ABC Bootcamp In The Classroom

hey everybody its mr. Gregg here from the kindergarten smorgasbord I want to say thanks for everybody for joining us tonight while we talk about ABC boot camp in the classroom so um before we jump into ABC boot camp I want to give them everybody a few minutes to join us so I don't know if you know this or not but I am back to school today was our second date back so it was another half day so we did two half days and then tomorrow will be our first full day of kindergarten and so I have AB right now have 17 in my class 17 new mustaches it's split between boys and girls this year and so we've had a lot of fun the last two days the kids are fantastic first day of school we had a lizard in the classroom which always makes for a whole lot of fun in the first day of school so I can't wait for everybody to meet the new mustaches and as soon as we get all of our video and media releases and we will introduce you to the new mustaches actually took video of the first and second day of kindergarten and so as soon as we get all the permission slips in we will we will share those with you and you will get to meet all of the new mustaches I'm super excited for you to meet them they're already their personalities are already starting to come through we've had a lot of laughs and in the classroom so it's going to be another fantastic year in room 134 so I can't wait to share it all with you as we start our new adventure in kindergarten this year so all right we're gonna go ahead and jump into ABC boot camp and so I'm gonna be walking you through ABC boot camp in the classroom so we get lots of questions about how I do ABC boot camp in the classroom and so that's kind of what we're gonna do now is we're gonna walk you through kind of the order that I do it in and I'm gonna kind of give you some tips and tricks on how to implement ABC boot camp in the classroom so ABC boot camp is of course a part of our tks boot camp curriculum which is a year-long math and literacy curriculum that we created after the success of a boot camp we wanted to extend that learning and that success throughout the year and that's how he KS boot camp was born and so you can see here on the screen all of the components of the tks boot camp curriculum so the literacy component and of course the math components as well so I want to kind of show you because we get lots of questions about why a BC boot camp and so the reason I BC boot camp came about was because one year we decided to try something new we veered away from what our curriculum was doing with letter a week we decided to do letter day for 26 days a letter day for the first 26 days of school we thought let's see how it goes let's see what the data looks like let's see if the kids have access to the letters and sounds in the first 26 days of school let's see what that does to their reading and that very first year of a BC boot camp we were blown away by the results and so year after year we've seen the same results in my classroom and we also started getting a lot of other teachers telling us kind of the same data the same results and so we did a blind case study of 216 classrooms average of about 19 students across all demographics so the pre boot camp data shows the kids know an average 5 uppercase letters 5 lowercase letters and 3 sounds at the end of a BC boot camp at the end of twenty six days of a BC boot camp this was the data so 16 uppercase letters 15 lowercase letters and 15 sounds that's about an 80% increase in your letters and sounds recognition at just the end of twenty six days of a BC boot camp that's why we do a BC boot camp because it works we've seen it work in classrooms all over the country and we see the same results year after year and so this is a my classroom data from last year and so you can see these little graphs from ESG I and you can see how much the growth is happening in those first 26 days 95% of my students are e ll most of them come speaking little to no English and at the end of a BC boot camp we had 95% mastery of all our letters and sounds and then by December we had a 100% mastery and so that's that's why a BC boot camp is is being used in classrooms all over the country because it works because teachers are seeing amazing growth in just 26 days of instruction and then what we're seeing beyond that is reading scores going up sight words going up because the kids have access to the letters and sounds so early that's really improving their ability to read and write as well ABC boot camp not only as a teacher created and classroom proven but it's also research-based and it's based on the law of ten to twenty four memory sets which basically says the optimal review time is ten to twenty percent of the time that you want your students to remember the items in a set so we're looking at school is on average 180 days 10 to 20 percent of 180 equals eighteen to thirty seven days what number falls in the middle of that 26 days so you think 26 days is the optimal time for a kids to learn the letters and sounds so the research tells us that ABC boot camp letter day is the optimal way for our kids to learn their letters and sounds so ABC boot camp is really built on that idea of one letter in sound a day for 26 days and so it's not a letter every two days a letter a week it's one letter for 26 days and the first 26 days of school the kids