Thinking Ahead: Valentine Box Letter

Want to make your life a whole lot easier this year?  Have your students make their Valentine Boxes at home.  It saves you so much time and with my editable freebie, it's a snap for the kids and the parents.  HONEST!  It's always a blast when they bring in the boxes for the big reveal and you get to see their personalities in full bloom!

Try it....you'll like it! PROMISE!

Thoughts on this Kindergarten Classroom?

TED Talks inspire me.  Make me want to do better.  Be better.  I honestly could watch them all day.  Doesn't matter the topic.  They fascinate me.  I recently watched this one and I would love to know your thoughts.  I'm digging it.

Totally.  I'm all in.  Isn't this how Kindergarten should be?

Battle of the Vowels Game (Freebie!)

Battle of the Vowels came about one day at Morning Meeting when I wanted a different activity to reinforce long and short vowel sounds that would be QUICK and FUN! 

It was impromptu and I just used plain paper. That’s honestly all you need. 

However, I made up these recording sheets to make it easier/neater for the kids. 

Having two pictures up top helped reinforce the beginning /middle vowel sound the second time we played! 

 

To play is simple, and again, you certainly don't need this download to play...just wanted to make it easier for kids...

1.Divide students into equal groups that have a good mixture abilities.

2.Give each group the same or different vowel. Up to you! The first time I did this I gave each group (4 kids in each group) a different short vowel. The second time? All the same. Kind of wish I did that the first time out.

3.I assigned a student to record answers but explained that
EVERYONE contributes.

Here is one group at work:

4. Set timer to see which group or individual can get the most words in allotted time.

Here are the winners the first time we played without the above sheets. (I'll post pic of latest winners using these sheets when I can locate them.)

Think of all the variations you can play with this game! As the year progresses, I'll hold kids accountable for spelling of words IF we learned all the sounds associated with the word. (Example: -igh in fight.) The first time we played, if they read off the word correctly, I counted it like you see in the pics above.

Download here. 

Let the battle begin! ENJOY!