Don't miss this great set of March Kindergarten Worksheets for your math and literacy practice this month. Perfect for home or the classroom.
Our St. Patrick's Day Free Activity has been lots of fun for the teachers in the Simply Kinder Facebook group! It was part of a Pen Pal Project that teachers participated in all over the US!
A Kindergarten blog about effective teaching and making learning fun.
Since summer has officially began, I have been working very hard creating some new products for the upcoming school year. I know that th...
Need a fast -n- fabulous kindergarten lesson? You might wanna try these Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus creations on for size. In the following video, I demonstrate using a bingo dauber. I know you might not have those to try using either a black oil pastel or a Sharpie instead. This was a two-day lesson for my 40 minute kindergarten art classes. Here you go: Super fun and easy, didn't I tell you? I love doing guided drawing every now and again with my students. They LOVE it and are always excited by their results. Kindergarten is especially great at just "going with the flow" and not worrying about being "perfect"...but there are always some kids who do stress. That's why, before doing a guided drawing, we always chat about how we are unique people which means we are unique artists who create uniquely! We also love to give a shout out to Barney's book Beautiful Oops. Y'all know I had to wear my Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus dress! Each little squawky bird was so different, funny and cute. After reading the book, this was as far as we managed to get. I've gotten a lot of questions on where to find bingo daubers and what to fill them with. I got mine from my art supply catalogs but I've also seen them on the Oriental Trading website. I fill mine with India ink...I don't use any particular brand as all the India ink I've ever purchased has been fine. My go-to oil pastel for projects like this are Sargent's florescent brand. They GIVE ME LIFE. I love how creamy, bright and bold they are. And so do the kids. As for watercolor, you'll see in my video how I set up my trays. Every two kids gets a sponge, a non-spill cup of water (art supply catalogs!!) and my Crayola Mixing Colors watercolor paint. I always order: magenta, red, red-orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, blue-violet and purple. I cannot wait to get these hung in the halls! I've also been asked a lot recently about what kind of paper we use. I ALWAYS order 80lbs paper and we use it for EVERYTHING. It can take a lot of art: paint, watercolor, collage, you name it. This paper is strong stuff. We called these our Party Pigeons...I like how hard some pigeons partied!
Free, fun and useful Kindergarten - 1st Grade, Common Core aligned lesson plans, math games, calendars, behavior charts, materials and more!
The start of spring and the windy weather we have been having always makes me think of Kites. We don’t usually have much luck when we try to fly our own kites, but we have had fun crafting some very pretty ones. When Emily was little we make a Triangle Shape Kite, but this time we tried something a little different. To make our kites we used Bleeding Tissue Paper, cardstock, straws, yarn and some colored construction paper. The girls always love working with bleeding tissue paper, it has a somewhat magical property to it which is always fun. If you have never tired it before we definitely recommend it. First, I cut out cardstock in the shape of a Kite and then Juliette got to work with the bleeding tissue paper. She covered the paper with a little bit of water then placed the pieces of bleeding tissue paper over the water. They like to brush over them with a little more water to make sure they are sticking down to the paper well. Once the paper is covered to satisfaction we just set them to the side and let them dry. Now for the fun part, Juliette pulled off all of the bleeder paper to see the beautiful colored design that was left behind…MAGIC!!! To put the kites together we cut pieces of colored straws to glue horizontally and vertically across the kite. Then we glued on a long piece of yarn and construction paper bows for the tail. Juliette was very excited to help me glue it together with the glue gun. Since we have had a hard time gluing straws to paper in the past I figured this would be the best way. For another windy day project check out the Windsock Craft we made to go with the book The Wind Blew. Follow our ADVENTURES on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter!
Cute free dinosaur printables for your upcoming dinosaur theme. These dinosaur preschool worksheets include lots of activities for kids.
