Apple Themed Centers

I'm gearing up to start teaching a unit on apples to my kinders in about a week or so. I guess that means fall is almost here! To go along with our study of apples and how they grow, I like to have a few fun math and literacy activities for my kiddos to do that have an apple theme.

Last year my students worked on lots of different apple themed math stations. Click here to check out my apple post from last year which includes links to several free apple math games!

This year I made some new apple themed literacy center activities to help my kinders learn their letters, sounds, and sight words. One of the games my students will play at our alphabet center is this very simple letter tracing game. I'll have a bag of magnetic letters and students will take turns picking a letter out of the bag and tracing the letter they picked on their paper. Click here to download these free letter tracing sheets (both capital letter and lowercase letter sheets included).

This game can easily be differentiated for students of different levels. The easiest way to play would be to give them a bag of capital letters and a capital letter sheet so they can trace the exact letter they pull out of the bag. To make it a little trickier, you can give them a bag of lowercase letters along with the capital letter sheet, so that they pick a lowercase letter but then have to find and trace the corresponding capital letters. Or, for really high students, I think I might give them a bag of little objects/toys/pictures and then when they pull out an item they have to determine the item's beginning sound and then trace that letter on the sheet.

I also have a pack of alphabet themed literacy games for sale in my TPT store that works on lots of different literacy skills, including: syllable counting, beginning sounds, capital and lowercase letter recognition, and sight words. Click here to check it out! I'd love to give away a free copy of this game pack to the first 2 people to leave a comment (and their email address) on this post!

Anyone else planning apple activities for the coming weeks? If so, I'd love to get some new ideas and hear what you and your students will be up to!

Learning about coins

Last week we started learning about money in kindergarten. We're just focusing on the basics like naming coins and their values. We've also been counting pennies-nothing too challenging! I'm planning on adding some money games to my math work stations this week. Here are some freebies for you in case your students need some practice with coins too!

This game is called Coin Grab and it practices coin recognition. I fill a little cloth bag with an assortment of coins (you could also fill a paper lunch bag or little purse) and then students take turns pulling out a coin and graphing it on their recording sheet. They do not grab a whole handful of coins at once-this is important to explain to kinders. Once they reach the top of their graph with one of the coins, the child stops and records how many of each coin they had on the bottom of the recording sheet. You can laminate the recording sheet and let students fill it in with a dry erase marker, or what I usually do is just copy it in black and white so students can fill it in with a pencil (and it is not a big deal to the kids that the coin pictures are not in color).

In case you're still studying teeth for dental health month, here is a simple little tooth math game that works on money skills. Students spin the spinner, count how many cents they spun, and move that many spaces on the game board.

I'll be back later this week with pictures of all my current math work stations. I'd love to hear what you're up to this week!

February Math Stations

Valentine's Day may not be until next week, but we are already celebrating with lots of heart themed activities. My kinders have definitely gone valentine crazy!

We've been practicing measurement, counting, graphing, patterns, and addition this week with our math stations. Most of these station activities are meant to be done using candy hearts, but I decided to save the candy for Valentine's day and we have been using foam hearts, plastic hearts, and heart erasers instead.

The kids have been LOVING these stations-my class loves using manipulatives and I guess all the cute little hearts are hard to resist!

Station 1: Candy Heart Patterns

(Students make a pattern with candy hearts (we used foam hearts) and then color in their pattern on the recording sheet. You can get this great freebie from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.)



Station 2A: Counting Hearts

(I wrote numbers on a bunch of those little heart containers from Target, and then students had to put the containers in number order and fill them with the correct number of heart erasers. Simple number and counting review!)

Station 2B: Valentine Clip Cards

(Students count the monsters and then clip a clothespin onto the heart showing the correct number. Such an adorable activity! The heart clips are from Target and the monster cards are a freebie from Amy at The Resourceful Room. This is a pretty quick activity so that is why I had this game in the station 2 basket along with the heart containers counting game (above). Both games give great counting practice!). 

Station 3: Race to 50

(Students take turns rolling the die and covering up that many numbers on their game board. My kiddos used heart erasers to cover-up their game boards. First player to get to 50 wins. This fun freebie is from Shari Sloane's Kids Count website.)

Station 4: How Many Letters Graph

(Students took a conversation heart out of the bag, counted how many letters were on the heart, and graphed it on their paper. This station snuck in a little literacy too! This fun freebie is from The First Grade Parade.)

