PRIMARY SCIENCE UNIT 1 - THE HUMAN BODY We are so excited to dig into Unit 1 in our science sequence! We kick off science this year with My Body and My Five Senses . It is the perfect place to start science with our primary kiddos. This year we are going to explore and learn about the

Does the first week of Kindergarten have you shaking in your boots? You are not alone! I've been at this for a little while now so you would think it would get easier with time but I am here to tell you it does not! I still get anxious right before school starts. What will they be like? Will I remember what to do at line up time? What if I don't set things up right and I mess up the whole rest of the year? (sounds dramatic but that is really what goes through my head!) I sat down as soon as school got out and wrote down my first week of lesson plans to put my mind at ease. It has really helped with my worry so far! I wrote down the first five days, plans and procedures I need to introduce, brain breaks, classroom community building activities, easy morning work to get started with and even got my welcome back gifts ready. My mind is officially at ease. I want to make sure I have a lot of fun and a LOT of books planned for the first week too. Here are a couple of fun crafts to go with the books I have planned. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. You can't skip this book the first week of school! Our focus will be all about names the first week (or more!). I put together all of my favorite books with some crafts to help teach all of those back to school procedures like cutting, gluing, and of course following directions. The Wheels on the Bus This one is fun for a little first sound fun. The students change the words to match the first sound in their name. A My Name is Alice by Jane Bayer Alphabet books are the best the first few weeks of school. A My Name is Alice Jane Bayer is the best! This is a fun activity to do after we read the book and they will make really cute self portraits to hang in the hallway the first week of school. Not only did I plan out the activities for these books but for lots of other favorites like Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, Rosie Takes a Walk by Pat Hutchins, No David by David Shannon, and Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. So now I don't have to feel guilty when I am floating in the pool this summer (just kidding, I never feel guilty doing that!) But honestly, I can relax knowing all I have to do is hit print when I get back to school. These plans can work for you too! Click here to see them in my store! Or if you are not ready to think about school yet pin this for later! P.S. Get a FREE ALPHABET ACTIVITY when you sign up for my newsletter HERE!

When I start the new school year, I pick a book of the day for the first two weeks. I create a variety of activities to go with each book. I use a lot of books that focus on social and emotional learning, including kindness, friendship, and respect. But, I also add in some fun ... Read More about 8 Books for Back to School

A ton of free printable worksheets for kindergarten you'll love to use in your class or at home. Fun kindergarten worksheets to download!

Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.

FREE printable Symmetry drawing activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. A fun art and math activity in one! Kids will complete the symmetrical pictures by drawing the other half.

I set up an entire Investigation Day for my kinders to celebrate all we had learned so far! I wanted to have a fun filled learning day for them where they could really apply all of the letter knowledge that they gained during the first month of school. Our Investigation Day had a big mystery for the kids to solve - Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar? This day was mostly prep work and planning, but don't worry, I have that all available for you here. The actual day was obviously fun for the kids, but also a lot of fun for me as a teacher. I was worried that I would be stressed going so far from routine, but in reality, it wasn't that far from our routine! I let the families know that an investigation day was going to be coming up. I told them not to tell their kids. I gave them the date and asked that their student would wear black to school that day. I created a wish list on Amazon with some of the items that we needed for the day: flashlights, hats, invisible ink pens, notebooks, magnifying glasses, investigation tape, a stamp, and footprints. The parents were great and donated all the supplies for the day! I love Amazon wish lists! I told my students a secret the day before our Investigation Day. I told them that they had been so amazing and had already learned so much that we would have cookies for breakfast tomorrow! Their mouths dropped. I had the cookies in a cookie jar and we did a little cookie dance before dismissal. The students were in shock that their teacher was going to let them have cookies before 8:00 AM! That afternoon came around and I worked on creating our learning space, the "crime scene" for the following day. As I said, it did require some prep work, but again, I go in to detail with what you need to do in my Investigation Packet. Students entered the next day wearing black (totally wasn't necessary, I just thought it added a little more to the day) and they were so excited for cookies! I was waiting outside the classroom where students had to scan to enter. Once approved, they walked in to the room, where they noticed all the cookies were missing! We had music playing and students had to figure out what happened. We opened our "Top Secret" note to start our day and learned that someone had stolen all of the cookies! We started the morning by making Investigation Badges. This was our typical math block. We counted our fingers and added our finger prints. We drew a self portrait using our basic shapes. We measured our bodies with snap cubes and counted how tall we were. Students came up with a Secret Agent name and scanned their badges in. Next was our literacy block. This was the bulk of our day. Students had 3 different codes to crack. First they searched for clues all over the room. Once they found clues, they had to figure out how to sort them. Once the clues were sorted, they had to figure out what they meant. The clues went together to solve 3 codes. Each code led to a hint of where the cookies went. We added in some extra to the day. The students had to make it through a maze which worked on motor skills. The students recorded what was going on with the investigation on Seesaw, working on our retelling. Students used watercolors to paint over a secret map that was leading to the cookies - this was our first time with watercolors and a great way to introduce rules of how to use them. Students eventually found the cookies and of course were able to eat the cookies to celebrate a successful day! Click here for the Investigation Day Packet.

