I love doing DIY presents for different holidays with my students. Parents always cherish something that is made by their child and they always turn out so cute! This Mother’s Day craft is super simple and won’t take much time out of your class day, plus it’s pretty cheap!
Mother’s Day Craft
My favorite Mother’s Day craft that my students made for their moms is a fingerprint heart on a canvas, complete with fingerprint poem.
What You Need
Mini Canvases
I found these mini canvases at the dollar store (not sure if they have them this year but see below for similar canvases).
Paint
Contact Paper
How to Prep the Mother’s Day Craft
To prep, cut contact paper to fit on your canvases. These need to be a little smaller than the canvas to get that border around the heart. I left about an inch around the outside.
Then, cut hearts out of the middle.
Pull off the contact paper backing and stick the heart frame in the middle of the canvas.
Optional step: Stack canvases and put something heavy on top to get the contact paper really stuck.
Students Create the Mother’s Day Craft
I gave my students a choice of 3 different paint colors. (Obviously you can decide how many your students will use.) Students then take their finger print and put dots all over the canvas. Once it dries COMPLETELY (very important) remove the contact paper.
Your students will have a wonderful gift for their moms for Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day Craft Poem
I also attached this poem about fingerprints as an added sentimental touch!
If you have your students make these for their moms share it on Instagram and tag me @one_kreative_kindergarten or comment below!
Learning can only happen when your classroom environment is set up for success. A huge part of your classroom environment is behavior management. Of course all teachers set up their behavior management systems in different ways, but most of these systems are set to work for the whole group. I’ve found that sometimes a behavior management system works for some kids and doesn’t work for others. That’s why, I’ve tested a few different individualized behavior management systems to use when my classroom behavior management doesn’t work.
Individual Behavior Management Systems
What to do When Your Student…
Shouts Out
The behavior management system I’ve used is a shout out or “eruption” chart. In the beginning of the year, we read “My Mouth is a Volcano” by Julia Cook. If you haven’t read this book, it’s about a child who continues shouting out and explains it as a volcano erupting. It’s a great read for primary students at the beginning of the year. It’s even helpful when they need some behavior reminders midyear! After we read this, we use the term “eruption” in place of shouting out.
Here’s how the chart works. The student who has trouble shouting out has an individual sticker chart. This chart is chunked into different parts of your day. After one block of the day is over, you call them over and talk about how their shouting out was. If they did a good job at not shouting out, they get to choose a sticker for that chunk of time. When the whole day is over, you can see what parts of the day they did well and did not shout out and what parts they had trouble in. You can send these home to parents or just have it for your own records.
Is Easily Distracted
Another behavior management system I’ve needed is for students who get easily distracted. One way to encourage them to stay on track and focus is by setting a timer. The timer shows how long they’ve been working and how much longer they need to work and focus until you switch gears. This is motivating to students because they can see an end in sight (especially if they’re doing something they don’t particularly like to do).
This behavior management system also benefits from a sticker chart! (I’ve found that stickers are very motivating in the lower grades.) To use this chart, you also chunk the day. Then, you set a timer and if the student works until the timer goes off, they get a sticker for that chunk of the day. By the end of the day, you know when the child was focused and which parts of the day they had a harder time with.
Needs a Behavior Plan
My last behavior management system is one that I use often for students who need a little extra than just our normal clip chart. This sticker chart is chunked into those same parts of our day as the other two systems mentioned above. After each part of the day, I call the student over. We talk about their behavior during that part of the day. If they had good behavior, they get a sticker, if not, they don’t.
For parts of the day that they don’t get a sticker, I write a note of why. These slips go home to their parents each day because normally if they use this behavior management system it’s because I’ve met with the parents and we’ve decided that they need a separate plan. Since I use a clip chart, I also have students color in their ending color at the end of the day for parents to see.
If you’re interested in implementing these behavior management systems in your own classroom, check out this resource. It includes each of these sticker charts mentioned above and is editable to work for your classroom.
