Environmental Print

Here are some FREE Environmental Print Cards! I like to have these on hand as an alternative to other alphabet charts. The kids love talking about how they have been to these places, or know what it means, and if it gets them excited then I am excited!

FREE Environmental Print Cards!

Handprint Calendar 2018

Every year I make a Handprint Calendar for my students to give their families during the holidays. It is a calendar for the entire year and is such a precious keepsake for parents. My new template is up on Teachers Pay Teachers and I wanted to share it with you because it is the perfect time to begin working on this project.

Each day I will pull students back (or have a volunteer do it!) and paint students' hands. Some days I can do 2 different pictures at once and saves me a lot of time. Each month gets its own hand print that matches a poem that is printed on the calendar. You will place the hand print on the back of the previous month so that when the calendar is flipped you will see the painting! Check it out here:

Tips:

• Print every month on a different color card stock.

• Combine like colors when painting. For example, you can paint the pumpkin and the goldfish on the same day because the color is orange for both. 

• Make sure you paint the hand print going the opposite direction from the previous month printed on the other side. You want the direction of the hand print to flip when parents change the month. 

• DO NOT bind the calendar until after you have painted all of the hands. If you make a mistake, you can just change out one page instead of taking the whole book apart. 

• Use markers and glitter glue to decorate your hand prints. The more elaborate you get, the better they look!

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the calendar. I hope your families love it as much as mine!

Freebie Bump It Game~

Here is a FREEBIE Bump It Game I made as an assessment for my incoming Kinders. The game serves 3 purposes:

1. Teach the kiddos how to use dice trays
2. See how they work in partners
3. Assess their knowledge of numbers and quantities

Because I am doing this game with EVERY Kindergartener in school the first week (we are rotating classes), I want to make sure it is purposeful, as well as fun. Students love dice and will be using them a lot throughout the year. Why not let them experiment, while I give an informal assessment on their number sense?

I will print and laminate this board double sided, so that we can spend the first few minutes of the game matching dice patterns, and the rest of the game matching numbers to quantities.

How to Play:
Students will take turns rolling a dice. After they roll they will match their dice to one of the board, covering up that square. Then it is the next person's turn. They continue until there is no more places to put a given number, in which case they can "bump" the other person's dice. I use two colors of dice (white and blue) so they can tell which dice belongs to them.

I don't usually have a winner. But, if you choose to, just have them count who has the most dice on the board at the end of the game.

Enjoy!

My Kindergarten Calendar: Number Writing Practice

I have just put up a new product on TpT. It is a quick and easy monthly calendar that gives students number writing practice. You can pull this out at the beginning of the month, practice increasingly challenging number writing activities, and talk about the month ahead. My Kindergarten Calendars are a fun way to practice number writing skills in a meaningful way.

Back to School Sight Word Bundle

For many, summer vacation is just about over. Teachers are kicking it into high gear to get classrooms ready and prepare the year ahead. Every year I always take a look at my curriculum map and go over everything I need to cover. I look at the curriculum adopted by the school and know that I am going to need to supplement the heck out of it!

My team and I use my Sight Word Units throughout the entire year. These awesome units, which were created as a joint effort, I assure you, allow students to practice 5 sight words a week. My center units allow students to review the old and practice the new every week using fun activities.

Studies have shown the Kinders are ready to learn 100 or more sight words during the school year. Why hold them back?? Using these units, you will have everything you need to create a comprehensive sight word program for your Kindergarten classroom.

 These are the direct instruction sight word lessons. I do one page a day, with a lesson on specific words throughout the week. I have linked the Sight Word Bundle to the pictures, but you may choose to buy the units separately, Pre-Primer and Primer. 

And the great news is that the Core Word Units are FREE!!

 

 

 

 Below are the centers that accompany the Sight Word Units.
These have a built in spiral review so that students are practicing the words new and old. Again, these pictures are linked to a bundle, but you may buy them in three separate units: Core/Pre-Primer/Primer

I begin teaching the Core Words the second week of school, alongside the letters and sounds. There are 3 words in a list and 7 lists in the Core Word Unit. Its gives students a jump start in understanding how letters make words and a solid foundation of the most used words in their stories. Because the unit is FREE you can try it! If you like it, you may choose to continue on with the program. I do one list a week, UNLESS the week is short or students are having a particularly difficult time with a list. 

My experience over the past 5 years using this program is that my Kinders are reading on average 90 words by the end of the year. I call that success! Leave me a comment if you have had any success with my program. I would LOVE to hear about it.

Pete the Cat

We spent a lot of time with Pete the Cat this week. If you are not familiar with Pete, he is a cat who LOVES his shoes. We read:
1. I Love My White Shoes
2. Rockin' in My School School
3. Four Groovy Buttons

This is our writing on what we would have stepped in, if we were Pete.  You can find this activity in my FREEBIE activity titled Cats and Shoes.

  We read and colored our Pete the Cat Emergent Reader. We were working on two sight words, I and my, and our color words. Each time we ran across that word we colored it a certain color.

This is our Pete the Cat 10 Frame. This week in math we were practicing matching amounts. Each partner took turns rolling the dice and both partners had to match the amount of buttons on their 10 frame. 

If you ever have a chance to sing along to the book with the incredible songs, please do so. They are so great!

Learning All About Our Names!

