October in Kindergarten

October is my favorite month of the year!  I love pumpkins, fall colors, and Halloween.  I just celebrated my 11th wedding anniversary with my sweet husband.  We had a beautiful fall wedding during one of the most lovely times of year here in my little part of the world.

So, it's one of my favorite times of year in the classroom too!  This is a sweet Fall on the Farm bulletin board from last year...

It was done slowly over time during our farm unit.  The trees were done collaboratively using corks and tempera paint.  I drew the trunks ahead of time using pastels.  The kids painted the leaves and apples using the corks in small groups.

Fire Prevention Month is also super cool.  My kids love seeing firefighters get into their full gear.  They especially love the "Darth Vader" breathing of the oxygen tank.  It's cool to see the fire engine too.   We are sending kind thoughts to all the firefighters and those affected by the wildfires in California right now.  Keep reading to find a firefighter FREEBIE later in this post.

In my classroom we always learn about pumpkins and use Halloween themed materials to practice important literacy and math concepts being taught.  Learning is more FUN that way.  So I am super excited to show you a special new product I made...

This is the beginning letter sound match activity from my Kindergarten Centers for October.
I adore the watercolor graphics.  It's great literacy practice during anytime in October.  They are perfect for Halloween too.

These pumpkin letter cards are also super sweet watercolor graphics!  You can use them for letter sound practice.  Pulling them out of a plastic pumpkin like this is so fun.  We say the poem I heard from Miss Kindergarten to practice letter sounds...  "Pumpkin, Pumpkin, nice and round, grab a pumpkin, say the sound."  It's great practice AND formative assessment.  You can also use these cards to match uppercase and lowercase...

This activity also comes with a recording sheet for kids to practice writing the matching letter.  My kiddos NEED the handwriting practice... so it's a great activity.  It's split into two sheets, so you can do this as two separate activities on two different days.  It's a better plan to do it in two days for our little learners in kindergarten.

 I also adore these eyeball jars that we are using for number sense activities.  My kids just learned number words by making this Counting Bears Number Book.

So we will be using those eyeball jar numbers to practice number words, counting strategies, number order, and more.  The number cards and number word cards both work with this sweet activity too...

These cute candy corn numbers can be used in many of the same ways.  They also have star ten frames to match.  All these number activities will help make my hands-on lessons with my math curriculum much more fun.  All these number activities come with recording sheets so students can review and extend concepts with pencil and paper.  They make great homework for October as well.

I love to begin my number activities by having kids work collaboratively to put the numerals in order.  We do it forwards and backwards.  Then they can match the counting cards and other representations of the number to the numerals.

We are also working on decomposing numbers as we work on counting strategies and number order.   It sets students up for success with understanding addition and subtraction later in the year.  This mat is a fun way to decompose numbers.  Using candy corns for math manipulatives in October is a must.  Here you can see 6 decomposed as 4+2  and 3+3.

 You could also use little mini erasers, bears, or cubes from your classroom as well.   These simple mats will work with ANY counter manipulative. These decomposing numbers mats are in my Kindergarten Centers for October as well.

The understanding that larger numbers can be made with combinations of smaller numbers is a hugely important concept in kindergarten math.  So we practice this A LOT during the year.  These are a couple of other ways we practice...

This set of Roll, Count, Build Number Sense Activities has a mat for every month of the school year and some extras too.  It also has mats for both two dice and three.  This is a great way to differentiate and is actually great practice for first grade too.  It comes with recording sheets to write number sentences as well.

You can use the dice mats with dominoes too.  We LOVE dominoes in our classroom.  They are the original number bonds and help kids learn soooooo much about numbers.  So, I love this sweet little math product.  You can grab it right here: Number Sense Activities - Roll, Count, Build all year long!

This Roll, Count, Color All year long! is another way to practice these same concepts.  They also make easy homework for parents at home.  This set of recording sheets for dice also have images for the entire year.  They are made to use with one, two, or three dice.

You can grab these pages right here: Roll, Count, Color All year long!

Back to the October center activities...

This is another activity to practice decomposing numbers.  My students are going to pretend to be wizards or mad scientists making potions...

This fun math activity has pictures of fun potion bottles in different number combinations.  Here you can see 7 decomposed as 5+2, 3+4, and 1+6.  Students can make Potions with any combination that matches the total number (7).

There are cards included to record the number relationship like this or with full number sentences.  It has fun recording sheets too!

Here are some other fun activities in this set:

Practice for rhyming... this includes other materials and gives ideas for lots of ways to use these cards.

OK...  this is turning into the blog post that will never end.   This Kindergarten Centers for October set also includes activities to practice hearing and counting syllables and color words too.  It is going to help make my October fun for the kids and easy for me... now that all the cards are printed and laminated, Ha ha!

Thank you so much for reading this post.  I hope some of these activities gave you ideas for your kindergarten classroom in October.  If you want these activities for your classroom, you can find them right here: Kindergarten Centers for October.

