A teacher needs tools and resources to be effective. Here are my favorite digital and printed paper tools to organize, think and teach your best in kindergarten.
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Connect, share and rock being a mentor to a first year teacher. Here are 3 things I think are helpful to starting and creating a good working relationship when you mentor a first year teacher. This question came from a reader: What tips do you have for mentoring a first year teacher? Today, I hope I…
There comes a time we all need emergency sub plans for kindergarten. Here are free beginning of the year emergency sub plans for kindergarten that you can prep in advance. You can stash your plans, papers and read aloud all together and sleep better knowing if you have to call it in, you’re all set. Because…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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….
Want to capture those sweet smiles of your students at the end of the year? Taking adorable photos at the end of the school year just got easier. I’ve made some adorable printables to celebrate the end of the year for kindergarten (and other grades too!) These “future kindergartner” or “future first grader” printables are…