Kindergarten Opinion Writing: If I Had Animal Teeth

I have been working hard with my Kinders on their writing skills. We have been focusing on writing in complete sentences, proper use of capitalization and punctuation, phonetic spelling and above all organizing and expanding our ideas. This is seriously HARD work for 5-6 year olds! 

I LOVE "Opinion Writing" because my students have LOTS of opinions that they are always ready to share. Seriously, once you start a topic - they can go on and on.  The hard part is explaining why they feel the way they do. That's what we've been working on. 

Our recent foray into Opinion Writing was inspired by the awesome book What If You Had Animal Teeth? by Sandra Markle. 

We read the book as part of our Dental Health Unit and it easily led to discussion about which animal's teeth we wished we could have. 

From Beavers

and bats,

to snakes,

sharks

and elephants tusks too. 

Didn't those turn out adorable? 

YES, they did!

After a bit of brainstorming together and sharing our initial ideas within small groups, my students started writing. Our first drafts are always in our completed in our writing journals. It's a great way to save all our work and see how the students' writing progresses throughout the year.

I gave my students a basic framework (see below) to use but they are always free to adapt it and write the story their own way as long as it meets our objective. 

If I Had _______ Teeth

I wish I had _____ teeth.

I think having ______ teeth would be _____  because _______ . 

I would ___________ with my teeth.

My teeth would be ____________ . 

It would be fun to have _________ teeth. 

Providing a framework like the one above helps my Kindergarteners organize their ideas. We are working on moving from writing sentences to telling a story with our sentences. It's been hard to get them to move away from writing things like "because I like it" or "because it's cool" to really explaining why they like it. It's all about the details. Boy, do I ever use that word a lot when we are writing. My students know I LOVE details. 

Here are a few examples of some of our completed opinion writings:

Have fun Opinion Writing!

Bern

Kindergarten Handwriting Practice Activities and Centers

Many children find practicing handwriting tedious. My writing center is devoted to handwriting in the beginning of the year. My Kindergarten students NEED the practice. You'd be surprised by how many children form their letters incorrectly or don't know how to write certain letters at all. In order to keep things interesting and engaging for the students I vary my handwriting activities and try to keep them fun and hands-on as much as possible. 

Today, I'm going to share some of my favorite handwriting activities. They have all received the approval of both the Lil Divas and my students so I hope you'll find them useful as well. This post does contain Amazon affiliate links where possible for your convenience (see below for more details). 

Playdough Alphabet Mats - These are great! They can be used a few ways which makes them even better. I like getting numerous uses out of things, don't you? 

I laminate them for durability but you could also use sheet protectors. In the classroom I mainly use them for centers during the beginning of the year. We use them with playdough (my Kinder students LOVE this as a center activity!) to practice forming letters correctly.  Using playdough also helps them build their hand muscles because they have to break it, roll it, etc. We also use dry-erase markers on them to trace the letters. Aside from using them to practice writing I also use the sheets in my ABC center. We use them as a puzzle and the students put them in order on our big carpet. We play matching games with them and match the upper and lower case letters too. I'm sure you could use them other ways as well. If you can offer more ideas please share - I'd love to hear them.   

You could also use these with so many different manipulatives to build the letters - snap cubes , Foam Color Tiles , Two-Color Counters , Link n Learn Links and Unifix Cubes to name a few of my favorites.

The set pictured above is $2.50 from Lavinia Pop on Teachers-Pay-Teachers. It's my favorite because it shows correct letter formation. You can get some FREE sets to download too but I didn't find any with the letter formations and I found them worth the cost with so many uses.

Here is another set that I have used and can recommend if you prefer a FREE Play Doh Alphabet Mat set (by Mrs. Wheeler). 

Pattern Block Alphabet Mats (from Confessions of a Homeschooler) - My students love these because it's like a puzzle. The pattern blocks are always so much fun to create with so I have to set parameters and ensure they stay on task at centers. Once the expectations are set they do a great job though. 

Do-a-Dot Alphabet Mats (Confessions of a Homeschooler) - I actually use pom poms or 3/4-Inch Button Magnets on a cookie sheet with these pages. The pom poms can get messy and the students have a hard time keeping them on so I prefer the magnets. At home, I put magnets on pom poms for the Littlest Diva when she was younger and that worked really well too. I'd love to make enough of them to use in the classroom as a center but that's still on my "To Do" list. 

