Traditionally, April showers bring May flowers, right? Well, April snow showers this last weekend brought me an extra snow day and a day to finish up May Morning Work Stations. Yuck to the snow, but yeah for a day to prep morning work. I know that spring will come . . . eventually! And when it does, my 'Kinder Garden' will bloom with May Morning work. If you'd like a quick peek at the activities included in May's set of stations, just scroll down. I often get emails regarding the ... VIEW POST
Let Your Kinder Garden Bloom With May Morning Work
May Fine Motor Morning Work Stations
While many of you may only have a few weeks of school left, my kinder friends will be with me until the second week of June so I am still toying with the idea of whether I will be adding another set of Fine Motor Morning Work Stations to my arsenal or whether I will maybe just let them pick their favorites and have them revisit them for the last 2 weeks of school. Until then though, it's May and time to change over stations for a new month of fine motor work. I'm working into the wee hours of ... VIEW POST
Rainy Day Tissue Paper Butterflies
Sometimes, you just need something a little bright and cheerful when the rainy days are gray and dreary. With only one, little, pathetic window in my classroom, I decided we needed to brighten things up a bit for days when the sun wasn't so sunny. So we whipped up some tissue paper, stained glassed butterflies that fit the ticket perfectly. Now my good friend Maria, over at KinderCraze, is always making up these sweet little stained glass activities and they look so fabulous that I ... VIEW POST
Going Buggy With Math Stations!
Things in Michigan are FINALLY starting to warm up. It reached a whopping 48 degrees today. Yeeehaww. My three sons (I know! Cheesy huh?) were so excited they had themselves out golfing in the yard this evening. There were only a few snow piles they had to avoid, but hey, every great golfer has to learn to avoid the hazard areas! As the weather outside starts to change, inside my class we've been talking about insects and working with some buggy word work and math stations. I ... VIEW POST
Fun Buggy Base Ten Freebie
It's that time of the year when my kinders are feeling confident and ready to run with base ten activities. One of there favorite activities is one that is inspired by a freebie created by Ocean's of First Grade Fun's Yolanda (She's awesome isn't she?) during the Debbie Diller's Math Stations Book Study a couple of years ago. I loved the idea, but I knew that my kinders needed a bit different tiering to make it work for their readiness level. I contacted Yolanda and she gave me her blessing ... VIEW POST
Introducing Stations To Insure Independent Learning
I've had a ton of questions emailed to me lately regarding how I introduce activities for my Math and Daily 5 (my Daily 6) Stations so that students are working independently. When you have nine math stations going at one time, it's impossible to be everywhere so independence is a key. I don't know about you, but I'm also not real fond of being interrupted every 5 seconds during Daily 5 either. Of course, classroom management, rules and practiced expectations are the key to keeping stations ... VIEW POST
