First Week Back in Kindergarten

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Hello bloggy friends!  I'm sorry that I haven't done a post for a week.  I've just been exhausted every day!  My class is really wonderful; I actually had 14 of them in pre-k last year.  So the funny thing is, whenever they tell me they don't know something, I say "I know your teacher taught you that, and you do know it."  And they say "Wait a minute... You were my teacher!"  And then I just smile.

So, to the heart of the matter: things that really worked this week.  Over the summer, I discovered the Pete the Cat books (thanks to my good friend, Lauren, who is also on my team).  We read I Love My White Shoes, Rocking In My School Shoes, and His Four Groovy Buttons.  My kids sat SO wonderfully for all three of these stories.  They were actively listening, they were engaged, and they were able to answer comprehension questions about them (and this is a feat, because I have some children who don't speak any English).  I made this paper to go along with the White Shoes book, and my students did such a great job that their papers are now hanging on my Thinking Board.

Pete the Cat Worksheet

We did some shape collages that worked really well.  My family helped me cut out many different circles, triangles, squares and rectangles out of a variety of scrapbooking paper.  Then the children had to find one particular shape each day and glue examples of it inside one large corresponding shape.

One thing that was challenging for me this year but did work nicely was the opening of math time.  In previous years I had made calendar CD's that focused on the day of the week, the month, spelling the days of the week, etc.  Since time has been taken out of the core curriculum, I felt that I really needed to change my focus for the beginning of math.  So we very briefly work with the calendar, simply focusing on today's date and singing "Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow" by Jack Hartmann.  Then we say the numbers up to that date (if it's August 24th, we count up to 24).  Next we do a number line activity (I purchased a number line from Lakeshore).  At this point, I'm just asking various students to find particular numbers.  Later in the year we'll jump ahead 2, go back 1, etc.  There's a fabulous song by Dr. Jean called "Country Countdown 1-20" that I use right after the number line to have the children bend their legs to each number as we count forwards to and backwards from 20.

I'd love to hear what things worked for you this week!  Please write me a comment below.

Literacy Centers and Freebies

ABC Word Wall

I just made a new ABC Word Wall, and I wanted to share what it looks like with my bloggy friends!  Here is a Scribd version if you would like to download it:
ABC Word Wall Headings 2

I use a song by Barbara Milne called "Letter Sounds (apple, apple)" which matches the pictures on my word wall.  The song is available from her web site, and also on iTunes.  I really like this alphabet song when the children are using the pointer to follow along with the ABC's.  It's a slower song and gives the children plenty of time to find and point to each letter.  Here's a really cool YouTube video for it:


I place mini word walls in the children's chair pockets, with sight words on them.  That way, they don't have to get up and go over to the ABC wall.  They can simply grab it from their chair pocket.  You could also leave them in a bucket on the table.  I'm selling a variety of these on Teacher's Notebook and TPT.

Here's a picture of my writing center:

Writing Center

I struggled with writing center in the past, and what has really helped me is placing the theme words in a pocket chart.  That way, the kids can take them out, use them, and put them back themselves.  Plus, they can see all of the words from the theme at one time.  I downloaded the vocabulary cards from Eduplace.  The lapboard supply center, tracing letters, and magic boards are all from Lakeshore.

The final picture for today is of my library center:

Library Center

It's not quite done.  I'm going in to school tomorrow to finish before the kids show up on Monday.  I did add a basket of Beanie Babies so the kids can read books to them.  I also found some Viewmasters online that I think will be a beautiful addition to this center.  The children will be able to tell the story as they're viewing illustrations.  This toy was really popular when I was little.

I'd love to hear what all of you are doing for your literacy centers.

Back-to-School Freebies

If you're anything like me, you're spending money like crazy, trying to buy last-minute resources for the classroom.  The problem is that I keep finding more things I want to buy!  As I checked my basement, I realized that I already had these cans made that I can re-use in kindergarten:

You can browse through the file below and simply print out any of the labels that you like.  You can also change them because I left them in PowerPoint.  Take an empty can from your kitchen, whatever size you prefer, and take off its original wrapper.  Print and cut the label you want/make, laminate it if desired (it lasts for years if you do), wrap it tightly around the can, and secure it with clear packing tape.

Can Labels

Can Labels 2

For the word family cans, I write the words onto popsicle sticks to match the cans.  Then the students look at the pictures on the cans and try to put the popsicle sticks into the correct cans.  "Hey, Diddle Diddle" is a nursery rhyme that I love doing with my students, so I made pictures that can be taped onto popsicle sticks to retell the story, and stored them in a matching can.

Story Props Hey Diddle Diddle

I also made similar retelling props for "Little Red Riding Hood".  Here they are:

Little Red Riding Hood Props 2

I just wanted to let you know that I put up a new product in my stores that I think is really cool for the beginning of kindergarten: "Things I Can Read" Writing Folder.

