December read aloud books for your kindergarten and first-grade classroom! These fun December books are great for Winter! December Read Aloud Favorites December is here! Wow, this year is going quick! Check out a few of my December read aloud favorites to share with students throughout the month of December. One Snowy Night by M. Christina Butler Follow the adventures of Little Hedgehog after he wakes up from his hibernation. ...
Winter
The Winter Games in the Classroom
Winter Games Lesson Ideas are great for the Winter Olympics or anytime it turns cold. Here are a few suggestions for you! Winter Games Read Aloud These three books (affiliate links) are wonderful for discussing the Winter Olympics: Tacky and the Winter Games brings back our favorite penguin, Tacky. His penguin friends are getting ready to compete in the winter games. Olympig is the story of Boomer the Pig who is really not ...
Snow by Cynthia Rylant Lesson Plans
Cynthia Rylant's Snow Lesson Plans! Snow by Cynthia Rylant Read Aloud We love the beautiful language in Cynthia Rylant's book Snow (affiliate link). You might say that I am a Cynthia Rylant junkie! This is a book that you will want in your collection! In our reading comprehension units, we work on figurative language using this book. Snow Science I am a ...
Snowmen at Night Lesson Plans (Free Activity TOO!)
Snowmen at Night Lesson Plans are here! My class has always loved this sweet book. We begin the week's lesson by reading it over and over. Snowmen at Night was written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by her husband, Mark Buehner. The rhyming in the text makes it fantastic for strengthening our phonemic awareness and the illustrations are spectacular! Snowmen at Night: Text Details We knew we had to include ...
The Mitten Reading Comprehension FUN! (psst… FREE unit)
The Mitten reading comprehension unit for kindergarten. This was one of my son's favorite winter books when he was growing up, so naturally, it became one of the books that we read over and over again! The Mitten Perhaps you have heard about our Guiding Readers Reading Comprehension units, but you have not tried them yet. Or perhaps you have, but you would simply love to add this book to your collection! [My hand is raised ...
Are you ready for Winter? January Math and Literacy Planning!
Winter kindergarten classroom activities to use in January? You got it! Plus a free planning guide! Perhaps you are squeezing in the last few days of winter break or maybe you are already looking forward to January. I hope this post helps you prepare without the stress! Winter Literacy Activities Here is a little peek at what my writing center looks like. I introduce this fun station in August, but by changing out the ...
Are you ready for December? Ideas and Resources … plus a free file!
December kindergarten resources are here! Ready or not! November seemed to fly by... blink and you will be knee deep in December! It is such a BUSY time of the year for most people, but for teachers, it can be down-right overwhelming. I have gathered some ideas you can use for December in your classroom. December kindergarten resources: Books to read So many books... so little time! Here are a few ...
Martin Luther King, Jr Lesson Plans
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr lesson plans are here! Check out how we celebrate! Great Books! The book My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was written by Martin Luther King, III! So good! I have been a fan of Kadir Nelson (the illustrator of this book) forever! I Have a Dream does not disappoint. And the book we use for the close reading this week is Martin's Big Words. Videos There are some good ones out ...
Snow Lesson Plans for Kindergarten
Ezra Jack Keats Snowy Day Lesson Ideas! Every year, January equals snow in my classroom! Ezra Jack Keats Snowy Day Lesson Ideas: Reading There are so many book choices! We love The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. You can find our Guiding Readers Lesson Plans for this book HERE. Did you know that Amazon has a video for this book? Here are some of the activities for The Snowy Day. First, we did some ...
Hibernating Animals Lesson Plans
Hibernating Animals Lesson Plans! We love teaching about animals in winter. We start with some great books! Here is a list for you! Hibernation Station Animals in Winter Bear Snores On I love these sweet books! Hibernation Not included in the image above Over and Under the Snow! So So SO good! We read Bear Snores On as part of our Guiding Readers Series. The series also includes an ...
Simple Kindergarten Centers for December that Keep Kids Learning (FREE Download)
December Kindergarten Centers that keep kids learning! That's the goal of stations... right? We want students to over-learn key skills and have fun in the process! KISS: Keep it Simple Sunshine I know how it can be overwhelming! Creating fresh activities for you class to complete that are meaningful, yet fun! Do you feel like every weekend is spent preparing resources for your centers. Then you spend your ...
Kindergarten Lesson Plans ~ Dental Health week!
