Independent Centers at Work

Back in July I wrote a post on how I begin teaching my Kinders how to "do" independent stations. Twenty one days into the school year I'm happy to report that we are successfully doing two rounds of Literacy Stations ~ complete with me at the guided reading table ~ and happily working in our math baskets daily. The kids are loving it & I'm a happy teacher!

This all began the first week with lots and lots of  modelling and practice. We still go over the rules of independent work: 1. Walk to your station/Get a math basket.  2. Begin working right away.  3. Work for the entire time.  4. Use quiet voices.  5. Clean up quickly when you hear the chime (I set a timer on my phone)

Of course, we used simple activities that could be done with little to no instruction so the littles could work on stamina. When you don't have to spend lots of time teaching how to do the activities, your students will have more time to practice working independently. This practice took place during our Literacy Stations time, so the kids worked at the actual stations areas. (I am lucky to have a large classroom where I can have permanently set up Literacy Stations.)

The first couple of weeks we used the cards from my Beginner Stations Activities set. (Get it HERE.) Check out some pictures of my kiddos working on stamina.

Sequencing cards 

Matching numbers to sets

Puzzles

Sorting

The cards in this set are also perfect for math stations, morning tubs, or early finisher activities. 

This letter page is from my Back to School No-Prep set ~ get it HERE.

Read to Self

Sensory Bin with some (older than my students) alphabet cards from The Mailbox

Now that our Literacy Stations are up and running pretty smoothly, I've swapped out the Beginner activities with things that take more time to do as well as a few more choices at each station. The cards are still available for early finishers. The kids already know how to use the cards, so they can grab a set of cards & work quietly as they wait for others to finish.

I use Tara West's Thematic Writing Center ~ it's amazing! The kids really enjoy it.

The Pocket Chart Center (it hangs on the end of the play fridge & mailbox cabinet, which sit back to back near. The sorting cards have been replaced with Deedee Wills' Predictable Sentences.

This cute search and find letter activity was a freebie I got somewhere (Facebook, maybe?). If you know who made it, please let me know in the comments. 

Another wonderful Tara West product ~ my kiddos get to work on fine motor skills at this Literacy Station. It might not be actual literacy, but it gives their hands the exercise needed for writing.

I mentioned that my Literacy Stations are in permanent locations. (The tables where some are located do double duty at other times of the day, but the literacy activities stay there.) For independent math work the kids have activities in Math Baskets or their Math Folders. The baskets are housed in four stackable shoe racks from Target. They fit perfectly under the whiteboard ~ you can see them in the background of the photo below.

Another old math activity from The Mailbox ~ the kids still enjoy it!

Tara West again. (Can you tell that I love her products?)

Tara West's Spinnin' Through the Year

We have been learning about solid shapes, so I put a bunch of them into a basket. 

As you can see, my little students are doing a great job working & learning independently! Yay!

$1.00 Sale!

Tonight might be the end of my Spring Break ~ but, it also marks the eve of another great Dollar Sale brought to you by some of my fellow Indiana Blogging buddies.



Here's what you can get in my store for $1.00 ~

                                                               Click HERE to purchase.

Click HERE to purchase.

Click HERE to purchase.

Click HERE to purchase.

Check out the savings at this linky.

An InLinkz Link-up

Math ~ Daily 3

I'm sure that you are very familiar with The Daily 5 for teaching literacy.  Last year I began using the framework in my literacy block and was very happy with the results.  I used a blended version of the Daily 5 and my traditional literacy stations.  (Read about it HERE.)  This year my literacy block consists of mini lessons and 1 - 3 rounds of D5.  We have four out of five choices up and running (Read to Someone is currently on the back burner.)  My little cuties are pretty good at staying on task and working quietly.  I try to meet with at least one group of 2 - 4 students to work on a specific skill each day.  Additionally, I meet with individual students for quick checks or individual practice.  The Daily 5 is a very good way to give students many opportunities to practice literacy skills.