 

Station 5: Cupcake Addition

(Are these cupcake erasers not the cutest thing? Thank you Target! Students picked an addition card, placed cupcake erasers over the cupcake images on the card, and then recorded the addition problem and the answer on their recording sheet. This fun freebie is from Amy at The Resourceful Room and she even has cupcake subtraction cards if your kids are ready for that too!)

 

Station 6: Measuring Length with Hearts

(Students used hearts to measure the length of different classroom objects and then recorded their findings on the sheet. You can get my freebie recording sheet here.)

Station 7: Lovin' Addition Game

(I just love this type of addition mat. Students were given a bag with a mix of pink and purple plastic hearts (from Target). Then they put some purple hearts on the left side of their addition mat and some pink hearts on the right side of their addition mat. Finally they recorded the addition problem they'd made and the answer on the recording sheet. Even my struggling students were able to use the manipulatives successfully to do some simple addition problems! Grab this fantastic freebie from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.)

Station 8: Measuring Weight with Hearts

(This was easily the most popular station this week-but also one of the more challenging ones too since it introduced a new skill. My students had never used a balance scale before, but now they are turning into pros! They weighed different classroom objects to see how many hearts they weighed. It took some real teamwork to count each heart as it was dropped into the balance's bucket. You can grab my free recording sheet here.)

Station 9: How Big is Your Heart?

(Students used little foam hearts to measure and then record how long different sized hearts were. You can grab the heart template and recording sheets for free from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.) 

I hope your class is enjoying some valentine fun as well!

Candy Heart Fun

Looking for some fun ways to use candy hearts? I picked up a small box of conversation hearts for each of my students so that they'll be able to do some fun learning activities with them and then have a sweet little snack.

One way we'll be using candy hearts this week is in our math stations. I'll let students use the hearts to practice nonstandard measurement. They'll get to practice measuring how long different objects are and how much they weigh using candy hearts (you could also use plastic hearts instead of the candy).

Here are some freebie recording sheets in case you're interested! My kinders will draw/write the object they are measuring on the left side of the chart and then record the object's length (or weight) on the right side of the chart. This will be their first experience using our balance scale-should be interesting!

We'll also being using our candy hearts for patterning and then sorting, counting, and graphing by color. I've been doing this activity for years, but love the cute recording sheets Erin from Eberhart's Explorers made. I also like the idea of letting students graph how many letters are in the "conversation" on each of their candy hearts and plan to use the cute recording sheet from First Grade Parade (she has a cute candy heart probability game too!).

I bought the candy hearts at Target (of course!) where they were $2 for a set of 8 boxes. Not sure if they have them cheaper somewhere else. I was happy to find that Brach's candy hearts have not been processed with peanuts, since I have a peanut allergy in my class, and it seems most other candy heart brands like Necco have a peanut warning on the label. I also found a few other cute things at Target.

These cupcake and dinosaur erasers will be great to use in some sort of center activity and the little grocery bags are going straight to my dramatic play area. My fave is the "I love my farmer's market" bag since I am planning to turn my dramatic play area into a farmer's market later this spring!

Can you believe it's already February? Happy Valentine's Day!

Celebrating Chinese New Year

This week my students and I are celebrating Chinese New Year! This is such a fun topic to teach about. Several of my students come from Asian countries that celebrate the lunar new year so they are teaching us about how their families celebrate (China is not the only country to celebrate this holiday).

I have decorated the room with some decorations I picked up in Chinatown. I have also had my students help me make some decorations. Today we made paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling (directions can be found here). Tomorrow we plan to make strings of red paper firecrackers (directions can be found here).

My students love the new additions to our dramatic play center. I've added a bowl of oranges for luck, and of course all of the plates and bowls are red for good luck too. I've also added some felt dumplings, spring rolls, and broccoli that I made and some yarn noodles (I do not sew-you can totally make this felt food with hot glue-directions can be found here).

Later this week we will have a chopstick lesson and I will pass out red envelopes with a little treat inside. We will also try rice candy, fortune cookies, and almond cookies. Some years I get particularly ambitious and we cook up fried rice and drink tea for our little New Year's feast.

I've made two Chinese New Year games for my math centers. One is a count and match game and the other is an addition cover-up game. They practice numbers 1-12 and addition to 12. If you're interested in these freebies, you can download them here.

