Are You Ready for a "Happy New Year?"

It's almost that time! Most of us will head back to work on Monday. I love having a "Happy New Year's" party my first day back. Here are some pictures from last year. Instead of starting right into a new topic, we spend that first day back learning all about the customs of New Year's Day.

Hockey or Football Survey Graph

For one of our math centers the children did a survey graph. They asked their friends if they would rather watch football or hockey on New Years Day. After asking their friends, they create a graph to show the results. Lastly, they write their analysis.

Ordinal Number Trinket Cakes

The children create ordinal number trinket cakes. I folded a piece of long construction paper in half. Cut slits in the top half. Invite the children to glue down the color cupcakes onto each flap. Under each flap glue a trinket that is hiding inside of the cake. The children complete the recording page by lifting the flaps and recording which trinket is in each cupcake. The cool thing...everyone's will be different depending on the order they placed their trinkets.

All About the Number 12

In the morning when the kids come in, we pretend it is New Year's Eve. We count down until 12 noon. That is our New Year's Eve Celebration. This is a great way to connect the number 12! We talked all about 12, tally marks, dominoes, ordinals, etc.

What Do You Eat on New Year's Day?

Maybe it's a southern thing, but on New Year's Day we eat black eyed peas, cornbread and turnips. The truth is, I must not be southern, because I don't really like any of those foods. But, my kids would never know it! We make cornbread at school using the Jiffy mix cornbread. We either have canned (if I'm in charge) blackeyed peas, or fresh ones (if a parent is in charge)!

The kids really amaze me. Some don't want to taste either...I never force it! But, most love it! After eating the cornbread and black eyed peas, the children make a face. In the mouth, they draw peas, cornbread, both or neither. We used the faces to create a double bubble map.

The kids made theirs as we went along.

Countdown to New Year's Day

On a strip of black paper, the children sequence the numerals 10-0. I glue the strip onto a horn like in the photo above. When we count down to New Year's, the kids blow their horns.

New Year's Day Party Hats

But, we don't just blow our horns. The kids each make a face like the one above. When it's time to count down, they put the face in front of their face and place the horn in their mouth. Now they are ready for a party!



New Year's Day Circle Map

It isn't a celebration without a little bit of glitter. The kids each make their own mirror ball by covering a circle with silver glitter. On the circle map, we write all the words that define New Year's. Then, we glue the circle map onto the mirror ball.

Our Year In Review Tree Map

We made a tree map by thinking back to each month we have been in school. We thought about something we did each month to record on the tree map. 

Firecracker Cut a Sentence Book

In one of the literacy centers, the kids did a firecracker cut a sentence book.

 

These activities are from my Hooray for New Year’s Day Unit.

Here’s to a great year!

Happy New Year

It's almost that time! Most of us will head back to work on Monday. I love having a "Happy New Year's" party my first day back. Here are some pictures from last year. Instead of starting right into a new topic, we spend that first day back learning all about the customs of New Year's Day.

Hockey or Football Survey Graph

For one of our math centers the children did a survey graph. They asked their friends if they would rather watch football or hockey on New Years Day. After asking their friends, they create a graph to show the results. Lastly, they write their analysis.

Ordinal Number Trinket Cakes

The children create ordinal number trinket cakes. I folded a piece of long construction paper in half. Cut slits in the top half. Invite the children to glue down the color cupcakes onto each flap. Under each flap glue a trinket that is hiding inside of the cake. The children complete the recording page by lifting the flaps and recording which trinket is in each cupcake. The cool thing...everyone's will be different depending on the order they placed their trinkets.

All About the Number 12

In the morning when the kids come in, we pretend it is New Year's Eve. We count down until 12 noon. That is our New Year's Eve Celebration. This is a great way to connect the number 12! We talked all about 12, tally marks, dominoes, ordinals, etc.

What Do You Eat on New Year's Day?

Maybe it's a southern thing, but on New Year's Day we eat black eyed peas, cornbread and turnips. The truth is, I must not be southern, because I don't really like any of those foods. But, my kids would never know it! We make cornbread at school using the Jiffy mix cornbread. We either have canned (if I'm in charge) blackeyed peas, or fresh ones (if a parent is in charge)!

