Calm down corner, peace place, Antarctica.. It can have a lot of different names, but the goal is ultimately the same - to help our students learn to self regulate their big emotions. Easier said than done, right?I'm going to show you how you can easily set up a calm down corner and walk you through teaching your students how to use this space effectively. This post contains affiliate links Most likely, our students are not going to come to us able to identify what they are feeling and problem ...
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Sight Word Fluency Activities for K-1
One of the hardest parts of introducing sight words whole group, at least for me, is giving those words meaning and building fluency. Of course, we get practice with this in our small guided reading groups too, but I wanted the time we spent with our sight words while group to be as meaningful as possible.That's why, I started using mixed up sentences as a whole group sight word fluency activity. I knew how powerful this activity was in small groups, so I wanted to see if it would work just as ...
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Name Crafts for Preschool and Kindergarten (+ a free craft!)
If you are like me, you are constantly looking for new and engaging ways to practice spelling names throughout the year. After all, you can only do those name tracing worksheets so many times. That's why I decided to start doing monthly name crafts!It's scientifically proven that crafts increase engagement by 800% (OK, that's a lie, but we love a good craft). Students love seeing their name on their craft and we use these to build community by personalizing our classroom displays year-round, ...
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Books to Begin Writer’s Workshop in Kindergarten
If you teach kindergarten, you know that writer's workshop at the beginning of the year consists of learning what a story is, learning how to tell a story using pictures, and then beginning to write words. It can be difficult to find mentor texts that focus on these things! That's why I rounded up this list of my favorite books to begin writer's workshop in kindergarten.This post contains affiliate links.Ralph Tells a StoryIn this story, Ralph struggles to think of an idea to write about. This ...
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Easy Fine Motor Alphabet Activities
If you teach preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten, you know how important it is to get in letter identification and letter formation practice as often as possible. But, honestly, it can get boring real quick if you're doing the same things over and over again! This post is full of hands on ideas to combine alphabet practice and fine motor work - the best of both worlds!This activity is perfect because you can keep it new by just switching out small manipulatives like rocks or mini erasers ...
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How To Run Literacy Centers in Kindergarten
I have a confession to make... I hate rotations. I hate the chaos and confusion that inevitably happens, even when I take the time to teach.. and re-teach.. and teach again. So when I started giving my students choice in their literacy centers, yes it hurt a little to let go of control, but it also solved all of the problems I had AND instantly increased my students' engagement. Win!Best of all, this system allows me to easily differentiate my centers too! Obviously, you differentiate with any ...
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