Blog Archives
Back to School Literacy Centers
This year, somehow, I had the foresight to plan out my beginning of year literacy centers BEFORE I left for summer break. I have no idea where I got that idea or when that idea popped into my head, but it was the best idea. Ever.
Imagine walking back into your room after summer break, and you have one less thing to do! #winning. Seriously. I walked into my classroom and my literacy centers were ready to go. Everything I needed to help my beginning of year Kinders learn the routines and procedures associated with learning the alphabet was there in a tub, ready to go.
I came up with 8 easy literacy centers that would help my students get into the grove of literacy centers on the fourth day of school. Yes, the fourth day of school! That was another brilliant idea! Starting literacy centers as soon as I could. Getting students in a routine as soon as we can gets them started on the road to independence (and frees you up to meet with small groups sooner!). Anyway…
8 great literacy center ideas that take so little prep on your part, you will be amazed (and maybe even a little impressed with yourself!).
My students have been loving these activities this week (and half of them have asked when we are going to start “learning”)!! Find out all the details here and then get your literacy centers going!
These literacy center ideas are PERFECT for pulling back out later in the year to work with ELL students or other students who haven’t quite mastered all their letter names yet. They are appropriate, fun, and help those learners who need a bit of an extra boost!
Phenomenal Phonics
I don’t know about you, but I always seem to run out of fun activities to do during my small guided reading groups to keep my students engaged and learning! I’ve got 4 activities to share with you today that will keep your students engaged and LEARNING! These activities are great because they can be used in a small group and then introduced as part of an independent practice time. I also love that more than one student can participate at a time!
Each of these activities requires little to no prep work and can be used many times as your students skills grow and change. Click here to check out these Phenomenal Phonics ideas!
Amazing Alphabet Ideas
One of the skills we practice constantly in Kindergarten is the recognition of letters. During the beginning of the year, we practice naming and identifying letters and move towards putting a sound with each letter. We eventually end up using those letters to make words and sentences.
When I introduce alphabet activities to my students, I try to make them as fun and as engaging as possible. I also try to build in as many learning styles as I can so that my students will have a way to remember the letters in a way that makes the most sense to them.
Here are a few ways that I introduce letters to my students at the beginning of the year or anytime I see that a student needs to review the letters.
You can read more about these ideas here. 🙂
I’ll be back soon to tell you why I’ve been so absent from blogging soon. 🙂
Classroom Library Makeover
My classroom library was looking a little boring these days. It didn’t quite fit in with the rest of my classroom, so with a little help from Oriental Trading Company, I fixed it up! 
Read more here about how I quickly got it looking new again and for some tips to make your classroom library cozy too!
Back to School
I started the new school year 2 weeks ago and its one of the best starts I’ve had in the last 5 years! We have been able to learn routines and procedures much faster than in the past few years.
We got out our Literacy Work Station tubs the 2nd week of school and my sweet kiddos have handled them SO well!
Here’s a look at what’s currently in the tubs:
Can you tell we are working on the alphabet? I put a variety of activities out so that my different levels of learners can go at their own pace.
Stamp a Letter, Word, or Number
I just finished updating one of my very first products! I am so excited to show you the new and improved Stamp a Letter, Word, or Number pack!
I updated the pack so that the letters, number, and sight words are all in one place! Each letter, number, and sight word has a circle around it so that children can focus on daubing right on top of the word as they identify them. On the top of each page, a key tells the children what color each word should be stamped. I use BINGO daubers, but you can also use highlighters or markers/crayons to have your students complete this activity.
The list of sight words comes from our Journeys program, however, most of the words (99% of them) are also on the Dolch or Fry Word lists, so they are great for all learners.
This would be a great morning arrival activity, as part of a Literacy Work Station, or as part of a small reading or intervention group.
Capital and lowercase letter pages are included so you can specifically target the instruction or letter review your students need.
*Please note, I am leaving the older version of this product up, so others can continue to download it in the future*
Winter Break
How many of you go back to school tomorrow? I’ll be with you, but I wanted to share some pictures of some work I did last Friday at school to get ready for my K’s to come back to school.
We are going to be learning about Community Helpers the next 6 weeks, so I switched out my Science/Sensory area to a Community Helper sensory bin. I used some well washed rocks from the playground, and got a pack of 5 CAT construction vehicles from Target {My favorite place on earth–other than IKEA!}. I also added some Matchbox construction vehicles and some IKEA community helper people and cars.
I also switched out my sensory bin {using A Differentiated Kindergarten’s January Sensory Tub pack}. There are letters hidden in the bottom and the children will make their sight words as they find the letters.
I also got a new shelf from IKEA. You might remember that last summer I invested in a “rainbow cart” when they went on sale at Michaels. I still really like it, but two things made it not work out so well for us. 1) We couldn’t put our pocket dice in them and they kept getting separated from our Math Work Station, so we couldn’t do our work! 2) The tubs that came with it were difficult for my K’s to put back in. We already have one of these shelves from IKEA for our Literacy Work Stations, so we already know they can hold more and are easy to put away. I think this new system will work so much better for us!
I’ve re-purposed the “rainbow cart” to an area behind my desk. I will use it to stash upcoming Math and Literacy Work Stations so that I can stay on top of switching them out. I think it will help me and the K’s!
Stay tuned for some more new organization! I’m participating in a blog link-up with my friend Tammy at Live, Love, Laugh Kindergarten. She’s created a monthly link up to help get different areas of your classroom organized. First up is the teacher desk area/binders. I bought some cute things at Target over the weekend to help get things in order on my messy desk, so I’ll be sharing those soon. You can participate even if you don’t have a blog! Just post the pictures to Twitter or Instagram using the #TeachersGetOrganized2015 and be sure to tag Tammy!
Also coming up on Tuesday we have our weekly Tweet Chat with guest host Vanessa Levin from @PreKPages. She’s hugely talented and shares amazing things on her Facebook page and blog.
Don’t feel intimidated! Tweeting is really easy…even if you just lurk in the background, I promise you will get some great ideas! You will need a Twitter account {its free to sign up} to join us, but after that, you can use my tutorials to help you:
Tweet Deck is another platform to use when tweeting. I find it easier to use than Twitter because I can narrow my screen easily down to the one conversation. On Twitter, all your conversations appear at once, making it harder to follow along. 🙂 Give it a try and watch for me giving out prizes!! My twitter name is @fuzzlady77, so be sure to tweet me if you have any questions!
Have a GREAT first day back!!
W
So much to share!
I had the pleasure of seeing Debbie Diller again when she came to talk in my district. She had some great ideas (as always) that I was able to go try in my classroom right away.
This chart is a schema chart. We listed all the things we knew about apples and such before we went to the apple orchard. I told the children that their job at the orchard was to listen for some new information they could add to their schema. Boy, did they do their jobs!
Today we took the copies of the pictures I took on our trip and glued them around the edges to make a border. Thanks to Debbie for that awesome suggestion!!!
I can see using this for so many different topics! The children were/are so proud of their work, both all the things they already knew and all of the things they learned!
The Daily Five
I’ve just started reading The Daily Five and wondered if any of you have used it in Kindergarten. I’m curious to know how it looks and how it can be incorporated with/into Literacy Work Stations.
Kristen's Kindergarten 