The 4 Top Skills Your Students Should Master In January & A Learning Opportunity For YOU Too!

These 4 skill sets are on  SALE for the New Year...

Phonics, sight words, writing, & math:

My favorite 3 Language Arts sets, plus my huge Numbers 1-10 set, are all on sale right now and through this New Year weekend! What a great way to welcome in 2017 and be ready for your "Littles" when school resumes in Jan.

January is the perfect time to focus on foundational Language Arts skills AND to review the numbers 1-10 before moving on to those tricky teens. Help your students to develop true conceptual understanding and build a firm foundation for the numbers 1-10. That will make the teens easier to understand.

1. All About Numbers 1-10: You get all of this for each number 1-10! The different templates allow you to differentiate and focus on specific skills. Great for RTI too.

2. Seasonal Journal Pages with Rubrics: You get the basic "pencil" rubric plus four additional templates, one for each season. Your students will love returning to school to a new "winter" journal. You can copy & bind these into a daily journal or use them one-at-a-time as needed.

3. Sight Word Pocket-Lockets: This makes a FUN small group lesson and can also be used to create an independent center. Just copy on colored construction paper, add scissors, glue, and some yarn to help your students create a pocket watch or a locket to wear home.

4. Alphabet Picture Cards and a template for a cute alphabet book: You can do one a week or one a day. Each page reinforces initial consonant and short vowel sounds.

Have you thought of attending a conference this January?

I'll be presenting at the PK1 Conference in Santa Clara, CA on Jan. 14 & 15.

You can read about all of the speakers and sessions by 

CLICKING HERE. 

Click the image.

And if you're on the East coast, you can catch me at
The SDE Conference for Tennessee Pre-K Teachers by
CLICKING HERE.

CLICK THE IMAGE.

I hope you enjoy the sale and have a wonderful New Year!
See you all in 2017!

How to host a successful Christmas book exchange

Hi everyone, it's Cori from Mrs. B's Beehive!  I hope you are all resting on your Christmas break, and recharging your batteries!  Today I wanted to share a fun idea that we do in my classroom every year.

Every year when we get back from Thanksgiving break, I send out this note to my parents:

I ask them each to buy an inexpensive book to share and suggest that they try looking at Walmart or Target.  I try to stress the importance of gender neutrality as well, although I've had a few years where parents don't listen (shocking I know) and bring in a super girly or very boyish book.  When that happens, my kids usually just end up trading books.

I usually buy a couple of extra little books and wrap them, because I'm afraid that someone won't bring their books at the last minute.  I've actually never had someone forget to bring a book tho!  Here is a picture of what it looks like in action.  It's super blurry because it's a couple years old, and also because they move so fast when I say ready, set, go that it's hard to capture the moment! : )

This has been a hit every year, and I hope it's something you can incorporate into your own classroom!  If you would like to download a copy of the letter I use you can click on the link below:

Christmas Book Exchange Letter

Elf Fun

Hey everyone, it's Amanda from Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten and I would love to tell you about my absolute favorite holiday activity that I do with my class.

It's called "Elf Yourself" and it is so much fun!  I take my students and turn them into elves.

To make these fun crafts, I take pictures of my students and then use the templates in my craftivity to make the body, hat, hands, and feet.

I like using Christmas themed scrapbook paper to make these unique for each student.  You don't have to use scrapbook paper, you could simply use red, green, and white construction paper as well.

Not only do these make an adorable display in the classroom, but my parents always love getting these to hang in their houses and keep too!  I had a former parent tell me that she loves getting out her child's elf every year when they decorate their house for Christmas.

If you would like to make these, click on the image below to grab this product from my TpT store.

EASY FREEBIE Christmas Ornament!

