Opinion writing in kindergarten is one of those things, in my opinion (see what I did there) is best done spirally. We certainly introduce writing for a reason as a unit of study. However, we want the students' understanding of opinion writing to grow as their transcription skills grow. Recently Deedee worked in a kindergarten class and tested our new Opinion writing unit! She started by asking the question... Students wrote their opinion on a slip of paper and placed it on the ... continue reading...
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Cookie Detectives Engaging Learning Activities
Student engagement will be through the roof, with the Case of the Missing Cookies! September kindergarten and first week of school activities for first grade. Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? This is a fun rhyme to practice as a part of your first week of school activities. Students love hearing their name and hearing the names of their friends. This fun rhyme has been used for generations because it gets kids engaged! They love the repetitive chant as they ... continue reading...
Valentine’s Day unit COMPLETELY redone
Hey There! Have you ever watched Extreme Home Makeover? It's amazing what they can do with an old run down house! Well, I've done the same with my Valentine's Day unit. I gave it a complete overhaul. The unit was one of my earlier creations for TPT and mercy! That poor unit needed some TLC. So if you already own the unit you need to go and download the brand new, revised unit. For those of you who don't have it I put it on sale for $5 from now until Monday. Have a ... continue reading...
Phoneme Segmentation! Make and Take Freebie and Book Talk Tuesday
Segmenting words is an important skill that we work on throughout the year. Kids need a variety of hands on ways to work on this skill in order to make it more concrete. We use a variety of manipulatives to work on phoneme segmentation. Building words with unifix cubes as we say each sound, stretching the words with a slinky, sliding a pony bead for each sound and using our stretchy the word stretcher (as seen above). To make the word stretchers you need the template (below) ... continue reading...
Sight Words Working on Fluency
I've teamed up with Stephanie Stewart from Falling into First to bring you this amazing resource. Dolch words are some of the most frequently used words in the English language. The Dolch words comprise approximately 60-75% of what is printed in almost any piece of children’s literature. These sight word sentence fluency cards cover the words on the Pre-primer and Primer lists. When you present sight words in short sentences rather than in isolation children are more likely to remember ... continue reading...
Chit Chat Messages, Close Reading Passages & More! Giveaway
I just uploaded my newest resource to TPT! Go to my Facebook page and leave a comment for your chance to win the unit. I will be giving it away tonight at 9 p.m. This resource is on sale for the first 72 hours. :) Click on the cover to view the unit on TPT. ... continue reading...
Literacy Centers Part Three Big Book Station and ABC center FREEBIES
Kids love Shared Reading time. There's just something about being actively involved in reading a story that you love. Each week I introduce a new big book. We spend a week reading the book, closely analyzing the text and getting to know the characters. Joy Cowley is one of our favorite authors. After we've spent a week on a big book I don't just put it away and forget about it. The big book joins all of the other big books in the big book center so that the Littles can ... continue reading...
Bump & Jump Numbers and update on Interactive Reading Journal freebie
Okay, so I've got some good news and some bad news! The good news is that Mel and I posted the Numbers 1-50 Bump & Jump games yesterday and they are on SALE! The other good news is that we posted an ABC Freebie of the games and you can get it HERE I've also finished up the Nonfiction Interactive Reading Journal and I'd love to give you some freebies. You can click on the cover to view the unit on TPT. I put two on a page to save on copying. Just click on the image to ... continue reading...
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
School is out for the Summer! Woot! Woot! I am really looking forward to not having to set the alarm for awhile. :) I have several conferences to get ready for (HINT: Big giveaway coming soon! Vegas anyone?) but I also plan to spend a little bit of time floating in the pool and playing with these little sweeties. Anywhoo.... Here's how we spent our last week of school. We had lots of fun reading different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff Here are our ... continue reading...
America Unit
The America Unit is packed with enough ideas and activities for a one or two week unit on American Symbols and Presidents. My America unit is on sale until Wednesday. Click the cover image below to view it on TPT. If you purchased my St. Patrick's Day unit last year you will want to go to your My Purchases folder and download the revised version. Click on the cover below to view the unit ... continue reading...
RAWR! Dinosaurs Unit
To view all of the fun filled learning ideas and activities that we did from my Dinosaurs Unit click HERE and HERE to see our charts, pictures and activities. Here are a few new activities that we did this year.... We read, Can I have a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dad, Can I please? and wrote what we would do if we had a T-Rex. I want a T-Rex so he can take me to the movies. He would pick me up from school. He would clean up my room. (I love all the labels she ... continue reading...
Polar Express Unit and Free Song Download
I uploaded my Polar Express unit to TPT last night. I still have some more stuff that I want to add to it but a lot of you were emailing me that you needed it NOW! :) I will let you know when I finish updating it. It is on sale until Friday. :) You can click on the picture to view the unit. Linda McCardle put the song I wrote for this unit to music. You can get the song by clicking on the link below. Thank you so much ... continue reading...
Pumpkin Patch Palooza and a FREEBIE
Fall is one of my favorite times of year to teach! I love all things Fall: pumpkins, apples, scarecrows, bats, spiders, owls.... Did I mention it is my favorite time of the year to teach? The littles get so excited about learning and isn't that what it's all about? Sometimes teachers get so bogged down with teaching what's in the basal (no basal for me, thank you very much!) that we forget that true learning takes place when the teacher and students are EXCITED about what they are ... continue reading...
Fun and Easy Crafts and Poems to Celebrate National Holidays
These easy crafts are so much fun and perfect for celebrating some quirky national holidays. Cherry Popsicle day, Pickle day, Taco day, and more! Fun & Easy Crafts! These are easy to assemble and so much fun! You and your students will enjoy celebrating 14 quirky national holidays. I recommend printing the patterns on colored cardstock. Then, have students cut out the pieces and assemble these adorable crafts! There are informational pages for each holiday and fun ... continue reading...
Explore Holidays Around the World in Kindergarten and First Grade
Holidays around the World! Travel around the world and learn about 10 different celebrations. PowerPoints, anchor charts, writing responses, and a fun Holidays around the World craft! Holidays Around the World Studying celebrations and different countries around the world is always fun with little learners in kindergarten and first grade. It is so neat to explore different cultures and beliefs in various countries. In my Holidays Around the World unit of study, students have fun learning ... continue reading...