Sneaking in the Learning! (Freebie)

I wanted to share with you how I sneak in learning during our free choice center time. Of course I set my centers up so that students are learning something at each one - whether it's developing fine motor skills at play-dough center or learning about symmetry and engineering concepts at our Lego table, each center is about so much more than "just play". But, sometimes a student needs practice on a  specific skill - something that requires 1 on 1 or small group intervention. The best way I've found to do this is by sneaking that skill into a center!

Sometimes this means going to Lego table and talking about letter names and sounds as I build the letters from Legos. The student invariably wants to see what teacher is building and we have a fun conversation as I reinforce a few letters via the blocks. Soon they're building their own letters - and brainstorming words that start with it!

Sometimes I might have to head over to the Pipe Builders and encourage some sorting and patterning - or even number building! 

Sometimes I get to indulge in some play-dough therapy while we create a pattern or count out how many "cookies" they have made me (thank goodness pretend cookies don't have calories!)

I try to meet the student at the center they've chosen, and just work a little extra learning into what they're already doing. Depending on the student it might be 5-10 minutes and then I move on. Sometimes they continue the activity after I leave, sometimes they've had their fill and they go back to their original play.

Sometimes though, I need a student in a specific center to practice an activity. I have a few little ones who are working on making sets. Rather than go to different centers and try to incorporate that skill into Home Living, Sand & Water Table AND whatever other center they choose, I create an activity that will be fun and engaging and set it up at Math or Letter Center. Generally, when I introduce something new, everyone wants to try it. So of course I maneuver it so that the students who need that particular skill the most get to choose their center first. The majority of the time they self-select the activity I wanted them to!
 
So today I introduced my Making Sets Snowmen - complete with sparkly star "buttons" (they're actually beads from Oriental Trading!). 

The object of the activity is to place the correct amount of buttons on each snowman, based on the number on their hat. This little friend gave the activity a big "thumbs up"!

All 3 of my "targets" voluntarily chose the center, as well as a handful of other kiddos. This is perfectly fine - it won't hurt them to reinforce the skill, and sometimes they can challenge themselves, like this little guy who created a pattern as he was making his set!

  If you want to grab these cuties, click here to download them for FREE! And then check out other Friday Freebies over at Teaching Blog Addict!

We also started doing a "Crash 'Em Up!" game at our Block Center. I have a few boys who really love that center and they could all use extra reinforcement with letters/sounds. So I created a fun activity with some simple wooden cubes I had lying around from who-knows-what-project. I wrote letters on them with a Sharpie and brought them to the Block Center is a little cup. I had the boys help me set up our trains on two hills and had them stack up 3 blocks at the bottom of each hill. Then I call out a letter, my boys point it out and then they get to send the correct train down its hill to crash into the letters! I caught it on video today:

The beauty of this activity is that I can change it depending on which kiddo comes to the center. For some that are still working on identification, I call out a letter name. For other kiddos I call out the letter sound, and with still other kiddos I can make cvc word towers and have them crash the train into the correct word.

Every time I do this, I'm reminded of those recipes that try to "sneak" veggies in so kids don't notice them - like pureeing carrots into spaghetti sauce! What's your favorite way to "sneak" in the learning?

Cyber Sale Ideas & FREEBIE

Just a head's up that there are just a few more hours left for the Cyber Sale at TPT! You can save 28% off my entire store!

Here are  a few of my favorite packs for the season:

 Gingerbread Alphabet Match-Up - students match upper to lowercase letters or to a beginning sound picture card!

Gingerbread Skills Pack  - tons of Kindergarten Math & Literacy skills covered in this pack!
 

Gingerbread Fact Family Pack

Gingerbread Sight Word Game - all 220 Dolch words, 3 ways to play & extra blank cards!

 

Gingerbread Cowboy Roll & Cover Games - my students love Roll & Cover games & I love these graphics!

 

Christmas Ten Frames Pack - great ten frames practice! Includes 3 different themes AND print n go worksheets!

Winter Ten Frames Pack - great for January or if you can't do holidays!

Snow Much Measuring Fun Pack - tons of fun with lots of measuring concepts, including time. length, height, & graphing ! Here are some pics of it "in action":

 

 

And, here's a Gingerbread Friends graphing freebie!

I want to thank each of my followers for supporting me! It makes me so happy to share my creations with you. Your support means the world to me and my family! Without selling items on TPT I could not buy so much for my classroom nor afford the little "extras" for my own 5 children! Bless you!

Snowman Freebies!

I do a Snowman Unit in January because that's usually about when we get our first snowfall of the year. And, since this is Oklahoma and we apparently can't figure out how to deal with snow, we usually get about a week's worth of snow days in there too! (I'm from Illinois and it floors me when school is canceled for a mere 6 inches!) Luckily we switched to a school calendar that is measured in hours instead of days, so by adding on 15 minutes to each morning we don't have to worry about losing time to snow days and having to make it up in the Spring. One year, before we implemented the hour system, we had school on Saturdays for 2 weeks - ugh!

Anyways, here are some of my favorite Snowman unit read alouds:


And, here are some Snowman freebies! I started with 2 quick time games, as I really want to hit that hard when we come back from break. About 50% of my kiddos are super solid on it, then I have about 35% who are getting there and then 15% who still have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention the word "clock". I am hoping Santa waves his magic wand over them during break and they come back with their little brains ready to learn (I love seeing all those light bulbs go on in January!). I will be sharing more Snowmen and Penguin stuff soon so come back to see me :)

This first game is a Memory game, or even a matching game for in a pocket chart center.
What Time Is It

Here's an "I have..., Who has...? game for digital time to the hour and 1/2 hour. My kiddos love these types of games!
I have who has time

AND, don't forget to enter my giveaway for a free copy of My Memories Suites software! Click here to enter!