Setting up a kindergarten classroom at the beginning of the year can be an exciting, yet overwhelming. Whether you are a student teacher, or this is your last year teaching elementary school, I'm here to share
These kindergarten anchor charts will give you the tools you need to teach math, reading, friendship skills, and much more!
Tips for a first year kindergarten teacher - for newbies and teachers new to kindergarten. Let's break it down and keep it simple. You can do this!
This article is an interesting look for early childhood teachers into a full day Kindergarten schedule that still incorporates play!
These kindergarten anchor charts will give you the tools you need to teach math, reading, friendship skills, and much more!
60+ Must Make Kindergarten Anchor Charts for the classroom. Covers classroom management, literacy and math. Multiple ideas!
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 1 I am thrilled to be sharing this huge Counting and Cardinality Unit with you! This is the math unit we start the year with in kindergarten. The kids love all of the hands-on activities we get to do, and I love how easy it is to keep them engaged.
Set goals, track progress and celebrate success! I will email you this chart for FREE , plus you can instantly access our entire freebie library.
Find 10 sight word activities and games for Kindergarten or 1st grade. These sight word activities can be played whole group, small group, or in centers.
Handwriting can be tricky to teach. Sometimes it must be done 1:1 with students, and it requires rigorous, thorough practice and follow through. Some teachers and administrators will tell you that handwriting really isn’t important, but I disagree. In kindergarten and first grade, we are
Help kindergarteners and first graders learn to spell short vowel CVC words with this free printable CVC Word Building Mat and picture card prompt set.
Reading fluency is so important for our early readers to eventually ensure comprehension. Strong letter sound fluency equips students to decode CVC words effortlessly, fostering a smooth transition in their reading journey. While readiness varies among students, consistent practice significantly aids their decoding abilities. While I know for some students, it is developmental and there may be a readiness that they may not have, many students are able to and need that extra practice to help them with decoding and can empower students to decode CVC words effortlessly, facilitating a smoother reading journey. I have always compared fluency practice to running in my own life for my students. I would run half marathons and have to work up that stamina and "practice" every day to become a better runner. I noticed that many of my students, without given the practice, will just continue to struggle. How we practice fluency in kindergarten? As a kindergarten teacher, it was important for my students, especially those who were struggling to practice fluency to help them become better readers. Without providing them this opportunity, I knew many of them would not be practicing letter names or letter sounds at home. By practicing and having a resource in the classroom or sending a fluency resource home and explaining to parents the importance, I have seen tremendous gains for students. I always use a simple and easy practice for my students. I have used whole group, small group or with a partner or even sent home. I use fluency probes that are similar to AIMSweb or DIBBELS letter name and letter sound fluency. (A sample is included at the end of the post) Students are given a fluency probe based on the skill they are working on. We practice letter names and letter sounds using these probes and I also have them available for CVC words, nonsense words and onset and rime. Although I feel "practicing" nonsense words may not be best for some students, for other it may help them become more successful and give us a better picture of where they are as a reader. As we know, there are a limited number of CVC words that students do read and a lot of times, they just have regular CVC words memorized from kindergarten stories and work. To assess a students true ability to decode, this is why we sometimes switch to nonsense words. My strongest readers, we always able to decode these nonsense words without struggle and were able to just read them as words, since they have such strong phonics skills. Classroom Use In my classroom, I copy all of the probes in advance and have them bound. The resource has 14 different probes available and I will have them all ready for the whole year. This then becomes a resource I use for the whole year in my students hands that we often use. I copy all 4 probes with my students: letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words, week by week. Usually before Christmas, I will use onset and rime instead of CVC words. In the classroom, I have the students use the same probe for the week. We will sometimes do it whole group or in small groups and set a timer for one minute. Students use a different color crayon each day and just circle the letter that they stopped on (most of the students are usually pretty honest about this. ) They then work to do better the next day. While I don't do whole group practice every day, I often will have students practice close to Aimsweb testing so everyone is ready. In my class, I was also required to progress monitor my students and we would graph their results monthly when I progress monitored as a way of students tracking their data which was stored in the fluency booklet. Partner Practice I may also use with resource for partner practice for students. Once my students understand how to practice their fluency, I would also sometimes have students partner up with each other to practice. Although this partner practice will not work for all students and the students who struggle the most will be practicing with me, this works really well for most students and they love it. I usually use sand timer (affiliate link) for this which are one minute each students has a probe and one student will monitor (like I would for errors etc) while the other student practices. Take Home Fluency Practice Another amazing way to use this resource is to copy and send home with students based on what they are working on, especially for my students who are struggling. I usually send it with a letter about the importance of practicing at home and asking parents to set a timer for one minute and record where students stop. It is amazing to see the growth that so many students will make with that little extra practice! I usually will model how to do this at conferences to work with parents as a team. I have a freebie of one week of letter name, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words available in my TPT store with a link at the end of the post. This is easy to copy and send home to parents over breaks or if a student is struggling and needs a little more practice. In my Fluency Packet there are 12 additional weeks of letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words with graphs for students to track progress available as well. I always made little books for my students and we would work on a new probe every week. You can find my fluency packet here, with everything you need to help your students become more successful readers. You can also find my one week freebie here: Free Fluency Practice
These sight word activities will keep your students actively engaged (and having fun!) while getting tons of practice with the sight words YOU choose.