This was our first full week of school. We focused a lot on procedures, listening skills, and following directions. We began our reading and our math and are off and running! This week we practiced 3 letters: Tt, Ff, Bb. I teach three letters a week so that we can compare them and use them on a daily basis.

We also learned about the special letter that is the first letter of our names. Here is our fun craft we made:

We used my special "jewels" to make our names really sparkle.

We started our math curriculum this week by working on the number 1, the shapes square and circle, and how to match and sort. One of our activities was to sort our buttons by shape.

We also sorted our shoes! Everyone took off their shoes and threw them into a pile. Then we had to sort them and match them so that they could get to the right owner.

iRead began this week! iRead is a fun program that allows your child to work on their reading at their own, individual level. Students work on letters, sight words and phonemic awareness skills at a pace that works for them. And, at the end of every level, they get to change their avatar, which is a super cute monster designed by them.

 

Here is a picture of me, drawn by Annabelle. It looks just like me!

Kindergarten Pre-Primer Centers

Just in time for Back to School and the Back to School TpT sale, I have finished my Pre-Primer Centers. These go along with my Kindergarten Sight Word units on TpT and are a fun way to have the kids use the sight words in ways that build visual discrimination skills, as well as reading and handwriting skills.

 The centers follow the same pattern, with the words and pictures being different for each list. This allows kids to know HOW to play, but change the content so they are practicing new words each week. If you have used my program already, you will see that the weeks are organized into lists.
Core Words are lists A-G
Pre-Primer are lists 1-8 
Primer are lists 9-18

My sight word program fits into one school year and lets you take much needed breaks so that you can review. Needless to say, we teachers never get everything we want done in a week, so what is nice is to be able to go back and reteach the words with different activities. Each list has 6 centers, which is not doable in a week, but does give you the option to pick and choose what you want to use so that the kids stay engaged. Here the 6 types of centers:



1. Picture Match: students will match the picture to the word, color the word that matches the card, and write the word on the line.

2. Read and Write: Students will read the sentence aloud to their group and write the sentence to match. The last sentence will be written by copying the sentence card.

 3. Spin and Write: Students will use a paperclip and pencil to spin to find a word. They will write the word on the chart. This can be done in pairs or alone.

 4. Color Match: Students will match the color to the word and color their sheet.

5. Hidden Picture: Students will use a magnifying glass to find the hidden words. Once the word is found, they trace it in the word box.

6. Tic-Tac-Toe: Students will partner up to play tic-tac-toe with words instead of X's and O's. They will pick two words for each game and play 4 rounds.

My center units are companions to my Sight Word units. Take a look at them on TpT. I know that once you start using them, your Kinders will be reading!

First Day Hats FREEBIE!

Here is a little FREEBIE from my TpT store!

Just print, color, cut, staple. First day of school hats are a fun way to get the kids excited about sharing their first day with mom and dad. (And grandma, grandpa, cousins, aunts, uncles, dogs, cats, anyone they come into contact with.....) Enjoy!

Color Pals

 Here are the Color Pals! We make these to go along with our color words. They are also great for PreK and even younger! Color Pals a little book/friend that students make to learn the color word and items that are that specific color. Take a look at the pics. In my class, anything with arms and legs is a hit. Not sure why, but they love it and they love crafts. Check out Color Pals in my TpT Store. 

Colors included are:

red

orange

yellow

green

blue

purple

brown

black

pink

white

gray/grey

 

Communication Calendars

I have been to a training this month titled AVID. I am sure many of you have been to similar training. I was in San Diego for 3 days in which we learned how to get students thinking about learning, success, and their future. As a Kindergarten teacher, I was very hesitant about this. All I knew of AVID was that students kept gigantic binders and we were checked on every now and again. As a K teacher I was certain the program was not for us.

I was that obnoxious student at the training, asking question after question because I could not relate it to my self. After a lot of one-on-one time with my trainer (Abby Nylander, who is very patient and pretty great!), I began to see what AVID is all about. It is not just about the binder people! It's a mindset, a culture and a lot of what I have already been doing in my class.

One of the great things that AVID gives us is the guidelines on keeping students organized and focused. I decided to take my normal parent communication tool and tune it a little. Many of you have seen my Behavior Calendars. I have been using them for years and they allow parents to see how their child behaved during the school day. I altered it over the years and added events, like holidays and non-school days. I added minimum days, field trips, and anything else that seemed relevant to parents.

AVID has given me the idea to take it one step further. My Behavior Calendars are now Communication Calendars. They are completely editable. I will also add a box for parents to sign during the week, as a check that they are communicating with me. Giving parents access to information is a powerful thing. Giving YOU, the teacher, access is priceless.
Check out my new calendars. Please give me feedback, as I am going to be using these in a new way this year. I will be encouraging my parents to add to the calendar. Soccer games, trips out of town, doctor appointments, mom's due date, etc. are all things that we want our parents and students to share with us. Let them share!

I will be adding more posts in the future on HOW I plan to modify my calendars. But, in case you want to get a head start, all you will need to do once you download the PowerPoint is to add a text box.

In PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab, click add a text box and place it anywhere in the calendar you want. Presto! Instant communication!

Shape Unit Update!

I have updated My Kindergarten Shapes unit. I have added a few new pages for star, heart and triangle. If you have already purchased the unit, please download the updated version. If not, go check it out!