These Sign Language Food and Animal Cards can be used to introduce vocabulary in a visually engaging way. Enjoy!Images by www.babysignlanguage.com...
Kindergarten, math, reading, fun, activities, art. Ms. Solano
Our class had a lot of fun learning about Manatees, Sharks, Whales, and Dolphins. We spent a week learning about these mammals/fish. Student...
60+ Must Make Kindergarten Anchor Charts for the classroom. Covers classroom management, literacy and math. Multiple ideas!
teaching tips, activities, and resources for early elementary classroom, technology, reading and books, toddler activities, christian teacher
This pack includes a list of texts that will help students and teachers have conversations about character traits and values. There is a list of texts engaging the student in critical thinking in each of the traits, as well as a class book cover and worksheet to be made into a class text for the class library to remind students about how they can embody that value. The values include integrity, zest, persistence, love, optimism, self-control, respect, gratitude. Let me know if you have any questions, and Enjoy :)
Inside my monthly boxes, I have everything that is seasonal...crafts, TPT products, worksheets, etc. in hanging file folders. I hope to organize these further as I get to each month, but who knows #typeBforever
Teaching rainbows is a fun way to meet science standards. Check out this article for fun and easy rainbow ideas for the classroom!
To have Faith means to believe in something you can not see. Well, I can not see what the future will hold for my Kindergarten Stars, but I can have Faith and trust that God will give me the skills and love to start shaping each and every little life I touch in my Kindergarten classroom.
Have a chatty class? Do your talkative students get louder and louder during small groups until it feels like chaos? Do they talk when you'r...
Simple activities you can add to your daily routines to meet the sensory needs of all your children in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.
Several lesson ideas and anchor charts to use when Teaching Kindergartners How to Write a Sentence. Uses the gradual release model to full implication.
Happy Summer! Welcome back to the Crazy Critter Café! So I've been thinking about how I'd like to use my Class Dojo reward system and here's the latest...Numbered Tubs to match the Class Dojo "point clubs". I used this idea toward the end of the school year and it seemed to work well. Students gave input on what they'd like to have in the tubs (thus, the 2 levels of sweet treats!) My goal was to have a daily Dojo time, but due to our hectic afternoon schedule, that couldn't always be done, so I'd find time during the week for our class Dojo time (or every 2 weeks if I felt more time was needed for students to reach certain Dojo Point Clubs). I had a checklist and whenever we had Dojo time, I would write the point club for each student so I would know which reward tubs they've picked from during that particular Dojo time. At a designated date, all Class Dojo points would reset and students would start over. I bought 2 plastic organizers to help keep the rewards separate. All I have to do when we have Dojo time is snap apart the 5-15 trays and pull out the 20-30 point drawers for easy distribution of rewards! I'm sure there are tons of ways to use Class Dojo in the classroom. I found that starting simple was more effective. I didn't get overwhelmed with keeping up with rewards and trying to grab my iPad to give Dojo points every second of the day. I used it mostly during transition, independent work, and center times. Make it work for you and your class! I'll switch out rewards periodically so students don't get bored with these. I'd love to hear how you use Class Dojo in your class. Please add a comment below! :-) Thanks for stopping by the café!
My absolute favorite classroom management tool is a doorbell! Sounds crazy - right?!?! It has transformed my classroom environment and can for you too!
Animals Movements: run, swim, fly, hop, slither What do you get? 20 editable and PDF versions of the worksheets. Thank you for your download. Please do not forget to leave your FEEDBACK! :) Check my store: Miss Marwa Tarek for more resources.
