Monthly Archives: January 2020

What If You Had T-Rex Teeth?

I read the best book aloud to the students earlier this week. What If You Had T-Rex Teeth (and Other Dinosaur Parts) is a hilarious book that looks at what would happen if people had certain dinosaur parts.

After I initially read this book, I immediately was inspired to use the book in conjunction with a creative writing activity. So, I created a writing template for the students to use. They would choose a dinosaur and the body part that is special to their chosen dinosaur and write what would happen if they had that dinosaur part. Students were encouraged to use their best guess spelling to write about this topic. I love what they came up with!

“If I had a Stegosaurus’ tail, I would roast s’mores.”

 

“If I had a T-Rex’s teeth, it would be easier to chew chicken.”

 

“If I had a T-Rex’s arms, I would catch a bunny.”

 

“If I had a Brachiosaurus’ neck, I would look at a beautiful view!”

 

“If I had a T-Rex’s teeth, I would chomp up my food in one bite.”

 

The students loved this activity as much as I did. I love when I can pair a fun piece of literature with an equally fun writing activity!

Long Vowel Magic E

We have been learning about the long vowel magic e spelling these past several weeks. (Think about words like bake, file, note, date, etc.) Students have engaged in many, many different activities to help them solidify this phonics rule.

Each student was given a magical wand with a special e attached. They loved using this fun tool! We read each word with the short vowel sound and then added the magic e to make the long vowel sound.

 

We played a game on the Smart Board where students read the words and sorted them according to short a and long a sounds.

 

Students dug for bones in our sensory table. Long vowel words were typed onto these bones in such a small font size that students used magnifying glasses to help them read the words! They then recorded what they read.

Picture/word puzzles were another exciting activity.

 

I also pulled out our Pocket Chart and had students sort words by either long vowel sounds or short vowel sounds.

 

Students used the Seesaw app to read and sort long vowel words into word families.

Watch how this activity works!

 

Students played OSMO words using a special word list created to only have long vowel magic e words. Watch how fun this is!

With hands-on activities that are high interest, students can’t help but have fun while learning!

Missing the Cookie…

We returned from our Winter Break, and the students were disappointed that the Kindness Cookie was nowhere to be found. “Will she be back?” they asked. Sadly, the Kindness Cookie has left our campus until next December, as we are jumping right in to our unit on dinosaurs. A student wondered aloud if perhaps a dinosaur would visit our classroom daily and share an interesting fact about dinosaurs. (A GIANT lightbulb flashed in my head!! I just happened to have a stuffed dinosaur stashed away in my supply closet.) Brilliant idea!! I got to work creating fact cards and packaging up Stella the Stegosaurus.

Shortly after Tecolote Tuesday, Mrs. McDavid delivered a very special package.

The students’ expressions were priceless!

Here is what the note said:

If anyone asks, I had NOTHING to do with Stella the Stegosaurus. Sometimes magical things just happen to appear in (or be delivered to) the kindergarten classroom! Tomorrow will be the first official “Stella Says” fact. Stay tuned!