Math Stations and a Freebie!

For the first time in a year, I FINALLY feel like I've got the math station mojo! I have the kids rotate in groups, and <the thing that I love> I'm not one of the groups. This has freed me up to pull kiddos as needed. I mean, I can watch them do something, say "oh wow, they don't know how to do that," and then pull them aside and help them with it! WHAT?!

Here's what I did for our counting unit:
1-I gave a pre-test and divided my students into 3 groups: the ones who got it and are ready for more, the ones who are pretty close to getting it, and the ones who still need some help getting it. Thanks to Marsha at Differentiated Kindergarten, I have these name tags that are written in dry erase markers. Easy to change for flexible groups.

Don't hate on the fact the pocket chart doesn't fit our name tags!

2-Students rotate through 4 math tubs and the computers/iPad.

Tub 1 is filled with shape activities to review our last unit. Tubs 2-4 have differentiated counting activities. Students know what activities they get because the bag matches their name tag. 

 

3-My para-pro monitors the groups, making sure students are on-task and understand what to do.

4-I pull groups during this time. I know I said I wanted to get away from being in a group, but this time it's different! I don't have an assigned group of kids coming to me. Instead, I have skills to work on with each group, and I call them as I have time during math groups. If I see a child who needs help or a group of kids struggling with a skill, I pull them them instead of one of the groups. It gives me SO MUCH FLEXIBILITY to work with SO MANY KIDS!

As a side note, a lot of my activities come from Differentiated Kindergarten's Fall Math Stations Galore Bundle. It's not cheap ($37.50), but it includes SO. MUCH. STUFF!!!! Plus, each bundle has similar activities, so students know what to do. This purchase was TOTALLY worth it  =)

Speaking of activities, here's one my kiddos did this week. We've been practicing putting sets of numbers into order, so we ordered these cute Halloween pictures and made this flip book. Some students did numbers to ten and others ordered numbers to twenty.

 

 

You can pick this freebie up in my TPT store {here!}

Facebook Freebie!

I'm having a blast trying out my new Facebook page! I've been debating pulling the trigger on this for a whiiiiiiiiile, and I did it because I want to share funny or informative things I find about the teach profession. I'd love for you to help me out by liking my Facebook page.

I just finished re-doing my fall counting pack. It's $2.00 on TPT, but as a thank you for liking me on Facebook, it's yours for free!! Just visit the "Fan Freebies" tab on my page. THANKS!!!!!!

Shape Spectacular: the giveaway!

We just finished our shape unit on 2D and 3D shapes. I found some new shape ideas over the summer that I was excited to try out, and they worked REALLY well (don't ya LOVE when that happens?!)! A lot of these ideas and (FREE) resources came from Kindergarten, Kindergarten's blog here, here, and here.

Here the students answered the question: Can you completely fill a circle with squares? The answer of course is no, but this led into a discussion of curved sides vs. straight sides.

Click here for the free circle sheet

Then we created shapes using other shapes. We used the pattern blocks to make triangles and hexagons. We took a gallery walk around the room (or as my kinders call it, "a snake walk") and saw all of the different ways to do this, and talked about how sometimes different answers can both be right.

Click here for the free triangle sheet

 

  

We also did a lot of sorts. A LOT of sorts.

 

We then moved into talking about shapes in the environment. This kind of stumped some of my kids, especially telling the difference between a square and a rectangle. To practice, I cut giant shapes out of butcher paper. Then each child got a magazine and cut out as many shapes as they could, gluing each one to the corresponding piece of butcher paper.

The Finished Product

To practice shapes in the environment, we also read the book The Shape of Things and made our own class book.

 

 

Let's not forget the power of anchor charts. Even though I'm not a cute-cutesy person and so my anchor charts are plain-jane, I love using them for the kids to refer back to. 

I didn't take many pictures of our 3D activities, but we brought in 3D shapes from home, took pictures of shapes and put them on our class instagram, had a snack sort where we sorted cheese balls, bugles, and other 3D shaped yummies, and experimented with how 3D shapes roll, slide, and stack.

We used the interactive projector to sort 2D shapes and 3D shapes...

...and then used it to play a super fun shape game called Shape Splat! The computer says a shape and the students have to click on that shape as it floats around the screen. SOOOO fun!

Finally we built 3D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. Who doesn't love this activity?! We started with 2D shapes.

 

Then we turned them into 3D shapes.

 

Throughout this unit, I've been trying out my new Shape Spectacular Pack! I can officially say it's been kid approved, so I hope you'll check it out at my TPT store. It's got shape sorts, positional word activities, "I have..., Who has..," cards, shape books, shape riddles, shape writing templates, and more!

Click here to visit my TPT store!

 

In other exciting news, I'm on Facebook now and would be honored to have your support in following me! In fact, I'm giving away my new Shape Spectacular Unit this Saturday to a Facebook fan, so I hope you'll enter for your chance to win. THANKS SO MUCH!!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fire-themed Freebie!

Next week we are gearing up to teach fire safety. Some of my kinders are working on CVC words, so I whipped up this fire-themed CVC word work freebie. Hope you can use it!

Click Click Clickety Click!