Here's a peek at our month as we kicked off our winter unit. I found a lot of great resources that really enhanced my centers (and many of them are FREEBIES!). I hope this inspires your winter unit!
Week 1: Snow
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| using snowballs to form the sight words, then copy it to a handout. |
Skills: Sequencing
To launch our winter unit I first began with snow - we watched a short video on how snow is formed (moreso to build schema) and made a list of all the fun things people get to do in the snow. They said things like: build a snow fort, have a snowball fight, make snow angels, etc. This lead to introducing the story The Snowy Day. (I am using Vooks as a trial and so far I love their animated stories!)
For centers I found a lot of great practice activities that reinforce the learning we're doing in this unit. Life Over Cs has this really great snowball blend sorting mats (FREEBIE). For a quick Write-the-Room I used this FREEBIE from Hopping Into Kindergarten and I also really enjoyed these January Sequence Writing pages from Miss Faleena (a great extension activity for whole group or centers for inventive spelling). I also incorporate a lot of Write-the-Room activities from this bundle I purchased from Pocket Full of Centers.
Week 2: Snowflakes & Snowmen, MLK
Read Alouds:Pete the Cat Snow Daze (January Writing Sample), The Biggest Snowman Ever
Skills: How to Build a Snowman (sequence writing) using the words: first, next, then, and finally.
One of the bigger writing projects we did together this week was take their learning about sequencing and introducing key words like first, next, then, and finally. I wanted to bridge this understanding with their first "How To" writing piece! Each day we worked on one sentence that would be combined into their flip books and they each turned out great!
Skills: How to Build a Snowman (sequence writing) using the words: first, next, then, and finally.
One of the bigger writing projects we did together this week was take their learning about sequencing and introducing key words like first, next, then, and finally. I wanted to bridge this understanding with their first "How To" writing piece! Each day we worked on one sentence that would be combined into their flip books and they each turned out great!
There are so many great writing templates out there - I made these very quickly (I do realize now that I need to switch the 'then' and 'next' order- oops!) for my class as I have emergent and pre-writers and needed something that is a little simpler. For each sentence we discussed the steps and I transcribed what they said during shared writing. From there they went to their seats to copy the sentence and practice drawing their pictures according to the step they wrote. By the end of the week they were so proud to display their books!
Martin Luther King, Jr Day
Working at a French bilingual school I have to remember that a lot of American historic people are largely unknown to my students. It makes it even more fun to introduce people like MLK to them - especially having it tie into our overall theme of SEL (social-emotional learning) and kindness.
I found this video of Kid President who shares a little about MLK and the kids loved that he's a kid just like them talking about someone important in US history.
Working at a French bilingual school I have to remember that a lot of American historic people are largely unknown to my students. It makes it even more fun to introduce people like MLK to them - especially having it tie into our overall theme of SEL (social-emotional learning) and kindness.
I found this video of Kid President who shares a little about MLK and the kids loved that he's a kid just like them talking about someone important in US history.
After viewing the video and talking a little more about MLK, I linked it directly with the ongoing discussions we're having in class about being kind to one another. I loved the idea of this egg demonstration to represent how we're all the same on the inside, but what we look like may look different. However, that shouldn't keep us from friendships and sharing kindness to others.
Pick up this (FREEBIE) MLK worksheet here.
Week 3: Penguins, Chinese New Year
Read Alouds: The Little Penguin, If You Were a Penguin
Skill: charting ARE, CAN, HAVE
This week was a fun one with our study of penguins! Although I'm not responsible for science, I couldn't resist spending a day with the ever popular blubber experiment! Students recorded their findings with this super cute worksheet (FREEBIE) from Khrys Greco.
For our mini-study of penguins I used this penguin labeling worksheet (FREEBIE) from Letters of Literacy. It was a great way to have my kids begin using things like a word bank and to practice their labeling. We watched a short video introducing penguins and worked together to label the parts of a penguin.
We also documented our learning with a similar anchor chart. This one is from Mrs. Lisa's Pre-K Crew.
Chinese New Year
Since I didn't have a ton of prep time for Chinese New Year this year I simply shared this video and had a simple coloring page for my kids. We didn't spend a lot of time with it, but I did find that the kids really enjoyed the video and learned a lot about how others celebrate New Years. For next year I definitely want to tie in a comparison of traditional New Years to Chinese New Year!
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We also documented our learning with a similar anchor chart. This one is from Mrs. Lisa's Pre-K Crew.
Chinese New Year
Since I didn't have a ton of prep time for Chinese New Year this year I simply shared this video and had a simple coloring page for my kids. We didn't spend a lot of time with it, but I did find that the kids really enjoyed the video and learned a lot about how others celebrate New Years. For next year I definitely want to tie in a comparison of traditional New Years to Chinese New Year!
Week 4: The Mitten Unit
Read Alouds: The Mitten (Jan Brett), The Mitten (Alvin Tresselt), The Mitten (Jessica Southwick)
Skills: Story Elements, Making Connections
I'm so excited to share more about our study of The Mitten! It's one of my favorite stories and this year I've created a workbook to go along with my planned lessons about sequencing, story elements, inventive writing prompts, and more.