What do you need help with as far as student behavior? Do you have a behavior management system you love? Share below!
Who’s ready to celebrate the Earth? Earth Day is such a great day to get your students outside and thinking about ways to care for the Earth. Whenever I can get my class outside, it’s a huge win! Students are more engaged when they’re in a different environment, so take the opportunity and bring your students outside for Earth Day. These are some outdoor activities to celebrate Earth Day with your students!
5 Outdoor Activities to Celebrate Earth Day
Take a Nature Walk
Line your students up in a long line and walk around the school yard. Ask students to remember what they notice. They can describe what they see, hear, smell etc. Make things interesting by giving students a chance to be the leader and lead the line around the school!
After the nature walk: – Students draw or write what they saw – Create a whole class anchor chart of what they noticed – Discuss how you can take care of the nature around the school – Students draw or write their favorite part about the nature around the school
Create Pictures with Nature
Give students a few minutes to collect things they find on the ground around the school yard. (No picking leaves off trees!) Once they’ve collected some materials, have them work in pairs or individually to create a picture with what they found. When everyone is done creating their nature picture, have a picture walk and visit everyone else’s pictures!
Use Your Senses
Bring students outside and have them take a seat and quietly use their different senses for a certain amount of time. Then, have students draw or write what they saw, heard, felt, and smelled during that time.
Pick Up Trash
I don’t know what it is about picking up trash but my students LOVE when they have the chance to get outside and clean up the yard. Make it a friendly competition and see who can pick up the most trash!
Plant Something or Water Something Already Planted
Depending on your school and situation you may be able to plant something in the yard together as a class. If you can, first discuss why you would want to plant something in the yard and why it’s important to the Earth. If you can’t plant something, see if you can walk around and water things that are already planted!
Want some other activities to celebrate Earth Day? Check out this blog post. Freebies included!
You can teach verbs in many different engaging ways! If you don’t know by now or if this is the first blog post you’re reading from me, I love getting my students up and moving. When you teach kindergarten, you take as many opportunities as you can to get those wiggly bodies out of their seats (or rug squares)!
Verbs are especially simple to create engaging lessons where students can move because the definition of a verb is just that – “something you can do”. Here are the 3 activities I use in my classroom to teach verbs to my students.
4 Movement Activities to Teach Verbs
Charades to Teach Verbs
This is a NO PREP activity which is always what we look for as teachers. Gather students at the rug or somewhere where all students can see each other. Choose a student to come up to the front. They choose a verb such as swim, eat, sing, etc. and “perform” the verb. Then, they choose their classmates to guess which verb they were performing.
Add more movement by having the rest of the class copy the movement the performer is doing before or after they guess!
You can do this activity completely with no materials, however, many little students have a hard time coming up with a verb on their own (especially if they’re shy).
Take them Outside (or to the Playground) to Teach Verbs
Anytime you can take students outside their engagement is automatically higher. After discussing verbs, take your students outside and have them play, move, run and notice all the verbs they do outside. I like to do this on the playground because there are many more action verbs that they can do such as slide, swing, jump, climb, etc.
This is another NO PREP activity! You can have a discussion about verbs before, go outside and have students notice the verbs they can do and then bring them back in and record all the verbs they did on an anchor chart.
Lesson Extension: Verbs we can do Product – at home, on the playground, at school, at the doctors, at a restaurant, at my friends house, at a birthday party, at the beach, at the pool, on the soccer field, at the park, at my grandparents, at baseball practice, at my neighbors house, at the ice cream shop
Freeze Dance to Teach Verbs
I use freeze dance in basically everything I teach. There’s always a way to make freeze dance work for whatever skill you’re teaching. Again, another NO PREP lesson!
The way we play freeze dance when learning verbs is I’ll put on a song (Kidz Bop is my favorite). Students dance around the room until I stop the music. When the music stops, I pull an equity stick (or call on a student) and they tell us a sentence. This sentence can be about anything! Then, the class says the verb in the sentence all together when I count to 3.
