Featured Kindergarten Teaching Ideas

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Teaching kindergarten is so unique and well, pretty awesome – if you ask me. But, don’t just take my word for it.

Check out this slew of creative, fun and helpful teaching kindergarten ideas and activities from other kindergarten teachers that were shared with me from our online show n’ tells.

Clever Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas

You’ll find teacher tools, end of the year activities, science activities, book-based fun and some hands on math lessons to round out this fun list.

Handy Kindergarten Teaching Ideas

Make a Kindergarten art portfolio from a grocery shopping bag - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

A paper grocery bag can quickly become an art portfolio.

This tutorial will teach you how to cut and fold a grocery bag and to secure it with tape. One of my favorite tips from this idea is to have parents help create them at a meet n’ greet or for a volunteer to help with.

Free-Printable-Absence-Notes

This is a fantastic tool to send home with students in kindergarten! Give parents some copies of these free absence notes so that way they can quickly fill out and return it.

It’s a short, sweet and lets parents know you appreciate communication.

Plus, I have tons of handy tools and kindergarten teaching ideas to use. Check out these favorites:

End of the Year Activities for Kindergarten

The end of the year is always a highlight on my teacher planning calendar. I mean, it’s a chance to wrap up and look towards a fresh start.

Here are some activities to use at the end of the year – in the April and May time frame.

Free writing prompt - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Celebrate the fun of The Great Outdoors with this free writing prompt for kindergarten. Students write and draw about what they like to do outside.

This could be fun to give multiple times a year to show growth. Use of these kindergarten writing rubrics to score your students progress.

CVC Boggle worksheets for kindergarten - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Bring the game of Boggle to a kindergarten level. Your students get points for creating cvc words!

These 4 simple worksheet “games” are a great way to prepare for Dibels in addition to creating stronger phonics backgrounds.

Bubbles for an end of the year countdown - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

If you like to countdown the year using letters, then give these two ideas a try. Use art and bubbles to kick off your fun – tie them into your curriculum by having students write or read about each one.

And here are 14 more alphabet countdown calendars you can use.

End of the year kindergarten poem - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Here is a collection of 4 poems for the end of the school year and a song that you can teach students to sing.

Patriotic Art Project (good for Presidents Day, 4th of July or Veterans Day) Bubbles for an end of the year countdown - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Need a project or craftivity for the 4th of July or Memorial Day? Consider this cutie! This Patriotic art project get students creating an adorable bald eagle using their handprints for wings.

You could totally use it for Presidents Day too though. Whatever writing you choose to go with it – it can make a stunning display!

And don’t forget these stellar end of the school year kindergarten tips:

 Science Activities for Kindergarten

Learning about space - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

I have one kinder who is especially crazy about outer space. If it has to do with planets and the universe, he wants to know more.

This is a great set of Learning About Space free download materials, examples of exploration activities and a space-themed game that you could easily bring into your classroom too.

I would think these might go great in our non-fiction literacy center since I have a space-themed set of non-fiction materials.

Make a unique butterfly house - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

See gorgeous photos of students exploring Painted Lady butterflies in a school setting and get an idea on a twist to create a butterfly house. What amazing writing could come from giving this a try?

More: butterflies in kindergarten

Buggy Discovery Bags (compare insects) - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Bring non-fiction bug collections into the classroom as insect science centers.

Add any plastic creatures that you have to add fun to it and get kids engaged in learning buggy facts. Think of all the connections they’ll be making between life cycles!

Underground animals resources and printables - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

If your science curriculum needs a little beefing up, then you’ll love this list of resources of underground animals.

You’ll find free printables and crafts to add to your units so you can bring art and more into your day.

Learning about flowers - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

If your students get into the study of apples, pumpkins, leaves or flowers then you’ll want to read about some of these great flower activities – how students can compare, observe and label nature.

I think using labels and other non-fiction resources is a great way to incorporate vocabulary and get them making connections.

Book Based Activities for Kindergartners

I’m a big fan of using literature as a springboard for classroom activities. You can hit so many standards this way!

Lesson Plans for Cindy Moo - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

This lesson plan to go with the book Cindy Moo will help you break down working on questioning as a comprehension strategy with your students and connect to it.

Get students moving and bring in the common core standards of comparing two pieces on the same topic with Hey Diddle Diddle.

It’s all broken down for you – ready, set, teach!

Or, get a set of emergency sub plans all ready broken down for you too.

 Leo Lionni's most favorite books with art lessons - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Find 6 of Leo Lionni’s most favorite books with art lessons or activities to teach along with. Plus. great links to free printable lessons and resources.

If you use his books, this resource is for you!

Find 20 more classic kindergarten books to retell in the classroom.

And these books have much more in store for you:

Hands-on Math for Kindergartners

Monkeys and Baboons easy math game - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

This lesson plan will get your students moving. With a fun title like monkeys and baboons, who wouldn’t want to play?

Find out how you can get kids actively learning any concept with simple materials and loving every minute of it.

Playdough Build a Bug - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

Work on number recognition or bring in addition skills with this playdough free download.

Students take turns rolling the dice, adding and building a bug with playdough.

First one to build a complete bug wins! What a great way to give a partner something to do while another friend is taking their turn rolling and adding.

Bees easy pattern block game (free download) - introduce pattern blocks to kindergarten - Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now

This honeycomb pattern block game gets students familiar with their pattern blocks and would be a great introduction to even discuss fractions (which ones have equal parts?).

It’s a simple game that will get students using their pattern blocks responsibly at the beginning of the school year.

And of course, I’ve got a stash of more helpful hands-on math activities for kindergarten:

There you have a creative set of teaching activities for kindergarten. I hope they can help save you time planning this school year.

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

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Top 20 Kindergarten Teaching Ideas to Try Right Now
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5 Comments

  1. I totally LOVE your blog and look forward to the updates whenever I get my newsletter! Thank you for sharing so many wonderful ideas and resources. We (teachers) are so fortunate to be amidst such great talents and hearts! 🙂

  2. I was soooooo excited to see that people could use my art portfolio!!! I’ve been teaching for many years and have had such success with it. I also wanted to thank you for allowing me to share on your blog. Wow! My quiet little blog was hoppin’! You made my week!

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