Stamp-A-Word

This Stamp-A-Word center was just the thing to encourage my future writers to interact with print.  Provided at the center are:

• sentence strips with the words 'I see a ________' printed on them
• lower-case letter stamps
• stamp pad (with many dire verbal warnings from me that the ink won't come off little fingers!!)
• Halloween words and pictures that the children can use as a model.  These were placed in pocket charts so that the students could take them out and have them closer to where they were stamping.  It's really hard for four and five-year olds to look up at something stapled on the wall... they need a closer proximity to maximize their success.
• pencil crayons to make illustrations with

Because I wanted the children to take their time and value the work that they did I established some criteria for this center:

• Only 2 students at a time.
• Each student must make 3 sentence strips with 3 different Halloween words.
• Once the stamping was done we would staple a cover on the front and turn the 3 sentences strips into a mini-book.
• Once the student has a mini-book they can read it to a friend or the whole class (everyone wanted to read it to the whole class).
• Every successful author received a Halloween ring (I love the dollar store).

Sorting It Out

In my Kindergarten classroom we are in the thick of learning how to sort items according to shape, colour, and size.  Here are a couple of ideas to make sorting tasks less of a task and more of an adventure!


Smartie Sorting
With Halloween just around the corner it's easy to get your hands on mini boxes of chocolate Smartie candies.  My intention for the Smartie Sorting activity is to have each student sort the candies into 3 colour groups and (with a glance) decide which group is biggest and which is smallest.  To prepare for the activity the night before, I open all of the boxes of Smarties and ensure that each little box has only 3 different colours of candies and that one colour group is obviously bigger and one is obviously smaller.  (This may appear to be a lot of work but the richness of the activity warrants a little extra prep time before things get rolling in class... and with a little glue at the top of each previously opened box, no one even realizes that the boxes have been 'tampered' with!).  

An anonymous no-faced student checks to see which
colour group is the largest.

Once the children have physically sorted their Smarties into three colour groups, each child draws a representation of their findings on a simple bar graph.  
Students are asked to take their boxes of Smarties home to show their parents what they did in math class that day (and eat the candies if they so wish).


An Exploding Button Machine!
What happens when the Button Machine in a fashion factory explodes and a zany (and extremely beautiful) fashion designer enlists the help of young children to sort and reorganize the mess?  This idea was expanded from the Maximizing Kindergarten Math teachers resource that I helped to develop.  And, as always, I found a way to take it a step further and add a little performance art as well!  Check out the video clip below:

A large cardboard box containing a number of plastic baggies filled with mixed up buttons is delivered to the classroom for the children to sort.  Sorting buttons presents many opportunities for little mathematicians to identify numerous ways to sort (colour, number of holes, shape, size, etc.) and it is quite surprising to see how serious they are in helping poor (but extremely beautiful) Donnatella with her most recent misadventure in the factory. 

Simply the Best

Today I had the privilege of visiting teacher extraordinaire Jill Greco at Lago Lindo School. What a treat is was for me to watch a master teacher in action for the entire morning.  Jill truly maximizes the learning for her Kindergarten students from the way she has arranged the furniture in her classroom to the laid-back way she delivers a lesson.  As well, Jill takes organization to a whole new level... a definite must for any teacher looking to brave the untamed world of Kindergarten!  Just like an Olympic figure skater or a great musician in an orchestra, Jill makes her job look effortless and easy.  The fact of the matter is, years of practice, untold hours of preparation, and sheer day-to-day determination can be credited to that effortless demeanor.


I realized today that many of the activities and ideas that are most successful in my own classroom have come from Jill and a handful of other exemplary teachers that I have been lucky enough to know.  The Greek philosopher Epictetus said "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."  I'm so thankful that Jill has shared her expertise with me over the years and hope that I can return the favour.

Fine-Feathered Friends

I suspect that there are many turkeys out there today letting out a sigh of relief!  To learn about Thanksgiving I read a number of turkey themed stories to my Kindergarten students.  Two of our favourites are 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey and The Turkey Ball by David Steinberg.  We then get crafty by making colourful turkeys of our own.

This is a great pre-reading and sequencing activity as the children construct their own craft following the visual icons.  The results speak for themselves: