This section is for some of the activities I have taught in my Kindergarten classroom.
Cause and Effect
This is a great little book to introduce cause and effect to your little ones. It was free reading time. This means there are a few minutes at the end of the day and my students get to pick a book for me to read. They picked this book and I had never read it before. While reading it I noticed its cause and effect purposes. I even had time to make a lesson out of it with my students!
This is a great little book to introduce cause and effect to your little ones. It was free reading time. This means there are a few minutes at the end of the day and my students get to pick a book for me to read. They picked this book and I had never read it before. While reading it I noticed its cause and effect purposes. I even had time to make a lesson out of it with my students!
Math mats!
I love using white boards with my kinder students. Not only do they find it enjoyable, but it is a great way to have the students work together, a time filler and/or to assess their learning. We have been focusing on addition and subtraction this past month. We are now moving on to tens place and value. I made these math mats to revisit addition and subtraction. It is a great activity to have on hand, and the best part is its reusable!
I love using white boards with my kinder students. Not only do they find it enjoyable, but it is a great way to have the students work together, a time filler and/or to assess their learning. We have been focusing on addition and subtraction this past month. We are now moving on to tens place and value. I made these math mats to revisit addition and subtraction. It is a great activity to have on hand, and the best part is its reusable!
Got a small classroom?
It can be hard to do everything you want to do and have in your classroom when it is small. I am happy to have a classroom that I can teach and learn in, but it is really small!
Sadly most of my students parents have informed me that they don't have books at home. To remedy this I purchased a Reading A-Z and a Raz-Kids account. These amazing programs have helped me download books, print them, and send them home! I also wanted to keep copies by reading level in my classroom. Ideally, teachers have reading areas with shelves and bins to store their books. I don't have the room for that, so I took folders, stapled and glued them to the wall, and put my leveled books in the pouches!
This has worked well and it is an idea for anyone who is limited on space!
It can be hard to do everything you want to do and have in your classroom when it is small. I am happy to have a classroom that I can teach and learn in, but it is really small!
Sadly most of my students parents have informed me that they don't have books at home. To remedy this I purchased a Reading A-Z and a Raz-Kids account. These amazing programs have helped me download books, print them, and send them home! I also wanted to keep copies by reading level in my classroom. Ideally, teachers have reading areas with shelves and bins to store their books. I don't have the room for that, so I took folders, stapled and glued them to the wall, and put my leveled books in the pouches!
This has worked well and it is an idea for anyone who is limited on space!
Anchor Chart for Questions
It has been a blast teaching kindergarten. Kinders are so curious and I am always encouraging their questions and thoughts. Even though they ask questions more than they realize, I noticed when prompted to ask a question they were confused. This anchor chart has helped them not only ask questions properly, but has helped them ask questions to each other during partner talk and ask more questions!
It has been a blast teaching kindergarten. Kinders are so curious and I am always encouraging their questions and thoughts. Even though they ask questions more than they realize, I noticed when prompted to ask a question they were confused. This anchor chart has helped them not only ask questions properly, but has helped them ask questions to each other during partner talk and ask more questions!
Addition and Subtraction
We have been learning what addition means and looks like, and what subtraction means and looks like. This has been fun and challenging! During this time I had my students used cubes, number lines, their fingers, little bears, dice and white boards to have a fun and meaningful time to learn these math concepts. I would have to say they had the most fun going outside, drawing a number line and jumping from number to number while I called out math problems. It was a great way to get outside, use their bodies and do math all at once!
Below are anchor charts that I kept up and referred to through out the lesson. These were great as language frames and to visually see and compare addition and subtraction.
We have been learning what addition means and looks like, and what subtraction means and looks like. This has been fun and challenging! During this time I had my students used cubes, number lines, their fingers, little bears, dice and white boards to have a fun and meaningful time to learn these math concepts. I would have to say they had the most fun going outside, drawing a number line and jumping from number to number while I called out math problems. It was a great way to get outside, use their bodies and do math all at once!
Below are anchor charts that I kept up and referred to through out the lesson. These were great as language frames and to visually see and compare addition and subtraction.
Having fun with tens place and value!
Playing games with partners in math is a great way for students to develop social skills, learn how to collaborate, become a leader, teach, learn and have fun! These are a few activities I have my students use to learns the tens place value. One is a game where the students spin the paper clip. They can either write on the white board math mat in the picture below, or they can show me with cubes both activities my students just loved!
