Keeping your guided reading materials, lessons, observations, running records and such can be overwhelming for new teachers and more experienced teachers alike! My school, my first year of teaching was binder happy (I’m sure some of you can relate!) and so naturally I worked on a system to keep all of my materials in a binder….
Organize your classroom stash of books with a system that is easy to keep up. Here are the four things you can do to get a classroom library setup, organized, and add new books to so that your library will work for you. One of the most daunting tasks I’ve ever taken on in organizing…
When it comes to winding down the school year, there are lots of fun ways to celebrate a year of learning together. Here are my favorite end of the year celebrations for kindergarten and kindergarten graduation alternatives. You can make any of these ideas as simple as you want or you can go all out…
Doing an ABC countdown is a fun and simple way to wind up your school year together. Want to create your own alphabet countdown? I’ve got your back! Here are some sample alphabet countdown calendars and resources to make your own for your classroom. Some end of the year countdowns are printable and ready to…
A staff meeting is part of the teacher’s job… whether we like it or not. Keep everything straight coming out of a teacher staff meeting with these staff meeting notes papers. Take notes on what is important to you, things to take action on and you’ll be doing so in style. These staff meeting notes…
How is it that some calendar dates can totally just creep up on you – leaving you feeling a little unprepared?! Earth Day always felt like one of those dates… and Groundhog Day for that matter too. So, here is a go-to list of kindergarten Earth Day resources and activities that require little to no prep…
Mother’s Day crafts for kindergarten can be tricky to finagle in the classroom. Time is precious and yet creating a special mother’s day gift does top out the list every year of must-dos. Here are some creative and sweet kindergarten crafts for Mother’s Day. The range of projects in this list ranges from projects that you can…
Studying butterflies for kids is one of the highlights in my school year. Some years we get really in depth and others, we take a more relaxed approach. No matter how we hit it, it is always a worthwhile set of lesson plans that captivates, motivates and inspires awe. Here are my tips on ordering…
Teacher dreams. Teacher nightmares. Living out the classroom scene while you’re sleeping is hardly restful… Here are five tips to help transform the process of getting to sleep and sleeping well so that you can better face mornings. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a morning person. Like – not at all….
Developing a routine to get yourself out the classroom door at the end of day can be handy. Here is a routine – or a mental checklist I’d run though – that would help me feel confident walking out the door at a relatively decent time. I never did mind staying until my work was…
Teach kindergarten writers how to write books by reading aloud and dissecting stories. When teaching reading – one of my favorite things was to connect it to writing. I wanted my kindergarten writers to view books created by published authors not as these mystical things that are put together somehow, in some format that makes it…
Create computer lesson plans for k-2. I’m so excited to share my latest product line with you – and it’s specifically designed for kindergarten, first grade, second grade and k-2 technology teachers. Kindergarten teachers and computer lab teachers are in love with the Kindergarten Computer Lab and Reading Center Computer Lesson Plans. You needed an easy…
A little bit of tranquility set in when I digitized my files. I added bonus storage with my newly emptied filing cabinets and there’s something to be said for having less. If you like feeling organized, you’ll never want to look back. It’s a bit like going minimalist and it is very freeing… seriously. Here’s how…
You can create literacy centers that last all year long. This is how I set up, organized and displayed the work created by my students from our pokey pinning literacy center. The pokey pinning center focuses on using fine motor skills to poke out simple sight word based sentences. I’ll also mention how it lasts…
Simple is my style. So when you find a game or tool that is simple and can be used for many things – it’s a keeper in my book. One of my favorite examples is a game called “flashcard flash.” It only takes 3 colored pieces of craft foam or construction paper and you’re set…
Practice ending sounds while teaching kindergarten readers in small groups. Here are my favorite free ending sounds activities for kindergarten. During my guided reading sessions, I usually like to plan a warm-up activity that works on a skill my kindergartners need. Sometimes that’s working on alphabet identification, isolating beginning sounds, or even segmenting and blending…
As a big fan of year-long literacy centers, I don’t really know how to use anything else. {Nor would I want to} Here is how I put together an ABC center, expectations, and the standards. This center, like most of mine, uses hands-on materials and includes student choice. This is a fantastic recipe to make a…
Let’s teach kindergarteners how to sort with some creative ideas that are easy to implement. Here are sorting activities, a sorting song, and kindergarten videos on sorting objects to help you teach sorting. Sorting is a basic skill covered in most kindergarten curriculums. In fact, the common core standards state students should be able to…
Get the good recommendations for kindergarten professional development books to read over the summer from fellow Kindergarten teachers. Here is a list of the top books read by other K teachers that they recommend for topics on early literacy and classroom culture. These fantastic recommendations came from our fantastic network of kindergarten teachers on facebook. Fellow teachers…
When I first created CoolKindergarten.com, my goal was simple: give kindergarteners an independent, kinder-friendly place to play, learn, and build skills online. Years later, it’s become one of my most shared resources for computer lab, centers, and at-home practice—so I wanted to give it a fresh spotlight and gather all of my favorite links in…
Teacher organization doesn’t happen by accident! Here is a set of my favorite and newest teacher organizational tools. This makes a great starting place to plan the school year and keep your weekly and day to day stuff under control. If you’re looking to add a little organization to your year, I recommend starting here….
To teach kindergarten math, I use a guided math format. Let’s break down what is guided math, how to get started, and how to set up a system that works for you and ideas on how to think outside of your current curriculum. Teaching math in small groups like this has become my go-to way…
Learning to spell kindergarten sight words, let alone read them can be quite challenging for beginning readers. Here is a fun, kinesthetic way to help teach kindergarten sight words. Simply turn your students into letters of the alphabet and let them form the letters with their bodies! Building movement into lessons yields far better results…
If you like to take a cute end of the year class photo, here is a simple and quick idea. This class photo for the end of the year is easy to put together. Run some construction paper through your printer or copy machine and you’re set to go! Grabbing a class photo is a…