Do you give your teammates gifts??  I love giving my team holiday gifts.  The Target Dollar Spot always has the cutest tin buckets that make for the best gifts.  I picked up some jack-o-lantern buckets and some Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkins (those things are sooooo good).  I made some gift tag labels and added them to the bucket.  Can't wait to give them to my amazing team!! 

 Just as a little TREAT, you can click the image to download the gift tags for FREE!   Also, I had posted on Instagram a poster with four sentences.  Before we start our calendar, we say these four sentences.  It's a great reminder for my students to do their best and have a great day!  

As another TREAT for you, just click the picture to download!   Looking for a fun game for the 50th Day of School or just a fun game to practice numbers 1-50???  This "Race to 50" game is just what you need!  Students start their playing pieces on the girl holding the milkshake.  They take turns rolling and moving that many spaces on the board.  They have to tell their partner what number they land on.  You could easily differentiate this by giving students different cubes to roll - one dot cube, two dot cubes (to combine dots), a numeral cube, etc.  

 Click the image to download this TREAT! 

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Recipe for Teaching

I teach Kindergarten so I definitely understand that my students need LOTS of opportunities to MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!    I have my room strategically arranged so that when we are transitioning from one thing to the next, we are also moving to a new spot in the room.  For example, we start off the day at our tables, then we move to the carpet for calendar, then we either move to math stations or to a different carpet.  We do a lot of Dr. Jean songs that get us standing up and moving, GoNoodle, as well as other type of movement activities throughout the day. I've seen a lot on the internet or social media about kids sitting on balls instead of chairs, standing at special tables instead sitting in chairs, etc.  Teachers at my school use tables, desks, chairs, or stools for their students. One part of my day that I am always trying to incorporate more movement into is my Fundations time.  This is about a 30 minute chunk of time where we are engaged in different letter activities.  I love it and find Fundations to be very beneficial for my students.    Today we were getting ready to practice "sky-writing" the new letters we had learned.  Normally I have them stand up behind their chair to do this.   However...get ready for this...I said..."Sit on your tables."  I'm pretty sure that I had 16 pairs of eyes look at me with a strange look and I'm pretty sure they were thinking..."What did she just say?!"  They even started to look around to see if their friends would start sitting on their table.  I repeated the directions again and then they started sitting on the tables (with a few giggles thrown in there!).  We began to sky-write the letters from our tables and they were SO ENGAGED!!!!  They sat back down in their chairs and we proceeded to get our Fundations dry erase boards to practice writing their letters.  I decided to try another idea and after giving directions, I gave them the option to sit OR stand while their were writing their letters.  Normally I just have them sit in their seats to do this.  I COULD NOT believe how much more engaged they were just by giving them the CHOICE to sit or stand!  I kept emphasizing that was their CHOICE to sit or stand while they were writing their letters.  I think whenever a 5 or 6 year old hears that something is their choice, they get excited!

 Now I'm going to admit to you that I can't believe I've never tried something like this sooner!!!  We will definitely be doing this again! Do you give your students the choice to sit or stand?  Do you use chairs in your classroom or do they sit on something else?  I love hearing new ideas and what other teachers are doing to keep their students engaged in learning!!

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Recipe for Teaching

Are you a GoNoodle fan?!?!  I LOVE using it with my students and they LOVE it!  We always do GoNoodle after lunch.  This really helps to get our wiggles out and our brains ready for reading.  Some of their favorites are Maximo, Zumba, and MooseTube!     Besides GoNoodle being absolutely AWESOME, it is also free!  You just have to sign-up and create your account to get started.  I also email my families the link because they can get on GoNoodle at home too.     I posted this picture on Instagram earlier:

My students recently maxed out their GoNoodle champ and they were super excited!   I had the idea to make some GoNoodle ten frames and counting mats.  I thought they would be perfect for math stations!  If you didn't already know, the GoNoodle website has a FREE GoNoodle Art Pack.  You can download your own GoNoodle champ clipart.  I love clipart so I had to have some GoNoodle clipart!  

I created counting mats 1-20.  I am going to have my students use manipulatives to practice counting with these mats.    

I also created 1-10 ten frames and number cards.  These could be used as a matching game, using the ten frame cards to tell how many, telling how many more to make ten, etc.   I am so excited to show these to my students and I wanted to share this with YOU!  Just click the picture below to download your freebie!  I hope you enjoy it and Happy GoNoodling!

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Recipe for Teaching

I love all things FALL!!!  I love fall festivals, apples, pumpkin EVERYTHING, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.  My husband and I just went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend and I found this pumpkin to decorate!