The white board mat is another great way to have sentence frames in math, learn new language and it can be reused!
Playing games with partners in math is a great way for students to develop social skills, learn how to collaborate, become a leader, teach, learn and have fun! These are a few activities I have my students use to learns the tens place value. One is a game where the students spin the paper clip. They can either write on the white board math mat in the picture below, or they can show me with cubes both activities my students just loved!
The white board mat is another great way to have sentence frames in math, learn new language and it can be reused!
Spelling/Writing
I started learning about Writers Workshop from other teachers at my school. I became interested and went to a few lectures and picked up some books on the topic. My research became more in depth when I started my Action Research for my masters program. With this I have started teaching my kindergarten students to spell on their own phonetically. It has been empowering for my students and I have seen writing independence in my kindergartners soar. This is an anchor chart I keep for my students up all the time. The have it memorized, but it is a good reminder when spelling.
I started learning about Writers Workshop from other teachers at my school. I became interested and went to a few lectures and picked up some books on the topic. My research became more in depth when I started my Action Research for my masters program. With this I have started teaching my kindergarten students to spell on their own phonetically. It has been empowering for my students and I have seen writing independence in my kindergartners soar. This is an anchor chart I keep for my students up all the time. The have it memorized, but it is a good reminder when spelling.
Fish Art
We dove into a mini fish unit this year. It was a spur of the moment unit that ended up being extremely fun! I even learned some things.
I wanted to do something fun at the end, and I came up with this art project that I had seen in a first grade classroom last year. What you do is get paper cupcake wrappers and cut out the circles for the scales and the wrapper part your cut up to make fins!
The kids really had a blast! It turned out great and is so simple.
We dove into a mini fish unit this year. It was a spur of the moment unit that ended up being extremely fun! I even learned some things.
I wanted to do something fun at the end, and I came up with this art project that I had seen in a first grade classroom last year. What you do is get paper cupcake wrappers and cut out the circles for the scales and the wrapper part your cut up to make fins!
The kids really had a blast! It turned out great and is so simple.
Kindergarten Writing
It is possible for your kindergarten students to work on their own for more than a minute and it is possible during writing. These are my students hard at work during writing. They are coming up with their own ideas, words and pictures. This is all thanks to the many resources I have found. Below are some links to get you started if you are interested in using a Writers Workshop model in your classroom.
Writers Workshop Units (To get you started)
Katie Wood Ray (My favorite book by her)
Writers Workshop Pinterest (My favorite, there are many!)
There are many more! Lucy Calkins is another big name and the resources just keep on coming. One thing I have noticed and learned is to make it your own and fit your students and classroom needs. Don't strain to fit the model perfectly. You know your kids best.
It is possible for your kindergarten students to work on their own for more than a minute and it is possible during writing. These are my students hard at work during writing. They are coming up with their own ideas, words and pictures. This is all thanks to the many resources I have found. Below are some links to get you started if you are interested in using a Writers Workshop model in your classroom.
Writers Workshop Units (To get you started)
Katie Wood Ray (My favorite book by her)
Writers Workshop Pinterest (My favorite, there are many!)
There are many more! Lucy Calkins is another big name and the resources just keep on coming. One thing I have noticed and learned is to make it your own and fit your students and classroom needs. Don't strain to fit the model perfectly. You know your kids best.
Collaboration
I believe one of my kindergartners explained collaboration the best, she said "It is when you work as a team and help each other." It was so beautiful it almost made me cry. My students work a lot together, and it isn't just one student doing all the work. They all have assigned roles and are invested in the project or game. One of my favorite collaboration projects is giving the students chart paper and an assignment. Chart paper gives them something new to write on and it is big enough for their presentation. Additionally, if they want to work on the wall they can!
In this picture in particular they are listing sight words they are learned and the -at,
-an, -ap, -am word families. Sometimes it can be that simple!
I believe one of my kindergartners explained collaboration the best, she said "It is when you work as a team and help each other." It was so beautiful it almost made me cry. My students work a lot together, and it isn't just one student doing all the work. They all have assigned roles and are invested in the project or game. One of my favorite collaboration projects is giving the students chart paper and an assignment. Chart paper gives them something new to write on and it is big enough for their presentation. Additionally, if they want to work on the wall they can!
In this picture in particular they are listing sight words they are learned and the -at,
-an, -ap, -am word families. Sometimes it can be that simple!