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This post could alternatively be titled "what works for me" because lets face it, there are a million ways to do centers, and what works one year with one class, might be completely awful another year with another class. Here is what currently works in my classroom.

I start off at the beginning of the year SOOOO slow. I introduce only one new center (and for that matter, one new activity at each center) each week. Before I ever let the students take over ownership I model, model, model, and we talk about what you should and shouldn't do at the center. After all that talking and modeling, we role play and take turns showing each other what behavior should and should not look like at our centers. Even then, I often have to revisit behavior during centers. It's an ongoing process and you just have to have faith that it will get better the more they practice.

That being said, the very first center I teach is the computer center. I am lucky to have six computers, so 1/3 of my class can be there at a time.

The very first week I rotate six kids through each day while the other 2/3 of my class plays a literacy game or has story time with me. The first week I introduced my class to starfall.com and the second week to tumblebooks. We will eventually start working on istation once they are more proficient at typing in their student numbers and passwords.

The second center I teach is read to self/ book boxes. I call them book boxes, just personal preference.

As I cycle students through this center they choose good fit books (at this point just ones that are interesting to them since most don't have a reading level yet) to fill their boxes. Once they have a box of books they choose a mini rug throughout our room to sit on. They also have the option to take a stuffed reading buddy with them to read to, so long as they read to it and don't play around with it. If I see them playing around with it, it promptly goes back into the bucket.

At this point, our second week, I now have six kids on computers, and six kids doing read to self each day, and the remaining six are working with me. (usually on beginning of the year assessments.) The amazing labels you see in these pictures are from Kinder-Craze. Her library labeling pack can be found HERE.

Once those two biggies are out of the way and students are working at them well, I begin introducing our other centers. Some of these require teamwork, so putting these ones off a few weeks gives me a chance to see who should and shouldn't work together for maximum cooperation.

The writing center is usually the next center introduced because it can be done as an individual activity or working together with a partner. This year the first activity I introduced there was a handwriting activity.

I printed out free alphabet handwriting sheets from The Moffatt Girls and slipped them into plastic sleeve protectors I got off Amazon. I set them all in a tub at the center along with a cup filled with dry erase markers. My markers have erasers built in on the cap, but that would be something else to think about if yours don't.

Lest you are starting to think I'm an expert at running centers, let me shatter your preconceived notions for a minute. Friends I can't even tell you how many times I modeled this activity. We talked about where you can and can't use the dry erase markers, how to trace the letters, how to erase it clean for the next person, etc. etc. etc. Over, and over, and over. I still had two kids who took dry erase marker and wrote all over their faces the third week of school. True story.

The second week of the writing center I started introducing a color activity since we had been working on our color words. Students could use the color cards to write six different color words and draw an accompanying picture. This activity is part of Kindergarten Smiles Writing Pack which I love, love, love, and you can find HERE. I made the color cards so my students could have some extra support and you can find those for free HERE.

Next up, the magnet center. I set up my magnet center on the side of my big eye sore filing cabinets, but you could easily use a magnetic white board or even cookie sheets. This is one of my students favorites. I use a variety of activities here, including some magnet board activities I got from Lakeshore Learning, but the first few weeks I keep it simple.

I printed this letter matching activity from Kindergarten Smiles September Word Work Pack, (found HERE) and the students match up magnetic letters to the letters on the cards. I keep two tubs of letters at the bottom of the center so that students aren't all crowded around fighting over one bucket. I also keep a mini rug here also for the students to sit on while they are working.

And the final center that I've introduced thus far, is the word work center. My students complete this center on our large rug at the front of the room not far from my guided reading table. (Where I can keep a good eye on them since these activities require them to work together nicely)

I keep a laundry basket right near the rug and inside are tubs with games that have been stored in pencil pouches. Each pouch has an instruction card and then all the pieces needed for that activity. The students can choose out a pouch and work together to complete the activity.

Thus far they have been introduced to an alphabetic order game, and a letter/sound match up game.

Both are from the September Word Work Pack I was telling you about earlier. Later in the year as my students become more proficient at these activities I will leave clip board with recording sheets and pencils in the laundry basket too so that they can complete a recording sheet after finishing an activity.

There are two more centers that I have not yet introduced that my students will start in the next few weeks. The first is the listening center. Here I have tubs of books set up with their corresponding CD and students can choose one to listen to. Eventually this one will also have a recording sheet too.

And the last one is the Ipad station. Here the students can sit on the stools and use many of the same learning tools that they would use on the computer. I am always looking for new (FREE) apps to introduce to my students so if you know any good ones please leave me a comment!