I promised you a Fire Prevention freebie...

It's a labeling activity just perfect for little students who are learning to stretch words and listen for sounds to write them.  It only has five words, so it's not overwhelming for kiddos just starting to write.  I did this as a guided activity where we worked collaboratively to stretch and listen and I modeled the writing.  Don't you love the rainbow jacket in this one?

Here's what the page looks like blank:

There are two pages included with boy and girl firefighters.  It's in my TpT store. You can grab it right here:   FREEBIE-Label the Firefighter


I hope you have an amazing October with your class!  Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Happy teaching!

Share the love

I am so happy to be blogging with my #kinderfriends this week.  We are sharing the love by donating 10% of our TpT sales from February 10-14th to a favorite charity.  Yay!  Our world NEEDS more love and kindness right now.  So, this makes my heart very happy. Some of us are giving you a FREEBIE too!  Keep reading so you can grab one from me.

This is a fun idea for your classroom that can also help spread the LOVE.  I did this a few years ago with a class that really needed some support to be kind and helpful with each other.  It is an acts of kindness project that I connected with our 100th day of school.  The challenge was for kids in the class to do 100 acts of kindness before we reached the 100th day of school.  We punched out 100 heart die cuts on our Ellison machine at school.  Then we wrote down the name of each child and the kind act as they reported to us.  You can also have the kids do the writing, especially for firsties.  They were so proud of these accomplishments through the process of filling the board.

Water.org is the charity to which I will donate for this event.  You can make a donation yourself by clicking on the link above or you can buy something from my TpT store and I will donate 10% of the sale price.  This event lasts from Feb. 10th -14th 2017.  I first heard about this charity about five years ago when I saw a bit on TV about it.  Matt Damon was lending his celebrity to shed light on this important issue.  I was shocked to hear the stories about how many people do not have running water and the impact it has in daily life.  I honestly feel that running water and sanitation should be rights of all people.  I also know how much this impacts public health for communities.  One thing I really love about Water.org is that they work with folks in each community to find unique and sustainable solutions that help them solve the water problems they face.  I will donate to this charity annually until this problem no longer exists.

Are you doing your measurement unit right now?  I want to share the love by showing you something I made for MY classroom.  I think it will be very helpful now and for the rest of your school year.  I made this pack of common core aligned measurement activities to help our little students with this important topic.  My kids are loving measurement!  And I am am loving that I have this EASY PREP pack to pull from anytime we need a little hands-on review.  I have a bag of classroom objects for measurement in my cupboard ready to go anytime we need them.  Then I just print and go for measurement math fun.  Here is a little peek:

You can grab it right here: Measurement Activities ~ Memorable Math EASY PREP

OK, lets get back to love and kindness and you can grab that FREEBIE!

This is a chart I made with my class earlier this year.  We were learning about friendship and being kind in the classroom at the beginning of the year.  After we did this, the kids got to draw a picture with their own idea of how to be a good friend.  This was early in the year, so I took dictations for students.  Here are a couple of adorable examples:

I just LOVE the drawings on both of these pages.  I love these sweet little students too.  This is a good time of year to review these norms with our kiddos.  You can grab this FREEBIE in my TpT store right here: Friendship Writing prompt paper.

Keep hopping along for more LOVE from the #kinderfriends

Go check out my friend Wendy right here: 1st Grade Fireworks

Thanks for stopping by!

Holidays around the World with #kinderfriends

I am so happy to be joining my #kinderfriends for another blog hop!  We are giving away a $25 gift card to Teachers Pay Teachers.  We are giving away some fun freebies.  We are also sharing lots of great ideas for the holidays in your classroom.  Did I mention we are having a sale?  Yay!

I always want my classroom to be festive this time of year.  It is a magical time for little kiddos and at times they are bursting with excitement.  So it's helpful to keep them active and busy with FUN learning activities!

In December, I usually do a folktales and fairy tales unit that includes The Gingerbread Man and all the versions that go along with it.  Gingerbread originated in Germany so it definitely could be included in a Holidays Around the World theme.  Here are a few fun ideas to get your gingerbread on in the classroom:

Mix it and fix it sentences are a great addition to our sparkly gingerbread art.  Loving this bulletin board right now!

This pocket chart poem can be sung to Pop Goes the Weasel.  It makes a fun shared reading activity that the kiddos like to do independently after it has been taught.

These little guys above were made with oven bake clay.  It's a great fine motor activity and I just glue a magnet on the back and send them home as a holiday gift for the family.  Too cute!  Even though we don't study holiday traditions, we do some gift and card making in our classroom.  Projects with a purpose are great this time of year.

 

This craft is an oldie but goodie!  Who doesn't want a hand print Rudolph reindeer from their little darling?  These are easy and inexpensive, but they are treasured by parents for years to come!  Just do a brown hand print on card stock, trim and laminate, then glue on eyes and nose, put on a ribbon and done!  Another adorable holiday gift for sweet little students to give to their families.

