100 days of School - Kindergarten Style

So you're wondering why my post is so late? Why I'm not in the same 100 boat as everyone else, and no that would not be because I'm so slow.  Our school has a unique kindergarten schedule.  We go every M/W/F until early Decemeber with Supplemental Kindergarten on Tuesday or Thursday to close the achievement gap.  It is my first experience with a school that has a schedule like this and it works fantastically!  I know some might be skeptical but really it can help with fewer students they get so much 1 on 1 attention in the beginning of the year.  It can benefit students who do come in having NO preschool and give them a chance to catch up with the ones that have.   Socially, I have some that come in so shy and will not talk, this gives them a chance to meet more students in smaller groups that help them come out of their shell faster. 

One downside- days of the week is hard to teach :)



Now onto our 100 day celebration - 1 upside, is I got to read what everyone else did for 100th day so this gave me some great ideas to use in my room!

We did our normal calendar time and really focused on place value when we go to 100 with our hundred squares, 10 sticks, and 1 cubes!  They were so excited watching the numbers change over and figuring it out.  We also played "Let's Get Fit, Counting to 100".  We've done this video before but it was extra fun today because it was 100th day of course!  I also introduced this after finding out from an IG friend, "What do the letters say?" because who doesn't love a parody? 



We read "Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th day"  We talked about the collections we had brought in since this was our family project for this month.

Next we made gumball machines using groups of 10s!  The project is FREE so click on the link to get one for next year! So easy and great practice for my kindergarten kids.  I told them we counted by 1s on exercise, 10s for this, and 5s for our hand project below.  Lots of ways to count!


After our modified gumball machines, we moved on to some snowball numbers! I have seen this idea over Pinterest and you can use it to review with any subject.   Crumple pieces of paper, throw in middle (snowball) then grab one and read. 



We went around the circle reading our 2 or 3 digit numbers just for practice. You should have seen the look on their faces when they got to crumple up the paper! It was pure "kindergarten heaven" I tell you!!  This could be used for sight words, tougher math problems, any memorization work could easily work for this!! 

Next year, when I have older students (and more time! I was totally thinking of ideas last minute) the students could make the snowball but for us - I just wrote the numbers quickly.

WE HAD A BLAST!



Next - since our music teacher was out sick, we used the previous snowballs for a cakewalk game. When the music stopped you had to stay on your number and read it - we went around the circle so everyone got a chance to read before we started the music again. 

Again, even though it was the same numbers, reading those high numbers is a skill and this was just another fun way to practice :)

We did this 100 graphing FREE - here (sorry no pictures)

Perhaps my favorite activity! 100 kisses! We matched up 100 kisses with numbers on a large hundreds chart we made.


They had to tell me the number then match it up!






This might have been my favorite - but it was tough to tell - so much fun!

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Five for Friday


I haven't done a Five for Friday in awhile...here's what we've been up to!


I finally registered for the TPT conference! I had plane tickets for awhile and now have fully registered! Cannot wait.  Anyone else going? 



I'm loving our hallway display - so many rainbows! We're ready for spring whether it is here or not  in MN! :(

We had so much fun making all the projects and it brightens up the hallways! 





Some of what I've been working on! Some great word work ideas in my April Code Breakers! It even comes with self-checking QR codes! 


FREE Egg-citing Least to Greatest math center if you are interested! I love how I can actually keep this one up for a couple weeks :) 





We recently completed our Kindergarten Round up! Whew - that was exhausting! Do you do one at your school? I love getting to show off our school and meet the incoming students but it is tiring.  

This year we used QR codes on our tour stops with videos of kindergarteners at that location.  I think that really showcased our technology and was something new and  different. 

Of course, with all the hubbub, I didn't get time to snap any cool pictures of the stuff we did :(


Sight Word Musical Chairs! This is my new favorite activity! We had to have our tables covered for Kindergarten Round UP and I wanted to use the paper for something when we were finished.  My teammate played sight word musical chairs and I thought - we have to do this! Today we gave it a try!

