Fall Math and Literacy Centers

These are centers that we worked on last week and the week before! I guess I am a bit behind!  These are all from my Fantastically Fun Fall pack!

We LOVE to count and write the room! I ALWAYS have these centers each week – kids love to get up and move around and it separates the children a bit more.  More separation = less talking!

I differentiated this center for each kiddo – those that were ready to write number words did that, and those that weren’t quite ready just wrote the number.

I always have some sort of patterning center as well.  There are two different spinner for the children to choose from – AB, and ABB – some kiddos aren’t quite ready to move on from AB patterns yet :)

This center was a bit challenging for some kids, but I think once they get the hang of the multiple steps it will be a bit easier!

This was our first time playing “Flip Five” - -the children LOVED it.  There are NO numbers in this version – just pictures to count.  I have a few other versions of Flip Five in my TpT store if you’re looking for number versions.  Again, for the kiddos that were ready, they wrote their equations on the response sheet.

We’ve been practicing adding 1 more during our calendar time, so this game was perfect for some independent practice!  Dice + candy corn = FUN!

I love incorporating fine motor skills during centers whenever I can.  At this center, the children used a clothes pin to clip the beginning sound and flipped it over to check it (the answer is designated by a sticker!).

Ooh! This was SO fun!  The kiddos wrote the beginning sound of each picture to figure out the scarecrow secret code!

This game is GREAT for beginning sound practice! We spun the spinner and moved the candy corn piece down one leaf.  The first candy corn to the bottom is the winning letter!

Fun with rhymes!  The children rolled two dice – when they rolled two words that rhyme, they covered up a crow with a candy corn.  HINT – If you own this center, print two copies of each rhyme.  Choose 3 rhymes to focus on. The children will be more successful rolling two words that rhyme!

This was a pocket chart activity – sorry I forgot to snap a pic of the pocket chart.  The children put the words in the correct order to make a sentence that makes sense.

This center is one of my favorite ones – I’ve been doing it for years! It’s from my It’s Fall Y’all pack.  I die cut different color leaves and sort them into baggies. The children then sort them and graph them and complete the graph.  Each kiddo gets their own set.  It’s so fun seeing the gigantic graphs on the floor!

Here is the response sheet for our acorn count the room (the photo is above!)

At our listening center, we listened to Firefighter Ted!

We are working on pumpkins this week and next (and maybe the following week too!)  Let me know if you have any questions!

Lesson Plans–October 21-25

Better late, than never right? I didn’t include the “visual” part of the lesson plans this week.  But, I will post links below of which units I am using!

I will also post pictures of my centers from LAST week this week!

Here are the units that we are working from:

         

 

I posted this article on my Facebook page a while ago, but I know many of us are feeling a bit overwhelmed with the pressures and demands of teaching, standards, testing, and home life.  If you have a minute or two, click on over and read it….

Sometimes, I think that we are trying to get SO MUCH done just to feel like we are “keeping up.”  We are all human, and we are all doing our best. :)  Get done what you can with the time that you have, cherish every day with those sweet littles, and if you desk isn’t clean at the end of the day, or your bulletin boards aren’t perfect, don’t fret.  Do what’s best for you :)

Happy Wednesday eve :)

PS – Thanks for all the support on my last post.  It’s so nice to read all of your encouraging comments.

Life has been crazy…

My lesson plans aren’t ready.  I had 4 days off, but my lesson plans aren’t done.  I promise they’ll be done soon.  I didn’t post them last week, because I was a bit busy and had a lot on my mind (obviously my blog has suffered!)

My dad has been battling some stomach issues over the past 6 months or so.  He has been in and out of the hospital dealing with medical issues since about last March. It’s been tough.

He was recently diagnosed with bile duct cancer.  If you read anything about bile duct cancer, it’s not good.  At all.  Two weeks ago, he travelled for the second time to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the doctor’s there did their thing.

I have the utmost respect for the doctor’s at the Mayo Clinic.  Six years ago they saved my mom’s life when she was granted a new liver.  Two week’s ago they did the same for my dad.   I believe he is one of the lucky ones – the cancer was caught early and contained.  He’s not out of the woods yet though, he will travel back in 3 weeks for further testing just to make sure…

While we were driving the 6 1/2 hour road trip, this song came on (take a minute and listen, you won’t regret it).

If you know me, you will know that I’m a worrier.  I worry about everything.  When this song came on the radio – I knew that everything was going to be okay. *sigh*

Last Tuesday was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  I lit my candle for my sweet Nora, and all the other babies that left this Earth too soon.

and then this fell this morning….

Really?  Thankfully the snow melted pretty quickly, but it’s just a remind that winter is not far away.

But, here’s what makes me smile… Our final roses of the season from my Nora’s rose garden.  Her rose garden gives us beautiful roses all summer long. 

So, I’ll be back at it this week, I promise.  Because..

Technology in the Classroom

I came across this infographic today from Learnstuff.com.  Which leads me to ask….how are YOU incorporating technology in your classroom?

Daily Focus Wall

Last year our school district adopted the Marzano Teacher Evaluation model.  We are adding domains to be observed on each year. We are taking it slow so that teachers will really understand what they are being observed on.

Soon, we will need to begin posting our student learning goals.  I wanted to give it a go this year.  I originally planned on using these dry erase boards to write I can statements with the kiddos each day.

But then I thought – what good is it for my kiddos if they can’t actually READ what their goals are.  I decided to ditch the dry erase boards and make my daily focus wall more of a giant anchor chart for the kids.

I already had the banner made, and even though I use my interactive white board for my calendar, I still need to have a calendar on my wall for the kids (and me) to see.  I just re-arranged some things and moved my daily schedule to the board right next to this one.

This board is right next to my teaching area, so we look at it every single morning.  We talk about what our target goals are for the day, the vocabulary we are learning, the numbers/shapes/letters we are focusing on, and read our sight words every day.

The children refer to the board all day long! I’m so happy with it! As the year progresses, I am going to add more I can statements.

So, here is the breakdown….

Here are the links to some of the resources I use:

I’m still on the hunt for some great Kindergarten science and social studies vocabulary cards! If you know of some, please let me know!

If you would like to have the headers that I use for your classroom, click below to download them!

If you download, please be so kind as to leave a comment! How do you display your standards/I can statements?! 

Better Late than Never, Right?

Sorry for the delay on my lesson plans this week! 

I have been loving this lately…

The days are cooler and shorter, and I love the crisp smell in the air! But…in the back of my mind, I know that this is right around the corner…

So, I’ll enjoy fall while it lasts with some fun fall centers and lots of time outside!

Most of my activities for the next couple of weeks are coming from these two packs.  Just click on the images if you’re interested!

We also play a lot of the pocket chart games in this pack – the kids go nuts over them!

Here are my plans for the week!  As always, plans may change! I don’t always get to everything in my plans and some things I just decide not to do!  We have to be flexible as Kindergarten teachers, right?!  I would love to hear your thoughts about these plans – are they helpful to you? Or do they not make any sense at all?!

Have a great remainder of the week.  I’m not sure how my internet access will be over the next few days, so be patient with me if you have any questions!!