Sweet Kinders: Day 2!

Day 2 at I Teach K! has come to a close and man is my brain spinning with fabulous ideas! I spotted some of my favorite bloggers and it was like seeing a celebrity...yes I am a dork!

Again, I am going to recap my most favorite ideas from the day.

Morning Session 1: Differentiating Centers: Let the Common Core be your Guide with Kathy Griffin

First of all Kathy is a wonderful presenter. She has real life experience at home and at school.

I use the Daily 5 in my classroom. I am thinking of tweaking it and making it my own this year.

I want to do:

1. Read to Self or Someone (combining)
2. Work on Writing
3. Word Work
4. Listen to Reading
5. Research

Research would be the new addition. Common Core has really stepped up the game in nonfiction texts. At my school we do so many thematic non-fiction units that this can be easily done!

Look at the picture- The ideas are awesome! Who doesn't have nonfiction books and what kid does not love them?

Morning Session 2: Teaching Behavior & Social Skills: Let's Start at the VERY Beginning with Dan St. Romain

I had the pleasure to meet Dan at dinner on night 1 and we had awesome conversations, thus needless to say I was excited to see him present. At the session he was lively, entertaining, and had a fun sense of humor.

He said something that really stuck with me...

"Social skills need to be taught. You penalize a kid (move their clip down, time out, less recess) when they do not accurately interact socially. Would you do the same with a student who didn't know their ABC's. NO, of course not. We practice, re-teach, re-teach, and re-teach."

Afternoon Session: A-B-C, Come and Learn with Me! with Kathleen Pedersen

A blogger celebrity to me is Kathleen Pedersen from Growing Kinders (link above) and I was just elated to get to hear her present and meet her! She was lovely- we even talked about my sweet baby and starting the year with my class.

It is my goal this year to play a quick and easy reading game/song before our small group reading time. This will get kids moving and practicing an essential skill.

I got so many good ideas, here goes:

Hungry Hippo & Crocodile

Letter, sound, word munchers. Use an old Cascade dishwasher packet container, cover with foam and some decor and viola- a muncher!

Ice Cream Game

You can practice naming the letter or taking it further...letter sounds. Make brown construction paper pockets and affix a letter sticker to each pocket. Then get 26 popsicle sticks and put a star on 1 or 2 of the sticks. Slide the sticks inside the ice cream pockets. Have each child say the letter/sound and whoever gets the star wins!

Big Old Shark

Another way to practice letter recognition, sounds, beginning sounds, ect. The shark clip art is affixed to a blue gift bag...the shark gets to chomp the letter card.