Poetry Week - DAY 2

Acrostic Poetry

Today we explored the wonders of Acrostic poems! This is a great type of poem to introduce to this age group because we are constantly working on breaking down the sounds in letters (distinguishing the beginning, middle, and ending sounds of words). We began our discussion by creating an acrostic poem about JESUS! I love learning about Jesus with my class. :)

Here's our poem!

J oy

E ternal life

S on of God

U nfailing

S avior

After we made our class acrostic, I explained to the class that they would be making acrostic poems all about them using their very own NAMES! This was a difficult, but super rewarding task for my class! It caused them to really dig deep into their creativity and think of not only some words that describe them, or their favorites, but also to match up some of those words with the letters of their names! They came up with some great poems!! To keep the privacy of my students under wraps I won't reveal any of their poems to you, but I can give you some examples of what they included:

• M inions (minions are a MUST for my class this year)
• H elper (I have some awesome helpers in class!)
• E at cheese pizza (this little guy LOVES pizza, and was creative to use multiple words for 1 letter!)
• L ove (a popular choice amongst the girls)

If you are looking to do this with your class, I definitely suggest having it as a small group activity if you are the only adult in the room. I was lucky enough to have an aide helping out, which allowed us to reach each student and help them think of words for their letters. 

Check out this Mother's Day acrostic poem idea from Scholastic!!

Make sure you check back TOMORROW for a post all about the beginning stages of our descriptive creative poems! 

PS: One of my kiddos brought these for a birthday treat the other day, HOW CUTE! I am so thankful there are people in the world with enough talent and patience to make cool things just like this. :)

KEEP SMILING!
xoxo,

Little Miss ABC

Happy Poetry Month!

We are celebrating Poetry Month here in Kindergarten!! I am so excited for what is going to come of this week, these kiddos are so creative! I can't wait to see what they'll produce. 

We had a chalk talk at the beginning of ABC time to discuss that burning question, "What is a poem!?" Check out the cute answers! :) 

I will be doing a quick post each day this week highlighting our adventure through the land of poetry, giving a glimpse into the classroom. Each day we will focus on how poems are written and the specific rules/guidelines for writing the different types of poems. 

TODAY'S POEM: HAIKU

Haiku's are incredibly short, and a great start when teaching kinders about poems! We used the standard syllable rule:

The first line has five (5 syllables)

The second one has seven (7 syllables)

The third, five also (5 syllables) 

(Hey! It's a haiku about haikus!)

We read a few poems from the book (click for link) Guyku (Bob Raczka and Peter H. Reynolds)  to introduce the idea of what haikus can look like. Such a cute GUY poetry book, with some funny ones as well as some thoughtful poems. 

After reading, I introduced the class to their SUPER AWESOME POEM BOOKS!

I made this super cute poem book up, and included blank pages for writing as well as space for drawing pictures. The kiddos will record all of our original poetry in these books. One of my kiddos suggested we take some of our poems and make them into a book! I love this and might just do it for their end of the year gift :)

Finally, we worked together and came up with a cute little haiku which is called Poem Haiku. 

There you have it! Poetry Week Day 1!!! Check back each day this week for updates and more ideas! 

Keep smiling

xoxo,

Little Miss ABC

Signs of Spring FREEBIE!!

Hey lovely followers, Facebook friends, twitter followers, and pinners! Guess what I learned how to do today?

Upload things to my very own Teachers Pay Teachers store! Please check out my new store, and grab yourself a freebie! I created this freebie for my class to use on our Signs of Spring walk tomorrow. My plan is to have them bring out our mini clipboards and a pencil, and each time we find a "sign of spring" they will be invited to write down or draw a picture of that sign.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Miss-Abcs-Trinkets

I love taking seasonal walks to look for the signs of the season with my class. I love how it gives my kinders an authentic learning experience. It's one thing to read that spotting robins hopping around in the grass is a sign of spring, but when you actually SEE the robin hopping around, how cool is that?! 

Thanks for visiting and ENJOY THE FREEBIE!! :) 

Keep smiling!!

xoxo,

Little Miss ABC

Liebster Award Nomination!

Well, that Brittany Brune over at Nifty in First Grade is just the best friend a girl could have! She has nominated me for the Liebster Award!! Pretty fitting that the word "liebster" is a German word meaning such things as "dearest, sweetest, kindest..." because that's what my best friend is!! :) 

The Liebster Award is given to a new blogger with less than 200 followers.

Per the rules of the Liebster Award, Brittany has given me some questions to answer about myself. 

1.  What grade do you teach? What grades have you taught? How long have you been teaching?

I teach Kindergarten, I have taught Pre-k as well as I have worked in daycare and childcare settings. I have been teaching Kindergarten for about 2 years now, but have been teaching in the Early Childhood field for about 4 years. 

2. What book do you read to your class each year without fail? 

If you've read my previous post you'll know the answer to this question already. Any and all of the Piggie and Elephant series by Mo Willems. My kinders love them as read-alouds, but they also love to read them themselves!

3. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be doing? 

If I wasn't a teacher, I would be working in DisneyWorld somewhere. My ultimate dream would be to be a "friend" of a Disney Princess in Disney. To see the happiness of every visitor coming in each day would be so fulfilling. :)

4. What's one thing you're just dying to buy for your classroom?

New bookshelves! I have recently been very inspired by another blogger and her classroom (check out Maria Manore's blog KinderCraze). I am hoping to totally revamp my classroom this summer!! 

5. What's your non-teaching guilty pleasure?

Pretty Little Liars and Once Upon a Time. I am a little bit obsessed with both of these TV shows...Besides some great TV, I just recently bought myself an iPad and I have been spending way too much time playing around with it and figuring out what it can do!

6. Favorite book that is not teaching related?

The HUNGER GAMES series. These books got me back into reading recreationally. I love that the main character is a strong heroine, a great role model for girls today! The story is also incredibly compelling, I couldn't put them down!

7. What's one thing on your bucket list?

Travel around Europe. Hands down, this is the next big trip I will be taking!

8. Favorite restaurant?

The Cheesecake Factory. They have EVERYTHING, fabulous drinks, and tasty cheesecake. I also feel really classy whenever I eat there :)

9. Who would play you in a movie about your life?

Rachel McAdams. I have been told she's my  celebrity doppleganger! And I just love her.

10. What's one thing you could eat everyday?

Mozzerella cheesesticks. Is that weird? I actually eat one of these everyday!

11. What inspired you to begin blogging?

I actually began it to help me get more organized. The best part about this blog (when I actually keep up with it!!!) is that I have an organized, easy to access lesson plan log! While the main purpose now is to share my ideas with other teachers, it is great to be able to look back on what I did this week last year and have it all organized for me, pictures and all!!! 

Along with answering Brittany's questions, she has also asked that I share 11 random facts about myself! Here goes nothing!!

1. I am Disney OBSESSED!!! "It all started with a mouse"

2. I am a Mac user. Apple all the way!!

3. I hate the smell of popcorn.

4. Spring is the best season, and it seems like it will be the SHORTEST season this year!!!

5. When asked what my favorite hobby is, I usually answer with "shopping"

6. I have a puppy (who lives at my parents' house) who is my favorite animal on the planet!!

7. I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC! Especially Miss Miranda Lambert!!

8. I have to sleep with a fan.

9. I knew I was going to be a teacher since the 5th grade. Never changed my occupational aspirations after the 5th grade.

10. Tulips are my favorite flowers!

11. While you'd never guess it from my personality, I absolutely LOVE traveling to Las Vegas! 

There you have it pals! Here are my nominees!!! 

Keep smiling!!

xoxo,

Little Miss ABC

niftyinfirstgrade.blogspot.com

http://therazzledazzleclassroom.blogspot.com

http://oodlesofteachingfun.blogspot.com

http://iluvkinder.blogspot.com

http://kindercutie.blogspot.com

It's MO WILLEMS week!!!

Alright, everyone. This has been MY FAVORITE week thus far! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Mo Willems' books, and think you ALL need to get some in your Kindergarten (Pre-K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade) rooms. Even big kids love these books, so get them NOW! 

We have been reading Mo's series Elephant and Piggie all year, but this week we read "Can I Play Too" as a mentor text and reference text for our activities. 

amazon.com

Tuesday was our Pigeon day. I love that Pigeon, and the kiddos do too. He is so CRAZY! I love how Mo Willems draws and writes the characters emotions in such a melodramatic way. I read "The Pigeon Wants a Hot Dog" to the class, also a great mentor text. We discussed how the words look when Pigeon talks (Mo likes to use speech bubbles for his stories' dialogue) as well as how the words look when he changes emotion (i.e. when he speaks excitedly you see many exclamation points, when he is angry the words are VERY big and different colors). After discussing the different identifying parts of the story, I taught the students how to draw "The Pigeon" 

(check it out here! http://www.pigeonpresents.com/activities/pigeon_draw01.pdf )

After learning how to draw the Pigeon, we made up our own "Don't Let the Pigeon..." stories! Some of my favorites were Don't Let the Pigeon Eat Sushi, and Don't Let the Pigeon Mow the Lawn. 

Here's a picture of Don't Let the Pigeon Ice Skate.   

Today we journaled about our favorite Mo Willems character (lots of my kiddos LOVE the Duckling featured in the Pigeon series). Tomorrow we will be making our own Elephant and Piggie comics! I will be doing a separate post about that activity.

LOOK in my next post for a FREEBIE of my "Don't Let the Pigeon..." story sheet! 

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to follow me on twitter (@littlemissABC), follow my blog via email, and like the Kindergarten Alphabet Soup page on Facebook! 

Keep Smiling! 

xoxo,

Little Miss ABC