Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

I've found the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks to be very difficult to quickly navigate. It has always frustrated me that I have to download each framework individually, and often the frameworks are broken up in the document by subject rather than grade level.

So I put all of the Massachusetts Kindergarten Curriculum Frameworks into one easy-to-use document! It is easier to print out, make notes on, and keep track of which frameworks you have hit and which you have not. You can even put check marks next to the ones that you think your class has mastered.

It put it on teacherspayteachers for free. Here it is!

(Preview Page)

Simon Says Math Game

I have to do some assessments before report cards, so I decided to make a fun way to figure some things out!

Inequalities

I've started teaching all the math lessons in my first grade, and last week I needed to introduce inequalities. Yikes! I remember being very confused when I learned about inequalities when I was younger, and my teacher I work with is still confused to this day! So I wanted to make sure I presented the information in a very clear way.

We use the enVision math program, and in the program it only spent one day on inequalities and it jumped right into using two-digit numbers. So I put in an extra day in order to introduce the concepts in a more in-depth way.

I started by telling my first graders that we would be talking about something called "inequalities," and I asked them what the words "greater than" and "less than" meant. Then, I showed them this inequality alligator I made. It moves so that I can make it show greater than, less than, or equal to. Plus I laminated it so that I can write the numbers on each side with a dry-erase marker. I had a group of 5 students and a group of 2 students come up and stand on either side of the alligator mouth. Then we talked about which way the sign should go. We talked about how we always have to read our number sentence left to right, just like how we read a book. We did a bunch of examples together as a class.

After, I had more examples on the smart board that we worked on together. Finally, my students filled out this worksheet on their own.

I have several students who are significantly behind in math, and even my students who really struggle got all or almost all the answers correct! It was one of the best math lessons we've had in a while, and I could tell my students were really proud of themselves for understanding it so well.

Counting by 10s!

Today was my last day student teaching in kindergarten. I was so lucky to have such an amazing cooperating practitioner as a model of good teaching. I'm really going to miss that class :(
Off to first grade next week!


Last week I taught a lesson about counting by tens that my students really enjoyed.
We started by listening to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn691ALuywg&feature=related I cut it though so that it only played the chorus twice and it didn't say "multiples of ten." After singing it once, we stood up and did hand motions. We started with our hands by our feet and slowly moved up with every number until our hands were all the way up for 100. They loved it and wanted to sing it over and over. 


Then I had my students pair up and play a game where they lined up the numbers 10-100 (multipes of 10 only) in order. Then one would close their eyes and the other student would flip a card over. Then their partner had to guess which was missing!


To end, we played "Pop!" We all stood in a circle and counted by 10s. Whoever got "100" had to jump up, yell "pop," and sit down. Whoever was the last person standing won!


Here's a link to the full lesson plan: http://www.scribd.com/doc/85689502

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

For one of my workboard centers children will be sorting red, blue, and red with blue fish into a venn diagram. I wanted to share the worksheet I made!
I made it in black and white since I don't have access to a free colored printer, and I am going to just color everything in with crayon probably! I'm also going to color over the words "red" and "blue" in those colors, and I will color the two circles with the corresponding color.

I uploaded the worksheet to scribed. I hope this works! Venn Diagram

How long were the dinosaurs?

While I'm posting about my dinosaur unit, I might as well share this too!

In my previous post, I mentioned that I did a short dinosaur unit two summers ago with 3 and 4 year olds. At the time I was really trying to figure out good math activities to do that were fun (as it was the summer program) as well as educational. Here's what I came up with:

I decided that it may interest my students to see how long a dinosaur was. And what is every child's favorite dinosaur? A t-rex, of course! So, I researched how long a t-rex was (note: dinosaurs are not measured by their height because they walked hunched over: they are measured from head to tail) and discovered they were up to 40 feet long.

My classroom was not 40 feet long, so I decided to do my lesson out on the playground. I used a long extension cord and measured forty feet with my students (with a tape measure), stretching it out across the playground. Then I used some receipt paper (that came in a large roll) and used it to measure the heights of my students as well as myself. They loved being measured and then being able to hold the piece of paper that was the same size they were. We placed all of our paper heights on top of the extension cord one next to the other and found that all of our combined heights did not even come close to the length of the t-rex.

There were mixed reactions to this activity. My four year olds LOVED it. They were all really interested in dinosaurs and thought it was sooo cool that our heights didn't reach the end of the dinosaur height. My three year olds were not so thrilled. They were too distracted by the fact that we were on the playground, and they didn't really care about their height. So, I would definitely do this again with ages four and up. With younger students, the teacher mostly does all the work, but with older students, they can do the measuring and comparing. I would say this activity could go up to third or fourth grade and still keep the interests of students. If you do not have enough space to do a forty foot dinosaur, you can measure feet compared to a dinosaur foot instead.

