Keeping higher readers in kindergarten challenged appropriately doesn’t mean more work, or even more {{uuugh}} worksheets. Far from it! In our classroom it means working on the next level of skills or working more in-depth. Here is one example of a game we played in our guided reading groups to help higher readers stay challenged….
Keep fun reading tools on hand to encourage kindergarten readers. Here are my must-have reading tools that are fun and were used regularly! Over the years I’ve changed what I’ve kept on hand in at my teacher table for guided reading. But, I’ve always liked to keep manipulatives we use regularly on hand as well…
Make reading in small groups easier with a reading strategy checklist. Here is a free checklist I’ve made for guided reading groups to communicate what I’m seeing with kindergarten parents. When reading with small groups, documenting what strategies students try is a great way to both informally assess and help guide your own planning. We teachers have…
The beginning of kindergarten is so busy! We pack in so much in 15-minute increments that I know it can be hard to make lesson planning easy. Here is my cheat sheet of 5 activities I’d totally make sure get into my first week of kindergarten lesson plans. Now, please don’t mistake this for the…
The Kissing Hand is a classic book for many kindergarten and elementary classrooms on the first day of school. Here are Kissing Hand freebies, activities, videos, and books listed all in one place so you won’t have to go digging to look for them. Be sure to click on the name of each Kissing Hand freebie to see where it came…
Here is a measurement activity for kindergarten. This free measuring activity uses a printable and some linking cubes – which I’m sure you probably already have on hand in your classroom. During the first week or two of school, I’d read the book (affiliate) Titch by Pat Hutchins. It’s a simple read aloud and I like to…
This is my letter to you, dear first-year kindergarten teacher. Let me start by saying that even though you may be nervous as all get out – if you have excitement for being in kindergarten – then you’ve got this! Of course, there will be challenges, but that is something everyone has to overcome – so…
I find myself, a kindergarten teacher as a regular in my local Dollar Tree shops finding good buys for my classroom. You may have already read my list of 21 Classroom Things Worth Purchasing from the Dollar Tree. I’ve dug through my classroom photos to see what else has held up over the years that I’ve found worth purchasing. Like I’ve…
Literacy centers can be a blessing or a pain. I think it all hinges on the design, organization and effectiveness behind them that makes a difference. This is my philosophy on how to create literacy centers that are smart for me, the teacher, and effective for my kindergarten students. I think that literacy centers for…
I like working smart and one way I found to do that was by making sets of handy charts to use during guided groups. You can do this too – using your favorite materials! For my kindergarten classes – with a wide range of non-readers to second grade reading levels, that included working from the alphabet to learning…
When it comes to shopping at the Dollar Tree, I’m always looking for ways to keep the fun in standards-based kindergarten activities. Here are six activities that are perfect to use in kindergarten that makes it really inexpensive and still engaging to teach reading skills. These activities cover starting with the alphabet, to sight words to…
As a teacher I set off to the Dollar Tree regularly in order to find good buys for my classroom. Here are my ideas on what’s worth purchasing at the dollar tree as a kindergarten teacher. These items may be used exactly as they were intended or I may have a creative classroom purpose for…
Teach how to draw a ten frame so that it can be used as a tool throughout the year to show groups of ten – perfect for composing and decomposing numbers. This is a hugely important skill! I am laying the foundation for all of that now by teaching them how to draw it… I…
Things end up on the floor. Always. Every day. It’s a fact of life when you’re doing learning all day long with lots of little bodies and different personalities, learning styles and levels of responsibility. So, what’s a teacher to do with all of those floor-found things? How about NOTHING? That’s right. I highly recommend…
Before the last three weeks of school, I spent almost an entire weekend in my classroom… with a plan. The plan was to be brave, be bold and try something different. The last two years, I really hadn’t changed much in layout with my classroom because it was working well and in general, very smoothly….
Describing 3D shapes in kindergarten is now an expectation as it is a key geometry standard. This standard focuses on four main 3D shapes: cylinder sphere cube cone Students should be able to describe the faces, vertices, and edges of each shape. So, what are some 3D shapes activities for kindergarten and resources for practicing…
Work on addition and subtraction in kindergarten by playing games. Here is a collection of 11 free bump gameboards that kindergarteners can use to build their math skills. Bump-style games are perfect for kindergarten because they can be played by a single player or they can be a partner game. These games I’ve made practice these…
My literacy centers are a core part of our kindergarten schedule. They are active literacy centers that keep us on our toes and working so that I can work with small groups. Today, let me share my kindergarten retell literacy center directions, expectations and a list of the 20 stories that make up this year-long center in our…
Work on identifying 3D shapes or describing 3D shapes with a free printable bingo game for kindergarten. Here is a bingo game that I made for my kindergarten class to play in small groups. Let me show you how to play it, how to make it, and give you the free download. Bingo is such…
Teacher planning is part of what we do as teachers to create lessons and plan for students. These are the key items I include in my teacher planning binder. Having a sense of teacher organization and incorporating organization into teacher planning is possible. Readers, I’d like you to meet my sanity saver. This is where…
We discovered why decomposing and composing numbers really is crazy important and dug into our daily schedule to find out how to easily teach composing numbers regularly. This is part 3 of this series – it’s all about taking this standard to a new level! Let’s review real quick: Working on decomposing and composing numbers into their groups of…
What we just explored why decomposing and composing numbers really is crazy important in kindergarten. This is part 2 of this series – it’s all about making practicing this skill regularly a cinch in the kindergarten classroom. As a recap, I know that we often call this common core standard “place value,” but really it is…
Decomposing numbers means to break down numbers into their sub-parts. Common Core standards has kindergarten students decomposing numbers in two ways. The first is to decompose numbers into their tens and ones (focus on numbers 11-19) and the second is to show how any number 1-10 can be created using a variety of addends. I…
Literacy centers can greatly improve reading skills for kindergartners. This is how I organize, offer choice and set up a big book literacy center in my kindergarten classroom. Part of my teaching philosophy {yeah, remember that boring class in college?} is working smart. Why didn’t they cover that in school? I believe that you can…