I learned something today - teaching kindergarten students how to draw "self portraits" is harder than I ever expected! The hard part isn't teaching them how to draw themselves - the hard part is teaching them the correct color choices and that self portraits are supposed to look like them... we do not have blue or orange skin, we do not have purple eyes, and we do not have pink hair! No mater how many times I said this, there were still some blue students with green hair (still cute, but not a self portrait: maybe it is what they will look like in high school)? It was very hard for them to actually draw themselves using their true hair, eye, and skin color. They are so used to being creative and drawing things any color they wish - breaking this habit proved to be very challenging. Kindergarten: Here are a few of the completed self portraits. Notice the long eyelashes on some - any super model would love to have eyelashes like these! Another week, another group of "Artist of the Week" 2nd graders learned about a "Blue Dog" this week. Not just any blue dog, but the famous "Blue Dog" painting by George Rodrigue. We first drew our dogs with a pencil- so cute. The next step was for students to pick either a warm or cool color for their background. We then painted our dogs with different shades of blue. The paintings makes me think of... "How much is the dog in the window..." song! Pictures soon! 3rd graders are continuing to learn about overlapping and shading. We started a new project this week and it will take us 2 class periods to complete. We are using oil pastels on this project and we are drawing colored pencils - kind of confusing! Everyone is super excited about using oil pastels and I am excited that they actually are enjoying using the oil pastels (they tend to be messy). Pictures next week. 4th grade students had the chance to create a fun project this week! We first folded our papers and drew a cute fish, we then unfolded the paper and "expanded" our fish drawings. When the paper is pulled open - it reveals a surprise... These cute little fish aren't so cute ... Here are the sweet fish.... papers folded Here are those same fish - but not so cute when their mouths are open... paper unfolded 4th graders are starting a new project this week and it will take about 3 class periods to complete - so it may be a few weeks before you see their completed art. We are discussing Van Gogh and they are creating their very own sunflower "pop-up" art. Pictures next week. 5th graders are currently working on their Art to Remember project and their theme is "Tropical Birds". Some were not so excited about the theme and were disappointed that I actually gave them a theme for this project - they were hoping to make a picture of your choice.... ugh, I am working hard at breaking them of their "free draw" habit! They will thank me at some point :) Pictures next week. Remember keep sending in your plastic bottle caps: all colors and sizes, plastic only (no metal) and make sure you are washing them :) Here are the bottle caps we have collected so far, we still need many more. The kids love bringing them to class and sorting them into their color bins - makes my job easy!!!
Hello! I am anxiously waiting for my principal to call us back to return on the 13th to sign the contract, do some in-service conferences, a...
I use this sticker book to help my students and parents know how many words their student knows, as well as what words to work on next. Using this book, I can differentiate what words each child is working on based on their individualized needs, with the expectation being for them to learn at least...
Check out this list of tools that will help you organize differentiated instruction in your classroom.
I am getting ready for a crazy week. We will be reading tons of Gingerbread books and working a million GB activities I have found online. ...
I use these differentiated thinking about choices worksheets and apology letters in my class to help students think about the problems that they created as a result of their choices and give them a chance to solve them. Included: 2 reflection sheets (one with space pictures, the other prompting words) 2 apology letters (one with space for pictures, the other guiding the words). These help prompt conversations between me and my students, as well as between us and their families. They show that students acknowledge and understand their mistake, and that they worked to fix it. They are also a great tool for tracking data. They are differentiated based on whether the student is ready to write words and sentences, or simply draw pictures to represent understanding. They can be used right after the problem happens, or delayed thinking time (including during recess or time out's). Hope these help! Let me know if you have any questions and please leave feedback. Enjoy! :)
60+ Must Make Kindergarten Anchor Charts for the classroom. Covers classroom management, literacy and math. Multiple ideas!
We used regular eggs from the supermarket to illustrate what is done to our teeth when we: 1. drink lots of juice, soda, and coffee 2. don't brush our teeth (vinegar) 3. drink milk and water The results shocked the children! We used a toothbrush and lots of toothpaste to see if we can remove the stains. Some if it came off but it was not as white as the milk egg. The milk egg came out whiter and also seemed to come out heavier! Our water egg kept it's white color. The students noticed the vinegar egg has lost its shell. It was was a yellow blob. We learned that our teeth can turn yellow and fall off if we don't care for them.
