Finally!!! Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy, Interactive Homework!

It's Super Simple:

I kept this homework pack simple.  Homework should NOT cause tension in the house!

It should be enjoyable and it should involve interaction with an adult.  

Homework Should Be Easy:

This homework will not cause tears or frustration.  It is straightforward and easy peasy!  

If you want to add additional pages to it, feel free to do so.  Make it work for you.  :)

Homework Should Be Meaningful:

If it's meaningful, the child is more likely to learn from it.  No one wants to just do busy work!  Looking for objects in your house or letters in a magazine makes the learning real and relevant.  

Homework Should Be A Reflection Of The Classroom:

This pack comes with a Homework Folder Cover Page that includes a sample of each letter, number, 2D shapes, and lines where the teacher can write the student's name as a sample of correct letter formation:

The skills included in this pack are letter names and formation, number names and formation, 2D shapes (including the new Common Core hexagon), colors, and more.

Homework Should Be Interactive:

At this age, homework should involve a parent who can interact and engage in conversations with the child.  For example, when looking for objects in the home that are blue, parents are encouraged to help their child find many blue objects and then decide which one to illustrate.

Homework Should Help Parents Work With Their Child:

Many parents ask me how to help their child.  They are often looking for iPad apps, workbooks, or flashcards.  My response is always to talk to their child, take them for a walk, discuss the world around you!  

Things To Discuss When Reading To Your Child:

One of the suggestions found in the parent letter refers to reading with their child.  It suggests discussing the characters in the story, the setting, the problem (or the wish), and the resolution or how the problem or wish was solved.  

We Invited Parents To School To Learn How To Work With Their Child:

We set up tables with interactive projects and we taught parents questions to ask while working with their child.  It was a huge success!  

Homework Should Be Easy To Correct:

Wouldn't you LOVE to be able to quickly assess your students' homework each week?  These pages can be quickly scanned or accuracy and to check if they are complete.  1, 2, 3 and you are done!  

I staple a class list inside a file folder.  I label the columns with the date each homework assignment is due.  I record a +, check, or a - based on whether or not the homework is complete and neat.  

Homework Should Be Used As Reinforcement:

I never use homework as an assessment tool to assess skills,  Rather, I encourage parents to assist their child to erase and correct their homework before they turn it in as an attempt to establish a level of quality for their homework before they feel it is complete and ready to turn in.  Therefore, the skills on the page are all skills I have introduced in class, even the lace tying skill.  

Homework Should Be FUN!

As with everything we do here at KFUNdamentals, we want to keep the FUN in the fundamentals so we keep homework fun too.  Searching for things in your home or letters in a magazine is way more fun than writing sight words 5 times each!  

How To Get All 34 Homework Pages:

Click {Here} for the download and to download the preview where you can read the directions and the parent letter and see a full size sample of 2 of the Easy Interactive Homework pages.

Thank you for visiting our blog today.

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Visit our TPT Store.

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Throwback Thursday: Kindergarten-Safe Batik - Easy, Fun, & Beautiful!

This was one of our first posts back in Feb. of 2013:

Here is a safe way to introduce your students to the craft of batik.  Instead of hot wax, we use flour & water to "mask" the outline of our drawing.  The results are amazing!  Complete instructions can be found in our store at:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Batik-Patterns-Directions

We made a number book out of fish.

We used a 50/50 mixture of flour and water on fabric.

The next day, we used water colors on the fabric.

When it was completely dry, we peeled off the dried glue mixture to reveal the masked areas.

I have to admit, I loved the paper towel that kept the paint off of the counters!  :oD

Here, you can see most of our fish from #2-8.  Each has a number "masked" on it's body.  

Get complete directions to make a heart design or a garden design {Here}.

Click the images. 

You get BOTH pattern in the download.

Do You Think It Is A LOCKET Or A POCKET WATCH? What do YOU think? And a FREEBIE!!!

