Baking soda and vinegar experiments are huge at our house! I'm constantly out of one or the other and have to keep a stash hidden from my little scientists. They love to watch the chemical

Painting with balls is a fun way to combine process art and science with your kids. Use these simple ideas to extend your art activity to include science. I love making art. I love it, even more, when

Use these fun spinning tops as a lesson in color with this color mixing STEM activity. It's so fascinating to watch the colors mix while they spin!

Fun turkey activity for kids that combines turkey science with a simple and FUN thanksgiving activities for november with kids of all ages!

Balanced Equation Math Activity integrated with art. Common Core 1.OA and K.OA

This mural was created by fourth grade students with tempra paint and oil pastels. Students each got a square cut from a large print and a square white paper. The students made a grid on the little square and the paper and transfered the drawing of their section of the painting onto their paper. Then they painted with large impressionist brush strokes and then used oil pastel to accent edges when dry. We taped them all together at the end to make the mural and they were so excited!

If your looking for ways to add play-based science exploration into your preschool classroom, it's easier than you think. Let me show you how to study rocks with your kids with a geology lab

I love to see what other classrooms look like and what teachers decide to post on their walls. I do not set up my room the same every year a...

We have been working hard to learn our names! I have a helper of the day. So we cycle through everyone during the month. The first time we did King and Queen. Each person was the king or queen of the day. They got to wear a crown and cape. The crown was a paper one that they took home at the end of the day. We made a web of all their favorite things. We practiced asking and answering questions. Then everyone made a page for their book. So fun and cute. I took pictures of them all in the cape and crown for the cover. As we did this we added their name to the word wall. The second time through we did a name chart. We added names to this according to their first letter of their name. I did the first letter and different color than the rest so that they could really see their beginning letter. I put a box around all the ones that began with the same letter. Picture coming soon. The third time through did this graph. I cut 3 inch strips of cardstock. I made this chart. Everyday I had the helper come up to the front of the class and I wrote their name on a strip of their choice. Then I cut it up. Letter by letter. They would say "Oh No, It's broken" Then the helper would pick up the pieces and we glued them back together on the chart. I would then pick some names on the chart and we would compare ....Whose name had fewer and more letters than theirs. It really got them talking about their names more and the letters in them. Next time through we will be making "My book of Friends" The kids will actually cut up each name and glue it together to make a book of friends. Picture coming soon!

I usually write a list of activities on my whiteboard for students to work on when they finish early. To save on time, I've created a set of task cards to hang up instead. (I printed them on card stock and attached magnets to the back.) Click on image below to download my set of task cards for FREE! :) The cards include the following activities: * Boggle Words * Boggle Math * Silent Read * Study Sight Words * Buddy Read * Math Games * Reading Games * Spelling 3x Each * Complete Unfinished Work * Read with Whisper Phones * Free Write * Spelling City * AR Tests * Class Website * Write a Book Review * Spelling Words on White Boards In my TpT Shop, I'm offering a set of task cards that I will customize for your own classroom! Click HERE to check it out! One activity I included is writing a Book Review. It's nothing fancy, but click on the picture below for the freebie download of the Book Review Form I created to use in my classroom.

Howdy peeps! Lindsay here . . . Well, I survived. Barely. Our school district had its first day of school yesterday, but at my scho...

Explore process art using pinecones to paint. Pinecone painting is the perfect fall process art activity for preschool or at home.

Stunning Earth Day Art Work to Make - combine three simple art techniques to create this stunning art project. Perfect for preschoolers and older children | you clever monkey

This is a hogde podge collection of various writing freebies for primary students. I created these printables to use with my own students and combined them into one easy file to share. I hope you enjoy this freebie I would love for you to leave feedback if you found this freebie helpful. Tha...

Creating windy day winter sky art is an easy painting idea, science experiment, and fun STEAM project activity for kids or adults.

Last week we continued to work on building a classroom community. In my classroom I want every child to feel apart of our class family. In o...

I’ve been wanting to make this activity for quite some time. Kyle (fabulous artist) created these super cute cupcakes just for this activity designed for learning compound words. This activity contains 48 compound word cupcakes which are ideal for use either within your literacy centers or for small group instruction. Your students simply match […]

Salt, Sugar, Flour Toddler Science Experiment perfect for preschoolers

A perfect activity for the Very Hungry Caterpillar, this easy caterpillar craft for preschoolers serves a pattern activity, a fine motor activity, and a craft rolled into one. Your kids are going to

Challenge your young scientist to explore and create while having fun experimenting with interlocking cardboard pieces.