Dental health kindergarten lesson plans are here. These are a few of my favorite dental books! I love Throw Your Tooth on the Roof. Students can learn to see the world from a different perspective! This is such a fun book! Here are few other tooth videos. This story will give you an opportunity to talk about compassion in your classroom. And... well... just ...
Reading Comprehension Updates!
I have organized my Guiding Readers binders... AHH!! These printable Kindergarten reading comprehension binders are a fantastic resource for you and your students! It feels good to get the 2nd edition in its own binder. The one on the left was the 1st edition that I used last year... you can tell because the binder is a little beaten up! But I promise having these together in a binder sure helps me feel better ...
Math and Literacy Centers for Winter
Kindergarten math and literacy worksheets and centers make student stations a breeze during the winter months! Ink Saving Winter Centers I created these Black Ink Only centers because I had heard that many of you did not have access to color ink! These simply print on colored cardstock! Here is what January's units looked like. Students are making 10 and writing the equations. These students are ...
Activities for Kindergarten Winter Centers!
Here are some kindergarten winter center activities, including literacy and math centers! Perfect for those cold days when everyone wants to stay inside! Here in Colorado, we have blue skies for miles! Despite the snow on the ground, it is a short-sleeves-kind-of-day! Kindergarten Winter Center Activities Here are some fun and predictable math activities for winter. In this center, students are writing the numbers in order. We have had ...
Arctic Animal Interactive Writing in Kindergarten
Last year my class loved learning about polar bears and the animals that live in the cold, so we did some kindergarten arctic animal interactive writing! Ice Bear by Nicola Davies We loved the illustrations in this book. Nicola Davies is one of my favorite authors. She combines informational texts along with narrative texts which is like reading two books in one. Gathering Information We start by gathering data from ...
It’s Gingerbread Week!
I love gingerbread (people either love it or hate it). But I love it! I also think it is one of my favorite classroom themes. Healthy Recipe for Kids In my house, I stand alone in my love for gingerbread. My husband and The Perfect Son turn up their noses. In my quest to have a healthy holiday, I found this recipe! At under 50 calories a cookie (frosting adds more calories), this might not be too ...
Kindergarten Math and Literacy Stations for November
Last year, I knew I needed more kindergarten math and literacy stations for my students. I had several staple activities up I wanted to provide an opportunity for my students to practice and over-learn skills. BUT I needed more than an activity that would take then 5 minutes then... "I'm DONE!!!" Or worse yet... the dreaded room roamer! So, in January I made my first set of Math and Literacy Station that were designed to be predictable! ...
Peek at my Week-Groundhog Week!
He's back! I sort of love the non-pressure of Groundhog's Day! A new month means it is time of me to swap out my monthly staples! Our writing station is up and ready for February! I am ready for President's Day... Knock on wood... we will not have a snow make-up day that day. We have not seen much snow here in Missouri this year, but we are playing games like we have! Differentiated Cubes can be found HERE. My class never ...
Peek at my week-Gingerbread Style
This week I do not have many photos from my classroom. I tore out of there on Tuesday after school to rush towards the airport. Big news for the Wills family! We sold our house in Missouri. And we are in the process of moving to Castle Rock, Colorado. When I tell people this, these are the questions I get asked... so I will try to answer them... Our house sold WAY faster than we anticipated, so I will live with my parents until the ...
Christmas Projects DONE!
Kindergarten Christmas Gifts ... such a fun and treasured parent gift for kindergarten. We finished our snowmen today! A few weeks ago, I was looking for parent gift ideas and a sweet Facebook friend sent me a photo of a project her son had done when he was in kindergarten. I loved seeing him towering over this snowman. She then said that she made them with her class each year. I love, love, love how they turned out! ...
Winter Poems for Shared Reading!
Winter Poems for Kindergarten and First Grade. These easy poetry lessons will engage your classroom in shared reading while having FUN! What does research say? Research has shown that poetry is a natural way to teach phonics skills, fluency, and engage students in language. When students are motivated they want to explore more! Source: Rasinski, T.V., Rupley, W.H., & Nichols, W.D (2012) ...
Winter Math Stations
Winter Math Station Free File. Here are 2 fun math centers that your class can try out for free. Addition and 10 frame fun! Winter Math Station I love math stations where the students can use their creativity while working with numbers. These are a few photos from the math stations I created in 2011. You can find this winter math activity at the bottom of this blog post. Here is how this math activity works. This ...