Finger Paint and Silly Putty

 Have you ever made silly putty with your class?  It is very easy and fun to make.  Just mix two bottle of glue with your favorite color paint.  Fill up an empty bottle of glue with liquid starch.  Mix together.  Add some Lysol to keep the mixture from being too sticky.

Stop Light Snack And Police Officer Unit

When we talk about police officers in Kindergarten, we also talk about traffic safety and crossing the street.  I had a police officer, who is also one of our first graders' father, come in and talk about being a police officer and show off his police car.  At the end of the week, we had a stoplight snack for Fun Friday.  I gave each student a graham cracker and showed them how to break it in half.  Then, I gave them a scoop of white frosting and showed them how to frost their crackers.  Finally, I passed out red, yellow and green M&M's and showed them how to put them on their crackers to make it look like a stop light!  The kids loved it!

We also practice following traffic safety rules by riding our bikes around the school.  We got to ride a couple of laps around before it started pouring!  The bike riding also went along with our first grade reading story about a family that went on a bike hike.

 

The Bob Jones University Press Curriculum that we use for kindergarten also had police officer hats and badges for the kids to make!

Spirit Week

Every year around the third week of September we have Spirit Week.  We pick four themes and have the students and teachers dress up.  On Friday we play volleyball and football games and we play teachers/alumni against students and we end the week off with some hotdogs and chips.  It is a great week and we always have great participation!  This year we had Super Hero Day, Duct Tape day, Famous Person Day and we always have Army Day on Friday.

Famous Person Day

Power Ranger outfit- Made entirely out of Duct Tape

Luigi and Me (Mario)

Duct Tape Dress

Fun Friday!

The students had to take the sticky notes with times written on them and make the clocks say the right time.

The students take an addition sheet, bear counters and a black and orange color mat to a spot.  The student look at the first number in the problem and put that many bears on the black side of the mat.  Then they look at the second number in the problem and put that many bears on the orange side of the mat.  Then, they count how many bears there are altogether and write the total in the answer box.  For some students, I will use an orange marker and a black marker to color code their addition paper.

I am thinking of making this a seasonal activity by changing the mat colors and using seasonal counters.

Putting number words in order to 20.

Putting numbers in order to 20.

Roll 1, 2, 3, or 4 die (depending on what level you are on), write the total in the box and then count on using the acorns.

This is a number comparing activity that I laminated from the mailbox.

A student is reading a book about creation.

A student is re-telling "The Three Bears" using the flannel graph.

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Fun Friday!

A mother of one of my students gave me this Montessori 100 board a couple years ago.  The kids love putting the numbers on it.

Our kindergarten program is only a half day program.  It saves the parents money and it allows me to focus on teaching kindergarten in the morning and first grade in the afternoon.  This year, I have anywhere from 3 to 6 kindergarteners, depending on the day of the week, that I have to watch in the afternoon while I teach first grade.  One of my kindergarteners took an hour or so to put this whole board together this afternoon.

One of my kindergarten girls using a pocket chart to put the numbers 0 to 20 in order.

Match the paintbrush to the right paint can.

A kindergartener put the number words in order on another pocket chart.

Math Corner

Putting the letters in order is always a popular activity.  It might have something to do with earning a big buck for doing it correctly :)

Inside Cover of Fall Journal

Journal Entry by a kindergartner.

Journal Cover

Fun Friday!

I had a lot of activities planned for Fun Friday, but the kids really got involve with the first project, so we really didn't get a lot accomplished, but it was great to see the kids take such an interest in a project.

A student's finished fall project.

 We also did a measurement activity outside to go with our math unit.  I put the kids in groups of two and gave them paper and a pencil.  I took them to the basketball court and had them stand on one of the black lines.  Then, I had them jump as far as they could and we marked it with chalk.  I gave them different materials like blocks, markers, snowflake blocks, paintbrushes, etc to measure how far they jumped.  Then, they recorded their answer and their partner's answer on their paper.

Two boys comparing their jumps.

Fun Friday!

I try to set aside part of the day or all of the day on Fridays for "Fun Friday." 
The students have fun and they don't necessarily know that they are learning from the fun.  Here's a look at what went down yesterday for "Fun Friday"!  

Pattern Blocks

Working with Magnets

Spinning Tops to Build Fine Motor Muscles

Dress up Clothes

Counting pictures and matching them to numbers and number words.