Chalk Talk: A Kindergarten Blog

Sounds Fun Phonics Giveaway

2012-02-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

I always say, if I could only take 2 resources into a classroom with me, I would take my Zoophonics cards and my sight word CDs from Heidisongs. These two resources have helped my students more than any others I have tried, so I am SUPER EXCITED to announce a giveaway for Heidi's newest product!! It is her Sounds Fun Phonics Workbook.

Heidi's Sounds Fun Phonics Workbook - Vol.1 contains worksheets and activities for 12 different sound spelling patterns and phonics rules, including: sh-,th-,ch-, -unk,-ink,-ing,-ay, -ai,-ee,-ea,-oa, oo, plus rules Bossy E, Vowel Walk. This is a great resource to accompany her "Sounds Fun Phonics" CD & DVD.

If you are not familiar with Heidi's Sound Fun Phonics, you need to check it out! I love it as much as the sight word CDs. It is great for teaching spelling sound patterns and phonics rules to your little ones. I love Heidi's products because I have found when my students can sing and move to new information they are learning, they retain the information easier and actually put what they learned into practice faster.

The phonics workbook includes:
• Five different types of reading worksheets for each sound spelling pattern unit.
• Worksheets with spaces for student illustrations for children that remember better by drawing.
• Worksheets with “fill in the blank” format for writing practice, and visual perception “find the right word” activities that help train the eye.
• Worksheets with spaces for children to write their own sentences using the target words.

You can check out a sample of the phonics workbook here or get more information about the product from Heidi's website.

To enter the Sounds Fun Phonics Workbook Volume 1 giveaway:

1) Follow Heidi's Blog

2) Like Heidisongs on Facebook

3) Add Heidi's blog to your blog roll.

3) Follow Chalk Talk

4) Add Chalk Talk to your blog roll

Leave a comment for each requirement. Don't forget to leave your email so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner!! The contest ends Friday, February 24th at midnight. Good luck!!

Drawing and Writing

2012-02-15T19:17:00.000-08:00

I believe that drawing is such an important part of early writing. Since drawing is writing for young children,we want to give them opportunities and guidance in drawing to help them learn to use eyes to more closely examine their work, adding more detail in their drawings and gradually, over time, in their writing. The more students reflect on what to put in their picture and how to show their story without even having to use any words, the more they will think about this when they write and the more they will have to write about.

This week I did a lesson in a kindergarten classroom only focusing on drawing. We started with a very simple non-fiction text about penguins.

I set the purpose for reaching by asking students to pay close attention to the details in the photographs. I explained to them that we would be drawing a picture about penguins afterward and that we wanted to be able to tell people as much as we could about what we learned through our picture.

As I read the book and after I was finished, I led students in a discussion about what details they were noticing and which ones we wanted to be sure and put in our drawings. We decided on ice because that helps show where they live, fish because that is what they eat, and eggs on their feet because that is how the daddy penguin keeps the egg safe and warm.

I have found that smaller sheets of paper work best when first starting to teach students how to draw and add detail to their drawings. We drew our pictures one step at a time. I asked the students questions about what we needed to start with, what to add next, etc. I wanted the students to help me recall the details. I gave them direction on how to draw everything.

They did a great job! This drawing lesson could easily be followed up with a shared, interactive, or indepedent writing activity.

After working with your students on drawing for awhile, they will be able to make some of their own decisions about their pictures and work more independently. They need lots of modeling and guidance to get them to this point though.

Tame vs. Wild Animals

2012-02-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

I did a fun lesson today on animal characteristics. I started the lesson by talking about what characteristics means. Then we had a discussion about various animal characteristics. From there, I led our discussion to tame and wild animals. We talked about the difference between the two and what both words mean. I made sure that students understood that tame and wild did not have to do with animals coverings or the way they move. For example, there are tame animals with fur like dogs and wild animals with fur like bears. We also talked about how some animals can be both tame and wild. For example, there are frogs that live in the Rain Forest that are poisonous and frogs that can be kept as pets. We also talked about how tame animals usually need someone to care for them like an owner or a farmer.

First we did a whole group sort together to make sure students understood the difference between tame animals and wild animals. I made this sort so that it would be different from the small group sort in Kim's unit. You can download this sort for free here.