I have a new charging station this year that I am hoping will help the students be more independent in keeping our Ipads charged up!

Now, let's talk logistics. There are two times of day that you may find my students working on literacy centers:

1) during iii (intervention time) ALWAYS. This is half an hour EVERY morning that I work with my struggling learners and during that time the rest of the class does centers in pairs.

2) during reader's workshop. This only happens at the beginning of the year while we are still building up our read to self and read to a partner stamina, and later in the year when I have testing that needs to be completed, or as a special treat. Since MOST of the class is working in centers during this time, they work together in groups of three.

Since my iii center time happens every day we work on a 5 day rotation schedule Monday-Friday. My struggling learners are automatically with me, and then everyone else is given a partner, advanced kids paired up with proficient kids.

During reading time I have my groups of three on a six day rotation, same as our fine arts. This way all six groups of three kids each get to cycle through everything. These are heterogeneous groups (one struggling, one proficient, one advanced student each) so that they can rely on each other and work together for support.

I use center cards in mini pocket charts from target on my center board so that my students can easily look each morning and see where they go.

I taped my rotation schedules right next to the board so I can easily change them at the end of the day. You can see them here to the left of my centers board:

My center signs are 4x6 and made to fit in plastic upright picture frames from Michaels. The frames are a steal at only $2 each and come in other fun colors besides hot pink. I then made the rotation cards to match. I am sharing my signs and rotation cards HERE for free, but please be advised that I don't have time to make any changes, add any other centers, or make them editable.

And that's what works for me! I'd love to hear what works for you if you do something different or if you have any tips!

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This post could alternatively be titled "what works for me" because lets face it, there are a million ways to do centers, and what works one year with one class, might be completely awful another year with another class. Here is what currently works in my classroom.

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Dec 30, 2018 - Are you looking for a resource to bring STEM into your phonics skills or word work stations? Or maybe you are just tired of using the same 'ole word work stations year after year..?? Maybe you are wanting to give STEM a try but nervous on how to get started...?? I get it! That's why I created Phonics STEM Sound Kits!

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Oct 25, 2018 - Kindergarten writing work stations for the whole year! This center is a hit! Looking for ways to improve your students' writing skills? Check out these printable kindergarten writing work stations!

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A Classroom Writing Center Students Will LOVE

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Jan 30, 2019 - Do you want your students to love writing? Get tips on how to create a classroom writing center that your students will WANT to go to!

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BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced Literacy Diet

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Aug 21, 2017 - (oise.utoronto.ca) Letter wands to find items that start with that letter around the room - great idea for the classroom!

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Storing Magnetic Letters (Clever Classroom)

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Apr 2, 2014 - This Pin was discovered by Tamela Eary. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

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At Starfall, children have fun while they learn. Educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for PreK and Kindergarten learners.

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Learning with Mini Erasers - Planning Playtime

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May 2, 2018 - Are you a collector of mini erasers? Mini erasers make fantastic manipulatives. They come in so many bright colors and patterns, and kids LOVE them. There seems to be new styles for every season, and they are so easy to pull out and add to your centers and learning activities.

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iteachkinder.com -&nbspThis website is for sale! -&nbspiteachkinder Resources and Information.

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Dec 22, 2015 - This website is for sale! iteachkinder.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, iteachkinder.com has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!

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Literacy centers can greatly improve reading skills for kindergartners. This is how I organize, offer choice and set up a big book literacy center in my kindergarten classroom.

Part of my teaching philosophy {yeah, remember that boring class in college?} is working smart. Why didn't they cover that in school?

I believe that you can set up a literacy center for an entire year and you won't have to cut and print out stuff each week to make it fun, feel different and still make it differentiated.

Better yet, set it up smartly so that students can differentiate it for themselves.

Why have a big book center?

I'm not one of those teachers who keeps her big books hidden away from kindergarten hands, stashed away so they never get bent.

Nope, I put them right into the excited fingers of my students.

This way they can experience print in BIG proportions and get up close and personal with illustrations.

One of the most simple year-long centers that I have ever implemented into my classroom is the big book center.

Let me share why by rolling out how I make it successful, make it last all year long and the standards it covers.

How to make it successful

1. Offer choice

I offer students choice - which plays a big role in motivation over an entire year.

Students have the choice to read familiar big books that we've read as a class or books that are new to them. Often, students will gravitate towards familiar books until they grow stronger in their reading skills.

I also offer students choice in reading tools.

These are simple little additions that encourage close-up exploration of print and text. These are tools similar to what we'd use in a guided reading group, just larger to fit the big text.

