A Pinch of Kinder: 2019

December 2019

December 5, 2019

Here are some things we have been up to in our classroom this month!

1. CANDY CANE FINGERPRINT ORNAMENT

I was originally going to do fingerprint snowmen or reindeer but then I saw @creativekindergartenblogontpt post about her candy cane ornaments and these looked so much easier so we switched to these. I have to say though these need to be hand over hand for them to look nice (well at least with my class!). At first, I tried to just draw a candy cane outline and have the kids do it themselves and they look like mangled candy canes.. so I had my placement student sit with the rest of the kids and do it one at a time and hand over hand.

We had the kids write their name and the year if they could on the back with a black Flair pen.

If you are interested in the wood slices I bought you can find them here: https://amzn.to/2LsP2BJ

If you want the tags shown above you can download them for free by clicking here or on the image below:

2. CHRISTMAS TREE STEM

This is a simple centre but the kids LOVED it! Can you make a Christmas tree with green cups? Can you decorate it?

3. KWANZAA CENTRES

My ECE partner has been teaching the kids about Kwanzaa and she has put these fun centres out so I got permission from her to share them here!

At this centre the students were invited to practice Kuumba (creativity), one of the 7 principles of Kwanzaa, by making a bracelet! We learned that making simple jewelry and gifting them is a Kwanzaa tradition so students were invited to make one for themselves or they could make one to give to a friend!

After we learned about Kwanzaa we also had Kwanzaa vocabulary booklets out for students to complete to reinforce the new words we learned.

The Kwanzaa booklet can be found here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/My-Book-of-Kwanzaa-Words-5084891

We also learned that the unity cup was a symbol of Kwanzaa and that unity means coming together. My ECE partner invited the student to decorate a "unity cup" with paper mache glue and tissue paper. The various colour "come together" to create a beautiful design on the cup! The kids really enjoyed this centre too!

If you need lesson and book ideas you can find my Kwanzaa lessons here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kinder-Read-Alouds-Hanukkah-Kwanzaa--4455955

4. LETTER REINDEER PLAY DOUGH

This was our play dough centre for the second week of December! Can you make a reindeer? Can you make the letters on the antlers match (uppercase and lowercase)? The kids enjoyed making letters reindeers!

5. ROLL & DECORATE A STOCKING

This is a centre I quickly whipped up because I wanted a 2D shape math centre that would also work on fine motor and counting skills. The kids LOVED this one! They are asked to roll the dice and draw the shape they roll 10 times to decorate their stocking. Then they could colour the stocking at the end. I had one boy tell me "Mrs. Sloane I counted my shapes at the end and had 12 so I erased 2 to make sure I only had 10 just like you said", which made me so happy! Lots of great conversations were happening at this centre!

I added this one to my "Kindergarten Christmas Activities" pack! If you already own it, re-download it to get the new pages for free! Here is the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/A-Pinch-Of-Kinder-Yukari-Naka/Category/SEASONAL-Christmas-276923 or you can click on the image below!

6. HOLIDAY GIFT THANK YOU CARDS

If you want to download these mini cards for FREE you can click here or on the image below:

7. CO-WORKER GIFTS

To download these tags for FREE click here or on the image below:

That's it for now.

I'll be adding more throughout the month!

- Yukari

November 2019

November 4, 2019

Here is what we have been up to in November!

1. I KNOW MY BEGINNING SOUNDS - FALL WORDS

I originally made these to use as a dry erase book but have been using them as mini sensory bins instead! This week I put letter beads in a small bin with split peas and had the students find the letters and place them in the correct spot.

I also put a few paper booklets out so students could make a booklet after to take home if they wanted to.

I put the answer key on the back of the "cover" so students could flip it around and check their work when they were done!

You can find these printables by clicking here or on the image below:

2. REMEMBRANCE DAY SENSORY BIN

I was inspired to make this bin after seeing @whitneymarief's on Instagram!

