Hogwash

What an entertaining book that is bound to cause some giggles in your classroom!!  I can't wait to read it to my students.  First, I am going to create some  activities to go with it.


The pictures are so funny..those pigs have personality!
The first thing I have done is create some retelling story props.  Email me if you would like a copy of those pictures and I will send you one.  It is only 3 pages but google docs says it is too big.....frustration plus.

Here is a great site to go to for many free 
downloadable printables on this book!!






Here is Karma Wilson's review of her book:

Summary of Hogwash (by Karma Wilson)    

One warm day in early May,

Farmer had a plan

To spring-clean all his animals

Till each was spic ‘n’ span.

Sounds like a good plan, right?  It is for all the animals…except the pigs.  They board up their pen and will not let the Farmer in.  Instead, they write him a message using mud:

No hogwash

For us today.

Pigs love dirt—

So go away!

Farmer is not willing to give up so easily though. He decides to spray water through an opening, thinking he is going to give them a shower.  The pigs have a blast---hamming it up and play mud-ball war.   Farmer stomps his feet and yells.  The pigs respond with another mud-inked sign:

Keep your soap

And bucket, Bud.

Thanks for

Making all

This mud! 

This battle and banter goes on for a while until the Farmer wins…in an unexpected and comic fashion.

Mmmm...does this picture make you wish for summer?   It does for me.  But what it is really for is the short o sound.  Our themes will be "pop, dot, dog, fox, and hop".  I started with pop because it seems like a fun word.   I cannot find any books (except Hop on Pop) to go with it so I made a booklet up to show the students all the different kinds of pops.  Here it is if you would like to use it.  We will add more as the week 

goes on.  Perhaps we can do something with Pop goes the weasel.  

Black Bear Cub and short U medial sound

Easter Vacation is drawing to a close.  So after watching the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles in a three game series (did you know Baltimore is a little chilly in April?  Brrr!)  we are back home doing the necessary yard work.

Meanwhile we are concentrating on the short u sound in the medial position with Mud, Bugs, and Cubs.   Here are some things we made up that we will gladly email to you:
I Like Mud writing response
Stuck in Mud
Mud Splat sort
Bugs Before and After
Bug Booklet
Ugh! A Bug Writing Response
Number Words and Bugs
A cub Booklet with 2 activities

So, let's go have fun with that u sound.

 Here is a sample worksheet.

New Site

Here is a site that has books and cutouts for retelling the stories.  Thank you for all your hard work and generous spirit, Kindergarten Nana!

http://dbsenk.wordpress.com/

Short U Medial

This week with our kindergartners we are concentrating on the short u medial sound.
We like to open the week on Monday with a mystery box.  This week in our mystery box will be a cup of dirt, a small plastic jar of water, a spoon, and a letter from mother hen whose little chick got stuck in the mud....or did she?.  


Click here for our first mud splat sort.


The book we are using is Stuck in Mud.

Albert the Albatross

Albert the Albatross(click here for inflectional endings)  
We needed an easy reader for our first graders with 5 copies so Albert it is.  I found the books at Goodwill and a used bookstore so they averaged out to about $1 each.
  It seems I made the file too big for googledocs to upload it so email me  and I will gladly send it.  Here is what is included.

1.                  *Set of flashcards

2.                *Nonfiction booklet to introduce the albatross.

3.                *Nonfiction booklet to introduce the parrot so we can compare/

4.                *Venn diagram to compare the two birds

5.                *Silent e, blends, digraphs "Lost Albatross" game

6.                *Sequence

7.                *Retelling sticks

8.                *How does Albert feel in the story?

9.                *Character traits with writing response

10.            *Story Elements

11.             short video  http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/oceanissues/plastics_albatross/makana.aspx

12.            nice gliding video

http://videos.wisegeek.com/videos/516911219.htm

13.            cool pictures comparing wingspan of albatross to child and adult..down further egg size

http://www.wfu.edu/biology/albatross/atwork/size_up.htm

14.            background for teacher:  http://www.friendsofmidway.org/pdf/Laysan_Albatross_Facts.pdf

15.            this site has excellent cutout of albatross for intro teaching lesson   http://www.hawaiiatolls.org/teachers/curriculum/final/Unit4B_rev08_web.pdf

16.            Main idea  (two different ones, one with ships, one with fish)

17.            Inflectional Ending worksheet

The Letter U

U is the last letter of the alphabet that we  cover in kindergarten this year....so sad ( I was really having fun with this). 

And I found two wonderful books to share with the boys and girls:  What Color is Your Underwear? by Sam Lloyd and The Ugly Pie by Lisa Wheeler.

 Lisa Wheeler has a way with words.  So with a "heap of hope" and "hitching up the britches" I offer to you my unit that I am working on.  Right now it is in rough draft form but I will happily send it as an attachment to you if you send me your email address.

As of today it includes:  a setting wkst, a character wkst, identify short u sound, a rebus story, two writing response sheets, 5 more active, manipulative ideas for centers, etc.(one with CVC idea)  Most activities are created with only a few students in mind because we are an ESL pullout class.  The southern culture and language of our great USA comes out in this story and is a unique opportunity to share that with the students and hey....it goes with our core curriculum.  I am trying to put each core curriculum standard on every worksheet or activity.

     The boys were delighted with the story and loved saying "ugggly pie" when repeating the story.

And they now know and recognize the word ugly without having really taught it.  I love when that indirect learning takes place.

    **As a side note, this book has excellent alliteration and I hope to create a lesson plan for older children with the story.  It is just too, too good.  Thank you, Lisa.

Whoo-wee....want a roomful of giggles?  Sam Lloyd has it for you in this book.  Who can resist underwear, colored underwear at that!  What better way than this for the little cherubs to remember that U sound and think of these animals when going u  u   u   underwear.   I guess one could say umbrella but the mental visions are just not quite as entertaining.  And, oh the ending!!  What a treat.

Miss Sarah over at http://misssarahsstorytime.blogspot.com/2012/02/flannel-friday-what-color-is-your.html has done a cute flannelgraph with it.    Mrs. Langham over at
 http://learningwithmrslangham.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html used it to teach colors. 
I have not created anything to go with that yet.

But fun, fun, fun with both books and great visual imagery to help those little memory keepers.