Freebie And All That Jazz

One more day until Friday!  One more day until I meet Giada De Laurentiis!!!!  Cheer Cheer!

Now onto the educational fun! 

My students continue to struggle with short vowels.  Ahhhhhh they are almost first graders!!!!  On a surface level they know what the short vowels are and can point and say 'a' says a (zoo phonics) but they have a very hard time taking that knowledge to the next level.  When spelling a cvc word they still get stuck on the vowel sound.  They still get short vowel 'o' mixed up with 'a' etc.  It was time for some intensive yet super fun vowel work.  Hence, Vowel Owl and this entire freebie package was born.  Click on the picture below to head straight to my TPT store and download your freebie!

In the freebie there is this cutie Vowel Owl craftivitiy.  Loved how they turned out!  The students went gaga for these.  After they finished making them they pretended to fly Vowel Owl around the room and "ooooooooooo-ed and ahhhhhhhh-ed" at the Vowel Owls their classmates made.  They were even more excited to lift up each other's feathers to find out the hidden short vowel words hiding underneath. 

In the freebie I made this little story to go along with Short Vowel Owl.  The kids got a kick out of Short Vowel Owl's friends! 

In the freebie there is a recording sheet.  Students took their Short Vowel Owl around the room to classmates and exchanged short vowel words to record on their sheets.  The kids must have spent a solid 15 minutes doing this.  I made the signal to clean up and they GROANED!  THEY GROANED!  I played along.  "Ok, I guuueeeessss we can spend more time with Short Vowel Owl...."   In my head I was thinking YES YES YES!!! They are loving short vowels and getting great practice!  

Farm Animal Jigsaw/Expert Groups/Whatever Ya Wanna Call It!

Back when I taught second grade I loved doing this activity with my students!  In the years that I have taught kinder I have doubted whether I could pull this activity off with success.  This week, with our farm unit winding down, it was the week to make jig saw magic happen!

I knew an anchor chart was going to be critical.  I needed a full prove Jigsaw system with visuals that would speak to kinders. 

Back before spring break students were split into four farm animal groups, hen, pigs, cows, and sheep.  In these groups students made posters (see picture below) They used books and parent volunteers to learn and research interesting information about habitat, food, ways these animals provide for us, and descriptive details about these animals.  This week students got back in to their Expert Groups and reviewed the information they learned and organized this information into a graphic organizer (the graphic organizer can be found in my farm unit on TPT)

If you scroll back up to the anchor chart, you will see that expert groups are symbolized with a light bulb!  As soon as students got into their groups I hear a few start using the word experts.  One student even said to another that was distracting him..."Shhhhh I am trying to be a cow EXPERT!"  Expert groups record one or two facts in each section of their graphic organizer.  For students in the beginning stages of writing I differentiated and had them draw symbols.  Once the graphic organizers were filled in, I gathered all students back to the carpet to check in with the anchor chart.  We had completed steps 1, 2, and 3 and were now on step 4! I redistributed students to form cooperative groups.  There were one or two experts from each animal in these new groups.

This is when the MAGIC that is a Jigsaw really came to life with my little kinders!  Each expert had a turn sharing with the rest of the group facts from their graphic organizer about their animal.  The other students used the back of their folded graphic organizer to take notes or draw a symbol.  The experts were BEAMING!!!! They had the power.  They were in charge!  They were the teacher!  For some students who struggle with academic confidence this was their time to shine and they did.  Beaming from ear to ear they were successful.  They had a nugget of wisdom their classmates needed.  I was also impressed with the note taking.  Yes, some of the information was very obvious like cows have 4 legs, but the rest of the group needed to practice listening to a peer, and quickly jotting down a quick note.  My little kinders looked so grown up and I was amazed that for a first time try; they GOT IT!  

When all experts had a chance to share, we met back on the carpet for one last debrief.  We went through our Anchor Chart again and this time we reached number 5!  We stood up and did a YAY We Are Experts On 4 Farm Animals Dance!!!! We talked about a puzzle and how each of us had a piece, but together we were able to put the pieces together and learn even MORE information!  I had a little kinder cutie come up to me at recess and ask when we were doing Jigsaw again. I said I wasn't sure and she responded that she wanted to be more of an expert than her brother.  LOVE IT!!!! 

 Bubble Gum Graphing Bonanza!!!

I wish I could take credit for this next graphing activity but alas it is the creative works of Mrs. Lee.   She is always filled with such great ideas!!!!  Such an inspiration!

One last picture of a few of our other graphs during the Graphing Unit. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog on this fine Thursday evening.  I hope you all have a fantastic Friday!    Giada book signing here I COME!!!!