Bump games for your math & literacy centers or small group. Teach this simple and engaging game to your kindergarten class and swap out the skills to have a predictable center or station all year long! Bump Games The BUMP games are purposely predictable so you can teach it once and use it throughout the…
Math
Daily Math Practice Through Math Journals
Journal prompts in kindergarten for daily math practice. Daily math notebook prompts for students to solve common core kindergarten math standards problems. Students work on math story problems through drawing and writing. Kindergarten Math Journals Do your students journal write each day? We often use writing journals in the classroom, but what about math? Daily…
8 Awesome Kindergarten Math Apps
Kindergarten math apps to boost math skills for students. Check out some of the free math apps included. These make great kindergarten math center activities too! 8 Awesome Kindergarten Math Apps Quick Math Jr. This math app aligns with the Common Core for kindergarten and first grade. The version I checked out was free with…
Number Sense Activities | Making Ten!
Number sense activities for kindergarten and first grade. Answer the question: What is number sense and why is it important? What is Number Sense? Number sense is the fluidity and flexibility with numbers. It is a child’s ability to use and understand numbers, and also identify number relationships in order to solve mathematical problems. In kindergarten,…
How to Teach Addition and Subtraction in Kindergarten (FREE file)
How to teach addition and subtraction in kindergarten? Students learn addition and subtraction through a variety of hands-on activities. Let me show you how! How to teach addition and subtraction in kindergarten? Explore! What we know about numeracy development is that students go through stages. As you see in other subjects, not every student experiences…
Kindergarten Lesson Plans – Week 5 Chrysanthemum (FREE file)
Kindergarten Lesson Plans Week 5 featuring ideas for Chrysanthemum! Let’s do this! (NOTE: This blog post contains affiliate links, but the ideas are my own.) Week 5 Lesson Plans for Reading Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is a class favorite. You can also find the video on Amazon Prime! SWEET! …
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade. Check out the book ideas for reader’s workshop and writers workshop. You can find a free file towards the end of this blog post too! Shark Activities Mentor Texts Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies is such a great book! This book contains a…
Kindergarten Math Groups Made Easy PLUS a FREE file!!!
Kindergarten Math Groups Made Easy and a FREE file? You got it! In this blog post, you will read how I organize my math groups, assess, differentiate, and teach students with hands-on math activities that are sure to engage your kindergarten classroom. NOTE: This blog post contains affiliate links but the opinions are my own….
12 Math Center Activities That Will Engage Your Class ALL Year! (Free File)
Kindergarten Math Center Activities and a freebie file too! These ideas will engage your class all year long. Why do math centers? Why do we even do math centers? First of all… they are fun! The bonus is the learning and practice that takes place. We, as teachers, also need moments in the day when…
Independent Student Centers made SIMPLE! (Free file)
Independent kindergarten center games can be easy! Let me show you how! Independent Kindergarten Center Games: The Secret Sauce! As you probably know, I am a HUGE fan of building student independence! We have important work to do in our small groups… right? So we need center activities that students can do independently. My…
Comparing Numbers Throughout the Day
Comparing numbers in whole group math, small group math, math journals, and math stations…feeling overwhelmed? Hopefully, this post will help you see how I fit it all in. You can view a daily schedule HERE. Let’s start with the different components. Whole Group Math (SIDENOTE: I have been asked about my spiral binding machine….
Math Work Stations Throwback! (Tons of FREE Goodies)
Here is a Math Work Stations Throwback for a book study I completed with some blogging friends back in 2011! It is crazy to think that it has been close to 6 years. The other day, as I was looking at some of my old blog posts, I decided to update a few of…
Building Math Fluency with Games (Free File)
I love playing games so creating math fluency games was a no-brainer for my classroom. So what is math fluency? I used to think math fluency was memorization. Insert mental image of endless flashcards with drill and kill type activities. Yes, we want students to have fact recall, but it is more than just that….
Use Wooden Blocks to Teach Number Sense!
Use wooden blocks to build number sense! Looking for a way to incorporate open-ended and fun activities while also building your students’ number sense? Solution found! I want to introduce you to SumBlox! I had actually heard about this company about 3+ years ago. A parent had mentioned seeing these at a conference…
Secrets to Instant Planning… Just PRINT and TEACH
Lesson Planning Secrets Made Easy! Writers Workshop, Math Workshop, Guided Reading, and Reading Comprehensions Lessons for Kindergarten and First Grade. Just Print and TEACH! Here are a few things we know about teachers. They want the absolute BEST for their students. They want to employ “Best Practices” in their classrooms. They. Are. Overwhelmed! Occasionally, they want…
Starting Kindergarten Math Journals… It’s EASY!!!!
Starting kindergarten math journals can be EASY! Let me give you a peek at to how I introduce math journals to my kindergarteners! Setting up your journals If you are like me, you have a few journals going in your classroom. I usually have 3: Math Journals Poetry Notebooks Thinking (or Learning Journal) I used…
Hello from a First Grade Classroom!
Last year I was presenting at the New Jersey Kindergarten Association. I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Chappelear at that conference. Tim is a first grade teacher (and he became my tech support for the day he was designated volunteer). I could not have been more thrilled than when I received this hello from first-grade email from…
It’s my Birthday… how about a little FREE file?
It’s my birthday so it is time for me to celebrate with you! Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. ~Samuel Ullman Remember how excited you are when you turn 5 years…
Hands On Math! Linky!
I love academic rigor… I really do! So when it comes to math, there is nothing like hands on math learning! The other day I was listening to Adam Pederson’s vlog at www.TeachersLearn2.com . I just met Adam for the first time in Chicago this year and I loved how down to earth…
My Favorite Things: Math Work Stations with a free file
I am going to share a few of my favorite kindergarten math center ideas. I hope these math work station ideas work for your classroom too! Why do math stations? Math stations or centers are an opportunity for students to practice and apply math skills independently. These are activities we want them…
Valentine’s Day Lesson Plans ~ Peek at my Week
Happy Valentine’s Day WEEK! What a great week to focus on LOVE! I think this might be my classroom’s favorite poem! Perhaps because it is downright silly! You can find all of my original poems HERE. You can find the recorded music that goes with them HERE. You can read the original blog post…
Pictures from YOU!
It has been fun to view the pictures from you this week! I started the week in Seattle! I was able to spend two whole days with teachers who were passionate about children! Perfect! Then I flew to San Diego to spend a few days with my besties from high school….
Games for Kindergarten
Games for kindergarten! As you know, I love to include games in my daily instruction and share my downloadable kindergarten learning games. Math and Literacy Games for Kindergarten A while back I created resources to go with the Differentiated Instruction Cubes and my class pretty much flipped over them. In this activity, the students roll both dice…
Best Math and Literacy Activities for Kindergarten EVER!
Thank you for another fantastic year! I have been seeing so many “Best of” segments in magazines and on T.V. that I decided to host my own “Best of” where I will highlight some of the best math and literacy activities EVER for kindergarten (or at least over the last year). Best Math and Literacy Activities EVER…