Of course, when they’re done sequencing them, you could have your students record their work (ie, write the numbers from 1-30), or practice a different skill and count out the right number of counters (beans, buttons, etc.) to match the card they’ve chosen.  Or, provide your kids with cards that have dots on them and they can match them up (they count the dots and match to the card with the same number on it).

Looking for some books to support your teaching?  Welcome Books are a great series of non-fiction books with wonderful photographs and simple text that hits just the right note for kindergarten.  They have several books that are perfect for President’s Day, including easy to understand biographies of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  Their American Symbols series covers includes some great titles such as The White House, The American Flag and The Bald Eagle.  The Rookie-Read-About books are another non-fiction series which are also filled with photographs and easy to understand text. Presidents’ Day is a great introduction to the holiday.  Happy President’s Day!

Once you’ve traced your hearts, cut them out.  Take a piece of clear contact paper, and stick it to one side of the heart.  Re-stick the backing paper to the contact paper.  Cut up as many small pieces of tissue paper as you’ll need.  To make their “stained glass”, your students just peel off the backing paper, and stick the tissue paper onto the contact paper.  Picking up individual pieces of tissue paper is great fine motor practice!

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here’s a cute activity that’s guaranteed to have your students excited about graphing!  Kissables are available in snack sized bags, making this a super easy hands-on math activity to prepare for, too.  Just make enough copies of the recording sheet for your kids, and hand each of them a bag of candy.  (Ziploc bags make it easy for them to take their candy home).

Students who have more experience with graphing may be able to count out the number of candies of each color and then color in the correct number of rectangles.  It may help to number the spaces before they start coloring.  Others will find it easier to simply place the candies right on the graph, and then remove them as they color in the spaces one-by-one.

Download the Graph the Kissables worksheet.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hide your stickers around your room.  Be creative and remember – kindergarteners are short!  Don’t be afraid to bend down and find “hiding places” close to the ground.  Try on the trash can, or on the door handles, on the backs of chairs and on table legs.  Give each student the matching colored crayons and a clip board if you have them, and send them out to find the numbers.  Each time they find one, they color the square on their paper the corresponding color.  So, if they find 11 and it’s on a red sticker, they color the 11 square on their paper, red.  Make sure they understand that the stickers stay where they are, rather than being collected.  Their job is just to color their paper the matching color.
You may well be surprised at how long this keeps them busy.  Kids always seem to want to keep hunting WAY past when you would probably have expected this activity to end!  There’s something about finding hidden things that just seems to inspire them to keep on going!

Looking for a great book to kick off your Hundredth Day celebration? Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten (a sequel of the beloved Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten) is the perfect story to get your kids ready to mark this milestone.  Miss Bindergarten is back and getting ready to celebrate with her rhyming animal students.  Ashley Wolff’s colorful  illustrations and Joseph Slate’s adorable text will help you mark the day with a smile.

Have a Hundredth Day celebration planned for your classroom?  Please share!  We’d love to know how you’ll be marking this milestone!

Early Education Curriculum Guide/Plan Layout

Domain Outcomes

 Domain Outcomes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transitional Kindergarten Lesson Plan

 

 Transitional Kindergarten Lesson Plan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study Guide Questions:

A.         What is the difference between Constructivist and Instructivist teachers?

 

B.            What effect might this article have on efforts to narrow the early childhood curriculum to a focus primarily on cognitive development?

 

C.                  Write a one-page summary of this article for your principal and discuss it with him/her.  Prepare a summary for parents to use at Back-to-School Night.  Discuss the results with colleagues.

 

D.            Using Katz & Chard (1989) or The Young Investigators, study the Project Approach and conduct a project in your class.  What were the results?  What surprised you?

 

A.   Develop a rubric that shows children’s advancement through the stages of temporary spelling into conventional spelling.

 

B.   Use the rubric to inform parents and preschool educators of the need to support temporary spelling in order for children to become  competent conventional spellers later on.  Develop a flyer or newsletter article for parents to learn about temporary spelling and how it becomes conventional spelling.

Have your kids cut the squares in half to create six triangles, then arrange them in order from largest to smallest.  If you haven’t had your kids practice cutting squares into triangles before, you may want to have them show you (or someone else) where they plan to cut with their fingers before they cut with scissors.  It can be a challenging concept at first!  We glued ours down with glue sticks, and then decorated our finished trees with a small piece of sponge dipped in a little white paint to add some extra “snow”.

This activity is a great opportunity to review the properties of squares and triangles and the concept of bigger and smaller.

