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Freebie Space Themed 100s Chart

http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/02/out-of-this-world.html
Hi Freebie Friends!

This is Mary from
http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/02/out-of-this-world.html
My absolute favorite week of school is Space.

I would love for you to head to my blog to read all about our adventures in space, 
grab some ideas you can use in your classroom, 
and grab this set 
http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/02/out-of-this-world.html
of 6 differentiated 100s charts for your classroom.
http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/02/out-of-this-world.html
 Click on any of the pictures or here to head to my blog.

Sending you many blessings, 
http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/02/out-of-this-world.html

Time Freebies!

Hey There!
It's Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.  Today I'm sharing some fun ways to get your students to really grasp the abstract concept of time!  Head on over to my blog to grab a few clock freebies!





http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com/2015/02/teaching-time-freebies.html

Glitter Glue Classroom Management Trick

You guys REALLY need to see this GENIUS classroom management trick I discovered recently!!!!  Want to know the best part?  It has to do with this pretty glitter glue!


~Michelle from Apples and ABC's

Apples & ABC's


Quick! Grab a Lesson-- Jackie Robinson {FREEBIE!!}


Hello Everyone! Kristen here from A Day In First Grade! I hope that this post finds you well! Can you believe that it is February already? Where is the year going? February is one of those months for me where I scramble for themes. I know, of course I use "Valentine's Day" as a theme but other than that, I change my February themes yearly. This year I really want to capitalize on three themes: "black history month," Chinese New Year (as this is our grade's thematic push for the next two months), and Valentine' Day.

Unfortunately, this year I do not have nearly as much time as I have had in years past to go all out on my themes. Therefore, I have to choose wisely on when and how I introduce and teach my themes. I have found that my morning meeting, centers, and guided reading groups are the perfect places to really theme out my classroom.

As many of you know, I currently am living in Boston which is definitely a baseball city. People here bleed "Red Sox" and my boys in particular LOVE baseball. In an attempt to really capture the hearts and engagement levels of my boys (and girls), I created a pack on Jackie Robinson. I know that they will LOVE learning about him.

In order to make the most of my time, I introduced our theme of "black history month" during our morning meetings. I read my class the book, "I am Jackie Robinson" which definitely peaked their interest levels! They wanted to learn ALL about Jackie Robinson and the time period he lived in. (which was perfect!) Click on the picture to get taken to Amazon if you would like to purchase the book.

(affiliate link)
In my guided reading groups, I used my new guided reading resource to dive deeper into Jackie Robinson's life. I know that teachers are VERY busy and I needed something that was going to be QUICK and EASY to plan and prep. Thus, the birth of my newest guided reading resource. In this new series, there is practically NO prep and plan work needed. All you need to do is print the (ONE PAGE) reader and fold it! (Or better yet, have your students fold them!) Then pick out one of the many comprehension activities included. They focus specifically on comprehension strategies such as: author's purpose, cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, and others!

To get a closer look, here is what I did to plan and prep for my lessons this week.
1. I printed out the reader I was going to use. (The pack tells you the exact level each reader is, how many words are in the text, and the vocabulary level!-- It doesn't get any easier)
jackie robinson guided reading resource.005
2. I folded the page into a reader.
First, you fold it in half.
jackie robinson guided reading resource.001
Then, in half again. (first graders can totally do this!)
jackie robinson guided reading resource.002
3. I chose the comprehension strategy we would work on in our reading group and printed the correlating worksheet.

We will use this reader twice this week and respond to the text with two different worksheets. The first day we are going to focus on vocabulary words.  My students will find the words in their text, highlight them, and then we will discuss what the words mean.jackie robinson.002
The next day, we will work on finding the main idea and details in the text.
jackie robinson guided reading resource.003
As an extension, my students really enjoy writing books about what they know. During work on writing, this group will write an "All About Jackie Robinson" book!
jackie robinson guided reading resource.004

As you can probably tell, these readers are geared for first and second graders; however, I have a group of kinders this year who will LOVE this. Since it is differentiated, I chose the text that best meets the needs for my students.

I know that you and your students will love this new series! Therefore, I am giving this packet away for FREE! Head over to my store to grab it! Simply click on the picture below to get taken to the packet!
free guided reading resource
There are already multiple packs available in this series (with many more to come). I'm currently working on topics that my boys are very interested in. This will help them engage in reading and also help them with our comprehension strategies!
*Sharks (coming later tonight)
I hope that you enjoy this freebie!! :)

PS- Never miss a freebie again by following my Facebook Page! I always announce freebies there first! 

