Homework is Fun! (by guest blogger Andrea Randall)

If you stood in front of my school on a Monday at 2:30 in September, you’d see my kindergarteners skipping happily out to their cars toting such items as a picnic basket, a garbage can, a paint bucket, a pillow case, and a diaper bag. What’s inside? Their homework of course!

I have been creating and using what I call "homework kits" in my kindergarten class since 2003. Each kit is housed in a unique container and filled with books, language arts activities, and math activities that are based around a theme inspired by the container. In my class, each student takes home one kit at a time, and keeps it for a week, until they have experienced each and every kit. 

On my blog I feature one homework kit per month and offer instructions for making the kit. I also include any worksheets that go with the kit and an activities list so parents will know how to use it with their children. The instructions, worksheets, and activities lists are in PDF format. I will send them via email to anyone who requests the curriculum through the "contact" tab on my website. 

My kits make homework magical for children. I hope you will take the time to make one (or all of them!) and experience the joy and excitement they will bring to your classroom!

Happy Teaching,

Andrea Randall

Click here to follow my blog. http://teacherscreaturesphonicspuppets.wordpress.com/

Below is a picture of The Diaper Bag, the kit's instructions and the related PDFs you'll need.

And below all that I included pictures of two more kits. 

The Garbage Can

The Pillow Case

Click here to follow my blog.

Hand Wreath and Morning Work Ideas/FREEBIE

I know I've already posted a few times about different Martin Luther King activities we've been doing over the last couple of weeks. We've done so much learning and had such a great time learning about this wonderful man! This is the last, culminating activity we did as a class together - the hand wreath. 

This book, "The Colors of Us" I saw on someone's blog (if it's you or you know who please let me know so I can give credit). It is a marvelous book! It's all about the different colors of our skin.....and how everyone (even those in the same family) have at least slightly different color. It's apart of what makes us special and unique. I loved this book because it helped all kids understand that skin color is just that - skin color and doesn't impact who we are inside. My bi-racial students made an extra special connection with it because it validates those variations in skin color -- that members of the same family can be different colors. This book is perfect for Black History or for any character lesson. It has quickly become one of my favorite! The hand wreath can be found in my Celebrate MLK Day pack. I have several skin variation colors plus the black lines - I used black lines and allowed my kids to color the hands the color they think their skin in. They were so careful - really trying to create their color by mixing colors. 

You can grab this pack in my TpT store or my TN store.

Just sharing a few of our morning work activities along with a Rainbow Write FREEBIE.

Right now for morning work I have the kids come in and put their things away - then they choose an activity. I have all the activities lined up on a shelf. We are really focusing on word wall words so all the activities focus on that.

They can:

1. Magnetic Letters - Use magnetic letters to make word word words. They love when the letters stick to each other for some reasons. I taught them how to make sure they put the letters back in the right spot. If they choose this activity they know they have to take it to a certain table. Up to 5 kids may choose this as they come in. When the seats are full - the activity is full. They would have to find another activity.

2. Rainbow Write - I made these sheets. I tried having them do it on their own with manilla paper - but they write so big that they quickly ran out of paper and would get more. So, I made this sheet for rainbow write. If you like - you can GRAB IT HERE NOW.

3. Playdough Stampers - I have playdough stampers from Lakeshore and the mini containers of play dough. The kids smush the playdough out and use the stampers to form the word wall words.

4. Word Wall Hunts - Kids can always choose to get their yellow boxes (where we keep our books from guided reading groups and other books they bring from home) to read and search for word wall words. They LOVE finding new word wall words in books!

So, what do YOU do for morning work....besides packets :0)

MLK and Shape Party!!

Happy Tuesday everyone! We finished up our study on Martin Luther King Jr. and the impact he made on our country. The kids really seem to "get" his importance (as much as can be expected from 5 and 6 year olds). Here are a few snapshots I took. The lower right one shows students dancing to one of our "new" favorite songs we found on youtube after we made our MLK hats... You gotta hear it -- it's awesome.

Trust me - even your little ones will be bobbing around happily!