are introduced and you saw that mastery of the letters and sounds so I get a lot of questions about what happens after boot camp what about the kids who don't master all the letters and sounds do you just go on you leave them behind what happens one thing that we do after ABC boot camp is we do a very short daily review of all the letters and sounds and we use this alphabet chart which is about on our website and we just say the letter the sound in the picture so we would say a Apple app be bounced but see cut so the kids are getting a daily review of the letters and sounds and then within ABC bootcamp there's some small group intervention pieces that will show you as well so that's what we do at the end of a PC bootcamp and then we do that every day for the rest of the school year and so that really helps the kids retain the letters and sounds and it gives the kids who need a little bit more help it gives them some daily practice with the letters and sounds so here's what ABC bootcamp looks like in my classroom and so we're gonna kind of walk you through each of these pieces but this kind of gives you the broad picture so it actually starts with the morning message first thing in the morning with letter writing then we move to the circle map so we're gonna have the handwriting the hats and then we'll show you the small group work that you can do and then it also included some centers so that's kind of the flow of the way it works in my classroom cuz I get a lot of questions about this and of course it varies a little bit every year depending on our schedule and so but you're gonna kind of sit this is kind of the order that it will go in no matter what the schedule is it just may be broken up a little bit depending on how our schedule flows so morning message then circle maps that we do handwriting maker hats and of course the small groups and centers so the first thing that we do during ABC boot camp is we actually introduce the letter in the morning message and so what I do is we read a morning message and then I model on our morning message how to write the uppercase and lowercase letter and then each of the kids come up and they practice writing the uppercase and lowercase letter so we're first thing we're seeing the letter we're hearing the name of the letter and we're practicing writing the letter very first thing in the morning you're getting some valuable information their handwriting you're giving some of them are already naming the letter and so it helps the kids to write the uppercase and lowercase letter gives them some great practice using markers and ink some great familiar practice as well so here's how it works and this is going to lead into the next part of bootcamp which are the circle maps and so with ABC bootcamp and the circle charts what we're doing is we're we're helping the kids to learn the letters and sounds in context so we're not just teaching them the sounds and the letters as an isolated skill we're actually teaching them in the context of words and in context of print and so what we're gonna do is we're going to attach that sound to the letters so that the students know that the sounds are represented by the letters and what happens is we see that really help them transition those letters and sounds into their writing so the way we do it is when we did the circuit art we actually introduced the sound first and again this is really what helps the writing so we introduced the sound so let's say we're doing the letter A and so I would say today we're going to learn the sound at what sound at what sound ad so we're gonna get lots of repetition getting the kids to repeat that sound back to you you can do a whole group finger on the circle you can call them volunteers but getting them to repeat that sound over and over again so they they get that in their brain they it sticks then what we do is so we'll say what sound app then we will ask how do we spell and that's when you bring in the letter name so we're gonna say what sound app how do we spell at and they're going to say a so that's what we do so we don't say a says at or what sound does a make we introduce the sound first then the letter name is how we spell the sound and again we're gonna repeat you know what sound what letter a what's down at so the circle maps are the circle charts are really kind of the heart of ADC bootcamp this is where the magic really happens with ABC bootcamp and so here's the circle one of our circle charts so the sound is in the middle so today I would say all right today for ABC bootcamp we're gonna learn this sound what sound what sound how do we spell and hope the kids will say eight good what letter eight what sound what sound how do we spell and they would say eight okay okay who can give me a word that says or who can give me a word that starts with and so we'll set up say somebody says happy I'll say happy what word happy what word happy what sound and then the kids will say good what sound alright so now here comes the fun part so the kids come up with the word we're gonna identify the beginning sound again what sound what sound how do we spell so we're gonna draw the picture yes you have to draw the pictures we get a lot of comments and a lot of questions and emails about this and people are like well can I just print pictures or or use you know pictures on my smart board you can but you're really