For example:
Student I pick says – “The cat ran to the park.” Pause for the class to think… Class all together on 3 – “ran” Then the music starts again!
Again, when you can incorporate movement in a lesson, both you and your students win! This verb game is a great way to teach verbs. In this resource there are two different versions that you can use depending on the level of your students or you can use the first version in the beginning of the year when you introduce verbs and the second version once your students are more comfortable with verbs. Two for the price of one!
Version 1: Students walk around the room and find the cards numbered 1 – 12. When they get to a card, they complete the verb activity. Then, they go find another card. They can do this in order or not.
Version 2: Students walk around the room and find the cards numbered 1 – 12. When they get to a card, they complete the verb activity such as “jump 10 times”. After, they read the sentence on the card and find the verb. Then, find the same number on their recording and write the verb from the sentence.
Have you tried any of these verb activities in your classroom? Share how it went below!
Teaching reading comprehension skills in kindergarten can be tough but it isn’t impossible! When you teach kindergarteners, you have to make sure you’re explaining concepts to them at their level and engaging them in meaningful lessons so these concepts stick. My biggest tips when teaching little ones big ideas is to relate it to them, get them up and moving and repetition.
One of our Common Core Standards in kindergarten is for students to identify the setting of a story. Here are some engaging ways I’ve found to be effective when teaching setting in kindergarten.
Relate It To Them
Kindergarten students tend to only think about themselves and their world. By relating concepts to them, they can connect it to their world which then helps them connect it to the stories you are reading in class. I like to relate the concept of setting to my students by discussing the different settings they visit throughout the day. I tell them they are the character in their own story and they tell me where they go.
Many places my students go are to school (obviously), home, the grocery store, the dentist, the doctors, a friends house, the park, the movie theatre etc. We have a discussion about these settings and who or what else we would see there.
Expand this lesson by having your students draw themselves in one of the settings they go.
Get Them Moving
Getting my students moving has been a huge asset, especially this year with my wild bunch! Whenever we can play games, move around the room or do a “Write the Room” activity, I am all for it (and they learn so much better). That’s why I created a Setting Write the Room.
To prepare for this lesson, the teacher puts picture cards around the room. These cards have a number in the corner. Students walk around the room looking for these cards. When they find a card, they they look for the number and circle the correct setting on their recording sheet. The recording sheet has both pictures and words so students can do this independently whether they can read or not.
Another simple way to get students to learn and remember the skill is to repeat, repeat, repeat! Repetition is key. Here are some ways to practice setting with your class.
Read stories and discuss setting throughout the book (bonus: find a book that has multiple settings!)
Read a story and students draw the setting
Discuss setting in other subject areas such as science and social studies
Want to read more about engaging ways to teach your kindergarten students?
Preparing for maternity leave can be so overwhelming. Not only are you still teaching each day, but you’re also asked to put together sub plans, get your classroom ready and basically spell out all you do depending on what time of year you go on leave. One way I got ready for my leave was putting together a teacher maternity leave binder. This binder houses many important aspects of my classroom that I wanted to leave with my long-term sub to help her transition smoothly into her new role.
What’s Inside My Teacher Maternity Leave Binder
Classroom Logistics
In this section, I include where things are in my classroom. I’ve never been a long-term sub but I imagine it can get pretty overwhelming, especially when you don’t know where things are.
In my classroom, I have three big storage closets. I made sure to include what was in each of these closets and how they are organized. I also include information about each section of my classroom such as the math manipulative area, word work station, writing center etc. It’s important that my sub knows where teacher materials are as well as student materials.
Procedures
These pages of the binder explain arrival and dismissal as well as how we start our day, end our day and go to recess and lunch. Kindergarten is a very special age where routine is a necessity. I wanted to include these procedures so my students would hopefully be on their best behavior, since the routine would stay the same.
