12 Days of Christmas Free Lil Reader

'Tis the season for giving. Here is a free download for a 12 Days of Christmas Reader. I am so excited that my Teachers Pay Teachers store has reached 3,000 followers that I have celebrated by creating two freebies.

Twelve Days of Christmas book Freebie

I read the book, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to my class. Actually I sang it to them! They loved it and then we filled out a little reader to go along with it. The Rebus style reader was a big hit. It is perfect for retelling skills. Download it by clicking here.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The wonderful clip art for it is from Educlips. Her artwork is perfect for Kindergarteners.

The second freebie I have created for my TPT milestone is for math and sight words and follows a holiday lights theme.

Kindergarten Sight Words

Kindergarten Sight Words 2

                     

There are a total of 12 Kindergarten sight words on colorful holiday lights. Perfect for printing on card stock, cutting out and laminating. Also available in Spanish. 

The next component of the 3,000 follower holiday freebie set is a poster of numbers one to ten along with blacklines for holiday lights. The kids cut out the holiday light bulbs and glue them onto construction paper in the correct order. The color poster paper can be displayed to help them reference number order. 

Holiday Lights Counting Practice

Holiday Lights Number Order Practice

I included higher numbers in the freebie even though the majority of my Kindergarteners are not there yet. I'm sure all firsties would be.

Holiday Lights Number Sense Poster - THE TEENS

Holiday Lights - Number Order Practice

Here is the link to this Holiday Lights Freebie. Be sure to follow my TPT store while you are there to be notified about new products and sales.

Hope you enjoy my milestone freebies this Holiday season. Tis' the season!

Spanish Sunday: 2D Shapes and Kindergarten Math

I am happy to present a BILINGUAL unit on 2D Shapes found on my Teachers Pay Teacher Store. Because my store is bilingual, this Shapes Unit is provided in both SPANISH and English. 

For the last two weeks, my class has been busy learning about 2D shapes. We are just about wrapped up with the unit and are ready to begin 3D shapes. Here is a summary of the class activities we did.

2D Shapes - Pattern Blocks

We introduced each shape on its own day. We talked about its features and tried to draw them.

2D Shapes: Pattern Blocks

Download the page for HEXAGONS for free with this link. "HEXAGONS" by Miss Campos

Once we made it through each shape's introduction we reviewed using a pattern sentence book modeled after Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Eric Carle.

Free 2D Shape Book

To download the blackline masters click here: "2D Shapes Pack" by Miss Campos
To download the blackline masters for the book click here: "2D Shapes Book" by Miss Campos

LA VERSION EN ESPANOL esta hacia abajo. Primero platicamos sobre una figura y sus características cada dia. 

Las Figuras: rombo y triángulo

Nos tomo siete dias para repasar las siete figuras. Una figura por dia. 

Las Figuras: el hexágono, el cuadrado, el trapecio, el triángulo

Descargue la hoja para los HEXAGONOS gratis con esta enlace: "Hexagonos" por Ms. Campos

Cuando terminamos con las siete figuras:  el triángulo, el rombo, el rectángulo, el triángulo, el hexágono, el circulo, el trapecio, y el cuadrado leimos un librito para repaso. El librito estaba modelado sobre al cuento "Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, Que ves ahi?" por Eric Carle. 

Librito de las Figuras - Oso Pardo

Para descargar estas paginas oprime aqui: "Figuras Planas" por Janine Campos
Para descargar el librito que rima oprime aqui: "Figuras Planas: Un Librito" por Janine Campos

Kindergarten Math - Building Hexagons with other 2D Shapes

This week we are working on 2D shapes. We made it through the basic 4: square, circle, rectangle, and triangle and now we are moving on to tricky hexagons, trapezoids, and rhombi.

I started by introducing hexagons with this shape page. It is a freebie you can download on this post.

Hexagons have 6 Sides

If you would like to download it. Click here: HEXAGON DOWNLOAD. After a discussion on hexagons we came to the rug and began to build hexagons.

BUILDING HEXAGONS in Kindergarten

The children had a lot of fun. 

Building Hexagons

They worked with a partner since I only had enough shapes to prep 12 bags for 24 students to share. I would have had enough for 24 bags but those pesky little, green triangles ran out. Ah Well! It turned out great anyway. I'd say the hardest part was angling the triangles correctly enough to form half a hexagon. Once they cleared that hurdle it was easy. 