I hope you will consider celebrating Chinese New Year with your students. Even though the new year officially started today, the celebration traditionally lasts for 15 days, so you have plenty of time! I'll be back later this week with more pictures and some great book recommendations for studying Chinese New Year!



Snowman Shake

Here's a fun little game students can play to practice sight words (or alphabet letters for those kiddos that still need that). I got this great idea from another kindergarten teacher and my students love it. To play Snowman Shake, you need a snowman container, 2 blank dice, and the recording sheet.

The snowman is easy to make-just peel the label off a creamer bottle and draw the snowman's face on with a sharpie. If you can't find a creamer bottle or something similar to use, you could probably just draw a snowman onto a plastic cup for this game.

To make the dice-I used little foam cubes from Dollar Tree (I got a huge pack of them earlier this year and love that the foam makes such quiet dice). I have also used little wooden blocks from my classroom before to make my own dice since those blank dice at the teacher store can be pricey! Then, I just write the sight words (or alphabet letters if that is what my students are practicing) on the sides of the dice with a sharpie.

To play, students take off the snowman's hat (the lid) shake the 2 dice inside of the snowman and roll them into the little basket. Then they record the sight words they rolled on the recording sheet. Click on the picture below to grab a copy of this sight word freebie.

If you would prefer a copy of the recording sheet with alphabet letters click here. Or, for a blank copy of the recording sheet that you can write your own words on, click here.

I hope your students enjoy this game as much as mine do! Something about shaking up the dice inside the snowman makes this game endlessly appealing to 5 year olds! Even though we're now moving on from our study of all things winter and snow to begin learning about Martin Luther King and Chinese New Year, I'll leave this game out  as a literacy center for the rest of the month.

Sight Word Practice

Before I had teaching blogs and Pinterest to give me 101 classroom ideas...I have to admit that not all of my literacy center ideas were cute. I mean, this is before I even knew you could buy clipart...scary, I know!

So, this is the type of thing my kinders would find at our word work center:

Yes, it is as simple as the directions look. I put this sheet in a plastic tub with a magnetic dry erase board, a dry erase marker and eraser, a ziploc bag of magnetic letters, and a ziploc bag of notecards with sight words written on them.

Then, students would pick a sight word card out of the bag and follow the directions on the paper. For example, if they picked the word "the" they would then take the letters "t" "h" and "e" out of the bag of magnetic letters and do these steps on their magnetic dry erase board:

1. mix the letters "t" "h" and "e" up
2. make the word "the" from the magnetic letters
3. mix the letters again
4. make the word "the" again
5. use the dry erase marker to practice writing the word "the"

Then they would pick a new sight word card and repeat all over again for the new word. Really, it was that easy! Of course, now my students expect elaborate and creative games with darling little pictures all over them to match the current season...but sometimes I still make them play this game anyway!

More Hedgehog Fun!

I survived my first day back at school after winter break! I'm exhausted, but it actually went well. My kinders were unusually quiet and well behaved...although I'm sure they'll be back to their regular rowdy selves tomorrow. I also lucked out because, even though I got a new student today, turns out she knows her alphabet and sight words and so far is very quiet and sweet.

  

Since I'm in such a good mood...despite vacation being over...I made another hedgehog themed math game (check out my other freebies here). This game is called "Measuring Hedgehogs" and it comes with 8 different sized hedgehogs for students to measure. Students write at the top of the recording sheet what they used to measure the hedgehogs (unifix cubes, links, pennies, etc.) and then record the length of each hedgehog on the sheet. They can even do this activity several different times using a different measurement tool and recording sheet each time.

I'll definitely be putting this activity in my math stations this week. My kids are smitten with hedgehogs ever since we saw one in the book The Mitten today...more on mitten activities coming later this week!

Happy Monday!

Mondays aren't usually my favorite day, but today I am thankful for one last day of vacation before heading back to school tomorrow. This week we'll be having fun in kindergarten learning about winter animals.

Here's a fun little freebie for you to review numbers 1-30. I have a feeling my kiddos will need a little number practice after 2 weeks off from school....and I have a feeling I will need a fun game to pass the time tomorrow after 2 weeks off from teaching!

To play the game "Where's Hedgie?" you cut out the snowmen number cards, put them in a pocket chart, and hide the hedgehog behind one of the snowmen. Students then take turns guessing which number Hedgie is hiding behind. Great for whole class review and then toss it into a math center.