The kids really amaze me. Some don't want to taste either...I never force it! But, most love it! After eating the cornbread and black eyed peas, the children make a face. In the mouth, they draw peas, cornbread, both or neither. We used the faces to create a double bubble map.

The kids made theirs as we went along.

Countdown to New Year's Day

On a strip of black paper, the children sequence the numerals 10-0. I glue the strip onto a horn like in the photo above. When we count down to New Year's, the kids blow their horns.

New Year's Day Party Hats

But, we don't just blow our horns. The kids each make a face like the one above. When it's time to count down, they put the face in front of their face and place the horn in their mouth. Now they are ready for a party!



New Year's Day Circle Map

It isn't a celebration without a little bit of glitter. The kids each make their own mirror ball by covering a circle with silver glitter. On the circle map, we write all the words that define New Year's. Then, we glue the circle map onto the mirror ball.

Our Year In Review Tree Map

We made a tree map by thinking back to each month we have been in school. We thought about something we did each month to record on the tree map. 

Firecracker Cut a Sentence Book

In one of the literacy centers, the kids did a firecracker cut a sentence book.

 

These activities are from my Hooray for New Year’s Day Unit.

Here’s to a great year!

Happy New Year Activities

Each year on our first day back to school, we have a day long Happy New Year’s Celebration! Here are a few of the things we do—Hooray for New Year’s Day!
I purchased these party horns at the Dollar Tree for each of the kids. Then, after we rang in the “New Year”, I cut off the blower part and we glued the rest of the horn to our New Year’s Day party face. In the speech bubble the kids wrote something they might say to ring in the New Year.

Another thing we did on our first day back after the holiday was to cook black eyed peas and cornbread (that’s how we do it in the south!). Then, the kids created this face. In the mouth, they drew what they wanted to eat: only peas, only cornbread, or both! Then, we used the faces to create this double bubble map.

We also created our own “ball” to drop! This is a great review of a sphere! On the circle map, we wrote words that we had learned that are associated with New Year’s Day/Eve. These ideas are from the resource: Hooray for New Year’s Day.
Here is another post with more pictures of our Happy New Year celebration. http://kindergals.blogspot.com/search?q=happy+new+year

Tips and Ideas From Kim's Seminar

I’m sure as the New Year approaches we are all thinking of New Year’s Resolutions. I have made my share of resolutions---lose weight and exercise more seem to always top the list. As I think about resolutions for 2015, I wanted to think about resolutions that would save time! Yep, that precious thing that we never seem to have enough of--TIME.  How can I spend less time on work and more time on my family and friends, but still be the kind of teacher that I know I want to be? It isn’t in me to “settle” for anything but my best, so doing less has never really been an option.
That is what I love about this seminar…How can we “do it all”—have meaningful, engaging activities, develop higher order thinkers, provide authentic, research based lessons, and still be able to sleep!?!?!?

So what will we do on these two days? I can’t wait to share how using the workshop model of teaching puts the kids back in charge of their own learning! How you can provide quality lessons that target your standards while each child is able to “plug in” right at their own level!

Like…what do you do when some of your kids are writing text and others are still using drawings or scribbles? Or how do I move them from drawers to writers? This chart, along with others that I share, is one way I help my kids make that transition.

Ever try to get kids to really work together? I mean, not just work in the same area or on the same activity, but to be truly engage in meaningful conversations? If I want these conversations to occur, what do I need to do to make that happen? That is another of the many things we will talk about!
We will also visit the Eight Step Process. Ever heard of it? This is a great way to ensure that your teaching is reaching the kids it needs to reach. It makes sure that your fabulous lessons are targeted to the right group of kids and on the standards you need to cover!


Another thing that we can do to save tons of time is to really re-evaluate our center time. How much time are you spending creating centers that have a one shot answer, that take less than 10 minutes for the kids to do but hours for you to prep? Or, how do we move from simply going the “no prep” route and reproducing pages to keep them occupied to a more authentic form of teaching where children are engaged and developing understanding beyond what we thought possible???

