Letter and Number Recognition

Our Kindergarten homework asks students to practice letter and number recognition. Here are some fun ways to practice letters and numbers. These activities also help with fine motor development. Write letters and numbers in chalk, salt, sand, or shaving cream. Tell the students a letter or number and they write it. You could write the letter or number and ask the kids to identify it.

 

Make letters and numbers out of Play-Doh.

Write letters and numbers in finger paint.

 Make letters out of pipe cleaners or Wikki Stix.

Make sticker letters and numbers. First write the letter or number with a marker, then have the students cover the lines you drew with stickers.

 Use scissors to practice cutting out various shapes and lines. You can find learn to cut books like the one below at Dollar Tree or the dollar section at Target.

Use flash cards to practice identifying numbers and letters. Start with five numbers or letters and practice those until the students have them memorized. Then add five new numbers and practice those until the students have them memorized. Make sure the cards are in a random order; this way the students will learn the letters and numbers, not the order they are in.

Play with a Play-Doh letter or number bucket ($5.00 at Target).

 Get write-on, wipe-off books to practice letter writing. This also saves paper. 

Get a magnetic writing board to practice letters and numbers.

Use a number die to identify numbers. Roll the die and identify the number that is facing up. 

Practice counting to 10. Use a number line to point to numbers as you count. 

Watch the following on YouTube:
- Phonics Song 2
- The Big Numbers Song
- Lets Get Fit Count to 100 Jack Hartmann 

Kinder Camp 2016

Last Monday, we had Kinder Camp. Kinder Camp is four hours long. The incoming Kindergarten students come to school and find their desks and cubbies, learn our basic classroom rules and procedures, and meet their classmates. This helps the students and their parents feel more comfortable on the first day of school. As a teacher, it is a wonderful experience for me to meet the students before the first day of school and see how they work with other students, assess their prior knowledge, and learn a little about each child. The kids come in their uniforms if they want to, they bring a healthy snack, and they bring their school supplies. I encourage parents to stay and volunteer. This year I had a big group of parents that stayed and helped me. They organized and put away class supplies, prepared future projects, and washed our chairs. It was an awesome day!

I have the parents sign their child in and leave information about how to contact them if they are not staying and tell me if their child has allergies.

The students each get a name tag.

I set out collection bins for school supplies so that I do not have to sort the supplies later.

This is my classroom door. I put each student's name on a small paper and stick it to the door with painter's tape.

I always have work ready for parent volunteers to help with. This way, they get to stay and I get some work done too.

Here is my classroom taken from the front door.

Here is my writing wall where I display the students' work all year.

This is my classroom taken from the front corner of the room.

This is me with one of my students.

I got a FREE area rug from Coles Fine Flooring!

Last Saturday, my son and I got up really early and went to wait in line for a free area rug. We got to Coles Fine Flooring at 6:45am and we were 35th in line. Coles gave away 150 rugs to teachers. This was the line.

Here is my area rug! It is 5'x8'. I am going to use it for small group meetings. Thank you Coles Fine Flooring!

Back To School 2016

It's that time of the year. I have sent each of my students a Back to School postcard and their Kinder Camp flier and class supplies list.

My son is going to be in my class this year so I got to actually got to purchase the supplies on my supply list. I ended up buying a few extra books for the class library. 

Graduation 2016

We had our Kindergarten graduation at the beginning of June. My room mom made this poem about our Kindergarten year and gave one to each student. It was such a cute idea!

Here are the kids ready to graduate.

Here is the hall and all of our decorations.

Parent volunteers made chunky crayons out of our left over crayon pieces and the students got to take them home on graduation day.

It was a wonderful day. Now to start planning for next year. Have a wonderful summer!