I just blocked off different sight words at each table spot.  Then when the music stopped, they had to write that word and whisper it to a friend or teacher! Along with our Kidz Bop pandora it was a great activity - so engaged and got some energy out.  We are still in Minnesota ya know, it can still be chilly. 





Kinesthetic and fun for all involved.  Even I was moving and grooving - not going to lie. GREAT day!
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New Kindergarten Word Work Ideas

Word Work - let's talk about it at a kindergarten level. 


To do that, you have to know how my literacy centers are set up.  I have a Read to Self (book bags with chosen books), a Writing Center (read ALL about it here), Teacher Time, and Word Work. Same groups, that are still fluid when I need to change people, rotate through each daily.

As a first year teacher, I was kind of grasping at straws and figuring out what my students need as they go.  Honestly, I feel like I've done a pretty good job especially since the other teacher does not do centers/Daily 5 version.  I'll walk you through what I started with in the center and what we have moved toward recently.  So much growth in one grade and I love it!  I leave one type of word work out at a time, with the option to do a 2nd (already familiar) option when finished.  I usually leave the option out for around 2 weeks or until I feel students are ready for something new.

1.  Starting the year I use a couple different printables to give my students more experience with letters.  We use pattern block templates and play doh mats for the first month.

They use the energy that students have in a productive way.



Play Doh Alphabet Mats


After mastering letters we move into our sight words.  Since we do not have spelling lists in kindergarten these words can get repetitive so I try to shake things up and find new and interesting ideas for students to do. 

We love Hidden Words! I call it magic words and boy is it really magic! White crayon and color over with marker - genius.  The idea and FREEBIE can be found using the link picture below!


Another way we love to practice words is through a Small Seek and Find! Again, a magnifying glass changes everything! My students LOVE these! I find some on TPT that are seasonal that I throw in as well.  Otherwise I'll just use these EDITABLE ones from that align with our curriculum and I know the words will be familiar. 


Once these are introduced once, it is easy for students to quickly pick up on what to do when I set another one out!



Another great idea I grabbed was from Mrs. Olson's Lucky Little Learners! LOVE HER BLOG! Scribble writing is perfect for our level! Draw big circles or overlapping design and write one word in each space and have the students fill in.  We loved it! I could choose the words, they could choose the colors and practicing words has never been SO EASY!


Granted it may not look like much - but believe me, with each student having a part we were proud to display these! They work great in a pinch.  I even did a heart one on valentines week with red paper.  Easily customized for the season. 

Snowball words - got this idea from the First Grade Parade! She includes the freebie there! You pull out words from cotton balls, spell with snowball and practice writing! This was great for winter time. It can be customized for different seasons as well and is very little prep. My students really enjoyed this one!

snow10

Of course you can't forget about rainbow words! So easy and effective! For my kinders, I write a list of words and copy for them to trace over in the beginning.  Otherwise here, and here are some free templates that you can use in your classroom. 

Another recent favorite has been spin and write! These are great for seasonal words along with sight words you might see.  The pack comes with some great templates! 




My Connect the Dots Sight Words are another favorite! Great for beginning of the year to practice numeracy along with writing.  This would be an option for when students are finished. 


Of course if you want some of all this combined you can check out my Word Work aligned with Treasures curriculum.  It contains links to each seasonal pack: 


Any more great ideas I should add to this list?! I would love to hear your word work ideas!

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ULTIMATE Elementary Book!

So as a Kindergarten teacher this year, I'm in charge of planning Round Up for the incoming class.  This has been a fun creative challenge in designing invites and a QR code tour of our school!  I wanted my students to be able to send a message on and reflect about our year!  This is how the Elementary Book was born!


This book is filled with pages that will help your students reflect as well as write toward the end of the year.  It contains many different pages.  In my class no one repeated pages so they each had a different writing topic. 


I decided to my cover in white and my pages in lighter colors just to catch the attention of the little youngsters coming in.

My plan is get the book finished so that I can make a video of each student reading their page to play at Round Up~







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