Chalk Talk: A Kindergarten Blog

[...] I recently had a teacher comment on a blog post and ask several questions about interactive writing, so I decided to address them in a post. It takes an extensive amount of teacher modeling [...]

[...] demonstration and participation and by trying it out for themselves. Shared and interactive writing, with the whole class or in a small group, allow young children to participate in the [...]

[...] books with lessons in all content areas) 2) Write (take dictation from students, shared and interactive writing, use interactive writing to write simple sentences about student's lives, have students [...]

[...] kids. When we got to their character they placed it in the center of the carpet. We used interactive writing to write the things the animals brought with them as we retold the story. All of my kids [...]

[...] I taught each day came from Kim Adsit's Powerful Partnerships unit.  We created this anchor chart throughout the week as we practiced reading with a partner. This anchor chart is in Kim's unit. [...]

[...] we moved the real objects to a pictorial representation. We started by referring back to the anchor chart we made earlier in the week. This anchor chart came from Kim Adsit's Graph It! unit. First we [...]

[...] with a lesson on doubles. You can download my recording sheet for free here. We created an anchor chart together as we made doubles using unifix cubes. You can get the anchor chart here. We made [...]

[...] to show the definition of soil  We learned why soil is so important to us. We created an anchor chart to help us remember.  We really focused our learning on how soil is useful to use every [...]

[...] fun surprise when I found it a few days ago. My kids loved it!  We retold the story using picture cards of the animals in the book. I placed them out in a row in the middle of the carpet. Then I [...]

[...] ... a happy turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.  My student's sequenced the story using picture cards and then retold the story with their elbow partner. This one was my favorite!! ( [...]

[...] characters and settings because that seems to be a little easier to do. I placed all of the picture cards at the top of the paper so that we could look at them to help us. We have also learned to go [...]

[...] Claus Freebie.  We reread 10 Trim-the-Tree'ers today. Then we retold the story using picture cards, numbers, and five frames. You can get the 10 Trim-the-Tree picture cards and numbers here.& [...]

[...] kindly agreed to share her potion bottles with everyone, so click here to download them from Google Docs. Thanks Shelly :) You can click here to download the sentence starter too.  [...]

[...] at sources of water, and comparing salty and fresh water as the week goes on. You can go to Google Docs and download the words and pictures for the water properties anchor chart and Venn Diagram here. [...]

[...] of the things we did. You can download the pictures and words for the sort and circle map from google docs here. We read What Will the Weather Be? Then we made a circle map to show the different types [...]

[...] me (back in 1996!!) and I am still using it all these years later. You can download a copy from Google Docs here. [...]

[...] letters are included in them, a difference in age, varying rates of development in fine motor skills, and even a varied interest in writing. One way to address this challenge with [...]

[...] and moving to songs that help little ones learn to form the letters and strengthen their fine motor skills. One of my favorite songs that Debbie shared was her book Red, White, and Blue. This song [...]

[...] will fall on the floor of the box rather than the floor of the classroom) Post: Fine Motor Skills: Scissor Skills from Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes Teaching Tips Listen carefully when [...]

[...] handwriting, provide them with center and small group activities that will strengthen their fine motor skills. Some examples include: working with play doh, stacking small objects, lacing beads, using [...]

[...] also made two sets and compared them to see which number was greater.  I enlarged Kim's recording sheet so we could fill it in as a whole group. For each set of buckets we made, we determined how [...]

[...] to date her." You can download the pattern for the fox from Google Docs here and the recording sheet here.  [...]

[...] about fractions. We read Eating Fractions and made our own foods to share. To download the recording sheet for free from Google Docs click here. [...]

[...] Here are the instructions and recording sheet for the pigeons we made. You can download the recording sheet from TPT for free here. [...]

[...] This week we are learning about procedural text. Today we read How to Teach a Slug to Read. This book is perfect for teaching little ones [...]

[...] a web describing the moon and wrote facts about the moon. We also made a moon snack using procedural text. Our curriculum called for students to use picture (procedural) directions to create a [...]

[...] 's day itself, but rather I used the unit for a study on hibernation, informational text, procedural text, weather, and nonfiction text features.  We read several books about hibernation and the [...]

[...] Classroom management is the key to being an effective teacher, to achieving student success, and to setting up [...]

[...] post about this week. As I considered my options, the one theme I kept coming back to was classroom management and dealing with behavior issues. There are so many topics that can be addressed under [...]

[...] several days at the NAEYC conference. I attended several sessions on behavior and classroom management. I think many of us would agree that this is an area where we can always use help, [...]

[...] is what we have done so far. We started our week by making the graphing anchor chart from Kim Adsit's Graph It! unit. I love Kim's anchor charts! They really help to give my students a [...]

[...] for talking about patterns in books and how they help us as readers. This anchor chart came from Kim Adsit's Discovering Patterns unit. We read the book and talked about it had both a growing and a [...]

[...] .   This week we started work on read to someone. The lessons I taught each day came from Kim Adsit's Powerful Partnerships unit.  We created this anchor chart throughout the week as we [...]

[...] back to the anchor chart we made earlier in the week. This anchor chart came from Kim Adsit's Graph It! unit. First we posed a question. I asked my students what kind of ball they [...]