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...

Here's a holiday FREEBIE for you and your students- arranging numbers in numerical order on a sentence strip.

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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 

(Don't you just love how it looks like the mouse is massaging the turtle's back?)

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!

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.

Adding to 5

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!

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? 

  

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!

 

 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!

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!

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...

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-

I hope you enjoy this sale and these freebies!