Equal Equations

When we started learning addition equations, I started talking about the meaning of the equal sign.  At first, I just used the equal sign and tried to explain that both sides had to be the same worth.  I looked out and saw glazed eyeballs and blank stares.  Then, I had an epiphany.

I told them the equal sign was like a balance.  In order to use the equal sign, both sides had to "weigh" the same.  All of a sudden, I saw nodding heads, smiles, and light bulbs.  What an empowering moment as a teacher!  

I just finished a product to help build fluency with addition and subtraction facts through 20.  It also is designed to help your kiddos understand the meaning of the equal sign.  There is a recording sheet, so this would be a great math center or math review activity.

 

If you would like to take a look, click here. 

Day Ten of the Ten Days of Giveaways (a few hours early)

So, my kinders colored pictures for the local police officers and fire fighters as our second random act of kindness.  I went to the downtown police station, and found metal detectors as I went in.  I had only been to the building once (which was six years ago... and not because I was in trouble...lol), so I thought something may have changed since I had been there last.  I sent my purse down the x-ray conveyor belt, went through the metal detectors, and then the lady asked me if I knew where I was going.  I explained our gesture of gratitude, and she just smiled at me.  I was in the court building.  :)

Speaking of random acts of kindness, get ready for an awesome freebie next month from Scrappin' Doodles.  Dana is the sweetest lady!  I asked her about some clip art that I had been looking for, and now it's next month's freebie.  You are going to want to check it out, and check out the rest of her stuff.  I use her clip art ALL the time in my classroom and in my products.  Have I mentioned how talented and sweet she is?

After my surprise from Dana, I just knew that I needed to make day ten a big giveaway.  At our school, we use Saxon math, which uses cute little apples with seeds for practicing how to decompose numbers.  So, I've been working like a mad lady (of course after the incident at the court house and a costly trip to Sam's Club) to finish a packet with extra practice of that skill.

This is a pretty big freebie, so I'm going to make it a Facebook Fan Only Freebie.

On the back, I put the sum first, and only had them complete two number sentences.  My team wanted them to practice the skill, but it wasn't going to be our main focus.

Then, I decided to add on the brain teasers.  We have brain teasers all day long in my classroom.  The kids LOVE it, and they've learned to not shy away from a challenge.

Click "like" on the Facebook link on the upper right hand side of the page.  Then, click on the fan only freebie button to download this packet.

Also, don't forget to check out my "Pin It To Win It" post for your chance to win any product from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

And, there's only a few more days to buy the Educents kindergarten bundle.  

Get this great deal while you can!

Pin It To Win It

Only a few more days to take advantage of this great deal we have with Educents.  Over 1400 pages of activities that you can easily implement that will get you through your day!

How about a little fun with our Educents bundle?  Let's Pin In, To Win It!  That's right.  Pin any image from this blog post and enter to win any product from my store!


There are so many great products in the bundle... which will you pin?  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

If you are ready to purchase, click below and head on over!  

Random Acts of Kindness With Little Learners

I feel very passionately about teaching my students to be kind, good, caring kids.  We talk about feelings, and how to treat others.  Last week, we completed our first Random Act of Kindness.  We started off by reading the book Heartprints by P.K. Hallinan.  I bought this book over the summer, so this was the first time I used it.  The kids really connected with the message of helping others.

Our school custodians are amazing.  They work so hard to make our school so pretty.  We drew pictures for our custodial staff and thanked them for keeping our school so clean.  It's the least we can do after the boys pee on the floor in our little bathroom.  :)  So, while I knew our head custodian was in the lunchroom, I plastered his office with our drawings.

Well, our special staff member came down to our room and peeked his head in.  He was smiling ear to ear, and he thanked us for making his day.  He said he was going to keep the pictures up all week because they made him happy.  Well, it's a week and a half later, and they're still up.

Our Random Act of Kindness didn't cost a thing, and it brightened the day of someone special to us.  We talked about how we felt when we saw how happy our head custodian was, and the kids said they wanted to smile, they were happy, and it made them feel good.  Mission accomplished.

