Announcing...KinderLand!

Hi friends! Big announcement today. 

Remember when I mentioned Google+ in my last post? 

Many of you may not have heard of Kinderland - it's basically a collective group of kindergarten/early primary teachers-bloggers who strive to learn and grow with one another. We also all have blogs that you may know. :0) Another extension of this group is a Pinterest board called Kinderland Collaborative. You may have seen it on Pinterest lately!

So, are you ready for the news?!?!?!

The original Kinderland members have started a new Google + community that you are definitely going to want to be apart of. We have this new Kinderland Collaborative Community available to be a meeting place between ALL kinder teachers ......bloggers and non-bloggers alike. If you are interested in all things kinder - you will want to join. It's a place to get to know other kinder teachers from around the world, get to know your favorite kinder bloggers (and learn about new ones)......ask questions, bounce ideas off other kinder teachers. The sky is the limit.....when we all work together! You will even see there is a place to link to freebies (all in one place) and we will have giveaways from time to time also!

I hope to see all of you over there!

Why Google+?

Well, it's like Facebook, but better. The layout is nicer, allows us to create threads for different topics. We can even have hangouts (where you can video/audio chat with other kinder teachers and bloggers). 

Click the button below to join!!!

Happy Happy New Year!

Ahhh, Christmas Break. I am enjoying the last few days of mine. I had lots of plans for the classroom, but sometimes spending time with family is much more important. :) Hope you had a fabulous holiday season and are recharged and ready for the remainder of the year with the rest of your kiddies.

Lots of things going on that I wanted to share with you.

First up: January Math Journals! 

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the feedback and comments about the journals. If you download from TPT, try to leave feedback (for any freebie you download - not just mine). It is nice to read encouraging words and know that the work put into a classroom item is appreciated.

Next up: Top Teacher's Kinderland Blog

If you haven't visited, check it out! This blog is in the beginning stages,  but it will feature some AMAZING teachers posting tips, ideas and freebies.   Watch for a chance to be a guest blogger! 
Pinteresting News:
Click on the pic above to follow the KinderLand Pinterest Board.
So much news! Watch for a big announcement coming in the next few weeks.  KinderLand has exciting plans that will be revealed soon (are you dying of suspense yet?!?).  To be ready, be sure to check out Google+.

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Go Puzzlers!

We are working so hard to learn teen numbers! I'm trying really hard to focus on the understanding behind everything -which isn't easy, but definitely worthwhile!

With teen numbers, we are breaking down the number into tens and ones, counting that many objects, drawing that many objects and matching objects to numbers. My class has been playing "Can you Catch Me?" - a freebie that you can grab by clicking on the picture below. This helps with number recognition.

To continue learning about numbers, we learned how to play "Puzzler". 

Don't be jealous of my creative game names...haha.

Puzzler is simple - give each student a piece of a puzzle. Have students study their piece (we did it quietly - and didn't tell other people what we had). The object is to find your match and complete the puzzle. Once completed, students display their puzzles.

We displayed ours on a cookie sheet - I added magnets to the back of the cards so they could use cookie sheets but also so we can use these puzzles in calendar. We only did numbers 1-5 - mostly so they could practice the procedures for Puzzler. :)

Want to check out the puzzle pack? Click the pic below. Each number (1-20) has a 4-piece puzzle.

Little Red Hen!

Last week we had a great time reading different stories about the Little Red Hen (or chicken or turkey or rooster...depending on the day!). 

My kiddos were really upset with the dog, cat and mouse in Paul Galdone's story. They were so mad that the animals were mean to the LRH! Love it!

It led to some great discussions about the character's feelings and emotions - yeah for making connections throughout the text!

We are working on building comprehension skills
and prediction was our focus last week.

We predicted what would happen after the hen took the pizza out of the oven.
Would she share or not? Would she drop the pizza? Would she make another one?

It was fairly split down the middle of sharing/not sharing.

Some were very creative.

When we finished up last week, we voted for our favorite story! I didn't get a picture of the ballots we used - but I just put a quick copy of the three covers on a small piece of paper. They were so excited to vote!

 This is one of my favorite stories to read - and there are so many good versions.

Tricky Teens

We are in the dreaded teen number phase! Okay, it hasn't been so bad. My kiddos are doing fairly well with teen numbers - especially identifying them.

::Teacher yells "Yeahhhhhhhh!!!!!"::

My team and I always start teaching teen numbers around the last week of November - so we carry the lessons right up through Christmas Break.

Today we worked on the number 16. During our small group mini-lesson, we practiced writing the number, drawing tally marks, and filling in a ten frame. We then drew 16 Christmas Lights on the whiteboard and labeled them when we were finished drawing.

Bonus: If you call them bulbs, the kiddos love it. Mine were so excited to say the "funny" word bulb...haha!

For individual practice, each student drew their own set of Christmas lights - complete with 16 bulbs! I love how easy it is to differentiate this activity. I had kiddos drawing 10 frames and tally marks - just to practice.

::Teacher yells again "Yeahhhhhhhh!!!!!"::

Here are some pics of our drawings:

This activity hits two Common Core standards:


K.CC.3: Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects)


K.CC.5: Count to answer “how many?” questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1–20, count out that many objects.

December Math Journals

I'm so excited to hear from all of you about Math Journals. I receive so many emails and positive comments in my TPT store. It's encouraging and uplifting. :) So thank you!!!

When I started doing them last November, I honestly had no idea how my kiddos would do. Problem solving is a difficult skill to master - let alone teach to Kinders!

Even with all that said - I cannot tell you how impressed I've been with my students. This is my second year using Math Journals - and both classes showed tremendous growth in both number sense and problem solving skills. Yeahhhh!!

It's not always easy to find an extra 10 minutes to fit these in. Time is precious to us during our hectic and busy days. I encourage you to try and find this time somewhere though - and guarantee it will pay off in the end.