Then I placed students into small groups and let them do a sort with different animals. This sort came from Kim Adsit's Science Blasters Animals- Wild and Tame. This is a great unit on animal characteristics!! It is well worth the money.

I love this group's sort. They said a turkey could be both tame and wild because it could live in the forest on its own or it could live on a farm and be taken care of by a farmer. Since they thought it was both, they placed it in the middle.

Then we made the Tame/Wild Animal book from the unit. For times sake, we made a class book where each child made one page instead of each child making their own.

Here are the beginnings of the book. I had to leave before the students finished their pages, so I do not have any pictures of their completed work.

Animal Characterics and Brace Maps

2012-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

I did a lesson this week for a teacher who wanted to see how I create brace maps with my students. Since they were learning about pets, I decided to focus the lesson on animal characteristics. I read the book Arthur's Pet Business since it shows all types of animals, their needs, and their characteristics. As I read, I led the students in mini discussions on the different ways pets move, their coverings, their body parts, and their needs.

Since Arthur wanted a puppy, I decided to use a dog for our brace map. As brainstormed the main outward parts of a dog, I focused our discussion on why each of those parts were important and how they connected to the dog's characteristics. If you are not familiar with brace maps, they are a type of Thinking Map that shows the parts of something.

Here is the brace map we created. I started with the whole dog already made and on the map. Students recalled the parts of the dog we had talked about, we reviewed characteristics of that part and why it is important to the dog and then added it to the map. After we had all of the parts added, we went back and labeled the parts using interactive writing. If I need to save time, I print out the labels in advance so we only have to add them.

Sometimes, I have students create miniature versions of our large class brace map, but since I did not have a lot of time in this classroom, I created a sheet where students could label a dog instead.

Here is an example of when I have had students create their own brace maps.

Here are the signs I used to display with the brace map after it is posted and the dog labeling page. To make the dog on the large brace map, I just clipped corners and rounded rectangles.

The Volunteer List: 5 Free Lists to All My Followers!!

2012-02-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

This week I learned about a new site called The Volunteer List, a site created by David Butler, the husband of a teacher, who wanted to make his wife's work a little bit easier. After watching his wife struggle with coordinating lists of room moms, teachers, students and other volunteers, he decided she needed a way to avoid making extra copies, dealing with duplicates and missing items, and just a faster way in general to avoid making long notes and forms. So he created an online way to coordinate donations, events, conferences, parties, meetings and volunteer times with parents, students and fellow teachers.

Check out his site at The Volunteer List. After registering with the site you will be given a personal URL (http://www.thevolunteerlist.com/YOUR_UNIQUE_ID) to give out to your group. All you need to do is distribute the URL and David will handle the rest. No registration is required from your group and filling out the sign-up form is fast! You can easily create a list for just 99 cents per event and the site offers a couple of demos so that you can see how it works.

As a SPECIAL to all of my followers, David is offering all of you a deal. He is giving you all 5 FREE lists. The offer is only good through Friday, February 17th, so make sure you check out The Volunteer List now to take advantage of the great deal and see if the site works for you. To take advantage of David's SPECIAL CHALK TALK DEAL, use this link.

Amazing Animal Webcams

2012-02-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

I just came across this great site with live animal webcams. It's called KB...Connected.

Karen has "A Best to Watch" tab with cams on a variety of birds and bears with lots of action. She also has tabs for zoos, African animals, and all kinds of other animals. You can view animal videos from the site as well. Great for using with science lessons, non-fiction text, and writing to inform.

Writing to Inform

2012-02-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

I was in a classroom in my district yesterday and a teacher (Jessica Hoover) was using this great brainstorming sheet with her students.

They are working on writing to inform, so she started the lesson with a non-fiction book on porcupines. As they read through the book, she led them to make connections with other animals they had already learned about, pointed out features of non-fiction text, brought up new vocabulary, and ask lots of higher level questions.

After the story part of the lesson, students moved to their seats and Jessica moved to the Elmo to begin her model for brainstorming and writing. All together, the students and Jessica worked through the questions on the sheet. For times sake, Jessica spelled some of the longer more difficult words, but for as many words as possible, she had the students stretch the sounds with her and write what they heard.