Wikki Stix Alphabet Fun Cards  - My students really enjoy forming letters out of wikki stix. The cards show the correct formation and I encourage them to follow it. I also don't let them cut the sticks. They have to bend them and/or fold them to form the letters. This helps keeps my wikki stix in tact and my students get some more hand muscle building exercise.  

GeoBoard Letters (Free Printables from Making Learning Fun) - You need lots of Rubber Bands (you can find color ones at the Dollar Store too) and some 5-Inch Geoboards for this.  If you have those items for your math center you can totally use them in your literacy centers too! Kids have so much fun with geoboards and these cards show exactly how to make the letters. It takes a little practice but once they get going they won't even use the cards for more than a quick glance to see what letter they will make. My kinders loved trying to figure out how to make the letters for themselves. 

Lego Alphabet (One Beautiful Home Blog) - This center is always so much fun and it is quite challenging for my Kinders, especially the first few times they try it. You need to have lots of Legos on hand for this. My students don't like taking their letters apart until the end of the center. They like to build them and stand them up (this is definitely part of the appeal). I have gotten lego donations and always ask around or look for sales, etc. 

If you need to make this simpler you can use any printable alphabet letters and just have the students lay the legos on top of them to create the letters. It's super easy and might be a good way to start before you move up to "building" the letters if you have children/students without lego experience. 

Magnetic Letter Builders (Confessions of a Homeschooler) - You will need a Xyron laminator for these but they are lots of fun to use. This is still one of my wish list items as I don't have the right laminator to make them. You can also purchase a similar type set from Learning Resources - 
Learning Resources Magnetic Letter Construction Set. 

Foam Letter Templates - I use these (FREE) Upper Case Letter and Lower Case Letter templates from Tired, Need Sleep. This is great for the students who need a little extra practice or younger children just starting out with letters. You'll definitely need to print out a few of each shape and laminate the letter templates for durability (or put them in sheet protectors).  

Highlighter Alphabet Letters - I use this as "real-life" practice in my handwriting center. I write the letters on our writing paper using a highlighter and slip into sheet protectors. The students use their dry erase markers to trace my letters. I use various colored highlighters and they choose the paper/color they want to work with as well as the color dry erase marker they want to use on it. It makes for a colorful center and it's great practice for them to see how to not only form letters but how to use the lines on our writing paper. Using the lines is a BIG deal and something that has to be taught to many students because most of them have not written on lined paper before starting school. 

Handwriting Sheets - I laminate them or put them in sheet protectors to use with dry erase markers. This saves a ton of paper and my Kinders adore using the dry erase markers. I provide various colors and encourage them to use the colors they like or even rainbow write by using a few colors (a huge hit!). 

I have a few favorites that I use because changing them up keeps my students interested in doing the activity. 

I LOVE these (FREE) A-Z Handwriting Printables (Confessions of a Homeschooler - Can you tell I am a big fan of her FREE printables! She is amazing!) for the beginning of the year because they include pre-writing practice along with the upper and lower case letters. 

I also use these Handwriting Sheets (FREE on TpT by Wild About Teaching). They have upper case and lower letter formation and a fun coloring section on top for differentiating lower/upper case letters. 

Another set I use are these Handwriting Printables (sightwordsgame.com) because they include a picture for the common sound and simple sentences which is great for budding Kindergarten writers. 

I hope you find these handwriting printables and resources useful for your home and/or classroom.

This post was written as part of my Get Ready for K thru Play series.

(for all the other posts in this series click the link above or the button below)

For even more 

Fine Motor and Handwriting Ideas 

be sure to check out my

 Kid Writing Ideas Pinterest Board

Writing and Fine Motor Pinterest Board

(Debbie Clement/Rainbows Within Reach)

Reading & Writing Readiness Pinterest Board 

(Allison McDonald/No Time for Flashcards)

the Get Ready for K Through Play Pinterest Board

and these posts from my series co-hosts:

Fine Motor Busy Bags for Kids

(Coffee Cups and Crayons)

Kindergarten Readiness: Fine Motor Skills

(Mamasmiles)

Fine Motor Skills: Handwriting Practice with Shaving Cream

(Mess for Less)

(Rainy Day Mum)

Fun Ways to Practice Writing Letters

(The Pleasantest Thing)

Happy Writing!