Important Random Information
While I was putting my binder together, I noticed that I kept coming up with things I wanted to tell my sub that didn’t really fall under any of my binder categories. This is when “Important Random Information” was born. In this section, I include how we celebrate birthdays, Scholastic information, the Art Show (event at our school) and our upcoming in-class field trip.
Random Information about Subjects
Similarly to the section above, I wanted to explain a few things about each subject that wouldn’t be covered in the schedule or the year long pacing guide. “Random Information about Subjects” tells my sub where to find certain things such as big books for language arts, or that we use interactive notebooks in science and that I have Friday math centers where we play math games. Any random piece of information about the different subjects she’ll teach!
Behavior Management
This section holds information about my three different behavior management strategies. I explain what I do for whole class, table group and individual behavior management. It also explains if student is on a special behavior plan and how to use that.
Passwords
This page holds passwords to websites I use and our page to make announcements to parents. It also includes any other helpful passwords my sub will need while she’s in my room.
Classroom Schedule
Here the sub can find our weekly schedule of what we do and when. I typed this in a table so it is easy for her to see what happens each day of the week.
Year Long Pacing Guide
Our year long pacing guide shares what we’ve covered so far in the year and what my sub is expected to cover. Luckily, I went on leave in February and I don’t have to return this year. That means she’ll be responsible for covering everything from February until May. I also typed this up into a table to explain what she should be covering each month in each subject. This will help keep her on track.
Weekly To-Do
This section is one I probably could have done without. However, my goal was to give more information and my sub could decide what she would use and not use. This section explains what I do weekly to be prepared for the following week. I included things like sending out our weekly newsletter, stuffing Friday folders and sending home sight words.
Homework and Projects
I send home monthly homework menus as well as monthly projects. This section holds all the monthly homework menus my sub will send home as well as the projects. That way, she can just grab a master, copy it and send it home for the month. No need to think!
When I was prepping for my maternity leave, my friend (who went on leave the previous year) told me she wished she left a “how to end the year”. Of course you’ll only need this if you long-term sub is ending your school year. This section tells my sub what students can take home, what I keep and reuse for next year, how to leave the room, etc.
Of course, I don’t expect things to be left perfectly or the way I would leave them. However, I’m hoping that including this section will help her wrap the year up as best as possible.
Teacher Maternity Leave Binder Set Up
Setting up your teacher maternity leave binder is very simple! All I did was get a binder, print out all my information sheets, put them in sheet protectors and put them inside the binder!
If you’re interested in other ways I prepared for my teachers maternity leave, read this post.
On my Instagram: One_Kreative_Kindergarten, I show my entire binder and what I’ve included. If you’re interested, follow me on Instagram and check out my highlighted story – Maternity Binder.
I don’t know about you but St. Patrick’s Day is one of my absolute favorite holidays! Mostly because it’s a low-key holiday for the classroom. One, you can incorporate some St. Patrick’s Day fun without overloading. And two, you don’t need to have a party for it, students don’t get hyped up on sugar, and your whole day isn’t wasted by chaos. These hands on St. Patrick’s day activities will get you and your kiddos excited for the holiday with just the perfect amount of celebration!
Hands On St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Your Classroom
Planting Shamrocks
I’ve planted shamrocks in my class for the last few years and it is such a simple but fun St. Patrick’s Day activity. I buy small plastic cauldrons for students to plant their seeds in. During the activity, I pull students in small groups to plant them. Then, I put them in our window to get light. I pull an equity stick each day for a student to water all of them with a spray bottle. This is a very non-stressful way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!
Worth More Than Gold Craftivity
This art project is a perfect bulletin board for St. Patrick’s Day. Students pick something that is worth more to them than gold and write why. Then they color the cauldron full of gold. When you staple the top page to the bottom page, it doubles as a writing and art project! Plus it’s very low prep. Who else loves a holiday craftivity? Find it here!
