Trains!




After reading The Polar Express and seeing April Larremore's unit on The Polar Express at Chalk Talk http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com/search/label/Polar%20Express
I just had to add a mini-unit on trains. 

 



I LOVE this story...I read it to my girls when they were small.  This book loosely ties in with the train theme but I mainly use it to teach Christmas traditions in Appalachia. (I'll have more on that later with another post on Christmas Around the World.)

 

We charted what we already know about trains first. 
It was surprising what they already knew.

I liked April Larremore's sentence train so we made our
own using our color coded noun, adjective and verb format.



Sight words are written in black, adjectives are in red, nouns are blue and verbs are green. We brainstormed various adjectives and verbs and everyone chose their own from our list.



Of course, it was time for a fresh hall display! They had to read their sentence to me before we posted their work on our wall.

  


The red train is moving.

I plan on using this format at least once a month using our

seasonal theme.  So next month, snowmen or snowflakes...

I'll be honest, literacy, social studies and science come fairly

easily to me...math is another story. I did find some great train

math activities from http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/TrainPrintables.  I downloaded the train number book that can actually be used as

a literacy center since it requires the children to stamp out the

number words.  My team has gotten so many ideas from my friend, Suzan, at krazyforkindergarten.blogspot.com/ for seasonal math

activities that we are very excited about.  Thanks, Suzan!

 

Polar Express Day!

Polar Express Ticket

Reading The Polar Express is of course, a must for Elementary Teachers everywhere and we are no different at Providence!  We love this day and have almost as much fun as the children.

Here is our version of the day...

Our principal, Gwen Foster, read the story to our students in HER pj's!  She brought a bell to ring and even sang to settle the children down before the reading!  Wow!



They love it!

After the story, we rotate three classes at a time between the library and our theatre for the movie.

We get our tickets punched before we go in!

We board the Polar Express and hold onto our tickets tightly!



We take our pretend ride over the mountains and into the snow as we head to the North Pole.  We sing Jingle Bells and some teacher acts like a fool trying to keep the kids excited while we wait to see who our special visitor will be when we get there!

Santa is here!  All the children get a chance to sit with Santa and remind him what they would like for Christmas. 

We make our own bell necklaces using pony beads to make a pattern.  We also have a chance to color while we wait for our turn to see the big guy.  Everyone has hot chocolate and a gingerbread man.  As you might guess, we have a lot of parents that help make this happen and our librarian, Mrs. Barnett,  sets up the train for us and lets us take over the library for the entire day!



This is the script that I use for the children to write about The Polar Express when we come to small groups for reading the next day.  Just click on the image and click to Original size.  Once it is highlighted in blue, right click and go to Print Picture. 

A format that I have used before for our letter to Santa.

Clipart to use for your newsletter, your parent letter explaining your Polar Express Day, etc. 

Just copy onto yellow or gold paper.



The coloring sheet that we use for those that finish their necklaces while we wait to see Santa.

Now it is time to write about our experience!

We work together in small groups to sound out our sentences.

Now we are making our Polar Express Scrapbook Page.

I'm going to incorporate a mini unit on trains this year.  I will read Gail Gibbons' book Trains to expand our knowledge on different types of transportation. April Larremore has some wonderful activities in her Polar Express unit at Chalk Talk.  I liked her version of the train pattern, too!

This is the final version of the page that will go into our Kindergarten Scrapbook.  I will add their photo with Santa just below the ticket. 

We will also begin our Christmas Around the World unit this week.  I will add more info  as we get knee deep into our countries!

This is our passport that will get stamped for each country that we "visit"!