American flags!

On 9-11 we read aloud "the man who walked between two towers" aloud. It is a story about a Frenchman name Phillipe who was a street performer and walked a right rope between the twin towers. Wit my kindergarteners we talk about patriotism and the American flag then we make flags.  They did a really good job with these!

Veterans Day is coming up in a few weeks and this is something really simple and works on fine motor skills. 

Halloween Goodies in Math Centers.

October has come and almost gone! This month we practiced making numbers up to ten, shapes and started sorting! 

Family dollar and dollar tree always have little plastic goodies like rings and suh for Halloween and last year, right after Halloween I stocked up. I use these pieces in my math centers as manipulatives. They easily turn a routine math activity into a Halloween themed one! Bam! 

Here are a few pictures of my kiddos sorting. I asked them to first sort by color, very basic and they do this one easily. Next, I asked them to pick one color group and sort the items in that group. 

For some of the kids, we used the whole pile and sorted in other ways (size or shape). 

I even use these for patterns! My kids make AB and ABB patterns too. 

I found some awesome Halloween erasers and my kids use those to count out objects in ten frames. 

(I don't have pictures of these two right now but I will post a few later). 

Study Jams! Science and Math

This post is geared more toward the upper elementary teachers (3-6 ish)...

Scholastic has an awesome website called Study Jams.  It has science and math based learning activities for upper elementary.

When you go to the main screen you will see a bunch of billboards with topics on them. When you click on it a list will show up of skills that are related to the main topic. All you have to do is click on the topic and skill. I have used it in the past to introduce a skill.

Each section/lesson has a video and real life problem to help the kids understand the topic. There is a list of vocabulary words that will also be listed at the bottom of each lesson to review. I do not use it in my kindergarten class but I used it a lot with my third graders. They absolutely loved it!

Visit the website by clicking on the picture below: 

2D Shape book!

http://www.fontspace.com/category/dashed
I may be a little behind on the whole "download your own fonts" gig but.... Go to this website and download PRNT DASHED FONT. It only takes about 2 minutes and you can have the option of creating and printing dashed text straight from a word document!

I was so excited when I discovered this so of course, I had to put it to use!
This week we are going to learn about 2D shapes. My kids will identify them, describe how many sides and corners they have and give examples of them. 

In my shape book I have a page for circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. On each page they will write the word, trace the shape, color pictures of real life objects in that shape, trace the numbers of the sides and corners of the shapes and write a sentences about the shape. 

If you would like a copy of the shape book click HERE.

**When you open this file in google docs the words are NOT dashed, however, once you download it in Microsoft word they will be! 

Here is a sample of something I typed for a shape book I made.

I see a circle. 

SUPER SIMPLE Themed ABC Practice

Alphabetic Principal. That is the term used to describe kids understanding of letter shapes, the names of letters and the sounds each letter makes. I used the die cut machine at our school to make fun shaped flashcards with the letters of the alphabet on them. They were super simple to make and a lot cuter than plain index cards. I can pick whichever shape I want and make them correlate with a holiday that month or a unit we are working on.

This month is October and we celebrate halloween at the end of the month so I cut out ghosts and wrote all of the lower case letters on them. I only did the lower case letters on the ghosts as these are the form they will see these letters most of the time (lowercase). I am going to make pumpkins with CAPITAL letters on them and my kids who know most of the letters will match the upper and lower case... Match the capital A on the pumpkin to the lower case a on the ghost.

It is super simple and easy to make. The kids catch on quickly and if they finish something early they can do it independently by putting the letters in order or they can do it with a partner. Kids that already know all of the letters in the alphabet will use the SAME CARDS to practice letter sounds. These cards really are versatile and so easy to make and use.

Here is a picture of the ghost letters I made earlier today.

Number of the day practice

We are entering week 5 of school and just finished up numbers up to 9. I created number mats for my kids to practice writing, tracing, building, and making their numbers. I used this same template and printed it out nine times. I will dot out the number in the upper left corner for my kids to trace then put the sheets in a sleeve and then a notebook. This will go into a math center for my kids to practice writing and making these numbers.



Click here for your FREE copy. Just dot out the number you want for them to trace.

sight words sentences

Sight words are something my kindergarteners have to know in order to begin reading emergent reader text and become fluent readers. Sight words make up about 50% of the words we read. Developing fluency is anothe important skill and the best way to do that is to practice reading. My kids practice reading the same emergent reader text for an entire week.

When I was browsing Pinterest (go figure) for sight word ideas I saw a post with phrases and sentences for kids to practice and get timed on each week. I decided I would take my sight words each week and make up sight word sentences to send home with my kids to practice. On Thursdays and/or Friday's I will have them read the sentences aloud to me.

We introduce two new sight words each week and the sentences get progressively more difficult. Here is a copy of the sight word sentences I have used or will be using in my class. These cover about 4-5 weeks of practice. Here is a a list of the sight words covered in this set. It is the same progression used in Reading Street (we dont use the basal but follow the sequence of sight words so we can use the leveled books).

I
am
the
little
a
to
have
is
we
my

I downloaded this awesome poster on TpT for FREE as a quick reference and highlight the words as we do them. You could also send it home with your kids to practice.

Click here to get  a copy of the sentences I made for my kiddos!