained that I was Mrs. Hann's sister, and I was filling in for her today. I pretended that I didn't know their names, or how to use the Apple T.V.. They asked a few question like why we looked so much a like. We did not sing or dance today. We did discuss appropriate behavior for when a substitute is there. It was actually really good conversations about how they should behave. I asked them why they were behaving for me but not the sub yesterday. One little pumpkin answered," Because you are so serious."  We discussed why the other sub was not so "serious".  My little pumpkins thought maybe she was a new sub, maybe she didn't know our class rules. Which led to conversations about even if the sub doesn't know the rules, we know the rules.  I asked if they learned anything yesterday and they said, "No". We discussed their job at school is to learn. So, because they did not complete the assignments yesterday we needed to do it all today. ( We did not really do two days worth of work, but I promise there was no down time today.)
   My little pumpkins worked very hard today, but surprisingly at the end of the day, they said they would miss me. I did not let on today that it was really me. Tomorrow, I will read Miss Nelson is Missing. 

 On another note,  our school is encouraging Number Talks with our students.  So I made version of their dots Images for my team to use. I am including Dot Images with the Number 6 Set 8 here.
I really enjoy the conversations that happen. It helps them to see that its okay to see numbers different, and helps them to see it different ways. 

You show students this and ask" How many dots do you see? How do you see it? "

The last two weeks we have been practicing for our spring play. My students did a play on growing plants.  I am proud to say they ROCKED it! 

I am just a little seed, some day I hope to be

a healthy, big and bright, green plant for all the world to see.

                   I am the soil.  I give the seed a cozy home to grow in.

        I will keep it warm and snug in March when the cold winds start blowin'.

I am water. I will give the tiny seed a drink. And then the seed will start to grow much sooner than you think.

I am the sun and my strong rays will shine upon the seed. I'll give it warmth and my bright light, both things a plant will need.

Wow, Look now. I am a plant. All of you are great at what you do, each one of you is special and I needed everyone of you.

 They did great! We also planted seeds this week. We are hoping they grow for Mother's day.

  We practiced our sight words with these awesome 1G Power word Dominoes.  It has a great little accountable piece, having children write the words they struggle with and the words they thought were easy.  It also has a smaller sets of Dominoes fro your kiddos that are overwhelmed with too many words. So my struggling kiddos work on the smaller sets, with only ten words. There is a great little parent letter included I just highlight the words the kids struggled with and send it home for parents to help with.  It is available at TPT

I love this piece. It really makes them think about the words they struggle with.
 

You can visit my Teacher Pay Teacher sight for a free one more one less write the room math center by clicking here.