Links for Week 18 of Busy Bee Kindergarten
So as not to overwhelm you, I will send you fewer emails, but at least one email each week will have several links to different things you might want to read about or view. This way, you can stay apprised of everything that’s available to you but you won’t necessarily be “bothered” with anything you don’t currently have an interest in or don’t have time for. And, if you save your emails, you can access everything whenever it’s convenient for you.
The 17th Week of School - I’ll repeat the links here just in case you didn’t see them last week.
Video: A Week of Centers and Small Group Instruction - It’s not the activities that matter so much as does getting a good feel for where kindergarten students can be this time of year. What skills have your students acquired as we move into December?
Video: December Collector Game - See a five-minute math game that my students engage in every day. There is a different collector game every month and these daily five minutes add up to a lot of learning each month.
Video: Fun, Easy Game to Practice Heart Words - Learn this easy-to-make, easy-to-use game (I call it Oh, No!) and see how I introduce it and show my students how they’ll play it at the independent center. This game can be used for the next several months of kindergarten.
Week 18 of School - New Links and Descriptions
Video: Read Aloud - Watch a read aloud of a very special and tender book called The Most Perfect Snowman. Also read and learn about language comprehension—what it is and its relationship to reading comprehension.
Video: Frosty the Snowman Read Aloud - Singing a read aloud book is an excellent way to keep the students’ attention. Watch and see how I stop and talk about all they words/lyrics and develop vocabulary and language comprehension.
Video: Whole Group Writing Mid-December - See my students’ writing in action, from start to finish. Hear me provide quick, individualized lessons based on what comes up in their writing this day or skills I talked about with them in the last few days.
Video: Fast Fact Factory Mid-December - You may be familiar with my Fast Fact Factory method of moving students through number reading and addition and subtraction facts. I made all the number charts several years ago and have tested them and tweaked them and added to them over time. The progression works very well and it’s reassuring for any teacher to know exactly where each student is with these math concepts and skills.
Video: The Name Game and Whole Group Phonics - This video shows how I continue to make The Name Game more challenging for the students. As we finish up our third round of student first names, I am asking the students to tell me the sounds in the name out of order. My reasoning for doing this is based on Glass Analysis, a technique that teaches students how to approach words (in this case, names) in a way that will promote faster and more permanent orthographic mapping.
That’s it for this week! Let me know if you have any questions!
Randee