Weather + Data Tracking = Engaged Students!

This is Krista from The Knitted Apple and I am happy to be back with another blog post on Who’s Who!

We are experiencing quite interesting weather in North Texas today.  It has been raining nonstop for hours and last night there were several tornadoes in the area.  I’m one of those weather geeks who loves checking weather apps to see what the weather is like in different parts of the country.  Right now in North Texas the temperature is a wet and rainy 46 degrees but in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska it is a frigid 14 degrees with a “real feel” of 4 below.  YIKES!

One science unit I teach every year is weather, which is taught in several grade levels with varying expectations for each grade.  Third graders in Texas are expected to track the weather occurring in different locations at the same time.  When I completed this unit for the first time, I was happily surprised at how engaged and excited students were.  We looked at weather in different locations in the United States and tracked the temperature, chance of precipitation, and wind speed for each.  To make it more exciting our data tracking just happened to include a week of intense weather across the U.S.  Students noted heavy snowfall, below freezing temps, winter storm warnings, and wind and flood advisories.  In other cities temperatures were mild and uneventful.  Students recorded data on a tracking sheet for five days, recording the weather from four cities at the same time.   Once I showed them where to find the weather data and we completed an example together, this tracking part ran itself.  Immediately when Science began students would partner up, grab a laptop or device, and go to one of the weather sites to record data.   They could not contain their excitement as they saw the changes that occurred from one day to the next.

Here are two student-friendly websites I use for tracking weather data: 

• www.weather.com
• www.wunderground.com

Choose 3-4 cities to use for tracking weather, and be consistent in recording data at approximately the same time every day. As students collect weather data there will be opportunities for meaningful discussions about these differences in weather from one city to the next.This is a perfect opportunity time to pull down that dusty map in your classroom and incorporate geography. 

You can track weather at national parks or landmarks for an interesting twist! Try tracking weather data for  Yosemite National Park in California and Big Bend National Park in Texas! Show these places to students on a map and have them discuss why there could be such an extreme difference in weather conditions. 

If you are interested in a complete weather unit you can use in your classroom, you can click on the image shown below.  This resource is in my TeachersPay Teachers store and includes a creative writing component in addition to weather tracking.  

I hope your students enjoy learning about weather!

How can we nurture young readers?

Hello Friends! 

It's Kimberly from Loving Kinders.  I am very excited to be the guest blogger this week.  

I wanted to talk about...

As a kinder-teacher, I find it difficult to find developmentally appropriate guided reading texts. I find that there are a plethora of “ A leveled readers” but do they nurture young readers? Do they offer interaction with print concepts? Can they keep the book and re-read it for fluency practice or sight word retention? In most cases, no. they. don’t. 

As another option, I wanted to share with you what I use and how I support developing readers in my classroom.

I LOVE using Interactive Emergent Readers with my kinders as part of their guided reading curriculum especially, as they develop into confident readers and writers.  By using these texts, kinders are able to develop into self-assured readers with valuable literacy tools that promote and assist them as growing readers.

I’ve found that kinder learners learn best with a GUIDED, Supportive and interactive approach to reading.  There is a reason that “with support” is within our standards!!    Everything we do as instructors is meant to guide and develop our young kinders into self-sustained, confident readers.

This is my simple approach.  I focus on three things.

#1  Identify Conventions

#2  Identify Sight Words

#3  Touch Read and Echoing

In a small group I use a booklet emergent reader.  I make sure that the reader does not have more than 4-5 words per page and that all words are appropriate for my reading group.  I am not too picky with the emergent reader, I just want to make sure that we can write on it and that they can take it home.  Many times I make my own booklet.  For this post, I am sharing my weather reader that I used during my weather week.

We begin with step #1- Identify Conventions. These are the RULES for writing.  I LOVE to color-code. (I REALLY DO!)  I thoroughly believe that color-coding assists students with skill retention and maintains consistency when working with standard specific skills.

I ask my kinders to use colored pencils or crayons to underline the capital letters green and circle the end marks red.  I don’t know where or why I thought of this?  I think it came to me on one of those AMAZING teacher waves that just hits you~ Smack in the face!  Utter teacher genius.  Well, at least for me. Also, I am not sure why it works…but it DOES WORK, and it looks great!  Lastly, I would have to agree that it helps my kinders 100% remember the WHY in the rules when writing and developing sentences.

#2 Identify Sight Words

I l-o-v-e to use color-coding! Did I tell you that already?  Well, in addition to the red and green, my students circle their sight words YELLOW with MARKERS.  First, please know, that I never EVER let my students use markers!!! Why?  Because I don’t like markers, that’s why.  They are fat, they don’t allow for detailed drawings, and lastly, because they bleed through the paper. YUCK!  So... I don't like markers.... So when I read with my kinders in guided reading and they can use a marker to circle their words, it’s like LIQUID GOLD. 

Literally, it is a piece of GOLD!!

It's GOLD I tell you!

 #3 Touch Read and Echoing

This is something that I am sure that you use when you are guiding and supporting young readers.  In our small group each student is required to touch each word and we either read it or tap it out.  After each of the words are read on the page, most likely from one of my readers, we ALL echo the entire sentences ONCE, or TWICE, or however many times we might need.  

This 3-Step Approach supports, guides, and assists readers in their quest and journey to become successful, confident, and sustainable readers and writers. 

I hope these ideas help you nurture our dearest and developing kinders.  Watching young readers and writers begin to read is a priceless gift that we are given as teachers.  There is nothing better than watching a kinder read for the first time. 

Enjoy your kinders.

If you are interested in my weather unit please visit my store and/or my blog.