Category Archives: Workboxes

Teaching Correct Letter Formation

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How do you teach correct letter formation?  I like to begin with Handwriting Without Tears’ wood pieces (for capitals) and the chalkboard. But, what do you do to reinforce this initial instruction? I’ve found these Alphabet Letter Formation and Recognition Cards to be so helpful that I just had to share them with you!

The correct letter formation that is demonstrated on each card is similar to that taught by Handwriting Without Tears. Your students will always begin at the happy face and follow the arrows and dotted lines, pause at the larger dots and stop at the stop sign.

We use the bottom portion of each card for:

  • handwriting practice
  • letter recognition (we use these alphabet manipulatives)
  • lowercase/capital letter matching (with handwriting or manipulatives) and
  • beginning sound identification (using miniatures)

Included in this set are twelve “I CAN” task cards that visually demonstrate the target activities–helping your students to work independently:

I like using pencil boxes to hold these activities. They are perfectly sized for organized, individual and interactive seat-work. Simply put the task card and letter formation cards in the pencil box, plus any manipulatives your students will need to complete the task.

You can grab this set TODAY and TOMORROW for 50% off! Check it out here.

Flash Freebie Alert!! {Winter Pencil Box Fun}

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Fall isn’t over yet, and neither are my flash freebies! Grab this one today.

I love using pencil boxes for our center activities. They are perfectly sized for independent seatwork, and they can hold all the manipulatives your students need (counting mats, counters, dice, recording  sheets, and dry erase markers) to complete each task. They are also great for storing all of the parts and pieces that make center activities FUN!

So, grab a pencil box and let’s get started!

WINTER PENCIL BOX FUN is full of number sense activities for your Preschool, Pre-K and Kindergarteners. Each task has an “I Can” Instruction Card. You can use the recording sheets, or just the manipulatives. Here are some of the activities included:

Ten Frames

Twenty Frames

Counting Snowflakes

Counting Snowmen

Color Matching & Color Words

Counting Fingers

Tally Marks

Roll, Count and Build a Snowman

Number Sense for any number (1-20)

Grab it today while its FREE! Hope you LOVE it!

 

MATH BOOKLETS {Half-off TODAY & a Freebie!}

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These MATH BOOKLETS are a GREAT addition to your Kindergarten math curriculum! They are designed to reinforce the Algebraic Operations & Thinking that your little ones need to master before advancing to First Grade.

There are 21 booklets in this set:

I Can Add 1 to That
I Can Add to 2 with Me and You
I Can Count by 2 with Shoes
I Can Add to 3 at the Sea
I Can Count by 3 with Peas, Please
I Can Add to 4 at the Store
I Can Count by 4 with Paws & Hooves
I Can Add to 5 with my Fingers
I Can Count by 5 with Gumballs & Nickels
I Can Take Away from 5 Little Monkeys
I Can Add to 6 when I Eat
I Can Take Away from 6 (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
I Can Add to 7 with Easter Eggs
I Can Take Away from 7 Apples
I Can Add to 8 with Ollie the Octopus
I Can Take Away from 8 Trick or Treat
I Can Add to 9 with my Potato Peep
I Can Take Away from 9 with Birds on a Line
I Can Add to 10 and Celebrate!
I Can Count by 10 with Candy & Dimes
I Can Take Away from 10 at the Amusement Park

In the first half of each I Can Add Booklet, as you read the text, your students will glue in the numeral tiles, or write in the numbers to make the equations true. This section teaches the commutative property—i.e. your students will learn that whether they add 3 + 1 or 1 + 3 the answer will be 4.

Then they will practice writing all previous numbers and tallying the target number. Next, they will glue in number representation (or picture) tiles as demonstrated in the first half of the book and write each equation. A base ten frame with the target number highlighted is included to help your visual learners.

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The I Can Take Away Booklets (beginning with the number 5) are laid out in a similar fashion. Your students will decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs using object and numeral tiles (and crossing out those items that were taken away). Then they will record each decomposition by writing the equation. Number lines for “jumping back” are included on the equation recording pages.

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The I Can Count By (2, 3, 4, 5, & 10) Booklets will encourage your students’ mastery of these skip count series. Common units (pairs, quadrupeds, pennies, nickels and dimes) are presented in these booklets. Your students will count within the series using these units and a number line.

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These booklets are easy to use. Simply print, cut, stack and staple! Your kids will need a crayon or pencil, scissors and glue.