A variety of fun pointers - both large and small make reading and exploring print the cool thing to do.

Some of our favorite pointers include:

magnifying glasses

word windows (free paint chips from home improvement stores with holes cut out)

water blasters

dowel rods or paint stirrers with fun printable toppers like these below

Read more: 5 Ways to Make Fun Big Book Pointers

2. Make it organized

In order to make it worthy of taking up space all year long, it's gotta be organized. Plus, having a place for everything makes it a snap for kinders to clean up.

We keep really tall pointers and reading tools nearby using a plastic bag caddy attached to the wall.

In our classroom, big books are organized onto two shelves. The blue book shelf container was made by my dad. It has a display ledge on the front and a toaster-like slot for books to go into for storage. We keep our familiar books in here for quick access.

If you make any class big books or have poems - add them to this center!

The shelf underneath has the big books that we haven't read yet or are just random big books I have. It is amazing how many you can accumulate with garage sales, old curriculum adoptions and donations. {And by you - I mean me!}

So now you can partially see why I don't mind students handling them. There are plenty to last me years. The favorites have to be repaired over time, but its worth it!

This shelf has a wooden base with 4 bookend-like dividers inside (spaced about 6 inches apart) in order to have so many big books housed standing upright.

Prior to having these shelf spaces, I used a large laundry basket or storage container to house big books. It worked great too!

3. Have expectations

Having expectations will make your center run more smoothly. You can teach specific things and then hold your students accountable. It's a simple but magic system of teaching responsibility {wink}

Post your expectations

I add a poster that explains the choices {if there are any} and expectations. I use a picture format to make it kinder-friendly.

This photo is a modified sample from my Literacy Center Poster Set. That way you can easily post expectations for your students too - simply print and you're set to go!

You can see how students have 3 "choices" but funny how they are all reading and practicing reading skills. {Must have a pretty smart teacher to plan that, eh?}

Expect students to keep working

Students are expected to stay on task and read no matter what books they choose or tools. This ensure that they keep on working until the center time is up. It gives me a lot of flexibility while I'm working with groups and I'm less bound by the clock.

Teach them to pick a spot

They can also spread out onto the floor since reading a big books is much more comfortable this way. I purchased some "nap mats" during back to school sales at Walmart and these are for this center.

This allows my kinders to read anywhere in the room and gives this reading center its completely unique feeling.

What standards does this center meet?

I don't shy away from being proud that my centers are standards-based. I think that you can make things age-appropriate, standards-based and still feel like fun for kindergartners.

No worksheets here!

This center helps us meet these Common Core Standards:

K.RF.1.a. Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

K.RF.1.b. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

K.RF.4 Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

K.RI.5 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

K.RL.5 Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

K.RL.10a Use pictures and context to aid comprehension and to draw conclusions or make predictions about story content.

It is rewarding for me {as it is for them} to watch the progression go from looking at pictures to finding sight words, to really reading many parts of these books.

In my book, that's BIG! {ha, get it?}

Would you believe that there are over 15 centers we have that last us all year long? I'm not kidding.

You can do it too. It's all about working smart!

More on Literacy Centers

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How to Make a Year-Long Big Book Literacy Center - KindergartenWorks

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Literacy centers can greatly improve reading skills for kindergartners. This is how I organize, offer choice and set up a big book literacy center in my kindergarten classroom. Part of my teaching philosophy {yeah, remember that boring class in college?} is working smart. Why didn't they cover that in school?

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A blog by Melanie Lloyd (From the Pond) about classroom activities and printables for K-3 learners.

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If you were to pick up one of my classroom library books, you would probably see 3 different labels on them. I have tried SO many different organization and labeling systems over the years. My current system has worked well for my third graders, but before I dive into that, let's run through the disasters from the past.

*If you are here from Pinterest and just want to grab the labels, scroll at the way to the bottom of the post.

1. Number System Fail: When I got my first classroom, I went in during the summer and carried in the bags of books I had been collecting all throughout college. I was so excited. My mom came in to help me label books and we spent hours sorting, I honestly don't even remember how, and then labeling books with numbers.

What did the numbers correlate to? The numbers on the cubbies the books should be returned to.

Do you think kids paid attention to a white label with a number stuck on the bottom, back of a book? Nope!

What a fail! They probably had such a hard time finding a book to read that they had no way to remember where to return it to.

2. Fiction vs. Nonfiction Fail: A couple years later I decided I would separate my books into fiction and nonfiction.

"The old system was a mess", I thought.

