Common Core Assessment Packet {Freebies}

Finally...the long awaited Common Core Assessments for third and fourth quarter are here! A list of required materials is included at the end of each file. I hope you will find these useful, and please let me know if you have any questions! 

Download the combined Common Core Complete Assessment Packet if you want to keep all your assessments together in one packet. This easy-to-use packet includes every kindergarten common core standard in sequence. Just check off the boxes to indicate which standards you'll be assessing each quarter. 

Download the Common Core Assessments Pack if you'd like to have each quarter in a separate packet. The standards are already separated into four quarters based upon how my colleagues decided to divide them, so this will be less customizable than the packet above. 

President's Day

Here are a couple of patriotic crafts we did for President's Day. We never got around to doing our Washington and Lincoln crafts. There's just not enough time in the day! But these were simple and fun...

How Big is a Foot?

We are having fun learning about measurement this week in math! First, we read "How Big is a Foot?" by Rolf Myller. This is a story about a king who wants to give his wife a new bed, so he uses his feet to measure her. But when the carpenter measures using his own feet, the bed turns out too small! We stopped at that part and pair-shared ideas for why the bed was too small. Then we worked with partners to measure various classroom objects using our feet. Each group had a measurer and a recorder. Finally, we discussed our data and why we all got different measurements...leading to the realization that we all have different sized feet and we all need to use the same sized units to measure. This led us into today's lesson...

Today, we read "Inch by Inch" by Leo Lionni. This is a cute story about an inchworm who measures various birds...until he inches out of sight! After reading, we discussed how we could use "inchworms" to measure items around our desks (how to start at the edge and line up cubes with no gaps, etc). Since I don't have these adorable inchworm manipulatives, we just used linking cubes and pretended they were inchworms. I called out various items for the inchworms to measure and the kids worked with their partners to estimate and measure each object. Here is a copy of my recording sheet.

Solid Shapes {Freebie}

I know this is a super short post today but I really wanted to share this with you!
I just made an updated version of my 3D Shape Sort. I LOVE the way Kindergarten Freckle Teacher used my shape cards with this cute poem! I also loved the pocket chart idea, so I just had to make one of my own! 

Of course, it also doubles as a sorting activity! We used this during math centers. The kids sorted the pictures as well as actual solid objects.

For lots more ideas on solid shapes, check out my prior post and solid shapes unit:

Valentine's Day

Valentine Heart Puppies

This was an idea I got from some of my co-workers. They turned out super cute! I'll probably back them on white paper next time - that's a lot of pink, even for me!! The first one is my sample.

 Handprint Hearts

 I LOVE making art using handprints - turkeys, snowmen, reindeer - you name it, we've made it! So for Valentine's Day, we made these handprint hearts. I was going to hang them with ribbon and glue the poem on back, but I ended up pasting them on pink paper so I can easily add them our kindergarten memory books at the end of the year. Both versions are pictured below.

Valentine Bags

We created these super simple Valentine Bags to take home all our goodies!

 

We also read lots of cute Valentine's Day stories!

Walking through the Jungle

We love making class books! This week we read Walking through the Jungle. The kids had fun joining in reading this predictable text...and they love pointing out the onomatopoeia on each page! Each child chose a setting and a character to create one page for our class book. One child even wrote "ROAR! on her page and told me that she wanted to use onomatopoeia in her story, too. So smart :)

 

Peek at Our Week

Here's a quick peek at what we've been doing this past week...

Math Centers:

 We make patterns using candy hearts, then record our patterns.

We roll dice to determine how many hearts to place in each heart. Then we add.

 We match ten frame and numeral cards and then color the ten frames.

 

 We practice our fine motor skills as well as counting at this center.

We sort candy hearts and then graph the data.

 We use candies to measure each heart and record the results.

Literacy Centers:

We roll the sight word cube and write the sight words on our graph.

 We spin a spinner, say the word, and graph the beginning sound.

 We say the words and stamp the syllables with do-a-dot markers.

 We open the hearts and unscramble the sight words inside.

 

 We love to practice writing our sight words in sand.

Science:

This week, we investigated with wood and water to see what happens when the two interact. This was one of the more exciting lessons from our FOSS unit. The kids really had fun! We determined that water absorbs into the wood and that wood floats in water.

Ordinal Numbers & Eric Carle

You may have already realized this, but I love integrating literature and math! And Eric Carle's book, "10 Little Rubber Ducks" went along perfectly with a lesson on ordinal numbers.

After reading the story and discussing ordinal numbers, I handed out ducks on popsicle sticks that I labeled with ordinal numbers. The children had to line up and put themselves in order from 1st-10th. Then I called out different ordinal numbers and the class had to identify who was in that position.

Then we created our own class book, modeled after Eric Carle's story. Each child wrote and illustrated one page. I gave each student a duck with an ordinal number on it so they would know how to write their numbers. Click here for the template. It turned out pretty cute! Here are some samples:

Odd & Even Numbers

Today we had a great time learning about odd and even numbers...and best of all, my kids really got it! We started by reading the story Even Steven and Odd Todd. Missing Mittens is another cute story about odd and even numbers, but I wasn't able to get a copy of it. We talked about what even and odd numbers are, and that all even numbers can form partners with no leftovers.

Then we played a game called "Odd Man Out." I showed a number and called that many children to the front. They had to find partners to form pairs. If the children were able to form partners with no leftovers, the class determined the number was even. If there was an odd man out, they decided the number was odd. The children helped me to sort each number on the correct side of our t-chart. We repeated this a few times. 

For the remainder of the numbers, the children worked with partners using unifix cubes. I showed a number, then one partner would count out the cubes and the other partner would connect them in pairs. Then they would discuss with their partner and decide whether the number was even or odd. Finally, one person from each table shared their findings and explained their thinking.

I found this cute video on Brainpop. We will be watching this tomorrow as a review. 

My kids LOVE Brainpop!

Here is a cute chant we did to help remember the even and odd numbers:

0, 2, 4, 6, 8, even numbers are great!

1, 3, 5, 7, 9, odd numbers are divine!