These rainbow tally marks are a great, hands-on way to practice counting by 5’s, counting on, and working on fine motor a bit as well!
Here’s my list of kindergarten sight words. They’re organized by month of the school year, and each month includes a color word to focus on. This would also be a great list of words to …
K-1 OPINION WRITING This unit is so much fun to teach! I just love hearing all about my kiddos’ opinions… and kindergarten and first grade students sure love to share. In Unit 5 of my primary writing curriculum we are learning how to write about our opinions. We are writing about what
A list of YouTube Videos for teaching Phonics to kids. Phonics videos for kindergarten and first grade students! Everything from letter sounds to final -e.
Use these 6 number sense activities to help your students get a better understanding of numbers. These are great for math centers or whole group practice.
Reading fluency is so important for our early readers to eventually ensure comprehension. Strong letter sound fluency equips students to decode CVC words effortlessly, fostering a smooth transition in their reading journey. While readiness varies among students, consistent practice significantly aids their decoding abilities. While I know for some students, it is developmental and there may be a readiness that they may not have, many students are able to and need that extra practice to help them with decoding and can empower students to decode CVC words effortlessly, facilitating a smoother reading journey. I have always compared fluency practice to running in my own life for my students. I would run half marathons and have to work up that stamina and "practice" every day to become a better runner. I noticed that many of my students, without given the practice, will just continue to struggle. How we practice fluency in kindergarten? As a kindergarten teacher, it was important for my students, especially those who were struggling to practice fluency to help them become better readers. Without providing them this opportunity, I knew many of them would not be practicing letter names or letter sounds at home. By practicing and having a resource in the classroom or sending a fluency resource home and explaining to parents the importance, I have seen tremendous gains for students. I always use a simple and easy practice for my students. I have used whole group, small group or with a partner or even sent home. I use fluency probes that are similar to AIMSweb or DIBBELS letter name and letter sound fluency. (A sample is included at the end of the post) Students are given a fluency probe based on the skill they are working on. We practice letter names and letter sounds using these probes and I also have them available for CVC words, nonsense words and onset and rime. Although I feel "practicing" nonsense words may not be best for some students, for other it may help them become more successful and give us a better picture of where they are as a reader. As we know, there are a limited number of CVC words that students do read and a lot of times, they just have regular CVC words memorized from kindergarten stories and work. To assess a students true ability to decode, this is why we sometimes switch to nonsense words. My strongest readers, we always able to decode these nonsense words without struggle and were able to just read them as words, since they have such strong phonics skills. Classroom Use In my classroom, I copy all of the probes in advance and have them bound. The resource has 14 different probes available and I will have them all ready for the whole year. This then becomes a resource I use for the whole year in my students hands that we often use. I copy all 4 probes with my students: letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words, week by week. Usually before Christmas, I will use onset and rime instead of CVC words. In the classroom, I have the students use the same probe for the week. We will sometimes do it whole group or in small groups and set a timer for one minute. Students use a different color crayon each day and just circle the letter that they stopped on (most of the students are usually pretty honest about this. ) They then work to do better the next day. While I don't do whole group practice every day, I often will have students practice close to Aimsweb testing so everyone is ready. In my class, I was also required to progress monitor my students and we would graph their results monthly when I progress monitored as a way of students tracking their data which was stored in the fluency booklet. Partner Practice I may also use with resource for partner practice for students. Once my students understand how to practice their fluency, I would also sometimes have students partner up with each other to practice. Although this partner practice will not work for all students and the students who struggle the most will be practicing with me, this works really well for most students and they love it. I usually use sand timer (affiliate link) for this which are one minute each students has a probe and one student will monitor (like I would for errors etc) while the other student practices. Take Home Fluency Practice Another amazing way to use this resource is to copy and send home with students based on what they are working on, especially for my students who are struggling. I usually send it with a letter about the importance of practicing at home and asking parents to set a timer for one minute and record where students stop. It is amazing to see the growth that so many students will make with that little extra practice! I usually will model how to do this at conferences to work with parents as a team. I have a freebie of one week of letter name, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words available in my TPT store with a link at the end of the post. This is easy to copy and send home to parents over breaks or if a student is struggling and needs a little more practice. In my Fluency Packet there are 12 additional weeks of letter names, letter sounds, CVC words and nonsense words with graphs for students to track progress available as well. I always made little books for my students and we would work on a new probe every week. You can find my fluency packet here, with everything you need to help your students become more successful readers. You can also find my one week freebie here: Free Fluency Practice
Once a child has started mastering basic number and quantity recognition, basic math operations can be introduced. And there is no better place to start
K-1 NONFICTION WRITING My nonfiction writing unit is here! This is the perfect way to introduce kindergarten and first grade students to what informational writing is. This unit is so engaging for students because it uses real life photographs and animals. We discus
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 3 I am so excited to have my new Measurement and Data kindergarten math unit posted and ready to share with you. So far this year, my sweet kinders have learned so much in math. We have mastered 1:1 correspondence, reading and writing numerals to 20, counting to 10
Lots of ideas and pictures of ways to teach reading skills using phonics centers to make learning fun and promote fluency in reading skills.
