Monthly Archives: September 2013
Sorting
We’ve been working on sorting by shape, size, and color this week. Here are some pictures of us sorting different materials:
Literacy Work Stations in action
Here are some pictures of Literacy Work Stations in action in my class room. 🙂
Blogging Break
Sorry that I haven’t been blogging in a week or so. Last Saturday, I had to put my 15 year old Gidget to sleep. She had just gotten old and I needed to do it. Not easy, but necessary! This has been the longest, most emotional week! I really haven’t felt like doing much of anything and school has been a wonderful distraction from thinking about her. I’m still lucky enough to have her adopted sister at home, so I still have another cuddly 15 year old dog to come home to each day! 🙂 I’m going to get back to posting regularly soon, but I wanted to take some time off to say goodbye to my Gidget–I’ve had her since I was a junior in college! It’s like losing a member of the family and I keep seeing and hearing things that remind me of her. 🙂 Such a sweet dog she was! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
New Math Work Stations
Here are my first Math Work Stations for the year:
The first activity is from my Stamp a Number or Letter pack. The children will use the do-a-dot stampers to stamp the numbers the appropriate colors (we’ve gone over how to use the color words hung in the room to help us figure out the color). We’ve also talked about how to use the color word from the side of the bottle to help use as well. 
I got this page from a Didax Education book called Dice Activities for Math. The children roll the die and write the corresponding number in the box–they do not draw the dots. 🙂
This page is from Little Miss Kindergarten. It’s free on her blog. 🙂
This activity is from my Rainbow Pom-Pom Toss pack. I shared this with you last week. My kiddos LOVE it, so I promised I would put it out again for them to use. 🙂
Another Roll and Cover activity from Little Miss Kindergarten. 🙂
I’ve had this one in my pins on Pinterest for awhile. 🙂 It was created by one of my very first blogging friends Donna Glynn. 
This activity is from my 2D Shapes Game Pack. The children use the do-a-dot stampers again to stamp the shapes the correct color. There are 6 games in this pack and I’ve just finished laminating all of them to phase into my Math Work Stations and small math group work. 🙂
This activity is also from the 2D Shapes Game pack mentioned above. The children will grab one of the cards I just laminated and look at what shape it is. They will then color one of that shape on this recording sheet and put the card into the discard pile. 
From my 2D Shapes Game pack, this activity the kiddos love because it involves dice! I programmed 2 dice with these 4 shapes. I left two sides blank for now (didn’t want to weight the chances of getting one shape over another!!). The children roll a die and draw the shape in the correct box. 
In this last tub, the children will use math mats that I made (I need to get a picture of them!) and place the correct number of objects on them. For example, the fish at the top left get placed into numbered fish bowls (on the mats). The stars go on a moon, the red pom-poms go on apple trees, the dinosaurs go into toy boxes, the pumpkins go on a fence, and the stars go on a flag. I created the mats based on the types of erasers I have.
I have quite a collection as you can see! I got some of these from the Target Dollar Spot, the Dollar Tree, but most came from a local supply place we have here called KIPP Brothers. They have all sorts of erasers and when they open to the public, I go! Shipping is free that way! 🙂
I’m going to work on some more mats soon and when I do, I’ll post them in my TPT store. 🙂
Kristen 🙂
New Literacy Work Stations
Here is a look at my first Literacy Work Stations for this year. We will have been in school for 20 days by the time I introduce these today. I have modeled all these activities for the kiddos already and they have tried their hand at them at least once.
This activity is from Marsha Maguire’s Back to School Word Work Galore pack. Its full of activities that are just right for my Kinders at this point in the year! The kiddos use a bingo stamper and stamp their way through all the letters in alphabetical order. Marsha has included both upper and lower case letters so my children can get practice with both. 
This is the beginning of my magnet work station. I’ve also added colorful magnetic letters to this tub so my kiddos can spell the words on the buses, or they can just experiment with their own names or other words right now. 
Another one of Marsha’s creations from the same pack I mentioned above. There are 12 cards hidden around my room and the children have to find them, match the picture to the spot on their mat and then write in the beginning sound in the word. (No one has caught on yet that they can just write the beginning sound down by looking at the picture–that’s how great Marsha’s activities are!!). Marsha has also included other uses for the hidden cards and this sheet. 
See, Say, and Color (from Marsha!). I added a box of crayons and magnetic letters to this tub. The children will pull a letter and name it. Then then color it on their sheet. 
My kids loved Marsha’s Star Letter Order! They pull a card from the stack (other uses for these cards will happen later!) and write that letter down in the star. They then write the three letters after it. The stack includes upper and lowercase letters to make it a little more challenging!
This activity is from my Stamp an Uppercase Letter pack. The children use the do-a-dot stampers to stamp the uppercase letters the appropriate color. 
I created this activity to go along with our Journeys reading series. The children will use hand lenses to find tiny and colorful words on the first sheet (standing up) and then write them in the appropriate columns on the recording sheet (the one laying down in the tub). 
This is our listening work station. Missing from this picture are two iPod touches. I posted earlier this summer about how I plan to use the iPods so that my kiddos don’t have to be tied to the wall with a plug. 
These pages will go in our Word Work journals (something new I’m trying this year!). They will each have 1/2 of a sheet and then they recreate the target word in several different ways.
I will also have 3 other Work Stations that do not require a tub: Promethean Board Work Station, Library Work Station, and Computer Work Station. Additionally, there are two Work with the Teacher Work Stations that will start in a two more weeks. I’ve got to get everyone settled at these Work Stations and mingle with the kiddos as they work before I can get my small groups going! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
More Science
We are quite on our way with our science! We are using the National Geographic science kits we adopted a few years ago. I like them a lot, but I personally think there is not enough content to each lesson, so I add my own things in. I also have my kiddos notebook when ever we can and this lesson about properties was perfect!
We were looking at how scientists (and mathematicians too!) use non-standard items (unifix cubes in this case) to measure objects. We first predicted how long we thought the object would be. I placed one cube at the end of each object and we made our estimates from there. We then went back to the next column and collected the actual amount.
We also talked about how we know when to round up to the next cube and when its fine to call the object even with the cubes.
I created this recording sheet for my kiddos to take notes on as we went (setting them up to do this on their own in a few months!!). They sat on the floor with their papers on their clipboards while I had each of the objects up on my visual presenter. I wanted to demonstrate how we measure before turning it over to them.
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 