School Supply Emergent Reader

My kids come to Kindergarten wanting to read.  Obviously reading doesn't come with some magically lesson so I created a school supply emergent reader with predictable text that can be used after teaching the kids about school supplies.  We spend all week talking about our school supplies and how we can and can't use them and then on Friday we read this book together.

My kids love it because they are reading and I love it because it is easy prep as I can print it 2-2 sided, cut it in half on the paper cutter, and then staple it.  My students can then color it and take it home and show their parents that they can read a book.  

This book is also great for ESL students of all ages who are newcomers.

You can find the book here in my TPT store.

The glue page comes with 3 different versions in case you only use glue bottles or glue sticks.

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.

Back to School Read Alouds

Well it is August 1st, which is always the day my brain switches from summer mode to school mode.  As much as I try to enjoy my last week of summer my teacher brain is never fully turned off.  One of the first things I do is visit my local library and grab all my favorite back to school read alouds.  I love the 1st week of Kindergarten because it is relaxed and there is permission to simply enjoy a good book without having to teach a lesson with it.

So without further ado...here are some of my favorite go to back to school books.

On the First Day of Kindergarten is an adaptation of the 12 days of Christmas so the text repeats and allows the children to know what is coming.  It's a great book to kick off the first day and to read just for fun.

Miss Bindergarten gets Ready for Kindergarten is always a must read in my class and is the first in the Miss Bindergarten series that we read during the year.  Another fun book for the students to enjoy or you can talk about what the kids did to get ready for Kindergarten.

I feel like in order to be a Kindergarten teacher you have to know about this book.  The Kissing Hand is about Chester Raccoon, who doesn't want to go to school.  His mom lets him in on a secret of the kissing hand so that she will always be with him.  Its a great book that naturally leads to how the kids felt about their first day.  

Who doesn't love Pete the Cat?  I use this story to lead into a shoe coloring activity and a tour of the school.  At the end of the book I write a note from Pete the Cat saying he has hidden shoes around the school.  We then go on a classroom tour of the library, office, art room, etc looking for the shoes Pete has hidden talking about each room as we go.  When we come back to the room we color a picture of our school shoes.

David Goes to School is a great read aloud to introduce class rules.  We make a T chart of things David did and things we should do at school.

My least favorite thing about Kindergarten is all the tattling.  I let them tattle the whole first week and then Friday comes along and I read this book and we talk about tattling vs. telling.  And then the next week we keep talking about tattling vs. telling and finally by Halloween I am getting only one tattle a day.  The kids remember the title so they are quick to repeat it when a friends says I am telling on you.  

Too Much Glue is a great book to read right before you talk about using glue.  Matty loves glue!  One day Matty pours a lake of glue before belly-flopping right in the middle and finds himself stuck to the desk.  

Those are some of my favorites.  What are some of yours?

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.

Counting Bears Graphing

The school year is coming to the end and I love no prep activities.  The following activities is one of those.

I grab a handful of my counting bears and create a cupful for each student.  They then sort them and graph based upon color.

There is a color graph if you can print in color or laminate them for a center or there is a black and white copy where students can color the bears the correct color by reading the color words and then graph.   It's a great end of year activity.

Check it out here at my TPT Store.

Book Recomendation

In March I normally do my own fairy tale unit, but this year all the fairy tales I found at the library were a little scarier then I wanted so I switched to fables and found this awesome series.

Classic Fable in Rhythm and Rhyme

These fables are put to music which gives them a fresh new spin that engages that students and allows them to sing along.  Each story starts off explaining what a fable is and it gives a quick synopsis of what the story is about.

The Fox and the Grapes

The stories also have highlighted vocabulary that you can pre teach and each book has reading activities and questions at the back of the book.

The Lion and the Mouse

The Boy who Cried Wolf

I really love this series.  Check them out on the links on Amazon or see if they have them at your library. 

Snowball Sight Words

I love creating products that are simple and easy to use.  These snowball sight words are one of my favorite.

This winter activity was created for a fun sight word center where I printed out the snowballs, laminated them and then placed them in a bin full of cotton balls. The students had to dig through looking for the sight words and then write the word they found on the recording sheet.

You can also use them as a write the room activity where you tape the sight words up around the room.

Over 90 sight words are included from the entire Pre-K and Kindergarten Sight Word List, including a blank page to write your own.