Hope you enjoy your Monday!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope 2012 brings you all much happiness - both in the classroom and out. I had a great time celebrating last night-and so did my pup (yes-he was rewarded with treats for taking this photo).

Here's a little freebie for you to start the year out. Students each take a Hedgehog Cover-up number strip, roll 2 dice, and cover-up the hedgehog with the corresponding sum. First one to cover-up all their hedgehogs wins.

I'll be adding this game to my math stations on Tuesday...only 1 day of vacation left. Enjoy what you have left of your winter break!

Winter Math Games

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet...but I have moved on to thinking about December! I've made a set of winter and snow themed math games to use with my students during math work stations in the coming weeks.

I am taking a big leap and am going to sell this Winter Math Game Pack on Teacher's Pay Teachers-I have never tried this before! It has 5 games for practicing numbers 1-9, numbers 11-20, graphing, telling time to the hour, and 2D shapes. The games are not holiday themed so they can even be used in January.

I'm also offering a fun winter freebie for you all! If you go to my Teacher's Pay Teachers store you can download the math game Penguin Cover-up for free-it's a great way for your students to practice numbers to 12 and adding.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend! I sure wish I didn't have to be at school on Monday and Tuesday this week!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Our parent teacher conferences are coming up in a week and so I am starting to get prepared now. Even though this will be my 7th year teaching, I still get stressed out over conferences. It's so challenging to communicate to parents about how their kindergartener is doing in school in just 15 short minutes! Kindergarten parents also have tons of questions-especially if this is their first child in school, and I like to be able to address all of their questions and concerns. Of course we also have to go through the first quarter report card and I like to show lots of work samples, examples of assessments, and any little anecdotes I might have about the child.

Over the years I have had parents ask me how they can help their child at home, and I've often just given a quick tip or two-usually encouraging them to read lots of books at home! I also always have a few students that are still struggling with basic concepts like name writing and letter recognition at this point in the year and really like to encourage the parents of these students to work with me to support these skills at home.

Last year I finally got my act together and made a list of math tips and a list of literacy tips for parents. They are just quick one-page lists of ideas parents can try at home with their kindergartener. I tried my best to make many of the ideas fun. I handed these tip sheets to parents at the end of our conference and many really liked them.







Feel free to download these if you think your students' parents would find them useful. If you have any tips for successful parent-teacher conferences, I'd love to hear them!

Target Finds: Fall Edition

I have a bit of a mini eraser obsession. Honestly-I just can't resist them. I buy them at Target, and Party City, and Dollar Tree, and anywhere else I spot them. I'm sure the cashier at Target was wondering why I needed so many bags of erasers shaped like bats, pumpkins, and ghosts! For just a dollar each though, they were an awesome find in Target's dollar spot. We are doing a bat theme this week so that works perfectly, and in 2 weeks we'll be studying pumpkins and can use the pumpkin erasers! I plan to use the erasers in my math work stations this month in lots of ways.

Students can practice counting, by counting out the right number of erasers for each box on a counting mat. Click here to download these basic counting mats for the numbers 1-20.

These erasers also make awesome math manipulatives for pattern practice. Students can practice making different patterns with the bats, ghosts, and pumpkins.

The erasers also will make great game pieces for just about any math game. For example, I can have students play my Spin a Shape game-and use the mini erasers to cover up the shapes they spin.

Most of my kindergarten students aren't quite ready for addition and subtraction yet, but these mini erasers also make fun manipulatives for practicing math facts. I might have some of my more advanced students play an additon game with the erasers. I think I'll have them roll 2 dice, write an addition fact with the two numbers they rolled, and then use the erasers as manipulatives to help them solve the addition problem.

The mini erasers weren't my only Target find over the weekend. I also found these spooky glow in the dark fingers in the dollar spot. I will definitely be adding them to my big book and pocket chart literacy stations for students to use as they point and read  big books, poems, and charts. Maybe I'll even turn out the lights one day and we can see just how well they glow in the dark!

My final dollar spot find were these cute little felt bags. I think I'm going to store pumpkin and candy themed math or literacy stations in them. Now I just need to find the time to create cute pumpkin and candy corn games for these bags!






If you've found any bargains lately-please share! If you have a great Target find, be sure to link up to the Target Treasures blog.