These booklets are on sale {HALF OFF} today–HAPPY 4th of JULY!! You can grab them here!

 

I’ve also posted this sample booklet–it’s a freebie! Grab yours here!

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SigBlk5

My Calendar DAILY MATH for FIRST

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We’ve got something new for you to try! Daily Math review for First Graders! It is a perfect way to spend your calendar time each day. These pages are loaded with calculations, computations and creative hands-on learning. They are a great assessment tool for you, too

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We start each month with a look ahead (and behind ;)! Your kids will color the month (and the one before and after). They will write the ordinal number of the month (the cards from our Calendar Companion come in handy here) and the number of days in the month (numerically and with words). They will also note the day of the week that the month begins and the season. Plus, they will count the number of months left in your school year, the number of holidays and celebrations in the month, and the number of months until their birthday. Lots of great calendar learning!

For each month (AUG-JUNE) There are five sheets that you can rotate through the days of the week. There are some tasks that are present on every sheet. These are related to the date and Days in School computation.

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Do your students compute their Days in School? Don’t just give them the answer! They can do it themselves with these handy helpers:

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During the first few months of school we use the Tally it Up! and Ten Frames to count the days. As the weeks go by, the Days in School sheet becomes the most useful (and quickest to use).

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We dot one group of five tallymarks for each week (Monday-Friday) and then shade the remaining days. Skip count by five and add your ones–great mental math!

Grab some coins! It is time to transform the days in school into money. The Money Chart is a great help for your visual learners (be sure to slide this one into a page protector, or laminate it–you’ll want to reuse it all year!). Have them begin by writing the target number at the top of the page. Then build that number beginning with the biggest coins–for example Finn was trying to build 167. First he grabbed a dollar (this eliminates the 100). Next, two quarters (there is the 50); then a dime (now we are at 60); add in a nickel (now we are at 65); and finally grab those pennies, we’ll need 2 to get to 67.

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After figuring how to transform days in school into money, your kids will mark it on the monthly sheet.

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Finn’s sheet for May is different from the ones in the My Calendar Daily Math for First pack. A smart teacher (thank you Sabrina!) encouraged me to modify these sheets to enable you to not only use them once, but re-use them all month. Your students will use dice and the cut-outs at the bottom of the sheets to accomplish a wide variety of math tasks. Here is a look at the five reusable sheets for August:

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I have more handy tips for using these sheets to post another time. But, right now, you’ll want to head over to Teacher’s Notebook and enter my giveaway! You could win a copy of My Calendar Daily Math for First! Or, grab it for half-off at Teacher Pay Teachers through Saturday!

SigBlk5

 

 

 

Let’s Master Multiplication!

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We love Math-U-See’s curriculum! All of my kids have benefited from the instruction and structure of this math program. But, although we are not yet at the end of a school year, my Gamma girl is “finished” with her math for the year.  (Math-U-See’s Gamma is a 30 week multiplication curriculum and our school year is 36 weeks :).

Like you, I don’t want my children experiencing the summer slide–especially since summer hasn’t officially begun around here. So, this is what we do:

Slide1Mastering Multiplication is great for review!

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For each number, 2-16, your students will review skip counting with that number (multiples) and apply it. They will write equations, solve the arrays, determine factors, create equivalent fractions and answer simple word problems.

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Then we review that number’s standard units of measure and apply it with real-life examples.

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Mastering Multiplication also reviews squares and prime numbers. And the fluency sheets are the icing on this math-cake! Your Gamma kids are going to LOVE this review and you will have the next four weeks of math covered!

Grab a copy this weekend (Saturday & Sunday, 14-15 May) from my TPT store for 20% off!!!

SigBlk5

LEAP YEAR Math & Literacy Pack

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New today! A hands-on, math and literacy pack that will teach your students about Leap Year and the Number Four.  This is a differentiated pack of Print-n-Go worksheets for Kindergarteners and First Graders.

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It includes a survey of math sheets similar to those in a variety of PreparilliPress products.  And great literacy activities from sight word practice to rhyming.

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My favorite part of this pack is My Happy Leap Day Birthday interactive reader.  It will help your students understand what it would be like to have a birthday on leap day.

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We are going to have fun celebrating LEAP DAY on Monday! Hope you do, too.

SigBlk5

Ultimate Sight Words Special VALENTINE’S Series!!

