Guest Blog-New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities

New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities Linky Party!

Hello everyone! My name is Mo from More Than Math by Mo and I am super excited to be part of this wonderful blog hop hosted by the ladies from Primary Possibilities

Before I begin, let me tell you a little about myself.  I am in my 8th year of teaching various grades from PK-2nd as well as ESL/ELL.  I am a wife and mother of 2 wonderful boys.  I have been following blogs for many years now.  I always told myself I didn't have the time to create my own.  Over this past summer I realized that teachers in the blogging world have given me so many wonderful ideas over the past years that I decided it was time I shared my own talents with everyone.  In September 2012 I opened my TeachersPayTeachers store and the following month (October) my blog was born.

Now that you know a little about me, I would like to talk about teaching word families (onset/rime).

It seems as though every year I was putting a different plan in place for teaching onset and rime to my students and each year I reflected on my activities and was not 100% happy.  Over the summer I decided to come up with a solution to my problem.  That solution manifested into "Word" Family Trees.  

          

This resource (which is now a product for sale in my TpT store) consists of the same activities each week by simply changing out the word families that are focused on (saves time from having to teach a new center format).  I work on 2 word families at a time in order to do some comparing, contrasting, and sorting.  I will take you through the cycle of activities that are done each week.

1.  The first activity introduces words from the word families. (prior to this I introduce the new word families and have the whole class brainstorm a list of words) Students read sentences, circle words from the target rimes and sort the words they circled by writing them into the chart at the bottom of the page.

  

2.  The second activity in the packet can be changed throughout the year.  The printable includes word cards cut apart by onset and rime. (See image below)  There are many options with this printable.  I suggest an activity that suits your students best.

Here is an example of one way that I use this activity in my classroom:

   

3.I break the final activity into 2 days.  This activity involves students creating a "family" tree for each word family from that week.  They write words onto leaves then cut out and glue leaves onto a tree.  

  

Once the trees are completed, I like to choose a few to display near our word wall for students to use as reference. (students usually color the tree brown but this was the only picture I had on hand-sorry)

I have found that having the same basic activities repeated week after week has not only helped me as far as planning, but it has also helped my students remember what is expected of them therefore more learning takes place as oppose to listening to instructions.

If you are interested in implementing this product in your classroom, here are the products that I offer:
***Click on any title or picture to download or simply to find out more about that specific product***

--A FREEBIE for you to test out with your class.

---"Word" Family Trees-Set 1:Word Work for 12 Word Families -includes 12 long vowel word families, all containing "silent"e

---"Word" Family Trees-Set 2: Word Work for 12 Word Families -includes 12 more long vowel families that are not covered in set 1
---Save Money and purchase both set in a bundle- "Word" Family Tree Bundle-includes Word Family Trees Word Work Sets 1 & 2

Other Word Family Products that I offer:

I want to thank Mrs. Bohaty for having me over today! I had fun and I hope you'll stop by my blog sometime.  

Now head on over to Teaching Spanish Beginning Sounds for more blogging fun!  

  

now go visit the ladies over at Spanish Beginning sounds for more blogging fun!

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New Year= new calendar routines!

Well, have you ever done Calendar Binders? Calendar books?  It really keeps kids involved and productive during calendar time.  They learn to be so independent!  It is a great way to review and spiral math concepts.  I make a copy for every student and put them in a 3 ring binders. You can also put them in folders with fasteners in the middle.  However, you could just make overhead copy or put under your document camera.  I make a book for me too and the kids follow along with me as they complete theirs. At the end of the month, I just staple the pages and have the kids take it home and put the next month in. I use the cover above and slide it in the front of the 3 ring binder. 
Now follow me and I will take you through the book one page at a time. :)  Let me know what you think.  Try it out this month for $3 from my TPT store. Remember all my funds till Jan. 14th are going to help teachers at Sandy Hook!
I will be making them for the rest of the year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start with the calendar and color the square for the box with a crayon. We make a pattern for each month.  For January we do a light blue and blue for snow. Or I let the kids choose.  I let the kids choose the different types of patterns. It is better to color the day first and then write the day.  So after we color the box we write the date. We use a black marker so you can see it over the top of the crayon. 

