Paper plate game

Student made game- Use 3 paper plates to have a double-sided game. (Use 2 paper plates if your just doing one-sided.) Have children fold the paper plate in half, then cut into 2 of the paper plates like an X to the inner circle. Glue the uncut paper plate in between the two cut plates on the edges only. Use coin clipart for children to cut out heads and tails of each coin, then glue on the flaps. I use one side for heads and one side for tails. Under each flap, have what the coin is and what it is worth. I have this already typed out for the kids to use. It's hard for some kids to write that small.

To play game: The students have to say what each coin is and what it is worth. Then they open the flap and look under it to self-check themselves.

Sorting and Graphing Coins

Sorting coins on a work mat


Graphing coins

Ten Little Ladybugs Class Book

10 Little Ladybugs class book- The children work in partners for this book. Have children come up with something that comes along on each page. It's more fun that way and it makes it their own. After they make their page, use red paint to do their fingerprints for the ladybugs. Use sharpie to finish the ladybugs after the paint dries.

Title Page- Ten Little Ladybugs, by (Your Class)
Page 1- 10 little ladybugs sitting on a sign, along came a ___ then there were...
Page 2- 9 little ladybugs standing tall and straight, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 3- 8 little ladybugs, one named Kevin, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 4- 7 little ladybugs doing funny tricks, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 5- 6 little ladybugs ready to take a dive, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 6- 5 little ladybugs scampering on the floor, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 7- 4 little ladybugs with their friend Miss Bee, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 8- 3 little ladybugs in the sky so blue, along came a ____ then there were...
Page 9- 2 little ladybugs having lots of fun, along came a ____ then there was...
Page 10- 1 little ladybug cried, "Poor me!" found her friends...
Page 11- Sitting in a tree!

Dr. Seuss's ABC Book

After reading Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book, we talk about beginning sounds. I assign each child a letter and they brainstorm words that begin with that letter. Then they think of some of those words that could go together to make a phrase or sentence. They can then draw a picture of their sentence. Allow children to get kind of silly; after all, it is Dr. Seuss!
Put the class book in the classroom library so children can read it anytime.

When I Grow Up...

During Community Helper unit, we make a class book, When I Grow Up... The children love reading it in our classroom library.

Playing with Water

Matching words- I put this activity at the word study work station towards the end of the year. (I don't think they could handle it without making a mess in the beginning of the year.) I got the little bath toy animals at Dollar Tree and wrote words on the bottom of them with Sharpie. I had cards with the same words. Use a tub and fill it slightly with water so the toys can float.

For the game- Kids draw 1 card and get a chance to pick 1 of the toys to see it has the matching word. If it does, they keep the match. If not, they put the card and toy back and it's their partners turn. Player at end with most matches, wins!

Period or Question Mark?

Make sentences without the punctuation marks and kids have to decide whether it needs a question mark or period.

Hopscotch

Make a hopscotch and use a little manipulatives for children to jump with.

Make it a game-
In this picture, (it was towards the end of the year) we were doing vowel sounds in the middle of words. For example, I held up a picture of a pot and kids would have to jump to the "o" spot.

Variations: beginning sounds, sums for addition problems, numbers, ending sounds. shapes, etc.

Earth Week activities

Earth- Make 4 groups and assign each group a part of the Earth- sea, land, air, space. Groups make things that are in their part. Use black (space), green (land), and blue (sky) butcher paper. Use blue cellophane for the sea. Allow children to have access to all kinds of art supplies to make their pieces.


Ways to Help the Earth circle map

Children write about a way that they can help the Earth.

Rabbit

Make rabbit and children write a sentence describing the rabbit. This sentence says, "The rabbit is fluffy."

Oviparous Animals

Look Who Is Hatching! Wall Display- After talking about animals that lay eggs, each child got to pick an animal.



Life Cycle of a Chicken- egg -> hatching -> baby chick -> chicken -> REPEAT

Plant Parts

Plant Parts- Use yellow cupcake wrapper, sunflower seeds, green pipe cleaner, and brown yarn to do this plant. Children label the parts at the end.

Kite Addition

Kite using addition- notice the different color strips on the kite's tail is what makes the addition problem.

Leprechaun Addition

I got this Leprechaun addition idea from the kindergarten blog, Chalk Talk. Kids loved making it!

Making Words

We practice sounding out words using these letter vests. I printed the letters out from Dr. Jean's website, cut them out, glued them to file folders, then used yarn to attach the front and back-uppercase/lowercase. I took pictures of a whole bunch of words using all my children in my class and posted them to my class website. They could practice reading the words at home with their parents (and it was fun seeing their friends and themselves!)

They LOVE making words with "Sneaky E" in it. The sneaky e gets to "pinch" the vowel when its their turn to say their sound which makes the vowel say it's name. Then when it's the e's turn to say it's sound it puts his/her hand over mouth and doesn't make a sound because it is sneaky! :)

Little People, Big Dreams

In February when talking about President's Day, we pretend what we would do if we were presidents. First, I draw their silhouette's on black construction paper by having then stand in front of the overhead projector so that I can see the shadow of their face. They cut it out. In the little bubble, it says...If I were President, I would... (kids fill in the rest).

Some examples my kids had were:
I would make sure all the cities stay clean.
I would help every kid to read.
I would put my face on the quarter.
I would give money kid's hospitals so that doctors could find cures for cancer.
I would make there be no guns or knives.
I would make sure everyone had a place to live.

I also made a video with all the kids saying what they would do and posted it to my class webpage. They liked being able to show their parents at home what they were doing.

Winter activities

Snowman Name Graph- Die cut a whole bunch of white circles. Then give each child the number of circles that they need for their name plus one extra for the snowman head. Children write a letter per circle for their name. I help with the gluing on so that the circles stay pretty even. Children draw faces on the top circle. Talk about most, least, and equal then post graph results next to graph.


Mitten Rhyming Pairs

Thanksgiving Feast

We have a Thanksgiving Feast in the Kindergarten hallway. We line the hall with brown butcher paper and all of the kindergarten classes eat their feast out in the hall. It's quite the sight if you've never seen it before.

Each class makes place mats. These are ours, using painted hand prints as the faces of the Indian and Pilgrim and also the turkey body. For the turkey, I paint the palm and thumb brown and each other finger a different color for the feathers.

Thanksgiving Bulliten board

Thanksgiving Bulletin Board


The board was by the door and we would sing this Thankgiving song when in line about to leave the room.

Pilgrim man and woman- Paint small paper plate skin color, then use big paper plate to make white collar and hat for women. Cut out other pieces out of black and yellow construction paper. Draw faces with black Sharpie.



Indian man and woman- Paint small paper plate a darker tan color. Make headdress out of construction paper and black yarn for woman's hair. Draw faces with black Sharpie.