So, I started thinking that I wanted a way to have the kids reflect on paper so we could track our Random Acts of Kindness.  My newest freebie was the result.  I thought it would be a great freebie to honor the people that lost their lives on September 11th, and spread some love in this crazy world.

There are two circle maps as well so you can brainstorm your "targets" and think of ways to make them feel good.  There is also a schedule for you to organize your "Heartprints".

Click here to download your freebie.

Day Eight of the Ten Days of Giveaways

There are so many different calendar songs that can be used.  Last year, I used the Addams family song for the days of the week.

Days of the week (snap, snap),
Days of the week (snap, snap),
Days of the week, Days of the week, Days of the week (snap, snap),

There's Sunday and there's Monday,
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday,
There's Thursday and there's Friday,
And then there's Saturday.

Days of the week (snap, snap),
Days of the week (snap, snap),
Days of the week, Days of the week, Days of the week (snap, snap),

This year, I am using the "O My Darlin'" song.

There are 7 days,

There are 7 days,

There are 7 days in the week.

There are 7 days,

There are 7 days,

There are 7 days in the week.

Sunday, Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday,

Saturday

Sunday, Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday,

Saturday

I know there are other versions (and probably better versions) of this one, but this is the version I know.  :)

I use the "Ten Little Indians" tune for the months of the year song.

With that being said, day eight's freebie is the days of the week and months of the year posters.

Click on the pictures to download.

Only a bit longer for the Educents bundle.  You don't want to miss out on this amazing deal!

Day Seven of the Ten Days of Giveaways

This has been a very busy weekend!  I finished two different files and posted them in my Teachers Pay Teachers.  I'll talk about the second file tomorrow.  ;)

I am SUPER excited about the Vowel Challenge.  I have been using my first sound worksheets as bellwork while I pull students for RTI, but I wanted something they could move to when it came time for phoneme segmentation on the Middle of the Year DIBELS.  As you know, it takes time to train kinders on how to work independently, so I wanted to keep the same format.  I made this with two levels, so it will be great for differentiation.  Click here for more information.

Today is also the seventh day of the ten days of giveaways.  Woot, woot!  As you may have noticed, I LOVE fonts and clipart.  Things just look better with a cute font and a border.  Anyway, I also like for things to match.  Last year, my room was a Dr. Seuss theme; however, the fire marshal made us take down all of the fabric on our walls.  It has to do with the flame resistance and the melting point.  So, I changed my room completely.  This meant that I went with a different font for my calendar wall because last year was a Dr. Seuss like font.  

Long story, well, long... I made new days of the week headers for my calendar, and that is your freebie today.  It matches the sign on the revolving calendar I had as a freebie a few days ago.  

Click on the picture or click here to download.

Have you heard there's a great deal for kindergarten teachers on Educents?

Have a great Monday!

Day Six of the Ten Days of Giveaways

I swear that every day is an adventure in kindergarten.  They seriously crack me up!  Last week, I had a band-aid on my ankle.  One of my boys that sits by me on the carpet during read alouds (and obviously studies my legs) noticed my band-aid, and asked what had happened.  I explained that I cut myself and scraped my skin off while I was shaving my legs.  He gave me a confused look, and asked me why I shaved my legs.  I told him because I didn't want hairy legs.  He seemed to be satisfied with that answer.

So, we're on day six of the ten days of giveaways.  If you were here for day four, you were able to pick up my counting by 2s freebie.  Well, here's the companion to that freebie.  Again, I can't find the Pinterest pin that I found this idea, but if it's yours, thank you for helping me teach my kinders how to skip count.  I am giving you my cute little toes for skip counting by 5s.  I formatted them to print in an AB pattern to highlight how the numbers end in 0 or 5.

The 120 chart is a Facebook Fan Only Freebie, so "like" my Facebook page to pick that up (and a bunch of other goodies).

Click on the picture, or click here to download the cute toes.

And, don't forget about the Educents kindergarten curriculum bundle!  Over 1,400 pages for just $29.99.  It really is a great deal.