"They need an easy way to figure out where to put books", I thought.

"Fiction/nonfiction will never change, even if i get more books, they will still know how to sort them", I thought.

So...this was a fail for many reasons. First, because the amount of fiction I owned far outweighed the nonfiction and I couldn't separate them into separate bookcases like I had hoped. Also, fiction includes basically all of my chapter books and 2/3 of my picture books, so there's that. It ended up being a mess with the nonfiction bookcase hardly being touched and the fiction overflowing with foolishness because there were so many books not making it back into place. I needed more categories so that students could find books they wanted to read quicker and not "shop" for 30 minutes.

(In my defense, this was before Pinterest was a thing and many teachers only had personal social media that they occasionally shared teaching ideas on vs. now with social media accounts devoted to teachers and their classrooms.)

I decided there were 3 things I really needed from my library:

1. A set up that allowed students to find books that interested them

2. An organizational system that made it easy for students to return book correctly

3. An organization system that cut down on "shopping" time so that students could spend more time actually reading

The key to having students fall in love with reading in the third grade lies in book series! If you can get a kid hooked on a series, they will consume and explore books on their own like you never imagined.

Then it hit me!

Duh.

The way I needed to organize my library was by series!

-group chapter books by series and place them in a basket so they were forward facing

-group chapter books that didn't fit into a series, or that I didn't have many of the series, by genre

-group any chapter book that doesn't fit into series or genre, into an "explore" bin

-sort picture books simply by fiction or nonfiction but separate out "easy reader" type books

It's not rocket science, but it works fabulous for my students. Every week I choose 2 "librarians". Their job is to go through the baskets at the end of the day, return any out of place books, and make sure the rest are forward facing and neat. It takes them a couple minutes and they love the responsibility. It has also taught them exactly how they should be returning their books daily.

If you've had the same issues as me and want to give my system a go, you are more than welcome to my library labels for free. I sell them in my store for $3.00, but I so appreciate the teachers who take the time to read my blog posts and emails, that I wanted to offer them for free. I don't know if you've read my bio, but gifts are my love language. Click on the link below, enter your email, and you will have instant access to the resource! Enjoy!

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Classroom Library Organization That Works For You

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If you were to pick up one of my classroom library books, you would probably see 3 different labels on them. I have tried SO many different organization and labeling systems over the years. My current system has worked well for my third graders, but before I dive into that, let's run through the disasters from the past.

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Hi friends! I am so overwhelmed getting my room ready! Each year it gets harder because my list of things to do differently gets longer! My first year, I had all these brilliant ideas that I just knew would work! Now I have a list of things that HAVEN'T worked, hahaha!

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How to Organize Your Classroom Library: Leveled or Interest? - Kristen Sullins Teaching

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Should you organize a classroom library by interest or by level? We have all heard the research on both, so how do you set up a classroom library? I have organized my classroom library into two sections: On Level Books and Interest Books. #classroomlibrary #setup #organization

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Hi friends! I am so overwhelmed getting my room ready! Each year it gets harder because my list of things to do differently gets longer! My first year, I had all these brilliant ideas that I just knew would work! Now I have a list of things that HAVEN'T worked, hahaha!

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Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable comes with eight editable pages, containing two pencils. Each pencil has pieces for two letter names up to nine letter names.

Getting Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable Ready

To edit this resource, you will need to download the KG font used ( KG Red Hands). Next, you will open the document with Adobe Acrobat. You will first type out the name of your student (or child) in the highlighted space on the tip of the pencil. Then you will type out their name on the pencil that matches how many letters they have. Each section will get one letter.

Using Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable

Each student will have their own set of Pencil Names. You can easily store these in a ziploc baggie so that students can better keep track of all the pieces.

Students will first look at their name on the tip of the pencil. This will be the perfect guide for helping little learners practice building their name.

Students will then find the first letter of their name and then, one at a time, and build their name.

I cut the eraser and tip of the pencil off so that my students could fully complete the puzzle.

You can easily leave those pieces attached if your students are younger, like we did for Bob.

If your students are older , you can leave the tip of the pencil blank and students can build their name on their own without any guidance. You could also leave everything blank and have students write the letters on the pencil, where they can then build their Pencil Names.

Download Your Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable Below!

Can you not find a resource that you would LOVE to have for your classroom? Contact me and I would be happy to make it for you.

Click the picture below to download.

I hope that you and your students enjoy Pencil Names to use in your classroom this year! Are you looking for more back to school ideas, activities, and printables to do at home or in the classroom? If so don't miss out on all of our Back to School Lessons!