losing a big part of that learning because when you are drawing the pictures that your kids come up with you're really engaging them you're making it personal you're really giving them buy into that circle map and it's a whole lot of fun because you get to be silly and goofy y'all look I am clearly not an artist my kids don't care they think it's hilarious this this is what I draw we have a lot of fun with my drawings so you yes you have to draw the pictures don't don't skip drawing the pictures because you think you're not a good artist trust me your kids are gonna think you're an amazing artist so somebody says happy so I said happy what's down does happy go to suck come back yes so I'm gonna draw happy and I'm gonna say what word happy what sound how do we spell and the kids are going to say a that I'm gonna write the age then I'm gonna spell the rest of the word for the kids a P P Y what word happy what sound so that's how we add the words to the circle map so the idea of spelling the letters for them you're just building that letter recognition building some of that that working with words and letters to build words and so that's how the circle Maps work I do want to point out one thing the kids love when they get to be on the circle map so if you have kids whose names are gonna start with that sound for the day make sure to include them they love it when you draw them and write their name I make a big deal of it so when you know they said Hassan I you know I get down there and I look at him and I concentrate and you know really get into to make it a lot of fun the more fun we have with the circle map in the pictures the more fun the kids are gonna have and the more they're gonna pull from the circle map so here a couple more examples of our circle maps and so you can see sometimes we get a few words sometimes we get a whole lot of words and again you can see you know we're gonna say Apple what sound yeah how do we spell at a ppl a pelear when we're done at the end of the circle map for each day we go back through and we read all of the words quickly just again building some fluency building some vocabulary and then just again reinforcing that sound so I want to point something out on the M because I know it's easier to see so M is about halfway through boot camp and what we start doing and I don't know if you can see them but they're these little numbers by the words those are syllables so when we get to you know about the halfway point depending on how we're doing with the sounds and the letters the kids will start to count the syllables and so okay we'll do we'll be done with my chemo say monkey monkey Oh two syllables so we write two on there so we're also starting to pull in some other skills as well then after the circle map after we've really focused on that that sound in the letter we'll do some handwriting and NABC bootcamp we included two different handwriting versions we have manuscript Anthony Lee and handwriting included and so what we're gonna do is with handwriting it helps students recognize the differences in the letters builds letter recognition can build some sound fluency so the way it works in the classroom you saw the morning message where they they write and that's without any real explicit instruction other than me writing it on there when we get to the handwriting we will actually do some explicit modeling of how to form the letters and correctly write the letters and then the kids will do their independent practice and so you can see they're gonna trace and then write trace and then write so that both uppercase and lowercase so I've on the smart board or on the document camera I've explicitly modeled how to practice or how to form the letters and then the kids will go off and do it on their own and then of course I'm going around monitoring the handwriting helping if they need it that's how we're writing the handwriting and I do want to throw out one more little thing about handwriting that I found to be useful in my classroom especially if we're struggling with letter formation is to use chalkboards and so the chalk on the chalkboard creates friction which will help their muscle memory helps with letter formation so for if we're struggling with a particular letter we'll pull out on a little chalkboards and practice on the chalkboards to build some of that muscle memory then one of my favorite parts of a BC boot camp and this is something that we've been doing for years in our classroom and it's kind of become a signature of my class are the silly hat and so the reason we do the silly hats is number one there are a whole lot of fun and that's really I'm all about having fun in the classroom I'm a big believer in the fact that the find the kids have the more they learn so that's really one reason we do them but it also provides reinforcement of the sound and the letter it provided a whole lot of cutting and fine motor practice as well it makes a great homeschool connection because the kids wear their hats home and they can talk to their families about the hat what what it is what sound it makes really increases the engagement the kids love the hats and they get like they get really sad at the end of the 26 days when we run out of hats to make so what we did with ABC boot camp and the silly hats was we had get heart design create the hats and we created the hats to be differentiated so NABC boot camp you're gonna get two hats for every letter so a total of 52 hats and the way it works is that there is a hat that requires assembly and a hat that doesn't require any assembly and so for example the Apple has a little bit of assembly because you have to cut out the leaf and glue the leaf on the other option for a is an ambulance and all the kids have to do is cover the ambulance cut it out and glue it on a Centon script and so we get a lot of questions about the cutting and the sentence strips so yes the first week or two of ABC boot camp doing the silly hats can be a little bit of a challenge because we're new we don't have great fine motor skills maybe we're not good at cutting we've never held scissors that's why you do the hats every day because every day you see that cutting get better and better and so don't let that scare you yes the first week it takes a while to do the hats but that's okay because it's the first week of school and we're focusing on you know cutting and fine motor and the whole time we're working on our hat we're talking about the sound we're talking about the letter so we're constantly reinforcing the letter and sound so the first week or two the way it works is it's done a whole group in the classroom and so you know I'm modeling the document camera I colored my hat then I let the kids color their hat when everybody's done coloring we cut it out I model how to cut it out then the kids cut it out then we model how to use the glue sponge and how they're sending script and so I literally model every step and then let them do it and so it's a very explicit process for that first two weeks out of the Hat after about two weeks what I kids are getting much better at at what I'll do is I'll make my hat and set it as a model and then the kids can work on the hats independently after a couple of weeks because they're used to the process they're used to cutting and gluing and so that's how we do the hats the next question we get a lot of are the sentence strips and so you know the next slide so you can see the more that so the sentence strips so there are several things you can do classroom direct is the best value that I found for the sentence strips you can cut the sentence strips in half so they're skinny so you can double the amount of sentence strips you get in a package also no teachers use construction paper which also works very well and so the stapling can take a little bit of time but what starts to happen as the kids are finishing their hats I just have them come up to me you know takes me about a second to fit that sentence strip to their head and staple it then what happens at about two two-and-a-half weeks or so the kids will come up to you with the sentence sort of already on and measure all you have to do is staple it and so that part becomes a whole lot faster too so don't look cuz I know a lot of people are intimidated by the hats because of the cutting and the stapling don't let that stop you from doing the hat because there's such a vital part of the ABC bootcamp experience just know that after a couple of weeks the hats really really get a lot faster and a lot easier and so you can see Q for question one of my favorites is the disco ball and of course we add glitter to our disco ball another one of my favorites of course is the Cape for J and every year the kids color the Jeep come after Mikey and so I actually pull my Jeep up to our classroom window so they can all look out and see it and so again you can use the hats to make those connections and build a lot of those connections and really reinforce the letters and sounds so then we have some small group activities included in ABC boot camp and this is where you're going to pull in and give the kids the targeted instruction the kids who need a little bit more help a little bit more practice and so we have our student ABC books and these are included in ABC boot camp so they're really just the student circle maps that you can use and so the way I hear them as I pull the kids into the small group who needs to work on that and we'll work on the letter and the sound well identify we might even do a quick little picture sort of the words that start with the sound and words that don't start with the sound and then the kids are going to create their own circle map and so they can actually use the class circle chart that we made or sometimes we even try to come up with some different words for the circle map and so it's going to be that same idea of writing and drawing the pictures they're writing the words and so that's really that targeted intense um focus this also works if you if you're not using in small groups you can do it in whole group but it really works well in small groups it also works as an intervention piece for RTI and then of course we have centers included so these are differentiated centers for letters and sounds they're easy prep they're all black line to save ink they all come with recording sheets so the kids can record their learning as well and that keeps that ABC boot camp going into your literacy center time and then at the end of 26 days it's time to celebrate because ABC boot camp is really designed to be an immersive intense experience and so that 26 days we are immerse in letters and sounds and that's all we're really focused on for 26 days and so at the end of twenty six days the