A fun fall book

This year all kindergarten students go to the gym for 45 minutes of "SMART" time. They are broken up into small groups, 8-10 students, upon their arrival and we start out with some spinning. After that each group takes off to a station to spend 3-5 minutes on an activity. This takes the place of their normal physical education, music, and library class for the week. Basically I get about 25 minutes with a class each week. I am trying my hardest to incorporate some type of reading, library, or book skill into that time. Luckily I have found some ways to sneak a book in but I do struggle with that weekly.

The kindergarten teachers gave me a calendar containing phonics, language/grammar, reading comprehension, sight words, and their thematic unit for each week so this helps guide me in my book and topic selection. I also make sight word flash cards and do them with the students. Yesterday I zipped through Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. I have always LOVED the illustrations in this book and thought about what a creative idea it is.

Our weather here has been quite odd for Fall. Yesterday's high was 80 so I grabbed my EA, Educational Assistant, and we went outside to gather materials. We grabbed colorful leaves from different trees, acorns, helicopter seeds, grass, feathers, twigs, and any other objects we could find. This morning I spread them across the lobby of the gym floor and challenged the kids to try to re-create Lois Ehlert's animal characters or to create their own leaf men and women.

 

Here are some of the cuties that were made today. I have seen a second grade teacher have her students glue one to a piece of construction paper. I am thinking about doing this activity with my Writer's Workshop group and then having them write a story about the leaf person's adventure. I will make a post if we do that.

Wishing you all a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween!