My Plain Jane Pumpkin Math Pack is Now Available on TPT

"Plain Jane" refers to the minimal use of overly busy clipart, fonts, and other graphics: sometimes ~simple~ really is best!

If you're looking for a NON-Halloween themed pumpkin math pack, go take a look at my TPT Store:

Coffee-to-Student Inquiry Ratio

Now that the 100th Day of Kindergarten milestone has been reached, our 100 chart has been changed into a Countdown Until Summer (or First Grade) chart. With some seventy-ish days to go, one of my Stars inadvertently opened up the floor to a clarification meeting this morning, making me realize that I should have splurged on a drink from Starbucks before getting to school.

Star 1: "Mrs. Sommerville, are we counting down to summer, first grade, or both?"

Me: Well, that depends. It definitely counts down to summer, but it also counts down to the LAST day of kindergarten. What will you be when you aren't kindergarteners anymore?

Star 2: "Graduates?"

Star 3: "No, we won't be ~gra-jee-ate-ed~, we'll be ready for first grade."

Star 1: "So we're counting down to lots of things, and they all happen on the same day?"

Me: Well, let's try to...

Star 4: "No, no, nonono, I've got it. We're going to take a day off (Star 1: "You mean SUBTRACT, we're going to SUBTRACT...")... okay, yes, yeah yeah yeah, we're going to SUBTRACT a day off of the chart, and when we get to the last ten days, we're supposed to get ready to move to another classroom. Is that right?"

Star 5: "Uh, do the first grade teachers know this?"

Star 4: "Am I right?"

Star 6: "One thing at a time. Okay. ~inhale~ We're going to subtract. I can do that. And we're going to get ready for vacation. I like vacations! I went to Disney last year!"

Star 4: "AM... I... RIGHT??????"

Star 7: "Maybe we should have just gone to first grade yesterday, you know. The first 100 days are for kindergarten, and then on the one hundred and... the one hundred and (Star 1: "The one hundred and FIRST...")... yeah! On the one hundred and, uh... (Star 1: "FIRST!")... YEAH! On THAT day, we go to first grade!

Star 1: "How come you can say first grade but not one hundred and first?"

Star 7: "What?"

Star 4: "I don't think I'm right."

... and that's when I knew I had miscalculated the amount of coffee that today was going to require.

What Can Mistakes Tell You?

Today as my Super Stars were reviewing facts about plane shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle and hexagon), I was listening, watching, asking, and supervising as I walked through the room helping each student with his or her math journal.  Joining a friend at a spot on the carpet, I took a peek at her page:

She gladly read and pointed her way through each column:

"Circle (shape), circle (not the word she glued down), and it has zero sides and zero corners."

"Square (shape), square (not the word she glued down), and it has four sides and four corners."

"Rectangle (shape) rectangle (CORRECT word), and it also has four sides and four corners, but two of the sides are long, and two of the sides are short."

She continued on through triangle and hexagon.

Asking her to look again at the circle and square columns, I asked her to find the word for each and read them to me.  She misread "square" for "circle" and "circle" for "square." I then asked her what sound she heard at the end of "circle."  She said "l," so we looked at both words again, to see if "l" appeared near the end of either.  Asking her what sound she heard at the end of "square," she said "r." She quickly looked at the words, and then realized her mistake, laughing "Oh!  I just looked at the beginning sounds.  "S" and "C" can both make the same sound (snake, cereal).  Next time I'll look at all the letters."

Mistake explained, I got another glimmer of insight as to how my friend first looks at words: by initial letter/sound.  

With some gentle pulling, she was able to apply more glue and give the words "square" and "circle" the old switcharoo.

*****

I've uploaded the PDF printable journal page for you.  The images on the PDF display correctly when printed, so don't worry about the square that appears to be missing its bottom!  The page would also be easy to print out and then enlarge if your students need bigger pieces with which to work.

Spooktacular Pumpkins: Numbers Greater than 10

With several months spent away from the blog, I'm afraid it's gotten a bit cobwebby in here!

~sweep sweep~

~dust dust~

~cough~

~SNEEZE~

Goodness!

Experienced kindergarten teachers know what new-to-service kindergarten teachers discovered in August and September: the beginning of the school year, though exciting, is c-r-a-z-y busy.  Throw in a barrage of new germs shared by many enthusiastic children, and you can imagine how difficult it can be to find not only the time but the energy to blog once the dismissal bell rings.

The big payoff to all of the extra time and effort spent teaching, practicing and reteaching routines, rules and procedures is apparent when students and teachers alike enter the classroom one day, and can feel the rhythm and step right into the tempo of our scheduled activities.  Last week was when that magical stanza was reached by my Super Stars, and I was extremely grateful to find it ~still~ in place today, after students returned from a three day weekend during parent teacher conferences.  

With a smooth transition after calendar and story time, the Stars sat through directions, and returned to their seats to assemble large orange blobs, and black, white, green and brown construction paper into jack-o-lanterns with toothy grins.  The goal?  To fill each jack's mouth with MORE than ten teeth:

The candy corn footprints are helping us learn to count by fives (parent volunteers discovered how many students have ticklish feet!):



Has your year gotten off to a good start?  I hope so!

Let me finish sweeping the place and letting some fresh air in... I'll be back to my regular blogging routine soon!

Teacher Tip: Media Cart Modification

Occasionally, teachers no longer want or need a particular piece of furniture or equipment.  I inherited a gray metal book cart in May, first-come-first-serve style.

That's right, I jogged walked safely (yet quickly) up the hallway to retrieve it when the teacher sent out the come-and-get-it email.

Mobile vertical storage comes in handy for kindergarten students.  Materials can be rolled to different parts of the classroom or hallway, and the backside of the cart, with a teeny tiny modification, can become an additional display surface.

This year, I want to hang chart/writing paper tablets on the back of the cart.  Heavy duty magnet clips worked for one chart, but they weren't strong enough to hold two.  Hello Command Hooks!  I chose the style with the metal hook and bead since I figured they'd fit through the holes that are punched through every page of the tablets.

I positioned the chart tablet where I wanted it to hang, and slid a hook into the backside (without removing the clear strip from the adhesive) so I could determine where to anchor the hook.  Once I knew where it needed to be, I marked the bottom of the white plastic against the metal with a pencil, and then removed the clear strip.  Carefully positioning the hook, I pressed it firmly against the cart.

With the first hook attached, it was time to determine where the second would need to be placed so that the chart hung evenly.  I put one side of the tablet onto the already mounted hook, and then the other on to the second, with the clear strip still in place.  The adhesive on Command Hooks is STRONG, so you're not able to reposition them easily once they make contact.  Sure, you can pull the release tab and try again, but then you've wasted an extra adhesive strip when it wasn't necessary.

(The cart still needs some spray paint to cover up the scribbles that someone else added in order to label the cart.  Sigh.)

Ta-da!

Now the cart is perfect for mobile display and storage, and can also be an activity divider between learning centers.

~Spray paint, spray paint, spray paint.~

*****

What kinds of modifications do you make to equipment in order to make it more functional for your classroom?  What items have you repurposed to create learning materials for your students?

Freebie: Plane and Solid Shapes Screening Pages

Here are links to my latest freebie and I'll warn you, they're no-frills!

Plane and solid shape assessment page 1:

Plane and solid shape assessment page 2:

I plan to use the screening pages as baseline, quick-check, and end-of-the-year tracking documentation.  Our secretary has copied them front-to-back.  I tried to design the first page so that it could be folded in half so as not to overwhelm students who preferred to see the paper instead of using manipulatives. 

Hope this helps as you create your documentation/assessment binders.

~Michaele~