Back To School With Guess Who? Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle! - Differentiated KindergartenTop

Differentiated Kindergarten

Differentiated instruction in the classroom

Back To School With Guess Who? Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle!

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We’re off to a FABULOUS start.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday and left some kind words for my pal Leanne.  I know you’re gonna love my guest blogger today just as much.  She’s one of my favorite blogging friends!  I just think the world of her.  She’s not just a great teacher, she’s one of the nicest people I know! Please welcome Jeannie.

Hello all!! My name is Jeannie Partin and I am the author of 
Kindergarten Lifestyle! This is my first opportunity to guest blog for 
A Differentiated Kindergarten and I am super hyped about it!! 
As the new school year begins to emerge in the horizon, teachers around the country begin working to put their classrooms back in order and get ready for the new crop of kiddos. One of my favorite parts about preparing my room is to put up my word wall – for me it’s a signal that I’m ready for the year! 

Now, I’ll say that at the beginning of the school year my word wall is blank. I only have the alphabet cues up. We begin learning how to do our alphabet chant. This is our beginning word wall routine. 

Everyday we begin our word wall time with the alphabet chant: A,a, apple – /a/, B, b, bike – /b/, C, c, car – /c/.……. Then as we begin getting our new word wall words (second week of school) we start to do “snap and clap”. We “snap and clap” each word wall word as we get them. After we’ve done the alphabet chant and “snap and clap” our word wall words, we ALWAYS follow with a game of some sort.
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Yes – there are 2 word walls, but they are the same (word wall words are written in the same color on both). I love having both and teach my kids to use both as resources. I do include some first grade words on my word wall. My district mandates the words we use…..and well… I know my kids better than my district. There are words they must know before leaving kinder….
Notice that all my words are on a colored background. The reasoning for this is it helps kids connect a word in their mind with a color. This is particularly helpful with easily confused words. I have several words that begin with ‘a’ and ‘i’ – each must be a different color. I also ensure that words like am and me are different colors. YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT THIS HERE! :0) 


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 Everyday we play a different game after doing our word wall routine.
Here are some of the games we play in conjunction with our word wall:
1. Word Wall, Beach Ball – Kids stand in a circle. I begin by calling out a word wall word and toss it to a kid. He or she tells me the color of the word wall. That child then says a word wall word and calls another child’s name before tossing the ball. The cycle continues. 
To speed the pace of the game, I count “1, 2, 3” – the ball must be tossed or it comes back to me. That prevents anyone from holding onto the ball. Also ONLY the child’s name called can touch the ball. If anyone else touches the ball, he/she must sit out. I do this for safety mainly. I don’t want a ton of kids diving for the ball. :0)



2. Hot Potato – We all sit in a circle. I play music as we pass a Mr. Potato Head or small ball. When the music stops, I say, “Read a red word”. The child who is holding the potato/ball reads a word from the word wall that is red. That child gets to choose where the ball will start back up. My rule for this game is that you may only hold the potato for 3 seconds or you are out. That really helps keep kids from holding onto the potato too long.   


Sometimes I start the game with a blank Mr. Potato Head. Each time it stops on a kid who reads a word wall word – that child gets to choose a Mr. Potato Head body part to add. The LOVE this!
3. Musical Chairs – Tape a different word wall word on the back of each seat – one for each of your students. We set up the chairs in a big circle. Kids sit in a seat. As the music starts, the kids start walking in a circle. When the music stops kids find a seat closest to the. I show a word wall word. The kids read the word then check to see which word is at the back of their seat. If they have the matching word wall word – they are out and can sit in the middle of the circle. Sometimes those that are out help me show a word wall word.
4. Writing Chairs – This game is very similar to the Musical Chairs above. The main difference is no one is out. Each child has a marker board and a marker. We play music and they walk around. When the music stops, they sit. Then at once all students look for the word on the back of their seats and write the word on the index card. On the count of 3 we all “showcase” – share the word we wrote. 
5. Cha Cha Word Wall – I have enough maracas for every student in the class to have one. So, will get out the maracas and go to town.  We sing the word wall words to the tune of the Cha-Cha!
“cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha
like, like,like, like,like,like 
l-i-k-e, like -i-k-e, like  l-i-k-e,  like l-i-k-e, like l-i-k-e, l-i-k-e
These are just a few ideas and activities I do with my word wall. I choose a different game or activity each day. This is a time of day the kids love because they think it’s all about FUN…. “Shhhh. Can we say that word out loud????” Go ahead…..give it a try and see what happens :0)

TIME FOR A FREEBIE!!

So, as you go off to start prepping your room for your new crop of kiddos, here is a freebie I hope you love…. It’s a word wall set – with alphabet and pictures cues. This set contains BOTH kindergarten and 
first grade words… I hope you enjoy!!

Click on one of the images to grab you FREE word wall set! 

    
     


If you like what you read today, please make your way over to my lovely blog: Kindergarten Lifestyle. I am posting about how I MAKE my word wall word cards!



Make sure you stop by Jeannie’s blog.  It’s GREAT trust me.  We’ll see you tomorrow for more fun with Back To School With Guess Who?


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Comments

  10. beth says

    I am new to using a word wall. I really love your ideas! I follow your blog already and I love it! How many words do you teach your kids in a year? My district was using Houghton Mifflin which only taught 18 and now we are using Treasures which teaches 30 words. Just curious about how many words you teach.

    Reply

  13. Jeannie Partin says

    Dee, I use AbcTeacher font from Fonts4Teachers. I have also used comic sans…which is FREE!

    Beth, Our district has 34 kindergarten word wall words, but I teach more than that…..probably 50-60….

    jeannie
    <a href=”www.kindergartenlifestyle.blogspot.com>Kindergarten Lifestyle</a>

    Reply

  17. Jeannie Partin says

    Emilie – I agree completely!! Word wall is such an important part of our day (or should be), but it can get boring……it’s great to always have new tricks to pull out of your bag to spice up word wall time!! :0)
    jeannie

    Reply

  19. Laura P. says

    Thanks for the great ideas and the freebie, Jeannie! I’ve already printed it! I appreciate the size of the font you used. Nice and big. 🙂
    Laura

    Reply

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