I have made some updates to my Kindergarten Christmas Math and Literacy Centers. Here's a peak...
Here's a holiday FREEBIE for you and your students- arranging numbers in numerical order on a sentence strip.  |  |
Enjoy!
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Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Classroom Holiday Resources K-6 Link-Up
Hey everyone,
I have made some updates to my Kindergarten Christmas Math and Literacy Centers. Here's a peak...
Enjoy!
I have made some updates to my Kindergarten Christmas Math and Literacy Centers. Here's a peak...
Enjoy!
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers and Link-Up
Hey all,
Welcome to November in my classroom! Here's what we'll be working on at literacy centers.
Identifying Beginning Sounds
Identifying Ending Sounds
Matching Pictures and Sentences- Not only are the students getting practice with color words and determining a word by using the first letter (s) they also get sight word practice!
Here are some of the things my kiddos will be doing at math centers.
Filling in Missing Number- With this center I let my students use a dry erase marker. There is also an option to just write the missing number on a recording sheet.
Adding to 5
Numbers 11-20
Making 10- One of the more challenging skills for my kinders to wrap their heads around are ways to make 10 (any numbers really). This center is useful because the students get to see a completed ten frame on each of the cards. Cementing the idea that all these addition cards show facts of 10.
You can find these math and literacy centers in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Or by clicking the picture below.
Welcome to November in my classroom! Here's what we'll be working on at literacy centers.
Identifying Beginning Sounds
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| (Don't you just love how it looks like the mouse is massaging the turtle's back?) |
Matching Pictures and Sentences- Not only are the students getting practice with color words and determining a word by using the first letter (s) they also get sight word practice!
Matching short Aa Word Families- Here students place the trees on top of the work mats to match the word family. The words on the side will help them "cheat". Shhh, don't tell them that reading the words is the goal anyways. :)
Here are some of the things my kiddos will be doing at math centers.
Filling in Missing Number- With this center I let my students use a dry erase marker. There is also an option to just write the missing number on a recording sheet.
Counting On Addition- Here the students can practice the addition strategy of counting on. What I love about the number and then the pictures is it will be easy for the students to say the number aloud and then point and count each subsequent piece of corn.
Numbers 11-20
Making 10- One of the more challenging skills for my kinders to wrap their heads around are ways to make 10 (any numbers really). This center is useful because the students get to see a completed ten frame on each of the cards. Cementing the idea that all these addition cards show facts of 10.
You can find these math and literacy centers in my TeachersPayTeachers store. Or by clicking the picture below.
Enjoy!
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Saturday, October 3, 2015
Non-Fiction Literacy Center
First, a disclaimer, I cannot take credit for this idea. I read a blog post by Leslie over at Kindergarten Works and my wheels started turning. I want my students to have a love of non-fiction and as an end of the year kindergarten goal I want them to be able to write a well organized paragraph regarding a non-fiction topic. (You may be saying, "Yeah right Kerry, the majority of my class doesn't know their letters. And you are talking about paragraphs!!!)
So how do you take non-literate children and expect them to create anything meaningful at a non-fiction center? Let's start with circle thinking maps. My class has done several circle thinking maps as class through Alphabet Boot Camp. So my students were already very familiar with creating them. We created some class samples and talked about my grading expectations.
I have supplied the center with lots of books on particular topics; sorted into bins. These bins will be changed out about once a month (or when I see interest in a particular topic dwindling). With these books students are learning to look for captions or scan the text to find the words to label their pictures. (MOST of my students are not there yet.)
For students in need of more support, I have also included vocabulary pages (in a small binder in page protectors). Now, everyone who is able to copy words can be successful at creating their circle map.
I opened this center just a short 2 weeks ago and I had a kid (not even from my highest reading group) create a level 4 paper!!!!! Can you say proud teacher???
So where do I go from here? All the older maps will still be available for students to continue to work on; but I will be introducing new ones as the year goes on. Here is what I am thinking my yearly timeline might look like...
For the next few months I will continue to let my students work on circle maps and help them develop stronger sentences.
December-January- In order to write a paragraph on one topic, students will need a narrower view. I will introduce a bubble map. With this map students will need to be able to read a book on one particular topic. (Here I am expecting them to be early readers an be able to pull information from a simple text.) Students will use the center of the bubble map to write their topic and then use the bubbles for details or adjectives. From their bubble maps students can write a sentence and start writing paragraphs.
March- April- In the Spring I will introduce sequencing and the use of flow maps. The books I put into the non-fiction center will be deliberate choices- life cycles and how things are made. At this point, most students will be able to read and comprehend the simple texts. Students will be able to use their flow map to write a paragraph on their chosen topic.
What are you thoughts or suggestions about this center? What is something you do in your classroom to get your students working with non-fiction?
So how do you take non-literate children and expect them to create anything meaningful at a non-fiction center? Let's start with circle thinking maps. My class has done several circle thinking maps as class through Alphabet Boot Camp. So my students were already very familiar with creating them. We created some class samples and talked about my grading expectations.