  I'm so excited to join in on this "Tricks & Treats" blog hop with The Elementary Entourage!  Such a fun idea!  For this blog hop we are sharing about a classroom "TRICK" and a classroom "TREAT!"  I hope you are able to use each idea!   If you follow me in Instagram, you may have seen me post about this before, but it's just such an easy trick to do that I wanted to share it on here too!   Do you use equity sticks for calling on students??  I love that it is an easy way to randomly pick students and it helps us teachers make sure that we are calling on a variety of students. 

I have a little trick that was passed on to me early in my teaching career.  Put a small cup inside a larger cup.  Put all of the sticks in the small cup to start.  As you choose a name, move the stick in between the small and large cup.  This way you a making sure that you are calling on a variety of students, but your students still think they could be called on again!  Tricky Tricky!!!!   And now for your TREAT!!  I made this fall writing stationery and it is FREE!  I love putting different writing stationery at my writing center for my students to use.  The kids love it and it is just so festive!  This writing stationery treat includes 5 pages with primary lines and 5 pages with intermediate lines.  Just click the image to grab your treat from my TpT Store!   

  Can't wait to check out some other tricks and treats from some fabulous bloggers!  

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Recipe for Teaching

We have been having fun learning all about weather in kindergarten.  Weather is all around us.  It is something that is easy for young learners to relate to because they can see different types of weather.  I wanted to share with you how we are using the Next Generation Science Standards with our students to teach about weather.  

  These are the Next Generation Science Standards that we have been focusing on with our students:

K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

K-ESS3-2. Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.

K-PS3-1. Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.  

Some of the science lessons we have done are:

*tracking temperature in the morning and afternoon

*tracking the weather each day

*reading books and poems about weather

*watching information about weather online

*recording weather observations in our "Notebook of Learning"
*severe weather posters
*vocabulary cards 
*online resources 
 

Tracking the Temperature

During our calendar routines, we record the morning temperature.  Then, in the afternoon, we record the temperature.  We do this during our science lesson.  I just use the weather channel app to get the temperature.  I love that this shows my students how to use technology to help us.  

 

We also keep track of the temperatures on a chart.  We talk about if the temperature went up or down and what we are noticing about the temperatures in the morning and afternoon.  This allows for some really great discussions with my students about the patterns they are noticing with the weather.  The first chart is when we started tracking temperature later in September and the second chart is for October temperatures.

I made the pieces for this chart as a FREEBIE for you.  Just click the image below to grab it!  I included the months for the school year, so that you could use it at any point during the year.  
 

Tracking the Weather

I have a meteorologist who records the weather on our weather graph each day.  We include this as part of our calendar routines.  They report the weather to the class and then color a box on our graph.  Then we discuss what we notice about the graph.

I sometimes have my students get a dry erase board and show a way to record what they see on the graph.  I love how these activities integrate science and math.

Weather Books

These are some of the weather books we have been reading.  I always try to have a mix of fiction and non-fiction for our units.

I made this little book, from my Weather Pack, for my students and I also put it on chart paper to read.  They put the book in their book baskets for independent reading.

Recording Weather Observations

I have talked on my blog before about how I use a Notebook of Learning with my students.  We record across all subject areas in this one notebook.  We have been able to go outside and draw the weather in our Notebook of Learning. 

We also have been noticing that since there is less sunlight outside during fall, the leaves are starting to change color.  This is an easy way for students to see the effects of the sun on the Earth's surface.

Severe Weather Posters
I have a lot of non-fiction books that focus on severe weather.  I use those as part of my instruction and then we made a "can/have/are" chart for the different types of severe weather.  

Vocabulary Cards
I made these posters and they are included in my Weather Pack.  I printed them 4 to a page, put magnets on the back, and put them on the side of my desk.  My students helped me to arrange them and we get the card that matches the weather each morning during calendar.  My students can also use them while they are writing.

  
Online Resources
National Geographic Young Explorer is a great online resource.  They have the most current issue available online, as well as previous issues.  I love this website because it reads the article to students and the articles are very kid friendly.  Just click the images to go to the magazine issues online. 

There is an article about storms in this issue that begins on page 12.

On page 19 of this issue you will find an article to read about what happens to a gecko when the sun heats up the sand.


The first article in this issue is about rain.


This issue has an article on meerkats that fits perfectly with the effects of the sun on the Earth's surface.  The article begins on page 16. 

Page 10 of this issue has a "Weather Watchers" article.

PebbleGo is a great online resource.  If you use Next Generation Science Standards, it would definitely be something for you to try to get your school to purchase a subscription for.
 

Do you use Next Generation Science Standards with your students?  I'd love to hear about it if you are!  

 

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Recipe for Teaching