Say My Name & Some Math Fun

Happy Tuesday!  It was a WHRLWIND weekend here for my little family.  Remember my precious *little* sister?!?!  Well…she tied the knot on Saturday and it was AMAZING!!!  But seriously….talk about NO sleep!  Isn’t she lovely?!  And look at my cute lil’ momma!  I love these ladies!!

And look at my sweet boys!  Cutest little “banner bearers” I ever did see!!!

I was the matron of honor and I *sang* my speech.  People…I DO NOT sing.  Not even a little.  In Abby’s words, I’m *12 kinds* of tone def!!!  But I had to make it memorable.  I love my sister and wanted to shock the daylights out of her.  Ummm…I guess you could say I succeeded!  HA!!! 

Moving on…

I don’t remember loving teaching math so much when I taught Kindergarten a few years ago, but ohmiword…I’m LOVING it now.  Maybe that’s because I’m starting with the end in mind.  Having taught first, I know where my babies need to go, so I can see the *big* picture.  We’ve been hard at work in Math the last few weeks and I love watching little light bulbs go off…they’re so stinkin’ cute!  Here’s just a little peek at some of the things we’ve been working on…

Here’s our little anchor chart for sorting.  We started working on that skill last week and the kids are really doing an amazing job.  They’re starting to notice different ways to sort EVERYTHING!

   

My cute little teammate, Lauren, came up with this little sorting song and the kids love to sing it! 

Obviously, there are many MORE ways to sort, but this is how we start and it’s what they’re expected to know.  Each day, I play a little game with my kids called, “Guess My Sort”.  I call a few kids to the front and then sort them {hair color, clothes, shoes, etc…}  The kids that are still sitting have to guess how I sorted my friends.  They LOVE it!  Their most favorite, however, is sorting their snacks ;)

 

We’ve been working on number identification as well.  That’s a tricky skill, for sure!  Although we’re constantly working to identify all numbers 1-20, we have a different *anchor* number each week and here are our little anchor charts we’ve completed so far!  LOVE to see my kids use these as resources when they’re independently working!!!  Light bulb!!

           

Just like everyone else, we’ve also been working on a lot of “all about me” stuff.  One of my favorite books to read during this little unit of study is, “I’m Special, I’m Me!”, by Ann Meeks.

It’s SO stinkin’ cute!  PLEASE tell me you’ve read it?!?!?!?  If not, hurry and pick up a copy!  It’s PRECIOUS and it has a FANTASTIC message!!!  Anyway, after we read this story, I have the kids make a portrait of themselves looking in the mirror. 

LOVE the way these turned out!  I had them work on tracking print and constructing a sentence for the literacy piece to this project, but if I was teaching first, I would’ve used a writing prompt instead…maybe something like, “I am special because….” or “When I look in the mirror, I see…”…something along those lines. 

I cut out the little mirror frames from construction paper and used a white crayon to add the detail.  We glued foil to the back to act as the “mirror” and the kids drew their own little faces on the head.  Then I used scrapbook paper for their little bodies…LOVE!

Part of what makes us special is our names, and ohmiword…if you’ve ever taught with me, you know how much I LOVE teaching names!!!!!  I’ve been adding to my name activities every year and every year I love seeing the kids do these activities more and more!  My kids are already starting to identify their friends names in print and they’re so proud of themselves!

Here’s just a fun little peek at some of our name fun!  Everything we worked on in our literacy stations is now in our “dessert tubs” for extra practice.  They can’t wait to finish their *jobs* so that they can go to dessert and play with their friends names!!

If you’re interested in adding some name fun to your room, check out my newest unit, “Say My Name!”  This packet is a collection of activities & ideas I’ve been using to reinforce name recognition for the last 11(ish) years.  I even used these activities in first grade & my kids LOVED them!!!!! 

Click on the picture below to read more about it {if you’re interested!}

Tune in tomorrow for a fun little behavior management idea & freebie!