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 3 I am so excited to have my new Measurement and Data kindergarten math unit posted and ready to share with you. So far this year, my sweet kinders have learned so much in math. We have mastered 1:1 correspondence, reading and writing numerals to 20, counting to 10
Help those kids from getting the “summer slide” with this 100 page packet! Included is 50 pages of math and 50 pages of literacy including reading and comprehension, grammar, writing, and word work. This would also make a great addition for any beginning of the year work for 1st grade too! Click here to download. here …
Could you use some easy, ready to use March Preschool Worksheets? These are no prep, with adorable spring and St. Patrick's Day pictures.
Tracing Lines - Worksheets For Little People As your little one learns how to write, tracing lines is a great activity! And there are benefits to it too! Line tracing is one of those activities that develop your child's control of the small muscles in his/ her hands (fine motor skills). Tracing will teach your child to make the precise movements that are necessary for forming letters. Tracing improves hand/eye coordination. Line Tracing By Age Line tracing is predominantly for little ones as they learn how to write. It's therefore perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners. Your child's age and
DISCLAIMER: I am offering these lessons, handouts and videos to you for free. PLEASE do not take my lessons and sell them. Because that would be super crappy of you (yes, someone is doing this. Yes, they are super crappy). Thank you. Going to NAEA in Boston next week? Need some sub plans? Y'all, I got you COVERED! Today I'm sharing my favorite VIDEO sub plans and my tips and tricks to planning for being out. There's nothing like the amount of WORK you gotta do just to take some time off. I'm here to make your life a little easier, I hope. So, without further ado, my Top Ten Sub Plans! Let me just start by saying that the sub plans I am sharing were created for my kindergarten through fourth grade kids. I ALWAYS make a lesson that's age appropriate for all my classes. This makes my prep life so much easier and the life of the sub all the better. For more tips and tricks, check out this video! Lessons like this require a lotta prep. Yeah, I will be keeping it much easier this time. More about how I prep for a sub can be found in this blog post. 1. James Rizzi Cities! This sub plan was a huge hit with all of my kiddos. They started it while I was away and I was able to easily slide back in to a low-mess/low-stress project for them to continue. Lesson, handouts and video can be found here! 2. Loud Mouth Collages! My kids thought these were the most fun ever...while I thought they were the most funniest ever. Complete video lesson and plans here! 3. A Colorful Village! Again this is another lesson that the kids work on while I'm away and we finish up with oil pastel and watercolor when I return. Easy, fun and super colorful. Video and lesson here! 4. Chris Uphues Inspired Hearts! Who doesn't love Chris Uphues and his happy artwork?! My kids love learning about him. I've not only got a video lesson but I have a short clip of an interview I did with Chris and his wife Jen. More here! 5. I am a Super Star! This lessons is so fun...it really incorporates so much, from mixed media to literacy to a good ole boost to the self esteem! I DID ask the sub to make the stars for the kindergarten before they arrived because I'm not that crazy. Lesson here! 6. Collage Monsters! Another fun lesson that the kids really enjoyed. This one required more prep than most, just an FYI. Complete details and video here! 7. Kerri Ambrosino-Inspired Still Life! Need a pop of colorful happy for spring? Try this sub plan on for size. So fun and we busted out the PUFFY PAINT! Lesson here. 8. Wings Mural! I know, you've seen it a thousand times...but the lesson originated here! The feathers were created while I was out on jury duty, I believe...and then we assembled it when I returned. Lesson and video here. 9. Britto-Inspired Collaborative! I love having the kids work on collaboratives when I'm out. It means we have a big beautiful work of art to hang when I return! Lesson video and details all right here! 10. Monochromatic Self Portraits! Lastly, here's a lesson that's always a hit: monochromatic self portraits. We love hanging these in rainbow order for a beautiful display. Have your kiddos follow along with me in this video! There are PLENTY more lessons and videos on my YouTube channel so be sure and give those a glance if none of these strike your fancy. And be sure to subscribe, I upload videos and content all the time. If you are gonna be in Boston, see you there!
Kindergarten students love using instruments! Here are 5 tried and true rhythm activities to get your little ones engaged in music class.
