Book Recommendation

I have been a kindergarten teacher for 33 days now.  33 days of not knowing what to expect each day. Each week I think this is it, I've got it and then something turns the day around.  It is only October now and we do have lots of victories.

   One victory is this book I stumbled upon today titled I Knew Two, Who Said Moo.

My kids loved this book.  They loved listening for the rhymes and it was a great way to review the numbers 1-10, both concepts that we have recently been working on.

So if you don't have this book in your classroom I highly recommend it.  You can get it off of Amazon here:

I Knew Two, Who Said Moo

Math: Bar Graphing

So my math curriculum this year is pretty weak and I find that I need to supplement a lot.  Isn't that the worst, though I am always thankful when it is a weak math curriculum as I find that the easiest to supplement.  Anyways a couple of weeks ago the lesson was to make a giant bar graph with the kids on the number of pockets they had and then to ask questions about the bar graph.  To which I felt the prep took more time than the actually lesson.  So I set out to find more activities for my kids to do and I could find many so I decided to make my own.

This simple activity requires this worksheet, dice, and crayons for each child.

This worksheet and a longer description can be found by clicking the link below.

Roll and Record

Here are some pictures of my kids playing the game.

After playing it my kids got the concept pretty quick after modeling it for them.  The only problem I found was the 2 of my kids completed the worksheet upside.

I also found this free pirate graphing activity from the Kindergarten Smorgasboard.  It takes a little more prep but my kids are obsessed with pirates so it was worth the extra effort so some fun graphing practice.

Mr. Greg's Pirate Graphing

The alphabet

It's been a whirlwind being in Kindergarten.  I'm finding the fact I've been with older kids for so long that I have such high expectations for my kids.  I thought they would know the majority of the alphabet but that is just not true.  So we have been doing a lot of alphabet review.

We have been doing a letter each day.  We practice writing the capital and lowercase letter.  We learn the sound with the jolly phonics motion and we come up with a list of words for each letter and then I draw a picture.  (Some letters are easier than others, my kangaroo for K was a more of a sad squirrel.)

 We also have done some creative art work to go with some of the letters.

I've also been creating ABC centers.  There is tons of free stuff out there.   Search pinterest and TPT to find lots of great resources.

I also just added a new item to my Teachers Pay Teachers site.  It's a find the missing letter activity.  I plan to use it once my kids get a little bit better at the alphabet.

Find the Missing Letter

Here we go again!

Well I've changed grades and schools again.  I am now teaching Kindergarten!  This is a huge change from teaching intermediate grades for seven years.  I've spent the last 3 weeks trying to remember what it is like to teach a 5 year old.

So far I have my first week planned and my class is all ready to go.  Here is hoping I adjust quickly.  Meanwhile here are pictures of my classroom, in it's perfect, organized, not touched by kids state.

 The House Keeping Area

 Free Play Centers

 Our Word Wall and Reading Corner

 Our Meeting Area:

My area