We also topped off our study by watching an amazing movie called, "Our Friend, Martin". You can actually watch the entire thing on youtube. I will say there are times in the movie they use language that I wished they didn't. But, overall the kids LOVE the movie and see things that really happened 50 years ago. It shows those events in real life clips and also in cartoon form. It's an hour long.... Please watch it BEFORE showing it to the kids. It isn't inappropriate - just things you want to be able to explain (like the use of the word negro). It is an awesome movie though and help young children understand how life was not the way it is now. Kids from today travel back in time and meet Martin Luther King Jr. in different parts of his incredible life.



We used lots of stuff from my "Celebrate MLK Day!" pack. You can find this unit HERE on TpT or HERE on TN.

In addition to our study of MLK Jr. we also had a "Shape Party"! Woo-hoo!! Who doesn't love to party and eat? I sent home a sheet requesting that children bring in a particular shape of snack food. If you are interested in see my letter HERE IT IS (I promise it's super un-fancy, but it does the job!) We include both 2D and 3D shapes. As you can see we had LOTS of goodies.....oh and shapes :0)

As a class, we went through each kind of item that was brought and categorized it. Is it a 2D shape or a 3D figure? Then, we would determine exactly which shape or figure it was. Can you tell which shape category had none???? (Someone forgot to bring their shape snack until later in the day :0)

Are there more spheres or cones? How many cubes and cylinders altogether?

Then, we PARTIED!! They got to choose up to 20 items, but had to count on their own!

It was TOO much fun! I love using food (sparingly) to motivate and drive home how learning is applied in real life. I know that some teachers are not allowed to teach using food. I think that is a shame. I understand about obesity and allergies. I've had children with allergies and simply do what I have to do to ensure they aren't getting anything that could hurt them. This year I don't have any kiddos with allergies so it's been pretty easy to use food -- and totally fun! Can you use food in the classroom?

5 Little Snowmen FREEBIE

Here our poem on the week: 5 Little Snowmen. Oh, I love this poem and the kids do too. They love it so much they beg me to let them "act it out" in pocket chart center -- which I gladly oblige. I wished I had pics of them doing it but I am stuck at home today with a mess of sick kiddos so I don't have the pics. But, I wanted to go ahead and tell you about it and let you have the freebie.

These adorable snowmen go with the poem 5 Little Snowmen.....which not only great for oral language, but also for counting down. It goes like this:

______ little snowmen round and fat

Each one wearing a funny hat

In the morning, out came the sun

Oh my goodness! It melted it one!

You write this poem on sentence strips and place in a pocket chart. You also need little number cards 1-5 to place in the blank at the beginning. Start with 5 snowmen. I have 5 children come out to the front of the class and each holds a snowman. I hold the sun card or allow another children to do it. It stays behind my back until we get to the part that says, "...out came the sun". Then the next little snowman "melts" and goes back to his seat. We continue and going down 1 snowman with each verse.

Once you get down to 1 snowman - you will need 2 additional cards (and this is a great time to discuss plural and singular). You will need a card that says "snowman" to replace "snowmen" in the first line. You will also need to change "Each one"to "He is". 

I hope you and your little ones like this FREEBIE as much as my little ones do!!

Winter Math Tubs

Earlier this week I posted pictures of some of our new January math tubs. Math tubs time is definitely one of my kiddos favorite times of the day. It's totally hand-ons, fun learning!! If you didn't see my earlier posts with my math tubs, you can see them HERE. I also posted a couple times last January with some math tub ideas HERE and HERE. 

These math tubs are included in my "The Mitten" and "Snow" Fun Snowbuddies units. For this post I'm only showing the math activities I am using right now. 

*Ten-frame Counting - this is a good numeral/set id activity from 0-20. Kids match the ten-frames with the numeral. It's super important to keep reviewing counting and matching a given set with it's corresponding numeral. 

* Mitten Match - Kids match numerals to the corresponding snowflake mitten. It also contains another card set that allows students to match up the written word as well. I have not started using that in my math tubs yet.

*Snowman Addition - kids choose 2 dice cards and place them on the snowman. Then they "touch and count" (add) - place the matching broom with the snowman :0)

Here are a couple more pics from my winter sets.....The graphics really are adorable. I know my students and I have fallen in LOVE with them!

I was so excited to see that my "The Mitten" unit was in the top-selling items on TpT last week. Don't you just love this book?

You can grab "The Mitten" on TpT or TN.

You can grab "Snow" Fun Snow Buddies on TpT or TN. 