Building Hexagons

This recording sheet we used is below. I got it from the crisscrossapplesauce blog and it came in real handy. It was a freebie on her blog. Here is her link: (Hexagon FREEBIE) My kids loved it so much. I think I will run it off again and use it with the baggies as a math center for the rest of the week.

Making Hexagons with Pattern Blocks

At the end of this day's math session,  I announced that I was KIDNAPPING THE HEXAGONS from their beloved shapes puzzle basket. All that was left were the other 2D shapes: rhombus, square, trapezoid, and triangles.

Building Hexagons with other 2D shapes

This meant that kids had to memorize how to build hexagons using the three other ways we found to fill in their favorite puzzles. 

Replacing Hexagons with triangles, trapezoids, and rhombi

I heard a few gasps and then a little girl said, "but their not yellow!" I said, "That's okay. You can still replace the missing hexagons even if the shapes are different colors than what's on the mat."

The next day they did fine and I felt really proud of them. We wrapped up the next day by bring out the super fun pattern block stickers! We built hexagons in as many different ways as we could.

Here is another way we practice the characteristics of shapes. We used popsicle sticks on the rug.

I modeled how to make a few shapes on the rug and challenged the kids to name my shape. Then I projected shape clip art on my class' Promethean Board and passed out bundles of popsicle sticks in different colors. Each bundle had six sticks since we have been studying 2D shapes with no more than six sides. Once we all had out bundles we created the shapes I projected on the board one after the other. It was loads of fun!

Some kids had a hard time with the rhombus and hexagon. Rightfully so since those shapes are pretty tricky. The kids were very helpful when their neighbor was struggling to make a shape. We talked about the number of sides and vertices as well. We made different size triangles using either just three popsicle sticks or up to 6 to make each side longer. 

The only hard part was cleaning up the popsicle sticks. Most kids did not have the fine motor skills to tie the bunches back up. I recruited the help of girls with long hair to help me and the rest of the class tie up the bunhes. They usually know how to tie up their pony tails so tying up a small bunch of popsicle sticks was a piece of cake! 

Fathers' Day 2015

Three days before school ended I reigned in the crazy and made Father's day gifts with my students. Here is the result

Fathers' Day Project for Kindergarten

We made iphone cards made to look like the screen shot of an incoming call. I used this toy phone as a prop. Kids held it up to their ear and smiled into the camera.

Father's Day Phone Call Craft

The phone outline was printed on cardstock and colored in with marker by the kids. I added the photo to the center and laminated them together. We put a magnet on the back so it would be ready for displaying on Dad's file cabinet at work, mini fridge, main fridge, or office furniture, etc. 

The second part of the gift was the card made to look like a GOOGLE SEARCH results page. 

I printed each card in color on cardstock and folded it in half for the kids. The Google letters are outlined in color but the kids filled them in with marker to look more realistic. 

On the blue line of the inside kids write their father's full legal name. I had to help my little ones with that one since most kids did not actually know their father's real name. 

Fathers' Day Card 1

Father's Day Card 2

Last, the kids drew a picture of their father in the box and described why he is such a great father. 

Like last year (2014 project), I had the kids use a technology/gadget theme to the father's day crafts. I sell the templates in my TPT store.

Father's Day Craft

Spanish Sunday - Bilingual Rhyming Puzzles

Last school year, my grade level began chaining for guided reading. This meant I would get access to helping kids improve their literacy in Spanish every day in addition to my own students.

I quickly realized that there is a SERIOUS lack of Spanish resources out there and decided to do something about it. This Summer, I began making resources in Spanish to use with the bilingual classes at my school.

Rimas

Rimas, Rimando

Once I finished this awesome (I think so) RHYMING unit in Spanish I got VERY JEALOUS and decided to make the English version right after.

Rhyming, Rhymes

I got to use it with my class and passed along the Spanish version to my teacher teammate to keep. Here is the outcome.

Rimas

Rimas

I am going to ask kids to trace the words in crayon by coloring the rime in one color and the onset in another.

Rhyming

Rhyming

A lot of these words are found in my class' favorite rhyming song book, A Hunting We Will Go. They love to sing, "A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, we'll catch a bear and put him in underwear and then we'll let him go. Oh!" They get pretty hysterical with their nonsense rhymes as well.