These crayon cuties were created a couple of weeks ago, by Kindergarten! I found the idea on Instagram, from @artfunwithms.c. Here's how we created them! Materials: 4.5" x 12" 90 lb paper Crayola Artista II watercolors Big Kid's choice paintbruses Tru-ray construction paper glue sticks Sharpies Day 1: I demonstrate how to paint their paper. We don't want to mix a whole bunch of colors together, and make a puke crayon!! EEEWWWWwwwww they all say 😆 I tell them, you can choose colors in the same family, but don't mix cool colors with warm colors! After I go through my demo I give them their paper to get started. While they're painting, we read The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt. Day 2: We glue black strips to the top and bottom, and use them for arms and legs. I give them circles to glue on for their eyes, and they draw the face with a Sharpie marker. I love all the different expressions that they create! We hung ALL of them up for Night of the Arts, and they looked sooooo cute!! DISCLOSURE: LINKS TO PRODUCTS ARE AFFILIATE LINKS, WHICH MEANS I GET A SMALL COMPENSATION FOR SALES. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR BLOG!
This bulldozer craft is super easy to prepare and to make! Make enough for the classroom, preschool, or daycare in just about 10 minutes
Ella, 1st grade Reese, 1st grade Aven, Kinder Campbell, Kinder Izzy, Kinder Jolie, Kinder Kaden, 2nd grade Kate, Kinder Lauren, Kinder My classes looked at the illustrations in the children's book, Solo by Paul Geraghty. It's the story of a young penguin who is left alone in the icy Antarctic for the first time. My students drew their penguins on pale pink construction paper so they could see their white chalk pastel shading for the penguin face and body. Heads were done in Sharpie or charcoal. Since a little goes a long way with charcoal, I had my young students keep the charcoal stick on the table and just run their pointer finger along it to add shadows. This prevented penguins that were completely smudged in black. For the backgrounds, snow beneath their feet was painted with white and pale blue acrylic and sky with liquid watercolor and salt (always a crowd pleaser). The last touch before their cut penguins were glued to their backgrounds was a splattering of watered down white acrylic to create a snowy atmosphere. Nice job kids! Miss Mary
Of all the art and science projects that I have done, lemon and watercolor science has been my #1 fave for YEARS! Let's get started.
These Robot Motor Mats are a great way for your pre-k and kindergarten students to work fine motor skills while learning patterns.
A dinosaur theme is a sure fire way to capture little one’s interest and curiosity. Just talking about dinosaurs with toddlers is so much fun! Our week was filled with names to learn, questions to answer and hands on activities to try. Here were our plans for Dinosaur Week: And here are the details of […]
Directed drawings are always a hit in my classroom, and I love using them for all their benefits! So, what exactly are directed drawings? They are step-by-step directions to create...
Do you want to get started with project based learning, but you’re not sure how? Maybe project based learning sounds too complicated, in-depth, and overwhelming to you? That’s how I felt when I first delved into PBL. But now I know there is nothing to be afraid of! In this post, I will give a quick explanation of project-based learning and then give you some tips and ideas to begin to implement it in your own classroom. What is Project Based Learning? Project based learning, simply stated, is an authentic learning experience
FREE Pre-Handwriting Practice Pages
CUTE printable Construction Worksheests make practicing counting, matching upper and lowercase alphabet letters, and more FUN!
Looking for a fun way to teach children about form? This is one of my favorite lessons! Manipulatives and movement, what could be better?
Need Bug Activities for preschoolers? Check out our 9 Hands-On, grab and go, math and literacy activities for Preschool or Kindergarten.
Are you looking for my original Color Me Readers? While those books can be used appropriately to teach concepts of print, in the original blog posts I demonstrated their use with three-cueing. I did this
Need some ideas for transportation centers and activities? I'm here to help! I'm sharing my favorite, most engaging transportation-themed activities with you. I also created Road Number Mats FREEBIE for you, too! AND a train name craftivity FREEBIE! Go grab your lesson plan book and get ready to be inspired!
Lorax Coloring Pages can help your kids enjoy their favorite book or movie even more. The Lorax speaks for the trees and knows what trouble greed can bring. But will they listen before it’s too late? Download our free printable coloring pages, play the movie...
Cute, free printable parts of a plant flip book is such a fun way for kids to learn about the different parts of a flower for science.
