Freebies!

Three weeks into school and I'm loving my class! We're down to 36 kids and they're amazing! They all have such personality, they all make me laugh! I can already tell we're in for an awesome year! Here are some things that we have been using in class. :)

Uppercase and lowercase letter recognition activity- Kids pick an apple card and color the letter on their sheet. I start out doing this with small groups and then eventually make it a center.

Click to download Apple Letter Recognition

Learning Letter Sounds little book- The kids loved coloring and reading their Sounds Like Fun Book so much that we're going to make a new one this week. This song is by Jack Hartmann. I'm also going to use the school poster maker to make a Learning Letter Sounds ABC Chart so the child of the day can point to the letters as we listen to the song.

Click here to download the chart

Click here to download the book
Click here to download the book cover

Counting Jar book- this book is a place for students to record how many items they see in the counting jar. Click here to download the Counting Jar Book

Color Monster book- every year the kids LOVE this color monster book. It's really old-school in a wonderful, classic way! I've been looking for an updated version and I can't find one. A co-worker copied these pictures back when you had to turn a crank to make copies on a copy machine! This year I re-created the book by scanning her drawings and typing the poems.Click Here to download Color Monster

Chasing Away the Wiggles!

Sorry I have been MIA! School started on August 22nd and it's been crazy! Every year I seem to blackout how it is in the beginning of the year. So far my co-teacher and I have 39 students! Our school is moving another teacher to kindergarten so a couple will go to her class, but I think we'll stay at 36. Luckily the kids are really sweet and we don't have any real behavior problems, just a bunch of lovely active boys (26!). They're already learning so fast, and each day gets better!

So far we try to keep everything super simple and short since their attention span lasts about 10 minutes. We've been doing a lot of Simon Says and fun movement songs to chase away the wiggles! My favorite is called Ants in your Pants by Eric Herman. I found it on Pinterest. I love the graphics in this video!

They also really like Workout to the Letter Sounds by Jack Hartmann. Some days we'll even break out the 10 minute Rainy Day Recess clip from United Streaming to wear them out a little. Do you have a favorite song that will keep away the wiggles? Leave me a comment!