fact that we've mastered our letters and sounds is huge and deserves a celebration and so that's where the ABC boot camp fashion show comes in and so the way it works is as we're getting close to the end of ABC boot camp every kid takes on what vest made out of a paper grocery bag we go to the local grocery store and ask and they usually donate bags for us so we glue on our letters and they're just randomly assigned so we make the best and when I send the best home I just hand them out to the kids and so there's no rhyme or reason to the letters if you don't have enough kids in your class just pull off some of the harder letters that would be hard to find pictures you know we've done we've done in two ways we've done class size and show and we've done a great level fashion show they all work well we've seen schools that make it a big parent night and they go full-on we've seen runways and lights and props so the ABC fashion show it's a great way to make a home connection at the very beginning of the year it's an easy way to get the families involved and if you wanted to make it a family event at school it's an easy way to get the parents in the kids love to get up and walk the runway and so they make their vests and then they bring them back to school and then we actually have a fashion show where the kids get to walk the runway and model their vest and so here's what it looks like so we put down the red carpet for the runway we play both by Madonna because if you're going to walk the runway you have to vote and then the kids will get to walk the runway and model their vest and so there they are with all their best and it's so much fun the kids love it you get to see them really come out every year the shyest kid is the one who gets up there and it works the runway like nobody else and I always include this picture every time I talk about the fashion show because it illustrates that that connection you're making with home and though and the way that the families get involved and have a great time with the fashion show so this is Nicholas and one of the first days of kindergarten Nicholas ism' mom took this picture of him he got in the back seat crawled in his car seat after kindergarten and was out and started snoring and so mom just happened to snap the picture that day randomly Nicholas got assigned the letters D vest and so they made his V and they included the picture of him sleeping and mom wrote a bunch of Z's on the bag for him snoring and so I just I think just really shows and highlights that that connection that the families make to the fashion show and the way you're able to build those relationships and build those bridges at the beginning of the year so ABC boot camp is available again as part of the tks boot camp curriculum bundle or of course you can purchase ABC boot camp separately it's available in four themes the themes are exactly the same the content is exactly the same it's just the themes that are different so we've got the original Army theme the monster theme the safari theme and the superhero theme and so you're gonna get the circle map labels you're gonna get the two handwriting's you're gonna get this silly hat you're gonna get the student journals you're going to get letter art ideas we're gonna get a letter sir you're gonna get the centers and so you're gonna get a scope and sequence the directions are there the links to videos and blog posts are there so everything you need for ABC boot camp is included in the ABC boot camp purchase and so our newest right and now we have included decodable readers and so again we're bringing that idea of the letters and sounds in print and in context and so now included an ABC boot camp you're gonna get differentiated decodable readers and so you're gonna get two decodable readers for every letter and so one is a one word reader so apple and ambulance the other reader is a simple sentence a is for ambulance a is for Apple and those will come in color and black line as well and so the decodable readers again really serve that small group and so you can you really use those two Koko readers to target the small groups you can send the decodable readers home so the kids can take them home in practice and so it really is an all inclusive curriculum for taking letters and sounds and gives you everything you need the assessments are done with ESG I and so you can use our code smorgy and sign up at es GI software calm and get all of our bootcamp assessments are available on the STI and so again you can sign up with that code smorgy and save your 60 day free trial and that will save you $40 off price as well and so ABC bootcamp is available on Teachers Pay Teachers it's also available on the kindergarten smorgasbord online store at TK s store comm so a few questions that we have really quick all right this one is from Heather she said if we already have the packet is there an update so that we can get the readers yes so if you already have the ABC bootcamp you if you already purchased just download the file again and the rococo readers will be there do you know of any research on teaching an ABC order versus another order such as the order that wonders uses which is Alicia's curriculum so we get this question a lot and there's there's there's research on both sides the way we created ABC bootcamp it's designed to be 100% flexible and 100% adaptable so you