Beginning Sounds (December)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at least at everyone else's house. I haven't found the time to get out my Christmas decorations yet. How about you?

I can't believe we only have three weeks until Christmas Break! I think I get more excited than the students at this time of the year.

We will have taught every letter of the alphabet before Christmas break ends. Hopefully you have taught most of them too, so here's some practice for beginning letter sounds and a great deal too. Students get so excited when they start seeing pictures of Santa, Christmas trees, and gifts. This simple beginning sounds pack allows students to enjoy Christmas as well as show their knowledge of beginning sounds. The following photos show 2 of the 4 included pages.

Beginning Sounds (December)

 

The teacher should name each picture so that the students are familiar with the pictures. The product description names each picture if you are unsure of any of them.

 

To add more skills and to include different levels of activities, students can label the pictures after cutting and gluing the letter for the beginning sound. You can see in the pictures below that some students did label their pictures. I love seeing how they sound out their words. Then students can color the Christmas pictures. Also, for those students who are ready, they can write a sentence for each picture on the back of their paper, using good writing skills, of course. I get so excited when I can read everything a student has written without them having to read their writing to me. They get excited too when I can read it. They always say, "How do you know what that said?" I always reply with, "Well, you did such a super job stretching and sounds out your words that I could read it." That makes them so proud of their work.

 

Take a look at one of these four sheets in action showing the different activities they can do with it (cutting and gluing beginning sounds, labeling pictures, coloring, and writing sentences). The students had a blast with these Christmas pictures, and I hope your students do, too! ENJOY!

 

 

They really seemed to enjoy coloring these Christmas pictures after cutting and gluing the beginning sounds.

I love how these two students labeled each picture.

 

 

The pictures below show two students who went the extra mile to write a sentence on the back of their paper for each picture shown. My students know that they are not to just sit and do nothing. I always tell them that there is always more they can add.  

1. I got a hat. 2 My reindeer is brown. 3. Santa is big. 4. The elf is here. 5. My star is yellow. 6. My candle is black.

1. I can put on the hat. 2. The reindeer can go fast. 3 Santa Claus gives me something. 4. I see the star in the sky. 5. I light up my candle. 5 Elves make toys.

 

 

I hope your students enjoy this beginning sounds activity for December.

This Beginning Sounds (December) is available for 

ONLY $1.00 for 3 days!

Tuesday, December 2nd (on Tuesday, December 2nd, get an additional 10% off when using promo code TPTCYBER)

Wednesday, December 3rd &

Thursday, December 4th

 

You can click on any of the photos above to access it or click HERE! 

 

I hope your students ENJOY this Beginning Sounds (December) pack. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Cultural Arts Day - Jerome Roams From Home (Patricia Maness -Children's Author/Illustrator)

Our students had a BLAST at Cultural Arts Day today. We were blessed to meet a great children's author/illustrator, Patricia Maness, from Alabama as she shared her book "Jerome Roams From Home!" This is such a cute story with lots of rhyming and simple but oh, so very cute illustrations. Check out her Facebook page and give her a "LIKE" to see where Jerome will roam next.

 

You can find her book on AMAZON!

 

"Jerome loves to travel. Jerome is not your typical RV. Driving over mountains and through valleys and fields of beautiful sunflowers seeking adventure and making new friends along the way" (Amazon).

 

Check out Jerome today!

Numbers 0-20 Hide and Seek

I hope all of you got your school year off to a great start. We have just recently completed the first quarter of the year. Time is flying! With the arrival of second quarter, we are teaching numbers, and I'm sure you are too. To help keep you going, here's a deal just for you! 

Numbers 0-20 Hide and Seek

This number packet includes a page for each number 0-20. Here's a few of the pages below.

Students are given directions to color the number a particular color. Students are to make it a game of "hide and seek" as they look to find (tag) the directed number on each page. The numbers on each page are randomly placed for finding and coloring. 

To add more skills and to include different levels of activities, students can flip to the back side of their paper and write numbers 0-20 independently.

Here's a couple of the sheets in action.

I hope your students enjoy this game of "hide and seek" as they learn to recognize numbers 0-20.

This Numbers 0-20 Hide and Seek activity is available for 

ONLY $1.00 for 3 days!

Friday, October 24th

Saturday, October 25th &

Sunday, October 26th

You can click on any of the photos above to access it or click HERE! 

I hope your students ENJOY this Numbers 0-20 Hide and Seek activity. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Read and Write

Hi everyone! It's Sherry from 

Dr. Clements' Kindergarten. 

Woo! Hoo! I am loving this somewhat cooler weather we are having. With the recent arrival of fall comes a special offer just for you! 

Fall Read and Write

In this three page Fall Read and Write, students will read the one page fall story and color the pictures.

