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This week in 1st grade, we learned a bit about melodic contour! We started by listening to some simple melodies played on the piano. First I played melodies that only went up or down and had students point towards the ceiling or the ground to indicate direction. Then I played melodies that went up and […]
Are you ready for the first week of school? Last year I shared my ELA and Math Plans, and I made a few updates, so I wanted to share them again! You can click on the pictures below to download them
Names games for elementary music. Steady beat activities for music class.
I wanted to stop by today and share some a few of my “go-to” activities during the first week of school to build our classroom community and set expectations for […]
We are entering our third week of Ambleside Online Year 1 and already we are reaping the benefits of the generous curriculum inspired by Charlotte Mason. This is our first year where I would consider our homeschool inspired by Miss Mason in most of our subjects (no CM police, here!). In this post I will share a recap of the first couple weeks into our Year 1 homeschool, and breakdown our homeschool rhythm with some detail.
The Yellow Brick Road Blog is a website dedicated to providing music teachers with fun education resources for serious music literacy.
K12Reader offers parents and teachers free spelling words curriculum for 1st through 5th grade. This teacher-developed curriculum can help students develop
A few weeks ago, sweet Julie over at Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten wrote this great little post about Peacemakers & Peacebreakers. Immediately, I was smitten…absolutely IN.LOVE with her idea. In our Social Studies curriculum for the first few weeks of school, we’re supposed to teach the littles about rules, people who make rules, consequences, etc. Julie’s …
We decided on a curriculum change. Lily was getting bored with MFW. She didn't like that the worksheets were the same every week. She...
Use the correct positional word to describe the position of the bee in this preschool positional word worksheet.
This is one of my favorite weeks. I just love spring and teaching my students about new things. It's certainly been a busy one! So far, w...
Since the middle of February while were creating our dragon project, I started to notice something. The kids were taking the logs out of our building area and creating "bands" with them as drum sets. Kids were making shaker's at the maker's space, two friends brought three sizes of clay to me and wanted to show the class how when they thumped them each size made a different sound. Another friend took a plastic bottle wrapper off the bottle and pulled on both ends sharply and showing us the snapping sound it made. I was hoping to avoid it this year, but somehow, every year, kids start exploring sound! So....guess what our next large scale inquiry is: Sound! I set out some areas for them to explore first. Then we will let them wonder. I set out glasses for them to compose their own music and perform for the class. I had planned on it being an exploration of pitch, but they noticed something else instead. At first the compositions were very random, then one friend colored an AB pattern and played it. It sparked a discussion on how there could be patterns in sound and also defined "rhythm" as their patterns became more complex. After they were done with this area, I set out these materials to see what they noticed about sound. We discovered that the more water that was in the bowls, the lower the pitch and the less water the higher the pitch! For our Engineers, I put out materials for them to create instruments and show what you have to do to get it it to produce sound. They created instruments that produced sound through shaking, striking, rubbing and strumming. For our artists, I set out pictures of instruments for them to look closer and then draw its outline with a sharpie and creatively paint it with watercolors. We also looked at Picasso's Blue Guitar painting, then hung it at our easel to inspire artists to create their own. As they explored, two main things came up in our wonders which became our driving questions. How is sound made? When does sound become music? We learned that sound is caused by vibrations and that the sound waves travel through the air to our ears. But something had to happen to make the vibrations start? The kids through exploring came to the conclusion that sound is made by striking, shaking, blowing, rubbing, strumming and plucking. We made instruments to model the different ways to make sound. To show that sound can be made by shaking, we made maracas. To explore the concept of pitch, we provided different fillings for maracas: Sand (not pictured), rice and two different sizes of beans, then we compared them. We also used these as guiros to show show that sound can be made by rubbing. They just ran a craft stick over the ridges of the bottle. To show that sound can be made by blowing, we made harmonicas! The first time we tried them they didn't work. I realized that we needed thicker rubber bands to create the sound. They could tell the rubber bands were vibrating as they produced sound. They were very loud! The kids loved them! To show that sound can be made by strumming or plucking, we made cup guitars! They have a great rich sound when you put them by your ear and pluck them as the sound is amplified by the cup! We used three different sized rubber bands to create different pitches. The kids could really see the vibrations with these. They could also feel the vibrations on their hands. To show that sound can be made by banging, we made drums! To organize our data, we created a web map showing the different ways to make sound and the instruments that are used for each one. To explore when sound becomes music, I showed them videos of a group called STOMP. They use random objects to create different rhythms with different pitches. Look them up on YouTube! They are amazing and the kids loved watching them. They were inspired and created their own STOMP inspired groups using random objects we could find in our room and our closet! You can see some videos of these on my Instagram account at darlamyersclass. Through STOMP we realized that when sound has a pattern it gives it rhythm, and when sound has different pitches added to the rhythm it creates music! After all of our exploring and investigating, we wrote informational books about sound to show what they learned. The kids really loved exploring the science of sound! Another thing going on in our room is a Mo Willems author study. These little friends have been in our reading area all year long. The kids didn't think they were really anything special until... we read one of his Elephant and Piggy books. The kids have really enjoyed listening to and reading his Elephant and Piggy books. They have been very inspired by him in Writer's Workshop and many Elephant and Piggy stories have been written by them. They decided that they wanted to turn our dramatic play area into an Elephant and Piggy Workshop where they could read and write stories about them! Now these stuffed animals are extra special to them! Here is our finished area! They made a sign: This area has been very popular! A lot of reading and writing skills are being practiced here! I am sure as we read his pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books, they will be inspired to write stories about them in this area also! We brought out our collaborative canvas again! It just didn't seem finished yet! I poured some paint on it and the kids used large craft sticks to scrape the paint across the canvas. They loved this process! I think next we will start adding some texture and three dimensional aspects to it! Here is a clue as to what we are going to discover next! It fits in this box!
