Easy (and cheap) Math Center Idea!

Kindergarten math is in FULL swing! We are busy working with composing and decomposing numbers to 5. I believe this is one of the most important skills to build in math. All of their mathematical skills will build on building and breaking apart numbers. I like to model this by using the vocabulary "part-part-whole" to get them ready for addition!  I found awesome plates at Walmart (but I'm sure you can find them anywhere) that are perfect for teaching decomposing and composing numbers!!! Not only are these durable but they are also great for dry erase!

To add this activity in a math center, I gave each student a plate, 5 or 6 counters, and a dice (or number generator). The students rolled the dice and put that many cubes in the left small spot of their plate. They put the remaining cubes on the right side. Next, students put all cubes in the large part of their plate. They say " __ and __ make ___."

This is a great activity to do whole group as well as centers!  Hopefully this will help teaching this important skill to your students!!!  Enjoy!

 

The fabulous month of October!!!

I love all of the fun activities and teaching that occur in October. The school year is in full swing with Fall Festival, football, and cool crisp air!!!  I LOVE IT! It's time to pull out scarves, sweaters, and boots! The list could go on and on! 

I love everything that goes on in my classroom! I love teaching about spiders, bats, and pumpkins!!! I created a unit on Pumpkins about a year ago but as teaching and standards go on, it needed some updating!  I have updated some fun new organizers and uploaded some black line masters for students!!!  If you have bought it from Teachers Pay Teachers recently, please re-download it to get all of these goodies! My pumpkin unit can be purchased by clicking on the picture!

Here is a preview to my pumpkin unit:

 

Also, be sure to check out my Spider and Bats mini-units!!!!

 Here is a preview of my bat unit:

 

Also, here is my spider unit!

Here is a preview of my Spider unit:

What are some fun activities you do during Halloween time? The first comment will receive a FREE Pumpkin, Spider, AND Bat unit!!!!  Awesome!!!!

 

 

Spiders...just a little preview!!!

I am very busy working on a great mini-unit to use for Spiders!!!  We have been busy getting ready for Halloween!!!  We finished up our spider unit last week with this yummy craft!!! 

All you need are Oreos, pretzel sticks, and mini M&Ms!!  It was a great activity to also include math talk! We discussed "What does the spider have more of, legs or body parts? Prove it!" My sweet students loved counting with food!!! 

Bats! Oh My!

This has been the PERFECT week to work on our bat unit! To help out with my bat activities, I have created an awesome mini Bat unit! My students have loved all of the fun activities! Bats are very (gross) but interesting creatures!!! 

 

This awesome 64 page unit contains great informational graphic organizers, tens frames, counting mats, puzzles, a fun bat reader, a great poem for your poetry center (my favorite!), copies of the poem, labeling a bat, bat graphs, bat facts, and so much more!!! You can purchase this unit by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Happy Halloween!!!

Apples! A look back...

I love teaching a unit on apples. I spend 2 weeks on apples!!!  You can really dig deep and use apple themed activities to cover all subjects!! We labeled an apple, made homemade applesauce,  graphed our favorite apple, and read plenty of books!!! We ended our unit with a huge Apple Day! The students could taste apple pie, dried apples, apple slices, apple juice, apple butter, and apple candy. We graphed our favorite apple snack and used our 5 senses to describe everything! The students loved it- and I did too!!!

If you are looking for a great apple unit, you can purchase mine here from Teachers Pay Teachers.

It's a 115 page unit that has:

* Apple Poems
* Apple Charts (apples, apple pie, Johnny Appleseed)
* Apple descriptive words
* Apple Pattern Book
* Apple Pattern worksheet
* Apple Vocabulary Cards
* Apple Connecting Cubes cards
* Apple Play-doh Mats
* Apple KWL
* Apple Investigation
* Parts of Apple and Apple Tree Diagram
* Apple Pie, Apple Sauce, and Sink or Float Graphs
* Favorite apple graph
* Ten Apples Up on Top Craft
* Apple Memory Game
* Apple Puzzle
* Applesauce and apple pie writing activity
* Apple Counting cards
* Apple Tens Frames
* Apples Clothespin Math Matching Game
* "Apples" Pennant Banner
 

What are some fun activities you do during apple week? I just love this time of year!!!!

Community Helper Unit!!!!!

We are beginning our 2 week unit of study on Community Helpers! Kindergarten students LOVE to see all of the ways that Community Helpers help us out!!!  We also have our first field trip planned- to the fire station!  I am pretty sure that the students are more excited to RIDE THE BUS than to go on the field trip!!!  HA! We also have a great visit from Smokey the Bear scheduled! 

I have created an awesome Community Helper Thematic Unit to help my unit of study! It has anchor charts, labeling, poems, puzzles, tens frames, sight word books, KWL charts, and so much more!  The clip art is so cute and colorful!!!  I hope you find it as useful as I do!!!  You can purchase this awesome unit by clicking here.

 
We end our unit with a Community Helpers Parade! The students will come to school dressed as their favorite community helper and parade through the school! They LOVE it!  It's also great to see all of the creative outfits!

What are some fun things you do with your class for community helper unit?

Enjoy!

Week 1 and DONE!

I don't know about you, but the first week of school was an absolute fabulous blur!!!  It was the best and busiest week yet! Between finishing up my classroom, the TPT sale, and meeting my 16 sweet kinder-babies, I don't know where the time went! My classroom turned out absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to post some pictures (to be revealed soon, I promise!)!!!  The TPT sale was great! Thank you to everyone who shopped at my store! I even found a few goodies myself! I LOVE my class!  They remind me of why I teach kindergarten! It's so exciting to see their faces light up when they enter "big kid school!" I spent countless hours planning crafts, books, and activities to keep them busy but instill a LOVE for coming to school! I am working on a back to school unit (a little late I know, but hopefully it will help out next year- if you even want to think that far!)  I'm so excited for all of the fabulous things to come this year- I just know it will be the best one yet!!!!

In my back-to-school haze, I was inspired to design a cute Rainbow Colors Chevron Classroom Decoration Pack- perfect for a colorful classroom! I love my "Sweet Shoppe" but I am secretly jealous of some classrooms bright color scheme!!! To purchase this cute decoration pack, loaded with cute goodies, click here or visit my TPT store!!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous week back and wishing everyone a great year!