A Typical Tools Kindergarten Day
Mystery Word
Opening Group Activities
• Attention focusing activities-fingerplays/songs• Share the News• Freeze game • Message of the Day • Storylab ( instruction in comprehension
strategies)• http://video1.mscd.edu/ramgen/toolsofthemind/kindergarten/training2/kd
glitmsgwsoundmap.rm
Attention Focusing Activities: Songs and
Fingerplays
Fairy Tales Magic Tree House Books
VisualizationCharacter EmpathyInferences Story Grammar Story Comparison
Other TimesActive ListeningConnections
Background weekActive ListeningConnectionsVocabulary
Magic Tree House CycleVisualizationCharacter EmpathyInferences Predictions
End of ChapterStory Grammar Story Comparison
Other timesActive ListeningConnections
Story Lab
Story Lab
Literacy Activities
Dramatization—Sept to Dec
Scaffolded Writing
Sept. Dec.
Scaffolded Writing
January June
Learning to Read
Buddy Reading Buddy Reading 2
Learning to Read
Individualized Reading In the winter, children
receive one-on-one instruction at their own level of reading at least once a day.
Phonemic Awareness/Phonics Games
Center Plans & Learning Plans
Literacy Conferences
Graphics Practice
• Children draw shapes to music. They stop and start and draw to the tempo. Figures get harder and harder with more steps to remember and more letter-like characteristics. By December children practice letters. They practice penmanship in a center starting in January.
Math and Science
Timeline Calendar Weather Graphing
Freeze on the Number
Typical of Tools Freeze Games. Teacher holds up a card with objects or a numeral. Children dance and then freeze signifying the number with their fingers
Venger Drawing
Numeral Game
Addition Problems• Mrs. Wishy-Washy used 2 bars of soap to wash
the pig for the first time. After the pig rolled in the mud, she used 2 more bars of soap to wash it. Then the pig jumped in the mud with the cow and the sheep and Mrs. Wishy-Washy had to use 3 more bars of soap to wash the pig. How many bars of soap has Mrs. Wishy-Washy wasted on one ungrateful pig?
Number Line Word Problems
Logic Trap PuzzlersSadie has a tire repair
shop. One day she had to fix the tires on 2 cars and 3 bicycles. Which tires did she fix more of—car tires or bicycle tires?
Please find more information about Tools of the Mind curriculum in the
Parent Kindergarten Brochure.