Kindergarten Winter FREEBIES!

Are you looking for fun winter activities to begin 2015?  Blogger Teacher Tam, posted 11 fun winter freebies you can use in your kindergarten classroom....and one of my winter freebies is posted as #7!  Take a look at all the freebies you can download here: Kindergarten Winter FREEBIES

Sight Word Mini-Books

As a kindergarten teacher, I am always trying to think of new ways to have my students practice and interact with sight words.  As we all know, the more they see them, the faster they will learn them.  I made sight word mini-books to help my students learn their sight words in a fun way.

For each sight word, they have to stamp it, write it using rainbow colors, and highlight it in a sentence.  They also have to use their decoding skills to read the sentence on each page. 

My students enjoy doing these during centers!  I can choose how many words I want to include in each book.  However, I have found that having my students work on 5 words at a time works for them!

If you would like to use these books, check them out here: Kindergarten Sight Word Mini-Books

Join Me on Bloglovin!

Blog Lovin is a great site to follow all your favorite blogs.  I just set up my account and am still getting acquainted with the site.  It provides users with a nice way to organize your favorite posts.  Give it a try!

Follow me on Blog Lovin!

{FREEBIE} Fall Print and Go!

Here is a fun fall FREEBIE!  All you need to do is print and go!  This NO PREP packet includes fun math and literacy activities.  Use them for morning work, homework, or centers.  You can find it here: {FREEBIE} Fall Print and Go!.

Enjoy!

Launching the Kindergarten Reading Workshop

For the past couple of weeks my students have been learning how to engage in reading workshop.  We began by learning the treasure reading can provide us with and the value there is in learning to read.  On the first day of reading workshop, we read "Reading Makes You Feel Good" by Todd Parr.  I love this book because it is a simple way to teach children how fun reading can really be!  We also made an anchor chart of all the things we see people read.

This week the children have been learning how reading time is URGENT!  Readers cannot waste any time when reading and have to get started right away!  They use every minute to increase their STAMINA!  I like to compare reading urgently to the way firefighters act when there is a fire or when we have a fire drill.  We made the following anchor chart:

This week we also discussed read to self.  I modeled what real reading looks like and what fake reading looks like.  The kids always love when I fake read...I make it really dramatic!  Then, I had a few children model both ways to read so they get a good idea of what real reading looks like!  We made this read to self anchor chart.  We will refer back to it often.

The children also got their "bag of books" this week!  Each child got 5 books that are at their reading level. (They love having their own books to read!) They read these during read to self.  When they learn how to pick "just right books" on their own, then they will choose their own books to read.

I teach a new reading workshop lesson every day to teach my students the expectations of reading workshop and how to silently read on their own.  Throughout the lessons I will also teach them how to engage in 10 other centers.  This will teach my students how to engage in activities independently giving me the ability to work with guided reading groups.  You can check out the lessons here: Launching the Kindergarten Reading Workshop.

I will continue to post how my students are learning to become independent during reading workshop.  I hope to help you create a similar environment in your own classroom!

Building Number Sense with Play-Doh Mats!

My students LOVE play-doh!  Whenever they are using it, they are very engaged.  Working with play-doh also helps develop my students' fine motor skills.  I made number play-doh mats to build my students' number sense and increase their number recognition.  

I like these mats because they have the children work on writing the number with a dry erase marker and creating the number with play-doh.  

The children also have to show the number in a ten frame.  Each mat provides them with a lot of number practice!  If you would like to use these mats, you can find them here: Numbers 0-20 Play-Doh Mats.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Enter for a chance to win $10 towards any products in my TPT store and many other teachers' stores!!  Click here to enter!  Good luck!

Did You Fill a Bucket Today?

Beginning of the year calls for lessons that focus on respecting others and getting along.  A great book to teach this important concept is "Have You Filled  a Bucket Today?" by Carol McCloud.  This book is absolutely wonderful and is great for children ages preschool to fifth.  It explains how everyone has an invisible bucket.  You fill people's buckets when you are nice to them and do nice things.  However, you can dip into people's buckets if you are not kind.  I was reading this book to my kindergarteners and a child asked, "Is that real?  Do people really have invisible buckets?"  

Here is the anchor chart we made:

To promote good classroom behaviors, we have a classroom bucket!  When I see my students working together I tell them they are filling our bucket and I put a cotton ball in it.  When the bucket is completely full we will have a pajama party!