Please let me know what you think.  I love hearing from all of you!

New School Year Resolutions

Amanda Madden over at Teaching Maddeness had a great idea for a linky party: New School Year Resolutions!  As soon as I heard about it I wanted to join the fun.  So, without further ado, here are my resolutions for the upcoming school year:

1. I need to let the children speak more and listen to what they are saying.  I'm going to do this by planning more cooperative games and think-pair-share times.  I'm also going to do less explaining and more asking them why they think the answer is right, or why they made a choice that they did.

2. I'm going to set up my centers with very concrete picture directions so that my students don't need to ask me for help but can ask each other, look at the picture directions, or listen to the pre-recorded directions.

3. I plan to not eat the snacks that I buy for the students, so that I can lose weight!  Last year, students were kissing my stomach and saying hello to the "baby"!  I told them that I was not having a baby, and that I was just eating too much.  Then, at the end-of-year ice cream party, my smartest little girl told me to put down the ice cream!  She said "Put down the ice cream, Mrs. Dudley!  You'll get fatter!"  That was it!  I'm on a diet!

4. I want to include more art.  It's not one of my strengths, but I feel it's SO important for five-year-olds.  I'm not going to make excuses this year.  I will incorporate art with science, math, social studies and language.  I am counting on all of you to keep me honest with this!  Please, post integrated art activities!

5. I want to post more things that I make on TPT and TN.  Sometimes I'm a slacker and I make great things for the classroom without posting them in my stores.  A fellow kindergarten teacher is going to keep me on track this year, because she's the friend who got me into TN in the first place.

Have a lovely school year!

Rockin' Resources Linky Party

Kelly Dolling over at Teacher Idea Factory is having a great Rockin' Resources Linky Party, and this is so timely for me because I just got back from a week-long Lego Education conference in Kansas City!  I have used Duplo and Lego products in my classroom for years.  I love the way the kids are so motivated and excited to learn math, science, language and social skills that are essential in kindergarten and in pre-k.  At the convention I found out that they make many great products that I never heard about.

1. Duplo Early Simple Machines

Duplo Early Simple Machines

I feel that science should not just be something that is talked about, but that the children should have their hands on the materials, actually seeing and feeling how things work.  What better way to teach about Simple Machines such as pulleys, levers, gears, wheels and axles than to experiment and build with working parts?

2. Duplo Wild Animals

Duplo Wild Animals

The Wild Animals Set is also absolutely fabulous for combining language and science in a uniquely special way.  Children can build different habitats while cooperating with others and having a tremendous amount of fun at the same time.  I know it's a big investment, but this product will last forever.  I have worked with Duplo products and the kids can't break them because it's hard plastic.

3. Measuring Motors

Measuring Motors

A friend bought me Measuring Motors for my birthday and I can't wait to use it in kindergarten this year.  Measuring toys are so hard to find.  This one is so kid-friendly!  It's rubber cars in three different lengths (small, medium and large) with tracks.  Children can place different combinations of cars on the tracks to see how many 1-inch cars it takes to fill the track, how many 2-inch cars it takes, and how many 3-inch cars - or a combination of them.  I like this toy because it shows the children that there's more than one way to arrive at an answer to a problem.  I hate it when students are not allowed to find different solutions to problems.  The cars also come in different colors so they can additionally be used for sorting and patterning.  This is such a multi-purpose tool for mathematics!

4. King School Books

King School Books

These King School books are simply phenomenal.  The books portray friendly, multicultural kids in a kindergarten or first grade setting, depending on the reading level of your students.  Another great thing about these books is that the characters repeat throughout the stories.  So your children are so excited to see Derek or Jasmin in their kindergarten classroom, and then later as they progress in reading they can see those same characters in first grade.  The topics the author chose to write about are things that kindergarten and first grade children actually experience.  If you buy the set, it also comes with a teacher manual, a poster and storage bins.

I'm very curious to know how many of you use Duplo or Lego in your classroom, and what you use.  Please leave a comment below.  I would greatly appreciate it!

Gentle Superheroes

"SuperHero ABC" by Bob McLeod

Alright, my secret is out!  I LOVE superheroes!  Many of the students in my class speak Spanish as their primary language.  The most fabulous thing that I discovered is if I start to talk to my students about superheroes, suddenly they're speaking complete sentences in English.  Now, I'm not saying it's perfectly grammatically correct English, but the point is that we're having a conversation.  And isn't that what we want for our pre-k and kindergarten-age students?

