Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick picture of what I did yesterday with my kids. I'm thankful for the sweet 16 kindergarten I have! (even if they drive me crazy sometimes)

Counting on with magnets

A while ago, I found this on Pinterest:

Source: geocities.com via Clare on Pinterest

They are great! I immediately printed them out and they have been a huge hit in the magnet center! I have a few sets of magnetic numbers (picked up from my local dollar store) that the kids use. It is really helping them with their counting. A huge part of math this year is being able to "count on". As in, start at 6 and count on- 6, 7, 8... My kids are doing so well with it! Here it is in practice:

I have some cookie sheets that I use in my magnet center. That way, the magnets stick AND they are contained in one spot. So much easier to clean up! If you click on the first image, it should take you to my Pinterest page and you can get your own copies. I recommend printing them on cardstock and laminating them, that way they can be used over and over again :)

Something different

I'm a big fan of doing things differently in my classroom. Anything that can get my kids moving (they have SO much energy!) but still learning, I am a fan of. So when one of my friends gave me a set of sidewalk chalk, I knew we had to use it at school.

We just went outside and I told them to practice writing letters, numbers, whatever they wanted. It was so much fun! (although very messy, sorry parents)
You can see in the bottom that some were doing a great job with forming numbers. Even for the kids that haven't gotten there yet, drawing with sidewalk chalk offers a lot of resistance that is great for developing all those muscles in our hands/forearms that we use while writing. If you haven't ever done this with your kids, I recommend it! My kids loved it and didn't even realize they were learning new things. They just thought I was a cool teacher because I let them be outside when it wasn't recess :)

DIBELS practice

In my school district, all of the students are assessed using DIBELs. One of the biggest (and most important) test for Kindergarteners is the Letter Naming Fluency test (LNF for short- we're big on abbreviations in education). I'm not normally a huge fan of "teaching to the test"...HOWEVER, now part of my teacher evaluation is how my kids score on this test.

That being said, I decided we needed some practice. Less for the actual content and more for just getting my kids used to taking a "test." That is something they'll have to do for the next 12 years, so we might as well start now, right?

Here's what I came up with:
All they have to do is see how many letters they can correctly name in 1 minute. I figure I'll test the kids and then send the paper home, so parents can see how their child does and (hopefully) help them get better at home. If you want a copy, you can get it HERE.

Reward Store

At my school, we have a positive behavior system called Bear Bucks. When a kid does something good, they get a buck. There are a few parties during the year where they can go if they've earned enough money. But I needed something to serve as an incentive between parties. This, my Bear Buck store!

I got a shoe organizer from Walmart and put it on the back door to my closet. It's filled with little trinkets and various things the kids can "buy". Hopefully it will help them start working towards earning those bucks!

iPhone!!

This is my first post on my new iPhone! So far I'm loving it.

Thanksgiving

So many Kindergarten teachers get to to do super cute themes all year long. Because my school is a themed magnet school, we're somewhat limited by what we can do. I have 4 themes that I have to follow- one for each quarter. They are very time consuming (and very fun!) but don't leave a lot of time for outside themes.

However, this year I'm determined to squeeze a mini Thanksgiving unit in there. I was searching on Pinterest and found some super cute activities:

Source: mrsnelsonsclass.com via Clare on Pinterest

I thought they could write (or me write for them) "I am thankful for _____" instead of the poem. That way this keepsake has their own writing on it.

Source: mrsnelsonsclass.com via Clare on Pinterest

We did the letter T a few weeks ago, but this one is just too cute! They could add the writing "T is for turkey." Maybe as a center activity or something?

I'm also planning on doing a writing lesson on writing the steps to something. Of course we'll have to do the popular "How to cook a turkey" writing activity. Once these are finished, I'll be sure to post pictures of how they turn out!

So thankful for my 16 wonderful, energetic, enthusiastic, loud, sweet, loving Kindergarteners :)