Fall Math Stations!

Our fall math stations are in full swing! I feel like I say this every time, but I LOVE this time of independent math practice during our day!! Check out what we've been working on...

A fall friendly shake and spill to make five.

 Scarecrow ten frame and number match.

 Greater than, less than, and equal to card game with a fun twist! 

 Draw, write, and make the number on a ten frame. This one also has a recording sheet for stamping instead of the ten frame, but we wanted to do all laminated sheets this year to avoid making so many copies!

 Flat and solid shape sort. It was so fun to hear them sorting today as they said aloud flat or solid for each picture. 

 Sorting silly fall leaves by shape and size.

 Working on greater than, less than, and equal to with this hiding fall mouse game. One player hides as the other one puts the fall mouse behind a number. 

 Then the player that was hiding, comes back around and asks questions like, is it greater than five? Is it less than three? 

 They narrow it down until they figure out which number the mouse is hiding behind.

 Autumn roll and cover. This can be played individually or with a partner. I played this today with one of my students and we had so much fun! I love the little leaf manipulatives. I scored those at Target last year in the dollar spot. Not sure if they have them again this year or not. 

 We always love our write the room station! Two different recording sheets go with this one. Either just writing the amount or writing the amount along with the number that comes before and after. 

These are all included in my Fall Math Stations pack along with a few more!! There are 12 stations total and they are all aligned to the Common Core! If you already have these, you will want to download the updated version for some additional recording sheets. I've found that laminating the recording sheets works so much better for us instead of making so many copies, so if you would rather have those, they are now included!

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Literacy Centers - Letter Sounds

It’s been a few weeks since we were doing these letter sound literacy centers, but I finally got them posted in my store and ready to share with all of you! The kids were so excited about these centers! The first day I introduced them, we didn’t have time to actually go do them and the kiddos were so bummed!! You’ve gotta love their enthusiasm! J

Without further ado, here they are!

At our green table, the students enjoyed Spot it, Dot it with the letter sounds we were learning. They love using the BINGO daubers and it was a great way to practice letter identification and letter sounds. They had to say the sound the letter makes as they dot it with their BINGO dauber.

This Spin & Write the Sound center was at our yellow table. We used two different spinners during our two week period so that we focused on different sounds the second time around. There is a corresponding recording sheet for each spinner. My kids really enjoy the spinner games that I’ve introduced this year. There must be something about flicking that paper clip! J After they spin, they identify the beginning sound of the picture it lands on. Then they have to find the corresponding letter that makes the sound to write it.

The students at the purple table worked on I Spy worksheets for the letter sounds we have introduced and learned. There is a focus sound for each sheet and the students have to find all the pictures that begin with the sound as well as any letters that match the sound. Once they spy them, they color them.

Those first three centers can be found in my Beginning Sounds Literacy Center BUNDLE pack or individually in my TpT store.

We kept the next center at the blue table the same only with different letters that we were learning. The students trace, write, stamp, color, and find the letter. They are encouraged to say the sound as they do each. This is from my A-Z Letter Practice in D’Nealian, but it is also in traditional print here.

The last center was at the red table where the students made letters on geoboards. After they made the letter, we encouraged them to say the sound the letter made three times. The letter cards were found from here.

My teaching partner and I both have three Block B students from Kansas State University in our classrooms right now. They are studying to become teachers and only have two semesters left after this one before they graduate, so this is just one step to becoming a teacher. They teach a few lessons and make literacy games, so they created our next set of literacy centers. We are almost finished with those and will be putting together another new set of centers for our students. With our first quarter under wraps, we have more data to really get started with our MTSS groups. I've been pulling here and there, but my goal for this next quarter is to really hit it hard and pull my low students more consistently during our literacy centers time. Hopefully I'll be sharing that sixth center on all my future literacy center posts. J 

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Back to School Math Stations - Part 1

We had a great first week with our Back to School Math Stations! Before I show you the stations we are working on, I thought I would show you how I am organizing my math station rotations this year. Last year I put the student names on a pocket chart with their names next to the number they were going to that day (as seen here). This year I have it all on my SMART board, and it's so nice because I just have to notate which day we are on in my plans instead of moving names each day. Check it out...