Bern

Disclosure: This post does contain Amazon affiliate links where possible for your convenience. If you click and decide to purchase something, this blog does get a small commission off each sale. Thank you for helping us continue to share our ideas with this opportunity. 

20 FUN Summer Writing Prompts for Kids

We started a tradition of keeping a summer writing journal last year. Feel free to check out last year's writing prompts and download the FREE printable so you have even more story starters at your fingertips this summer.

This year's summer journal is more of a diary. I wanted to incorporate more free writing for the Lil Divas to allow them to formulate and express their thoughts and opinions. I have been encouraging them to write as a reflection of their day. I thought it would be a fun way to get them to practice writing and capture their favorite summer memories as well. The Lil Divas have been drawing and adding photos to their journal of our summer adventures as they write. This is definitely a summer journal we will treasure for years to come.

I still wanted the Lil Divas to work on some fun writing prompts over the summer as well so I came up with 20 (new) FUN Writing Prompts to use this summer. Here they are:

Download a Printable Copy of the above list here --> 

20 FUN Summer Writing Prompts for kids. 

You can use these writing prompts 2 ways:

1. Cut along the lines to separate the prompts and put them into a box/bowl/container. Have your child close their eyes and pick a piece of paper at random. 

2. Keep the papers intact and staple them into your child's writing journal. They can read all the available choices, choose which one they want to work on and cross it off when completed.

For another summer writing idea be sure to read about our Vacation Journal. It's a great way for your child to capture their vacation memories. 

Have fun writing!

Bern

Adjective Me Activity in Kindergarten

We have been learning about adjectives in kindergarten. Introducing my kinders to descriptive words was a bit trickier than I thought it would be. They were stuck on colors and sizes - the brown bear, the big puppy. 

That's when inspiration hit and I decided we had to make it much more meaningful and personal in order for them to appreciate how many different descriptive words there are besides those used for color and size.

Adjective Me

I had my kinders start a web in their interactive notebooks with their name in the middle. They were given the task of thinking of 5-6 words that would describe who they are to someone who doesn't know them. 

Once we had our webs completed they moved on to their self portraits. I LOVE how these turned out. They are just too cute. They really added some great details like their hairstyles, earrings, etc. One of my faves was the first one below where one of my boys gave himself muscles so he would look big - so funny!

We cut out the self portraits and added them to a piece of colored construction paper. Then my kinders rewrote their words and we cut them out and glued them around their self portraits. 

The final products were adorable and each one was unique even if they used a lot of similar words. My students really started to see that there truly are many types of descriptive words as they viewed each other's projects. They are getting so much better at picking out the adjectives in sentences we read.

Next, I want to try a similar activity where they have to come up with adjectives to describe their classmates. I think it will be a wonderful friendship building and confidence boosting activity aside from reinforcing our language arts lesson. That one will have to be turned into a class book because I know they'll want to look at them over and over again.

Have you done any fun activities with adjectives? I'd love to hear about them.

Bern

140+ Best Learning Activities of 2013

2013 has been a hectic year for me. Especially the last 5 months since I returned to full-time teaching. The blog has had to take a back seat but I am still here, hoping to find time to share with you again - soon.

I am so appreciative for those of you that continue to visit, comment and share our ideas. You keep me motivated to keep things going here, no matter how infrequent for now.

As 2013 comes to a close I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the posts we've shared with you. I love taking stock like this and looking back. It always amazes me which activities get the most attention. They aren't always the ones that I think will be well received.

Here are our Best Learning Activities of 2013 (chosen by your traffic). Together they provide 140+ ideas for making learning engaging, memorable and fun for children.

55 Ways to Make Handwriting Practice Fun for Kids

50+ Early Literacy Activities for Kids

Easter Science Activities for Kids

20 Alphabet & Phonics Activities

Favorite Books & Activities for Kids

Did your favorite learning activity post make our Top 5?

I'd love to hear which one was your fave.

Keep learning, playing & having fun together!

Bern