After each word was written, the students made a simple sketch in the box that went with it to remind themselves of what they had written. This is a great strategy for your lower kids, but visual cues really benefit students at all ability levels.

All of this was done on one day. The following day will be when students take the information they brainstormed and write a sentence or sentences about what they learned about and draw a detailed picture to go with it. I really like this handout because it works well as a model for brainstorming and writing, it involves the kids in the modeling process (keeping everyone moving and actively engaged), and it gives them support for when they go back to write their own sentences. I also think the structure will help young students begin to think about questions they may want to ask when they research a topic.

Jessica was kind enough to share her recording sheet with me, so I have attached it below.
Informational Draw and Write

Pink Tiara Cookie for Three Winner

2012-02-04T03:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who entered the Pink Tiara Cookies for Three giveaway. The lucky winner is Karyn!! Congrats Karyn. I will be emailing you soon to get your address. Thanks again to all of you who entered and to Maria Dismondy for giving us one of her books for the giveaway.

I've Been Tagged!

2012-02-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who tagged me wanting to know more about me. Sorry it has taken so long to respond. Since I have been tagged by several people, I took the questions from the last person who tagged me, so here goes....

According to game rules.... the person tagged tells 12 things about herself, answers 12 questions asked by the previous tagger, and then comes up with 12 questions to ask the new tagees!

12 Things About Me....

1) I love Salted Carmel Mocha's from Starbucks. I spend lots of time at Starbucks studying, researching, and writing papers.

2) There is nothing I had rather do than read. I love to read all kinds of books and I collect children's books.

3) I love to watch movies. I go to them, rent them, and watch them on tv. I love all kinds of movies. The Movie Tavern in downtown Fort Worth is my favorite theater.

4) I love listening to music. I work to music, write to music, study to music, and play it in my classroom.

5) I love to take hot baths. I have to take one every night before going to bed!! I wish this was my bathtub!

6) I love flavored ice tea. Pei Wei's orange tea is great and the Brass Bean by my campus has an apricot tea I love too.

7) My favorite pastime is walking around Barnes and Nobel and reading the backs of the books on the shelves.

8) Baskin Robbins is my favorite ice cream place.

9) Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are two of my favorite shows.

10) I think babysitting my nephews is the best!! Here I am with one of my super hero nephew BFH.

11) I am a proud of all of my kids especially my 19 year old in her first year at UT. Hookem' Horns!

12) I am a graduate student at UNT. I am waiting for the date for my oral exams and then onto writing my dissertation.

Now... on to answering questions about myself....

1.) What is your favorite thing to teach?

Kindergarten!! I love my little kinder kids. I love teaching them math, reading, science, and social studies!!

2.) What is your favorite meal to cook?

Anything Mexican!! I have a great recipe of chicken enchiladas!! It is one of my favorites!

3.) What is your favorite Pinterest board?

I love my literacy, math, and science boards. So many good ideas there that I have found from others.

4.) What is one show you hate to admit you watch?

I am a closet 90210 fan... the old one and yes.... the new one!! I am more than twice the age of all of those kids on the show and the storylines are crazy....but I can't quit watching it!!

5.) What is your favorite teaching story or funny kid story?
My favorite teaching story is that one year for Christmas I was given hygiene products as a gift.... including tampons and pads. That is quite the gift to open in front of all your friends and students. lol.

6.) What is your favorite book? (not children's book)

This question is worse than choosing a favorite movie!! I love to read more than anything. A few of my favorites are The Time Traveler's Wife, Water for Elephants, A Thousand Splendid Sons, The Kite Runner, and anything by Meg Cabot!

7.) What is your favorite thing to do with your family?

Birthday breakfast. It's a family tradition. Instead of birthday dinners, we always do birthday breakfast. Even if its a school day, we all get up early and have breakfast together.

8.) What is your favorite restaurant?

While there are tons of places I love to eat out, I always consider PF Changs a favorite!!

9.) Where do you want to go on vacation?

Vacation?? What's that?? I have been taking a full load in grad school for the last 4 years. I finished my masters in a year and a half and went straight to work on my doctorate. I am finally almost to the dissertation phase and hope to get to vacation again one day soon.

