Five for Friday: May 12

Hi friends! Can you believe it's already mid-May? I'm here to share with you some new activities from our classroom from the week.  I hope you can use some of the ideas and freebies!

1. PIPE CLEANER + LETTER BEAD SIGHT WORDS

I found these cute letter beads at Walmart and knew I wanted to use them for a literacy centre.  When I came across this image on Pinterest, I knew it was the one I wanted to try with these letter beads!

I was happy to see so many of the kids really engaged at this centre.  The beads are really small which is perfect for extra fine motor practice, especially at this time of the year.  You can grab the cards you can hole punch and attach the pipe cleaner to for free by clicking here or on the image below:

2. INVITATION TO CREATE A SPRING PICTURE

I saw this invitation to create, draw and write on @kinder_owls's Instagram and knew I wanted to try it.  I love open-ended invitations that all kids can participate in! I set out the prompt "Can you make a spring picture?" with a spring themed book and some loose parts (green/clear/pink/blue marbles, green popsicle sticks, bug buttons, word cards that match the bug buttons, rocks and yellow play doh lids).  The kids loved it and many of the kids decided to document their thinking using the recording sheet I provided.

You can grab the recording sheet I used and the mini word cards by clicking here or on the image below:

Want pages for all 4 seasons? Fall, winter and summer are included in my "Play-Based Writing Templates for Kindergarten" pack on TPT.  You can click here or on the image below to check it out if you are interested!

3. PLACE AND COMPOSE

I printed and laminated a couple new centres to use both as an independent centre and as an activity for guided math.  Composing numbers is an area of need, especially for a lot of my JK's so I printed this "Place and Compose" centre.  The kids take 2 cards off the top of the pile, put them on the boxes and compose the two numbers.

You can grab this centre (and many more) in my Composing Numbers for Kindergarten pack on TpT.  Click here or on the image below if you are interested in checking it out:

4. TRANSLATING PATTERNS

Something that is new in the Kindergarten Program this year is translating patterns.  I was struggling with teaching this concept to the kiddos but then my teaching partner told me how she used felt leaves and had the kids translate the patterns with snap cubes.  So I decided to try something similar.  I made these pattern strips and asked the kids to show me the pattern in a different way.  We did it whole group at first and then I set them out with manipulatives for the kids to try.  I thought it was good practice! It is still tricky for some of them but a good challenge for some of my higher kids.

You can grab these pattern cards for free by clicking here or on the image below:

5. LUNCHMATE "BUCKS"

I have been collecting Lunchmate bucks forever! I wanted to share this tip with you in case you didn't know about it.

But first here is $30 worth of school supplies I got for FREE because I got Staples Giftcards by redeeming my Lunchmate bucks!

Ok here is how you get the gift cards:

1. Go to lunchmateclub.ca

2. Make an account

3. Enter codes that are on the back of Lunchmates (see below)

4. When you have enough points (you can only redeem 10 codes a day) you can go to the Rewards section and redeem them for gift cards! They have gift cards for Staples, Indigo, Toys R' Us and more! 

It is a little tedious but it only takes a couple minutes of your time everyday and eventually you get some stuff for free! My kids were super excited when I showed them our "special art supplies" we got with our Lunchable points!

Ok that's it from me for this week! I hope you were able to find something you can use from this post!

You can read more Five for Fridays by clicking on the image below:

Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend!

- Yukari