Math Menus

Every year that I have taught kindergarten, I have a parent at least one parent that I would describe politely as demanding. I know I am not alone and I have come to learn that this is just something that comes with the territory of being a teacher. This year, I have had a parent repeatedly request that I work on multiplication with their child despite my pointing out all of the kindergarten standards that this child still needs to practice and master. Although I am not a parent yet, I plan to have children of my own one day and I get it. I understand the parents' desire for their child to be challenged beyond the kindergarten standards. While my aim is to make sure that each and every child is challenged daily, parents do not always see tangible products of these challenges.

Kindergarteners come in with a wide arrangement of skills and abilities and while the specific child mentioned above has not mastered basic problem solving skills just yet, I do have a child in my class that has demonstrated understanding and competency of multiplication.  Differentiation is a key part of kindergarten, but I often wonder how I can challenge each student without constantly going on a wild goose chase for resources appropriate for each and student.

I came up with the idea of allowing students to create their own math problems within certain parameters. I could give them the answer to a problem and they could use any method they choose to arrive at that answer (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, multi-steps). This allows students the freedom to practice skills appropriate to their ability level while still giving them a bit of structure and guidance.

I LOVE giving students the ownership of their learning and the ability for them to work at their own level, but I also wanted to make sure that my students are still working on building a solid foundation in all of the standards and skills of kindergarten. So, I came up with the idea of differentiated math menus. Students have the opportunity to pick and choose the order they want to work and are still given the opportunity to create. My above-level kids are able to work independently and I check in and assess their progress as we meet for small group time. My on-level and struggling learners work on their menus with me in small group time. I still allow them to pick which problem they want to work on, but I am there to help guide them. Click on the images below to see my differentiated math menus for the spring semester.

To cover all problem types and build a solid foundation in problem solving skills, I included 2 different CGI problem types in each math menu. The problem types are outlined in the tables below:

These math menus also focus on repeated practice of the following skills:

Click on the image above to see my math menus for the spring semester. 

I would love to hear some of the ways you differentiate to meet the needs of the students in your class! 

Morning Meeting: The Easy Way

A few years ago, I peeked into one of my colleagues classrooms and noticed her kids were playing an extremely active game that looked a lot like "London Bridge." All of her kids were engaged and she was facilitating the activity. I was inspired and curious and left wondering what this was all about and how I could make it happen in my classroom! I asked her about it and she told me it was part of her morning meeting and shared a great resource with me to help get it started in my classroom.

I ordered this book, read it, and knew I had to implement the morning meeting into my classroom ASAP. There are four key components to the morning meeting: greeting, share, group activity, and morning message. The purpose behind morning meeting is to grow students holistically. Students grow academically, socially, and emotionally and also practice listening and speaking skills. Overall, it's a fun way to enhance language development AND start your day! 

All of these skills, which are essential to academic achievement, must be modeled, practiced and refined. But how can we ensure that it is meaningful AND fun and keep it from becoming a dull routine?! I wanted to mix it up but didn't want something else I had to worry about finding resources and activities for. So I put together my own resource of greetings and games I have learned/acquired/created over the last few years. My resource includes:

• A morning meeting binder cover 
• Morning Meeting weekly planner [helps organize greetings, activities, and share time topics to use each day of the week when/if you feel like planning ahead ;)]
• Share time schedule to keep track of which students will share each day of the week
• List of 12 share time topics to use throughout the year
• 17 greeting task cards (color version)
• 17 greeting task cards (black and white version)
• 20 activity cards (color version)
• 20 activity cards (black and white version)
• Index of printables that go along with some of the activities

Click on the photo below to check out the resource I created:

Pictured below is a fun phonemic awareness game card freebie that can be played whole class or in small groups. My class loves this game and it can be modified and adapted to cover many different phonics skills. If you like this game, be sure to check out my morning meeting resource. It is filled with many other game cards similar to this one! 

Phonics Through Poetry

This year, I was introduced to a new resource and I'm not really sure how I ever lived without it! I have always struggled with the idea of teaching phonics whole group because my kids are all over the place in terms of phonics skills. However, this resource makes whole group phonics possible and is something I use daily in my classroom.

(I am not getting paid to promote this product or making anything from this link, just want to share a great teaching tool!)