More Math Tubs pics -- Set-Up and Rotation

A few days ago I posted about some of my math tubs. If you missed that post - you can see it HERE.  I received several questions about where I keep my math tubs and how they are set-up, rotated, etc. I promised to return with a few pics.....so here I am.

Here is my Math Tubs shelf.....I have 10 math tubs which is perfect with 20 kiddos. They work in partners during math tub time. I am uber anal when it comes to my shelf and all the numbered tubs must be turned where we can see the number. It's great for teaching number id to 10 and number order early in the year.  Also each lid has a matching number so we can make sure each tub has it's correct lid.

This is my center chart. You can see there are 2 kids that work together as partners. The purple cards are literacy centers and the blue cards are my math tub cards. I love using one chart - it's all right there in one spot! The number 1-10 corresponds to the math tubs themselves. (Yes they are out of order :0) I teach the kids to simply rotate the math tubs by removing the bottom card on the lower right side - and rotating all other cards down one.....then the "holding card" goes at the top left side. It's a super simple, easy way to rotate. I teach the kids to do this so even when there's a sub - centers and math tub run smoothly. I choose 2 kids to rotate -- one is the "holder" and holds the "holding card" so it doesn't get mixed in with the others. The other kid is the "rotator" and rotates the cards. :0) Creative names I know :0)

Here is what our math tubs shelf looks like when the math tubs are in use. As you can see here, we had a couple kiddos out sick today (flu) so tub #10 is still in there. The bottom tubs contain manipulatives and other math tub items not currently in use.

Here are some "live action shots" of my kids during math tub time today. :0) You can see they are allowed to choose a spot to work as long as it isn't too close to another group. They do such a good job! We work on learning about boundaries early on in the year. If you put both arms out, you shouldn't be able to touch anyone except your partner.

How do you organize your math tubs?

Get Your Booty Moving!!

Since we've been back from Winter vacation my kiddos have been sooooo sllleeepppyy in the mornings. I mean....seriously.....it even makes me want to fall asleep. Since my school's not "down" with "New Year's Nap" (I wished) we are really having to get up and MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT!!

I figure I should share some of my kiddos' favorite MOVE IT videos. Disclaimer: my school allows us to use youtube videos so yes these are from youtube.

First, here is an oldie, but goodie! It will definitely get your kids up and moving!

















Well, those are some of our favorites..... I hope you found something you and your kiddos might like. It's so important to keep those bodies active and brain breaks really help keep them more focused and alert during instruction -- PLUS it's so darn fun!!!

FREE Math Tubs Ideas

I went back to work for a work day on Monday. It was soooo hard going back after the nice, long break....but it was nice to have a whole day to do nothing but prepare for the kiddos. So I spent some time changing out math tubs.... I thought I'd let you have a sneak peek! So....here goes.................... I set my math tubs up Debbie Diller style. I love having 10 math tubs for 2 reasons. The activities can stay in the tubs longer (because they don't rotate through them as fast and I only have 2 kids per tubs (which really helps with behavior and on-task behavior).


This first activity is called Number Punchers. Kids LOVE using silly hole punchers and this gives them a reason to do just that. I made these super easy cards. (Click here to GRAB this quick FREEBIE - it's in powerpoint so you can edit to your liking)..... Kids use a marker to circle the number they want to punch....and then use the hole puncher to punch, punch, punch the number they circled. (This is also easy to differentiate by making the numbers higher and perhaps not in order (so they HAVE to read the number). We are preparing for our Math Universal Screener so I kept the numbers low for now:0)

This next activity is called Pinchy Poms and it's a class favorite! Kids use tweezers, clothespins, or other pinchers to grab poms and toss them into a paper plate....and see how many poms make it into the plate. Use 2 dice, roll  -- Toss the number of poms on 1 die and then the number of poms from the other die....Then touch and count them all... See how many poms you tossed make it to the paper plate. 

Lego Addition is another math tub we started this week. Kids LOVE legos and this gives them permission to use them during math tub time. I took an old set of addition flashcards and programmed them with blue, green, red, and yellow dots (the color legos I have). I placed a colored dot (with a marker) next to each number so that kids are adding 2 colored dots on each flash card. Then kids use the legos that match to act out the problem. 