Name Activity

Beginning of kindergarten calls for getting to know you games and of course name spelling activities!  I created play-doh mats for each of my students that contained their name template.  Each child used play-doh to make their name.  I showed them how to roll the play-doh like a snake to make it easier to form. 

When finished, I had each of my students show their creations to the class and shared their name.  This turned out to be a fun get to know you activity as well as practice for learning how to spell our own names!

First Day of Kindergarten....Here I Come!!

Tomorrow is the first official day of the school year!  For me, this time of year is bittersweet....it is sad to see summer go, but I'm excited to meet a new group of students and begin a new school year!  

Below is my "First Day of Kindergarten" sign that I have each child hold up while I take their picture.  I have them stand in front of a measurement poster that I got from Lakeshore Learning to show how tall they are.  At the end of the year, I take another picture of them in front of the poster.  I like showing this to parents.  It is amazing to see how much they have grown!  My students last year grew 1 foot!!

I also made bags with materials for new students that I may get this year.  Every year I tell myself to do this, but I never do.  Then, I am sorry later when I am trying to think of all the materials I need for the new student.  I know I will be thankful I did this!!

How is your year going so far?  Have you started school yet?

FREEBIE Time!!

Do you celebrate birthdays in your class?!  Here is a birthday book you can use for your students.  It includes a page for all students in your class to complete for the birthday child.  You will bind these into a book for the child to take home.  The birthday boy/girl will also make a birthday page of their own that you will include in the book.  To get this FREEBIE, click here.

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Head on over to Mrs. Beattie's Blog to enter for a chance to win any product of your choice from my TPT store!  You will also enter for a chance to win all of the prizes below!

Good Luck!!

Posting "I Can" Statements in Your Classroom

This year my district will be looking for "I Can" statements posted in each classroom.  When teaching, I will point the "I Can" statements out to my students so they know they are there.  Stating the "I Can" statement in the beginning of each lesson will also help your kiddos focus their attention on the learning target.

Here is how I posted my learning targets:

As you can see, I'm still working on typing up the Social Studies and Science "I Can" statements for Ohio!

I found the Common Core Language Arts and Math "I Cans" on TPT for FREE!  You can find the Language Arts standards here: Kindergarten Language Arts "I Can" Statements

To get the math standards, you will need to contact the seller. 

How do you post your "I Can" statements?

Kinder Friendly Behavior Chart

For the past two years I have been using the widely popular behavior chart that can be seen below. (sorry for the light reflection!) 

I have enjoyed using this chart, but this year I wanted to do something that was a little more kindergarten friendly.  Here is my NEW behavior chart!  I used a fun frog theme with visual picture cues.  I believe my kinders will LOVE this! 

I am still in the process of making their clips!  I will use clothespins and will glue a small paper frog onto the clip.  Here is how the chart works:
-All clips begin on "Ready to Learn" (lily pad)

Bad Choices:
-If a bad choice is made the child will move their clip to "Slow Down" (first log)
-If another bad choice is made the clip will be moved to "Think About It" (second log)
-A third bad choice will result in "Parent Contact" (FISH!...poor froggy gets eaten by fish) - Child will receive note home or call home depending on severity.

Good Choices:
-If a good choice is made child will move clip to "Great Job" (star)
-If another good choice is made child will move clip to "Outstanding!" (rainbow)

If they are on pink (rainbow) by the end of the day, they will get a note to take home!

I like to keep these in an envelope right above the chart so I can easily give them to the kids who get on pink. 

I like how children ALWAYS have the ability to move up the chart.  I also like how this chart gives attention to not only negative behaviors, but also positive! 

I will post what the frog clips look like when I finish them!

I am finally beginning the BLOG journey...

Hello!

I am finally doing what I have been wanting to do for awhile....create a blog!  I believe blogs to be a great way for other teachers to connect and share their ideas! During my career, I have seen the power sharing teaching ideas can have on not only OUR teaching, but also the benefits it provides our students.  I hope you enjoy reading my posts and am so excited to meet other teachers!!  Please feel free to comment and join me on this journey!

Let me first tell you a little about me....I am currently going into my third year of teaching.  This will be my second year in kindergarten, but I have also taught second grade.  I LOVE both grades.  I really can't pick one that I like better than the other.  Kids at each grade are so fun to be around!  However, I must say that the progress that is seen in kindergarten is amazing to see!

I will soon be posting the start of my year.  I hope you share how your year is going too!