I love exploring living and nonliving things each spring because its the perfect way to kick off our plant and animal studies! We spent a week exploring what makes something alive and what living things need to stay alive!
Living and Nonliving Things Picture Sorts
After reading about living things with the book, "What's Alive?" by Kathleen Zoehfeld, we complete this picture sort whole group.
On day one, we did a simple picture sort to get my students thinking and to prepare them ...
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How To Get Your Kindergarten Class to Set Goals Independently!
When I tell people that my kindergarten students are setting goals, coming up with strategies to help them meet their goals, and keeping track of their progress towards those goals, they usually give me a "yeah, right" look. After all, they're still babies! But trust me - those babies are capable of a lot more than you might think!Today, i'm going to show you how you can EASILY get your students setting classroom goals too!
Getting Started
We started setting goals in November this year. ...
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Try These Free Earthworm Activities with Your Class Today!
If your kindergarten or 1st grade students are anything like mine, they LOVE to learn about anything icky or slimy! That means that earthworms are right up their alley. We spent this week learning all about these wiggly creatures. You can too with these FREE earthworm activities!
We read all about earthworms. We learned about how they are different from insects, their unique bodies, and how earthworms are helpful to plants and humans!
All About Earthworms Writing
We made an anchor ...
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Guided Reading for Level A Readers
Guided Reading for Emergent Readers
Guided reading in kindergarten is one of those things that we know we should absolutely be doing in our classrooms, but the amount of information and ideas out there can be overwhelming! At least, that's how I felt when I started teaching guided reading in kindergarten.But we know it's best practice! Every single year that I teach my students using guided reading, at least 93% of my students end the year on or above grade level. That's how I know it's ...
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Teaching Sight Words in Kindergarten
Teaching Sight Words During Guided Reading
Introducing and practicing sight words whole group is a big part of kindergarten, but do you also teach sight words during your small guided reading groups? If not, i'm going to tell you why you absolutely should be and how to do it effectively!I, of course, teach sight words whole group, but all of my students are at different levels and their sight word needs are different. It is a much better use of my time to really target the words each small ...
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Guided Writing in Kindergarten
Teaching Guided Writing in Kindergarten
Guided writing is one of those things that we know we should be doing in our early and emergent guided reading groups, but finding resources that teach us how to teach guided writing can be difficult. At least, that was the case for me!This post is going to be short and sweet, and hopefully give you some helpful ideas for how you can easily implement guided writing today!
In kindergarten, my guided reading lessons are almost always 2-day lessons. ...
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December Sight Word Centers
December Literacy Centers for Kindergarten
If you're a kindergarten teacher, you probably know just how hard it can be to manage literacy centers and keep your students engaged in practicing sight words once the snow starts falling. That's why these December Editable Sight Word Centers have been a life saver for me - you read that right, they're editable!
That means you can type in the sight words YOU need and - boom- 10 centers are automatically created for you!I actually use these sight ...
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