Money Money Money!

This Coin Chart can be found on our website.

Money Chart can be found on our website.

One of the hardest standards for the students to master in kindergarten is learning the names and values of all the coins.  In our district, students need to know one coin and value by the end of the first trimester.  That doesn't seem to be a problem because the penny is easily recognized.  However, once we start moving past the penny and begin introducing all the "silver" looking coins problems start to arise.  Our students mix up the names and the values of the nickel, quarter and dime.  This year we decided to try something new.  We came up with what we are calling our "Coin Charts".  Students read the chart by saying each coin name as fast as they possibly can.  Each time they do it they see if they can do it a bit faster and more accurate.  The students think it is a fun game and it is helping them to memorize their coins. 

We have three different Coin & Money Charts.  The easiest of the Coin Charts, Coin Chart 1,  has the head side of the penny, nickel and quarter.  Coin Chart 2 has the head and tail side of the penny, nickel and quarter.  The Coin and Money Chart has the head and tail side of the penny, nickel, quarter and the dollar bill.  These are the coins we have introduced so far.  We will be adding two more charts once we introduce the dime.   We keep these Coin Charts at our Math Table and use them as a warm-up before a lesson or if a student finishes their work early they can get a chart and practice independently.  You could also send them home or put them at a center.  You can find these three Coin Charts on our Math Freebie page on our website or by following the links above.

Time for Tech Tips

Yeah! We just got our 2 iPads and now we are busy looking for educational apps to use with our students.  Our goal is to use these to help differentiate our instruction and give more practice to students who need it. Here are some great free apps we found!

This app has games for reading skills & phonemic awareness.

This app has leveled readers from Levels A - P for free.

This app helps kids to practice addition & subtraction.

Money, Money, Money!

Three great songs for teaching about money found on YouTube!

Getting Ready for April!

As we start planning for the month of April, here are some fun freebies you might want to try!

Thank you to these wonderful teachers for sharing!

Ending Sounds Freebie from Kindergarten Hoppenings

I Have/Who Has Game for Non-sense words from Kindergarten Hoppenings

Syllables from Kindergarten Hoppenings

Blends Write the Room from Can Do Kinders

Dice Roll Addition from Me & Marie

California Here I Come!

This week we are finishing up our California Unit!

Thanks to the hard work of our student teacher Katy, the students learned about the regions and places to visit in California as well as the California symbols. Here are some fun activities, many of which she came up with!

California Bulletin Board

California Regions/Cities Map

California Flag with facts on back

Tissue Paper California Poppies

Redwood Trees

Finished California Symbols Mobile

California Symbols Bingo

Weather Notebook Freebie for the SmartBoard

Weather Notebook File

How will we integrate technology into our
weather unit?

1. Introduction:
Watch videos from Discovery Education
about weather.

2. Review:
Use the Weather Notebook file
(Weather Notebook freebie at TPT) to review what was
learned from the video.

4. Hands-On:
Go to Weather Watch from Scholastic on-line and
let students use the Interactive Weather Maker.

3. For Fun:
Sing Dr. Jean's Weather Song.
I have "puppets" depicting the different types of
weather that I pass out to the students to hold in
front of the class while we sing the song.

What's the Weather Like Today?

Here are some things we will be working on in the coming weeks!

Pattern Kites from our Spring Pack at KLG

Umbrella Glyph also from the Spring Pack

The Water Cycle Book pages at KLG

 

Step by Step Drawing

Found this wonderful site that has step-by-step drawing sheets you can print out and have your students follow. Thought this would be great to have in a basket for a center.

Step-by-step drawing sheets from Do 2 Learn

Write the Room Spring Freebie

Here is a wonderful freebie from Can Do Kinders!

You post the cards around the room and then kids search for the words and record them onto a sheet. This set has blends . . . it is a little tricky, but great for your more capable students this time of year.

When we do a Write the Room activity, we put the blank sheets on a clipboard and let the kids walk around with them as they look for words.

Spring Write the Room from Can Do Kinders

3D Shape Cards for Quiz Quiz Trade

Found these cards that would be perfect for Quiz-Quiz-Trade on TPT by Miss Andrea!

On Sale at TPT

Time for Tech Tips

We got so many great ideas at the CUE conference! There are too many to share with you all at once, so we will be posting them and calling it Time for Tech Tips! 

This week's posting is for computer tech ideas. 

Our next post will be on educational Apps to use on the iPad so be sure to check back!

Some websites you should visit!

Creating your own rubrics:

irubric

Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you can have students make to share, read, and print.

storybird.com/

Zooburst is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create their own 3D pop-up books.

 

zooburst.com

 

CUE Conference

Guess where we're at?

The CUE Conference in Palm Springs!

What is CUE you ask? It is the largest education technology conference in California! 

So many great workshops to choose from: iPads in the classroom, SmartBoards, e-portfolios, educational apps and more! Stay tuned for lots of information to come!

ox & ix Word Family Freebies

We are working on the ox and ix word families next week.

Here are the worksheets we will be using . . . newly created!

Get the "ix" freebie at TPT

Get the "ox" freebie at TPT

Making 3D Shapes

Teaching 3D Shapes

A page from our 3D Shape Book at KLG

This week in our class we will be learning about 3D Shapes. Here are some fun resources we found on Pinterest as well as some things we have created to 

use in our classrooms!

A site that has EVERY 3D shape imaginable as a PDF so your kids can print, cut, fold and glue!

You can purchase these at arvingruptatoys

We will making our own version using mini-marshmallows & toothpicks. Students take them home in paper bags with the name of the 3D shape written on the outside.

This cute poem is from Lil' Country Kindergarten!

Sorting 3D Shapes Freebie at TPT

 

3D Shapes Song from HarryKindergarten

Lastly, take a look at this great activity from A Place Called Kindergarten! She had her students guess the 3D shape by placing them in a bag and having the students use their sense of touch!

Wow! A Blog Award!

Blogging is pretty new to us but we are so glad we started!
There are so many amazing teachers out there who are doing great things in their classrooms and
how lucky are we that we get to share in that?

We were just awarded this award from Two Fulbright Hugs! 

Thank you so much for following us and recognizing us with this award!

 Now it is our turn to recognize some bloggers who have
 inspired us!