The first two weeks have been crazy busy and lots of fun! Many have asked for the Zero the Hero Letter and activity 
sheets so I posted them in my TPT Shop! 

Chicka Boom Boom STEAM was so much fun. Everyone enjoyed seeing how tall and how many letters they can put on their trees! I saw this fun idea on Pinterest.

Thank you Story Time STEAM for this creative idea!

We did not end up doing my Chicka Boom Response Sheet sheet but we will pull out this activity again and complete later when we have a little more stamina and fine motor skills.

Counting Collections are all organized!

 I have SOO many of these goodies shoved in my cabinets. I'm glad to finally put them to good use. I made a spread sheet grid to know how many items were in each lettered baggy.

Zero the Hero comes every 10 days of school and brings some kind of treat to count. This year Zero the Hero will bring a new 

Math Game for our Math Centers!

Each child got a game and their own dice!

 I'm going to make a new set on colored card stock and laminate them to use in the future!

We use a dot paint to count the days in school on

 our Zero The Hero tens frame!

Enjoy! Kim 

Working with Kindergartners and Green Screens

I am so excited to share this awesome app from DoInk.com  It is so easy to use and I can't wait to have my kindergartners use it for our Weather Units this year! (And so much more!)

We used some green plastic tablecloth I had leftover from my safari unit for the green screen.

For the video below my daughter and I made a beach picture with paper and glue. Then I took a picture of it with my iPhone. You upload your picture with the app and it instantly appears on your iPad or iPhone screen to video! I think it will be so fun to have my Kinders make their own weather pictures and use them for the backdrop for their weather reporting.

The meteorologist ideas are included in my 

Stepping Into STEAM unit on TPT

You can even use a green file folder to make a mini green screen.

Then we used the long green straws from Starbucks 

(Start collecting them) to attach our characters. This way you won't see the children's hands on the screen. We just used scotch tape to stick the rain child to the straw and we taped the bird on the file folder.

We searched several "rain" images on google and 

Gianna decided this one looked best.

It was so fun to watch and the opportunity for creativity is endless. 

Not only for weather but retelling of fairy tails and favorite stories.

The science possibilities are endless! 

I'll be back soon to share what we come up with this year.

Kim

Writing Sticks! Easy to Assemble and Great for your Writing Centers!

Kinderbykim's Writing Sticks

A few days ago I posted a picture  on Instagram of my writing sticks. We are using them for our Animals and Habitats unit. I want to get my Kiddos writing more independently. (Always a struggle) I was so excited to get lot of  "Oohs and Ahhs" when they saw these at their literacy center. They got to choose one stick and then write what they know or want to know about the animal they chose. Here are a few pictures of the first day. I think they did a great job!

Love the drawing too!

I love how this sweet girl sounded out "waddle", and I "know penguins live in the coldest place on earth" 

(We have been talking about the Emperor Penguin.)

Last sentence says "The peacock has pretty feathers!"

We are off to a good start!

Let's Be Meteorologist!

I have had so much fun incorporating the NGSS Science Standards in our kindergarten program last year. 

(Next Generation Science Standards)

We started our Weather Unit by being a Meteorologist!

 I found this darling idea on Pinterest from  littlemisshypothesis.blogspot. I had to make it for my kinders!

The Umbrella Hats are from Amazon

Here is one of my little Meteorologists in action! I filmed each child and let them watch afterwards. They loved it!

The weather pictures for the hat are included in my new STEAM Packet on TPT. Each day one child filled out the weather report recording sheet and then shared their report with the class. We practiced noticing how the weather looked and felt and what most of our friends were wearing on that day. We used a toy microphone that one of my students brought in so we could look official!

I added a new monthly Self Portrait Book so that I could do my  self portraits and combine it with the NGSS Science! 

