Hi friends! I'm sharing some ideas from our first week of 2018! I hope you can use some of these ideas!
1. NEW YEAR FIREWORK PAINTING
I got this idea from @teachingspecialthinkers on Instragram. All you need is some black construction paper, gold and silver paint and a toilet paper roll with slits cut in all around it.
Students were invited to make fireworks with the toilet paper roll and trace and glue the "Happy New Year!" sheet at the bottom.
You can grab this printable for FREE by clicking here or on the image below:
2. 2018 TRACE & BUILD
I made this little printable up for the kids to practice the writing the new year! We talked about how it changed from 2017 to 2018 on January 1st and then the students had the choice to complete this activity. They traced 2018 first and then cut the numbers at the bottom and glued them in the right order.
Here's a completed sample I made for the kids to reference:
This file was updated in 2019 to include the years 2019-2029!
You can grab the FREE printables by clicking here or on the image below:
3. WINTER BREAK WRITING
I also set out this writing paper to invite the kids to write about what they did over the winter break! It was a nice guided activity on the first day back as it let me sit down with everyone and chat about their break with them at the same time!
Here are some examples of their writing:
You can grab this free writing paper by clicking here or on the image below:
And if you need actual lessons about New Year's Eve/Day you can find my lessons and the read alouds by clicking here or on the image below:
4. SYMMETRY MATS
We did a quick review of symmetry (we had been working on making symmetrical pictures before the break too) and then set out a variety of materials for the students to make symmetrical pictures with. Here is one of my students making her own symmetrical pattern with pattern blocks!
You can grab these plain symmetry mats and the pre-made symmetry pattern mats (that you see at the top of the photo) in my symmetry pack on TPT. You can click here or on the image below if you are interested in checking it out!
5. PATTERN BLOCK SNOWFLAKE
This week we also made these pattern block snowflakes! This was a great activity that combined 2D shape identification, creativity, 1:1 correspondence and numeral formation all in one. Plus the kids enjoyed making them too! I collected these and am planning to hang these around our bulletin board in the hallway!
You can find the writing template and the pattern block templates (you can also just trace pattern blocks on to white copy paper) in my new "Kindergarten Winter Activities" pack on TPT. Click here or on the image below if you are interested in checking it out:
6. SNOWBALL SIGHT WORDS
I also set out this snowball sight words activity. The kids were invited to pick a sight word card and build the word with the ping pong balls on the golf tees. This was pretty tricky even for my higher SK's and a great fine motor activity!
I bought the ping pong balls at Dollar Tree, the golf tees at Walmart and the foam sheet from Michaels. However, after I bought the foam sheet my husband said "What!? You paid for that? I can get you foam sheets from work for FREE!" (He is a contractor and opens deliveries at work, and it often has styrofoam in them). So I returned the foam sheets and my husband brought some home for me for free. Anyways, the moral of the story is, always ask around to see what free stuff you can score! And I bet if you went to an appliance store and asked nicely you could probably score styrofoam sheets for free if they had unpacked boxes that day and had some lying around in the back. Definitely give it a try!
You can find these sight word cards and the recording sheet in my "Kindergarten Winter Activities" pack as well! This activity is EDITABLE so you can add your own sight words that your class needs practice with!
7. WINTER WORDS Q-TIP PAINTING
I also set out this little activity as one of our literacy centres this week. Students were encouraged to trace the picture carefully with q-tip and paint and then trace or paint the word. Q-tip painting is a great way to encourage fine motor development and the pincer grasp! The kids did a really great job on it and it was a popular centre all week. I kept it high interest by swapping out the paint colours and the printable every other day.
You can also find the printables for this activity in my new "Kindergarten Winter Activities" pack.
8. PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
I announced my pregnancy on Facebook/Instagram over the winter break and a lot of my co-workers have been coming to my classroom to congratulate me this week. I figured it was only time until my kids put two and two together so I told them I was pregnant on Thursday!
First, I showed them the ultra sound picture and asked them if they knew what it was. A lot of the kids thought it was an x-ray. I told them it's called an ultrasound and if they knew what it meant. A bunch of them lit up and put their hands up and guessed that I was having a baby :)
So I confirmed that I was having a baby at the end of June and had them guess the sex and suggest a name. Then we added them to the chart above. It was so fun to hear the name suggestions and a lot of kids thought I should name the baby after them... lol
9. WINTER SENSORY BIN
Ok so to be honest I wasn't quite ready to change my sensory bin Monday morning, but I knew I had to whip up something since my kids are obsessed with the sensory bin. Then I remembered I had 3 bags of cotton balls in the cabinet. Thank goodness! I whipped those out, filled the bin and then threw some other winter manipulatives I had in the bin. I also made up the word cards quickly on index cards and wrote the letters on clear flat marbles and hid them in the cotton balls.
So the filler for this bin is:
- cotton balls
- foam snowflakes with gem stickers (numeral on the back)
- snowflake erasers
- blue and white pom poms
- bucket
- sand timers
- tweezers
- word cards
- clear flat marbles with letters written on them with Sharpie that match the word cards
10. JANUARY GUIDED WRITING
This week we read "Snowmen at Night" and worked on our January guided writing. Every month we do a guided reading response that we put up on our writing wall. This month we did a text-to-self connection and the question was "In the story "Snowmen at Night", the snowmen come to life at night! What would you do if you were a snowman at night?"
This was a good way to get some writing assessments in so I know what skills I need to be working on with each student during centres, LLI and guided writing time through out the month.
This writing paper for "Snowmen at Night" can be found here: Step by Step 3: Guided Writing & Assessments
The writing checklist can be found here: Step by Step: Kindergarten Writing Plans
That's it from me for this week! I hope you were able to grab some ideas for your classroom.
Talk to you soon!
- Yukari
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