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I’m so EXCITED to share the Ultimate Sight Words Special VALENTINE’S Series with you!! It has been such fun for us to work on! It is LOADED with great hands-on learning, plus lots of engaging activities to get the whole gang ready for Valentine’s Day. Take a look:

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The front of each Valentine Sight Word sheet is very similar to the Spot the Sight Word sheets of Series 1& 2 . But, the back is something new!  Here, your students will practice drawing–sometimes just tracing, other times finishing a drawing or coming up with their own original artwork!

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And the crafts in this special series are Valentine’s Day Cards!!! Aren’t they cute?! Your students will find the sight words and Valentine’s nouns that they are learning on these cards. They’ll then use them to write a special Valentine!

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And what would one of our sight word packs be without a FUN game?!? Candy Craze will get your students reading, building sentences with their sight words and drawing (Pictionary-style).

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And this series has additional math and literacy work that you can use well beyond Valentine’s Day!

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The Valentine’s Party Planning Booklet has been such a help for us in reviewing the basics of writing names, dates, and time.  Plus, the learning/re-learning our home address (street address, city, state and zip code) and phone number–vital information all of our kids should master :)!

The math sheets review counting, number order, finishing equations, graphing, addition and subtraction within 10 and 20, writing amounts of money, skip counting and shape recognition–GREAT learning and LOADS of FUN!

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You’ll find the Ultimate Sight Words Special VALENTINE’S Series on sale at my TPT store through Monday.  You also can enter to win your own copy here! Hope you LOVE it as much as we have!

SigBlk5

Division Robots

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One of the things I have always loved about mathematics is the “plug-and-chug” method.  You give me a formula and some numbers…and vola!…I give you an answer. It is neat, clean, and organized–I love it!

Long division, and its myriad of steps, is the first opportunity your students will have “plugging and chugging.” It isn’t quite as neat and tidy as equations they will learn in Algebra or Calculus, but it does embody a series of steps–that, if performed accurately in the same order, for every problem, the right answer will result. And, there is even a formula for checking long division answers to ensure they are correct.

So, how do you transform your glassy-eyed students, or those that just don’t “get math” into those that embrace the joy and simplicity of long division?  You turn them into ROBOTS–Division Robots :)!

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It isn’t that we don’t want our students thinking, and pondering about mathematical concepts–but, in order to be successful with long division, they really just need to act like a robot.  They need to learn the steps and complete them in the right order–it’s that simple!

You’ll want to begin by teaching your students the terms they will need to know to effectively talk about the steps in each problem. This we’ll do with an instructional poster and flash cards (with fun Melonheadz graphics!)

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Then, you’ll go through each of the six steps using a sample problem and instructional posters:

  1. Divide
  2. Multiply
  3. Subtract
  4. Bring down & repeat steps 1-4
  5. Determine if there is a remainder
  6. Check the answer

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Now, it is time to put pencil to paper.  Using the task cards included in Division Robots, or other division problems you provide, your students will work the long division using the color/robot-coded graphic organizer and their Student Graphic Reminder Card.

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As they get more comfortable with the steps in the process, graduate them to the black & white computation sheets, and then the blank sheets (with the “check” reminder). It won’t be long before your students are Dividing Like Robots!

SigBlk5

It is time for WINTER PATTERN PLAY!

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Winter Pattern Play is such a FUN learning tool! You are going to LOVE it! It is not your average pattern-teaching resource.  Instead, it combines pattern identification and skills your students should be mastering (identification of phonemes–beginning and ending letter sounds & blends; one-to-one correspondence; 2-D shapes; colors and skip counting).

Your students will begin learning various patterns (AB, AAB, AABB, ABB, ABC) using the tiles and print-n-teach worksheets.

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Then, you’ll combine your students’ pattern identification skills with a phonemic review.

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They will listen for beginning and ending letter sounds and blends–like “ch”, “cl”, “ft”, “pr”, “rd”, “sc”, “sl”, “sn”, “st”, “sw”, “th”, and “tr”.

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Winter Pattern Play includes a section all about this season’s holidays–complete with pattern and phoneme identification.

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Finally, you’ll develop your students patterning skills with 2-dimensional shape identification and drawing; color patterning; one-to-one correspondence using dice and basic skip counting (by evens/2s, odds, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 10s).

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Grab Winter Pattern Play on sale this week, or enter my Teachers’s Notebook giveaway and win it Sunday!!

SigBlk5