I have learned that if the class is truly interested in something, they will use reading, writing, and math skills as they explore their interests naturally. I observe and listen closely to discover what they are interested in. Sometimes a book or story will spark an interest. Sometimes an interest is sparked by something a friend shared with the class. Sometimes I notice interests by listening to their stories and their play. Our last large group interest was sparked when one of our friends found an almost dead praying mantis. The kids were fascinated with it and wanted to look closer, observe, and find out more. Every time we went outside they wanted to look for insects! I set out some invitations for them to explore insects further. They quickly started looking through books and models of insects to see what they could find out. I started encouraging them to record what they noticed using different materials. One of their favorites was the book Microsculpture:Portraits of Insects by Levon Biss. It truly took a closer look at insects including closeups of legs, wings, eyes feet, etc. it was such a beautiful book. I set it out with materials for them to create their own beautiful portraits of insects showing what they noticed. They are starting to figure out how to try to spell unfamiliar words by writing the sounds they hear in words. They practiced labeling their insects here also. But the insects they got the most excited about were the ones completely covering our milkweed plants! They wanted to know all about them! We looked at a picture of one and made our thinking visible by recording what we saw, thought and wondered. Then we got our Entomologist tools, took them outside and found out everything we could about them! They were amazing and thorough Entomologists! We recorded everything we noticed and then put some of our information in the computer and found out they are called Milkweed bugs! We then did an observational drawing as Entomologists and used our writing skills to label what it is and some body parts. Here is the display outside our room showing everything we learned about them! The other insects all took a backseat to the milkweed bug! I could have done a traditional insect unit, but these kids noticed something in their environment where they could truly experience it, so I followed the direction they took our insect study. I often let the kids direct our curriculum! They show me what they want to learn and I follow their lead and learn along side them. They were much more involved, interested and excited about learning as we followed their interest. Also, this fell naturally into our science standards of living things and what they need! I can’t wait to see what other interests this group will have that we can dig deeper into! They are definitely bringing in leaves by the bucketful... Here are some other things going on in our classroom: We are still working on those fine motor skills! Our finger muscles need a lot of work! Stories are being created in all of the areas of our room as we learn about story making! Here they are encouraged to show math in an open ended way. At the moment they are working on the numbers 1-10, shapes, writing numbers to 10, counting objects and matching to the correct number, counting to 25, subitizing and patterns. They are also learning to notice math all around us and how we use it in our every day lives. Some Fall art inspiration with sunflowers. They drew pictures of Mrs. Coberly wearing Michigan State colors and wrote “Mrs. Coberly loves Sparty!” Then we decorated her door! They loved this! Unfortunately, the Buckeye/Spartan game did not end well for me! It has been a busy place filled with all kinds of learning!
A free kindergarten math packet for at home learning.
Are you looking for super fun measurement worksheets and activities for kindergarten?? You found them!! Your students will LOVE these hands-on learning activities and fun, extra practice worksheets that teach a variety of kindergarten measurement concepts.
A ton of free printable worksheets for kindergarten you'll love to use in your class or at home. Fun kindergarten worksheets to download!
The goal of an “All About Me” theme is usually to help classmates get to know each other better, but when your only student is your own child, that puts a bit of a different spin on things. For our All About Me theme we focused on emotions, family, and learning more about ourselves. Here […]
Description of the clear stages that most kids go through in their art work.
Printable Dots Game
Happy Summer! (I think it's summer anyway. I am still working working working.) My name is Maryanna Baldridge. I teach Kindergarten and Transitional Kindergarten in Southern California. I am married to an amazing man who encourages me in everything I do. I am also a mommy to a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. I am sure you can imagine, my days are full! We are keeping busy playing in the backyard with our dogs and pet rabbit. We are gardening, roller skating, and painting. Ahh, vacation..... Needless to say Pinterest, Teacher's Notebook, and TeacherspayTeachers wont let me have an actual summer vacation because I am finding new and better ways to do my job! I am very excited about how teaching is changing and how I am able to inspire my students more effectively. I am currently selling on TpT and Teacher's Notebook. If you are in the market for some new material for your TK or K class, check out my shops. My main focus is on Language Arts and Math. I have several units for Sight Words and am working on several more for TK. I just put up a TK ABC Pack. Go take a look!
Our ABC dot to dot worksheets printables will give your 4-6 year old some wonderful screen-free time practicing the alphabet!
Looking for fun ways to make a graph? Try these graphing activities for kindergarten!
Free printable lined handwriting paper to practice writing in kindergarten, first and second grade. Several designs to choose from!
There's so much more to do with kindergartners than finger painting.
This week we focused on farm animals for tot school. I made these Animal Command Cards to use with John. They were really fun to play with! Please feel free to save and use these cards! Most clip art was from THIS site or from microsoft publisher (which is what I used to make the cards!). Check back next week to see the other fun farm animal activities we did! I link up to these parties!
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18 free leaf pattern templates to print and use as stencils or coloring pages.
Today I'm going to show you this super cute Coffee Filter Bat Craft that's great for Halloween decorating or even a theme unit about bats.
Printable 3D shapes for kindergarten are an excellent tool for young learners to grasp the concept of geometry in a hands-on way. These printables allow your child to cut out, fold, and assemble 3D shapes, making abstract concepts tangible..
This worksheets will give you lots of ideas for your preschool apple theme. Letter A Worksheets FREE Worksheets Apple Ten Frames WorksheetFill in the ten frames to match the numbers on the apples. R
Ready to learn about the second largest country in the world? Grab these printable Canada Coloring Pages to learn about Canadian wildlife, Mounties,hockey, and more!
Teaching kids about our world, geography, maps, and more. Kindergarten Social Studies Lessons made easy #kindergarten #socialstudies
I usually start the year with kindergartners learning about and using lines. In previous years we have made line paintings and line sculptures with wire and pipecleaners. Another fun project we made was line windsocks by rolling up line paintings and adding tissue paper streamers. We’ve done line drawings (check out what my old blog used to look like before I moved it over to this website.) This year I was reminded by Cassie Stephens of a project I used … Read more... →
Directed drawings are a great way to teach early drawing skills. In this post, I will break it down step by step how to introduce them to your students.
Ahhh... the first day of kindergarten! It's such an exciting day! An exhausting day! But what do you plan for that day? So many things you are excited to do with your students, but you have to remember it's the first day and keep it all in perspective!
PRIMARY WRITING - UNIT 3 I am so excited to teach this narrative writing unit! This writing curriculum is geared for kindergarten, first grade and can even be used in second grade classrooms. In Unit 3 , we are learning how to write a personal narrative . We practice writing about what we l
