Reindeer Theme

 Teaching kindergarten in December is just so fun! I love bringing the magic of the season into the classroom. One of my favorite themes to teach is reindeer. I pull out all my reindeer books (fiction and non fiction). After reading the books at the end of the week we make a Venn diagram about fantasy reindeer and real reindeer. 

Another fun thing to do with all the books you read is to make a reindeer tree map. Then have students use their tree map to help them write all about reindeer. Attach their writing to a cute reindeer craft. 

You could also make a reindeer diagram. We used shared writing to label the parts of the reindeer. Then the kiddos made their own reindeer diagram in their science notebook.

And we can't forget the crafts! Here are a few that we made. 

I make these handprint reindeer every year and send home as parent gifts. Glue their yearbook photo on the back and have the students write their name and year on the back with a sharpie marker.

If you need a Christmas present idea to give to your students I love to give reindeer noses! Each baggie is filled with whoopers and one chewy cheery sour. And if you can't find chewy cheery sours just use whoopers like I did this year.

I hope you liked these ideas! You can check my other reindeer posts for more ideas. Happy teaching. 

Click here to download my reindeer unit with much more to help you out this holiday season. 

What is Science?

In kindergarten our first science unit is all about learning how scientists study the world around them. We are learning to ask questions about science, make observations, share information, and solve problems. We also learn all about the tools used to make observations, to measure, and to record information. 

I send a letter home to parents introducing the new science unit and we read What Is Science?

Charlotte the Scientist is Squished is another cute story about a little scientist that loves to experiment but just can't find the space to conduct her experiments.

This science reader matched the version we read for shared reading. We keep all paper books in our book boxes to use during reading workshop.

What is a scientist? is such a good book to include in this unit. After reading we made this anchor chart and illustrated what a scientist does in science journals. 

How cute are these illustrations?!

We glued this sentence frame in our science journal and illustrated.

We learned about science tools, like the hand lens, and observed fall leaves. 

Click the picture below to grab the science unit!

After learning what a scientist does, it is time to do your first classroom science experiment! 

Click the picture below to grab the sink or float experiment!

How objects move

Learning all about how things move! We learned all about force and how it makes things go up and down, back and forth, round and round!

We used the book above as our shared reading for the week! We love using the Box Light to make the book interactive. 

We learned that things move with a push and a pull with this science book and picture sort. We explored the different ways objects can move with toys from home. They loved showing how their toy moved. 

Grab the unit here!

We love this song by Jack Hartmann

Spider Fun!

Aaaarrgghh, Spider! is a cute book about a spider that tries to convince his chosen family that he makes a great pet but just ends up frightening the family. Here is a fun book companion for after reading the story. We did a math survey: Do you think a spider will make a good pet? Then we made these fun spider headbands. I had the kids illustrate the characters and setting. 

We read many nonfiction books, including this one, to learn how spiders differ from insects, how they catch their food, what they eat, and where they live. We marked the marked the pages that we wanted to return to with a WOW sticky note. 

Here are two different  ways you can organize all your new learning after reading spider books. We made a circle map and a tree map. These learning maps help us write spider facts to add to the giant spider web. Gail Gibbons is my very favorite author for any nonfiction unit study. 

Learning how spiders differ from insects and labeling the body parts. 

You can find a print and go version of the circle map in my spider unit!

Check out the whole spider unit here!

Poems for the Whole Year

My kinder kids love poetry journals! They love adding poems to their journal and rereading their favorites! There are so many benefits to children reading poetry. Poetry encourages children to read, builds phonemic awareness and builds essential skills like rhyming, vocabulary, fluency, expression, and writing. I rounded up all the poems I use in a school year and put them all in one place.

I love reading Jack Prelutsky to my children! These two books are filled with cute rhymes.

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Here are some of the poems we have added to our poetry journals!

Grab all the poems for the whole year here!

If you are looking for color poems you can find them here. 

Happy New Year!

Ringing in the new year when the students return in January is always a favorite of mine. I have been making these new year kids for years. When something is good you just can't stop. 

This is one of my favorite books to read before we start writing our own resolutions.

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I'm sure most of them do not even remember, but it is still fun to graph if you stayed up until midnight. The ones that do stay up are always so proud of their accomplishment.

We also surveyed our friends!

This dot art looks good on lockers, windows, or your door. 

I updated everything for 2020! Hard to believe the new year is only a few months away. It will be here before you know it. 

Grab the unit here!