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When I took this second grade position, I had many things on my to-do list. However, the first item on my list was classroom management ideas. Any teacher would agree that the most important skill in running a class is classroom management. There are so many strategies, but my go-to is Class Dojo! The Benefits

Looking for ideas for your younger child's Halloween Class Party? Check out what we did- from Bingo to Paper Plate Spider Webs to an educational Boo Mix!

I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you

I posted about these songs about a year ago on my Instagram feed and so many of you asked if I would be putting these in my TPT shop to sell. At the time, we had only written three, and I just didn't feel like that was enough to make a whole resource with. Since then, I have been working on writing new transition songs that are sung to some of our kids' favorite tunes! Singing CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SONGS AND CHANTS during transitions makes moving from one thing or place to another almost seamless. Songs and chants keep students engaged, focused, and excited to learn, which in turn will save valuable instruction time. It also helps eliminate unwanted behaviors by giving your students the structure, consistency, and support they need. Most of the songs included are parodies of popular songs most kids will know. The words have been changed to help students transition in a positive manner. I printed the songs on cardstock and laminated them. I used a binder ring to attach the set together to hang on my board for easy access. There are also three different color options included. :) Let's go through a little breakdown of when and why we sing each of these songs: The Carpet: We sing this when it's time to transition to the carpet. I start they song, they join in. They have to be on the carpet in their assigned spots by the end of the song. Works like a charm every single time! I even added in some little hand motions that end the song with their hands in their laps. All I Do Is Freeze: We mostly use this when students are working in groups or with a partner. Sometimes, I need them to stop what they are doing, so that I can give them a direction or clear something up. It's a great way to get their attention! Clean Up Chant: This one is pretty self-explanatory. I do not instruct them when it's time to clean up; I just start the chant. You may want to add a timer to it afterwards if you need them cleaned up in a certain amount of time. Let's Line Up: Will kids ever get over Frozen? Probably not. If yours are still obsessed, too, they will love this line up chant. It gets them lined up quickly and without distractions, which saves so much time! Back to My Seat: We sing this when we transition from the carpet to their seats. We usually sing it a couple of times to give them plenty of time to make it to their seats. It's a really quick song! Partner Up: This song probably takes the most practice. Anytime you need students to get with their partner, you can sing this song. It also reminds them what to do when they are with their partner. Learning Math is Awesome: Sing this song to signal that it's time to begin math. I can guarantee it will get stuck in your head afterwards. Sorry. We Can't Stop Reading: This song can be used to kick off your reading block each day. It gets them excited about books and where those stories will take them! Quiet Time: I may or may not have sung this one the most. It works so well! I sing it in a calm, quiet voice, in which students will mirror. It immediately calms the room. Sing it a couple of times if needed! See!: I had to incorporate some Taylor Swift in these songs. We want students to be proud to share their thinking and comfortable talking with a partner. We also want their partners to be respectful and value what they are saying. This song is great to sing before students share with a partner or to close out a lesson by sharing what they learned or took away from the lesson. I just added some NEW songs!!! Like It Was: This is another clean up song. You could sing this one at the end of centers. It's really good about reminding students to put everything back in its place. Good For You: This is a song that you can sing as a class to celebrate someone! Maybe someone had a really great idea or accomplished something amazing, you can sing this to pump them up! We're Amazing: I am all about incorporating mindfulness into our day, so I knew I needed to create a song that encompassed that. This is another one that is going to take some practice to get down, but you can always display it as you sing. Some of the songs might take lots of practice to get down! But don't give up! After you sing it over and over, you will eventually get it. You will sing them to the tune of the chorus from the songs. I have added links to the actual songs in the PDFs. You just click the blue arrow at the bottom of the page. Always check these first NOT in the presence of students. I have gone through them to make sure they are safe, but you never know when things can change. A few of these parodies are straight from my students. I asked them what songs they wanted me to write transition songs for, and these are what we came up with. This group in particular had difficulty this year with transitions because they were all best of friends and LOVED to talk, which in turn got them distracted. I LOVED that about them, but we were losing valuable time trying to get refocused. Once I introduced a song or chant for them to do while transitioning, the difference was crazy! It keeps your learning environment positive, too, which is super important. You can check out the resource by clicking HERE or on any of the images in the post. Let me know how your students do with these songs or if you need another song added! I love your feedback! Happy transitioning!

Thousands of teachers have used these tried and true GUARANTEED tups to stop students from blurting out. Chatty Class? YOU NEED TO READ THIS!

FREE geography matching activity with the 7 continents of the world. Perfect for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten to introduce the continents.

