Kindergarten How To's

We just finished our unit of study on Procedural writing.  I used this first template A Book Of How To's  to have students draw illustrations for a How To IDEA. You can see some Ideas below.

The longer I teach, the simpler I am making my bulletin boards. 

The child fills in their How To Topic samples below
click here

How To Decorate a Christmas tree

 How To Jump in the pool

How To  Make a snow girl

How To  Read a book

How To  Make  A Jack O Lantern

How to Be a Teacher

How To Be a Princess

click here for How To Paper

My class wrote about three/four How To's each. We used the checklist below when we were ready to publish.

click here for READY to PUBLISH sheet

Math Story Problems

This year one of my goals has been to pose more problems with my kindergartens. It's difficult to get it all in when there is so much to teach! I was inspired by the book Math Exchanges by Kassia Wedekind to carve out some time to meet with small groups of students and pose some problems. I think this book paints a picture of how it can look in your classroom.

Snow Problems

It has been snowing where I live! We read the beautiful book the READER, and it lead to some sled problems. The Reader is a wonderful book.

 It has nothing to do with math, but it is the perfect book to read on a snowy day.  When I do make story problems, I use the names of students in my class. After a few weeks of snow problems, I will have students create their own.

Step One: I will read the problem

Step Two: The child will retell the math problem. I know in kindergarten kids have a difficult time retelling the problem many want to shout out the answer.
If a child struggles with this, I will help retell with them.

Step Three: When solving problems I make sure I have many tools at the table.
A bucket of cubes, a ten frames, a number line, hundredth chart, and pencils, etc.

Step Four: Share the different ways we solved the problem.

The following are some winter theme problems.

Click here for

Snow problems

Pattern Problems
These are some story problems we worked on during our pattern unit.

I love the idea of leaving a blank for the number! That way kids can be working at a just right level for them.  It also discourages children from getting the answer from their neighbor. The idea of leaving the blank comes from Math Exchanges.

Quick Sheet 

click here for the

Pattern Problems

Happy Math!

Procedural Writing In KC

The unit of study, we have been focusing on, is Procedural Writing.

I recently purchased the Tony Stead and Linda Hoyt's writing book called Explorations in Nonfiction Writing grade K. This was an expensive book, but it also comes with a big book full of mentor text for the lessons.

 I love everything about this book. If you are looking for a way to meet the Common Core standards, this is the book for you!  A special thanks to my friend Genie, who encouraged me to buy this book! Thanks, Genie!

The beginning units focused on map making

(oops..straight!)

There were many different lessons leading up to the student making their final map. Some of the maps were class projects and some individual projects.  

I loved that these lessons involved lots of reading. The students had to double check, read to a friend go in the hallway and see if their map would lead them in the right directions. 

In the past, I would often start procedural writing with How To Stories and the kids often picked topics that they weren't necessarily going to try out right then and there. 

These map making lessons helped the students learn first hand about revision and editing.  The lessons were challenging. As a class, we walked the routes they were taking many times. 

What to Do At Dismissal Time? 

Pattern Books

This post will share with you little Pattern Books I make for my class.

Why?
 I use these booklets as an assessment tool that I use to see what students have learned about patterns. You can take pages in and pull pages out to meet the needs of your students.

The unit part is very tricky for kindergartners to get. 
In our math program, the students do record patterns and break them into groups. 

A one/ two pattern is like a hopscotch board. 
The design is not based on color.

Most kids will do this page with the size of the buttons or the color.  I have had a few kids record the size, color and holes.

Some children will make a number pattern that is repeating numbers for example 121212 but, there will be some kids who will get that they can record a pattern by skip counting  10, 20, 30, 40 or 5, 10, 15, 20

 optional page

click here for pattern books