St. Patrick’s Day Write the Room
If you’ve read any other holiday posts, you know I love celebrating with a write the room activity. My students love to get their bodies moving and read and write new vocabulary.
Build Leprechaun Traps
A very common St. Patrick’s Day activity is building leprechaun traps. I start this lesson off with a poem from Lucky the Leprechaun. (You can find this for free in my TeachersPayTeachers store here!)
Once we’ve read the poem, we brainstorm our traps. We draw a blueprint, write out what materials we’ll need and then finally how we’re going to catch the leprechaun. Once we’ve thought our traps through (and I teach kinder so these are always very creative and imaginative) we get to work. I spread this activity out over a few days and ask for each student to bring in some sort of box before we get started on the trap creations. I always love seeing how they’ll lure in the leprechaun and how he’ll get trapped once inside! You can find all of these activities in my St. Patrick’s Day Week Long Lesson Plans.
I love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in my classroom. These hands on activities for St. Patrick’s Day make the day fun and engaging while still keeping the chaos at a minimum. Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in your classroom? Share how below!
Preparing for teachers maternity leave can be extremely overwhelming. Not only are you trying to figure out all that you do (which has become second nature) in order to inform your long-term sub, but you also are exhausted because you’re growing a human! This time doesn’t have to be so intimidating and I’m here to tell you that you do NOT need to do it all before you leave. Here are some tips that helped me feel prepared leaving the classroom for my teachers maternity leave.
Create Your Teachers Maternity Leave Binder
I created a binder for my long-term sub that includes classroom logistics, our schedule, any random thoughts I felt I needed to tell her and anything else I felt to be helpful. Of course, you can’t expect the long-term sub to be just like you. She’s going to change things and make things work for her while she’s in your classroom but my thought was if she wants to use what has worked for me, she’ll have it all right here in this binder.
Included in my Binder
Classroom Logistics
Procedures
Important Random Information
Random Information about Subjects
Behavior Management
Passwords
Schedule
Year Long Plan – Pacing Guide
Weekly To Do
Homework Menus
Monthly Projects
End of the Year
Include Sub Plans
This may vary from school to school but my principal asked me to leave two weeks of sub plans for my long-term sub. My best advice to accomplish this is to plan it out in your planner like normal and go subject to subject. That way, you can focus on just one subject at a time. While I planned each subject, I wrote a list of everything that I needed to get out, prep, copy etc so once I was done with that list, I knew that subject was complete and ready for my sub to teach for the two weeks after I left.
Organize Your Classroom
I’m going to preface this by telling you to take this lightly. There were a million things I wanted to organize before leaving my classroom to the long-term sub, however, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all because again, growing a human! What I chose to do was organize a few very important spots in my classroom: my teacher desk and the cabinet behind my desk that houses all the curriculum.
I chose to organize these two areas of my classroom because they would be used the most by the long-term sub and honestly they needed the most work. I took a day over a holiday weekend and spent a few hours in my classroom organizing these spots. That is all the special attention I gave to organizing my classroom before going on teacher maternity leave. You can’t do it all. Choose what is most important!
Leave a Little Treat for your Sub
This is something totally optional but something I wanted to do to start my sub off on a good note. I went to Target and the Dollar Store and picked up a few things to put in a basket that I put on her desk for her to come into on Monday morning.
In the basket I included:
A snack
A treat
A coffee mug
Whiteboard pens
Post-its
A stapler (mostly because mine broke and I wanted her to have one!)
How to Prep for Teachers Maternity Leave
Preparing for your leave can be extremely stressful and overwhelming but when you chunk it into these parts, it is very manageable. Remember that you can’t possibly do everything before you leave and focus on the reason why you’re going on leave, your new bundle of joy!
Teachers who have gone on maternity leave, what helped you feel prepared to leave your classroom? Share in the comments!
This post is going to be a little different from my normal teaching tips post. I want to get personal with you and share why I do what I do and what keeps me motivated to blog.