I have supplied the center with lots of books on particular topics; sorted into bins. These bins will be changed out about once a month (or when I see interest in a particular topic dwindling). With these books students are learning to look for captions or scan the text to find the words to label their pictures. (MOST of my students are not there yet.)
For students in need of more support, I have also included vocabulary pages (in a small binder in page protectors). Now, everyone who is able to copy words can be successful at creating their circle map.
So where do I go from here? All the older maps will still be available for students to continue to work on; but I will be introducing new ones as the year goes on. Here is what I am thinking my yearly timeline might look like...
For the next few months I will continue to let my students work on circle maps and help them develop stronger sentences.
December-January- In order to write a paragraph on one topic, students will need a narrower view. I will introduce a bubble map. With this map students will need to be able to read a book on one particular topic. (Here I am expecting them to be early readers an be able to pull information from a simple text.) Students will use the center of the bubble map to write their topic and then use the bubbles for details or adjectives. From their bubble maps students can write a sentence and start writing paragraphs.
March- April- In the Spring I will introduce sequencing and the use of flow maps. The books I put into the non-fiction center will be deliberate choices- life cycles and how things are made. At this point, most students will be able to read and comprehend the simple texts. Students will be able to use their flow map to write a paragraph on their chosen topic.
What are you thoughts or suggestions about this center? What is something you do in your classroom to get your students working with non-fiction?
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Friday, August 7, 2015
Choice Centers
Yes, you read the title correctly, my students get to choose each day where they go for centers; literacy and math. I started choice literacy centers about 4 years ago, about the same time I kicked off the Daily 5.
Now, I had a fair deal of trepidation when I gave up my control. What if Johnny only wants to go to the listening center and work on sight words????? He won't get enough phonics or writing practice!!!!!! I put a few things in place to make sure this was not an issue (for the most part).
Now here's the fun part; how students select centers. As the kids were coming in from the playground and getting water we would start the process of picking centers. In a room with a smart board this could be done with the pen on the board. I didn't happen to have a smart board so we did ours old school; kids on my teacher laptop mouse.
There were 4 different slides- one for each center rotation. Every day each student would come to reading group, they would have to read to self daily and also get on an ipad daily. (I was fortunate enough to have 10 ipads). (The ipad part is not included in the sample below.)
Here is a glimpse at the screen the students saw each day. (My student's center choice chart had names instead of numbers). We would click on a number from the right and move it to one of the colorful rows. (In order top to bottom- reading group, read to self, word work, listen to reading, buddy reading, writing center). Once all centers had been selected I played the slideshow. It was projected nice and big on the board during each center rotation. I could, with a quick glance, make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. To move to center 2 we just simply clicked the mouse once and center 2 was projected. If you are interested in this chart it is available in my TPT store, just click on one of the images below.
Here's an example of what this might look like in action.
reading group- students 1, 14, 17, 7 and 19, read to self- students 2, 13, 5 and 15 etc. For buddy reading I put the two kids names' who are reading together closer together so it was an easy visual.
So there you have it! How I keep some control in a student choice center system.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. There are definitely clear advantages to both systems. What center rotation system do you use? What makes it your favorite?
Now, I had a fair deal of trepidation when I gave up my control. What if Johnny only wants to go to the listening center and work on sight words????? He won't get enough phonics or writing practice!!!!!! I put a few things in place to make sure this was not an issue (for the most part).
- Occasional requirements- Every once in a while I would tell the students they had to make it to the writing center during the next 3 days. This still gave them choice of when they were going to go, but I made sure to have that writing assignment from them by the end of the three days.
- Training- I had to do lots of training about how to use centers effectively. We talked about what might happen if you only went to one center all the time. I referred to the centers like a puzzle. You need all the pieces to be a successful reader.
- Student feedback- I encouraged them to talk to me about how they felt about specific centers. "This one is too hard for me still. I don't like this one because _____. This one has gotten boring." Yes, I am even happy when a kid can admit the center is boring. They are so many ways to teach certain skills, I have no problem changing out the center. My goal is to have them reading, and they are going to be more excited about it if they are excited about their centers.
- Change out centers often- If you see there is a center that no one is going to ask the kiddos why. It may be too hard for most of them, it could be too easy, it could just be something they feel like they have done a million times. Get to the root of why the center isn't working and make adjustments. (Also I am a little sneaky in this area. If the writing center is not getting enough traffic from my kiddos, I put out stamps, problem solved. When the sight word center is at a lull I put out silly reading glasses.)
- Particular student requests- (This is similar to the occasional requirements but it is on an individual level.) It usually goes something like this...(in a one on one conversation) "Johnny, I see that you could use some work with sight words. You know your friend Bill is pretty strong there, but he could use some work in blending, which you are really good at. Can you and Bill come up with a plan to spend your next two centers working together at sight words and the CVC center?" The kiddos that I have done this with love it, maybe because they realize I notice their strengths and weaknesses, or because I've come up with a plan just for them.
