Sprinting Through the Year!

Hello all! I have been busy creating more sprints! Apparently, I am not the only one who could not find any that were appropriate for Kindergarten. My friend recently asked me to create some with just the numbers 1-3 for one of her new students. These will also be perfect for September! Click on the packet below to find it in my TPT store!

While I was at it, I bundled up all of my sprints into one complete packet! Click below to find number sprints for the year!  

  

   
Here are a few of the sprints included in this pack!

 Happy Sprinting!!!

Disappearing Act!

I sort of disappeared from the world of blogging for awhile! But I have a very, very cute reason for doing so! Last September, I found out I was pregnant! After long days with my Kindergarten cuties, I pretty much came home and crashed instead of keeping up with my barely started blog!

Little Daniel made his appearance in May and I am staying home with him this year! September was a little weird! I felt a little like I was playing hooky on the first day of school! 



The little guy and I have settled into our own routine now, and I am ready to jump back into blogging! I am hoping to create some new things to use next year when I return to Kindergarten! 

I have added to my collection of sprints for kindergarteners! I now have sprints for numbers 1-5, 6-10, and 1-10. I created these to be a happy first experience with sprints! I wasn't thrilled with the ones I was given to use last year. They weren't kindergarten friendly and they were too difficult for the beginning of the year. These are meant to be used early in the year to train students how to take a sprint. If you would like to check them out, they can be found in my TPT store! Click on the images below!

             

Math Sprints...Munchkin Land Style!

Have you heard about sprints?? I hadn't until late last school year. Sprints are a timed math fluency test. I'm still not so sure I love them...they bring back horrible memories of the mad minute for me! One whole minute of awfulness where I got to struggle with the likes of multiplication and division! And the red circles all over my paper when it came back...shudder! Clearly, I have some math baggage people!

Anyway, to give a sprint you time your students for 1 minute. They get as much as they can completed and when they hear the timer, they put their pencils down. Then you get them up and moving for some fun math counting and movement. This can be as simple as doing a few exercises and counting while you do them, or putting on a math youtube video and letting them jump around and dance. Below are some that my class really loved last year. They can all be found on youtube!

 

 

Anyway, after your break you will the timer again for students to finish. Apparently, a good sprint is supposed to be just hard enough that no one in your class will finish it completely. I always had a couple of those smarties finish though! If they finished within the first minute, I just ad them turn it over on the back and write their numbers as high as they could go. 

One of my issues with sprints is that kindergarteners aren't so happy with the idea of stopping something when they're not done. You will hear lots of cries, "But I'm not done!!" Once they got used to it, they did much better with that! You just tell them that it is practice for them and them alone and that not finishing is ok. I also had issues with students starting before I said to start. I just started taking papers away and telling them they couldn't "play the game" because they weren't being fair to others. This only happened a few times and then they knew I meant business!

This year, I plan to do a "Tortoise and the Hare" theme to introduce sprints. I would much rather the students go at their own pace and get more correct, than to be so concerned about finishing first! I definitely want them to strive for accuracy above speed. Although maybe that is in direct contrast to the overall purpose of the sprint! Whatever! ;)

And furthermore, I will NOT be marking their sprints with red circles! In fact, you don't even have to grade them yourself! After finishing a sprint, you go through it together as a class. Students mark smileys next to the ones they got correct. Then apparently, you are supposed to have students stand up for getting 1 correct, 2 correct...blah, blah, blah until the few are left standing. I always skip that part though! I feel it is enough for them to know how many they got right themselves. And I really don't want to spread a competitive spirit amongst my munchkins. Soo...yeah, I don't do it! My own math issues surface again apparently! 

I have created a packet of sprints for kindergarteners in the beginning of the year. This packet only goes up to number five. I intend to created numbers 1-10 soon! If you would like to purchase it, it can be found at my TPT store, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Math-Sprint-Bundle-for-Numbers-1-5-812324  

If you just want to get your feet wet with sprints, I also posted a freebie, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Counting-with-Dice-812337

Happy sprinting!