10.) What products could you NOT do without?

As far as the classroom goes.... Zoophonics, Heidisongs Sight Word CDs, Dr. Jean CD's, and "Boo Boo" tape

11.) What is your favorite thing about teaching? What is your pet peeve about teaching?

My favorite thing about teaching is seeing kids learn and make connections with what I am teaching. I also love to see them having fun while they learn. My pet peeve is all the paperwork, politics, and rules that get placed on teachers.

12.) What is your favorite movie?

I love movies!! All kinds!! You've Got Mail has always been a favorite, but I love too many to be able to narrow it down.

Now onto my questions....

1) Tell us about your family.

2) What is your favorite song or CD to use in your classroom?

3) What is your favorite children's book?

4) What is your favorite part of your job?

5) What are your must-have teaching resources?

6) What is your favorite tv show?

7) What is your favorite thing to drink?

8) What kind of music do you listen to?

9) What is your favorite thing to do with your family?

10) Name a tv show you watch, but hate to admit to.

11) What is your favorite unit or concept to teach to your kiddos and why?

12) What are your hobbies?

Now... here's who I am tagging....

Heidi from Heidisongs Resource

Fran from Kindergarten Crayons

Mrs. Clancy from Joyful Learning in KC

Annie from The Moffatt Girls

Hadar from Miss Kindergarten

Catherine from Mrs. Wood's Dual Language Kindergarten Class

Mrs. Williamson from Welcome to Room 36!

Deedee from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Jonelle from A Place Called Kindergarten

Randi from Teach it With Class

Mrs. Shaw from Learning Adventures

Fabulous at Forty Giveaway

2012-02-03T18:09:00.000-08:00

I recently turned 40!! so Ms. Solano's Fabulous at Forty Giveaway just caught my eye!! It's easy to enter and the prize is a $50 gift certificate to ErinCondren.com. Check out Ms. Solano's blog and her giveaway here.

A Jazzy Day

2012-02-03T17:52:00.000-08:00

For all of you music lovers out there.... The Melody Book has just released its latest app A JAZZY DAY— Swinging with the Big Band for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. The app uses an interactive story and game to introduce young kids to jazz music and its instruments.

Join two cute kittens and their father as they visit the Jazz Big Band and explore the sounds of each instrument. Your students will enjoy the vivid illustrations and fun animations as they learn about jazz music. A Jazzy Day features original music and sounds played by real acoustic instruments. You'll even get to hear a full jazz Big Band arrangement.

And there's more! Once your child learns about the different instruments, you can test their aural and visual knowledge in a fun way with our interactive "play game" feature.

A Jazzy Day was created for the use of children aged 3-8 years old, but has proven to be appropriately challenging and engaging for older kids as well.

Magnetic Spinners

2012-02-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Last night, I was finally able to get a few free minutes to start watching The Virtual Expo: Everything's Kindergarten. I am not done watching all of the presentations yet, but I am really enjoying it so far. Fran, from Kindergarten Crayons, talked about these great magnetic spinners that I had to blog about. They are called Educational Insights SpinZone Magnetic Whiteboard Spinners and you can purchase them from Amazon.(Theie price is cheaper than Really Good Stuff).

These spinners instantly turn your magnetic whiteboard into an interactive game board with three jumbo spinners.Draw a circle, write in content, attach a spinner, and play. Since you create the spinner board yourself, you can use it to practice letters, sounds, sight words, story retelling, numbers, math concepts, etc. Thanks Fran for sharing about this great teaching tool!!

Pick and Draw: A Drawing Game

2012-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

I recently came across Rich Davis' site and his game Pick and Draw. Rich Davis is an artist and kid's presenter. He has illustrated a number of children's books including Tiny Goes to the Library, Firefighters to the Rescue, and 101 Ways Kids Can Spoil their Parents. Below are a few of his other titles.

Rich has also developed a great game called Pick and Draw. Pick and Draw is a fun, drawing game that teaches kids how to make creative cartoon faces. The game uses simple shapes kids already know giving them the confidence to draw even when they oftentimes feel they can't. It is a game that can be used with one child or by a group of children. It also encourages children to use their imagination and creative thinking.

