Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I LOVE the book Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom!  It is a great beginning of the year book and helps review the letters in the alphabet. 

These are our completed chicka trees.  We practice writing our names, fine motor skills, cutting, glueing, and counting!

We love making messes on the floor and getting our hands dirty. :]

Here is how we made our Chicka trees so you can make them too!

We take a rectangular piece of brown construction paper and cut the edges off.  I cut all the pieces to the appropriate size for the kids so they don't have to take a large sheet and make it small.  

I tell the kids to cut the sharpies.  They love it!  We cut off each edge just a little bit. 

Then, we take a rectangular piece of green paper and cut the sharpies. 

We do all four sides, and we cut a decent size off the corner so we can make it look like a palm tree. 

All four sides are complete and it looks like a diamond (kind-of!). 

Then, we round the edges.

Finally, we take all the pieces and glue them together on a sheet of construction paper.  We then add our names.  I typed them on the computer and the kids cut them out and glued them in order.  We also counted how many letters were in our names and wrote it on the piece of paper and glued it to our chicka tree.

We had so much fun practicing our names, making chicka trees, and reading a fun book!

Name Mosaics

One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of the year is have my students create name mosaics!  They are given small pieces of colored construction paper.  They tear them into teeny tiny pieces, and then glue them to the letters of their name. They practice fine motor skills and practice the letters in their name.

We practice the colors of the rainbow by placing them in order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Then, as a class we practice reading each child's name, finding the first letter of their name, we say it a few times, and then we post it on our word wall.  We use our word wall to help us spell and find words we know!

We will add sight words to our word wall soon.  These are our first words up in our room, and the kids love it!

NO David!!

No David is one of my favorite books to read to my class, especially at the beginning of the year. It is a great book to teach voice and classroom procedures.  I read this book over and over to help my kids also learn the story so that it can become one of our emergent storybooks at the beginning of the year.

If you are wondering what makes an emergent storybook?  Well, it is a book that you read over and over again to allow students to remember the story.  Then, students take the books and read them on their own using their own words, but making it as close to the story as possible.  It is a great way for students to begin to know the process of reading a story, they practice comprehension skills, and practice fluency/voice while reading.  

After we read the story, we make our very own David.  Students love being able to cut and glue.  The best part is that we make a huge mess and clean it up when we're all done.  This way we're not worried about throwing trash on the ground and can focus on making our David.

I always take the paper and cut it into the size that they will need, and then the student make it into the correct shape.  Giving them a large sheet of paper is too difficult for them. 

Go buy No David today and do this in your classroom.  Trust me the kids love and it is perfect for teaching behavior.  Outside I hear my kids say, "He's being a David." when a child doesn't line up immediately.  It is too cute!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We start the year by reviewing all the letters of the alphabet.  I use one of my favorite books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! The kids love it too!  We make a fingerprint tree and our own trees with their names on them.