Finding ways to meet my students’ needs has been a big push in self growth for me this year. With a new batch of kinders coming I know that yet again, I’ll be faced to do it all over. It has been very rewarding and the value far outweighed any of the planning and work…
How can a kindergarten teacher find the time to assess? {Really! How is it possible when most of our testing is done one-on-one?} Can I tell you that I don’t have the answer for everyone. What I can share are the solutions that work for me. Each of our classrooms runs differently and we are…
Beginning sounds, rhyming and CVC segmenting and blending are key skills when learning how to read and write. But where do we grow from there? How can we keep a literacy center the same and yet build on those skills already mastered? How can we keep a literacy center the same and yet build on…
Sometimes allure is in a name. When I read books on how to create literacy centers and run guided reading groups my first year of teaching, I liked a lot of what I read. But I wanted to find a “hook” to get my kinders into their activities and get them to read and write!…
Visual discrimination is huge for young developing and emergent readers! One of the literacy centers I first developed was our puzzle center. It does feature puzzles of all varieties: floor, wooden, regular. But it also features alphabet building and word building puzzles. I have enough puzzles that each of the nine weeks, we rotate out…
Speaking of planning, I am sketching out the next nine weeks of math instruction. We are beginning work over the next nine weeks of really identifying, writing and composing/decomposing numbers 11-19 using tens and ones. As I was at the Dollar Tree today, I grabbed three sets of (affiliate) foam sheets. I was thinking of a way…
Make a sweet handprint butterfly gift with a poem for Mother’s Day. This free kindergarten activity is a painted handprint poem that will only take a few minutes to pull together. Mother’s Day always seemed to creep up on me in the month of May. We get so busy planning for the end of the…
Two weeks ago, I was fussily taking some photos from our math journals to share and it hit me. I was teaching my kinders wrong! Okay, not wrong, but I could be teaching them better! Why, when I am working with them in groups or during our whole group calendar time, am I modeling subtraction by doing…
Starting this quarter I want to reward my kinders with knowing they are increasing their skills by giving them a repetitive activity that’ll show growth. Dare I say, they will be getting a “timed test?” Most of my kinders will love the challenge and I’ve worked at putting it together so that it is meaningful…
This year I have been using small group math instruction to guide my kinders. I’ve shared how its laid out and even a sample lesson called: Composing & Decomposing: A Guided Math Lesson Plan Flow I am very thankful for the insight that these opportunities provided since the way I was doing math in all…
Two years ago I decided to make a change to my calendar time. It was scary territory and I invited you along for the adventure. What prompted this change? It was about the same time that I started teaching the majority of my day in small groups. I decided to integrate calendar binders for four…
Create your own Hansel and Gretel retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Hansel and Gretel retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your…
Create your own Red Riding Hood retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Red Riding Hood retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom…
Create your own Goldilocks and The Three Bears retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Goldilocks retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom…
Create your own The Three Billy Goats Gruff retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Three Billy Goats Gruff retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen…
Create your own Cookie’s Week retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Cookie’s Week retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom too. It’s…
Create your own Polar Bear retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the…
Create your own fall retelling activity based on this simple book for kindergarten. This is how I created a Fresh Fall Leaves retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set so you can make it happen in your classroom too. It’s one of…
Literacy centers are a huge portion of our day. They allow me to teach guided reading to small groups of students and keep students learning and on task. Here is how I use a literacy center workboard, routine and transitions to make this portion of our day work smoothly. Literacy centers makes a big impression…
Create your own Peanut Butter and Jelly retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Peanut Butter and Jelly retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in…
Create your own Big Pumpkin retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Big Pumpkin retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom too. It’s…
Create your own Very Quiet Cricket retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Very Quiet Cricket retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom…
I love building in retelling stories into our literacy center time. We have active literacy centers in our classroom like the retell center. This is how I created a ‘There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly’ retell activity to go in our retell center as an option for my kindergarten students. They read, they…
Create your own Cinderella retelling activity with this free download for kindergarten. This is how I created a Cinderella What Do You Hear retell activity to go in our retell center as a storytelling option for my kindergarten students. Let me show you what’s in our set and give you the materials to make it happen in your classroom…