Hello friends!

I just finished my plans for week four of kindergarten! Phew. I like to plan a full week at a time to encourage myself to make cross-curricular connections and have a even flow of learning. This week was difficult because there is a TON of content, but only four days of school! I had to juggle some things around to keep myself on track.

You will notice on my plans, I don't list guided reading or centers. I keep those plans separate from these. I have about 50 minutes per day to dedicate to guided reading and centers.

Read-aloud and Writing:

It is family and home week! We will be reading about all different kinds of families, and students will be making their own family book. I am using a free resource that comes in several different levels (link is at bottom of post!). The level with the fewest lines is still too much for my kiddos, but I am going to encourage them to try it and there is plenty of room for me to dictate this way! I am so excited to have these done by open house so they can read them to their families.



Science:

We have a dedicated 25 minute science/social studies block. We are launching this week with our first full-on science EXPERIMENT! Because I didn't want to deal with REAL worms, we will be watching an in-depth video about worms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-zc_1vjLnI) and then I will send them to their tables to examine gummy worms. I will NOT state that they are gummy worms. I want to lead them to DISCOVER the concept of living vs. nonliving. We will discuss and then I will provide the vocabulary. The five components they are supposed to know about living things is they need "food" (grade level appropriate for nutrients), move on their own (this will be fun with plants--we will talk about root movement/bending to the sun), reproduction (...), needing water, and "breathing" or needing oxygen. As we discover these concepts, I will keep an ongoing list. We will end the week with each child getting a picture of a living or nonliving item, sorting it, and justifying their choice.

Mathematics:

Phew, four days to teach positional words and three-dimensional shapes! I have tried to put a few activities in for these each day. Some of our tasks come from this amazing pack (link at bottom). The one below we will practice all together to begin to get a routine of how math tasks should look and feel in the classroom! However I also have a ton of total physical response planned for position words--each child getting a cup and bear and hiding them, putting hands all of the places (above, below, next to, beside, under, on, etc.) and then doing the same thing with FEET (it gets very silly). We will also do a 3D shape hunt by cutting out magazine photos.



Social/Emotional Learning:

We are all special and different human people, and we will share more about ourselves during morning meeting times this week. However, we will mainly be focusing on lesson two of our Choose Love Curriculum, which is about having the courage to share your feelings. We will be playing a TON of feeling charades, sharing feelings, and practicing calm-down strategies. We will illustrate a feeling ourselves, and I hope to get pictures of the students for a class feelings book made this week. We will get out our calm-down kit and practice it all together a few times. Practice makes perfect!



Please see the links below to find these resources, and let me know any questions or suggestions you have!

xo,

Ms. M


Free resources:
Learn more about the Choose Love Movement, and check out the (free) lesson plans!
https://www.jesselewischooselove.org/
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Objects-in-the-Environment-Math-Tasks-and-Exit-Tickets-2983013
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Living-and-Nonliving-Things-for-Kindergartners-2429520
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-My-Family-Writing-Book-Template-for-K-2-FREE-2932909
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/12-3-A-Calmer-Me-Self-Regulation-Calming-Strategies-3110932