Valentines Real/Nonsense Word Sort

My students LOVE sorting real words and nonsense words.  For some reason the nonsense words always get my kids laughing!
In the picture above they are sorting words from my February Word Work pack; however, you can download a FREE Real/Nonsense Word Sort by clicking on the image below!
This center is perfect for your Valentine's Day party! The kids won't even realize that they are learning ;)

Sweet Sentiments

I would love to share with you a sweet Valentine writing activity I have been doing for years. It's one of my favorite activities to do, and definitely a favorite of my students, as well.


First, we all write our names on a little slip of paper. I put them all in a big mailbox and everyone chooses a name. Then, we all privately write something nice to the person we chose.


Next, we give each other our sweet hearts and enjoy reading them. (I didn't get a picture of this because I was too busy enjoying my own sweet heart!) Finally, we all leave our hearts on our tables and walk around reading them. It brings us all such joy to read the sweet sentiments.

Here are some of them...


Here is mine! I LOVE it!


The little boy who received a heart from me was so excited. He read it and then ran over to me and said, "Ms. Rosenberg, I need to give you a BIG hug!"

I can't begin to tell you how sweet this activity is. I hope you find the time to do it too. And then come back and tell me how it went!

We Love to Write!

We sure do have a great group of budding writers this year! We recently introduced some new writing activities in our writing center and the kiddos are loving them! The fact that they CHOOSE to go to the writing center makes me so happy!

I have a really sweet bunch this year and they are exceptionally nice to each other, so I knew they would really enjoy our note writing center. I copied a bunch of the note writing templates onto white paper and stuck them in a little bucket. My students can write notes to each other, their family or even their dear teachers :) Then they stick the notes in the appropriate cubbies for delivery. They get so excited to receive little notes in their cubbies too :)


 {I love you because you are sweet and nice and generous. #swoon}

 {I like your Darth Vader shirt.}

 {I like you because you are nice.}

I found this one of my desk after school...so precious!! {and I love that she signed it "stodin't}

If you want to use these fun little templates in your writing centers this month, click on the link to grab them below!
Happy Valentine's Day from Miss Kindergarten!


Race to the Top - A Math Game FREEBIE

My students have been learning all about graphing during the month of January.
I created this fun and easy game to reinforce the skills that were taught.
 
 
I showed them how to play it during our whole group math lesson time and they quickly caught on!
Now it's out at the Math Centre and one of the most popular things to do!
 
 
You can learn how to play and also download your copy for FREE by visiting my blog! 
 
http://mrsalbanesesclass.blogspot.ca/2015/02/race-to-top-graphing-game-freebie.html 






Chinese New Year Freebie!

At my school, each grade level has a “cultural focus” and spends a few months studying their focus area in an integrated unit. We are very excited that this year our focus is China! Over the next couple of months, our kindergarteners will learn all about the people, the geography, the animals and the cultures and traditions of China. My team and I have been working hard to create a completely integrated unit for our students. We kicked off our study this week and the students are OVER.THE.MOON excited to continue learning.
To begin our unit, we watched the brief introduction of the documentary “Wild China” found on Netflix. My students were amazed at the beauty and the animals that live in China. There is a great video available on youtube that you could have your students watch to showcase the beauty of China.

After watching the brief video, I charted all of the things that we already knew about China. This year I have one little boy who knows Mandarin and he was so excited to share what he knows about the language. We have learned how to say “hello” (ni hao {nee how})  and are practicing counting to ten!

To help my students learn our new vocabulary words for this new unit, I created nomenclature cards for them to use during our literacy centers. By using nomenclature cards, students enhance their vocabulary and practice labeling the new images from our thematic study. After they match their cards, in my classroom, students write sentences and illustrate them using their new words. 

If you would like to grab these beautiful cards and read more about our newest thematic unit, head over to my blog

Kristen 

All About Lights and Shadows

 Groundhogs Day is here and so should the 
I wrote a guest blog post all about this FUN week of Science here.

http://www.differentiatedkindergarten.com/2015/01/shine-your-little-light-on.html

And the post continued on my blog here
http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/01/more-lights-and-shadows-fun.html

Check out both links to grab this AMAZINGLY fun
Light and Shadows FREEBIE game.
http://www.differentiatedkindergarten.com/2015/01/shine-your-little-light-on.html



http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2015/01/more-lights-and-shadows-fun.html