Leapin' Leprechauns

Here is a terrific little game perfect for St. Patrick's Day learning centres, taught to me by a the talented Occupational Therapist Denise Rice who regularly visited my classroom last year.


Here is how it works:
1.  Each student playing needs a Leapin' Leprechaun page (as seen in the photo above).
2.  Each student places 10 pennies on the green circles at the top of the page.
3.  Taking turns, players roll the dice and remove the corresponding number of pennies from the green circles.  As per Denise's instructions "students pick up the required number of pennies by “squirreling” them in their hand (for example, pick up the pennies with their thumb,  index, and 3^rd  finger and at the same time (and with the same hand) hold the pennies they have already picked up with their 4^th and 5^th fingers against their palms).  This also helps to develop proper pencil grasp, so the muscles of the hand learn a correct tripod grasp and the other fingers are curled into the palm of the hand which acts as a “stabilizer” while holding a pencil for drawing/printing. "
4.  The game continues until all players pennies have been moved from the green circles to the pot of gold via "swooshing" them along the rainbow.  Again, the motion of "swooshing" each penny from the base of the rainbow to the pot helps to develop fine-motor control as the child's index finger controls the movement of the penny.
5.  Once everyone is finished, each child gets a chance to wave the magic wand (actually a magnet wand) over the pennies in the pot of gold.  The magical part is that only certain pennies from certain years are magnetic depending on the metal composition of the coin... not that you have to explain that to your kindergarten students.
6. I often provide some addition practice to my students by challenging them to figure out how many magic pennies (magnetic pennies)  there are all together.


If you would like a PDF file of the Leapin' Leprechaun page please drop me a line at mrcampbellsclassroom@shaw.ca and I'd be happy to share!

Curb Appeal

A hot property has just become available in Room 216!  This charming gingerbread cottage features newly installed chocolate chip cookie shingles, peppermint stick trim, and lollipop landscaping. Run, run as fast as you can, it is a house fit for an aspiring gingerbread man.

This is the house as it neared the completion of its most recent renovation.
That giant green beanstalk to the right of the house is one of three we made
after reading Jack and the Beanstalk.  

For the past week the students in my room have been merrily working on decorating this giant cardboard house which was generously donated to us from Notables (Edmonton's fanciest card and gift shop located in the posh 124 Street area).  


Don't let the beauty of it fool you... there has been some hard work and many curricular objectives met through the assembly of this "gingerbread" house.  Multiple skills were used for the chocolate chip shingles alone:  students had to trace around a circular stencil, cut the curved lines they drew, draw 7 chocolate chips on each cookie, and learned about light brown, medium brown, and dark brown.  Notice the gumdrop trim on the rooftop.  Each candy has been carefully cut out by nimble little fingers and then added to the structure in a pattern.  Peppermint sticks were a particular challenge to many children demanding that they pay careful attention to stay in the lines and repeat red on every second segment of the candy cane.  Who knew math and fine-motor development could be so sweet? 


I am currently using the gingerbread house as a quiet place for two students to play with the Lite-Brite (another great fine-motor activity allowing fingers to push light pegs into corresponding holes). And the best part is that the decor can be removed and changed out to a new theme once the holidays are over. 

Full of Beans!

Jack got more than he bargained for when he exchanged his beloved cow for a handful of magic beans.  Imagine the excitement in my classroom when I tell my students that I have a whole bunch of magic beans that can be used to create a variety of colourful and interesting patterns as we build our names.

This organizer is an excellent way to keep the beans sorted.
I print each child's name on heavy cardstock paper.

As the children create patterns on the letters in their names I encourage them to make each pattern different and challenge them to try their hands at "trickier" patterns (like double attributes or three different colours of beans).  Upon completion of their name we count the letters, identify the letter their name begins with, and write a simple "story" about their name to be displayed with their project.

I'm a strong believer in proudly displaying the hard work of my students.
The giant (sporting dark liver spots and feathery orange eyebrows) peeking
over the top of the bulletin board is fourteen years old.  I made him my
first year of teaching.  I guess you could say I'm also a strong believer in doing
something really well once and keeping it for a lifetime.

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. 

'Tis The Season

This is quite possibly my favourite time of the school year.  I am always amazed at the progress that my young students have made at this point.  Many of the children have more than doubled their knowledge regarding letter identification and number concepts since the last progress report!  