Easy Craft Ornament 

Every year when I unpack my Christmas decorations I get this overwhelming guilty feeling that I am not doing enough with my kindergarten students. It can be overwhelming! 
Here is an easy ornament idea that you can put in a center this week to send home before Christmas. They turn out really cute! 
You can grab it here for free if you need an ornament to send home! Just click on the picture:

Yes...I changed it to say 2016 :) 

All you have to do is print it on red construction paper and cut them out.  Cut a bunch of different strips of paper (I used a bunch of old scraps from my scrapbooking days) in the 4 sizes and I had the little star punch for the top but you could cut those out too.  I put it all in a bag so they didn't have to go grab anything....

I put a school picture on the back and that was that!  It was my stress free ornament last year and they turned out really cute! This year I am going to have a parent helper sit with my laminator and laminate them and cut them out as the kiddos make them and attach a little piece of ribbon. They will be tree ready as soon as they get home! 

Thanks for stopping in today to Kinder Tribe! 

Thanksgiving May Be Over, But You Can Still...

... use it to teach sight words and numerals!

Here are 3 ways to transition from Nov. to Dec.

#1. Thanksgiving Sight Words & Numerals:

1. Give each child a lined card with the word "see" on it and the numerals 1-5.

2. Give each child a copy of my Thanksgiving Counting Book.

Click the image to see this book. 

3. Students fill in the word "see" on each page, count the objects, and fill in the correct numerals.

This is a GREAT book to take home and read to their family too!

But That's Not All:

No, that's not all. 

#2.  I also made a Christmas Counting Book: 

Click the image to see this book. 

This book is filled with sight words for your students to learn and read as they count the objects and fill in the numerals 1-10. 

BONUS: Did I mention that ALL of the products in my TpT store are on sale through Nov. 29 and if you use the code CYBER2016, you can even save an extra 10% which will bring your savings to 28%!

#3.  Seasonal Writing Prompts:

Now that your students have just experienced Thanksgiving, you might also like to use the Thanksgiving writing prompt included in my Month-to-Month Writing pack. 

You get loads of other prompts that integrate science, social studies, and math with language arts. 

The Thanksgiving page looks like this:

Click the image to see the entire set of writing prompts. 

And the December page looks like this:

Click the image to see the entire set of writing prompts. 

And you can also make an entire math lesson around this question with my Class Graph Icons:  (So, I guess that's really 4 ideas!)

Click the image to see the set of icons. 

So have fun as you transition from Nov. to Dec. and remember to keep the FUN in the Fundamentals!  

Visit my Pre-K/T.K./Kindergarten blog:  JUST CLICK HERE

I'll see you all on Dec. 30. I should be all moved in to my new house by then! 

Palma 

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

Hello Kinder Tribe friends!  It's Cori from Mrs. B's Beehive with a Thanksgiving art project to share with you!

I know that we all try to develop a sense of appreciation in our students for the many blessings in our lives, especially during this time of the year. This craft is a great visual reminder of all we have to be thankful for!

I start out the craft by printing everything up, and separating them into ziploc bags for each student.  Well, my students actually do all of the prep work, becuase who doesn't like to help the teacher in Kindergarten?!?! (thank the Lord)

We made a list of all the things we are thankful for, and I left it up on the board for them to copy on to the feathers. Warning: I am potentially the world's worst artist!!

We cut and glued our little hearts out, and tried not to loose any of the pieces.

And then boom! Easy bulletin board! One of my students handed me his turkey, and said, here's my turkey Mrs. B, but it looks terrible. : ) I told him it was beautiful, but that maybe if he glued the hat on the front, and added some feet or more than just one feather, he would like it more! Anyone else have kids who know that it looks horrible, but aren't willing to put in the effort to change it, or is it just me? : )

If you would like a copy of this craft, click on the link below.  I hope this is a quick and easy craft for you to use during this holiday season! Many blessing to you and your family this Thankgiving!

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

Letter Recognition Turkey Trot

Every year I say the same thing. We are STILL working on letter recognition with a few of our friends. I don't know why I am shocked, it happens every year and I should remember that it will take a little longer for some of our friends. It still stresses me out though. 

A good way to take the pressure off is to mix in a game that makes it fun. We need more fun in our lives! Here is a run down on this simple and effective letter recognition game.  

 Click HERE to download for free!