K-1st Grade Language Arts Times

Publisher: Mrs. Fitzgerald    Issue No. 4    Date: June 6, 2005                    

Monthly Themes:   Grade 1: Rodeo, Bunnies/Eggs/Chicks, Rainforest, Birds, Plants, Pond, Planets

                                 Grade K: Rhyming, Bunnies/Eggs/Chicks, Zoo, Animal Homes, Birds, Plants, Pond, Circus

                         Centers                                                     

• Played with play dough and a variety of spring and animal cutters

• Jumped on the trampoline and sight words 

• Made tactile letters:- Newspaper N, Yellow Yarn Y, Rainbow Ribbon R, Easter Egg E, Umbrella U, Kicking K and Orange Octopus O to finish up our letter of the week activity

• Played zoo animals shaving cream

• Worked on letter formation and our take-home book for "Nn", "Yy", "Rr", "Ee", "Uu", "Kk" and "Oo" 

• Completed math workbook practice sheets focusing on  position concepts, time, money, beginning addition/subtraction and measurement

• Played rhyming bingo

• Made a jumping leprechaun puppet

• Completed listening sheets following a variety directions related to the week

• Played zoo memory match

• Bird watercolor painting

• Made a Book about Birds

• Played flower games focusing on rhyming, sequencing and counting

• Made a variety of pond creatures to create a beautiful bulletin board 

• Played a variety of circus games involving clowns and circus animals

• Made a Circus booklet about things we see at the circus

March/April/May Language Groups             

Kindergarten: 

• Practiced synthesizing information to solve riddles and guess the zoo animal;

• Followed directions to make beautiful spring basket windsocks, bird mobiles and "natural nests";

• Practiced descriptive language playing a barrier game to describe an egg to a partner;

• Practiced the phonemic awareness skills of sentence segmentation, sound segmentation, blending sounds into words, rhyming, and identifying sounds heard in the beginning and ends of words;

• Practiced synthesizing information to solve riddles in a game called, "Plunk's Pond";

• Enhanced our listening skills by using a checklist to check off animals we "saw" at the zoo while listening to a story;

• Used information cards to complete a "Zoo Field Trip" writing task; and

• Categorized animals that live above and below the ground.

First Grade

• Followed directions practicing concepts such as, some/not many, almost, empty, together, separated, and equal;
• Participated in an egg hunt and created a graph of our results;
• Followed directions to make a jaguar paper craft;
• Worked with great diligence and care to make a "Birds Around the World" booklet, learning lots of unusual facts that we didn't know before;
• During plant week, we learned new vocabulary such as pollination, nectar, and the roll insects play in this process;
• During pond week, we compared frogs and toads (similarities and differences) and learned how to discriminate fact vs. opinion;
• Learned new and interesting facts about beavers and created a booklet to write our new facts;
• Practiced our logical thinking and sequencing skills to place rabbits in the correct order; and
• Mrs. F and Ms. Lee worked together with the students to write new facts about rainforest animals each day, completing a book entitled, "A Week in the Rainforest"

March/April/May Motor Groups

Kindergarten:

• For "Y" week we encouraged fine motor coordination and motor planning skill (rhythm, timing and sequencing movement) by cutting out yellow "bricks" (rectangles) traced on paper; then we made a "yellow brick road" obstacle course to follow along while riding on the scooterboards.  Visual motor planning skill was encouraged by coloring sections of a "mixed up" Yo Yo Yak puzzle, then cutting, assembling and gluing the puzzle in the correct position/sequence on yellow paper.  
• For "Y" week we also encouraged visual motor coordination/visual tracking skill by hitting a suspended yellow ball with our hands (one hand or two hands together) or with a light plastic racket.  To increase kinesthetic awareness and letter formation skill, the children took turns writing a letter in the "sky" for their partner to identify, then each child wrote a word with a yellow marker on a dry erase board that began with their "sky letter".  
• For St. Patrick's day, we set up a balance beam "bridge", practiced crossing the bridge forward, backward and sideward; to encourage fine motor coordination and visual perceptual/figure ground discrimination skill we found "hidden pictures" in a St. Patrick's Day design to color in.
• For "bunny" week we practiced "hopping" on the "hoppity hop" balls around cones set up in the room and completed the "Rabbit's Garden" hidden picture design.  
• We "saved the animals" for "Zoo Week": rode on the bolster swing, reached down for small plastic animals (with rubber bands wrapped around them) while maintaining balance, then untied the animals (increase fine motor coordination and in-hand manipulation).
• To increase visual perceptual skill we located small "hidden letters" inside a zoo puzzle with magnifying glasses, then practiced letter formation by writing those letters.  
• For animal week we played "barrel catch" by pushing a friend riding in the barrel back and forth and then colored in animals hiding in "hidden picture" designs.  
• We took turns riding on scooterboards through the "rainforest" and collected puzzle pieces needed to complete and assemble a rainforest puzzle.
• During "bird" week we "flew" on the bolster swing to rescue Big Bird's eggs by using tongs to pick up the eggs and return them to Big Bird's nest;  when we "hatched" the eggs, there were letters inside to practice writing on the dry erase boards; each student thought of a word to sound out and write that began with their letters.
• For "pond" week we rode the platform swing to encourage balance, postural control/stability and arm/hand strengthening while "fishing" for "letter fish";  we then had to find a picture of something that began with that letter from a group of cards and lace the letters to spell the word on the back of the card to strengthen fine motor/visual motor planning skill.
• We also used "reachers" while riding on our "boat" (platform swing) in the "pond" to catch frogs and fish to strengthen fine motor skill while also maintaining balance;  the children had to find differences between two pond "What's the Diff?" pictures to encourage visual discrimination skill.
• For "circus" week we were "acrobats" and rolled or somersaulted down the large wedge mat, then chose a scarf to toss and catch while crossing the balance beam to increase eye-hand coordination and balance/postural control; we then chose a picture of an "acrobat" to copy with small magnetic pieces to facilitate visual motor planning.
• We also rode the "circus train" for another motor group to the "three ring circus" and tried walking on stilts, juggling balls/rings and catching small balls with scoops.

 First Grade:

• For "rodeo week" we rode the bolster swing to encourage balance, postural control/stability and arm/hand strengthening while reaching down to pick up designated rodeo related compound words; we then lay down on stomachs on the therapy mat (increase strength/postural control) to locate the compound words in a word search puzzle (visual tracking, visual motor planning and grading movement to size letters).
• During "rainforest" week we rode scooterboards through the "rainforest" to locate puzzle pieces which we assembled into a rainforest;  we pretended to ride a raft down the "river" and complete the "Amazing Mazer" maze along the "Zoomtongo River".  
• We rode the bolster swing during "bird week" and pretended to be birds flying to find the eggs missing from Big Bird's nest; we used tongs to pick up the eggs and return them to the nest; when the eggs were "hatched" there were spelling words inside which we practiced by writing on the dry erase boards;  we also solved the "Who Is This Bird" word puzzle by "adding" and "subtracting" different words on the chalkboard to end up with a three letter word that spelled a bird's name.  
• For "pond" week we rode the platform swing "boat" and used reachers to catch frogs and fish while maintaining balance and increasing fine motor strength/coordination;  the children completed a "pond" activity which required looking up at a pond picture and then finding where the missing pieces needed to be placed in the incomplete pond design in front of them to make the identical picture.  We also caught fish with scrambled spelling words written on them, then unscrambled the words and wrote them correctly on dry erase boards.
• For "space" week we rode the "rocket ship" swing and took turns being the navigator to give directions to turn left, right, forwards, backwards and side to side;  each child took a turn squeezing mini-rockets to launch small "shuttles" to a picture of a planet of their choice to encourage hand strength and eye-hand coordination skill. 

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