SuperHero ABC by Bob McLeod is a really cool book.  Each page has a beautifully illustrated superhero who has a phonetic connection to what the superhero's power is.  For example, "Danger Man does daring deeds every day."  When I read this book to my class, the kids were SO excited!  It sparked a great deal of conversation about which superhero they wanted to be, and what powers they would have.  At the time, I did not have a followup activity for this book - it was just read for fun.  But now that I'm going back to kindergarten, I'm going to have the students illustrate and write about their favorite superhero on a T-shirt.

Superhero T Shirts

This year, I really discovered the joy of playing ABC Bingo games as a way to reinforce connections between letters and sounds.  I commissioned an up-and-coming graphic designer who I know (he loves comic books, too) to make me an entire set of superhero clip art, carefully designed to motivate young children.  I wanted to have a Superhero Bingo Game that would be gentle and appropriate for my new kindergarten classroom.  I really don't like a lot of the violence (guns, swords, claws, axes, etc.) that are used in today's animated characters.

Hence this new product, Superhero ABC Bingo (view it on TPT or TN).  I also made a Superhero ABC Mini Poster (view it on TPT or TN) to send home with my kids so that every night their parents can help them learn a new letter of the alphabet.  Finally, I just finished a Superhero Sight Word Wall Folder (view it on TPT or TN) so the children can learn kindergarten and first-grade words that correspond to each letter of the alphabet.  I will give one of these to every child in my classroom so that they can independently spell the sight words and have a feeling of growing confidence instead of always asking me to spell sight words for them.


Please let me know your opinions about using superheroes in the classroom, and if there are other products you would like to see these characters appear in.  I really enjoy hearing from all of you!

Fun with the Five Senses

Since I talk so much about being a "five senses" teacher, I thought it fitting that I write a post specifically about books, songs, and projects related to the five senses and people who are differently abled.

There's a wonderful book, Lucy's Picture, about a little girl whose class is given an assignment to create a picture.  Lucy decides to make a tactile collage for her grandfather, who is blind.  You don't know that her grandfather is blind until the end of the book, and this is a story that is fun and keeps the attention of any pre-k or kindergarten class.  I like how the teacher encourages Lucy to explore in her own way instead of stifling her creativity.  I think that creating collages (using different types of materials) is an excellent way to teach new vocabulary, textures, colors and shapes.  When my students finish their collages, I ask them to describe their pictures to me using a variety of adjectives.  This is a great way to assess how your children's language has grown over time.  I also keep the finished collages in their portfolios, with the children's own descriptions of their work attached.  I have gotten into the habit of collecting scraps of material (denim, silk, corduroy, aluminum foil, sandpaper, and scrapbooking paper, to name a few) and cutting them into many different shapes over the summer, because one of our first units is about the five senses.  And I LOVE having the students make these collages!

Textured Collage Shapes from Lakeshore

Lakeshore sells an assortment of Textured Collage Shapes that makes this a thousand times easier if you don't want to sit and cut out the fabrics.  They're on sale right now!

Some fabulous songs for a five senses unit are:

Five Senses by Dr. Jean
5 Senses by Jack Hartmann
Listen to the Sounds by Jack Hartmann
Five Senses by Mar Harmon

I found that these songs are all very easy for the kids to sing after just listening to them one time.

The Listening Walk, from the carousel at the top of the post, is a marvelous book for focusing on hearing.  I collected many sound effects (by searching for and downloading them in iTunes) to match the sounds in the book, so that I could enhance the story telling by playing the sounds in my classroom.  One album that was especially helpful was "Greatest Sound Effects" by Audio Environments & Co.  The kids truly enjoyed guessing what sounds were on the CD.

Students exploring scent bottles in science center

I also created scent bottles for my science center by adding store-bought extracts and cotton balls (to help prevent the liquids from leaking out) to clear bottles, gluing the pull-out caps on, and letting children try to match bottles to picture cards.  My students loved playing with these in science center, and it was a safe way for them to explore their sense of smell.

Dog Bones Tactile Set from Learning Resources

I am always looking for new toys to put into my science center.  Last Christmas, a friend bought me this oh-so-cute Dog Bone Tactile Set from Learning Resources that fits into an adorable dog house for easy storage.  Again, this is a great way to have your students use their sense of touch while learning new vocabulary and comparing and contrasting textures.

Mystery Box from Lakeshore

This Mystery Box from Lakeshore is much larger than the dog house and can be used for years because it's wood and very sturdy.  Inside mine I have placed tactile pillows, letters, numerals, and a wide variety of objects found around the house for the children to guess based on feeling the items.  This center is always exciting for the kids, especially if you frequently change what's inside the box.  You can also specialize the activity for phonemic awareness, for example, by filling the box with items that start with one particular letter.

If you're interested in some really fabulous Graphic Organizers about the five senses, I've made a nice set on TPT that's easy to use with your children.

Please feel free to ask me any questions about the books or projects in this post.  I especially enjoy talking to people about this topic.  ;-)