About two years ago, I decided to embark on a new journey, selling digital resources on TeachersPayTeachers and with that I decided to create a blog. This space is a home for my ideas, tips, resources and so much more.
What Started as a Marketing Strategy…
When I started my store on TpT, I felt that a blog would be a great way to get my resources in front of teachers as well as a way to share my teaching ideas with other kindergarten (and maybe even pre-k and first grade) teachers. This blog is a space where I can write to help others, while making some money at the same time. I’m not going to lie, this blog is one important piece that helps my business grow.
What I didn’t know, is that it’d turn into a special space where I can share my love for teaching and that I’d become apart of this amazing online teaching community.
…Turned into a Space for Helping Others
I’m naturally an introvert. Yes, I like being in a career where I am around others and get to teach young children. When you’re a teacher, you are on all the time and especially in kindergarten, there’s no downtime to even think about time to yourself. But when it comes down to it, I recharge by having alone time and time with my husband.
This blog and online teaching community has inspired me to step outside my box and share with others. You keep me motivated to blog.
I have met so many amazing teachers and feel inspired by them to be the best I can in my classroom. My goal for this blog is to inspire at least one person in each post. If I can help one person in each blog post, it’s worth it to me and I will continue to be motivated to blog.
It’s a Way to Reflect
My blog has also become a space for me to document my classroom and my learning. For two years, I’ve written (mostly) consistently about many things I do in my classroom and about the resources I’ve created to help other teachers.
This blog is a great tool for me to be able to go back a month, a year, even two years now and be able to reflect. I reflect on my teaching, my classroom, and my organization. I even reflect on how my resources have improved, how I’ve become more comfortable writing posts and how my business has grown. Seeing this growth keeps me motivated to blog.
A Way to Push Myself to do More
When it comes down to it, I want to make a difference. I want to make a difference in my students’ lives yes, but I have a much broader reach when I help other teachers. When I inspire teachers with my words or resources, they make a difference in their students. When I reach teachers, I reach their students as well. Helping this bigger audience keeps me motivated to blog.
My Motivation to Blog
This blog started as a marketing tool and turned into a platform for me to be able to help teachers.
I am motivated to blog when I help teachers, when I see them implementing ideas or using my resources in their classrooms.
I’m motivated to blog when I take the time to reflect on where I started and how I’ve grown, both in my classroom and in my business.
Lastly, this blog motivates me to push myself to do more. Through this blog, I make a difference in more than just my own students’ lives. I make a difference in other students’ lives through inspiring their teachers.
I can’t wait to look back on my blog and this post in another year or two and reflect on how I’ve grown and how I’ve helped others through this platform.
What helps you stay motivated in your teaching, your business or your blog?
The holiday season is seriously one of my favorite times a year for both personal and classroom reasons. It’s a magical time where lights are shining, people are a little happier and students can’t wait for Santa to arrive. Now, I’m not going to lie, the month of December is pretty crazy with extra activities and (let’s say) highly energetic students. It can be hard to keep up with academics when you’re having holiday parties, making gingerbread houses or singing Christmas carols like we do in my class. This is why I’ve created Christmas book companions for three Christmas stories. These resources help me celebrate the holidays while continuing our regular language arts curriculum.
Christmas Book Companions
A book companion is a language arts resource that goes along with a specific book. Each resource includes various language arts comprehension concepts that teachers can use to teach the skill or as a review. Also included in each companion is a craftivity. These are probably my favorite part of the product because they always make a good bulletin board (which you may know is my guilty pleasure!)
Each language arts skill comes with both a drawing page (for kindergarteners) and a writing page (for older grades).
Other Holiday Book Companions
I love incorporating these holiday book companions in my classroom leading up to a holiday. They help me feel like I am balancing between celebrating the holiday while still focusing on important language arts curriculum.
If you’re like me and love the holidays, check out my other holiday book companions
How do you celebrate holidays in your classroom? Do you stick with academics and your regular schedule or do you incorporate special activities?
