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Valentine’s Day in K

Teacher's Pay Teachers

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LOVE is in the air this February! I’m so excited to let you know about the group of Teacher Authors who created a great Giveaway just for YOU!  Teachers love sharing, so let me share some of the ways we celebrate Valentine’s Day in Kindergarten.

My kids love candy (I know… not manyValentine's Day Candy Heart Estimation who don’t love it!) So I ask parents to donate conversational hearts to the class.  Students get to sort them by color, graph them, and estimate how many hearts will fill up the heart graphic. (This is a FREEBIE, you can find on TPT.) My students who are in high school now, tell me this was one of their favorite memories of my class on Valentine’s Day!

Students play I SPY Missing Letters games, solve valentine themed word problems, make mini books and crafts which can be found in my  Valentine’s Day CRAFTS and PRINTABLES.  We make hats and fun glasses to wear all day, so everyone know it’s Valentine’s Day in our classroom!  Valentine's Day cover

Of course, a Valentine’s Day celebration would not be complete without passing out Valentine cards!  I ask parents to send in a decorated Valentine’s Day shoe box with student’s names clearly on the box to help students pass out their valentine cards. This is a great writing activity for parents to to with their children too by sending home a list of first name, so students can address the envelopes.  This is the other favorite activities my older students talk about! Some still have their box! So, now I have students write positive words to each student, so they can keep that in their box too.  This will hopefully make them aware of how special they were to others in kindergarten.  Hope you build some great memories with your students this year!  Join the Rafflecopter Giveaway below and hop on over to the next great post at Teach Magically!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Slide3Debora Marines TeachMagically

a Rafflecopter giveaway

February + Teachers = Love

Giveaway, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Teachers, you have so much on your plate during the school year, I just don’t know how we all do it!  I know we do it for the love of learning and seeing kids grow, but sometimes it is hard to do everything that we are required to do during the school day.  This is why I have teamed up with some fantastic teacher authors to give one of you lucky teachers a $100.00 Amazon Gift Card! The giveaway will run February 1-5. You can enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thank you for all you do for students!

Lots of Love,

Cindy

Groundhog Day in K!

Groundhog Day, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Groundhog Day is celebrated in America on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The legend is that the groundhog comes out of his burrow and if it sees it’s shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather.  If it is cloudy and there is no shadow, it is an indication of an early spring.  Each year we create crafts and make predictions about groundhogs in my kindergarten class.  Here are some ideas:Slide22

  1. Pass out sticky notes and have a chart to make predictions on if the groundhog will see it’s shadow or not on February 2.
  2. Go to the Groundhog Web site to share the history of Punxsutawney Phil and watch the video LIVE STREAM of Punxsutawney.   http://www.groundhog.org/ (You can see the replay here also.)
  3. Use this FREE coloring printable for students to engage in for fine motor skills.
  4. Sing Groundhog Day Poem (Tune: Frere Jacques)Groundhog Day

    Groundhog Day

    Is near

    Is near

    Will he see his shadow

    Will he see his shadow

    And disappear

    Disappear

  5. You can make the whole day relate to groundhogs by using activities in all subject areas in this GROUNDHOG DAY UNIT.

Make it a fun day! Students remember connections, not lessons.

Mastering Sight Words

Teacher's Pay Teachers, Word Wall

Previously, when I taught kindergarten, 34 sight words were standard for students to master before they went into first grade.  So when the standard went from 34 to 86, I was stressed about how to teach these words to kids who continue to struggle with retention and application.  Sight words are important to being successful at reading.  The goal put a lot of pressure of me to find new ways to help my students learn these words.   Here are some strategies I tried successfully.  I put 5 to 10 sight words on the class Word Wall each week.  Students learned how to use them in sentences, practiced writing with them and are encouraged to use the Word Wall Words during all writing activities.  The most effective way I found to get them to remember sight words is to make the activities fun.  During centers, students use paint dabbers to create sight words, play sight word games and sing sight word songs found on You Tube.  The Sight Word Necklace has been a huge hit with motivating students to learn the words in class and at home.  Start the students sight-word-necklace-coverout with a few words on their necklace.  By the next week see what they know.  If they know it, they keep it.  If not, the word goes off the necklace and home for practice with the parents.  For every 20 they master, they get a special card that rewards them with a treasure box treat in our room (you can use anything… a certificate, a hug).  When they reach all the words they get to eat lunch with the teacher and a friend.  Another game they like is the Fly Swatter Game.  Two groups of students a picked, the teacher calls out a word and whoever swats the word on the word wall first get a point for the team.

You can get the Sight Word Necklace printable for ONLY $1.00 for 24 hours.  A group of teacher authors are also having a hashtag sale #2017DollarDeals .  Just type it into the Teachers Pay Teachers search box to find the deals.  Happy New YEAR!

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