My class really enjoyed this writing activity from my time saving Print and Go! Gingerbread pack.  Print and Go! packs can be a lifesaver this time of year.   There are fun pages in here for homework, morning work, or independent centers in the classroom when you are up to your elbows in arts and crafts projects. This product is on sale through Thursday December 15th.  Just search #kinderfriends on Teachers pay Teachers to find all my special sale items. 

Now, it's time for a little gift giving from me to YOU!  I am sooooo grateful for the TpT classroom community and awesome teachers like YOU.  So, this year I have two special holiday FREEBIES for you.  Here is freebie number one:

It's a design page for kiddos to design and create the perfect cookie.  I did this as a homework project last year.  You could do this project in the classroom too.  It would be a nice activity during the last week before your winter break.

It's included in that Print and Go! Gingerbread product above.  This is a Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree blog freebie.  Just click this link to download that cookie design page:  My gingerbread cookie design

And here is freebie number 2:

It's from my December Pretty Papers & Prompts .  That's another time saving product with sweet engaging writing papers for excited little people in your classroom.  You will find this on sale through Thursday the 15th.  Just search #kinderfriends on TpT to find special sale items.  This freebie is a letter to Santa with an old world St. Nick.

Like my letter to Santa this year?  It's actually what I want from my husband... haha!
You can grab this printable in my TpT store right here: FREEBIE - Writing Activities ~ December Pretty Papers & Prompts

Giveaway time!!!  Best of luck!  You can enter to win a $25 TpT gift card right here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep hoping along to my friend Elaine over at Kitty Kitty Kindergarten for more Holidays Around the World fun! 

Thanks for stopping by.
Happy holidays!

Back in the swing of things... with #kinderfriends

I am so happy to be doing a blog hop with the #kinderfriends!  We are giving you tips for a successful school year.  We are also having a SALE!  My tips are about staying balanced, healthy, and happy.  Taking care of yourself is crucial to having a great year.  Happy, healthy, teacher = good teacher!

1.  Breathe.
     Just sit and breathe.

Taking a few minutes out of your day to just simply sit and focus on your breath can make a huge difference in your life.  It helps get rid of the mental "clutter" and can make for more  peaceful and productive time with your students.  We practice mindfulness at our school.  When I say we I mean teachers AND students.   It is a secular practice that research has shown helps reduce stress and increases mental focus.  It also helps reduce conflicts naturally because it helps students (and grown ups) regulate emotions and impulses better.  It's good for us!  (I used the Buddha photo because I have been wanting to use it for something ever since I took this in SF at the Japanese Tea Garden two years ago.)  Again, mindfulness practice at our school is NOT related to any religion.

2.  Take your supplements!

Germs abound in the early childhood classroom!  Oh my goodness, we have students that are still learning how to blow their noses.  It is just a part of the job... we are constantly bombarded with pathogens!  Our immune systems need as much support as they can get!  These are my two must have supplements.  Those vitamins are AWESOME!  They help my energy levels!  

The other supplement is an amazing Chinese herbal formula to increase chi (energy) and mental clarity.  It is made up of several adaptogenic herbs that fight fatigue, build immunity, and increase mental function.  I just love the name "Vibrant".  My husband says every teacher should take it.  He is an acupuncturist.  You can only get that Evergreen Chinese formula from licensed acupuncturists.  I take these every day I teach and I sure notice the difference if I forget.

What supplements do you take to stay healthy during the school year?

3. Prep ahead!

I like to leave on Friday with my next week completely ready to go.  This tub has two weeks worth of big envelopes that hold my prep for each day.  Each afternoon, I prep for the same day the following week.  It keeps my stress levels down and allows me time to prepare and enlist help for big prep intensive activities. 

4.  My best tip for a successful school year is...

go to Teachers Pay Teachers and grab some resources to make your life easier!  Just search the hashtag #kinderfriends for some great deals on back to school essentials.  We all have items on sale right now.  My most popular back to school resource is Print and Go! Back to School Math and Literacy.  It has loads of  pages perfect for the beginning of the year in kindergarten.  But this is what's new in my store for back to school...

Writing prompts and pages perfect for September in kindergarten or first grade.  I will be making one of these for every month of the school year.  There are loads of pages in here that you can use for writer's workshop, your writing center, assessments, and just for fun during your writing period.  My kids love to write when the pages look FUN!  You can find it right here: Writing Activities ~ Pretty Papers and Prompts SEPTEMBER  It will be 20% off through Thursday September 15th.  Make sure you search the hashtag #kinderfriends on TpT for more great deals from all the fabulous bloggers in the hop.

Keep hopping along and go see my friend Cristina over at The Primary Besties for more great tips.  You can click on the link below her logo.

The Primary Besties ~ Back in the Swing of Things

Hope you are back in the swing of things and have the best year ever!
Happy teaching!