How can we use centers as a way to revisit standards that we have already taught but want to maintain? How can we use centers as a way to keep kids busy while we pull small groups of children based on formative assessments to ensure that EVERY child is moving forward?

We will also talk about lots of fun math activities, many of which you can go back and do the very next day! BUT, how can we get the most from each activity—Questions!
The slides in this post are just a few of the many ideas you will see during the two day training!
I hope I will see lots of ya’ll this year while I am on the road in 2015! Each month I try to post where I am going to be, but you can always check the SDE website!
One thing I love about going to seminars myself is that not only do I learn new ideas, but I also realize that many other teachers are struggling with the same issues that I am! It is like a shot in the arm---new ideas, reminder of ideas I have done before but stopped doing, networking with other teachers, and spending a day laughing, learning and loving being a teacher!
Here are a few events from January you might want to check out! Just click on the picture and you can register for any of these events.

Happy Teaching! Living, Laughing, and Loving Teaching

Who Inspires You?

It’s not a new question. It’s one that we are asked many times during our lives. When asked, we often share stories about our moms, a favorite teacher, a religious leader, or some other adult that helped to mold us into the person we are today. But, what if I asked you can someone you meet, for the first time, just by chance, truly inspire you? To that, I say…yes.
This week I worked in Memphis, TN doing a seminar with 60+ kindergarten and first grade teachers. As the teachers were coming into the room, I chatted with them, mostly small talk just to get a feel for the crowd. There was a group of 5 teachers that came in together. They we chatting and laughing with each other and we generally just very happy. I started talking to them, when I noticed one of the girls had a very short hair cut! I loved it! You see, I want to cut my hair reeealllly short, but I just don’t have the nerve. Her name is Kate.

I told Kate just how cute her hair was. She looked around to the teachers in her group and they all kinda chuckled. She told me that people ask her all the time who cut her hair. Her response… God! You see, last year, during her first year of teaching, her very first year, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer after a large lump popped up on her neck while she was teaching. She was given 2 months to live. She is younger than my own two children, never married, no kids.  My heart just broke.
She told me she went to school all year during her treatments, often running to the bathroom when she wasn’t feeling well. The whole time she was telling me her story, she had such a glow about her. She told me how those kids will always hold a special place in her heart. She told me how much she loved teaching and how it kept her going. So is there good news? Does this story have a happy ending? How can such a sad story inspire me? The good news…she, despite the odds, is in remission. I really wanted to hug her. One can’t help but know that her positive attitude, her bubbly personality, the many prayers and her shear determination had to play a part in her outcome.
During the seminar, she took pictures of nearly every thing I showed. She wrote all kinds of notes, she leaned and talked to her teammates as she made connections to the things we were learning. She made me want to present like it was the last time I would have the opportunity to do so. She made me want to be a better teacher, a better person, a little less whiny, and a lot more thankful. She inspired me!
During our two days, I started watching other teachers, looking for ways to be inspired by the little things I saw. The two teachers who, when we ran short on handout books, willingly gave theirs up and shared with their friends. The teacher who went by her school and picked up paper plates when we realized we wouldn’t have enough the next day. The teacher who brought in a spinner to show me a new way to make one. Another teacher who brought in two new games inspired by what she had learned the first day. The take charge principal that made sure we knew all the restaurants in the area. The principals and central office personnel who came with groups of teachers and listened to the teachers share their excitement about what they were learning. To the countless teachers who went out of their way to tell me thank you, or that they were so glad they came, or that they had learned so much.
So this week I challenge you. Watch and listen to the people around you. Let them inspire you to teach your heart out, to love your family, to take care of your friends, and to help those that sometimes we find difficult to help. Think of Kate. Her story will inspire you to be thankful, to tell others you love them, to be kind….Thank you, Kate…you inspired me.
(Just so you know..Kate gave me permission to share her story.)

Math Games for the WHOLE Year!

