Hot Ideas

My name is Anita, and I am a teaching blog addict. 

:)

OK, maybe not an addict, but thanks to Pinterest I've come across so many great Kindergarten blogs, and so many great teaching ideas, that I found myself rushing out to the nearest Dollarama to purchase the supplies needed to make every single one of these student activities.

Do I need them all for September? Um....no. Addict...maybe.

Here are some things my students can look forward to doing this year:

SQUISHY BAGS

(for tactile printing)

I used large Ziploc bags and filled them with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter. I found this idea here.

WORD POINTERS

(for tracking print)

Dollarama has their Halloween items out (already!) and I picked up some groovy fingers that have long, glittery fingernails. Students can use these beauties to track print as they read.

CLOCKS

Using "Hickory Dickory Dock" as a springboard, students will be introduced to clocks & time to the hour. In this activity, students will piece together clocks by putting the numbers in the right spaces. I used Velcro to make the numbers stick and for easy removal. The clock can be downloaded here from Mrs. Williamson's Kinders.

PLAY DOH MATS

I made a set of mats for Numbers, Shapes, the Alphabet, and Counting.

For the counting mats, students put playdough cut-outs onto the corresponding number.

Organizing tip: Binder clips are a great way to keep the mats together for storage!

POWER TOWERS

Inside the Power Tower tube are words printed on Dixie cups. Students stack the words they can read and see how high their tower can grow. My cups have the students' names on them for September, and I will be gradually adding sight words as they are introduced. This idea is from teachertipster.com.

 The Power Tower label can be downloaded here.

CVC WORDS

(consonant-vowel-consonant)

I tweaked an idea from here to create CVC word mats, using diet soda lids for the letters.

Students will place vowels on the words, using the picture cues to figure out the word.

LETTER CLIPS 

Students use clothespin letters to make words.

This activity is for our Bug Unit in June...Yes, June :)

*I have created an updated version of this activity, and it's available as a freebie!

I hope you find some of these ideas useful for your class too!