Are you planning for Christmas in your classroom? Here is a collection of favorite Christmas videos for kindergarten. These are YouTube videos that aren’t too long and can hold the attention span of a five and six year old. I’ve found audio books, brain breaks and how to say Merry Christmas in different languages you’ll want to show…
This kindergarten teaching unit makes learning FUN for both boys and girls during the month of February. You’ll love having one easy place to start from to teach all of the skills you are currently working on! Familiarize yourself with the games and activities included and you’ll have a great set of lesson plans to cover…
Let’s teach how to rhyme with these rhyming activities for kindergarten. Here are 8 free rhyming activities you can use with your kindergarten students in guided reading groups so they can learn how to hear and identify rhyming words. Teaching kindergartners to hear rhyming words I once thought that rhyming was just something that kinders…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Playing fun math games is one of my key strategies in giving kindergartners the time to practice key skills. Here is a free beginning numbers game that uses a die. It’s called Coconut roll and cover. How I use it in my classroom This activity is an activity my students use during guided math. I…
Pete the Cat is the go-to book for many kindergarten and elementary classrooms. Here are free Pete the Cat activities, freebies and books listed all in one place so you won’t have to go digging to look for them. These resources were all free at the time that I found them. There are printables for back…
Wondering where to begin in your back to school shopping? Here are my top 7 recommendations for KindergartenWorks products {outside of the freebies that we so dearly love} that will help you start off your year. These are items I created for personal use within my classroom and used for years before ever sharing them…
Sharing how to hold tight to the beauty in teaching kindergarten… making learning fun and the cool thing to do is what I do here on KindergartenWorks. Here are the top free resources that I recommend to help us all do that – but of course – you can also view all freebies. Reading Math…
We teach so many different skills to develop young readers. Here is my list of my top teaching alphabet identification printables and favorite free resources used this year in my guided reading groups. These have helped me focus on specific skills to teach how to read and meet student needs. Alphabet identification in kindergarten I use…
When I am teaching a skill that doesn’t need to be differentiated {really} and that lends itself to exploration I try to accomplish covering it whole group. Most of my math instruction is done in small groups, but today I’d like to share how I teach measurement to my kindergarten class. When I teach measurement,…
Teaching teen numbers in kindergarten using a composing and decomposing numbers approach. Students learn the meaning behind place value and catch onto numbers 11-19 quickly. Here’s a math lesson I taught and the beauty behind letting kinders explore concepts over and over. Learning teen numbers in kindergarten without just “learning” by rote visualization! In math,…
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…