Add and Clip

I am always looking for easy to use math centers for my room.  So I created this add and clip activity.  Not only can students practice their fine motor skills by using a clothes pin to identify their answer, but they also are able to count the dots which provides support for those who are still learning their facts.  It's a low prep center.  Just print, laminate and cut.

I also have a heart themed version which is perfect for Valentine's Day or even just to use all year.

You can find both products here in my Teacher's Pay Teachers Store.

What's the Missing Letter: Christmas Edition

So learning how to put things in alphabetical order is such an important and yet boring skill.  So to help my students practice abc order and fluency in a fun way I created this product that is the perfect center for the upcoming Christmas season.

Missing Letter Center

This fun activity allows students to fill in the missing alphabet letter with an expo marker and comes in an upper case and lower case set.  My students were excited to be able to use the expo markers with this center.  It was an instant hit.

Christmas Sight Word Practice

Sight Word practice is so important and instead of using flash cards I love to use games.  A class favorite is our sight word spinners.  Here is a sample of our color and black and white version.

The average child needs 4-14 exposures to a word to make it stick, which requires lots of repetition. Each spinner covers 5 sight words which makes reinforcement easily manageable and still fun.

These spinners are easy prep.  Just print, add a paper clip and pencil to your station and you are ready to go.  Students can either color a box every time they spin a word or they can write the word in the box.  These are great for morning work or centers.  You can find them here in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Book Recomendation

This week we began our subtraction unit.  I found this fun book last year called Monster Musical Chairs.  I read the book to start the unit and we talk about how the number of monsters is decreasing every time a monster gets out.  After we finish the book we play musical chairs to demonstrate subtraction.  It's a fun and easy way to model subtraction and the kids love it.

You can get the book here on Amazon.

What should have been a Snow Day

So Monday all schools around us were closed due to the snow, but we remained opened. Wet e-mailed parents letting them know that if they decided to keep their child home to just let us know.  Well 7 of my kiddos showed up, which is 1/3 of my class.  So the majority of my plans were pushed back for the day and we had a day of fun.  We free played, went outside for an extra long recess to enjoy the snow and made fun snow art projects.  And when you only have 7 kids, prep for art projects is super easy.

So we made these cute little snowmen watching the snow fall.

I made the carrot nose, because I knew that would be hard for the kids.  (Again, 7 kids means I'm more willing to do prep.)  The kids traced a paper plate to make the snowman's head.  I helped them line it up.  We then painted and talked about how different brush strokes changed what the snowman's head looked like.  The kids cut out a circle eye and then we drew snowflakes.  Easy and so cute!  And now I have some wonderful artwork hanging up in my class.

Thanksgiving Themed Centers

So learning how to put things in alphabetical order is such an important and yet boring skill.  So to help my students practice abc order and fluency in a fun way I created this product that is the perfect center for the upcoming Thanksgiving season.

Missing Letter Center

This fun activity allows students to fill in the missing alphabet letter with an expo marker and comes in an upper case and lower case set.

Addition Center

This week we started our addition unit in math.  I love this unit because it still allows my students to practice counting, without them realizing that they are still counting.  It also allows me to change up my centers!  I love easy, low prep centers that don't require a lot of explaining.  One of my favorite is my add and clip center.

This center can be found here in my TPT store.   Simple print out the cards, laminate, cut them apart and put them in a tub with clothes pins.  The students then add the dots on the dice, and place their clothes pins on the correct sum.  

ABC Practice

I'm always looking for ways for my students to practice their alphabet and I've created an easy to use activity that allows them to practice ABC order.  I love to use these to start guided reading group or at the very end when there is 2 minutes left before we rotate groups.

This find the missing letter alphabet activity can also be used as a center or RTI. You can laminate it or put it in sleeve protectors for the students to use expo markers on, or you can make copies of them for morning work.

This bundle includes:

5 capital missing letters in a sequence of 3

5 lower case missing letters in a sequence of 4

6 sheet of the entire alphabet with letters missing

You can find this bundle here at my TPT store.

Book Review

One of my goals my first year of teaching Kindergarten was to enhance my math curriculum.  One way I found to do that was by doing read alouds to start some of my lessons.  It's a great way to combine math and reading and my kids always love it. 
   Today we read Leaping Lizards from the Math Start 1 series by Stuart Murphy.

 We have been practicing skip counting and this book counts by 5's and 10's to 50's.  We counted by 5's by giving high 5's, we have done funny voices as we count by 10's and today we counted lizards by 5's and 10's as we read this book.

If you haven't checked out the Math Start series check it out.  My library has many from the series or you can find it here on Amazon.

Literacy Centers from the Dollar Store

I'm all about saving money and time, so it should be no surprise that the dollar spot at Target and the Dollar Store are my favorite places to look for things for my store.  One of my popular reading centers in the beginning of the year is a matching ABC center.  I bought these cut outs at the Dollar Tree, wrote a capital letter on one set, and a lower case letter on the other set and easy peasy, you've created a fun center that only cost you a $1 and 5 minutes of time.

Apple Themed 10 Frames

So I'm constantly looking for an activity to do with my mini erasers that I stock pile from Target.  Last week one of my kids saw all my little tubs of erasers and commented "Wow that is a lot!"  Can I have some?"  Is it bad that I said no to a 5 year old?  I mean, I don't need hundreds of mini erasers but they sure make learning fun.

My latest creation allows my kids to use my apple mini erasers to fill ten frames.  We have been practicing our numbers and this not only allows the kids to visually see number but allows them to practice counting.

Apple Ten Frames


This product comes with a color and black & white version of the ten frames up to 20 along with 4 worksheets for additional practice.

Greater than/Less than Game

In Kindergarten, making learning into a game always helps keep little 5 year olds engaged and they don't often realize that they are practicing the skills you are learning.  This week we've been comparing numbers.  We've compared objects and numbers.

I then found this free and simple dice comparison game on TPT.

I also created a simple game with some paper bags that I had an abundance of and playing cards because for some reason we had 7 decks at home plus the 2 decks at home which was perfect for partnering the students up.  I removed all the kings, queens and jacks and split up the kids into groups of 2.  The game was simple.  Whoever had the bigger number would place their card in the bag that said greater and whoever had the smaller number would place it in the bag that said less.  If the cards were the same number they would put it in the bag labeled equal.  The best part is there is no winner.  No tears.  No one gets upset.  To them its just fun and they get to practice comparing numbers.

The game is also differentiated because the kids can read the numbers or they can count the objects on the card if they can't read the number.

You can also use uno cards or dominos if you don't have playing cards.  You can even put this in your math center rotation.  So many options and the prep is minimal!

Letter Sort

When learning the alphabet, different fonts can be so confusing to little ones, especially when it comes to the letter a and g.  So I created a sort for my kindergartners to help them practice sorting uppercase letters from lowercase letters and to visually see the different ways you can write them.  Plus it's an easy way for me to show them book g because no matter how many times I try to write it the fancy way, as I call it in my classroom, I just can't.  So check out this free product in my TPT store here.  This cut and paste letter sort contains the letters:

a
b
d
f
g
i
j
q
t
y

Letter Sort

What's the missing letter center

So learning how to put things in alphabetical order is such an important and yet boring skill.  So to help my students practice abc order and fluency in a fun way I created this product.

Missing Letter Center

This fun activity allows students to fill in the missing alphabet letter with an expo marker and comes in an upper case and lower case set.

This product can be found here at my TPT store.