Favorite Authors of Kindergarteners

My students have a variety of authors that they enjoy reading. Here are some of their favorites:

1. Eric Carle- He is known for vivid illustrations and books about animals. His books really hold the students attention and they enjoy them. For a list of his books go here: http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html
2. Laura Numeroff-Her books are always fun to read and my students love the characters. You can find a list of her books on this site: http://www.lauranumeroff.com/
3. Kevin Henkes-He is my favorite! I love his characters and his books always have a good lesson for students to learn. My kids enjoy the stories and want to read them over and over. You can find out more about Kevin here: http://www.kevinhenkes.com/
4. Jan Brett-Her books are a little more detailed for kindergarten but my students enjoy hearing them. Her books have wonderfully illustrations and details on the border that usually help with making predictions.You can learn more about Jan Brett here: http://www.janbrett.com/
5. Bill Martin- His books are great for beginning readers because of the repetitiveness in the story. My students can independently read his stories early which helps them gain confidence as readers.You can read more about Martin here: http://www.billmartinjr.com/bill_martin
6. Pat Hutchins- She writes books that are easy to incorporate into lesson for students. Her books can also be used with a variety of subjects. To learn more about Pat go here: http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/hutchins.html
7. Don Freeman-He is most famous for his Corduroy books. These are books that my students can relate to because most of them love their stuffed animals. They enjoy reading about Corduroy's adventures. Freeman's site is here: http://donfreeman.info/
8. Doreen Cronin-She writes very entertaining books for students. They enjoy her stories and the characters are fun and interesting. Her most favorite book of my class is Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type. If you want to learn more about her books go here: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=2887
9. Robert Munsch-His books are wacky and silly but my students love them. Our favorite is Purple, Green and Yellow. His books will keep the kids laughing. His site is also great because you can click on the books and Robert Munsch himself will read the book aloud. It is a great site here: http://robertmunsch.com/books/#
10. Dr. Seuss-Of course Dr. Seuss is one of our favorite authors my kids love to have me read the longer ones with the most tongue twisters to see if I can get through it. For fun games and activities with Dr. Seuss books go here: http://www.seussville.com/

These are our favorites but I am an avid children's book reader so please share your favorites!

Word Wall Activities

My students work on high frequency or word wall words everyday. We usually have 4 to 6 words a week we focus on. The students work on these words during workshops. Here are a few of my favorite word wall activities:

1. Stamp a word-Students use letter stamps and ink pads to stamp the words of the week.
2. Play-doh words-Students use play-doh and cookie cutters to build the words of the week.
3. Shaving Cream-Students write their words on the table using shaving cream.
4. Watercolor Words-Students use watercolors to paint the words of the week.
5. Chalk it Up-Students write their word wall words using sidewalk chalk. Since I have an assistant and a small patio and outdoor area we can do this easily during workshops but it could be done at recess!
6. Magnetic Letters- Students use magnetic letters and metal cookie sheets to build word wall words.Caution the non stick pans won't work.
7. Letter Tiles-Students use small letter tiles to build words.
8. String a Word-Using letter beads and string students string their word wall words. This is a good fine motor skill as well.
9. Rainbow words- Students write the word wall word in one color crayon and continue to trace over it in multiply colors to make a rainbow word.
10. Bang! This is a whole group activity that my students love to play! Place all the word wall words on cards into a jar and the word Bang! on several cards. Students draw out a card and read the word. If they get it right they keep the word. If they miss it then it goes back in the jar. If the student draws out Bang! then they lose all their cards.

These are some of our favorie word wall activities in my room. I would love to hear some new and fresh ideas is you have any to share!

Math Activities

Math is a great subject to use hands-on materials with students. Math allows students to learn through exploration. I use a variety of items for math depending on the subjects we are learning. Here are some of my favorites to use and some activities that I find my students not only enjoy doing but benefit from.

• Graphing-we do graphing throughout the year in kindergarten.We do lots of hands on graphing revolving around seasonal and holiday items. Some examples include February-conversation hearts, March-Lucky Charms April-Jelly beans.
• Sorting-for sorting activities we use the above items before we graph them and many more. I use novelty erasers a lot to sort as well as blocks, plastic bugs, animals, beads, and money (this is a great for sorting by size, color and value which also teaches the basics of identifying money).
• One to One corresponding-in the beginning of kindergarten we work on matching the correct number of items to a number. I use a variety of techniques to help students learn this skill. One activity is using an ice cube tray write a numerals inside the tray and have students put that many beads, beans or other item into each compartment. This can also be done with egg cartons.
• Patterns-my students enjoy creating patterns with uni fix cubes and pattern blocks but I like to add in other items to extend their skills. I use plastic beads and strings to allow students to create pattern necklaces, fruit loops strung on yarn into patterns and dyed pasta strung on yarn. These also help with fine motor skills for students.
• Shapes-most students come to kindergarten able to recognize basic 2-D shapes. In order to get them to be able to describe and identify the shapes we do several activities. Some of those are creating shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows, creating shapes on geoboards with rubber bands or using straws and pipe cleaners to create shapes.

These are just some of the activities I do with my students to reinforce their math skills. I try to use a variety of hands on materials to keep them interested and motivated to learn.