Here are some of the things we have been up to this month!
1. INVITATION TO CREATE - APPLES
One of my teaching partners told me about this easy invitation to create and I love it! I love how the kids need to look closely and problem solve as they build their apple. I also love seeing what else they come up with that is the same colours as an apple!
I'm planning to do this with pumpkins too later in October!
2. MY LITTLE NUMBER BOOK
A couple weeks ago we did
this "Perfect Square" activity and I put hole punchers at the centre. Well our kids this year LOVE hole punchers and were basically fighting over getting to use them. So I made up this little centre! The kids flip through the pages, look at the number and punch that many holes with the hole puncher! Great for fine motor development too!
I just added the template for these to my TPT store. You can grab them by
clicking here or by clicking on the image below:
3. ROAD NUMBERS
Here is another center my kids loved (last week).. road numbers!
Students are asked to trace the road numbers with the card and then cover all of the circles that show that number with flat marbles:
I also had this version where students covered all of the numerals that matched the number they traced.
These road numbers are now in my TPT store.
4. FALL COUNTING
I created my fall pack while I was on maternity leave so I'm finally getting to use them! I have a new obsession with watercolour clip art so I used some fall watercolour clip art for these play dough mats!
This one is great because it forces the kiddos to use their finger muscles to make tiny play dough balls!
5. ROLL, SAY, FIND & TRACE
I wanted to put a twist on practicing letter formation, so I made up these "Roll, Say, Find & Trace" sheets for the kids to practice with. Like the title says, they need to roll the dice, say the letter, find it on the sheet and trace it. They can play on their own until all the letters are traced or they can play with a friend and see who can fill up their sheet first!
6. ROLL & COVER
I have a really social group this year and they love playing partner games, so I made up this one to practice number identification and subitizing! They can play on their own and keep rolling until they fill up their sheet or play with a partner and see who can fill up their sheet first.
7. PUMPKIN PATCH SIGHT WORDS
I got this idea from my friend
@creativekindergartenblogontpt! We did a similar activities with tulips and before I went on mat leave and the kids loved that so I'm hoping this group enjoys this activity too! We will be doing this activity this coming week, put I got it prepped on the PA Day!
8. NUMBER TOWERS {FREEBIE}
I actually set this one out the first or second week of school but forgot to post about it! This is a simple number sense centre. The kids are invited to read the number and then stack that many blocks on that square. It works on number identification, 1:1 correspondence and fine motor skills! You can also set these out with unifix cubes or snap cubes too!
You can grab this number towers printable for free by
clicking here or on the image below:
9. TO DO LIST {FREEBIE}
I use this to do list every week to keep track of what needs to be done every day! I try to fill it out the night before or in the morning and that way I can be more productive when prep time/after school rolls around! I know this format won't work for everyone but I thought I'd share just in case other people could use it too!
You can grab this to-do list for free by
clicking here or on the image below:
10. INVITATION TO SORT VEHICLES
I got this idea from
@fdk_learnandplay on Instagram and knew I had to try it. Can you sort the vehicles by where they travel? As I anticipated, the kids LOVED this invitation to sort! There is a bit of water in the "sea" tray and although it got a bit messy it made it that much more engaging! The kids loved sorting and playing with the plastic vehicles!
I already had these vehicle counters in my room, but many of you were asking where you can get them on Instagram so I looked it up. I'm pretty sure they are
these "Transport Counters" by edx education.
Click here to check them out on Amazon!
11. FALL I-SPY BAGS
We made these I-Spy bags out of water, leaf sequins and leaf/acorn/pumpkin manipulatives (all from Dollarama I believe). I got the idea from
@_inquiring.minds_ on Instagram! The kids weren't too interested in writing anything, but they did love swishing the bags around and talking to their friends about what they see! And if they are playing calmly and happily I'm totally ok with that!
12. ROLL, SAY, FIND & COVER
Since our "Roll, Say, Find & Trace" for letters was such a hit during literacy centres, I decided to make up some generic ones for numbers! I made these and numbers 7-12. We put these out as a centre this week, but we are also planning to use them in small groups for our kiddos who need more practice with identifying numbers to 10!
I added these to my "Number Roll It" pack (it's also in the Number Centres Endless Bundle and the Kindergarten Math Year Long Bundle!) so if you own it already, you can re-download the file to get the updates for free!
13. CAN YOU FILL THE HAUNTED HOUSES?
I got this awesome and easy idea from
@exploringandlearninginfdk on Instagram! I just drew some houses on the back of a piece of chart paper and wrote some numbers on the roof. Students were invited to identify the number and place that many items in the house. I left some numbers with no numbers so the students could build a number with the wooden blocks and make it. So far they are loving this centre so I'm planning to put it out for a couple of days next week as well.
14. HALLOWEEN LOOSE PARTS + CHATTER PIX
I wanted to start using the iPads more interactively (not just for playing games on) so we started with this loose parts + ChatterPix centre!
The students are invited to make a Halloween picture and then snap a picture with ChatterPix and record an explanation of their picture. I got the idea for this set-up from
@joysofkinder and added the ChatterPix component. One of the educators sat here most of the week to help them learn to use the app. They are slowly getting the hang of it! They were using great positional language like inside, outside, on etc. when describing their pictures. A great centre for oral language!
Here is the link to the app if you want to check it out:
15. BATTY ABOUT KINDERGARTEN!
Our school had a Halloween door decorating contest so we put this up last minute! First, I choose 3 doors off of google images that I thought were doable. Then the class voted on their favourite. We then used the
bat directed drawing from First Grade Blue Sky to draw the bats and I had one of my neat printers write the title.
I cut and mounted everything on black and brown construction paper. When everything was ready to be put up 3 of my kids wanted to help, so I brought them outside and let them help.
At first I was telling them exactly where to put each one... but that was taking WAY too long so eventually I just started putting tape on them and letting them put it wherever they wanted. The uneven spacing on some of them was killing me inside (lol) but for the most part they did a good job! I fixed a few of the bats that were overlapping/upside down at the end.. and what you see above is the result! The older kids usually win these contests.. but we'll see when the results come out!
That's it for this month!
- Yukari
