Science Experiment: Lava Lamp

I love an easy science experiment that includes supplies I already have and get a great reaction from my students.  Here is one of them.

Materials Needed:

A jar or clear cup

Oil

Water

food coloring

alka seltzer tablet

Instructions:

1.  Fill a container 1/2 to 3/4 full with oil.  I used vegetable oil but you can also use baby oil if you want the oil to be clear.

2.  Fill the rest of the container with water.

3.  Add 3-5 drops of food coloring to the jar.  Observe how the food coloring stops at the bottom of the oil but doesn't mix with it and then drops to the water where it mixes with the water and changes the color.

4.  Break up the alka seltzer into 1/4 or 1/2 pieces and drop into the jar.  Observe.  When the bubbling stops add another alka seltzer tablet.  Repeat as much as you want.

The science behind it:

Oil and water don't mix.  The oil will stay on top of the water.  The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacts with the water to make carbon dioxide gas.  These bubbles attach to the colored water and cause them to float to the top.  When the bubbles pop they float back to the bottom.  

Year Long Write the Room Center

My first year teaching kindergarten I was scrambling to create and make centers for my kids.  I had seen all these writing centers out there that were expensive or took a lot of prep or were expensive and took a lot of prep.  I was looking for something fun for my kids and yet something that took little or no prep.  So I created this write the room center.

Each week I would print a page for whatever letter we were reviewing that week and the kids would go around the room with a clipboard and pencil and would write down words that had that letter.

My kids loved it because it gave them the freedom of picking what words they wanted.  They got to use a clipboard and they got to roam around the room which they loved.

And on special occasions we pulled out goofy glasses or colored pencils to make it more exciting.

My kids loved this center and it took me a minute to prepare each week.  I simply would print the page I needed, place them on the clipboards and down.  The words were already up all around the room.  

You can purchase this center for only $2 here in my TPT store.  There is a page for each letter of the alphabet plus the 5 digraphs sh, th, wh, ch, and ph and the best part is it can be use all year.

Book Recomendation

This past weekend I went up to a little town in Wisconsin and I took my daughter to their library.  It was a small library with a small children's section but they had tons of little toys for her to play with and she loved it, which gave me time to browse books.  I then came across this gem in their new book section.

What I didn't know is this book isn't so new and many of you out there already knew about it.  Well if you are like me and just finding out about it now here is a summary.

Summary:  It is the first day of school for Penelope Rex and she is excited to meet her new classmates and make some friends.  However it is hard to make friends when you eat all your classmates and the teacher makes you spit them all out.  Penelope later learns a valuable lesson when the class pet, a fish, bites her. 

This is such a cute story and is perfect for a dinosaur unit, back to school or just for a fun read.  You can look for the book at your local library or on Amazon.

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.

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.

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.

An old familiar website becomes a new favorite

Back when I started teaching 12 years ago I found out about this website Starfall.   If you haven't discovered this website yet you need to head there now.  There are so many great treasures on it.  A decade ago I used it as a computer center.  They have activities for the alphabet, for beginning readers, for word families and so much more.  Seriously it's great.

But I have rediscovered a second great aspect of Starfall.  There is a teacher side with pre made and customizable worksheets that even align with Common Core.  At the very top of the page there is a Starfall Teacher-Parent Center button.  Click on it and you'll have to answer a math question to get to the teacher section of the site.  (It's an easy math question.)  Then scroll down to you see the Supplemental Resource section.

 Once there you will find worksheets you can create for ELA, math, ABC review and some that are pre-made and ready for download.

For ELA they have editable alphabet, blending and high frequency worksheets.

For math they have Counting, Measuring, and addition and subtraction worksheets

They also have picture cards.

So seriously go check it out.  I love it!

Easter Freebie

So I'm giving away a freebie in my TPT store. This Easter Egg Find and Graph comes in color or blackline and is a great activity for practicing making a bar graph.

Snowball Sight Words

I've been trying to find new ways to get my kids to practice reading their sight words.  I've also been wanting to add a sensory table into my room but don't have the money to buy one or the energy to keep up with it this year.  So in an effort to check off both things, I've combined the two.

In December I filled a small bin with tinsel and hid sight words written on ornament clip art.  My kids loved it.  So this month I did the same thing with cotton balls and sight words written on snowball clip art that my husband designed for me.

The kids took turns hunting for the snowball sight words and writing them down on the organizer.  They were having so much fun I don't think they even realized they were learning which is my favorite kind of activity.

I wish I had another idea of a combined sensory table for February but at the moment I don't.  So if you have an idea leave a comment below and maybe you'll see a sight word creation for February in my TpT store in the near future.

You can download my Snowball Sight Word creation from my TpT store.

New Math Centers

So one of the struggles I have as a first year kindergarten teacher is finding materials.  My big struggle is in math.  I wish I had math stations for my kids to rotate through so that I could work in small groups with my kids but that is just not a reality this year.  Instead I have fast finisher activities for my kids that quickly get concepts to do so that I can work with my kiddos who need a little more attention.  However, the plan is that next year I'll have enough centers that I can do small group math instruction.

So over winter break I came up with 12 winter center activities and I am pretty excited about them.

You can find them here at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Winter Math Centers

I'm so excited to get back to my classroom, print and laminate them and get my kids using them.  Now to come up with spring ones. 💭

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