Hurry and check this out if you use The Open Court Reading Program

Do you have the Winter Blues right now? I am offering a little freebie for all my Open Court buddies. It looks like this. I use this game with my class all the time and they love it. I gave you all the directions. You can hug me later. Yup we are still hammering teaching beginning sounds to a few of my strugglers but the others just enjoy the activity. You can have students do it with a partner or just work on it independently. You are the boss and get to decide!

Open Court is a reading program that has been around for a long time. Our district continues to use it and based on my Facebook fans many of them are also using it. I create many things to scaffold this program for my English language learners and I decided to post a collaborative activity (yes you need to be using this model if you are implementing Common Core). So long story short I posted a super freebie that you will want to grab if you can use it...
How do I get the freebie?

Click on the icon for Kindergarten Crayons and it will take you right to my FB page. Easy, right? Even I can figure this out!
Are you there? Okay now "like" my page at the top. Got it? Awesome. Stay with me here. One more step so don't wimp out on me. See the button on the left side that says Fan Freebie? Hit it and download this 24 page file. Yup leave a comment so I know you got it. Thanks. Now you are my FB friend and you will see other cool stuff along the way.

                                                                       

Cutting Paper Not Hair Or Clothing!

Do you have those students in your classroom that I refer to as "scissor happy"? I do. They love to cut anything in sight and I need to pay attention or disaster is right around the corner. When my students get tired of cutting out pictures, they start making confetti. That means they are not on the lines I have for them to follow and they just want to get the project over with! Who is on my page? So when I decided to make them a Letters and Sounds book I really tried to keep it simple but effective. Here is what I can up with:

 This is quick and easy but I think it will still be effective. We have been using Open Court for about 12 years and I am amazed that this never dawned on me before. I want to keep this in the classroom as a resource that kids can use when writing or doing other related activities. That is what Common Core is suggesting we do and it makes sense to me!

When we are working on letters and sounds I can pick and choose which pages I want to do. I am running these off 2 at a time and will save so much paper this way. I think this might be more fun for a little kinder person that writing and gluing a whole page. I will let you know if it is effective or not.

Going Fishing... Gonna Catch A Freebie

My students need to learn to identify letters, sounds, numbers, and even colors. Flash cards do not keep them engaged but going fishing holds their attention for a long period of time. I introduce and model this for several days with the entire group and eventually will put it in my literacy and math stations for additional practice. GO FISH!

Remember when we use to take a dowel rod and add a piece of string with a magnet? Okay this is not one of your memories but older teachers are on board with me. Lakeshore has these fishing poles which can be used for a bazillion activities in your classroom. If you are not able to create your own cards stick with me and I will help you make this happen.

Walmart carries self adhesive magnetic buttons that make this activity so simple to create. I created the cards and added the Open Court letter-sound cards right on top. Easy and effective. Naturally I
laminated the cards before adding the magnetic buttons.

Here are what the cards look like before cutting them apart. My head is spinning with other cards I can make. What would you want? I was even thinking of making cards with student names and pictures since they still point to each other and can't always tell me each other's name.

Once I have modeled this enough (not sure how long that will take) I am releasing it to be used in a literacy station with partners working together. Each child will fish for a card, say the sound of the card and the name of the letter. This is then colored in on a chart! This will keep them actively engaged and accountable.

We had so much fun playing this game as a class and we chanted "Going fishing... we're going to catch a fish" which made it even more fun. The chant was what you would use for going on a bear hunt....
I have a free download for these cards on my Facebook page if you are interested. Just "like" my page at the top and hit the fan freebie button on the left side and the file will open up. If this scares you to death grab a cute, young teacher and she will have no problem getting this for you. That's why I love young teachers. Click on this Like button to get to my Kindergarten Crayons FB page and leave a comment just because you are so wonderful!

What other cards would make you so happy? Remember to keep it simple. They just started school!