Informational writinand expository writing in second grade is all about animals. We go in depth with gathering facts, sorting the facts, and writing.
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein is a great read aloud for a kindergarten / early learning class. Extend the reading by making handprint interrupting chickens.
Hello and welcome to Kindergarten Chaos, my online classroom and your new online professional development from a passionate teacher! I’m Abigail and am so happy that you are here! I am a wife of 22 years to my ultra-supportive husband, as well as Mama to my 3 kids, ages 19, 13, & 11! I previously […]
Click here to download this fun resource for your first day!!!
Are you looking for back to school activities centers and games to welcome students back to school during the first few weeks of kindergarten? Then, you will love the activities included in our Back to School, First Week of School Unit. Help students feel at home with "get to know your classroom and school" scavenger hunts and room searches. Provide opportunities to share about their family and self as well and get to know new friends with large and small group centers and activities. Introduce friendship rules and routines with a variety of activities and reproducible books. Keep your centers full of fun and engaging materials that review numbers, shapes, letters and writing for beginners with tons of printables. Activities included in this unit will be a fun addition to your new school year.
Are you like me and busy checking Instagram and Pinterest for Back to School ideas? Even though I have been teaching for many years, I get bored doing the same thing year after year. Pl…
Are you ready for back to school? I am! Actually, we already had our first day of school and we are just about in full swing. It was a great first 3 days of school and I know next week will be even better as we begin to build some routines. Here are a few of my favorite things from the first day. You are "of-fish-ally" in kindergarten! I had a spot ready for every student with a water bottle (super important!), gold fish, coloring page, and this year I added a little pencil box with manipulatives inside. It went great! I was able to answer parent questions, calm nervous kiddos, and keep everyone in their seat while we got our bearings in the first 15 minutes. Everyone enjoyed coloring this page from Creative Lesson Cafe and I am keeping it for their portfolios. Oh, they enjoyed the snack too! You can get the labels for free HERE! Morning Meeting I wanted to start the first day off right with a morning meeting so I could get that routine rolling. I liked adding this question to the end of our morning message. We read First Day Jitters first to show that even teachers can feel nervous on the first day. Most of my kiddos said they were happy or excited but a few were honest and said they were sad or nervous. We only had 2 cryer's this year, so most of them really were just happy or excited! First Day Name Project This is my FAVORITE back to school project! My mentor teacher showed me this about 12 years ago when I first started kindergarten and I still love it every year! This was the first year I got to actually take part because (long story) I've shared 2 half day classes with another teacher and she always did this with them but I got to enjoy the fruits of her labor. We went full day this year (no more sharing two groups) so I got to do it this year! It wasn't as easy as I remember! I blame it on a clogged glue bottle but the instructions are pretty simple: Trace each child's name on black or white paper in pencil. Prepare small pieces of rainbow construction paper. Trace the first letter of each child's name with glue and give them a red piece of construction paper. Students tear tiny pieces to cover the glue. When students finish their letter I have them raise their hand (good teaching moment on the first day) and I come by and trace the next letter with glue and give them the next color (orange, yellow, green, blue...) Have some bins with manipulatives ready for them to use if they finish fast! I love the result! We hang these in the hallway and they stay there all year. We usually do white paper but went with black this year. I love how they turned out! I have this activity and so many more all wrapped up in one happy package HERE in this Surviving Kindergarten post. Ok, last but certainly not least...I got this cute "Happy First Day" treat from one of my sweeties. It was SO GOOD at about 3:30 after the first day of school when I was totally exhausted and totally forgot I was on a diet. Oh well....every delicious calorie was worth it! What are your favorite activities to do on the first day? There are so many options! Our first day went great, I hope yours does too! Here are all of our favorite Back to School Rules and Procedures to introduce in the first few days! And some FREEBIE labels too! Save this post for later!
Back to school activity, crowns, first day of school, happy 1st day of school, free download, preschool teacher,
The portfolio papers mentioned in this blog post here (freebies!) are a big part of my routine, so if you plan to do this, you will need ...
Are you looking for ways to have FUN during meet the teacher night at school? Check out these tips and tricks for the best night ever!
This blog post is full of ideas for the First Week of Kindergarten. Includes book suggestions, activities, and links to accompanying ideas.
During the first week of first grade, it's important to plan engaging and fun activities to build community and relationships with your students.
Encourage confidence & determination in your elementary students with these growth mindset activities using the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.
Here's a list of ten must-do activities for the first day of school for kindergarten that any first year or veteran teacher would want to know.
First week of school activities for kindergarten & 1st grade students including First Day Jitters, school bus safety, & friendship activities.
It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s
It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s
This free Back to School Name Game for Pre-K and Kindergarten is a fun, hands-on way for students to practice spelling their names!
These are some of our favorite first day of school traditions.
This week in 1st grade, we learned a bit about melodic contour! We started by listening to some simple melodies played on the piano. First I played melodies that only went up or down and had students point towards the ceiling or the ground to indicate direction. Then I played melodies that went up and […]
First week of school activities for kindergarten & 1st grade students including First Day Jitters, school bus safety, & friendship activities.
This is a great activity to do on the first day of school! It takes a little prep at home, but it’s worth it! I just finished making this, because tomorrow is the first day of school for me! …
These first week of preschool activities and printable forms are sure to ease first day jitters for everyone and aide in classroom management.