Hi everyone! It's been almost two months since I've posted- December and January have both been crazy months, but now I'm back! First of all, I would like to thank all of the amazing bloggers who shared their resources for free in the Facebook Frenzy Giveaway! As a newer teacher, it was so wonderful to see what other teachers were using in December and January- and I'm having a lot of fun exploring the different uses for all the items I got! Now to get to the point of this post: Kindergarten. I have hour long Kindergarten classes, and boy is that long! However, the unit that I have been teaching over the past couple months has really been working well, so I thought I'd share and include the resources that I have been using. We first focused on different types of sound: our 4 voices, loud and soft, and environmental vs. instrumental. Thanks to Pinterest and Smart Exchange, I have some wonderful technology that I have been able to use for two years in a row! On day 1 of the unit, we focus on this concept: I Have Four Voices (and my voice can be loud or soft). I use this amazing SmartBoard presentation from Cherie Herring. It can be found at this link: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=d6165d3e-8b87-495d-aee1-6ee595250713. The presentation focuses on our Yelling, Singing, Talking, and Whispering voices and introduces the vocabulary for loud and soft: Forte and Piano. I use this with Kindergarten and then review it with 1st grade the next year. I also LOVE to reinforce the vocabulary by asking them to get into a piano line at the end of the class period. On day 2, we focus on environmental sounds vs. instrumental sounds. First comes our Listening Walk! The kids love this because we walk around the outside and inside of the school and listen for different sounds, then check them off on our lists (plus it tires them out before our discussion!) Here is an example of the checklist I made: We then come back to the classroom discuss what we heard- did we hear anything that wasn't on this list? We then use Dee Hoban's SmartBoard presentation to discuss environmental sounds vs. instrumental sounds: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=32c14e5d-2512-457a-8404-fe26c662805b. I present the following slide first to distinguish between environment and instrument, then go through the rest to talk about instruments: Now that we understand the sounds that are around us, we can start to learn more musical vocabulary. On day 3, I review forte and piano, then go on to talk about fast and slow: presto and largo. I use this video (the kids are OBSESSED and want to see it every class period now): Then the students get to experiment with tempo from slow to fast with this great resource from the San Francisco Orchestra Kids Website: http://www.sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=11 Of course, at the end of class I play the sound from the Presto/Largo video and allow the students to move the way the music is moving (fast or slow). Somehow this worked out in all 3 of my classes- students ran in a circle when it was Presto, and walked very slowly around the room when it was Largo. Organization in Kindergarten!? I was pretty impressed. On day 4, we talk about high and low using this awesome SmartBoard presentation from Amy Banas: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=4a381d25-6a09-473f-a15f-5ba096a15f98. Kids get to identify high and low on the SmartBoard and then we play Boomwhackers and ID which ones make higher sounds and which make lower sounds using Denise Schneider's Ebeneezer Sneezer music: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Boomwhackers-Ebeneezer-Sneezer-595290. On their way to get in line, each student gets to play a high note and a low note on the piano. On day 5, we review high and low and transfer that knowledge to talk about sounds moving up and down. I start the class with this activity, asking students to identify whether the bug ends high or low and then recognizing that if it ends on a low note, it is going down, and vice versa: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=d7172b1f-937c-4e53-b568-c1b275ccb832. Then I use Cherie Herring's SmartBoard presention: Sounds Can Go Up, Sounds Can Go Down: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=a62e4940-728c-4bea-8d66-4bec8a3bd39c. The kids now have a pretty good understanding of musical vocabulary and are ready to do their first basic composition project. That means that this week we will be working with Eric Carle's book: I See a Song. Groups of students will create sound curtains for the pictures that they receive using handheld percussion instruments (corresponding with pages in the book) and then perform it at the end of class. Here is a great YouTube video with music for the book if you don't have time for the whole project: This project starts on Thursday, so I'll be back to let you know how it goes! Now to round out my first semester of 5th Grade Chorus with our Winter Concert tonight!! Happy New Year! ~Molly
A preschool teaching blog about preschool activities. My hands on activities can be used for 3-5 year olds ina preschool classroom.
So this year I'm at a new school with a new wackado elementary schedule. Some classes I see once a week, others twice. It is really hard to keep track of where you left off with a class as it is without there being some classes that are way far ahead because simply you see them more! Anyway I recently took advantage of Tennessee's tax free weekend before back to school and bought myself an iPad. If you are a teacher out there of any kind you can benefit from this marvelous app called plan book. I was never good at keeping up with a handwritten plan book but this one on my iPad is just want I needed to help keep me organized! Check out the screen shot below and see what I mean :) Lastly I will also say that webehave is another fabulous must have teacher app! For privacy sake I did not take a screen shot of that, but I will say it is helping me keep track of notes I send home, parent communication, and in the event of needing a full history say for an iep meeting or support team it can come in real handy!
With this cool Leaf Chromatography science experiment, kids can see the different pigments found in leaves and answer the question, "Why do leaves change color?" Download a free printable leaf color chart too.
Associer la technique du crayon de couleur aquarellable au graphisme au feutre noir ... pour jouer avec les nuances de gris et les effets de relief Nuances et graphismes sur ronds Niveau conseillé : 1/ Matériel Papier Créatex ou à dessin A4 ou 24x32...