Has your classroom turned into a 1:1 Chromebook Classroom and you are unsure of how to utilize these devices each day? Come learn about some meaningful ways to integrate these devices into your elementary classroom!

How are educators harnessing the energy of the maker movement to inspire student exploration across multiple subjects? Discover resources and share advice.

Create a Truffula Tree from The Lorax with math linking cubes and pom poms. Adorable book-based activity for preschool.

Printable Back to School math review coloring pages. Easily integrate art into your back-to-school math worksheets and combine math with art for a win-win and a great back-to-school activity for your kids! I recommend this resource be used with grades 1st-6th. It is perfect for classrooms and homeschools. Use Art with Jenny K.'s Printable "Pop Art" MATH coloring sheets to review: • addition • subtraction • multiplication • division 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 is one of the most effective ways to engage students. I have created this product using my popular "pop art" images. I filled each image with patterns and then added math problems to the various shapes and patterns. In 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝘁𝗼-𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝘁, I have printable sheets to review: • addition up to 20 • subtraction from as high as 25 • multiplication that review all the times tables from the 2s to the 9s • division that reviews all the times tables from the 2s to the 9s 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗱 (𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱): • Apple • Pencil • A+ • “I (heart) School” 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻! These back-to-school math coloring sheets are a great review of math facts and great for "discreet" differentiation. As an educator, you know which students need a challenge and can do the division sheets and which students might still be struggling with subtraction. You can give out these math coloring sheets, and all kids can work on their level. 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝘀 I have also included writing prompts so students can write when they finish early. 𝗕𝗢𝗡𝗨𝗦 I include one of my signature interactive coloring sheets so you can try one if you've never used one with your students! I loved using these math sheets with my students, and I can't wait for you to do the same! Please click the "Follow Shop" button on my shop page to keep updated on all my new offerings! Thank you for supporting my work and infusing your classroom with art! Jenny K. www.artwithjennyk.com 𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗠𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗨𝗦𝗘 The purchase of this product is for one license and is for PERSONAL USE ONLY. ©Copyright 2015 Art with Jenny K.® ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is granted to copy pages specifically designed for student or teacher use by the original purchaser or licensee. The reproduction of any part of this product is strictly prohibited. Copying any part of this product and/or placing it on the internet in any form (even a personal/classroom website) is strictly forbidden. Doing so violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀: Please use Adobe Reader to view and print PDFs from Art with Jenny K. If you get an error viewing or printing a PDF you can follow the following steps to resolve. 1. Open the PDF file with Adobe Reader (get.adobe.com/reader) 2. Click "Print" 3. In the "Page Sizing & Handling" section, select "Shrink Oversized Pages" if needed 4. Click on "Advanced" 5. Check the "Print as Image" box 6. Print the document