Teaching Letter Sounds: Back to School Freebie

I finally took the time to make Open Court letter-sound cards that can be used in a standard pocket chart. I love having these so that I can run them off and use them throughout the year. I made them to match the larger version that can be placed on your wall. If you never downloaded them you can find them here. 
Now I am ready to offer up these same OCR cards but they have been sized for your pocket chart. Why? I am happy to answer that. You can run these off for lots of literacy stations and routines to build a better understanding of letters and sounds. Use them as part of your daily routine.
Here is what they look like:

 Students can use these cards in literacy stations playing all kind of games. My kids like to set a timer and just make the sound for each card while a partner checks for accuracy. Memory games can be created where students either match the letter-sound card or match the sound card to the letter it starts with. This can be changed up many different ways.

At the beginning of the school year most of us like to do word work with student names and these cards provide the perfect opportunity to introduce the letter, the sound that it makes and attach this understanding to a student's name. This will require a lot of modeling at the beginning but soon students will be able to identify the first letter of their name and recognize the sound card that goes with it. This is another activity to do as part of your daily routine, picking just a few student names. Keep this easy and basic at the beginning.

Once you have worked on names you can begin to focus on beginning sounds. Select the sound card you want to focus on and see if students can place cards that begin with the same sound next to it. Give them a limited number of choices to start with. Always have an incorrect answer to make students think critically.

Later in the year students love doing these "riddle me" cards with cvc words, guessing what the words are, based on the sequence of the cards. These can become more challenging as your students build their knowledge. I love to do this as part of my morning routine and call it the mystery word. Students have wipe off boards in their lap and have to write the word based on the sound cards I use. Sometimes I put magnets on these so they can be used on a magnetic surface to change it up a bit. Are you having fun yet?

One more suggest comes to my mind. Once you have introduced all the letters and sounds hand out all the cards to the students on the carpet. Have them come up and place their card in the pocket chart , in sequence. You can have them say, "I have Pam the lamb /a/ /a/ /a/. Who has bouncing basketball /b/ /b/ /b/?" and continue until the end of the alphabet.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Leave a comment and I really appreciate you giving me some fresh activities.

How do I get these cards? Easy! You will just click on this image and it will take you to my FB page. Stay with me it won't be that hard (promise).

1. Now you are on my FB page so click at the top and "like" the page and check "get          

    notifications. Fantastic. I like you too. Be sure you are following me. We are BFFs now.

2. Now find those same little kids on the left side in the little blue box. Click on it and it will open 

    up since you hit that special like button.

3. The crayon box will pop up ( I love crayons). Click on that!

4. Now the file shows up and you can download it. I hope you love having these.

Don't Be A Turkey... Some Fresh Ideas

By the end of October I am screaming with happiness if my students know all their letters and sounds. This makes a huge difference when it comes to reading and writing. Not there yet? Are you sick of working on this constantly and do you feel like you are spinning your wheels? Welcome to my reality! This is a Fall Beginning Sounds Packet (seasonal images) that might be what you are looking for. It is filled with interactive and differentiated materials to meet the wide range of needs in your classroom. Click on the picture to find it in my store on Tpt. I promise you won't be sorry. My students love it and need more practice, and more, and more... so i need to make it fun!

Stick with me and I will solve all your problems this week...

Don't start screaming but did you know about this? Stop screaming. 

So Pete is in a school play and it is all about the story of Thanksgiving kindergarten style. It is really cute and a bit interactive with flaps. I might have to create one as a Big Book for my kindergarten classrooms. Easy to teach the story if it has my buddy Pete in it. Look for freebies soon. Check back and leave me some some suggestions!

Finally we get to my Turkey Packets if you are trying to stay ahead of the curve:

These are filled with math and literacy activities for your students with the famous Fran Kramer emergent readers. They are two of my best sellers. Take a look at T is for Turkey and Turkey Leftovers if you want some meaningful work at this time of the year. I don't think you will be disappointed. Trust me. Check back for some fall freebies.

Sounds Like A Plan

Do your kinderkids know all their sounds? If not this packet might help you to address these important foundational skills. These activities have been carefully aligned to the Common Core and allow children to
engage in meaningful activities. It can also be used to provide intervention for those children ( I have had a few) who need more support identifying letters and sounds. A cut and paste strip book has also been provided that students can do during small group time or independently. These activities have been differentiated to meet the needs of a wide range of students.

It can be purchased at my TpT store if you click here on this picture: