Classroom Christmas Presents

The holiday season is one of my favorite times in my classroom.... But between parents gifts and student gifts, is also a very busy time for teachers.  It is also such a fun time for me and my students. I have found simple and fun parents gifts that I love making with and for my students.  

Parents Gifts: Every year, I do the same parents gift of snowmen ornaments.  I have found this ornament to be very simple for students to create and I think it is such a great keepsake for families.  I paint the students handprint and then one dried I let them add the detail.   This has made my life so much easier and they also do a great job!  This year, I made the students handprints on clear ornaments. We then added tinsel inside and they turned out so beautiful!

I was so lucky this year because I had a parents that had donated shake containers to be.  We reused these containers and were able to made Santa containers to put our ornaments in.   We simply covered them in construction paper and added cotton balls to the lid for his beard.  I love how they turned out!

Student  Gifts:
These are one of my absolute favorite gifts because they are low cost and the students love them!  I have been making them for years and always am pleased with how they turn out.  During the back to school sale, I always purchases spiral notebooks and 24 packs of crayons.  They end up costing only about $0.75 students per student during the back to school sale.  
I wrap the crayons in December and give the students their new school crayons which they are always excited for.  I collect their own crayons to create their present.
I begin by soaking the crayons in water.  I am then able to easily take the wrappers off.... This is a little trick that I only recently discovered but has been a time saver for me!  I then break up the crayons and have little bug muffin baking tins that I put them in. 

 I cook them in the over at 250 degrees until melted.  

I let them cool and they easily just pop out of the baking tin.  They turn out so colorful and beautiful. 
I wrap these, and add the spiral notebook and voila!  Students have a beautiful and inexpensive gift.  

I hope that you enjoy our little Christmas gifts and that everyone had a happy holiday seasons!

I Can Count to 100!!!

Teaching students to count to 100 takes practice and repetition.  In my classroom we use fun movement videos to keep students engaged.  There are so many great count to 100 videos out there and I wanted to share some of our favorites.


Dr Jeans Count to 100- I love how this incorporates movements. 


Dr Jean Pump It Up To 100 is another great video to keep students moving. 

Jack Hartman- Another great song to get your students on their feet.

For a fun upbeat song that by Harry Kindergarten

Super Hero Count to 100 by Harry's Kindergarten-  What 5 year old doesn't love Super Heros??!?

  The Big Number Song- I love how calm this song is!!

What I needed in my classroom was a way to motivate my students and allow them to see their progress.  I created a counting caterpillar to keep track of our learning.  It is a huge number line to 100 that we have in our classroom.  I love it, not only because students can use it as a resource for numbers and counting, but also because it is how we track our progress for counting to 100.   I add the whole number line at the beginning of the year.  

Each time I assess a student, they move their name along the number line.  They are then able to see the growth that they make and love moving their name!!!!  My students WANT to count for me so I have seen how motivating this resource is to them!

When a student is able to count to 100, they are able to change their name into a butterfly card.  They can decorate it however they want.  

 

If you enjoy this product, it is available on TPT here:
Caterpilar Number Line 

It worked so well with my students!  Many of my students became so excited to come in to school and share with me that they knew how to count to 100 or even a higher number than they could count to before and were motivated to move their knew along the number line!  They knew what the learning target was and were so proud when they reached it.  

I hope that you found some new great ideas on teaching your students to count to 100!
 

10 YouTube Alphabet Videos and Learning at Home

I love using YouTube to engage my students.    There are so many great YouTube alphabet videos out there and I am going to share a few of my favorites.

This Sesame Street video is such a great alphabet video! I am pretty positive that it is my absolute favorite!  It is Usher singing the alphabet and I love how is shows the letter and keeps the students moving and great for reinforcing letter names. 

Have fun Teaching is an amazing resource.  They have a song with the whole alphabet that really reinforces letter sounds. 

What kindergarten teacher doesn't love Jack Hartmann.  This great videos focuses on letter names and letter sounds and keeps students moving!

Another great video that provides visuals and keep students moving with an animal focus. 

This video from The Learning Station is also a great song that repeats each sound over several time and also has pictures to go with each word.  Great for visual learners.

For a calm song with a lot of visuals, I really like this video from Barbara Milne

Alphablocks had great videos for teaching children to read CVC but I also has a great video for reviewing letter names

 and Alphablocks lettter sounds 

This PreschoolPrep video is very visually appealing, it reviews the different phonograms for each letter.

If you having checked out StoryBots yet, your students will love them!!  Each letter has a different very catchy video. 

I love using these YouTube videos in my classroom.  My students were so in love with HaveFun Teaching and StoryBots, that I created QR Code alphabet books for them that they could use at home to extend their learning.  Knowing that so many families have smart phone or tablets and since I teach ELL's, it was a great resource for me to send home with students since many of their parents may not know the letter names and sounds in English.  I also made these books available in our classroom as a center activity and for students who needed more support.  
I copied the front cover on cardstock and created colorful books to send home with the students.

Each letter has the video on one side and handwriting and beginning sound identification on the other. 

Students love using the QR code readers and it was a great way to reinforce the alphabet. 

They can also easily be copied back to back and sent home without making a book as a review after each letter is taught. 
You can check out this product in my TPT store by clicking on the image below. 

Promoting Reading at Home

One of my favorite beginning of the year projects that we do is a Reading Treasure Box and a Book Nook at home...a special place at home for the students to read. This is a family project that the students complete.  Since we send home A LOT of books in kindergarten, and we want students to know that reading and literacy is important, for this project, they create a "Reading Treasure Box" to keep all of the books that they will be bringing home during the school year.
I send home a letter for families, giving them instructions for the assignment.

I assign a date for the students to bring their treasure boxes back to school.  I love seeing the creativity of the families.  You can tell that they put a lot of time and effort into this project.

We keep the treasure boxes at school for the week.  This gives the students time to show off their creations and also, during this time and it has helped for more student involvement. I give the students their first books that they will have to read at home.  They add this first book to their boxes.   

 Before taking their boxes home. the students receive a key to remind them "The key to reading success is practice."   They add glitter to their key because who doesn't love glitter!!

 

You can click on the first image of the letter for a link to the letter and key that I send home.
I would love to hear your ideas on how you promote reading at home with your students!

Classroom Handprint Alphabet

I think it is so important for students to take ownership of their learning environment.  I want the students to feel at home in our classroom and feel like it is their room.  This year, I had the students create our alphabet chart so it was THEIR alphabet chart using their handprints.  

 Students were so excited about this activity.  Each student was able to create a letter so it became their letter.  I added the little details that were finishing touches to each of the letters.

 

It was such a fun project to complete! The students were so happy to see their handprints hung on the wall and it made them so excited about our alphabet chart since it was created by them.  

They enjoyed it so much, thay I also created a class handprint alphabet book for our classroom library.  Is is such a great way to get students interested in learning the letters of the alphabet.  

This can also be made into students handprint alphabet books.
 
You can check out this product in my TPT store by clicking on the image below.  Included are directions and examples to make each of the letters, the letter and the word for each letter as well as a template for an alphabet book. For the posters, all consonants are in blue and vowels in red to help students learn to identify vowels. It is an editable product so if you have a different picture that you wish to use for one of the pictures, you will be able to!

I also made little flashcards to match the handprint pictures.  They can be used to help students learn letter names and letter sounds and also learn the vocabulary of the pictures.   You can download the flashcards for free by clicking on the image below.  

Back to School Name Activities!

Working with our names in one of my beginning of the year favorites because there are so many options out there. In my classroom, we do various name activities for the first couple weeks of school.  Usually more than half of my students are unable to write their name at the beginning of the year so I try to do a lot work with their fine motor skills.  I used to do name tracer worksheets at the beginning of the year but have been able to find ideas that use less worksheets and are more fun for the students. 

Q-Tip Painting: One of our favorites in Q-Tip painting.  I remember when I first started teaching how scared I was of paint, but it is something we love and is manageable as long as you have guidelines in place for the students. I love this activity because it is such great fine motor practice.  The students love it and their names came out to be adorable!!!   

Rainbow Writing: Rainbow writing is another one of our favorite.  The names turn out so fun and colorful and the kids love it!  I love teaching rainbow writing at the beginning of the year because we are able to use it across our curriculum with letters, numbers, sight words, etc. 

Once they have finished writing their name, we then added stickers to our capital letter!  This is a great activity for their fine motor skills!

Magnetic Letters: Another easy name activity that I love is magnetic letter names.  The best part is that you have to prep it one time and then the students can do it over and over again.  I think this activity is especially helpful in teaching the students to recognize the letters in the name, since I the students are able to work with the letters and we can talk about the letters in their names.  

Name Flip Books: These are another fun way for students to practice their names.  Prior to this activity, I cut up the words from boxes.   I folded a paper in half and wrote the students name on it.  I then cut slits between each letter and students found the letters from their name and matched them in the correct order.  You can have the students glue or do it over again and again. 

Name Puzzles: Name puzzles are also a great way for students to practice their name.  I love them because I can keep them at the students tables and they are a great activity for early finishers and also easy to differentiate.  Some of my students may only be working on putting the letters in the correct order and may even need a name plate to match those letters.  Other students may be working on identifying those letters in their names.  These name puzzles are a great way for students to practice their letter identification. 

Name Train Cubes: These are another hands on way for students to practice putting their names together.  I wrote each students name with a Sharpie on cubes.  Students then take their names apart and put them back together.  I love this activity because I can keep it at their desk and it is something simple they can do if they finish another activity early. 

 

Name Identification and Writing Practice: This TPT freebie is one of my absolute favorites.  Students not only practice recognizing their name but also writing it.  It is an editable document on TPT from Miss Campos that you can find here Name Activities EDITABLE
In my classroom, I also put these in sheet protectors for the students who need more practice.  They are also an easy practice sheet to send home with students.  I LOVE this document!

I am able to see how quickly the students begin writing their name.  Most of my students are able to write the name after the first weeks of school... without me having to copy one million name tracers!  As a quick assessment, every couple of days, I will usually pass out index cards to the students and ask them to write their name on them.  I am then able to see if I need to start working more one on one with some students to provide them more support.  

I hope that you find something helpful in this post and I look forward to this coming school year!!!