On my daily routines SMART Notebook file, the first page looks like this. I will blog about this at another time to show you how much time it saves me, but notice the Math Stations link under the math note? The numbers are linked to the rotation day that we are on, so if it is the first day of these math stations I would click on 1 and it would take me to the slide you see below. 

 As you can see, once it takes me to the day we are on, the groups are already set and students can see the number station they are going to and what color their number is. The color is just as important as the number because the color tells them which table they bring their station to. In my classroom, I have five table groups that are colored green, red, blue, purple, and yellow. The students who are on orange are doing a write the room activity or their activity would be done at the carpet. So, the number is for the math station they are doing and the color is where they bring their math station. 

To the left, you will notice the other slides with days 1-12 since we do twelve rotations before new math stations are introduced. All the days are ready to go with the groups already rotated, so it makes it super easy on me (or a sub) since I just write in my plans which day we are on. Then I post it up on the SMART board for the students to find their name, number, and color.

Now for the stations we are working on! 

At stations 1 and 7, we are matching numerals to the correct amount of crayons. We are recording our puzzles on a recording sheet too!

At stations 2 and 8, we are playing a matching game using ten frames and crayons and then sorting school supplies by color. For the memory match game, we decided to keep the numerals out of the picture this time around. With our next set of math stations, we might do the same game but have the students match the numeral to the picture or ten frame. Many options for that station like even making it into a Go Fish game!

The students only do one of these stations, so in a 12 day rotation they only do it once whereas some of the other stations they will do twice. So the matching game might be station 2 and the sorting game might be station 8. 

 At stations 3 and 9, we are drawing a number and making it with our manipulatives at one and linking numbers in order at the other. The recording sheet is optional for the first one. For some of my kids, they need that little something extra and then others need to have less to focus on, so I just give them the cards and the manipulatives. 

 For the station where they link the numbers in order, some of them are ready to go all the way to 10 and others need to focus on 0-5. I change the amount of cards depending on who is at the station. So far, we have just introduced numbers 0-5 so that is the focus for all of them. They can check their work with the number line that you see in the picture.

 

 Stations 4 and 10 the students get to play a game called, Heading to School. It's a very simple game board, but they work on rolling the dice, counting the dots (or subitizing), and then counting/moving that many spaces. 

 

 For stations 5 and 11, the students are making numbers with play dough using these play dough mats. They form the numeral and then fill in the ten frame to represent the number.

 The last stations, 6 and 12, are the write the room stations where students put their recording sheet on their clipboard and find the pictures posted around the room. When they find the picture, they count how many are on the card and record it on the recording sheet. I have the answer key available for them when they finish to check their work. They love it!!

We only go to one station each day for about 15 minutes. When I ring the bell, they clean up their station by putting everything back in their bag and placing it in the correct drawer so they are ready to be used again tomorrow!

I can't say enough good things about this time in our day. The kids love it, I love it, and I'm always so impressed with how independently they work together. Did I mention we are only in our first week of math stations and they are already doing amazing?! Happy kids, happy teacher! :) 

If you would like to enjoy these stations with your kindergarteners, they are already made for you along with many other fun back to school math stations in this pack here. All aligned to the Common Core Standards, recording sheets, answer keys, and instruction cards provided with the standard posted on them. Here's a peek at another station that is included. We played this game as a class and with a partner this week as part of our math lesson. Very similar to a Fill the Chute game, but with a recess theme. They loved it and it will be part of our math stations in our next rotation.

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Vegas: Blogger Meet-Up, TpT Conference, & Some NEWS!!

Sorry for the delay, friends! We headed up to Minnesota for a road trip to visit my husband's brother and I never found time for my continued Vegas post. Basically....LIFE happened!! Ever have that happen to you?! ;)

So, let me continue...

Wednesday night in Vegas, was the FABULOUS Teacher-Blogger Meet-Up! Just like I Teach K!, this was my first time attending this event. MUCH to my surprise, when we arrived we got to fill up a bag with all kinds of teacher goodies!!! I mean, seriously, look at this!! On top of all of that, they had tons of big prizes that we put our name in for drawings and a free drink from TpT! Even though I didn't win any of the big prizes, I think all of this below plus the experience equals WINNING! :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the amazing teachers that helped put this on and to all the companies that sponsored!! It's so awesome to feel so appreciated! 