Here is the last math tub I'm going to show you today. It's called Playdough Tees. I stole some golf tees from my husband (shhhh.....promise not to tell). Kids use playdough to make a big ball. Then roll 2 dice....Place the number of tees into the play dough that is on 1 die and then place the number of tees on the 2nd die. Touch and count all the tees! Kids think they are making an alien. I've never said that, but every year the kids come up with that they are making aliens and actually call it the "Alien game". I used to use clay instead of play dough, but the kids really struggled with the clay so I changed it to playdough and they enjoy it much more. It's great for fine motor work!

I hope you enjoyed these math tubs and maybe even found some new ideas! I know this isn't 10 math tubs like I told you I have. That's because the rest of my math tubs come from my winter units - 

The Mitten and Snow Fun Snowbuddies units from my TpT Store.  I'll show you some of those in a couple days!

What are some of your favorite math tubs activities??

HUGE Kinderland ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Hi friends! I hope the new year finds you well and in great spirits for the year to come! 2013 is destined to be a fantastic year in many respects, but truly for a group that is near and dear to my heart - Kinderland!

Many of you may not have heard of Kinderland - it's basically a collective group of kindergarten/early primary teachers-bloggers who strive to learn and grow with one another. We also all have blogs that you may know. :0) Another extension of this group is a Pinterest board called Kinderland Collaborative. You may have seen it on Pinterest lately!

Anyhoo - I am here to announce SUPER EXCITING news!

The original Kinderland members have started a new Google + community that you are definitely going to want to be apart of. We have this new Kinderland Collaborative Community available to be a meeting place between ALL kinder teachers ......bloggers and non-bloggers alike. If you are interested in all things kinder - you will want to join. It's a place to get to know other kinder teachers from around the world, get to know your favorite kinder bloggers (and learn about new ones)......ask questions, bounce ideas off other kinder teachers. The sky is the limit.....when we all work together! You will even see there is a place to link to freebies (all in one place) and we will have giveaways from time to time also!

I hope to see all of you over there! You will definitely see me over there (Jeannie Partin).

Why Google+?

Well, it's like Facebook, but better. The layout is nicer, allows us to create threads for different topics. We can even have hangouts (where you can video/audio chat with other kinder teachers and bloggers). 

Click the button below to join!!!

Hear-All??

https://www.facebook.com/learningresourcesFriends, I've really got to tell you about this new gadget I got to use in my classroom. It's called the "Hear-All" Assessment Recorder and it is pretty darn amazing! The wonderful people at Learning Resources let me try this little beauty out. And to make it even better - they are allowing me to have a giveaway to let one of you have it for free too! More to come on that!!

As kindergarten teachers we are always so busy.  From blowing noses, tying shoes, being patted, putting out fires.....it would be nice to be able to replicate ourselves so we could be in all areas of our classrooms at once (we can dream, right?)....

Center time is one of my favorite times of the day. I love getting a chance to read with my students in guided reading....but I love all the learning and growing that happens out in the room during that time too. And, I miss it! Well, I missed it until now......

This little tool is like a way to "spy" on the kids but they are so excited to use it too. I place it in a center....Kids think they've won the jackpot if they see the recorder in their center -- it's like they are rock stars!

I love using this activity in a center when the kids are expected to read to someone. I can listen later in the day and know exactly who was participating and how well they did. Exciting stuff!! It's like I'm undercover!!!

Another way I love to use this little gem is when I am assessing kids 1-on-1. For example, when I am taking a running record or even testing letter id or word wall knowledge -- I hate having to constantly stop and mark what the child is doing -- it distracts the child and makes him/her conscience of every mistake. But using the Hear-All, I can simply listen and be present with the student....then later go back and mark the running record or other assessment. LOVE IT!!

Also, I love being able to literally record me or someone else (like a parent from home) read a book into the recorder and place that in a center. Kids LOVE that! Can you imagine being 5 and listening to your mom or a friend's mom read you a story in centers? Totally cool!

This is a pretty amazing tool!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I mentioned that one of you could get one of these beauties, right?! Yes I know - pretty incredible because they it is a $99 value -- but if you win this simple, simple giveaway you will get one for FREE -- and you can be a SUPER UNDERCOVER SPY in your own classroom too! a Rafflecopter giveaway

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