This past week, we dove into all things spiders. While I don't care for the real creepy crawlies, this is one of my favorite themes, and the kids always love it! Warning: Long Post Ahead!
We began our week by discussing our spider schema. My kids knew quite a bit about spiders!
Then, we read the book Spiders by Gail Gibbons. It's a great informational text! After reading the book, we added our new knowledge to our spider chart. My kids are doing a great job at recalling details!
The next day, we read the book again and made a can/have graphic organizer. Each student used the organizer to write their own sentence about spiders, and we added them to our paper plate spiders.
Wednesday, we read The Very Busy Spider and practiced sequencing. We made sure we had a friend to go back and check the story to make sure we were sequencing correctly. My kids love our sequencing activities!




We used The Very Busy Spider again on Thursday to work on onomatopoeia. We wrote all the sounds words from the story, then each of my kids created their own Eric Carle inspired spider. I love how different they turned out! You can grab the student sheet here.




In math, we had so much fun using spiders to learn all about the number 8! I've shared before that we teach a number a week until we get to 10, and we really dive into learning all about that number. We count, write, decompose, count on to make it, etc. and our kids have such an awesome number sense! Most of the activities we did are from my friend Deeanna's spider pack.
On Monday, we introduce the number. First, we rainbow the number and glue cheerios on it.
Then, we use our floor ten frame to act out a spider chant Deeanna made up that helps us decompose the number {some are on the "web," and some are off}. After acting it out, each student gets their own ten frame. We glued black beans to be spiders, and the kids added 8 legs.



On Tuesday, we used a web work mat and spiders to practice decomposing 8 again with our song. Since we've been making equations since our second week, my kids are doing amazing now! The majority of the time, we do math on the floor, around the rug using clipboards. I don't know why, but I love doing it this way!


Wednesday, we graphed whether we thought spiders were creepy or cool. I was so surprised that so many thought they were cool! Yuck! After we make a graph, I always have kids tell me what they notice about the data instead of asking them specific questions. It always leads to great conversation! You can grab the graph here.


Thursday, we used our math stick to decompose 8. I've blogged about these before...we use them every week to match our theme and they are great for getting kids to recognize what decomposing is, and to visualize part-part-whole.

We ended our week by working on counting on to find a missing number in an equation. This was a little tricky, but by the end of the lesson, my kids were doing great!

After we did this activity, I let the kids use their spiders to make their own equation that equaled 8.

 We ended our week by making a special spider snack with crackers, Jif Whips, peanut butter chips, and pretzels. So yummy!

As I've blogged about a few times before, I big time love using Kagan structures in my classroom! Now that we're rolling along and routines are in place, I've been able to introduce a variety of structures to my students, and they are loving them.
Using these structures has made our classroom such a positive place with kids praising each other, helping each other, and celebrating every success. They also cut down on negative behaviors because kids are active and engaged, not to mention my students are working on social skills {which are quickly becoming lost in a world of screens}. 
These are the structures we've been using lately... 

Rally Coach 

Rally Coach is a super easy structure to teach! Basically, students work with their shoulder partner or face partner and take turns doing an activity. One partner takes a turn, while the other coaches. When it's a student's turn to coach, they are making sure their partner is doing the activity correctly, and if they're not, they give them some gentle coaching. When their partner does the activity correctly, the coach gives praise. Then, the students switch roles. We use this structure a lot in literacy centers! We also use it with sorting and sequencing activities.
In this picture, these partners were sorting animals that live on a farm, and animals that don't.
 We also used Rally Coach during our 3 bears unit when we practiced positional words.

Choose a Chip

Talking Chips is similar to Rally Coach in that students take turns and coach each other, but it can be used with partners or a team. It's also used with some type of card {flashcards usually}. Students place the cards in a central area, then take turns picking a card, reading/solving it, then coaching {correcting or praising}. It's a quick, easy way to work on a skill, especially fluency with sight words or math facts. You can choose whether kids start with the words face up {we do this right now to build students' confidence - they have a choice of which word they pick} or face down {we'll move to this later}. A few other ways you could use this structure would be to use letter or number cards to practice identification, picture cards to practice beginning sounds, or cards with groups of objects to practice counting.


 Showdown

In Showdown, teams work together, usually with a captain. However, in kindergarten, the teacher is the captain for now ;). We've been using this structure as a quick math review when we have a few extra minutes. I give each kid a white board {or let them write on the table}, give them a question {for example, I'll draw x amount of dots on a ten frame and they write the number, or I'll write an equation and they solve it}, and they write their answer keeping it a secret to begin with. 
When everyone has their answer, I say "Showdown," and they show their answer to their teammates. As a team, they have to decide if they have the right answer, if someone needs to change their answer, etc. I love watching and listening to the kids explain their answers to each other. It's so much more meaningful than me just telling them!
 We've also used Showdown with our math lessons. Here, teams were deciding how many more scarecrows would make 6.

Quiz, Quiz, Trade

I've blogged about this structure before {see here}, but Quiz, Quiz, Trade is a great structure that we incorporate daily for a quick review. Right now, we mainly use it to review beginning sounds/letters. Students use another structure {Stand Up, Hands Up, Pair Up} to find a partner. Then, they greet each other, quiz each other on the card they have {ask what they beginning sound and letter is}, give praise, switch cards, and find a new partner. My kids love this structure, and I love how many social skills they're practicing! 

You can grab the cards we've been using here as a freebie {they go along with this free alphabet chart}

Simultaneous Round Table

To be honest, we've only used this structure once, but I loved it! During this structure, every member of a team is working on something - a project, a worksheet, anything really! I set the time for about 2-3 minutes, and when the alarm sounds, everyone slides their work/project to the person beside them and they start working on the one they now have. This continues until everyone on the team has worked on all projects and they are complete. We did this after we read Go Away, Big Green Monster. I put construction paper in the middle of each table, and everyone started making a big green monster, recalling details from the book. After 3 minutes, they passed their project, and started adding on to the one that had been passed to them. At the end, each member of the team had worked on all the projects from the team. It was awesome how different and creative they turned out! I could hear them get a new monster and say, "Wait, this one has green eyes and the story said yellow eyes," or "I like how you made the nose!" The kids liked them so much they asked our principal to have them displayed in the front hallway!






This post doesn't nearly come close to doing justice to how Kagan can impact your classroom. If you ever get the opportunity to go to a training, I highly suggest it! They are wonderful!! To find out more about Kagan, you can visit their website. I have a variety of their books, but if you're just starting out, I recommend the Cooperative Learning book. It will help get you started!
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