can do in an ABC order or you can follow the order of your curriculum or your district scope and sequence or what your school wants and what we've seen the data that you saw that's from people doing it in ABC order and people following the order of their scope and sequence and so it's completely flexible it's designed to be its own curriculum and it's also designed to work with any curriculum that you're already using and so you can do it is the order or you can do the order that you need to follow for the best you do them if you do the best at home the same day as you do the letter or do you wait until they're all the letters or interviews when you're getting ready to do the fashion show so the fashion show happens at the end of ABC boot camp and so we send the best home at the end after most of the letters are introduced and they'll a tip that we found really helpful is send the letter send the vest home give them about a week to work on it over the week so include a weekend in there then have the vest do back at school like two days before the fashion show and what that does that allows us to help the kids who maybe didn't get it done at home we couldn't find any pictures and so we have that little bit of a window where we can help them finish their best so about how long does it take to complete all the activities of ABC bootcamp so what you saw excluding that morning message part what you saw the circle map the hats the handwriting in the classroom you're gonna look at about 30 to 40 minutes maybe 45 depending on how long you spend on the circle map how long it takes to do the Hat so you're looking at about a 40 minute process and again does that mean you have to set your kids there and do it all in that 40 and you know straight through in 40 minutes of course not sometimes the way our schedule is broken up you know we'll do the circle maps and the handwriting and then we come back and either hats but you're looking at about a 40 minute time investment with doing all the pieces I think we have some people that might have missed some of the beginning and so they're a little confused about the circle maps there's a circle map that's the whole group and then there's a circle maps that are done small very poor done independently so could you just kind of cover that SuperDuper quick what's done all through them what's doing smaller yeah so whole group any go back to it I can't go back so here's the whole so whole group isn't you're gonna do the circle chart so these are done whole group everybody's participating they're very interactive and engaging so that's whole group handwriting is modeled whole group explicit instructions down whole group then the kids practice it independently the hats are done whole group later about you know two weeks in you can you can release a lot of the hats to the kids but initially the hats are done whole group as well and then the student circle maps are really designed to be done in small groups they can be done independently like if you wanted to use it as an independent independent work but really they're designed to be done and holder or sorry in small group so the circle the kids circle maps the student books are designed to be done in small groups and then of course the centers the centers will work as a small group activity if you wanted to do it as a game and a small group then of course they're designed to be done in centers how do you introduce tools so the way I introduce the syllables again it's about halfway through ABC boot camp I just tell the kids today we're going to start learning syllables and syllables were kind of where the words break apart and we're going to learn how to count those because that's going to help us read the words it's going to make us better readers and writers and so I know a lot of people clap the syllables but what I found over the years is that the clapping is confusing and so we count the syllables on our arms and so it's 1 on my finger twos on my wrist 3 is at my elbow 4 is my shoulder and if we need 5 we touch their nose so we would say monkey and we would know that's 2 and we found that's been much more effective to helping the kids determine the syllable more than clapping alright so again ABC bootcamp was a curriculum created by mr. Greg to use in the classroom because I wanted to get away from the letter a week we did it that first year and we saw tremendous results not only in the mastery of letters and sounds but a huge gain in the kids reading ability and so that's how ABC boot camp was born I was born out of a desire to more effectively teach the kids and so that's where ABC boot camp poem came from it's a research based classroom proven method or approach curriculum to teaching letters and sounds in the first 26 days of school and again it's all inclusive and now includes the decodable readers which you can pull into your small groups as well and so you can check out ABC boot camp available in four themes the content is the same just the themes are different and you can check that out at the tks store calm alright thank you everybody

Channel: Greg Smedley-Warren

Views: 21,485

Rating: 4.9313307 out of 5

Keywords: kindergartensmorgasboard, common, core, greg, smedley, kindergarten, first grade, prek, kindergarten teacher

Id: 9bRbpr3imb0

Length: 33min 10sec (1990 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 09 2018