Cats and Shoes

 We learned all about Pete the Cat this week. We read every book (and there is a lot of them) and learned all of the songs. I thought I would share a couple of activities as a FREEBIE this week for all of you teachers who are interested. 

The first activity we did was imagining what we could step in that would change our shoes a color. Each student got a shoe and colored it. Then they came up to me and told me the story of what they stepped in. I wrote it down and then they had to write the color word of their shoe.

 We also made Pete of course! I wanted a Pete the students could play with while we sang his songs. Grab the pattern HERE! 

The body is a folded piece of 9x12 construction paper. I drew an arch and the students cut on it. This gives him 4 legs to glue their shoes to and he can stand up! The tail was cut from the scraps of the arch. Enjoy!

Fun Friday

We had our first Fun Friday of the new school year.

What is Fun Friday?
Fun Friday is a day that is designed around having fun while learning. We will take the skills we have learned during the week and either make a Fun Food, a craft, or a game out of it. Sometimes we do all three! This week for Fun Friday we were practicing the color red, shapes, and counting to 10.

Our activities for Fun Friday this week included:
1. Reading Clifford the Big Red Dog and making Clifford ears. Then we sang the song "I Wanna Be a Dog" by Charlotte Diamond. Our Fun Food this week was making a Clifford face from a cracker (peanut free), red frosting, fruit roll-up ears, chocolate chip eyes, and a Hershey Drop nose. Yum!

 This is my son. He is in another Kindergarten class down the hall and made Clifford ears as well. I love having him in K with us!

Our Clifford Fun Food

2. We played our first Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks game, called Square Off. Students work in partners with their dice tray (from the Boxcars website) and take turns rolling the dice. Whatever they roll they put on their game board. The goal is to see who has the most of what number. No one wins, we all learn. It was super fun and the kids did really well with the dice patterns.

 Playing the game Square Off

 Stratedice Tray from Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks. 

3. We did our first Fun Friday Play Time. On Fridays is when my students get to play with the special toys, like the play kitchen, the dinosaurs, Happy Meal toys (yes, I have a collection) and various other fun toys. We rotate through stations and everyone gets a turn playing everything.

 Magformers

This is my son son and my nephew exploring the Magformers before class. 

Just a little about Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks:

This is a great program designed by Jane Felling and her husband. The entire program is game based and uses dice, playing cards and dominoes. If you ever get a chance to go to one of Felling's workshops PLEASE DO IT! It will change the way you teach math in Kindergarten. It's amazing. Check out their website to find out more. Boxcars and One-Eyed Jacks.

The First Two Days!

The first two days of Kindergarten are over!!!!!! I would have posted that the first day was over, but I was dead tired and couldn't find the energy. So, I will post today. All went well. I have a great group of kids and only had minor crying. Needless to say, I ALWAYS forget how much direction they need, but I saw great improvement from yesterday to today. Very proud of my little guys.

What are some activities we did the first two days of Kindergarten?

• We read stories.
• We took a tour of the school
• We colored our first initial with markers (yes, we really did that!)
• We sang songs
• We explored the toys
• We made Mr. Circle
• We did some work on the number zero (Counting Sets Set on TpT)
• We wrote our names using the Name Bubbles (which is what I call it)
• We colored things that are red and matched the  color word red to them (Colors Set on TpT)
• We made new friends by playing introduction games like Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee

It has been a whirlwind for sure, but we are learning and having fun!

 First initial coloring (FREEBIE!)

 Coloring the word RED

 Cutting and matching the word to the picture.

 Cutting the pieces to Mr. Circle (Yes, he cut that circle by himself....AMAZING!)

 Our class' Mr. Circle display.

 I was told this Mr. Circle was riding a roller coaster so he was scared.

 This Mr. Circle is very happy. 

Fun introduction game on the first day.

Shape Pals!

 Shape Pals!

This is a cute craftivity set to use while you are teaching shapes. I teach one shape a week and we make these little guys to get a hands-on approach. They also label that shape pal with the side and vertices, which is easy to count, because they are holding the shape in their hands!

Shapes included are: 

1. Circle                         6. Oval/Ellipse

2. Square                       7. Trapezoid

3. Triangle                     8. Rhombus/Diamond

4. Rectangle                  9. Star

5. Hexagon                   10. Octagon

  Triangle Pal pieces

(Eyes are also included, but you could use google eyes, as well.)

Grab there little guys here!

Kindergarten Word Wall Sight Words

I made a new little sight word set to go up on my word wall. My classroom is all rainbow stars and I wanted something that would go along with my theme. I thought I would put them on TpT because they are so cute! Check them out!

They are the 90 words that go along with my sight word units. Enjoy!

Parent Contact Log

We all know that we need to document our time when we speak to parents. I have heard of all kinds of systems, like using an index card file, or writing it in a journal. I cannot handle that! I have a sheet that goes in my student information binder (pics to come soon), and this sheet stays with that particular student's info. I just have to turn to the student's tab and document it. Then I have everything in one place: parent contact log, student information (parent names, phone numbers, email, allergy info, etc.), all of their assessment sheets, progress reports and report cards.

By writing all of the parent contacts down this way I easily have documentation for SSTs and IEPs. It also helps with discipline parent conferences and academic parent conferences. Grab it here.