My favorite ABC song!

So although this blog has been super math oriented lately, I am a literacy girl at heart! I am starting to look at all of my alphabet materials to get them ready for the new school year. One of my absolute favorite things to use is the original Alphabet Letter Sound song by Barbara Milne! You can find it on Youtube. I play this video at the end of the day during snack a lot in September. 

We also learn to sing and sign this song. I like to teach my kids how to fingerspell. The best part is when they learn all the letters and I teach them to spell their names! Then it becomes a classroom management trick. Whenever we are stuck waiting in the hallway, I will fingerspell the name of someone I catch waiting very patiently! This never fails to keep them quiet and completely happy! They love being able to read fingerspelling, and I think it is a pretty awesome skill! But I digress...

My Kindergarten team has used this song for years now. We have our kids sing it every morning. The only thing we do different from the video is saying the sound only twice and the letter name last. We have a chart that has the pictures from this song on it.  The kids use it as a reference for reading and writing. I have my kids keep a copy of the chart in their book boxes and writing folders. They use and rely on it so much, that I decided I wanted my classroom alphabet line to match the pictures in the song. Then everyone will be able to see it, and hopefully it will be more useful than my current abc line is now.

I have spent many an hour working on this little gem while Daniel naps! I think I have finally got it exactly how I want it! The adorable graphics, mostly by JW Illustrations, make my heart sing! This cute little cookie is my favorite one! And oh yeah, did I mention it sparkles?!? What?!? Everyone needs a little sparkle somewhere in their classroom! I will post pictures when I get mine hung up! If you would like your own, it can be found in my TPT store!

Finger Counting

So I haven't been much of a blogger these days! My own cute little munchkin keeps me pretty busy. I am headed back to school in the fall after a year off with him. I have super mixed feelings about it! I love teaching, but oh how wonderful it has been to stay home and watch my own little one grow and learn!! 

 While this cute kid naps, I have been starting to work on some stuff for school! This little finger counting mat can be used when you need a more kinesthetic approach to counting! It will help with 1:1 correspondence too. 

I printed out a whole class set of these and had baggies ready to go with ten chips inside. Then as students sat on the carpet, we arranged all our chips into the bottom circles. I made a larger board for myself and hung it on a magnet board. I put magnets on my chips so I could model for my students how to push up a chip to the top of each finger as I counted. 

This was something fun for the beginning of the year and it was easy to place into a center once the kids got the hang of it!

If you would like to try this activity with your own class, it can be found in my TPT store for $1.00!! Don't you love that TPT got rid of the three dollar minimum? Yay! Sometimes you just need a cheap, cute idea! 

Who Wants to Play a Game?!

For someone who would much rather be teaching kids how to read and write, I have been all about making math materials lately! Much of this drive comes from the fact that I am insecure about teaching a subject that I've always hated! Ever watch Babes in Toyland? Can anyone else relate with poor Mary?? "I just can't do the sum!" I don't want to project my fear of numbers onto my kids, so I am always searching for ways to make math fun! One of the ways I do this is by making math games. It is hard to fear something that is cleverly packaged as a fun game!

I created some mini domino and dice cards to be used for various math games. I love to use dominoes and dice in my games. Kids love them! Just a little side note....head to the Dollar Tree right now to find some small foam dice! So much quieter!!! If real dice aren't your cup of tea, these cards are just the thing for you! Here are a few ideas for you!

1. You can use these cards to play Compare. Students each flip over a card and decide who has the higher card.

2. You could use them as a number writing center with whiteboards or chalkboards. Students have to flip over a card, count the dots, and write the number.

3. They could be used with an empty number bond. Students have to fill in the number bond to correspond with the number of dots on each side of the domino card.

4. They could be put on a small binder ring that students could flip through to help them practice being able to identify numbers quickly.

5. Students can use the cards to create an addition number sentence with the two sides of the domino or the cards with two dice. Who can do the sum now?!

What else could you use them for? I would love to hear your ideas! 

 

Click on the packet below to find these mini cards in my TPT store! 

Happy Friday!!!!

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!

             

Name Writing and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I'm not sure how all you bloggers do it! I've been too busy to remember to take very many pictures and too tired to do anything with the ones I did take! Haha! It was a crazy first full week. I am excited to get to know my new little munchkins! Here are some things we did this week!

We worked on writing our names! A lot of my little guys can actually write their names this year, but it's always good to work on correct formation! How much do I love sheet protectors!?!? Makes something like this way more fun! I use the boxes to help contain their writing. They will see similar boxes on all of their writing paper too! So this is good practice to get ready for that! They learn to start writing their name at the smiley face and end at the stop sign. This helps to avoid the mirror writing that only kindergarteners seem to be capable of! Click below to get the freebie!

 We practiced putting the letters of our names in the correct order to make our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees!

We played the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom magnet letter game. To play, one child picks up a letter and shows the rest of the kids of the kids at their table what letter they picked. Then they place the letter are the bottom of the tree and slide it up the tree saying, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom will there be enough room? Here comes A up the coconut tree. It's a great game for practicing taking turns! 

And that's about all I have in me for tonight folks! I have so many things I want to share, I will try to be better about getting them on here! Have a happy week teacher friends!!

Five for Friday!

 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! Here are my five random things!

 

 Here is my sweet boy, Ryder...he has that sad "My Mom is going back to school" look about him! This has been a busy week! Putting those last finishing touches on my room and trying to remember how in the world to teach! Haha...I always think I'll forget how! It's also been a busy one for the back to school dreams! In last nights edition, apparently I enlisted the help of my husband to sit with a friend in need! Not sure he wants to sign up for the role of my classroom aide just yet!

 

I had Kindergarten Orientation this week! I got to meet 16 of my new little munchkins! So cute and wide eyed! Only one cried...and cried...and cried! Aww! She'll come around! We read The Kissing Hand and did this little writing activity. I was curious to see who would be able to write their name! Woohoo...lots of them could!!! So sorry...I didn't remember to take pics of the finished product! They were so sweet! I traced their hands in the little circle and we put heart stickers on top! I was so happy with how they came out and the timing was perfect! We were just finishing as their parents came to pick them up! You can find the packet in my TPT store if you are interested!

 

This little washi tape cork board is something I want to make for my room mostly because it's adorable! Click on the picture to go to Miss Kindergarten's blog for the how to! I think I might use it for student of the week or something like that!

 

I made this little self portrait/ name sample activity yesterday. We like to use the writing boxes in the beginning of Kindergarten. So I'm taking this opportunity to teach them how to start writing at the smiley face and stop at the stop sign! This really helps to avoid the backwards name writing! It's so funny to me when they do that...I couldn't if I tried!

 

I also finished up my birthday bags. I like to have them all ready to go in case I'm not super teacher on the day of one of their birthdays! Sometimes we forget! I made these little mini fold over cards and wrote happy birthday messages inside. I like to give them ice cream money for a special treat on their birthday! Easy and they love it!

The Mini Birthday cards and the Self portrait are freebies in my TPT store! Happy Friday!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jamie-Neely