The Snowman, Raymond Briggs – This wordless classic is deceptively simple looking.  Following along the rather complex story requires plenty of thought though and is sure to provoke an interesting conversation with your students.  A little boy finds a new friend – in his snowman.  Each introduces the other to his world.  The boy takes the snowman on a tour of his home.  The snowman in turn takes the boy on a flight across the snowy parts of the globe.  With gentle illustrations as heartwarming as the story, we’re sure this book will find its way into your kids’ hearts and yours, too!  The DVD version of  The Snowman is also sure to delight and provides a lovely opportunity to review the story in a different way.

Snowballs, Lois Ehlert – The author/illustrator of such classics as Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Growing Vegetable Soup, Ehlert’s wintery tale doesn’t disappoint.  Her unique illustrations pair with an engaging story about the building not just of a single snowman, but of an entire snow family!  Lots of different objects provide the details for the snow people – sunflower seeds form a mouth, and forks become arms – definitely some new twists on the traditional coal eyes and carrot nose!

Thomas’ Snowsuit, Robert Munsch – From the author of Love You Forever comes this hilarious story of a boy who hates his snowsuit.  He refuses to wear it and the resulting argument with his teacher and her subsequent argument with the principal are both hilarious.  Children are sure to find the scenes involving underwear hysterical and any adult who has had to dress a child will relate to the frustration of the adults in Thomas’ life.  Add another layer to your experience with this book by listening to the free MP3 of the author reading the story, available on his website.

The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats – This children’s classic follows a small African American boy on his adventures in the snow.  This 1963 Caldecott Medal winner is still charmingly understated and fresh today and at the same time a wonderful way to add some diversity to your storybook collection.  Follow along with Peter as he explores the footprints he leaves in the freshly fallen snow, makes snow angels, creates tracks with sticks and finally takes a warm bath.  You can use these great sequencing cards available here to help you retell the story as a class, or make copies so that each of your students can make their own.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, Shirley Neitzel – A wintery twist on the traditional tale, This is the House that Jack Built, this story is a wonderful way to review winter clothing words with your students.  Each page reviews all the previous items mentioned, making for great effortless practice, which is so important for English Language Development.  Each item of clothing is represented in the book using rebuses, adding a fun twist to this book, especially for beginning readers.  You can use this blackline master to create a class book based on the story or check out this website for a printable sequencing activity and more!

There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, Lucille Colandro – This winter version of the traditional children’s song features lots of rhyming and repetition – both excellent for encouraging beginning readers and English Language learners.  Children will laugh at the cold lady’s antics and enjoy the brightly colored cartoon-like illustrations.  Looking for a book to work on comparing similarities and differences?  Pair this with There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! , There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell! or any of the other Old Lady series.

The Mitten, Jan Brett – This beautiful retelling of a traditional Ukrainian folk tale showcases the beautiful illustrations of Jan Brett.  Side panels on each page foretelling the next animal who will try to fit in the mitten, and children will enjoy figuring out the secret.  Want to work on re-telling the story with your students?  Jan Brett’s website has this blackline master of the characters and a mitten to place them in along with this set of full color masks of the animals to print.

The Hat, Jan Brett – A different twist on The Mitten, this time the lost article of clothing is a sock.  A hedgehog quickly winds up with it stuck on his head and finds himself trying to convince the other animals that it’s really a hat.  Once again, side panels on each page tell the story of the sock’s owner and children will enjoy following the subplot.  Jan Brett’s website has these color masks to work on story re-tell, etc.

Snowmen at Night, Caralyn Buehner – Ever wonder what snowmen do after the sun goes down?  This hilarious tale fills you in on all the fun-filled details with vibrant illustrations and rhyming text.  Hidden images in the pictures add another interesting twist to this story and are sure to provoke excitement among young readers.  You can easily extend the learning by providing your students with this fun snow-themed stationery from www.primarygames.com.  It will make writing about what their snowman likes to do at night much more enticing!

50 Below Zero, Robert N. Munsch – It’s 50 below zero – and Jason’s dad won’t stop sleepwalking!  In typical Robert Munsch style, repetition is used very effectively to make the story accessible to all children and it’s particularly supportive for those children who are English Language Learners.  Michael Martchenko’s illustrations are as charming as usual and this story is sure to leave you and your students with a smile on your face.

Looking for winter themed activities to use with these books?  Check out Let it Snow! A Quick and Easy Winter Art Activity,  Snowy Sight Words and All That Glitters is (Fake) Snow – An Easy Way to Add Sparkle to a Winter Art Activity.  Have a favorite winter book?  Doing a winter themed activity with your class?  We’d love to hear about it!