Happy New Year

Have a fabulous 2015!

Childhood Memories

These are adorable.

A Very Thought-Provoking Photograph

This is a photo taken during the Great Depression, showing four children celebrating Christmas with a dinner of turnips and cabbage. This could start a discussion among your students about how children celebrated the holidays then, and compare them with the way they celebrate today.

Don't Forget to Leave Santa a Treat

Believe

Wishing You the Warmth of Family This Christmas

A Teacher Would Understand

Using Pinterest Pictures in the Classroom - Balls

1. What do these look like to you?
2. What else could they be?
3. If they were larger than your hand, what could they be?
4. If they were smaller than a penny, what could they be?
5. What do you notice about their shape?
6. How do you think they would feel?
7. What can you tell me about how they are arranged in this picture?
8. Where do you think you would be able to find them?
9. Guess how many are in this picture without actually counting them.

Fivesies, a Quick and Easy Math Game

This is a fast-paced game that reinforces counting and instant recognition of numbers up to 6. More than that, it's a ton of fun. Plus, if you're needing a filler for your centers, or a way to pass the time when the weather is too bad to go outside, this fits the bill.

It's called "Fivesies", and you can play it in four different ways.
Also, it's important that each student needs their own set of 5 dice.

Basically, to begin, each child rolls all five dice at once (or dump from a cup). They look to see what number repeated. Ex: if they have 3 threes. Then that's the number they aim for. Their goal is to be the first person to end up with 5 of the same number. Or in this case, 5 threes.

The first child rolls, puts aside those repeated dice, and the next child rolls. When it's Child #1's turn again, he rolls only the dice that didn't turn up the repeated number. So if he got 3 threes the first time around, he only rolls the 2 dice that weren't a three. If he gets another three, he puts that die aside, and next time he rolls the single leftover die.

Each child gets one roll per turn. The winner is the student who is first to get all their dice with the same number.

Variation #2
Give them a specific number to aim for. Ex: the number six. Again, each child rolls their dice, saving the ones that show a six and re-rolling the dice that didn't. Winner is the first one to get 5 sixes.

Variation #3
Play 1-6. In other words, they have to end up with their dice in numeric order, showing the numbers one through six to win.

Variation #4
This is a quickie game. Each child gets One Roll of the dice. The winner is the student with the most repeated number. In case of a tie, just those students re-roll their dice to determine the winner.

Reading Chart - Week 16

The Value of Little Golden Books

"Simply put, no modern activity book could compare."

The Paris Review digs up and extols a vintage children’s book titled McCall’s Giant Golden Make-it Book, which looks like the best thing since the 1958 gem How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.

Also: Everything I Need To Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book.

Innocence

Reading Chart - Week 15

Bowling For Words

This is a representation of a bowling game I created for one of my centers. I call it BOWLING FOR WORDS. I used the following letters for the ten pins: A, E, R, M, C, P, N, D, B, T

* Each student in the group gets a piece of paper and writes their name on it.
* They get to roll the ball two times.
* Using the pins they knock down, they try to write down all the words they can make using the letters on the knocked-down pins.
* When everyone has had a turn, the person with the most words wins!

For a variation, they can work in teams (ex: 2 teams of 2 students in each).

My Kindergarten Dictionary - Color Version

Colors, As Explained By a Four-Year-Old

Happy Thanksgiving!

All Classrooms Should Be Equipped With These!

Coins, Part Four: A Quarter = 25 Cents

To finish our study of coins, money, and counting, here is the quarter. Click on the worksheet below for the full size image you can save and print.

First, have them color the quarters.

Next, have them write 25 cents on each coin.

Finally, have them group the coins into sets of 4, emphasizing that 4 quarters equal one dollar.  Since there are 40 quarters, they will end up with 8 groups or $8. As always, be sure to show them as many versions of the quarter as possible (including versions of the other coins) to show them how they differ and how they are similar.

Reading Chart - Week 14

Note: Most schools are on Thanksgiving/Fall vacation next week. I'm going ahead and posting this next set of reading charts, but I'll skip posting any next Wednesday, and pick up again on December 3rd.

R is for Rocket

One of my Kindergarten teacher friends did this in her classroom. Since they're learning the letter R, their homework was to create a rocket using items around the house. Great activity, and the results were super!

Coins, Part Three: A Dime = 10 Cents

Here is the dime if you wish to include it in your study of money and counting. The worksheet below is full size. Just click and save to print it out.

First, have the children color the dimes.

Next, have them write 10 cents on each coin. *Note: Having them chant, "A dime equals ten cents." every time they write it helps them remember.

Finally, see if they can group the dimes into sets of 10. Emphasize that 10 dimes equals 1 dollar. There are 40 dimes, so they will end up with 4 sets, or 4 dollars.

Reading Chart - Week 13

Keep That Typewriter in the Classroom

I'm sure if you looked around, you'd find an old electric or manual typewriter around. Put it in the classroom, along with some scratch paper. Here are some skills they can practice that a computer can't give them (especially if you don't have a printer.) And the best part? They can keep the paper!

Benefits: learning the keyboard, alphabet practice, spelling, sentence structure and punctuation, fine motor skills, and much more!

* Their names, the names of their family members
* Their address and phone number
* A simple sentence (either copied or of their own creation) GT students can try for a whole paragraph.
* spelling words, seasonal words, their reading words

How many more can you come up with?

Coins, Part Two: A Nickel = 5 Cents

Continuing with learning money, here is the nickle. Of course, I didn't introduce this until we were first able to count to 25. The worksheet below is full size. Just click on the image for the sheet you can save and print.

First, color the coins.

Next, write 5 cents on each coin.

Then, have them circle the nickles into groups of 2, teaching them that 2 nickles = 1 dime, or 10 cents.

Finally, for those who need to be challenged, have them group the coins in groups of 5, to tell them that 5 nickles = a quarter, 25 cents. There are 40 coins, so there will be 20 groups of 2, and 8 groups of 5.

Reading Chart - Week 12

The Rhyming Tree

This is a very simple language arts/art activity. Basically, you take the leaf outlines below and give one sheet to each child. (Click on the picture to get a full size 8.5x11 in. picture you can save and print.)

For beginners, have the students put two rhyming words on 2 leaves. (See examples below.)

Then have them color each set of rhyming words the same color. You can limit the number of rhyming pairs by telling them which colors they can use (red, orange, yellow, green, brown). 

Then, have them trace their arm and open hand onto a sheet of drawing or construction paper to resemble a tree. (See my pathetic example below. :)

Cut out the leaves and glue onto The Rhyming Tree.

Now this is where you can get creative. You can also make this an Opposites Tree. Or anything where you would get a pair of different colored fall leaves to place on the tree.

You're only restricted by your imagination!