Classroom rewards don’t even have to cost teachers a penny. They can be cheap, free, and easy. Here are 60 ideas for fun whole class and individual student rewards including many that don't cost money. There are simple reward ideas that can easily be used with whatever positive reinforcement system you're using for behavior management in your kindergarten or elementary classroom. Party ideas, non-food, and intangible options are included.

Social-emotional activities have never been more important for younger kids.

This blog post is full of ideas for the First Week of Kindergarten. Includes book suggestions, activities, and links to accompanying ideas.

Pre-K and TK Back to School Worksheets. Name practice, fine motor skills, color identification, pre-k math skills and pre-k alphabet practice.

SEPTEMBER NO PREP MATH AND LITERACY ACTIVITIES

Grab your FREE hair salon scissor skills printable to use with your preschool and kindergarten students! Use at home and at school!

FREE personalized name tracing sheet for preschool and kindergarten. Can be edited to include any child's name. Great for kids learning to write their name, as well as kids who need more handwriting practice.

Recently, I have seen some debates on using centers and the Science of Reading. If you have been a teacher for a long time, centers were a HUGE part of Balanced Literacy. Recently, teachers have shifted away from balanced of literacy to research based Science of Reading. You can read my Science of Reading Post ... Read More about Centers and the Science of Reading

Make a life-size printable human skeleton with kids! The printable skeleton template comes as a PDF file, which is easy to cut and assemble.

There are so many ways to approach self-portraits with children: observation, inspired by a particular artist, symbols of interests and activities, the list goes on. This time, I wanted to create an engaging, multi media

Teaching behavior expectations in kindergarten is important, especially in the first few weeks of school. This often sets the stage for your class for the entire year. For students to fully understand what is expected of them, it is important that teachers address and teach these expectation. I usually spend a lot of time during the first weeks of school teaching student expectations and classroom behaviors. We complete sorts of good choices and bad choices in the classroom and discuss what makes them good and bad choices. We complete these sorts whole group and students also complete individual behavior reflection sheets. These work great during the first few weeks of school or when students may need a review. These include different levels of difficulty beginning with students simply deciding if an actions is a good or bad choice, to a student sort of good and bad choices (this is a freebie at the end of the blog post) to finally illustrating or writing good or bad choices. Also we color an emergent reader reviewing some of the classroom expectations. These can also just be used as little coloring pages when a classroom expectation is introduced. In your classroom, you may want to challenge your students to focus on a certain expectation for a week. Included are posters that would work great for this: These provide a visual and focus for students when expectations are being taught. You can make it a game and provide an incentive if students can meet this expectation a certain amount of times in a week. Once these expectations are taught it is important to keep students accountable to their actions. I have been using a visual think sheet in my classroom that is perfect for this. It is very appropriate for your early learners in pre-k or kindergarten or special ed because it includes pictures for students to show what they did. Students simply color in the choice they made and a better choice they can make. These are great reflections for students, communication for parents and documentation if necessary. You may also want to post these cool down methods where students can reflect on strategies to cool down, instead of getting upset. You can find this entire Behavior Think Sheets and Activities in my TPT store and the Free Good and Bad Choices Student Sort here:

How the stomach breaks down food: a hands-on demonstration to understand the two ways in which the stomach breaks down food during digestion.

Here's a list of fun activities you can do with preschool and kindergarten using rhythm sticks!

FREE Call Backs and attention getters for the kindergarten classroom! Great classroom management tool!

Spring is here and we all have spring fever! Energy levels are higher. Students seem restless. Behaviors that have never been seen before appear. And your once quiet class becomes chatty. Every year I remind myself that this is normal. And to be expected… But that doesn’t mean we can’t remedy the situation. In this ... Read More about 10 Effective Strategies for a Chatty Class

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...

Download sample resources from our Kindergarten Mega Math Bundle to make hands on instruction an integral part of your math classroom.

ALL ABOUT EARTH Get ready for a month filled with so many fun activities to teach your kiddos all about our planet Earth . I teach this unit in April so it coincides with Earth Day. I’ve loaded up this blog post post with read aloud book ideas, free videos you can share with your students,

The Kindergarten artists and PreKinders also created some artwork inspired by Mondrian. The PreKinders glued down black lines creating squares and rectangles they then colored some of their shapes …

Using a kindergarten loop schedule has been my number one organizational hack for our homeschool year. We're never behind and always focused!

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So we’ve decided what we want to teach . We’ve chosen our musical materials . Now it’s time to plug it all in. Today I’m sharing how I’ve planned the first month of Kindergarten.

Here is a super fun and easy STEM project for your kindergarten, Pre-K, or first grade class that features a favorite nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty! So grab some extra plastic eggs and get ready for some Nursery Rhyme STEM Time … Continue reading →

Finding something for kindergarten early finishers to do can be a challenge! Check out these task cards to keep students learning and engaged!

Hi friends!! I’m super excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday. I haven’t done one in a long time!! But I’m not feeling too well […]

These 5 fun 3D shapes activities for kindergarten are a great way for students to learn about shape attributes while having a blast.