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Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable

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Pencil Names - Name Building Practice Printable comes with eight editable pages, containing two pencils. Each pencil has pieces for two letter names up to nine letter names. To edit this resource, you will need to download the KG font used ( KG Red Hands). Next, you will open the document with Adobe Acrobat.

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These preschool alphabet activities tackle one of the biggest challenges when you are teaching preschool, your budget. School's don't have unlimited funds, goodness knows we teachers don't either. So finding engaging materials that can or can be turned into super fun and educational activities is a must. These preschool alphabet activities are simple but pack a punch when it comes to learning. Check out how I did that using ( almost only) material found at every teacher's favorite place... Target's Dollar Spot!

These preschool alphabet activities work on a few things beyond letter recognition, they also in different ways work on fine motor skills too. The sticker activity works on this while children are carefully peeling the stickers from the backing, and the clip activity works on it while children are pinching the clothespins to clip on to the letter card. They also help to develop hand-eye coordination which is about so much more than sports... we need it for everything including writing which is something very much focused on in early elementary school.

I have done this activity a million ways, like a mural, on sentence strips ... and on and on, but these stickers from the Dollar Spot are so bright and fun I knew I needed to grab them, and the shape cards were a perfect way to piece this activity altogether and make it visually appealing as a free choice or literacy center activity.

Gather your materials. You will need some shape cards, small letter stickers, and large letter stickers. That's it. All at the dollar spot right now!

Start by placing a large letter sticker on the shape cards.

Place them on a tray or table with the sheet of smaller letter stickers. To jump-start the activity you can always place a few stickers on as a prompt.

Look at those fine motor skills?! ( those are my fingers.... it's the summer my students are still frolicking in sprinklers, but I will be taking this into my classroom in the fall).

Pop those stickers on!

What I love is that you can use these cards over and over just keep adding stickers!

This preschool alphabet activity is rad because it repurposes inexpensive bulletin board borders for learning!

Gather your materials. You will need scissors, a fine tipped permanent marker, and clothespins ( not from the dollar spot but you can get them at the dollar store), alphabet bulletin board borders from the Dollar Spot.

Start by cutting the borders into lengths that children can handle, I snipped mine in two, so I had four pieces but do what you think is best for your students.

Next, write the lowercase letters on the clothespins. You could absolutely write uppercase is you want a straight matching activity.

Place the strips and the clips on a tray and invite your letter detectives to come and match up some letters.

Time to clip!

Both of these activities took 2 minutes, maybe only 90 seconds to set up and cost only a few dollars despite being bright and inviting for little learners.

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Preschool Alphabet Activities from The Dollar Spot

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These preschool alphabet activities tackle one of the biggest challenges when you are teaching preschool, your budget. School's don't have unlimited funds, goodness knows we teachers don't either. So finding engaging materials that can or can be turned into super fun and educational activities is a must.

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Name Activities Landing - Mrs. Jones Creation Station

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FREE NAME ACTIVITY Name printables to help your little ones learn to recognize, spell and write their names! This resource is perfect for : Preschoolers-allow learners to recognize the letters of their name. Pre-K Students-allow learners to spell and write their name. Kindergarteners-allow learners to continue with better letter formation of their name.

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Do you need an easy hands on activity to help your students learn their names? Your students will love learning how to spell and recognize their names with this sorting game. Two variations of the game are provided. Perfect for name building practice and simple enough to use in literacy centers.

Can you believe the summer has almost gone already? It seems to go by faster and faster each year. Now is the time to be prepping for the start of the school year. One of the skills your students need to learn quickly, is how to recognize their names.

The importance of being able to learn their names

As you know many kindergarteners will come into your classroom knowing their name, but will not be able to identify/read it. The child's printed name labels many things, including coat hook or cubby, assigned seat, and folders for completed worksheets.

Can you imagine what it would be like to walk into a room and not know where to hang your coat or which seat to use? Recognizing their name will contribute to your student's independence and sense of belonging.

What you need are some fun learning activities to help your students learn their names.

RELATED: Name Cards and Name Centers

FREE PRINTABLE

To help you, we've created a simple printable exclusively for Simply Kinder readers.

You can use this printable in a variety of different ways. We've come up with two possibilities, but feel free to come up with your own. Both activities will help the children learn their names without the need for a lot of teacher assistance, which makes them perfect for literacy centers! As a bonus they require very little preparation. All you need is our printable and a few other supplies and you're ready to go!

1. Use the printable and letter cards
Materials

Name worksheet (download below)

letters printable (download below).