This past summer I read the second edition of The Daily 5.  In addition to updated thoughts on D5 as a literacy tool, it included a chapter on Math Daily 3.  The Math Daily 3 are ~ Math on my Own, Math with a Partner, and Math Writing.  I was so excited to read this chapter!  It gives great ideas on how to incorporate the framework of Literacy D5 into your math block.  Our corporation uses a Singapore approach to teaching math, and my Kinder teammates and I use many of the lessons and materials from the Guiding Kinders math sets by Deanna Jump & Deedee Wills.  The Singapore approach to teaching math includes lots of hands-on practice with manipulatives before doing worksheets.  Mrs. Jump & Mrs. Wills did a great job creating activities that follow the logical sequence of "I do, We do, You do."  My Kinders are really progressing in their understanding of math skills, and are eager for something more.  In comes Math Daily 3!


To create a place for math materials, I gathered my baskets from the free teacher store, dish tubs from Target, and a rainbow drawer unit from Aldi along with an assortment of shelves.  It may not be pretty, but it does the job.  (I do need to cover that messy refrigerator back ~ I wasn't happy when someone scribbled on it last year...)  The Math Baskets are for Math on My Own.  The Math Drawers contain worksheets (sometimes materials to use with the worksheets) for Math Writing, and the Math Tubs contain games and other manipulatives for Math with a Partner.  We just call them Math Drawers, Baskets, and Tubs.

I guess I didn't take as many pictures of this as I had thought.  (And the picture in the upper left corner is actually a Math Basket.)  But, you can see from these few pictures that Math Drawers contain pages for the kiddos to practice writing numbers, etc.

 Math Baskets contain a variety of materials for practicing skills independently.

 Math Tubs contain activities that are meant to be done with a partner.  Because there is partner work going on, Math Daily 3 isn't as quiet as Literacy Daily 5.

My Kinders really enjoy using the materials in our Math Daily 3 center.  I have found that I don't really need to change out the materials that often ~ I trade out things every 3 weeks or so.  Sometimes I simply add more to a tub or basket, leaving older things in a little while longer.  (It really depends upon student interest & need.)

If you are interested in using Math Daily 3 activities, you may be interested in my new Candy Corn Measuring (not just for Halloween) set.  Click HERE to purchase.  I used the measuring activity with the whole class & put the cards into a Math Drawer for extra practice.

Five for Friday ~ Saturday

It's time to link up with Doodle Bugs for their great Five for Friday linky party. I didn't link up yesterday because Isabella spent the night. She loves to spend the night at Mimi & Papa's house! We had so much fun. Everything you hear about how wonderful grandchildren is true! They are the best.

We had a fun presentation this week about animals in winter.  A woman who works at a local county park came to our classroom to discuss what animals do in winter.  Even though it's March, this eternal winter we are experiencing made this presentation seem timely!  I was happy to hear how much my Kinders remembered about hibernation ~ we learned about it way back in January!

We worked on comparing numbers this week.  The kiddos had fun using dice in Gerber baby food containers to determine their numbers.  I printed some cupcakes (from My Cute Graphics) & they put clear counter "sprinkles" onto them.  Whoever had the most sprinkles won the round.  This was a super easy activity to put together, but they had fun with it!

Hortons!  We made these cute elephants after watching Horton Hears a Who this week.  The three kindergarten classrooms took turns hosting a movie showing.  It took four days to see the movie in its entirety, but the kids had fun visiting their neighbors. 

Of course, no Dr. Seuss week would be complete without a Cat in the Hat craft.  This year we created this cute My Day With the Cat craftivity.  First, the kiddos wrote about what they would do if they got to spend the day with the cat.  On Friday we put together cute cats.  They are now hanging on our hallway bulletin board.  I am so pleased with the writing my kids have done this year!  And, they really rock with phonemic spelling!  (Thank you PTO for getting us Jolly Phonics!)

I finally finished the math portion of my Animal products & put together a bundled package.  It is on sale this week.  Check it out HERE!

Another Snow Day

Can you believe it?  We are out of school again because of the snow.  Today was going to be our 100th Day of school (really ~ if we hadn't had all those other snow days, we would have had our 100th Day back in January!)