 

Then we turn the page and sing the days of the week song.  You could choose any song you love that says the days of the week.  We do Dr. Jean "Days of the Week" that goes to the tune of the Adams Family. 

Next, we do the Months of the Year. We do the Macarena Months by Dr. Jean.  It gets us up and moving, which never hurts. :)  Then we say them in Spanish. Which my ELL kids love!

I have the kids find their birthday month and circle it.  Helps them remember and learn their friends birthday. 

Next is "How Many Days have we been in school?"  We color the day that we are on with a yellow crayon.  On the 10th days we color it with blue to make those look different.  On days that end with 5 we color with orange.  Then we count them.  Some days we count by 10's, others days by 5's, and some we take the plunge and count to the day we are on.  I know it's close the 100th for us so the first day is it going to take them longer to color the page but then it will only be one page a day.  You could laminate this after you make it to the 100th day and put it in other months so that they don't have to color it every month.  I did make a page that goes from 101-200.  So you can keep counting till the end of the year!

 You can use this more on some days have then find a mystery number.  Cut up all the days and put them in a container and have the helper pick one.  Then color the number that number with a special color. The possibilities are endless.

Next, is the NUMBER OF THE DAY! page.  I put two dice in a clear container and have the helper shake it.  Then add them together and tell us what that number.  We talk about the number sentence that these two numbers that make it. It gives us a good chance to talk about addition and how to solve simple problems.

Then we have the problem of the day page.  These are a great review of concepts taught of or a preview of new concepts.  This is a great time to work through problems together and use math talk to find the answer.  We do one box a day. 

 So the first day we talk a lot about how there are two boxes on each page.  I have them point to the top box, then point to the bottom box.  We make a game out of it.  I say top, bottom, top, bottom, bottom, top. etc. Then, of course, I try to trick them.  We do this so they understand that each day we will only complete one box.

I did make a whole page for the 100th day and Martin Luther King Jr. day.  You could take them out and still have enough for the month or you could do them both on one day.  It's totally up to you.  Everyone has the 100th day at different times so you may have to move it to fit your needs.  :)

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy calendar math as much as my kids do.  It is a fun addition to calendar time and students learn so much.  It keeps them attentive and focused on their learning!

 Enjoy! Lisa Click on link below to go to my TPT store and get started with Calendar books.

Calendar-Book-January

Short a...

Whew! I survived Christmas.  We had 4 days of Christmas.  The one good thing with it being on Tuesday we didn't have to double up any of them.  So Christmas day was spent at my mother-in-laws and wouldn't you know, my husband got SICK!  Yes, he had the flu that has been going around.  According to him it hurt all the way to his fingernails.  So dramatic!!  Off we went to the mother-in-laws without him. It was fine. Just makes it a little more stressful by myself.
I spent today putting Christmas way.  So now back to getting ready for the new year! School will start back in a week. CRAZY!! 

Well, we are going to start CVC units after break! So I decided to make these packets to help my students learn these words.  We will match, build, and write these words.  Students will really learn to read these words instead of just memorize.  We will focus on ways to really become good readers and writers.  I thought logically I would start with short a.  I made a packet for the -at word family and the -an word family.

  -at word family

This packet included cat, mat, rat, sat, bat, hat.

There is a page for each word like the one below.  Students trace the word three times, then write it on the line twice, the trace and read the sentence.  Students then cut and glue the word. 

There is also a word building page for each word.  Students use the beginning sound of the pictures to build the word using the provided letter cards or magnets letters whichever you prefer to use.  Then students match the picture in the middle.  Then in the bottom boxes the students use a dry erase marker and write the word.  