This post could alternatively be titled "what works for me" because lets face it, there are a million ways to do centers, and what works one year with one class, might be completely awful another year with another class. Here is what currently works in my classroom. I start off at the beginning of the year SOOOO slow. I introduce only one new center (and for that matter, one new activity at each center) each week. Before I ever let the students take over ownership I model, model, model, and we talk about what you should and shouldn't do at the center. After all that talking and modeling, we role play and take turns showing each other what behavior should and should not look like at our centers. Even then, I often have to revisit behavior during centers. It's an ongoing process and you just have to have faith that it will get better the more they practice. That being said, the very first center I teach is the computer center. I am lucky to have six computers, so 1/3 of my class can be there at a time. The very first week I rotate six kids through each day while the other 2/3 of my class plays a literacy game or has story time with me. The first week I introduced my class to starfall.com and the second week to tumblebooks. We will eventually start working on istation once they are more proficient at typing in their student numbers and passwords. The second center I teach is read to self/ book boxes. I call them book boxes, just personal preference. As I cycle students through this center they choose good fit books (at this point just ones that are interesting to them since most don't have a reading level yet) to fill their boxes. Once they have a box of books they choose a mini rug throughout our room to sit on. They also have the option to take a stuffed reading buddy with them to read to, so long as they read to it and don't play around with it. If I see them playing around with it, it promptly goes back into the bucket. At this point, our second week, I now have six kids on computers, and six kids doing read to self each day, and the remaining six are working with me. (usually on beginning of the year assessments.) The amazing labels you see in these pictures are from Kinder-Craze. Her library labeling pack can be found HERE. Once those two biggies are out of the way and students are working at them well, I begin introducing our other centers. Some of these require teamwork, so putting these ones off a few weeks gives me a chance to see who should and shouldn't work together for maximum cooperation. The writing center is usually the next center introduced because it can be done as an individual activity or working together with a partner. This year the first activity I introduced there was a handwriting activity. I printed out free alphabet handwriting sheets from The Moffatt Girls and slipped them into plastic sleeve protectors I got off Amazon. I set them all in a tub at the center along with a cup filled with dry erase markers. My markers have erasers built in on the cap, but that would be something else to think about if yours don't. Lest you are starting to think I'm an expert at running centers, let me shatter your preconceived notions for a minute. Friends I can't even tell you how many times I modeled this activity. We talked about where you can and can't use the dry erase markers, how to trace the letters, how to erase it clean for the next person, etc. etc. etc. Over, and over, and over. I still had two kids who took dry erase marker and wrote all over their faces the third week of school. True story. The second week of the writing center I started introducing a color activity since we had been working on our color words. Students could use the color cards to write six different color words and draw an accompanying picture. This activity is part of Kindergarten Smiles Writing Pack which I love, love, love, and you can find HERE. I made the color cards so my students could have some extra support and you can find those for free HERE. Next up, the magnet center. I set up my magnet center on the side of my big eye sore filing cabinets, but you could easily use a magnetic white board or even cookie sheets. This is one of my students favorites. I use a variety of activities here, including some magnet board activities I got from Lakeshore Learning, but the first few weeks I keep it simple. I printed this letter matching activity from Kindergarten Smiles September Word Work Pack, (found HERE) and the students match up magnetic letters to the letters on the cards. I keep two tubs of letters at the bottom of the center so that students aren't all crowded around fighting over one bucket. I also keep a mini rug here also for the students to sit on while they are working. And the final center that I've introduced thus far, is the word work center. My students complete this center on our large rug at the front of the room not far from my guided reading table. (Where I can keep a good eye on them since these activities require them to work together nicely) I keep a laundry basket right near the rug and inside are tubs with games that have been stored in pencil pouches. Each pouch has an instruction card and then all the pieces needed for that activity. The students can choose out a pouch and work together to complete the activity. Thus far they have been introduced to an alphabetic order game, and a letter/sound match up game. Both are from the September Word Work Pack I was telling you about earlier. Later in the year as my students become more proficient at these activities I will leave clip board with recording sheets and pencils in the laundry basket too so that they can complete a recording sheet after finishing an activity. There are two more centers that I have not yet introduced that my students will start in the next few weeks. The first is the listening center. Here I have tubs of books set up with their corresponding CD and students can choose one to listen to. Eventually this one will also have a recording sheet too. And the last one is the Ipad station. Here the students can sit on the stools and use many of the same learning tools that they would use on the computer. I am always looking for new (FREE) apps to introduce to my students so if you know any good ones please leave me a comment! I have a new charging station this year that I am hoping will help the students be more independent in keeping our Ipads charged up! Now, let's talk logistics. There are two times of day that you may find my students working on literacy centers: 1) during iii (intervention time) ALWAYS. This is half an hour EVERY morning that I work with my struggling learners and during that time the rest of the class does centers in pairs. 2) during reader's workshop. This only happens at the beginning of the year while we are still building up our read to self and read to a partner stamina, and later in the year when I have testing that needs to be completed, or as a special treat. Since MOST of the class is working in centers during this time, they work together in groups of three. Since my iii center time happens every day we work on a 5 day rotation schedule Monday-Friday. My struggling learners are automatically with me, and then everyone else is given a partner, advanced kids paired up with proficient kids. During reading time I have my groups of three on a six day rotation, same as our fine arts. This way all six groups of three kids each get to cycle through everything. These are heterogeneous groups (one struggling, one proficient, one advanced student each) so that they can rely on each other and work together for support. I use center cards in mini pocket charts from target on my center board so that my students can easily look each morning and see where they go. I taped my rotation schedules right next to the board so I can easily change them at the end of the day. You can see them here to the left of my centers board: My center signs are 4x6 and made to fit in plastic upright picture frames from Michaels. The frames are a steal at only $2 each and come in other fun colors besides hot pink. I then made the rotation cards to match. I am sharing my signs and rotation cards HERE for free, but please be advised that I don't have time to make any changes, add any other centers, or make them editable. And that's what works for me! I'd love to hear what works for you if you do something different or if you have any tips!

How to create a retell literacy center in kindergarten. Plus a list of 20 famous stories and retell props (with printables) to complete this center.