Are you trying to figure out how to run math centers, pull small group, and keep everyone busy and happy all at the same time?  If you are, you aren't alone.  We are all seeking new ways and ideas to manage it all! One thing I do that I think helps is the way I develop the math games I use during centers. This post shares my thoughts and ideas about math games.

Here's the biggest problem, kids don't know how to play the games in the centers! That means they are interrupting your small group for guidance, or they are finding "creative" ways to entertain themselves---neither of which I want! So here's my plan...develop some math games that can easily be used ALL year simply by changing the dice, cards, and clip art! Then, once I have taught the game, the children can play it in centers and think they are playing a new game.
For example, this Racing Math Game is perfect! Here's how they play:

• Create a game board with 3 columns.
• Make 3 game pieces. I made mine stand up by creating a stand with a paper clip.
• Invite the children to roll a dice.
• They move the pieces towards the finish line.
• The object is to get all three pieces to the end.
• The children may move one piece all of the moves, or they may split the move between the pieces.
• As the year progresses, invite the children to record the number sentences to represent their moves.

Once I teach the game during the first few weeks, the children can now play this game over and over using new game boards. All the time is spent practicing the standard, not learning the rules to yet another game!

Who has more is a perfect game to use with any deck of cards. I created this deck for my back to school unit.  Here's how you play:

• Create a game board with a more and less spinner and a more and less section.
• Put the cards in a pile, face down.
• Invite two children to draw a card.
• The children compare for more and less and place their card on the game board in either the more or less section.
• The child with less, spins the spinner.
• If it lands on less, they get both of the cards.
• If it lands on more, their partner gets both of the cards.
• This teaches kids that more isn't always the winner!

As the year progresses, the rules for playing the game stays the same.  However, you could have kids turn over two cards, add them together, and compare the sum. You could also have the kids write the numerals to represent the sets. The game stays the same, only the standard is changing!

Children love this measurement game! Here's how they play:
Each child needs a partner.
One child uses the clip art pictures to measure how tall their partner is.
Then, they swap.

On the recording page, they draw a picture of themselves and their partner to show how many buses it took to measure each of them. Then, they fill in the sentences to answer the questions.

As the year progresses, the rules---once again--stay the same. I only change the sizes of the clip art nonstandard measurement!

This game is so simple, the kids catch on really quickly. Here's how you play:

• Create a game board by making one long strip of clip art.
• Make a game piece. I made mine stand up with a paper clip.
• One child sits at each end of the long strip.
• The first child rolls the dice.
• He move the game piece that many spaces towards himself.
• The second child rolls the dice.
• He moves the SAME game piece that many spaces towards himself.
• It is the same game piece that is moving back and forth on the game board.

Throughout the year, not only do I change the clip art, I change the dice (or what they do with the dice.) I could give them a numeral dice, and they recognize the numeral and move that many spaces. I could give them a dot dice, they either subitize or count the dots and move that many spaces. I could give them two dice, they roll the dice, add them together and move that many spaces.  Just by changing the dice you are changing the standard, BUT no more time is wasted teaching yet another game!

This game is a crowd pleaser! Here's how you play:

• Create a number line. Mine is 1-20, but you can make it 1-10 or 1-30! (Or really whatever you want!)
• Collect little trinkets to place on each of the numerals. I use clip art pictures.
• Make a game piece. I made mine stand up with a paper clip.
• Invite the children to roll the dice.
• They move that many spaces down the number line and remove the trinket on the number where they land.
• Next, they roll again.  Starting from where they are, they can either move forward (add) or backwards (subtract) on the number line.
• The object of  the game is to remove all of the trinkets from the number line.

Here's the cool thing---as they play this game throughout the year, they become much more strategic with their moves! A great hands on experience with probability and statistics! Scroll to the bottom to snag up a Back to School Number Line Mystery Game for Free.

Here is a bundle of all of the Math Game Packs.  Not every game is in every pack, but the games are repeated throughout the year. For two days, and two days only, this bundle is GREATLY reduced! It is normally $75, but  is on sale for $35 for 2 days. This is a better bargain than you will get  with a tpt site wide sale!