There are also two review pages that have the students matching the words to the pictures. 

 

Here are some examples of the -an word family set. This set includes can, fan, man, ran, tan, pan.

click here

click here

I'm looking forward to using these packets with my class. As a FREEBIE to you I am giving you the posters that go with these sets.  These posters can be made into a book or displayed while teaching that unit.  ENJOY!  Visit my store on TPT to purchase yours for only $2 a set!  Remember I'm donating 100% of my sales on TPT from now until January 14 to Sandy Hook teachers.

Teaching Supporting Teachers

Well, it's been a week now since Sandy Hook tragedy.  I have cried a little, well a lot!  And hugged my littler kinders a little more when they left for break on Wednesday.  So sad!  We all have been impacted from this and  I want to support fellow teachers in CT. So I am linking up with Kristin from Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten.
From now until January 14th 100% of my TPT sales will go towards the teachers in CT!! I can do my little part of help those who need our support and love. SO clean out your wishlist and purchase some products to support CT teachers.

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Gingerbread freebie and Christmas lights

I have been working on a new literacy center/word work unit.  It has uppercase and lowercase Christmas lights.  Students use the picture mats to match the upper and lowercase letter to the picture under the tree.

 Students can use these same letters to string up the lights in ABC order. You can use upper or lowercase letters whichever fits your students needs. 

 Now you can wrap up the presents.  These 50 word mats use the letter presents to build the words.

 

Click on the title to go to my TPT store to pick up your own Christmas lights unit today.
Christmas lights literacy fun

 

Well in the spirit of the season we are reading all the different versions of the Gingerbread Man.  Today we read the The Gingerbread Baby.  I created this retelling page to help students retell the story.  First, mix the dough to make the gingerbread man.  Second, the gingerbread boy runs from all the animals. Then he goes into the gingerbread house that Mattie made for him. Lovely story with a great ending.  I have been working with my kids to retell using our retelling rope.  LOVE IT!! It is just a piece of fleece rolled up with four ribbons tied in it.  The students hold each part of the ribbon as they retell the story.  FUN!  It had helped students with comprehension and retelling!

Gingerbread Retelling

A little Christmas and Gingerbread fun!

We have been having fun reading all the different versions of the Gingerbread man!  My kids love the Gingerbread Pirates!  We are starting our Gingerbread Time to the Hour next week. I'm excited to play a little BINGO!  Click here to go to my TPT store to get your very own!

We will also review our numbers 11-20.  I will use this counting center as a math read the room.  I hang all the counting cards randomly around the room and have the kids walk around the room, count the cards and write the numbers in the boxes and color the correct color. Click here for my TPT store to get this http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-counting-11-20

This is my kids favorite Gingerbread song to listen to.  A cute video from our fav, Mr. Harry!


Here is a little gingerbread FREEBIE!  It fits our word wall words the past couple of weeks! Enjoy!

click here

 

OK!  I need to take a small moment to brag about my kids this year!  They are so awesome!  Not only are they the nicest class that I have ever had but they are smart too!!  They try hard and always do what I ask!  They are making my job easy this year!  LOVE THEM!!  So we have a school improvement goal to improve number sense.  The Kindergarten team took Counting to 100 as a goal for the year.  Now, in Nebraska we haven't adopted Common Core.  I know, I know.  We are one of the only two states that haven't adopted it yet.  I'm sure it's coming soon.  Anyhow, every month we have the our kids count to 100.  I record it on recording sheet with every month a different color.  So they can see their progress. I know get to the good part... so today was the testing day.  Not only were they so excited to count for me, 80% of them did it!!  YAY!  It's only December and they can count to 100!  I was amazed.  And they were so excited to sign their name on my handmade poster board that said 100 club and wear a 100 crown I made from  bulletin board border.  I can't wait till next week when we hand out certificates in front of the whole school during community. 

Ok! I'm done! Have a great day! Enjoy all things gingerbread! :)