Pocket-Lockets:

  

They are the newest rage in my class.  My kids can't wait to learn a new sight word so they can make a locket or a pocket watch!  And they include all 18 of the Houghton Mifflin Kindergarten sight words AND they come with blank Pocket-Lockets so you can add as many new words as you like! 

Want to know the best part?

The best part is that both boys and girls like to make and wear BOTH lockets AND pocket watches. 

Your students will LOVE making these sight word locket necklaces and pocket watches too!

Both are made the same way, just one is worn as a necklace and the other gets slipped into a pocket like a pocket watch!

How To Make Them:

All you have to do is run these Sight Word Pocket-Lockets on colored construction paper and give each child a piece of yarn that is about 26" long.  Give them marking pens for tracing the letters, words, and numbers; scissors, and glue and you are good to go!

Students trace the sight words and, as an added bonus, they also trace the numbers on the watch.  

If you make one of these watches each week, that will give your students an extra experience tracing the numbers 1-12 AND they will conceptualize where the numbers go on an analog clock or watch.  

Students need to cut out* the rectangles containing the letters of the sight word and they need to glue them to one of the blank sides of the Pocket-locket.  When glueing on the letters they need to glue them in the correct order and they must make sure they are oriented in the correct direction and are not upside down.  They may use the sample of the sight word already printed on the Pocket-Locket as a guide.  Note:  When gluing on the sight words with 4 letters, they will need to overlap the rectangles so all 4 letters fit.

   

Then, they tie the ends of the yarn together and position the center of the yarn inside the fold of the Pocket-Locket.  It is best to use white glue when attaching the yarn.  They let it dry before wearing their Pocket-Locket.  

  

 

My students actually beg to make these Pocket-Lockets.  

This Is What is Included In This Pack:

Included are the following words:  I, see, my like, a, to, and, is, go, for, here, the, have, she, said, are, play, he.  And then you get 2 blank Pocket-Lockets and blank letter rectangles so you can add your own special words.  

  

A Fun Twist:

Have your students glue on the individual letters to the front of the Pocket-Locket in a random order so their friends may guess the word that is inside!

How To Get This Pack and The FREEBIE:

Click Here for the Pocket-Lockets download.

What fun! 

Click Here for the FREEBIE.

It includes the sight words see and my.

*  See a special post all about using higher level thinking skills while cutting out these Pocket-Lockets and take the "One Scrap Challenge" by clicking right HERE.  You will use this special tip EVERY DAY in your classroom forever!  Really!  :)

I will be featuring these at the next 2 conferences we will be presenting at:

P-K-1 Conference (Formally The CA Kindergarten Conference) in Santa Clara, CA Jan. 17-19

The Southern California Kindergarten Conference in Pasadena, CA Feb. 28-March 1

The Southern California Bloggers' Bash in Pasadena, CA Feb. 28 

I Teach K!  Las Vegas, Nevada July 7-10

Thank you for visiting our blog today.

Check out KFUNdamentals on Facebook and Pinterest!

Visit our TPT Store.

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :) 

Have You Heard About The "One Scrap Challenge" or Pocket-Lockets?

Here is the challenge:

Every day I ask my students to try and create only one scrap per page when cutting out their project.

This takes a lot of thought, a bit a planning, and some imagination.  

Click the image for the download.

When I am demonstrating how to construct each project, I cut out all of the piece on each page creating only one scrap.  

I had to think & plan how would cut this out.

Thought:  I have to think about which way to direct my scissors in order to create only one scrap.

Planning:  I have to plan out my attack before cutting out each piece in order to create only one scrap.  

Imagination:  After I cut out my pieces, I study my one scrap and decide what it looks like.  Does it look like the goggles, a telephone, a pair or glasses, a the number 8?  It is amazing what the kids will come up with!

"It looks like a keyhole!"

Who Knew That Cutting Things Out Could Be So Much Fun?

The best part is that it challenges students to think while cutting instead of mindlessly cutting away and creating a mess of tiny scraps all over the table and floor.  

