Construction Day Fun!

Last week we came back to school after spring break.  I was excited to see my kids and am so excited for the last quarter.  The end of the year is so much fun because of all the things that kindergartners can do at this time.  I decided (over spring break) that I was going to do a "construction day" when they got back.  I wanted them to be excited to be back and to have fun while they were learning.  I had so many people help us for our day.  I sent out and email asking parents if they could send in some things for us.  I also talked to some construction friends to see if we could borrow some safety vests.  Greystone borrowed me almost enough for my whole class.  I ordered hard hats and picked up some construction trucks from local stores and thrift shops.  I also had parents send some in.  I came in one night and set up our tables for the next day. I think I was almost as excited as they were.  

My kids behavior was amazing on our construction day.  They were engaged in activities that we have done before...but that they may have gotten off task with.

When the kids entered the room they saw these signs on the door.  

When the kids entered the room, they saw safety vests and hard hats at their lockers.  They were instructed to put them on right away.  We did our normal morning routines.  They did morning meeting and Writer's Workshop.  

I then led my kids through each center, telling them what they would be doing.

At this centers, there were posters that showed machines and tools and what each of them did.

Above each center, I had a sign with a number on it.  This helped them to know which one they needed to go to next.  If they started at 1, they went to 2.  If they started at 5, they went to 6.  It worked really well.

                                                    

At one center, I had books out for kids to read.

At each center, I had a sign telling the kids what to do.  The kids used bolts and screws and worked on their fine motor skills, putting these together.  If I didn't have these, I would have used regular bolts and screws. 

 We used our light table to build letters and numbers.  If I didn't have these, I would have used Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners or play dough to make the letters and numbers.

When it was time for recess and lunch, we hung our hard hats and vests up.

                                       


 At this center kids built sentences.  They started with a green card and added a red card.  They then added a when and a where card.  Each sentence had a WHO, DID WHAT, WHEN and WHERE.  

At this center kids looked at the supplies that we had out.  They designed a house that they wanted to build and drew it.  They then built the house.  After they were done, they looked at their house to see if it worked the way that they hoped.  If it didn't, they made changes to it.  We used our STEM steps here.

 At this center, kids built CVC words.  We have done this many times in different ways but doing it on construction cards had them so engaged.

 Their favorite center was building a house out of graham crackers and frosting.  I wanted them to build bigger houses, but time got away from us and they had to make smaller ones.

We used a Jenga game to identify numbers.  When kids pulled out a block, they had to say the number on it and put it on top of the pile.  The expressions were priceless.

We used Legos and Lego cards to solve addition problems.  They did so well with this.  They recorded the equations on a recording sheet.

 At this center, kids built words with Scrabble pieces.  I had some Scrabble pieces printed out but had a parent send in a game, so we used that instead.

 During our break, one of my friends posted this on a local online garage sale site.  It was destined for me to see it right away.  I had my hubby pick it up for me.  This was a favorite spot for some of my kids.

I was pretty excited about this center.  I picked up some rocks and wrote all of our sight words on them with a silver sharpie.  I put them in our sensory table.  Kids scooped up rocks with an excavator and with dump trucks and put them in a pile.  They then recorded the sight words on their recording sheet.  I also made paper copies of rocks with sight words because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find dark rocks.

 At this center, kids worked on subtraction equations.  They looked at the cards with the math problems on them and used rocks to solve them.  They recorded the equations on their sheets.

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 We also worked on telling time.  These cards had sentences on them about a construction workers day.  They had to read the time on the clock.

Our day was a blast.  I could have done this every day during the week, but we had other fun activities planned.  I thought about using this for our A to Z countdown to summer.  I'd maybe add it to our "C" day.  

You can find the activity cards and posters HERE.

I hope you have a wonderful week!
Sara

CVC words, Martin Luther King Jr., Ramps and MORE.

Hi!  I can't believe we are half way through the school year.  This weekend I am working on 2nd quarter report cards and am wondering where the time has gone.  We've had so much fun in kindergarten and I am constantly amazed with the progress that we are making.  

We are going to be starting to really dive into CVC words and vowel sounds in words.  The kids have mastered their ABC letters and sounds and are ready for the next step. 

We are having lots of fun in our literacy centers.

In this center we roll the dice and read the sight word.  We record it on a piece of paper.  Every time that word is rolled, we put a tally under the word.

 Kids are loving this center.  We brainstormed a list of CVC words. The kids draw an index card off the table.  They say the word slowly and drop a ball into the slots of the plastic dishes for each sound they hear.

Lakeshore has these pretty fun rhyming houses.  The kids love sorting the rhyming words into the correct boxes.

Last week I introduced pin poking sight words to the kids.  They really enjoyed poking the sight words with a pin and then holding their paper up to the window to see their mystery word.  You can find these words HERE.

I just finished a new product that I will be introducing this week.  We are going to be using CVC word work mats in our centers.  There are 5 levels of difficulty,

 Students will put a plastic letter in the box for the missing ending sound that they hear in the word.

 Students will put a plastic letter in the box for the missing middle sound that they hear in the word.

 Students will put a plastic letter in the box for the missing beginning sound that they hear in the words.

 Students will also be able to put plastic letters in the boxes for the beginning, middle, and ending sounds that they hear in the words.

Each set of cards has an I can statement to go with it.

 You can find these HERE.

In addition to the fun centers we are doing, we just wrapped up our Martin Luther King Jr, unit. 

We started the unit by looking at 2 eggs.  We made a list of all the things that we noticed about the egg.  We then drew pictures of what we thought the eggs would look like on the inside.  

 

 We cracked them open and talked about how they were the same on the inside and compared this to our bodies.  We talked about how we are all the same on the inside and that our skin color makes us unique.

I broke open some M & M's and showed them the insides.  We talked about the outside being a different color but inside they were the same and they were just as good!  

 We read these books.  We learned that our skin color makes us unique and that the world would be a pretty boring place if we all looked the same.

 We all put our hands in the middle and looked at all the different shades of skin we have in our class,

We then put some brown paint in a container.  When a kid saw the color of paint that matched their skin, they came to the front of the room.  I painted their hand and made a hand print.    I added white and peach paint until the shade of paint got lighter.  We learned that we all have some brown pigmentation in our skin,  These hand prints will be made into a circle of friendship wreath.

This past week we also did a STEM unit on making ramps.  I gave the kids empty toilet paper rolls.  There job was to make a ramp,  They needed to make their marble go down it faster than anyone else.  It was fun watching them.  At first all the kids were working on their own,  I clarified that they needed ONE ramp per group.  It took a bit for them to figure out that they needed to be working together.  

We lined up all our ramps and had races at the end.  The kids had so much fun.  I loved watching them working together to figure it out.

Finally, I am going to be doing a 14 Days of Love give-away over in my TPT store.  Every day, starting February 1st - February 14th I will be giving away something that I create for free,  :)

The link to my store is HERE.

I hope you have a great week!

Sara