Then students have to correctly complete the sentence to match the story. There are two pages with five sentences about the story on each page. Each sentence has a missing word. At the end of each sentence, there are two words for students to choose from to find the missing word that correctly tells about the story. Students will circle the word that correctly completes the sentence to match the story on the first page, and then write the correct word in the blank.

This is a great comprehension check for guided reading, a mini lesson, a literacy center, or homework. It is also a great way to introduce close reading. 

This Fall Read and Write activity is available for 

ONLY $1.00 for 3 days!

Wednesday, September 24th

Thursday, September 25th &

Friday, September 26th

You can click on any of the photos above to access it or click HERE! 

I hope your students ENJOY this Fall Read and Write activity. 

Thanks for stopping by!

TPT MILESTONE CELEBRATION! (FREEBIE)

WOO HOO! Time to CELEBRATE!

Click HERE to get your FREEBIE! 

(ends September 20th)  

Don't forget to visit my store and get your wish list items while they are 20% off (September 14th - 16th)! 

Over 300 products on SALE!

Be sure to follow my blog, FB page, and my TPT store to be notified when new products and freebies are posted. 

Thanks for your support of my TPT store and for stopping by!

Pocket Chart Activities (Color Word Sentences)

Hello everyone! I don't know about you, but literacy centers are an important part of my daily routine in my kindergarten classroom. Items you put in your literacy center can cover such a wide range of skills throughout the year. Literacy centers usually include items that the students consider "fun," and they really don't even consider it work which is a great "win" for the teacher. Students are having fun and learning at the same time.

I was hoping to get this teaching resource up and going in my classroom and take photos of it in action before I posted it, but with all of this beginning of the year testing, I didn't get that accomplished. Hopefully you can imagine it in use.

This Pocket Chart Activity for Color Word Sentences is great for a literacy center or for students who finish their work early during the BACK TO SCHOOL season. These sentences focus on color words (red, green, brown, blue, purple, yellow, orange, black, and white) and the sight words "the" and "is." 

Creating or unscrambling each sentence helps the students focus on looking for the capital letter for the first word in the sentence and looking for the ending punctuation mark for the last word. The words that go together to make a complete sentence all have the same picture on the card. Also, each sentence has the words written in matching colors so that students can sort the cards by color/picture and then put the sentence in the correct order by finding the capital letter and ending punctuation mark.

               

 

              

  

                    

    

After the students correctly unscramble each sentence, they can write the complete sentence on the recording sheet provided. This provides evidence for the teacher showing what sentences the students unscramble in the center making the students accountable for their work. A recording sheet is included for each of the nine sentences.

To use, I would print each page on cardstock, laminate for durability, cut apart, and put the cards in a Ziploc bag and put in a literacy center with a pocket chart for students to unscramble. 

***If you do not have a pocket chart, the sentences can still be used simply by having students place the words or the floor or table.

You can click on any of the photos above to access it or click HERE! 

I hope your students ENJOY this pocket chart activity. 

Thanks for stopping by!

BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY: Morning Work Through the Year - Kindergarten (January - December)!

I can't believe summer is over and it's time for back to school or at least it is for me. I know some of you do not return until September (lucky you), but many of us are on our way back. I'm definitely going to miss setting my own schedule each day and sleeping in, but it's back to the real world on Monday! 

I thought I would have a GIVEAWAY to help get your school year started. My Morning Work Through the Year includes 20 days of morning work for the months January - December! 

Each day includes language arts and math skills. Having morning work at each student's desk when they enter helps keep them busy while learning and giving you (the teacher) a chance to get the day started by getting each student settled in, checking bookbags, taking up notes and lunch money, and any other daily routine tasks required of you.

Most of the sheets in the morning work use the same instructions so that after students get the feel of what to do, it will become automatic, and they will become independent in completing their morning work. Good luck as you enter and I hope you find this morning work useful!

I do have one Sample Freebie of my Morning Work, but it is for the month of May (end of year skills). If you would like to download it, look for the link below the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is my Sample Freebie Morning Work for May (end of year skills)! After downloading, please leave me some feedback on TPT to let me know how you like it. I love reading feedback from my customers. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Surprise Christmas in July! (Giveaway)

 

Surprise Christmas in July!
July 28th-30th

Everyone loves a surprise! I am happy to be linking up with Mrs. Dailey's Classroom to offer this surprise. This wonderful group of bloggers below has come together to provide you with $80.00 worth of teaching resources to help you begin the school year. You can enter for your chance to win using the rafflecopter below. Good luck on winning this surprise Christmas in July! 
 

An InLinkz Link-up

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Emergent Readers Bundle A-Z (26 emergent readers) 55% off for a LIMITED TIME!

Only 2 days left to take advantage of my Emergent Readers Bundle A-Z (26 emergent readers) being 55% off! These readers are great for guided reading groups and for sending home for students to read to parents!