Instructions

Download and print out the pages you need. (Use card stock and laminate for durability.)

Cut apart the letter cards.

Place the letters in a bowl next to the worksheet.

Place a name card above the sheet.

Invite children to place the letters that are in their name on one side of the sheet and the letters that are not in their name on the other side.

2. Use the printable and magnetic letters

Magnetic letters allow the children to manipulate the letter and feel the shapes instead of just seeing them. They are perfect for students who are just beginning to read and write. Follow the instructions above, replacing the letter cards with the magnetic letters. The kids pull out the letters and sort them into letters that are from their name and those that are not.

Two Other Ideas

1. Provide both worksheets and have the students write the letters. They could cross out the letters on the worksheet as they use them.

2. Provide headlines from old magazines or newspapers. Invite students to find the letters in the headlines, cut them out and glue them to their worksheet. This activity would work well with a smaller group as the students could need some help with this task.

YOUR TURN

How will you use this printable? Do you have any other ideas? Leave a comment below.

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Sorting Game To Help Kinders Learn Their Names (Free Printable) - Simply Kinder

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Do you need an easy hands on activity to help your students learn their names? Your students will love learning how to spell and recognize their names with this sorting game. Two variations of the game are provided. Perfect for name building practice and simple enough to use in literacy centers.

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Day 7 of 31 Days of Kindergarten and today is all about 20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten.

News flash!! Most of my kindergartners come into my classroom on the first day of school and know their name, but cannot identify it. And most likely, this is the same for your kinder class. I typically spend the first week(s) of school doing lots of different activities with their names. I try and incorporate and integrate as many different skills into these activities as possible. Some of these activities have counting, some have reading, some have writing, but they are all fun and hands-on! I have a few of my own ideas here, but I have found some great new ideas to try this next school year! I hope you enjoy these 20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten!

This is a fun and easy activity that you can prep before school even starts! One year I even made these and gave them away at Meet the Teacher day, so they could work on their name before the first day of school even happened!

1. Use sentence strips to write each student's name, with ample space to draw crooked lines.

2. Using a highlighter or different color marker, make 'cutting' zig-zag lines.

3. Students will cut out their name puzzle and place in ziploc baggie, to practice putting together their name!

I love this activity, since it covers more than one skill! I love that it gives the students cutting practice, that they must listen and follow directions, plus, it covers name recognition!

Next up, is a favorite activity in my class. The one is called the name mosaic. Basically, I cut large white paper in half, making a large rectangle. Next, I write their name, using a highlighter or marker. I also have tons of those little scrap-booking 2″ squares that I use for this project. I model tearing the squares in half (one more step and fine motor skill practice) and then gluing them down, tracing their name. I end up using these adorable name mosaics on my hallway bulletin board!
Name Collage from Splish Splash Splatter
The following ideas and pictures are not my own, but amazing and fun ideas I have found through my online research. Please visit their blogs for more information on each picture and idea.
Name Kits from Fun-A-Day Name Matching Activities from Early Learning Ideas Photo Name Puzzles from Tot Schooling Name Chant from Kindergarten Kiosk EDITABLE (FREE) Name Traceable from Miss Campos Hands-on Name Activity idea from Inquiring Minds: Mrs.Myer's Kindergarten {FREE} Ice Cream Scoop Name Activity from A Dab of Glue Will Do Name Folders from Play to Learn Rainbow Dot Name Art from Welcome to Room 36 Clothespin Name Activity from Munchkins and Moms Magnetic Names from Mrs.Bremer's Class Name Recognition Soup from Munchkins and Moms Alphabet Sticks from More Than ABC's and 123's
Build Your Name from Choices Family Daycare
How Many Letters in my Name? From Illuminations Learning My Name Sensory Bin from Nurture Store Everybody Has a Name Poem from The First Grade Parade {FREE} Printable School Bus Name Activity from Tot Schooling {FREE} All About My Name from Cherry Workshop Name Graph from Mrs.Bohaty's Kindergarten Kingdom
I hope you have enjoyed this round-up of 20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten. Do you have any name activities that you use in your classroom? I would LOVE to hear about it or even see a picture! Feel free to leave a comment on this post, or visit me on FB, or Instagram! Looking for more ideas? Look no further...check out 20+ Ideas for Meet the Teacher or 5 Tips for School Year Prep that You Can Do at Home.

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20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten

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Day 7 of 31 Days of Kindergarten and today is all about 20 FREE Name Activities for the First Week of Kindergarten. News flash!! Most of my kindergartners come into my classroom on the first day of school and know their name, but cannot identify it.