These effective ways to teach addition in kindergarten will help your students learn and master a variety of addition strategies!
Practice blending onsets and rimes with this free printable roll and write phonics activity for kindergarten and first grade.
Find 10 FREE sight word games and activities for your students to use during literacy centers. Many of these require very little materials to make.
Successive blending is an instructional technique designed to support students who have difficulty blending words in sequence.
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
Follow these five steps to teach a child to read. Helpful for parents, homeschoolers, and teachers that are teaching beginning readers.
These editable sight word games are so much fun and simple to prep! Type in any words you want and all 20 sight word activities auto-fill!
Have a child learning to read? Try this missing sounds reading activity to work on decoding skills. A hands-on, phonics based reading game.
Getting Ready For Kindergarten! Is your child starting kindergarten soon? If so, you are going to love all the free printables and kindergarten prep checklists and tips on this page. Tons of helpful printable kindergarten...
Is your little one getting ready for Kindergarten? If so, one way to be sure this year is a big success is by making sure your child has the Kindergarten skills they need starting from day one.
Push the flashcards aside and play our favorite high frequency word game: OH SNAP!! This super fun sight word game is a great way to improve reading skills and build reading fluency.
Just print and play with your emerging reader!
Activities that develop early math skills are our favourites! We love working on our number recognition, counting skills, subitising and 1:1 correspondence. This “Build a City” activity…
60+ Must Make Kindergarten Anchor Charts for the classroom. Covers classroom management, literacy and math. Multiple ideas!
Happy Saturday! I know this is going to sound cliche and all, but seriously….where did the summer go?! August is only a couple of days away and most of my teacher friends are starting school either this coming week or the next. Oh summer…we loved you so!!!! Now it’s upward and onward and we’re getting …
Learn how to use the science of reading to support pre-readers in your reading small groups and guided reading groups.
Are you looking for my original sight word books? I created those books beginning in 2013. Why not? My original sight word books required readers to use pictures to help them solve words. I created
Decoding drills for building fluency helps students apply phonics skills when reading. Perfect warm ups and a great tracking tool, too.
A fun way to get your little ones more comfortable with writing, this Sensory Writing Tray is perfect if you want to familiarise young children with letters and numbers. Kids love this sensory experience so much that they will be begging to do some handwriting practice!
Tischsprüche sind ein schönes Ritual, um das gemeinsame Essen zu beginnen. Hier sind lustige Tischsprüche für Klein und Groß.
It was a hot, sunny afternoon yesterday, and the kiddos weren't moving very fast, and I realized it was time to get out the water misters. Wow did everyone perk up! At first they just jumped and danced in the mist, rubbing the water on their faces and into their hair, and announcing things like, "It's summer!" "It's foggy!" "I see a rainbow!" Pure joy, a wonder to behold. Then something even better happened! Here's the story, mostly in pictures, with some explanation from me, and quotes from the kiddos. One of the kiddos noticed a small leak in the hose, spraying water up in a small arc. Quickly word spread, and the kiddos who were using buckets to try to catch the mist quickly moved over to the leak. They all shared and took turns! There was, of course, some negotiating: "I'm next", "You're taking too long!" "You're getting me wet", etc., but the kiddos quickly sorted that out, and did an awesome job of waiting for that most precious resource: the water. Here come some more kiddos to investigate... ... and off they go to get buckets! Now, as an adult, I saw a problem: the water wasn't spraying up very far, and the children had the buckets laying flat, or even slightly inverted, so they weren't catching much water at all. They tried putting their fingers over part of the leak - I'm not sure if they were trying to focus the spray so only the part going into the buckets was leaking, or if they were enjoying the feeling of the spray on their fingers - my guess is it was a little of both. It didn't matter how little water they caught! They were having fun! They compared... "Hey, can I have some water?" The children started sharing the few drops they had worked so hard to collect! "I gave my water to my friend." Next step, add some dirt. Look how industriously they are working to collect it! Into the now communal bucket. "Here's some nice crunchy leaves." Isn't it pretty? "We need to stir it!" Sticks were found, broken to a good length, and the mix was perfected. What a treat, as their teacher, so see all the skills the kiddos brought to this experience. I was, and still am, impressed by how well they all played together to enjoy this experience. They shared, took turns, listened to each other, and worked cooperatively to make this glorious bucket of muck. They compared volume and water color. They labelled what they were seeing: mist, fog, a rainbow. They were scientists in a very preschool way, and joyous in the learning and doing. Yes, sunshine + water does indeed = joy!
It's important for kids to be able to sound out letters and words, but it's just as important for them to be able to understand what they're reading. This free, printable Kindergarten Reading Comprehension Pack is perfect for assessing your child's ability to comprehend a reading passage. There are 20 passages in all, and I gotta say that I love how cute each page is!
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
In this post I share 5 literacy centers aligned to the Science of Reading. These low-prep, research-based literacy activities are ideal for K-2 students and classrooms.