Now here's the fun part; how students select centers. As the kids were coming in from the playground and getting water we would start the process of picking centers. In a room with a smart board this could be done with the pen on the board. I didn't happen to have a smart board so we did ours old school; kids on my teacher laptop mouse.
There were 4 different slides- one for each center rotation. Every day each student would come to reading group, they would have to read to self daily and also get on an ipad daily. (I was fortunate enough to have 10 ipads). (The ipad part is not included in the sample below.)
Here is a glimpse at the screen the students saw each day. (My student's center choice chart had names instead of numbers). We would click on a number from the right and move it to one of the colorful rows. (In order top to bottom- reading group, read to self, word work, listen to reading, buddy reading, writing center). Once all centers had been selected I played the slideshow. It was projected nice and big on the board during each center rotation. I could, with a quick glance, make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. To move to center 2 we just simply clicked the mouse once and center 2 was projected. If you are interested in this chart it is available in my TPT store, just click on one of the images below.
Here's an example of what this might look like in action.
reading group- students 1, 14, 17, 7 and 19, read to self- students 2, 13, 5 and 15 etc. For buddy reading I put the two kids names' who are reading together closer together so it was an easy visual.
So there you have it! How I keep some control in a student choice center system.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. There are definitely clear advantages to both systems. What center rotation system do you use? What makes it your favorite?
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Sunday, August 2, 2015
No More Tears- First Day of School
I am linking up with the Undercover Classroom and lots of other great teachers about Tried and True First Day of School Activities. The linky party will be available starting Sunday, August 2.
When I started teaching I was ready to get right to work and get those Kindergarten students tracing their names. They walked in and on their table were neatly printed papers with everyone's name on them. I thought it was brilliant starting the year off with them already working. What I didn't take into account was how overwhelming the first day of school was for these little ones... A new situation, a new person in charge, new classmates, no more parents. (Enough to make a grown-up nervous.) And on top of that I told these unfortunate kids to do something academic.
So as you can assume year after year I had at least one crier on the first day of school. (Now people, I teach Kindergarten, tears don't bother me. But the boo hoo crying so loud that people from outside the classroom walk in to check if everything was okay- that child has an amazing pair of lungs crying was just too much for me.)
I was talking to a veteran teacher a few years ago and she said something to the effect of, there will be plenty of time for academics, in fact the less nervous they are the quicker you truly have their full attention for learning. So do something fun when they walk in.
/This teacher suggested play-doh. If you don't care for play-doh have them do something else, independently. You can verify dismissal plans with parents, take attendance and all that other first day stuff while the kids are playing.
I started doing play-doh the first day of school 3 years ago. And on the first day of school my classroom for 3 years has been tear free!
When I started teaching I was ready to get right to work and get those Kindergarten students tracing their names. They walked in and on their table were neatly printed papers with everyone's name on them. I thought it was brilliant starting the year off with them already working. What I didn't take into account was how overwhelming the first day of school was for these little ones... A new situation, a new person in charge, new classmates, no more parents. (Enough to make a grown-up nervous.) And on top of that I told these unfortunate kids to do something academic.
So as you can assume year after year I had at least one crier on the first day of school. (Now people, I teach Kindergarten, tears don't bother me. But the boo hoo crying so loud that people from outside the classroom walk in to check if everything was okay- that child has an amazing pair of lungs crying was just too much for me.)
I was talking to a veteran teacher a few years ago and she said something to the effect of, there will be plenty of time for academics, in fact the less nervous they are the quicker you truly have their full attention for learning. So do something fun when they walk in.
/This teacher suggested play-doh. If you don't care for play-doh have them do something else, independently. You can verify dismissal plans with parents, take attendance and all that other first day stuff while the kids are playing.
I started doing play-doh the first day of school 3 years ago. And on the first day of school my classroom for 3 years has been tear free!
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Monday, July 27, 2015
Apple Orchard Count the Room
So here is my latest creation. I wanted to have a math center that was apple themed for the first few weeks of school. Students will be developing that every important one to one correspondence as they work on this center. I really like how it turned out!
Thanks for your support!
Enjoy!
Are there skills you are surprised your students come in knowing, or ones you are surprised they are lacking at the beginning of the year?
Thanks for your support!
Enjoy!
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Sunday, July 12, 2015
Christmas in July Sale Starts Tomorrow
Tomorrow kicks of the Christmas in July sale.
Here's what you can look forward to:
July 13 and 14 four of my most popular items will be 1/2 off!
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July 13th
8 flash freebies (only free for an hour), starting at 9am EST and going through 4pm. Posts will be made through Facebook on the hour to let you know about the current freebie! Here are some of the goodies that will be free...
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July 14th
9 flash freebies (only free for an hour), starting at 9am EST and going through 5pm. Again posts will be made through Facebook on the hour to let you know about the current freebie! Here are some of the goodies that will be free-
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I hope you enjoy this sale and these freebies!
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