I made poppies in 3 different sizes out of felt and hot glued a black button to the middle of each one. Then I cut out some doves from white felt as well. I added a sorting tray and 2 tins with a mini tong in each one. My hope was that they would sort the poppies by size, count the poppies and doves and use the tongs to strengthen their fine motor skills. Today was the first day they explored it but it was very popular!

3. REMEMBRANCE DAY MINI READER

I made this mini emergent reader for my kids because I have a handful of kids who LOVE making booklets. Students trace the bubble words and colour the pictures.

You can grab this Remembrance Day reader for free by clicking here or on the image below:

4. REMEMBRANCE DAY WORD CHART

Last week I had the Halloween word chart out and the kids LOVED drawing and labeling pictures from it, so I quickly made up a Remembrance Day one to put out this week! The kids have been doing such a great job drawing and labeling pictures at this centre!

You can also grab this word chart for free by clicking here or on the image below:

5. LOOSE PARTS POPPY

I've shared this idea before but here is this year's set up for the loose parts poppy centre! You can grab the FREE recording sheet by going to this blog post:

http://www.apinchofkinder.com/2017/11/remembrance-day-activities-for.html

6. POPPY WREATH

I was inspired by the photo @wonderfullinquiry posted last Remembrance Day for our wreath this year! Every year each class presents a wreath at our Remembrance Day assembly. For this wreath I had the students draw a poppy in black crayon and paint it with red and black paint pucks. You can see the set up for that part below:

Then I cut out the poppies and glued them onto our wreath. Next we read "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr and we brainstormed words that make us think of peace. Then I had a few students come and write the words for us on black construction paper during centre time. Finally I glued the words on and we were done! It was one of the easier wreaths I have ever done and I love how it turned out!

7. SIGHT WORD SENSORY BIN

Here is a simple sensory bin (beautifully coloured rice made by my amazing ECE! She made it with the kids during one of our centre times!). After they made the rice she added the letter beads and the pipe cleaners and I added the wood slices with the sight words. We then invited them to read and build the sight words!

The letter beads can be found here: https://amzn.to/2XoB9tc
The wood slices were bought at a local independent dollar store, but it looks like the same packaging as the craft supplies sold at Dollar Tree so you might be able to find them at Dollar Tree as well!

8. TOSS IT, SAY IT, DRAW IT, LABEL IT!

My ECE partner made this centre with numbers on the plates a couple of weeks ago and since they love it so much (we had it out for math centres every day for 2 weeks and it was still full almost every day) we decided to keep the centre but switch it up to shapes in the middle! I had these shape stickers in my shape bin so I just stuck them on to white paper plates!

Students are invited to toss a pom pom, say the shape on the plate their pom pom lands on and then try to draw and label the shapes. I had students use the shape words from our math wall (they are on magnetics so they can take it off the wall to the centre) to help them label the shapes.

They did an amazing job here! One of the girls even wrote how many sides and vertices the shape has!

The shape word wall cards can be found in my 2D shapes pack here or by clicking on the image below:

9. PJ MASKS WORDS

I've had a hard time finding invitations that would entice most of my boy to write but lately I've overheard them talking about how much they love PJ Masks so I made up this little PJ Masks words chart and it was a big hit! So many friends who usually don't visit the writing centre were here drawing pictures, labeling them and even telling and writing stories! Since this was such a big hit I asked them what other words they would like and they gave me a big list (including Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig) so I'll have to get working on that to keep them engaged!

FYI (since many have asked) I am not sharing this file since most images from TV shows and movies are copyrighted. Sorry!

10. PATTERN HEADBANDS

I saw this great idea on @fdk_learnandplay so we tried it too and the kids loved making pattern head bands!

11. SIGHT WORDS ON TABLE CLOTH + LOOSE PARTS

This was another popular centre! I just wrote sight words on a clear table cloth with a Sharpie and set it out with some loose parts and letter rocks. The students did a great job building the words!

12. SIGHT WORD TOWERS

I've been doing this activity for years but finally got around to updating my cards and adding a recording sheet. This centre is always a hit! The kids are invited to pick a card and then build a matching word tower. Then they can record their word tower on the recording sheet if they want.