Last, we do our "finger exercises" as we fold the one scrap as many times as we can before throwing it away.  This not only works the muscles in their little fingers, but it makes them more mindful about keeping our classroom neat and tidy.

I folded this 5 times!  

There your have it!  Try to make one scrap, tell us what your one scrap looks like, and exercise your fingers by folding your one scrap as many times as you can.  This also helps to keep our trashcans from overflowing with huge, unfolded scraps!  

Did You Notice The Sight Words Pocket-Lockets?

Is it a pocket watch or is it a locket?  Here is the Pocket-locket for the sight word "see".

We have them for all of the Houghton Mifflin sight words!

Cut out the letters and glue them on in order.

 

Add yarn.

Is it a pocket watch or...

Is it a locket?

You can find them {Here}.  

I'll blog about them tomorrow!  

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Are You Ready For Day 100? This Is All You Need :)

10 Interactive Centers For Day 100:

This pack includes everything from weighing 100 pennies to a 100 Day snack!

Click the image for a morning full of 100 Day Activities!

Set up the 10 activities around the room, prepare the recording book (it's included in this pack), and let the learning (and the fun) begin!

For Kindergarten students:  This is a great activity to do with your upper-grade buddy class.
For 1st -3rd grades:  Students can experience these centers on their own.

All you have to do is copy the 10 center signs and set out the supplies needed for each center.  Supplies include things like crayons, colored pencils, scissors, glue, 100 paper clips, 100 pennies, a balance scale or a kitchen scale, snack packs of M&M's, mini carrots, Ritz crackers, colored construction paper, etc.

Allow for 10 min at each activity center.  That should take most of your morning before recess.

Find the link to the download by clicking {HERE}.

And while you are visiting our TPT Store, check out our Revolving Sale.  

It is a sale that changes every few days.

Just scroll through our products and look for the prices that are crossed out.

Leave a comment telling us when you will be celebrating your 100th Day!

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

I'm Done! Finally Done! I Think You're Gonna Love This! :)

I'm celebrating my newest product :  "Phonics Dictionary Pages & Picture Cards"
(I was up until 4:00 AM working on this 80 page pack!)
And, most of our writing products are on SALE!!!

Be sure to download the "Preview" so you can see the beautiful, colored pages.

I have been using this concept of Dictionary Pages to teach phonics in my class for years, but I made these new pages with cute graphics last night.  I can't wait to throw out my old templates and start using these!

These black line Phonics Dictionary Pages are PERFECT to use as you introduce each letter.

They are really hard to see here.  Click on the large image of the cover sheet and download the Preview so you can really see the pages.  There are 80 of them!!!

There is also a set of colored Dictionary Pages which may be used to create a sample for each letter.

There is a complete set of Colored Picture Cards for each letter which can be used with the Dictionary Pages or to make a big class dictionary using construction paper.  Students can bring in additional pictures too.

I put this set on sale for 25% off for a limited time as part of my Revolving New Year's Sale.  I have writing products on sale for the next few days at 20-25% off.  :)

Here is the link to our TPT Store.

Happy Shopping!

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Who Will Be Attending...? (& a FREEBIE)

... the P-K-1 conference, formally known as the California Kindergarten Conference, this month?

I am!  I am!  I am!  (Check out our SALE at the bottom of this post.)

Click the image.

We are so excited to present "Addition Magician, Subtraction Reaction" on Saturday, Jan. 18!

We will be sharing tips on how to use our addition packs:

Click image.

Click images

We will also have a booth (#15) so come and see us and mention that you saw this post!

They are also having a fabulous Pre-Conference which Sarah and I are also attending.  

Click {HERE} for more info about the entire conference.  

 Hope to see you there!  

Remember to CHECK OUT OUR REVOLVING SALE on TPT.  It changes every few days!

Click {HERE} to see the sale.

Then, scroll down to see which products have their price crossed out!

And...  check out my "4th of the month" blog post on Teaching Blog Round-up beginning at midnight tonight, EST.

And... here is my favorite FREEBIE from 2013:

See you all tomorrow!

Palma