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This is my first time in a LONG time I can say I am not ready to go back to school after a break. Normally I am good and bored at the end of a week off of school and I am itching to get back. This break I spent visiting my daughter in Norfolk, VA and while it was AMAZING to see her and do A LOT of sight seeing I am tired!! I am not refreshed at all! Here are a few pics from our trip before I get started...

It was 6 days of excitement and fun (we landed in VA the night Matthew decided to hit Norfolk...scary stuff!) and I feel like I need a couple of days to get ready for my kiddos. No rest for the weary...a girls got to do what a girls got to do!

Here is a peek at what we have going on this week!

Morning Work: We are on week 4 of unit 2 and we are focusing on the letter C, the sight words my, like, and we, and introducing numbers and words that describe size as adjectives. Here is a preview of our morning work.

Centers: SO MANY new centers! We are using our regular centers for the week for write the room, our ABC centers, cut and glue, and the listening station from BEAR SNORES ON centers. I've added in a BIG BOOK center that you can grab for free HERE. I am also still using quite a few centers from my ABC CENTERS unit and a couple of new ones I just created. You can get these HERE

First one is an ABC clip activity:

And the second is a "rainbow" letter recognition activity:

I still have some tweeks to make to these but I want my students to try them first.

Another fun center I made from the Dollar Tree this week are these fun eyeball activities. I'm sure you have seen them on Pinterest. They are so fun!

I watched this VLOG from Adam at Teachers Learn Too with Kim Adsit. I had to run out to Dollar Tree and get the materials to make these. They have jumbo tweezers that fit these ping pong ball eyeballs just perfectly. I think my kiddos are going to go crazy over these!

I also made a couple more of the centers they suggested from the Dollar Tree, you have to check it out!

Reading: We are working HARD on LETTER NAMING FLUENCY and that is our focus right now during our fluency time. Our comprehension focus is fantasy vs. reality and our accuracy focus is stretching the sounds in words. SO MUCH happening in reading this week!

Writing: Hand in hand with stretching and blending sounds in reading we are doing the same thing in writing. This is the magical week when we start adding words to our stories. We prepared for this before break by adding labels to our stories (and everything in our classroom). We have built our confidence in writing (no more...."I can't spell that" or "I don't know how to write that") and we are ready to say the words and write down the sounds we know. It's my favorite week in Writer's Workshop!! I introduce this week by reading ABC books and our writing focus is words are made up of letters.

Math: We are on Unit 3 of Guiding Kinders (which I just realized I left off of my plans) and this week we really dive into composing and decomposing numbers. I am not going to sugar coat this....this is a really difficult week to teach. Not the hands on stuff, it's really fun to create numbers in different ways with blocks but the recording on paper was HARD last year. I am going to come at it from a different angle this year. Ok....that was a bit of a rant.....I am all set now.

Math Journals: We are also into our math journals now. We started them out right before break and they were so excited to get started. I have my lessons in detail HERE and blogged about them HERE

That's our week. See why I am already tired? Lots going on!! I haven't even touched on the kick off of our pumpkin week but I will be back later in the week to talk about that! Have a great week friends!
Want to pin these to an idea board? Here you go!

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This is my first time in a LONG time I can say I am not ready to go back to school after a break. Normally I am good and bored at the end of a week off of school and I am itching to get back.

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Fun sight word ipad activity. Match and spell words

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ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more! For kids ages 2 to 8.

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Subtraction can always be a little tricky for young learners. I think the concept of taking things away is hard, because what young child wants things taken away! I have seen different teachers share about using Play-Doh to roll out balls and smash the ones that are being taken away - GENIUS! Play-Doh is pretty much always a good idea with young kids!

I took the Play-doh smashing idea and created a "Subtraction Smash" mat with six boxes. For this activity I had my students roll a dot cube. This told them how many Play-Doh balls to roll out on the mat. I had my students smash one each time. They had to tell their partner how many Play-Doh balls they had left after smashing one. This was just our introduction to subtraction so I wanted to start with taking away one. This was a HIT (or should I say SMASH!) with my students!

My kids love working around the room in their scoop rocker chairs to do math activities!

Smashing Play-Doh balls in action!

I also had my students do another version of Subtraction Smash. For this version they spun the first spinner (3,4,5 spinner) and rolled out that many Play-Doh balls. Then they spun the second spinner (0,1,2 spinner) and smashed that many Play-Doh balls. They counted how many Play-Doh balls were left. I had my students say the math talk, "___ minus ___ equals ___."

I had my students use a pencil and a paper clip to spin the spinners.

