Happy Little Kindergarten: 2015

December 27, 2015

$100 Amazon Gift Card GIVEAWAY!

I'm teaming up with some bloggy friends for this AWESOME giveaway! Didn't get what you really wanted for Christmas? Enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card and get what you really wanted!

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Special Thanks to my bloggy friends for teaming up on this giveaway!

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December 26, 2015

Flash FREEBIE Linky Party! CVC Center FREEBIE!

Freebies expire January 1st!

In the spirit of the holidays I thought I'd give my followers a little flash freebie!

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Students match the spelling with their pictures then use the recording sheet to record answers!

You can download this center for FREE HERE! Please provide feedback on my TPT store and let me know what you think!

An InLinkz Link-up

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December 12, 2015

Guided Math Activities

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Let's talk guided math.

We started implementing guided math in my school about 2 years ago. Prior to my guided math awakening I was making 4 math centers per day. I found myself stressed about not only the excruciating prep of creating so many activities each day, but I also struggled to get finished with the centers. When the idea of guided math was introduced, I greeted the change with open arms.

So here's what works for me. I implement guided math by creating 5 math centers per week. I group my students heterogeneously and they rotate to a new center each day. During this time, I pull students who struggled during the math lesson and provide a reteach lesson individually. This means that most of my math centers are completed independently by the students. I'm lucky enough to have a full-time assistant in my classroom who is able to take a math center are help others while I'm with my reteach group.

Here's how I organize my group rotations each week...

I write student names on each group. I laminated stars and write the weekly center on each star with dry-erase and attach a magnet. When I rotate groups, I simply move the stars over 1 place. This way, students know which center to go to. I organize centers in numbered buckets shown below.

See? Easy breezy!

Currently, I'm working with my students on addition and subtraction. I'd love to share some resources I've found to be useful in my guided math groups.

First, I made a Guided Math Center Bundle. You can get it HERE. This week, we used the Spin and Subtract center. Here, students spin subtraction sentences. This is great because I was actually able to use it 2 weeks in a row. Because they spin different combinations of numbers, the possibilities are endless!

I also used a similar Spin & Add center. Here, students build number sentences.

Addition & Subtraction

I made some lower-maintenance addition math worksheets which require no-prep! Hellloooo sanity-saver! Here are some of the activities I'll be using!

Shapes

geometry math worksheets

Download it HERE

Measurement

Measurement Worksheets

December 7, 2015

Beginning Sound Bonanza!

A kindergarten teacher can never overemphasize the importance of teaching letter sounds. I made this packet to help my struggling students at my independent work station. This packet includes 2 interactive activities.

1. Spinning Sounds: Reviews letter in sets of 4. Students spin and land on a picture then identify that picture's beginning sound. They then graph that letter each time the land on the sound. Perfect for helping student differentiate between letter sounds!

2. Color, Cut, & Paste Activities: Includes letters A-Z.

December 3, 2015

Five For Friday: My 5 Favorite Tips and Tricks for Kindergarten Writing

Sticker Spacers

Using stickers for spaces is a fun way to encourage making spaces in their writing!

Meatball Spacers

My students LOVE using meatball spaces. They really helped me teach students how to make spaces between words. I make them colorful and cute so the students get excited about using them.

Having an alphabet chart in students writing folders is extremely helpful for sounding out words. I particularly like this one by Glitter, Glue, & Giggles because each letter has the word spelled out underneath. I often see students using this to write about the objects in the pictures.

Get it FREE here!

Kid Writing Rubrics

This FREE writing paper is available in my TpT shop. It allows students to assess their own writing.

Writing Craftivities!

I LOVE writing craftivities! They are a fun way to mix art with writing. In my Christmas bundle I included 2 writing prompts with the Christmas present craft. The first, students draw and write about their Elf. In the next, students write differentiate needs and wants through writing, magazine clippings, and drawings. I print mine on colors paper or you can have your students color in a black and white present.

December 1, 2015

Spin & Add: Common Core Math Addition Center

A HUGE part of kindergarten math is teaching simple addition facts. I'm always looking for ways to teach addition in my classroom. I made this fun math center to help students visually understand addition within a tens frame. Students spin the paper clip and land on an addition sentence. Students use yellow and red crayons to show the addition sentence in the tens frame then write the addition sentence. I have students write the numbers using the same colors to help them better understand the parts of an addition sentence.

You can get this products in my Common Core Math Centers Bundle! It includes TONS of addition and subtraction centers!

Enjoy!