The packs include the same format to a RHYMING memory match game.

Rompecabezas para rimar

 Once printed they are ready to cut and laminate. Memory is one of the class' favorite centers.

Rhyming Puzzles

 The second feature each pack includes are pocket chart cards. Pocket chart cards are new to me as a teaching tool since my district has had Promethean boards for so many years. This is the kind of activity that got relegated to technology and the poor little pocket chart was wheeled to the back of the room. However, I can dust it off now and use these cool pocket chart cards to practice rhyming with my class.

Rimas

Rhyming pocket chart cards

As you can see the onset is in black and the rime is in red. I love the use of color to help out kids who are visual learners SEE THE RHYMING part when they can't hear it to save their lives. 

Here is the link to each product:

SPANISH RHYMING

ENGLISH RHYMING

Teacher Memes

I was feeling playful tonight after the completion of my blog redesign and opening up a brand new facebook account for my Teachers Pay Teachers products so I created a few funny Teacher Memes to help you share in my merriment. Feel free to pin the images to your social media accounts.

Here is my facebook link: www.facebook.com/kindergartencorps

This was the teacher meme that started it all for me tonight. The "Success Kid" meme felt appropriate because I brought home all my students' assessment data for math, writing, and the language arts benchmark to sort by student ... and I actually did it! I'm one step closer to report card preparation.

Teacher Meme : Success Kid

The next appropriate Teacher Meme for me tonight is the "Thinking About Life" Bear meme. This will be me tonight as I seem to have a lot of energy and it's nearly 9 pm.

Teacher Memes: Thinking Abut Life

Speaking of bears. I read my class a bear book this week in preparation for Spring. The bear had been asleep and hibernating and he awoke to flowers and birds everywhere. Even though he was a kind bear I went ahead and read his voice in a growly voice ... as it should be! I teach Kindergarten after all.

Teacher Meme: Mordor

Needless to say my audience was enthralled. Growly voice tends to do that to five year olds. The next meme came from the 15 minutes it took me to scrub glitter and dried glue off my students' desks before leaving on Friday. It's all worth it, right?

Teacher Meme: Toy Story

Why am I worrying about having cute crafts? The superintendent will be visiting my school soon and we all know what a well decorated classroom means, right?

Teacher Meme: Willy Wonka Sarcasm

But back to Fun Fridays. Homework is due on Fridays in my class. Inevitably, there is always one or two students who show up with no homework. I understand that five year olds are very dependent on their parents but still. Responsibility begins at young age!

Teacher Meme: The Matrix

It is my number one pet peeve. Just because a child is small doesn't mean they can't learn some responsibility for their actions. But considering how crazy households can be in the morning I guess I can be more lenient from time to time. This leads to my next pet peeve. Parents in Pajamas! It's 8 am not 5 am. Please put on real pants. You have time. Treat yourself to a cute outfit in the morning. You deserve it.

Teacher meme: Star Trek

Speaking of treats, in my district we are lucky enough to have instructional aides who help pull out and tutor our kids who are behind. Every year around Spring time, I get my class of ELLs to a point where they are ALL meeting benchmark before Spring Quarter.

Little do they know, I rely on the aide to help in this process and ... then they take her time from me. Don't they know its because of her help that I was able to accomplish this feat? There goes the ability to maintain it. Womp Womp Womp. 

Teacher Meme: Bad Luck Brian

Speaking of success being a group effort the next meme is to say thank you via Kevin Durant. I work very hard to get my 24 Kindergarteners from a low socio economic, primarily ELL neighborhood to excel at all Kindergarten standards but parents work harder in different but equally important ways.

Teacher Meme: Kevin Durant

Key word: DIFFERENT. I make up odd songs that work well one day and then I can't remember them a week later because I made them up on the fly in the moment. Maybe one day I'll learn to write them down before I forget.

And I've saved the best for last. In no other profession is taking a sick day ten times harder than going to work sick or feeling low. Every time I complain someone always says, "Well at least you have Summers off." Cue the smallest violin. Only a teacher will understand.

Teacher Meme: Dos XX 

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my Teacher Memes. I'm off to watch The Walking Dead on my DVR. I love that show.