In the fall at ECEC I presented this acrostic book idea. I've been getting requests for the "how to" so here we go. Now Grade 1 did these BEAR books in November and just recently Grade 3 made these ARCTIC books. MATERIALS REQUIRED: - posterboard or manila tag - die cut machine, circut, or just your trusty scissors - colored paper - stapler, jump rings, string, or whatever you want as the binding material - glue - paint, text, poems, schoolwork to fill in the pages PROCEDURE: Decide on a word for your book. This ARCTIC book, 6 letters is about as long as I would go. I pre cut the letters on the circut machine. I have also used the manual die cut at the school, and with older grades had them cut the letters themselves using stencils or the old "create a letter from a rectangle" method. For those of you who don't have access to a diecut machine check out your local scrapbooking store. Often they will allow you to use their die cutting equipment for a small charge. Once you have your letters, I'm using 4 inch, cut some strips of posterboard, manila tag, or heavy paper. I cut the strips 4 inches wide and used the actual width of the original paper as my length. Place the letters down on one full strip and mark it to determine the length that each page should be. Cut your pages. For Grade 3 I pre stapled, you could also work on them loose and bind them at the end. The students were given the letters one at a time and then asked to glue them on the end of the pages. We used tacky glue as the glue sticks just don't seem to be sticky anymore. (Don't get me started.....) So it should look something like this now. It's a good idea to mark in pencil where each page lies on the next page. This will help you keep your content from going to far and peeking out. Now you can fill in those pages. Grade 3 wrote a report on the "ARCTIC" using the letter featured for each page. For example for A, A Polar Bear crosses the tundra, An igloo is a house made of ice and snow. Grade 1 wrote words applicable to BEAR on each page, like B is brown, black, big, bushy etc. My sample book had paintings (of course) and then words based on the letters. A: awesome R: rugged C: cold T: tundra I: icy C: climate You get the idea. Why not give it a try. Here is some recent student work to show you. Here are a few file folder books. and the picture stretching from grade 3. Great job everyone. I hope everyone has a good Teacher's Convention and enjoys the long weekend. See you soon.

Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly Provide your youngsters with plenty of counting practice using these creative ideas featured on Rockabye Butterfly! Two of the activities even involve fine motor skills - two essential skills combined into one great activity. Counting Bears Place a different number of sorting bears into individual baggies and label each bag with a letter (anywhere from 6-10 bags for the activity). Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly Next, create a worksheet for your kiddos with a question asking how many bears are in each bag. Helpful Hint: If you want to reuse the activity in a classroom center, be sure to laminate the sheet and provide a dry erase marker for answering! Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly Have your kiddos work through the worksheet by finding the correct bag, counting the number of bears and recording their answers on the sheet (if you plan on reusing the worksheet, just change the number of bears in each bag before the next practice round). And, if you're looking for the super cute bear counters, you can find a similar set here! Counting Beads Provide a set of pipe cleaners and a small assortment of beads. On the top of each pipe cleaner attach a piece of tape with a number written on both sides. Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly Students are then tasked with threading the correct number of beads onto each pipe cleaner. Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly This activity is wonderful for providing fine motor skills practice! It could also be modified into a sorting activity by placing different color tape onto each pipe cleaner and having your kiddos thread beads by color rather than number. Counting Legos Create lego counting cards, writing a number at the bottom of each column. Then have your students stack together the correct number of legos. For younger students put the number in order (smallest to largest). For older students try placing the numbers in random order. Photo Source: Rockabye Butterfly If you're looking for additional ideas for your early childhood classroom, be sure to head over to Rockabye Butterfly!

WAHOOO! The BIG classroom reveal! I made some new additions to my rainbow classroom this year and kept all my fun makeover items from last year, too! When I was taking the pictures for this post, I thought of a few more things I wanted to update. It is always a work in progress! I am always adding new activities, taking out the old, putting up new student work, taking down the old, and organizing.

Are you using Seesaw in your classroom? These ready to assign activity pages cover the Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten Counting & Cardinality! Why choose this product?✓ 20 interactive pages✓ Common Core aligned✓ Engaging and purposefulHow could I use these in my classroom?»Pre-Asses...

If your looking for ways to add play-based science exploration into your preschool classroom, it's easier than you think. Let me show you how to study rocks with your kids with a geology lab

No-cook play dough is a quick & easy method for making home-made play dough that will last for months. In this post, you'll find step-by-step instructions to make it.