      

I found this simple making rain experiment. All you need is clear container, dollar store shaving cream, blue food coloring, water and an eye dropper. Fill your container 3/4 full of water, add shaving cream so it's piled high. Mix the blue food coloring with water for your dropper and complete the prediction  response sheet seen below. The children slowly count the drops of blue "rain"onto their clouds. As the cloud gets full of water it becomes to heavy for the cloud to hold. This is much like a real rain cloud when it gets too full of water particles (water/ice crystals) it will begin to rain! The blue rain will begin to fall through the cloud and form raindrops.

 So COOL!

I love that STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art and math) has an ART component. We had "A LOT" of Rain in California this year so we made these fun raindrops to hang in our classroom!

I'll be back soon with some awesome 

"Green Screen" ideas for your weather unit!

Kim

Kinderbykim will be Live From Vegas with ESGI!

                           

I am so thrilled to be partnering with ESGI in Vegas for the @sde4educators conference! You can find me this year in the @esgisoftware 's booth 201. 

Monday July 10th at 12:15. 

Join me for Sun Science STEAM Pirate Style!

Tuesday July 11th 2:50

"Let's become a Meteorologist!"

I'll be sharing some creative ways to learn about the 

weather while tying in the NGSS standards.

 Come see how to create "Green Screen" 

weather videos a kindergartner can do!

Wednesday July 12th 10:20

Happy Camper STEAM Projects!

Join me for Camping style investigations.

Thursday July 13th 2:50

Become Sun Science Investigators. 

Taking a closer look at the sun with simple STEAM for your classroom.

Hope to see you there!
Kim

Classroom Birthday Dollar Store Gifts and Tags Freebie

I'm always on the lookout for dollar store birthday gifts for my Kinders here are a few of my recent finds!

Birthday Gift Tags  

Teacher's name box on each tag is editable.

These darling bug boxes are from the Dollar Tree! 

I added a few bugs too!

The ice cream bubbles come 3 in a package 

for a dollar at Dollar Tree. 

These make a fun gift for the price!

I also found these Paint Palettes at Dollar Tree.

Enjoy!

4th of July Writing Sticks Freebie!

Happy 4th Of July from Kinderbykim!

Kinderbykims 4th of July Writing Sticks!

If you would like more writing sticks for your 

classroom click on the link below!

Kinderbykim's Writing Sticks

A Little Spring Butterfly Freebie!

Catching Butterflies in my net!

 How many will I get?

I found my nets at the Dollar Tree 

and the butterflies are from Lakeshore,

 I use Avery Labels for the sight words

My Kinders will record the sight words on the 

butterfly wings and then write a butterfly 

story on the back using their words. 

They can also illustrate the story in the box.

Click here to get  

Butterfly Sight Word Freebie

Let's get our Kinders Retelling Great Books!

 I hope you all had an amazing Holiday and a restful vacation with family and friends!  I got back to school Monday and we are excited about "Stretching our Brains" in  2017! Thank you Julie Lee for the cute party face Idea!

We are in the "Winter Mood!" 

We have  had a lot of rain and it's finally cold. 

So it does feel like winter in Southern California!

I'm starting back with some fun Mitten activities! On Monday

I introduced Jan Brett's The Mitten and then on Tuesday we practiced this frame with each child's name in the pocket chart. We reread the Mitten several times throughout this rainy week to get the sequencing embedded in our minds!

On Thursday, we made a mini book for our book boxes which included some "tricky words" (down and made). 
We will keep them in our book boxes for rereading.

On Friday we sewed these darling mittens and retold the story together during Reader's Workshop!

Here are two more activities you can do with the Mitten!

A retelling wheel and a comparison map with the books by 

Jan Brett and Alvin Tresselt.

I just posted my New Mitten Pack  this morning!

It includes 10 activities from Jan Brett's The Mitten and a Comparison Map with Alvin Tresselt

If you love RETELLING like I do check out my friend Kim Adsit's blog post all about retelling and see our New Packet we have created together.  

Developing Strategic Retelling Strategies.

Props and Activities for 10 Popular Children's Books!

If you live in or around Wisconsin Come see me! February 27th!

Wisconsin Kindergarten!