This is a picture of most of the teachers involved in setting this event up. Do you recognize them?! :) I must say, it's pretty sweet to finally meet/see so many bloggers that I follow and look up to. There were SO many in one room! Look at this packed house!

It was a fun night mingling around and meeting people. I must say, I am typically pretty shy when I'm around a ton of people I don't really know, but I met these sweet new friends and we roamed around together! It definitely helped me chill out and get out of my comfort zone. These are the ladies from All Y'all Need and another new friend Barbara and her friend Jennifer (not pictured). Seriously super sweet ladies! It was so great to meet you!

As we were roaming around, I met Cheryl from Primary Graffiti and Kathleen from Growing Kinders. It was great talking to Cheryl about the possibilities of looping and the pros and cons since I had considered looping the past two years. She was so sweet, friendly, and so willing to share her tips and tricks! I greatly appreciate it too!!

My friend, Elizabeth, from Kickin' It In Kindergarten was part of the team putting on this big shindig, so I didn't get to talk to her long, but we did manage to get a picture! Like I said, it's so great to finally meet the people you have been blogging with for so long! New real friends!! :)

Now we will skip to Friday...the amazing first annual Teachers Pay Teachers Conference!! Can I just say how honored and proud I am to be a part of such a wonderful community! I knew it was a fab community before this conference, but after being there with all these other teachers and the founders of this company I realized how TRULY fabulous it is!! If you were there, you know exactly what I'm talking about! It was so inspiring to hear from the founder, Paul Edelman, and from the two million dollar best seller, Deanna Jump, about their story to success. They started out just like you and I as teachers and even struggled to make ends meet, but with the help of TpT and its success (thanks to all teachers and Paul's vision!!) you can see where they are now! SO INSPIRING!!!

I had the opportunity to listen to Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills share their ideas about making products and how their products have evolved over the years. Most of what they shared was so reassuring that what I am doing in my products is right or at least what the top sellers are doing. They had some great reminders and tips to share and of course they are always so fun to listen to! :)

Then I attended the session over the data advantage with TpT Head of Data, Ryan Van Meter, and Kelley Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory. This session was so interesting!!! I feel like this is part of TpT that I never see and it was just reassuring and good-to-know information to help grow my store. We also got some sneak peeks into what will be coming!!!! Check out these statistics...aren't these nice to know if you are a seller?! Most of it matches up with my sale patterns.

 

That afternoon, I attended a session about quality of products with Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade and Erica Bohrer from Erica's Ed-Ventures. They were so fun to listen to and had some more great tips for creating products that were very helpful! It was nice because it was very laid back and we were able to ask questions as they went on. My last session was with Erin from Lovin' Lit. She shared her keys to success like finding your magic ingredient. It's mind blowing how quickly she found success and it was so inspiring to hear her story too! She gave everyone a CD full of resources on it as well which was super sweet of her! 

It was an AMAZING day full of learning and collaborating and I'm so glad I got the chance to be a part of it!

There was a TpT Happy Hour afterward that I ended up skipping out on this time, but it looked like a lot of fun with drinks and a photo booth from the pictures I've seen! I know, I know!!! Why would I skip out on something like that?! Well, to be honest, I wasn't feeling the best and couldn't take full advantage of the two FREE drinks they gave us. Are those clues as to some news with me?! I haven't shared this with all of you yet, but you guessed it! I am pregnant!! Our first, sweet baby is due on December 29th and I am almost 18 weeks now. My husband and I couldn't be more excited!! Every day is already a new adventure and we can't wait to meet our little one!

 

 

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed a little review of my adventures in Vegas this summer. I head back to school very soon. I can just see my summertime slipping away! *tear* I am helping with enrollment in a week and then teachers start back on the 5th of August. My kinders start coming in for one-on-one assessments on the 12th and their first day is the 15th. I'm very excited for this year with my new teacher partner, but I can't believe it's almost here! I guess another plus is the sooner we get started, the sooner December will get here for us to meet our little baby! :) Wish me luck, it's going to be tough going back to school and not having time for my daily naps! Haha!

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