But, I did make good use of my day off. (No, I didn't get caught up on laundry or anything like that.)  I finished my Valentine's Day math set.  And, made a quick V-Day Freebie to boot!

Here are the links to my Valentine's Day products.  (Plus a plea for followers.  Seriously ~ I only need 3 more people to follow me on Bloglovin' & I will get the giveaway going for some serious prizes!  Click HERE to see what you could win.)

My recently finished Math set.  Click HERE to purchase.  (Half off until the weekend!)

My companion Literacy set.  Click HERE to purchase. (Half off, too!)

 

And, HERE'S the freebie!

As you can see, they all are cutely companionable!  And, perfect for your Math & Literacy Stations next week!

If you are interested in more freebies, check out these linky parties:

 a Classy Collaboration

Teacher Tam's Educational Adventures

 

I am So Over the Cold!

Really ~ I am very, very tired of being cold!  We had two hour delays yesterday & today because of the extreme cold (wind chills way below zero).  Rumor has it that it may be so cold Monday that school may be cancelled.  It's not certain, but the forecast for northwest Indiana includes highs that don't reach zero.  UGH!  We already have to make up one day from earlier in the month.  What in the world do those of you who live in Alaska or other northern places do?

Well, for now I'm all toastified (granddaughter Isabella's word) at home in flannel PJs (and a scarf), and ready to link up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday.

 This week we started working on alphabetical order.  I don't spend a lot of time with this skill ~ but I feel it's an important skill to introduce.  I found this great freebie at Kinder Craze.  I am actually working on a product to help my Kinders to practice this skill, but it's not done yet, so this little freebie was a great find!

 Math Baskets, Tubs & Folders.  In the style of Daily 5, I am trying to incorporate more choice into our Math Block.  We begin our Math Block with group activities and guided practice.  I have set up Math Baskets, Tubs & Folders for early finishers.  By having a variety of activities available my little students are able to choose what they want to do while I work with strugglers and the slower workers.  These activities not only keep them engaged in learning while I'm busy, they offer extra practice on many skills.  Because this particular group of Kinders LOVES write the room, I always try to have clipboards ready for Math Write the Room.

 I am a big proponent of play in kindergarten.  It is soooo important for the littles to be able to engage in imaginative play.  The fact that about one third of my kiddos received tablets for Christmas, and the fact that most of them spend time daily playing video games makes "free play" all the more important!  I know that technology is a huge part of our lives (WHAT would I do without my beloved iPad??).  But, I worry that all that technology is getting in the way of creativity and being able to have fun without batteries. I have a group of Kinders who love to play restaurant in our Dramatic Play Center.  The puppet theater is the counter of their drive through restaurant.  They pull chairs up to it like a car and place their orders.  This week it was the "Brger Pallis!"  I am a frequent patron of their restaurant and am treated to lovely entrees and desserts only a six year old can create!

Snowy pictures.  These actually include a little bit of math ~ we made these as a final lesson on flat shapes.  We do a craft project on Fridays ~ the Kinders Work. So. Hard. all week long I like to give them a creative outlet Friday afternoon.  Last week the kiddos cut shapes and assembled houses onto light blue paper.  Q-Tips & white paint transformed them into Winter Wonderlands!  A great companion book for this project is Snow by Uri Shulevitz.

Finally, don't miss the Facebook Free-for-All!  Beginning tomorrow you will be able to grab some great freebies!  These products are normally paid items, but for this weekend they are FREE!  I am offering my Dr. Seuss - er Sss - inspired Nonsense Word Sort set.  This is one of my most popular products, so I thought lots people would like to get it for free!  Click HERE to get started at my Facebook page.  Like my page, and get my freebie (my link is working already, some won't be available until tomorrow morning).  From my page you will be able to click to the main page where you will find freebies for all grade levels.  But, don't wait ~ the freebies won't last!  On Monday the products will revert to paid items.

And, while you are hopping around the internet, please check out my Teachers pay Teachers store.  This weekend I have my Hoot for Place Value for half off!  (Several other items are on sale, too!)

Have a great weekend & stay warm!