A GREAT DEAL for a LIMITED TIME! (ends 07/16/14)

Check it out!    http://www.educents.com/abc-emergent-readers-bundle.html#drclementskindergarten

 

If you need this bundle after 07/16/14, you can find it

HERE at a 15% discount!

 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Emergent-Reader-A-Z-Bundle-26-books-1111864

 

Thanks for stopping by!

From Caterpillar to Butterfly and Plants (Growing and Changing)

I'm just now getting around to sharing with you the excitement in my classroom the last few weeks of school. We were reading stories about living things and growing and changing. Then our wonderful instructional coach ordered live caterpillars for every kindergarten class. I had never experienced this process myself, and I think that I was almost more excited than the students to enter the classroom each morning to see what change had taken place overnight or over the weekend.

Excitement was in the air when our FIVE caterpillars arrived in this clear, small, plastic cup. 

Students immediately said, "Yuck! What's all that stuff in the bottom?" Well, that stuff was their food they needed in order to survive until they attached themselves to form a chrysalis. The caterpillars were very small when we first got them, and they ate and ate and ate until they were so much bigger. 

After several days, all five of them finally made it to the top of the cup and attached themselves to the paper disc. This was so amazing to watch. We had to make sure we did not disturb them while they were hardening into their chrysalis.

After they had hardened, we took the paper disc out of the cup and pinned it to the inside of the butterfly habitat. When I took the paper disc out of the cup, two of them were shaking back and forth like crazy. I guess they didn't want to be bothered. The students thought it was hilarious!

It took several days for the first Painted Lady Butterfly to emerge. Of course it happened during the night or early morning before we arrived at school. I was very excited, :)  I mean the students were very excited when they came in and saw the butterfly.  

Their wings had to dry for a while, and then they started fluttering around in their habitat. The directions told us to put sugar water on a paper towel in the bottom of the habitat so that they would have something to drink. We also read not to put a container of sugar water in there because this may cause them to drown. If you look closely, you can see 2 of the 3 butterflies that have emerged.

Now we are waiting on the last 2 hanging at the bottom of the paper disc. During this entire process, we never actually caught a butterfly coming out of the chrysalis. One day after walking the students to activity class, I came back to the room and two more had emerged. It all happens so quickly! Their wings were never crumpled/wrinkled when we saw them. I actually thought it would be a slow process. 

The students LOVED observing the caterpillars and butterflies on a daily basis. I allowed the students to take turns observing throughout the day. It was so precious watching how careful they were not to touch or knock the habitat when they went to observe. Finally all 5 butterflies had emerged. It was so neat to see the butterflies drink the sugar water with their proboscis. The students were 

so excited! 

THE RELEASE!

After observing the butterflies for a couple of days, it was time to release them outside. It took them a while to find their way out. I think it would have helped if the whole top would have opened, but it only unzipped halfway. You can see one at the top about to fly away into freedom.

The other butterflies still didn't seem to want to come out, so we turned it on its side. 

Finally all 5 butterflies flew away to freedom. This one below flew to the grass and waited a few minutes. I think it was enjoying the warm sunshine. The students were amazed and had so much fun with this activity. I might have enjoyed it a little also! :) 

While learning about butterflies, students enjoy "Butterflies Read and Write" and "Emergent Reader: Butterflies."

In "Butterflies Read and Write," students read a cute short story about butterflies, color the pictures, and then read 10 sentences about the story and fill in the blanks with the correct word at the end of the sentence. This helps check for reading comprehension, and it's also great for introducing Close Reading! 

You can find "Butterflies Read and Write" HERE!

The "Emergent Reader: Butterflies" focuses on a variety of sight words including: will, some, in, the, get, my, help, me, with, is, pretty, are, too, of, and like. These emergent readers are great for guided reading groups. 

You can find the "Emergent Reader: Butterflies" HERE!

While we were learning about growing and changing, we also planted some sunflower seeds. This shows our plants after we put them outside in the sunshine one day. The students had so much fun observing the changes in our plants also.

On the last day before taking the plants home to share with their families, they made their last observation and writing about sunflowers. 

A couple of other activities that are great for learning about plants are "Plants Read and Write" and "Emergent Reader: Let's Plant!"

In "Plants Read and Write," students read a cute short story about plants, color the pictures, and then read 10 sentences about the story and fill in the blanks with the correct word at the end of the sentence. This helps check for reading comprehension, and it's also great for introducing Close Reading! 

You can find "Plants Read and Write" HERE!

The "Emergent Reader: Let's Plant" focuses on a variety of sight words including: will, some, in, the, get, my, help, me, with, is, pretty, are, too, of, and like. These emergent readers are great for guided reading groups. 

You can find the "Emergent Reader: Let's Plant" HERE!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our caterpillars/butterflies and plants growing and changing. I also hope you have found something useful you can use in your classroom. Do you have any exciting ideas for these topics? If so, please share below. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by!