Blog Archives
Cactus Lesson Ideas with FREE Printables!
Who doesn’t love a cute cactus themed activity? I created some super simple, super cute cactus themed activities that your students can enjoy anytime of year (even in the summer!) Each of these activities are great for individual practice, center practice, partner practice, or even small group practice!
Just collect a few supplies and you will be ready to go! These printables are FREE!! There are two additional printables that also round out this collection of cactus themed activities that are perfect for anytime of year!
Click here to get your printables and to see the list of simple supplies you’ll need to make these activities happen!
Guided Reading Made Simple
I love anything that will help make my life easier and I stumbled upon two great ideas last school year that have helped make my Guided Reading groups run so much more smoothly!
Just changing up these two simple routines has bought me back 3-4 minutes of time and gives my students repeated alphabet practice along with a simple routine they can follow. When my students see their material baskets out and ready by their whiteboards, they know which routine we will be practicing first and have everything they need ready to go!
In the same way, I used to spend 20 minutes or so every Friday afternoon getting magnetic letters ready for my students so we could make words, but after discovering this idea, my students do all the work and practice locating letters too!
Click here to read more about these tips that will buy you back precious Guided Reading minutes!
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!
The Three Little Pigs
Around this time of year every year, my students and I read at least one version of The Three Little Pigs. I love that this story is one that my students immediately connect with (mostly because of the Big Bad Wolf) and are easily able to retell.
I generally have my students try to build houses out of the three materials from the story (sticks, bricks, and straw), and this year was no exception, but I wanted to take the experience up a notch by transforming the space around them, so that they felt like they were in a forest where they might actually run into the Big Bad Wolf.
I’m always a little intimidated by room transformations, but I have to be honest when I say that I’m not anymore! This was so much fun to do and it didn’t take me long at all! I think I spent about 30 minutes prepping the materials and another 30 to hang and decorate the space. The key is in thinking out what you want the finished space to look like, and in collecting all your materials so you can knock it all out in an hour or so!
My students felt as though they were in the woods building their homes! We had a great time and were able to talk quite a bit about what materials we should and should not build homes out of. Check out more details about our fun day building with The Three Little Pigs here!
Sight Word Practice
Raise your hand if your students need to learn sight words each year!! Mine do and practicing them can get boring…quickly, so I decided to find a way to engage my students in the learning and practicing of the sight words!
I used truly active learning to engage my students in the learning of sight words! We used these three fun activities to amp up our learning (and to review) sight words. Once these activities were introduced, I kept them out so my students could keep enjoying them!
Click here to read more about the fun we had (and are STILL having!)
Fun on the Farm
I’m so excited to share this post with you!! Its an idea I’ve had in my head for months and I am so thrilled to finally have been able to execute it!
As part of the unit we are in, we learn about where our food comes from and it gives us a chance to learn more about the habitat of the farm.
We put on a very simple “production” for the other 4 Kindergarten classes and the Farm Backdrop and Stand-Up Cow (Maggie Moo as we call her!) all came from Oriental Trading!
Click here to read more about our fun on the farm!!
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*
Another idea from Debbie Diller
Another idea that Debbie Diller shared was this one about punctuation and how to help children understand what the various marks mean. I really liked this stop light version because my children can visualize the punctuation mark and then remember the color associated with it.
I tried this idea out today so that I could link the idea of finding commas in our big books with using commas in writing. I also like that it is a ready made anchor chart that the children can refer back to many times in the year. Now I just need more wall space to hang them all up! 🙂
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 