If you want to try this with your students, grab your FREE "Subtraction Smash" mats by clicking the image below! Also included in the download is a "Subtraction Smash" mat where students can record the equation. Directions for using the mats are included as well. You could easily differentiate for your students by having them use different mats that best meet their needs. Enjoy and have FUN with math!

***UPDATE - Included in the download are also mats with spinners that go up to 10!! Great option for differentiation!!

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Subtraction can always be a little tricky for young learners. I think the concept of taking things away is hard, because what young child wants things taken away! I have seen different teachers share about using Play-Doh to roll out balls and smash the ones that are being taken away - GENIUS!

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Hi friends! I have had a HUGE week or two. My two beautiful babies had birthdays. I've been cake-baking, present-wrapping, house-cleaning and celebrating A. LOT. It was all lots of fun and nice to feel like we were in a 'birthday week'!

I have found little pockets of time to work on a few new resources and spring-clean a few favourites. I put a Subtraction Fun pack together to help a special little friend who is having serious trouble understanding the concept of why we 'count back' when we subtract!

These recently revised Snake Count Back cards were a great start for him, but I needed MORE!

There is nothing like interacting and manipulating resources to gain a great understanding of a concept, so I created some FUN printable interactives to help students 'act-out' the subtraction process as they are completing their worksheet. These are perfect for students that are just BEGINNING to work on subtraction. There are no problems with numbers greater than ten.

Here we have 5 frogs on a log.

Students will fold down some frogs to find the answer.

I included an octopus to work with number 8.

And a bendy snake for number 6!

I made a little carrot patch sample for you to try! Just click on any of the images below to grab from google drive!

The carrots and frogs are the trickiest to cut, and for very-new-learners, you may want to have them cut prior to your lesson. Grab one of those helpful parents at your classroom door and ask them to get them cut out for you, ready for your math lesson!

Find more resources for subtraction in my TpT store HERE

I was so happy to find time to get the March/April edition of 'Pinning Pages' complete and listed in my TpT store. I have received such lovely feedback and emails about students having a wonderful time pinning and it does make my heart happy!

You can grab a free sample of a plant pinning page, by clicking on the image below! Pinning will help your students will fine motor control and its a very calming quiet activity as well!

If you do not know much about pinning, read a bit more on my blog post HERE!

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Hi friends! I have had a HUGE week or two. My two beautiful babies had birthdays. I've been cake-baking, present-wrapping, house-cleaning and celebrating A. LOT. It was all lots of fun and nice to feel like we were in a 'birthday week'!

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Addition Game for Kids - Planning Playtime

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Looking for a fun Addition Game for Kids? This activity helps kids count, add, and write addition sentences. Visit for a FREE recording sheet.

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LEGO® + Math = Fun! Here's a great way to work on addition with a fun LEGO® twist. Print these LEGO® addition mats at the bottom of the post. Math doesn't seem like work when you add LEGO® bricks! (I have another printable mat coming for LEGO® multiplication, so stay tuned for that one as well.)

This math activity is perfect for introducing the concept of addition because kids can really see what's happening. Add LEGO® bricks to the top and middle boxes, and then count the bricks figure out the sum. Then kids can write the numbers in the boxes on the right.

I laminated our LEGO® addition mats so that the kids can use a wipe off marker and do the activity over and over.

Jonathan (age 5) is brand new to addition, so I just let him choose how many bricks to put in each square. Then he counted up the total and wrote the number at the bottom.

Easy peasy! Another way to approach this activity would be to keep the same number on the bottom (10, for example) and then find all the ways to make 10. Then switch out the sum at the bottom to practice number bonds for a different sum.

I made an extra mat for Janie (2, almost 3), which was a good thing because she worked so hard on hers! 🙂
Ready to print one? Click here, then the file will open: LEGO Addition Mats
Need more math ideas? You'll want to check out our Roll it, Count it, Write it Mats - this activity has been hugely popular.

Here are four math games with Magna Tiles that are perfect for 4-6 year olds.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO® group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this site.

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LEGO Addition Mats Printable Math Activity - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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LEGO® + Math = Fun! Here's a great way to work on addition with a fun LEGO® twist. Print these LEGO® addition mats at the bottom of the post. Math doesn't seem like work when you add LEGO® bricks! (I have another printable mat coming for LEGO® multiplication, so stay tuned for that one as [...]

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Word Smash game | Phonics, Teaching phonics, Kindergarten learning

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Jun 12, 2021 - This Pin was created by Learning by the Pound on Pinterest. Word Smash game