MoNsTeRs!

This year, instead of doing the typical Halloween activities during Halloween week, I created a Monster unit. It has 7 Literacy Activities and 8 Math Activities.  There are differentiation options for many of the activities. I can't WAIT to do this with my kiddos.  

These cute monsters are not at all scary, but still give a slight little nod to Halloween.  I have several students that don't celebrate Halloween in my class this year, so this unit suits us well.  I don't like Halloween myself, it's second only to my distaste for New Year's Eve (it never lives up to the hype!).

I digress.

This unit does not mention anything Halloween related, so it's easy to do at any ol' time.  It's on sale for $8.50 right now so snatch it up before I raise the price.

Find my Monster unit HERE!

What's your least favorite holiday?  Any other New Year's haters out there?  Everyone seems shocked when I say that I hate it!

A peek at our stations

I recently revamped how Math and Literacy Stations work in my classroom.  That post is coming soon.  In the meantime, here is a glimpse of some our first stations.  They really learned to work well independently doing these centers and got our routine down.

Parker showing off What's Your Bus Number and Victoria showing off Backpack Boogie (version 1) from The Backpack Boogie by Growing Kinders.  I absolutely love all of her creations and they always seem to perfectly match the skill level of my class.  

 Apple patterns from Shannon Martin at Kindergarten Hoppenings.  You can find great free apple activities HERE on her site.  She also recently started creating units for sale and they are great.  She's a rockstar teacher and I used her work a lot last year (my first year teaching K!).

The above activities are all from Deedee Wills' Back to School Math Work Stations.  She's a Kindergarten guru.  She has the greatest games.  My class could play different versions of  them all year!

When I started teaching, I wondered what teachers did before computers and the internet.  Now, I'm wondering what teachers did before the blog world and Teachers Pay Teachers.  It has changed the way I teach and given me access to so many fabulous resources.  Don't you agree?

Apple Picking Emergent Reader {FREEBIE}

 

Find it HERE!

I wrote a little apple picking story.  It does have some more challenging vocabulary for beginning Kinder readers, but nothing they won't pick up on quickly!

In my room, I will project the full page version onto our interactive whiteboard and have students highlight our sight words and the punctuation marks (all three are included for a little book-print awareness mini lesson).  We will count the apples and write the number on the line.  I will send home the individual readers in their Literacy Bags for them to read with their families.  I am just starting the Literacy Bags this week with their first homework packet, so I want to load them up and get them into our routine early.

If you download this freebie, please leave a comment and let me know how you plan to use it in your classroom.

Fall Math and Literacy Pack {Common Core Aligned}

Check it out HERE

I just posted my first BIG item on Teachers Pay Teachers.  This Fall Math and Literacy pack is 121 pages and is *packed* with activities for your classroom.  All of the activities were designed with my class of kiddos in mind, are aligned to the Common Core and I included a lot of different differentiation options.

I will use this packet throughout the next few weeks in my Math and Literacy work stations.  Since it's fall themed it will easily be used through November (and I may need that long to get it all done!).  Follow along as my guinea pigs  class uses these hot-off-the-press activities.

I put it on sale for $8 (down from it's $10 price) because I am really excited about my first big unit and secondly, I never know what to price those things out.  I know that it was like working a second job for a week to get it done, but I also know teachers have budget limitations.

This preview file is available on Teachers Pay Teachers, but you can check it out here as well.  Go alert the press, tell your teacher friends, and grab it now before I end the sale this weekend!

Kindergarten Sight Word Book

As a Kindergarten team, we send home this booklet to all of the families.  At home, they study the word lists and bring them back to school when they have mastered a list.  The child reads it to us and they earn a sticker on their book and then take it home and continue.

This word book is set up with the words in the order that we teach them, then common phrases, and then the simpler first grade words.

I designed this so each page can be folded in half and stapled into a book.  Feel free to use it if you can! {Cutesy fonts from Kevin and Amanda- LOVE their stuff!}