This brochure is an excellent tool for guiding parents in how to approach take home readers, for elementary students. Let me know if you have any questions, and Enjoy :) Includes Thistle Girl Designs Graphics
This paperless resource, for use with Google Forms™, is designed to make the process of tracking early reading and math skills simpler and less time-consuming. These Forms are designed for use during 1:1 assessment and can be used within Google Classroom™ or on your own personal Google Drive™. In the teacher's view and on the reports, each of these assessments will in order (alphabetically or numerically). When assessing a student, the questions will be randomized. You do not need a school account to complete these assessments. (See notes below.) To use: 1) Share your screen, so your student can view each slide. 5) Show one slide at a time. Ask the child the relevant question, such as: What shape is this? 6) After the student responds, simply click correct or incorrect at the bottom of the slide. As you assess, a spreadsheet is created so you can track progress from the beginning, to the middle, to the end of the school year. The Following Assessments Are Included: ELA ★ Alphabet Identification ★ Letter Sounds ★ Rhyming ★ Phoneme Addition and Substitution ★ Deleting Beginning and Ending Phonemes ★ Decoding CVC Words ★ Sight Words Math ★ Counting ★ Number Recognition 0 - 20 ★ Shape Identification {2D and 3D Shapes} ★ Addition Within Five ★ Subtraction Within Five ★ Six Questions for Addition Within Ten - Suggestion: Allow the use of objects during this assessment. ★ Six Questions for Subtraction Within Ten - Suggestion: Allow the use of objects during this assessment. ★ Addition Within Ten: The Full Set - Suggestion: Allow the use of objects during this assessment. ★ Subtraction Within Ten: The Full Set - Suggestion: Allow the use of objects during this assessment. ★ Number Recognition 0 - 100 Including 20 Selected Numbers ★ Number Recognition 0 - 100 Including All 101 Numbers Also Included: ★ Color Identification Please note: This resource does not include a printable paper and pencil version of these assessments. It is designed specifically for digital use. With Google Forms, you can delete any questions you prefer not to assess. For a quick screening, it's often best to select a few questions. The student does not need to log in to Google Classroom for these assessments. He or she will be viewing everything on the screen you are sharing. If you have a personal Google Drive, but not Google Classroom, enter preview mode. You will be able to enter the student's name and the date of the assessment. In the spreadsheet, you will still see the results for each student. Many thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Sincerely, Anne Gardner (National Board Certified in Literacy)
Hey friends! Denise here from Sunny Days in Second Grade. I'm so beyond crazy excited to be a Blog Hoppin author! The group of teacher authors and bloggers here is one I have tremendous admiration for and I am just tickled pink to be part of this group! I'm just going to jump right in with a great way to build classroom community. I can not take credit for this idea. I first saw in on Pinterest (totally addicted!) and when I followed the link I came across Saylor's Log, a blog bursting with awesomeness. I have had a saying for a long time that I use with my class: Fair doesn't mean that everyone gets the same thing, fair means that everyone gets what they need. I'm sure I saw it on an overpriced poster that I refused to buy from the teacher store, but the saying itself stuck with me. So when I read about this activity from Saylor's Log, it fit perfectly. We did it today in class and I have to say, it was a very powerful teaching moment. I gathered the kids on the carpet (don't all the best lessons happen there?). Then I told them to think about a time they were hurt. Of course they all wanted to tell me every little detail of every injury they've ever endured in their seven little years. This was actually causing my head to hurt, but we pressed on. After I let a few share, I asked them all to close their eyes and imagine that something was hurting them right now. They had serious concentration faces on during this part. Then I had them come up a few at a time, making sure the rest could hear and see the action. When each student approached I asked them where they were hurt. No matter what they said to me, I put a bandaid on the back of their hand. I had a few kids mumbling and whispering and one little girl was just not havin' it. She kept asking her friends, "Why does she keep putting it on the same spot?" and "That's not where she said it hurt!". She was so bothered by what I was doing, but it was perfect to make my point, so I let her go on. I put 16 bandaids on 16 hands and when my 17th student came up for his, I just told him I was sorry, but I didn't have any for him. He looked a little bummed, but went back to the carpet bandaid-less. I asked the kids if the bandaid made anyone feel better or if I put it on the right spot. Of course no hands raised. Then I asked them if a bandaid would even help if you had a sprained ankle or headache - of course they all said no. So then I launched into a kid friendly discussion of differentiation. I told them that not everyone in our class has the same needs, so not everyone will get to do the same things all the time. We talked about times when I might work with a small group, it's just because they needed a bandaid at that particular moment, but maybe they didn't. I assured them that at some time in the year, everyone would need a bandaid for something. We talked about kids who leave the room for special services and how they need a particular bandaid that another teacher gives them. I finally hit the point home when I said, if one student needs a little extra math practice, does that mean we ALL need extra practice? Of course, they said noooo (in only the way a group of 7 year olds can drag out a one word response...) I also added in how our last student didn't get a bandaid at all! When I asked him how he felt, he said he felt left out and confused. I told the group that never getting a bandaid was even worse and that's why when I'm with a student or small group they can't interrupt because it's the same as taking away their bandaid. I have to say, it was a goose bump inducing lesson. The visual of the bandaid and the real life, kid level examples really made an impact on them. They proudly wore their bandaids around all day, until recess when our Dollar Tree bandaids were no match for the Florida humidity. If you try it, I'd love to hear how it goes. And in the meantime, check out this great free poster that I found on Pinterest ( I warned you...I really am addicted). It might help spur some more great class conversation. Click on the picture to snag a copy for yourself! See ya on the Sunny Side!
Engaging the five senses in kindergarten activities is a wonderful way to encourage sensory exploration and provide a multi-sensory learning experience.
