There is so much fun that goes on any given school year. Here is a fun way to remind parents of special school events, fun school days and even remind them of what days gym shoes need to be worn those first few weeks of school. If you’re anything like me, you don’t really want…
How can someone start teaching guided math in kindergarten? Here are my top questions you should ask yourself to help you think through the process. If you’re willing to meet groups of students where they are and give them math practice that helps them progress – you’re gonna love teaching with a guided math format….
Collecting money in kindergarten just got easy! How to collect and track money for special events, field trips and more without losing your sanity. We seriously have so many times that we collect money in the classroom. In kindergarten, it can be tricky to collect money, know who you collected it from and how much….
Stay organized for more than just lesson plans with your teacher planning calendar. If you’ve got this year’s 17-month printable calendar, then you’re set to plan all kinds of things. Here are 5 more ways to use your teacher planning calendar. These are my tips on using it for planning for a maternity sub, college coursework, long-term…
Teaching shapes to kindergarten is part of many standards-based curriculums. When you teach 2D shapes, you’re covering some basic geometry skills your kinders will build from for years to come. Let’s look at how to teach 2D shapes and dig into some 2d shape activities and games to help you cover this topic. How to…
Teaching the basics in kindergarten can go a long way. I find it key to teach the little stuff right up front in order to make the benefits lasts all year. I think that teaching kindergartners how to draw 2D shapes would fit in the list of the basics. Not only do they have to…
Add a punch of color to your classroom with hanging lanterns. Here is how I hung paper lanterns in my kindergarten classroom to make a fun visual statement. Let me preface that I prefer function over pretty. If it’s something I have to redo each year, then it’s not smart enough for me to use…
It’s here! FROSTED – It’s a HUGE kindergarten unit of frozen winter math and reading fun! This unit has 14 differentiated activities full of frozen, wintery, snowflake fun. Here is a breakdown of the entire unit so you get the sneak peek and can see just how large it is and flexible this will be for your…
Decompose and compose teen numbers like champs in your classroom with this fun, frozen, wintery game. This printable game board and pieces gives kindergartners the repeated hands-on practice they need to master composing numbers 11-19. It’s a composing/decomposing game that builds numbers up to 20 using groups of tens and ones. It’s fun and easy…
Are you on the hunt for a good January read aloud or set of sub plans? Here are resources to teach Sneezy the Snowman in kindergarten. You could plug and play these into your winter theme lesson plans or they can stand alone as a set of plans for a substitute teacher. Sneezy the snowman…
Make a morning routine for your kindergarten class that sets the right tone for the entire day. Here’s how I managed our morning routine in kindergarten. This topic came from a reader: I need help with my schedule- making it flow and starting the day off right. I have 25 kids and it’s my first year…
Ready to organize your centers? Here’s my simple solution (and why it works) on how to organize centers in kindergarten. I’m not a craaazy organized person, although you may think differently if you’re a reader of mine. I love to be organized and I function better when I am organized… but you just can’t be…
Christmas is here! Let’s celebrate by making keepsake kindergarten ornaments that your students’ parents will hang on their tree year after year. I’ve got a classic kindergarten hand print ornament that has simple steps and turns out precious. Plus, I’ll share three more ornament ideas for kindergarten with you in case you’re looking for something…
Wintertime lasts anywhere from October to April for us in Indiana. Needless to say, being prepared as a teacher for winter and winter gear makes my life easier, saves instructional time, and ends up teaching my kinders organizational skills. Here are my sanity-saving tips broken down for you and I’ve included a free printable to…
Collecting papers in kindergarten doesn’t have to cause a headache. Here is my simple way that I collect papers in my classroom that really works. The papers. Oh, the papers. Sometimes it seems as if there is a never-ending influx of papers that sometimes makes a teacher feel like this… Can you relate? I really can’t stand…
When my students would prep their own folders at the end of the day, it involved putting papers into their folders. This means I wasn’t responsible to pass out any papers at all in my classroom. I put the responsibility onto my kinders and they handled it beautifully. Here’s how I set up a paper system…
When it comes to setting up your classroom, I don’t think you should have to define how big your library area is by the number of books you have. Let me share why and how you can easily change out the library center books you have on display! Why you shouldn’t put all of your…
You asked about how we have alternative seating setup and I’ve answered lots of alternative seating questions! One I haven’t covered was where to put all of the students’ things… you know, their stuff. Because we have pencil boxes, workbooks, writing notebooks or journals, etc. Here is how I went about storing and organizing student…
I’m a big fan of teaching responsibility in kindergarten. One big example: you won’t find me stuffing folders – my students are capable of doing that themselves. Want to know my secrets? I think there are a few things you can do to make a daily folder setup successful and easy for kindergartners (and their…
Making 5 is one of the basic and fundamental ideas that come from the Common Core standards in kindergarten. Students should be able to subitize, manipulate, create and pull apart very well in order to lay a solid foundation for further concepts. This year, I realized that I should’ve slowed down in this area for…
I have a secret to share with you. It’s one little thing that took me a few years to learn – but when I did – it made all the difference in how I felt about and approached the first few days of kindergarten. It was such a relief to figure this out! And I’m excited to share…
Learning how to read means learning lots of intertwining skills – like beginning sounds. Here is my list of my top teaching printables and favorite free resources that I used this year in my guided reading groups. Let me share why I use them and how you can use them in your classroom too. How and why I use these…
More than once I’ve been asked with my classroom of alternative seating options, “Where do your students do a whole group activity?” So let me share where and how we complete a whole group activity in kindergarten. Before I lay out what we do – and it’s really rather simple – let me remind you…
Number sense and learning to write and use numbers 0-10 is a pretty big deal the first nine weeks of kindergarten. Here is a set of materials that helps me teach kindergarteners how to form the numerals and teach them how to count one-to-one all the way to ten. Because, let’s be honest. Lots of kinders…