I print the letters on full page mailing labels and stick them right on to the cups! These are the mailing labels I use: https://www.staples.ca/products/812261-en-staples-white-shipping-labels-for-inkjetlaser-printers-8-12-x-11-25pack

If you want to grab the printables for this centre, you can find them by clicking here or on the image below:

13. MAKE A LETTER BOOKLET

I saw this idea on @fdk_learnandplay's Instagram and loved it so I thought I would try it too and it was a big hit in our class! They loved making their own letter Aa book and then a Bb book and then so on!

I put out 2 mentor texts, some blank books and a word chart for each letter. You can find word charts for all of the letters by clicking here or on the image below:

14. PIPE CLEANER + PAPER CUPS NUMBER SENSE CENTRE

I saw this idea on Pinterest (from Planning Playtime) and my JK's seem to like it a lot! It is a great activity for 1:1 correspodance, number identification and fine motor development. The pipe cleaners can be a little bit tricky to put in and they need to show some perseverance, but they did a great job!

15. PATTERN BLOCK LETTERS

I used these mats (the uppercase ones) at the beginning of the year so I thought I would pull these lowercase ones out for one of the weeks in November. The kids enjoyed these again!

You can find these mats by clicking here or on the image below:

That's it for this month!

- Yukari

Diwali in Kindergarten

November 1, 2019

Hi everyone!

When I posted about the Diwali centres and activities we did in class, many of you asked me to share more. All of the credit for these lesson ideas and activities go to my amazing ECE partner (she prepped everything, except the the word booklet and the fill in the blank information sheets). We have a large Indian community at our school and Diwali is an important holiday for many of our kids. We hope this inspires you to try some Diwali activities with your class too!

On the first day she read "Let's Celebrate Diwali" by Anjali Joshi for students to learn some basic facts about the holiday.

Then she set out these Diwali themed centres:

1. CARDAMOM PLAY DOUGH

We talked about how many sweets are eaten during Diwali and that cardamom is a spice that is used in some Diwali sweets.

Students were invited to create letters with foil in the play dough.

2. PAPER PLATE DIYAS

Students were invited to create a design on the paper plate with paint and then colour a flame and glue it on to the plate to create their own diyas!

3. RANGOLI CENTRES

We learned that Rangoli's are a traditional art form of India. First we coloured these Rangoli patterns with markers...

Then students were invited to make their own Rangolis on cork rounds with pattern blocks and flat marbles!

We searched up Rangolis on google images and put the iPad at the centre so students could look at them for inspiration. They LOVED making Rangolis!

Here are some of their beautiful creations!

I made up these Diwali booklets for the kids to work on as well.

You can find these Diwali booklets in my TPT store by clicking here.

She also showed them this Diwali video to learn more about Diwali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ-VIbZSKIo

On the last day we also filled in the blanks for the Diwali information sheets we were going to post on the bulletin board to explain what we learned/did. This was a good review for the kids! I had the students tell me the missing words and the beginning sounds and had them fill it in.

You can download the fill in the blank Diwali information pages

by clicking here or on the image below:

I also had the kids write up little captions for each activity. We talked about how the other students looking at the bulletin board might not understand what is happening if we don't explain it and came up with the words we need together. I also took a picture of the 4 girls who celebrate Diwali and wrote on the index cards what each girl said about how they celebrate Diwali and put them up around the picture.

That's it! Thank you again to my amazing ECE partner for teaching our kids about Diwali. I personally learned so much! I hope this post is helpful if you are thinking about teaching about Diwali!

- Yukari

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Added October 12, 2023:

Hi friends! Just adding on to my original Diwali post since there are lots of good ideas here but I also wanted to share my new Diwali activity pack! This has been requested for years and I finally found the time this year to get it done! I had a few educators who celebrate Diwali look it over as well and it was well received so I hope you enjoy this little activity pack and it helps make incorporating Diwali lessons/activities in the classroom easier for you!

I included three Diwali lessons, one for a non-fiction book and two for the book "The Best Diwali Ever" by Sonali Shah. "The Best Diwali Ever" is such a cute book!