Happy Measuring!

Graphs

I'm posting way more than I'm actually going to because it's vacation and because I have lots of old things I want to talk about! But generally there is no way I will post this much.

One thing I would like to implement in my classroom everyday is the use of graphs (even in preschool!). As a part of the morning routine, I want students enter the classroom, read or be told what the daily question is, and then mark their answer on whatever type of graph I am using that day. Let's say I am using a bar graph. You can buy a good bar graph here (graph) or you can make your own. I made a reusable bar graph two summers ago by drawing lines on a poster board, covering it with contact paper, and adding pieces of velcro so that students could stick a colored piece of paper (laminated and with velcro on the back) with their answer to the graph's question.

Here is an example: In a preschool class of 3 and 4 year olds, I made a graph titled "Would a dinosaur make a good pet?" to go along with our dinosaur unit. I velcro-ed the title of the graph to the top of my homemade graph and put the words "yes" in green and "no" in red on the x-axis (the bottom of the graph). Then students could choose either a green piece or a red piece to velcro to the graph to mark their opinion. When students had all put their vote on the graph, we talked about why they voted the way they did and which answer had the most and the least votes.

My plan is to have a different question every day. The question itself is not really important; what is important is that students are exposed to graphing. I will also do a variety of graphs, charts, and data collecting strategies. One thing I may do is to have children put a tally mark under their choice. Another option is to use legos by giving each student a lego and having them build towers based on their choices (sort of like a 3-D bar graph). Furthermore, I may have students make a paper chain to represent their answers to the question of the day. There are infinite possibilities!

Some people may question whether graphing is too complicated for preschoolers, but I would disagree. Students should not be taught about the x and y axis or the mechanics of making a graph, but they will understand how it basically works and what it means, especially if teachers use it in their every day routines. They will enjoy making and displaying their opinions and choices, and they will be excited to see the class results. I think a lot of times we underestimate what early childhood students can really do, but they can really surprise us!

Dr. Seuss

After vacation, I will be implementing a unit on Dr. Seuss! I have not written up my lesson plans yet (they take so much time and thought!), but I have planned out my workboard centers and at least two whole class lessons.

On Monday I am getting observed by my supervisor (yikes!), so I needed to do a whole class lesson that would introduce the unit. The teacher I am working with and I came up with this idea for a rhyming lesson:
I am going to start by reading Hop on Pop, which is filled with rhymes. Then I am going to read my students a little story I wrote that is filled with -at word family words. I will have the story written on a piece of chart paper, but the -at words will be blank. I will talk to my students about how we could figure out how to spell those words, since at is a word wall word that they know. I will have students write in the missing words (I will tell them what the word should be, they just need to figure out how to spell it).

When we are finished working on the story, I will give each student a picture, and they will need to go to their tables to find the picture that rhymes (there will be four pictures on their table). They will glue their pictures on a Cat in the Hat hat that they decorate!

My other whole class activity will be based on The Foot Book. Students will measure their shoes with different objects, such as paper clips, pencils, and math cubes.

This is my plan for some of the workboard centers:

• In art we are making Lorax's
• At writing, students are filling in and illustrating the prompt, "Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! Oh my! What a lot of funny things go by! I saw ___” 
• At math, students will making funny feet patterns
• At science we are making oobleck
• At one pocket chart students are matching opposites (pictures below)
• At the other pocket chart, students are finding word wall words in the poem  “Doctor Seuss, we love you, Doctor Seuss, we really do, Doctor Seuss, we love you. We like ‘Yertle the Turtle,’ We like ‘Sam I Am.’ Like the ‘Grinch’ and ‘Lorax,’ and ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’” 
• Students are illustrating the poem at poetry notebooks
• Students will sort red, blue, and red with blue fish into a venn diagram at star (which is basically teacher choice)
• At games they will play the game Topple (just like the cat in the hat balances a lot of objects)

We are also having Wacky Wednesday, Silly Sock Day on Thursday, and we are seeing The Lorax in theaters on Friday (Dr. Seuss' birthday)!

On Monday, my morning message will be:

Good morning!

We will talk about Dr. Seuss today.

We are going to rhyme all day.

Let's get started, I cannot wait!

Dr. Seuss is really great!

Love, Ms. Coughlan

This is a very large and disorganized post, but I wanted to share my ideas!

Please ask if you want any clarifications on any of my lessons or centers.