Believing that drawing is an important early step in writing, I am always looking for ways to teach children how to draw and to build their confidence in doing so. I tried out Pick and Draw this week with a group of kindergartners and it worked great. We played the game in small groups, drawing all kinds of faces. I extended the activity, by having students write a sentence about the face they drew. I heard lots of "This game is fun" "I like this game" and "Can we play again?" The teacher I used the game with is now moving the game to her writing center so that her students can continue to practice their drawing and writing skills by playing the game and writing sentences to go with their pictures. Check out Rich's Pick and Draw website for more information.

Teaching Doubles

2012-02-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of attending 4 days of math training with First Steps in Mathematics. I have attended 3 days of training so far and have one day left later this month. The sessions are all about ways children learn math and why they struggle when we leave out certain steps or pieces. It is not a full scripted math curriculum, but rather a resource that develops and expands one's understanding of how children learn mathematics.

A few of the topics we discussed in the last session were teaching doubles, subitizing, how children need lots of practice in making 10, and mental math. One of the points the presenter made was that we should connect doubles to a visual when teaching them to children. Visual cues help children remember their doubles more easily, allowing them to free up that memory load for something else. This is especially helpful when using mental math.

I have attached a copy of a set of doubles signs that I put together quickly. They are not the cutest, but it was hard to find pictures that did a good job of illustrating the double.
Double Signs

New Blog and an Idea for the 100th Day

2012-02-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I came across the blog Teach it With Class for the first time. I found lots of fun ideas on it (the pigeon wants and needs mini-unit was a favorite because who doesn't love Mo Willems and the pigeon!!) and I loved Randi's 100th day activity "I Can Find 100 Numbers." I know many of you may be passed the 100th day, but you may want to hang on to it for next year. For more information and a link to the unit, check out Randi's post I Can Find 100 Numbers.

100 Gumballs of Fun!

2012-02-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

I had to try out the 100 gumballs on the 100th day idea from Pinterest. The idea came from Jessica at The Littlest Scholars. For specifics on how to make the gumball machine (see the comments) and a free download for the words, check out Jessica's post 100th Day!

To start, I had to consider how we were going to make 100 gumballs. I thought about bingo daubers, but I was not sure I could find 10 different colors. I was also afraid that they would just start daubing and not keep up with how many circles they had made. I also considered colored dot stickers for the gumballs, but ultimately, I made the most of the laser cutter in the workroom.

I assembled the gumball machines in advance to save time. I modeled the process for the students, then sent them to their tables to get started. I had the students use ten frames to keep track of their gumballs. I placed a bowl of colored circles in the center of the table, the students counted out 10 "gumballs" as they placed them in their ten frame, then counted them once more as they glued them onto their gumball machine. For this lesson, I stressed counting to 10, skip counting to 100, and that 10 groups of 10 make 100.

Each child started with a gumball machine and a ten frame. I rotated the bowls of colored circles around the room to each table in a circular motion. In cases with slower students, left some behind for them and moved the rest of the bowl to the next table.

Pink Tiara Cookies for Three Giveaway

2012-01-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

Award winning author, Maria Dismondy, is back again with her new book Pink Tiara Cookies for Three.

In Pink Tiara Cookies for Three, Maria tells the story of Sami, a little girl whose perfect life falls apart when the new girl moves in next door. Three can be a tricky number with friends because most of the time someone gets left out. Through Pink Tiara Cookies for Three, Maria shows children how to keep a best friend and always find room for more. As in her previous books, Maria does a great job connecting with young children, the problems they face, and the way they feel about them. Maria's books are perfect for building strong character in your students and helping them learn how to cope with the everyday problems they may face with friends and classmates.

Maria is known for her books Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun and The Juice Box Bully.

You can learn more about Maria and her books from her website and blog.

Maria was kind enough to send me an autographed copy of her new book, Pink Tiara Cookies for Three, to give away to one of you.

To enter the giveaway:
1) Follow Maria's Blog
2) Follow Chalk Talk
3) Add Maria's Blog to your blog roll
4) Add Chalk Talk to your blog roll
5) Check out Maria's Website
Leave a separate comment for each requirement. Don't forget your email address!!

The giveaway will end Friday, February, 3rd at midnight.