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!