I hope that you are all enjoying your Winter Break!  I know my break has been filled with lots of family time, friend time, and relaxing time!  

 When returning back to school, I always like to give my students time to share what they did over their Winter Break.  They are always so excited to share what they did, what presents they got, or any other exciting news.  We typically share about our Winter Break during our calendar routines and also write about our break.    I created a few different options you could use with your students to have them draw and write about their Winter Break.  I'm excited to use these with my students and hear all about what they did over the break.  
Just click the image below to download the different Winter Break Writing Pages. 

You can grab that adorable snowman image from Dots of Fun on TpT by clicking the image below.

And don't forget to stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and grab your FREE Happy New Year Poem!

 

Enjoy the rest of your break and have a Happy New Year!  

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching

We had tons of HOLIDAY FUN LEARNING in our classroom before the Winter Break and I wanted to share some of it with you!

Jingle Bell Math ChatI have blogged about Math Chats before and I just love doing them with my students.  I posted the picture with the jingle bells and then we talked about what my students saw on the picture.  You can see all of the ideas they came up with.  Tons of learning in this simple activity. 

Jingle Bell Problem Solving To go along with the Jingle Bell Math Chat, I brought in a box with 15 bells.  Some of the bells were red and some of the bells were green.  I had my students work to determine how many they thought were red and how many they though were green.  They were able to use red and green cubes if they wanted to help them solve the problem.  I also differentiated this activity by giving some students the recording sheet with 15 bells on it and some students a paper with a blank space to draw the bells independently. 

Gingerbread Cookie Math We decorated gingerbread cookies with icing, chocolate chips, marshmallows, jelly beans, and m&m's.  I had my students record how many of each candy they used.  They ate their gingerbread cookie after decorating and recording the number of candies.  Yum! 

   Student Holiday Gift TagsI gave my students a container of white Play-Doh (thank you Walmart for having Play-Doh for 50 cents a container) as a holiday gift with a tag that said, "Do you want to build a snowman?  Happy Holidays!"  I told them it was "Snowman building Play-Doh."  They were super excited about it! If you want to use these resources with your students, just click the image below to grab them for FREE!

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I love all things Christmas and I know my students are excited about Christmas! 

 

I recently had my students share what they wanted for Christmas and give reasons for why they should get that gift.  One of my students said that he wanted a vacuum cleaner!!!  I emailed his mom and she said that he wants a real vacuum cleaner!  I just think that is the cutest!   I decided to put a "My List for Santa" paper out at a reading center because I just knew my kids would go crazy for it.  I love activities where they are doing work, but don't realize they are doing work.  This is one of those activities because they think they are just writing a list to Santa, but little do they know, they have to sound out words, write their list, and draw a little picture next to their word.  Lots of work in one little activity and they LOVE it!   The great part about this writing paper is you can use it with your students AND you could also use it with your own kids!  Just click the image to download.  Happy Holidays! 

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching

Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties seem to be pretty popular these days!  My husband and I just hosted an "Ugly Sweater" themed Christmas party and I created the invite, as well as printable image to put out as a decoration, using the adorable Melonheadz clipart.  The image below is the set that I used!  I LOVE to bake (which is why I went with the blog name Recipe for Teaching).  I've been baking a lot for Christmas and here are some of the yummy treats we had at the party:

 And here is the printable image that I made to set out as a decoration:

 If you are hosting an "Ugly Sweater" party here is the image I used.  Feel free to use this for personal use for your holiday party FUN!

  I also wanted to include something you might be able to use with your students.  We are having an "Ugly Sweater Day" at school this week and I thought this would be a fun activity for my students to do on that day.  Just click the image below to grab the free download!

 

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching

My students love when we use food for math.  I always find that my students are so engaged and excited about it.  This is probably because they know they get a little treat when they finish!   I recently posted an image on Instagram of an idea that I thought of for tens and ones using m&m candies.

  I had the idea to use the snack size bags of m&m's for the lesson.  I may have sampled a bag just to make sure there would be the right amount of m&m's.  I planned to have my students find how many m&m's they have in their bag, how many groups of ten, and how many extra ones.  I knew it would fit perfectly with the Common Core standards we have been focusing on:

K.NBT.1a Compose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 18 = 10 + 8)
K.NBT.1b Decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 18 = 10 + 8)

 I first modeled this activity for my students.  Modeling is definitely important with our young learners so they know exactly what is expected of them.  Then I sent them off to their seats to work.  They loved it and did such a nice job with the lesson!

If you want to use this with your students, click the image below to grab the FREE download!

If you are looking for more teen number resources, check out these resources in my Teachers Pay Teacher store!

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching

I am always trying to find fun and engaging ideas for my kindergarten students to have during reading centers.  The reading centers that I have in my classroom are writing, library, computer, message, iPad, poetry, letter magnets, word work, pocket chart, be the teacher, and independent reading.  The centers in my classroom are literacy based and I make sure they are developmentally appropriate for my kindergarten students.  They include hands-on activities for learning.  A few weeks ago I picked up this food set:

As soon as I saw that turkey, I instantly thought of an idea for a center for my students!  I knew that I wanted to let them build their own Thanksgiving Day plate of food and then draw and write about the foods they used.   I decided to call this center the "Imagination Center."  My plan is to change it out with ideas where they are playing and learning because PLAY is LEARNING.(My friend Alex, from The Kindergarten Connection, has an AMAZING post about play that you can check out here.)  I just introduced this center last week and my students were so excited about it!

I love that plate of food that my student in the picture above made.  Spaghetti, hot dogs, turkey, and more!   If you would like to use this in your classroom, you can download the FREE plate recording sheet by clicking the image below!

Also, be sure to stop by my Teachers Pay Teacher store to grab these FREE Thankful Tags for students, coworkers, and volunteers!  Click the image to head on over to my store and download them.

 

Read more »

Recipe for Teaching