Student-Led Conferences are the perfect way to showcase the outstanding growth to parents.  Each child is scheduled to visit our classroom with their parents for a 30 minute block of time.  In that 30 minutes, they will visit 5 stations designed to highlight the knowledge and skills that we have been building over the past seven months.  Following are the five stations that the Busy Bees will guide their families through:

READING STATION:  I supply a number of familiar books for the children to choose from.  I want the reading task to be easy for the children allowing them to fluently read the text to their parents.  The directions for each station include suggested questions that parents may ask their children to deepen the conference conversation.

SHOPPING SPREE STATION:  The children play this math game to demonstrate their knowledge of numeral identification as well as their skill at counting objects (in this case pennies) using one-to-one correspondence.  I supply enough pennies so that mom and dad can join in the game.

SCIENCE SORTING STATION:  This task actually includes three major areas for the children to tackle.  First off, they demonstrate their fine-motor control by cutting out the seasonal pictures (both straight and curved lines!!).  Secondly, they have to decide which picture goes where.  Finally, they have to do all of this in a very short 5 minute span testing their time management skills.

SPIN-A-WORD STATION:  This station is simply a literacy game that we play throughout the year.  It is an easy, fun, and interactive way to get children to read a list of high-frequency words that we have been learning in class.  I encourage advanced players to think of a sentence that has their word in it.  I've learned from experience to supply a couple of chairs for parents to sit on... most adults seem reluctant to sit "criss-cross-applesauce" on the carpet.  Go figure!

ABC BINGO STATION:  And finally, a station to showcase letter/sound knowledge.  The parental questions supplied lead the children to use more information around the classroom including our alphabet letter posters and our Word Wall featuring high-frequency words and classmate's names.  And like any good Bingo parlour, upon completion the children can see me to collect their prize for a job well done (usually a bottle of bubbles or container of playdough... no cash pay-outs here).

QUICK TIPS:  I picked up the plastic direction holders when the Eaton's department store went out of business many years ago.  You can find similar display items at office supply stores but they can be very costly.  

I attach clusters of balloons to each station as a way of ensuring that families visit the correct areas in our classroom (not sneak off to the block center or dig around in the sand table).  The balloons also make our classroom look festive for the evening. 

Finally, prior to the event, I send home a couple of reminders about the format of the Student-Led Conference.  I always mention that "because the children need the undivided attention of their parents, siblings are not invited to attend the activities".

Frightfully Fun!

Lady GaGa has a legion of fans she affectionately refers to as her Little Monsters.  Not one to be left out on a trend, I have my own little monster.  His name is Marty the Math Monster and he regularly visits my Kindergarten classroom to introduce new math concepts or present some sort of problem for my students to solve.  The children always look forward to Marty's visits.

I discovered Marty in a fancy lady toy boutique on 124th Street.  As soon as our eyes met I knew that this little monster would be a perfect vehicle to get my young mathematicians excited about numeracy learning.  A colleague at another school has implemented a similar idea with a large Curious George stuffed animal.  She places puzzles, number problems, and math games in George's backpack.


Throughout the school year, Marty teaches the children important math vocabulary.  These  key words are placed on a 'Marty's Math Words' poster that the students can refer to.

One question I am most often asked is "Where can I get my own monster puppet to use in my classroom?"  The store I originally purchased Marty from is, unfortunately, long gone.  However, on a lovely summer day in Banff, I happened upon a whole rack of monster puppets in the store 'Duck, Duck, Moose'.  To my delight my eyes met up with a replica of Marty (probably his twin brother) and another puppet who followed me home and quickly became Marty's Mama Monster.  A frightfully fun family reunion, indeed!

Let The Good Times Roll

I had the pleasure to present my "Making Math Magical" session to a packed room of teachers at the North Central Teacher's Convention last week.  After the presentation many people asked for copies of my "Roll A Santa/Snowman/Rabbit/Pirate" dice games.  I will figure out a way to get those out but for now here is a photo of the games.  Feel free to trace or redraw for yourselves!

These simple games are excellent since they allow students to develop their subitzing skills in a fun and interactive way.  I cut out the little pieces for the children to add to the central figure.  If you don't have the time or energy at the end of a long day, consider having the children draw in the items after a successful roll.

100th Day

Here is the monster we made for the 100th Day of School.  Her name is Mona and she proudly sports 100 spots cut out by the nimble fingers of the students in my class.  Can you find the 100th spot? 

It may not be the world's best poem but it rhymes (sort of) and I made it up all myself.

The Busy Bees rotated through five special 100th Day stations with the most popular being the Cupcake Decorating Station.  Here is the "recipe" that the children had to follow as they assembled their sugary concoctions. Please don't tell our school nurse.