This book is filled with 115 poems, each with a different focus sound that may be represented by different combinations of letters. Some of these focus sounds include: consonants, short a, short e, short i, short o, short u, long a, long e, long i, long u, l blends, s blends, r blends, and more.

Each week, we focus on one poem and look at it through a different lens each day.

On Monday, I introduce the poem and its focus sound on chart paper. We discuss what's happening in the poem and we echo read line by line. I ask students to listen for the words that have the focus sound as we read it together. Next, we go line by line and the students identify the words that have the focus sound while I underline them.

On Tuesday, we review the focus sound and then echo read or choral read the poem. I call several students up to the chart paper to circle the sight words in the poem (there are usually enough sight words for almost every student to come up and circle one).

On Wednesday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Afterward, students underline the words with the focus sounds and circle the sight words on their own copy of the poem.

On Thursday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Then, we generate a list of our own words that have the focus sound in them. (My kids surprise me each week with the words they are able to come up with!)

On Friday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Afterward, students are able to illustrate a picture on their copy of the poem.

The poems are really catchy and the kids LOVE them! Here is a look at one of our anchor charts at the end of working with the poem. (This is the shortest poem we have done, they are usually much longer!)

Since we are working on blends with our poetry, I am also working on blends in small groups. My kids love these games from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. Each game board has different blends and we practice stretching and writing each word. We focus on blends but are able to discuss some other spelling patterns as well.

I also put these blend cards in my word work center this week:

These cards can be sorted in a pocket chart center or used as a matching or memory game during literacy workstations. The blends included are: st, sp, sl, br, bl, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, tr
Click on either picture above to be taken to my TpT store where you can get these cards!

Minimal Prep Math Games and FREEBIES

Part of keeping math tubs fun and engaging is switching them out semi-frequently. Because I switch them out so much, I am always looking for games that don't require too much preparation on my part. I like to fill my math tubs with simple games and activities that can be played again and again for repeated practice and can be done independently. Here are a few math game ideas that are super quick and easy to prepare!

1. Domino Mats- Write the numbers 0-12 on half sheets of colored paper and have students sort the dominoes based on their total number of dots. This simple activity helps students reinforce their counting skills, see that numbers are made up of parts (composing and decomposing), and can also serve as practice for addition. I like to have my high students pick a number and write addition sentences in their math journal for the dominoes on that number mat.

2. Double Ten Frame Mat- Give your students a double ten frame mat, some unifix cubes, and 2-3 dice or number cards 0-20. These materials can be used in so many ways, depending on your math objectives! Here are just a few of the ways you can use these materials:

• Have your students pull a number card/roll dice and build that number on their mat. Students can look at how many more they need to make 10 or how many more than 10 they have. Have them practice telling this verbally to a partner by saying, " I have ____, I need ____ more to make 10." or "I have ___. 10 and ____ makes this number." This activity really helps build students' number sense and see the numbers that make up other numbers. 

• Have students work with a partner to practice comparing numbers. Each student can pull a number card, build the number and talk about which number is greater and which number is least. Challenge them to figure out the difference between the two numbers and verbalize it using comparative language. (Ex: My number is ____ less than your number)

• Have students pull a number card/roll dice and build the number on their mat to practice their teen numbers. I challenge my students to keep the cubes on their boards and then figure out how many they will need to add/subtract to make the next number. Students can then record the number sentences they use to make each number by writing down what number they started with, how many they added or subtracted, and then the number they made. 

Click on the picture below to grab a copy of my double ten frame mat as a freebie!

3. Bump- This game is a class favorite! Add 2 dice or cards with addition facts to 12 for a fun way for students to practice addition. Players take turns rolling the dice, adding the numbers together, and covering that number with one of their unifix cubes. If another player has already covered the number, the player can "bump" their cube off of the number. If one of their own unifix cubes is on the number, the player can put another unifix cube on top of it, securing its place on the number. Whoever secures the most numbers wins! Click on the picture below to download a copy of this game in color and black and white versions as a FREEBIE!

4. Connect 5- Just add dice and sets of 2 different colored counters and your students are set to play this game!  I included a few different versions in this set so that students can practice doubles, doubles plus one, and adding two numbers together. Click on any of the pictures below to download this FREEBIE! Directions for playing are included in the file.

5. Roll, Add, Graph- Its as simple as it's name! Students can practice addition, graphing, and fine motor (writing skills) with this activity. Have students roll 2 dice, add the numbers together, and graph the number. Turn this activity into a game by having students play with a partner. Each partner can take turns rolling the dice and recording the numbers on their own page. Whoever fills up a number on their graph first wins! Click on the photo below to download this FREEBIE.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have found some of these resources to be useful! 

Writing Conference Organization

Writers workshop is one of my favorite parts of our day in my classroom (my students' too). My workshop is structured using Lucy Calkins units of study and I am amazed every year at just how much growth my students show! A brief overview of our workshop structure is as follows:

I DO - I give a teaching point and model the teaching point.

WE DO - We practice the teaching point together through shared writing. This active engagement piece is crucial!

YOU DO - I send students off to practice the teaching point independently while I walk around and have writing conferences with my students.

The last portion is the area I struggle with! I love having writing conferences with students but I find that afterward, students don't always remember what I wanted them to focus on! I wanted to create a resource that would help me take anecdotal notes and would also help my students have a focus for their writing even when I am not working directly with them.

I wanted something tangible that students can look at each day as they get started with their independent writing, but I also wanted it to be something quick and easy for myself. I am having my students keep one of these in their writing folder and at the end of each conference, I give them a label with a focus point until our next conference.

When students master the skill, they can color in the label. This page and 15 different pages of labels are included my writing conference setup resource. **These labels were intended to be printed on Avery Labels 8860 but when I saved the templates as PDFs, the printing got slightly off the template. The PDFs are in the file in case you want to print on regular paper and cut them out, otherwise I recommend using the word templates I included and changing the font to your liking!**

Click on the photo above to see this product. This resource includes:

"Writing Conference Binder" cover (pictured above)

Emergent writer checklist and observation sheet

Fluent writer checklist and observation sheet

Writing conference note taking sheet

"I am working on..." sheet for student's writing folder

15 different pages of labels with focus points for students (both PDF and .doc format)

There are also setup ideas included in this resource but you can click any of the images below to get them as a freebie!

What tips and tricks do you have? I would love to hear them!

Christmas Crafting

For the last few years, the time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas has seemed to fly by so fast that I don't have nearly enough time to enjoy it. This year I decided to jump right in so I can enjoy every second of the season. I put my Christmas tree up and decorations out a few days before Thanksgiving and even managed to create a few things of my own!

Growing up, I could not wait to change the number every morning on my family's Christmas countdown as we got a day closer to Christmas. I have always loved the idea of taking the countdown a step further with an advent calendar and am hoping to make it a tradition for my (future) family. There are so many free, printable activities and ideas on Pinterest so after a little perusing, I decided to go for it! With no direct plan in mind, I headed to Hobby Lobby. I was able to piece together some different materials I liked and luckily, everything I needed was 50% off and I was able to gather my materials for under $25! Here is how it turned out:

Material breakdown: 

• Framed burlap board- $20 - $9.99 
• Gold ribbon- $4.99 - $2.49
• 2 sets of 20 gold patterned craft sacks- $2.99 each - $1.49  Click here to see the patterns
• 5 sets of 12 gift tags- $1.99 each - $0.99 each - There were TONS of tags to choose from! I wanted a variety so I got 5 different ones but you could make all 25 the same or different!
• Mini clothespins- $2.99 - $1.49
• Number stickers- $1.99 - $0.99

TOTAL: $22.89

I used a framed burlap board and stapled on 5 rows of ribbon, evenly spaced. (The staples are covered up by the craft sacks).

I matched the gift tags to a pattern on the craft sacks since I had 5 different kinds of each. Next, I cut the strings off the gift tags and hot glued them onto the craft sacks. I arranged them how I wanted them on the board and pinned them onto the ribbon using the mini clothespins. When they were arranged to my liking, I added the number stickers to the bottom of the craft sticks. Super easy!

I am also a proud (somewhat new) owner of a silhouette portrait cutting machine! I bought my portrait 3 months ago and am still amazed at everything the machine can do. I am still a complete newbie and have just been exploring the design software and creating simple things for my classroom and home. While playing around with the software, I created a design that I (kind of) liked! I had my machine cut it out and I decided to pair it with some scrapbook paper that I had laying around. I couldn't decide which pairing I liked best!

 

Click any of the above images to download the silhouette studio design I created as a freebie!