Valentine Activities and a Some Freebie Love!

I can't believe Valentine's Day will be here on Tuesday.  It seems crazy to be having a class party on Tuesday, but I guess it's better than Monday!  I loved this idea I saw on Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten, and I have been looking for a way to use it.

They are using Q-tips to represent teen numbers on ten frames.  Here is the Valentine version we are going to try in work stations his week.

And for my little lovelies that are still working on numbers to 10...

My students seem to think they are being subjected to unusual cruelty when we don't have a Write the Room station for either literacy or math, so I created a quick one for math - with a recording sheet.  We are working very hard on ways to make ten.

We are also going to give scrambled sight words a try this week.  I picked up some of the cute little plastic heart boxes that are everywhere.  I was just going to use my letter tiles, but they were to thick.  So I created some quickie letter tiles for our sight words, and a recording sheet.

Here are some scrambled color words we are going to try too! I am not sure how the color words will go so I created a black and white set and one that has colored letters, in case they need a little extra support!


Here's to a sweet week!

Correction and Winter Surveys (with a freebie)

First, a quick correction... earlier this week I posted a Medial Sound Mittens freebie. It just dawned on me today, at recess, that I forgot to credit

KMP Doodles 

for the mitten clip art I used.  I have since corrected the cover page and uploaded a new one to Google Docs.  I'm used to creating things for my classroom, not necessary to post, so I am not in the habit of adding clip art credits.  I don't know why I didn't think of it before!  I have contacted Kirsten to apologize, and hope that no one else was offended by my oversight.  There...now that I have that off my chest... on to some surveys.


Every year my students love doing surveys and this year is no exception. I always start out with a simple survey with only 2 options. Our first survey was "Did you stay up until midnight on NewYear's?"  We do it several times as a whole group with students choosing 6 friends to survey and then they graph their results. After we have done it a few times in whole group then it goes into my math work stations.  There are 6 slots on the survey because my groups are never larger than 6 students.

Surveyed 6, recorded 6 responses, but graphed 7 total responses

6 friends surveyed, but 7 responses are recorded and graphed

Surveyed 6 friends, but forgot to record an answer - graph correctly reflects data collected

As the year progresses we add more choices, and they survey the entire class. This gets really exciting because then we can begin to make extrapolations based on our data. In the spring we always take a field trip to the zoo. After learning about many different animals, students complete a class survey with 5 different animals to choose from. It was amazing to watch them analyze their graphs. They would make statements like: "My data shows me that our class likes animals with four legs more than they like animals with less than four legs" or "Our class likes animals that are mammals the most." Gotta love those higher order thinking skills in action!


Anyway, at this point in the year we are working on simple surveys and graphs in work stations.  Here are the surveys that we will be using as we study all things snowy and wintery. (clip art courtesy of Microsoft)

Jumbo Pattern Blocks and a Freebie!

It has been so long since I have posted anything.  I am realizing that I really have to get blogging into my weekly schedule, or if just doesn't happen!  The beginning of the year exhaustion is slowly wearing off - notice I said wearing off, not totally gone!  


As I was blog stalking in my sleep deprived stupor last night I saw this great photo

on Mrs. Huff's Kinderblog.  I instantly thought how my kids would love jumbo pattern blocks!  There is just something intriguing about anything that is either teeny tiny or jumbo sized.


I knew that I had to make some for my kids.  After a bit of mathematical calculation and a gyration or two, here they are!

Download this freebie from TPT

The kids absolutely loved them! Most of my kids can fill in a blank outline, and this will be a great transition into tangrams.  Sorry, the photos aren't great. I think I must have had my camera on a close-up setting, but you get the idea.

You can grab your copy below!   I printed mine on colored cardstock, rather than burning through a ton of ink, cut them out and laminated them, but there is a color version also.






Thanks, Mrs. Huff , for the inspiration!

Christmas in July Picture Book Exchange

Christmas in July Picture Book Exchange 

Linky Party

I was so excited to participate in this festive exchange organized by Randee at How About Them Apples?, Jackie at Here We Go Loopty Loo, and Nicole at First Grade O.W.L.s!

My partner was Amy, a kindergarten teacher in South Carolina.  

Amy sent me "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems

and some fabulous activities to go with the book including: thinking maps, writing prompts and cute pigeon writing paper, a directed drawing lesson, and so much more!  I can't wait to use these activities this fall when we start our Mo Willems author study! 

I LOVE MO WILLEMS! I had this picture book in my classroom, but it apparently met it's maker sometime during the last week of school :(  It was on my list of books to replace this summer, but I hadn't yet.  SO perfect!  And what makes it even more perfect than the fact that it's Mo Willems, you ask?

Look what I found at Target this last week! (more about my latest Target finds coming soon)

(on clearance for $6.48! Yea!)

It was meant to be!  Thanks Amy for a fabulous Christmas in July gift!

And because the giving is so much more important than getting...

I sent Amy "Splash!" by Ann Jonas.

This is one of my favorite picture books to use in math lessons.  Early in the year we use it to practice listening, counting, 1 to 1 correspondence, and oral number stories.  As the year goes on it is a natural book for addition, subtraction, and writing number sentences.

Here are the activities that I sent to Amy to go along with the book:

Small manipulatives to use with the story ( I have used them in small group math and as a follow up activity after the listening center).


Large version of manipulatives (I use mine with magnets on the whiteboard).



Number Story pages with 4 different levels, depending on the time of year or the needs of your students.

Head on over to 

to see all of the fabulous picture books that were exchanged and their corresponding activities!

Building Number Sense

I was late ordering my Math Work Stations book, so I'm still waiting on it.  I wanted to share a very simple resource that I used at the beginning of the year and then built on.

Download this freebie from TPT

I printed and laminated these and used them in a pocket chart at the beginning of the year.  As I introduced a number, I would also introduce the various ways to represent the number.  These stayed in a pocket chart at the front of the room.  After I  had introduced the numbers through 10, all of the cards came out of the pocket chart and it became a Math Work Station.

This chart replaced the pocket chart near our work station for additional support (prints legal size)


Students used a pocket charts to sort the representations.  At the beginning of the year, the representations are simplistic.  For example, the domino representations have all the dots on one side with the other blank.  As the year when on and their ability to subitize developed, I added mixed dominoes, ten frames with two colors, and varying dice and coin combinations.

My teammate also created a workmat that we used to reinforce number representations, I'm sure she won't mind if I share, but I want to check first!  I'll post that later with the explanation and some pictures.