I like to think my classroom is always a place where fun and learning meet.
My TA will most likely tell you the same thing.
My custodians will tell you we are messy and creative.
My Administration will tell you we always have something up our sleeves.
And my team will tell you we like to think outside the box.
So I am linking up to the FL post all about FUN activities for our classroom!
And since school is coming soon,
I tried to select activities we do in the beginning of the school year.
You can convince any kinder to do something if you make it into a game.
The ability to make anything into a game is my only super power!
Here are my friends practicing sight words by playing memory as one of our Sight Word Stations.
We turn our pocket chart into a patterning game using old border strips and shape cut outs.
***This is a freebie printable you can grab here***
We can practice making shapes and forming graphs my competing this roll and graph activity.
And after reading a book, such as If You Take a Mouse to School,
we play a reading comprehension game to review all our reading skills.
All of these are fun and yet meaningful.
Food just makes any day at school better.
Here we are making 3 dimensional shapes using toothpicks and marshmellows.
My students always go better when they are given the actual shape they are creating in front of them.
Here is another table working hard!
We also form shapes using pull and peel licorice.
I love this activity because it make my little ones thing about equal and not equal sides.
And nibbling must occur to create these shapes which is pure enjoyment.
When we read, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake,
we make cupcakes!
We read the package and mix the ingrediants and make cupcakes.
You would be shocked with how many students don’t bake at home.
Here are more images of how we use one book to encourage reading fun!
Tie in their love of literacy.
Pick amazing books that allow them to branch into skill building while enjoying a book.
We always start the school year with Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Here is my group making color words using similar Brown Bear images.
And we create patterns with the colors and animals from the book too.
As well as practice out number recognition, color words,
and building those hand muscles with actual coloring.
Try something you have never tried!
Tell your class this is new for you.
Ask them if you would test it out with you.
THEY LOVE IT.
And guess what?
Sometimes it doesn’t work.
That is when you teach them how to recover from a failure the right way.
This can happen with technology.
When I first started using QR Codes,
I had difficulty making them work
for my little ones.
Once I failed at it a few times and got their feedback,
I learned what does work!
And now we use QR Codes all the time!
Get them moving and grooving.
If they sit too long, even if they are quiet, they might not be learning.
Look into brain breaks.
Love the resources for Brown Bear! Where did you get the color sheet from?
I love the cupcake maker. I've never used one, but it would certainly save me from setting a timer and finding someone free to run to the oven so I don't have to haul the whole class up there!
Amanda
A Very Curious Class
Love it all, Mary!! I like to do all those things along with sing, sing, sing!! I feel that in kindergarten games and brain breaks are vital to these kids learning!! Thanks for the great post!!
Even my 5th graders need brain breaks.
Thanks for sharing.Beti
We love turning stuff into games – anything we think we can turn into a game – we do! Also agree with food – it's a great motivator and can do so much with it! Great blog post, I love it!
Teaching Autism