Everyone loves a good sale!

Visit my TpT Store this Dec 1st and 2nd for 20% off all products. I've seen many of you with these products in your WISHLIST. Now's the time to take them out and add them to your personal collection of teacher resources!

Happy Shopping =)

I was so impressed with the contents, I couldn't wait to use it with the students. Unfortunately, but fortunately there was no need to prep because the day was already laid out for me. 

On the bright side, I'm still very anxious to use these materials and am pleased with my purchase. 
Preview the images from the packet below and feel free to check out Jennifer's more detailed description about this product and some of the other materials on her blog. 

Take a few minutes to preview the material and see if it's something you'd find helpful. 

I'm currently a sub for grades K-5 and would love to know of any resources you love using for your substitute plans. Leave a comment below with your tips and links. They will be greatly appreciated!

After reading this well known title, I gave students this related handout via First Grade a la carte. 
Students were instructed to only color when I announced the letter and specific color to use for that particular letter. For example, "Color the letter E green." This is a great way to test their listening skills as well as lowercase letter recognition. 
The following week we did the same for uppercase letters. For the most part, the students had no trouble following along and it was very easy to spot who still needs work with letter recognition and following instructions. Scroll down for links to other activities to accompany this book.

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, I told the students to pretend a piece of yarn was the caterpillar and asked them if they remembered the order in which he ate the fruit. The first student who correctly answered that he ate 1 apple on Monday was allowed to take the apple image via Make It Cozee and string it through the rope. Keep in mind I had 2 student helpers holding 
each end of the string in front of the class. 

Next, we discussed the pattern the caterpillar used to eat his food. He went in number order and in order of the days of the week. Afterwards, they used the Gymboree printables to color their caterpillars in a pattern.

Keeping these kinders engaged is definitely a full time job. 

Once they understood the concept of patterns, the students had a great time working in pairs to create their own using the connecting blocks and then using the same colors to color in the squares on the page. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to this activity, but you'll find similar resources at the very bottom of this blog post. 

Recently, I introduced the little ones to dominoes as a way to have more fun with counting and adding. During our mini lesson I demonstrated counting one side of the domino and saying "plus" for the dividing line followed by counting the remainder of the dots and saying "equals" the total number of dots on the given domino. If they were successfully able to tell me the number sentence for the domino, I would allow them to keep it in their hands for the remainder of the mini lesson. 

We also played a more simple form of dominoes and completed the various worksheets in the images below. After a few days of dominoes, the kids grew uninterested so I decided to bring in some playing cards for a modified version of I "Declare War". Basically the exact same concept, but instead of using 4 cards when partners flipped the same card, they would simply flip 1 more card to determined who won the set. It was also essential the repeatedly ask, "Who has the larger/bigger number?" or "Who has the card with more/the most shapes in middle?" We also played a round where the person with the fewest/least/less amount would win the round. 

Finally, I had them work with the dominoes, playing cards and a set of manipulatives to practice their numbers. Each student selected a playing card between the numbers 2-10. Next, they had to find the domino that represented the same number. Afterwards, they were asked to count out the number of manipulatives that equaled their selected number. Finally, they were ask to write the number, draw the domino, draw the number of shapes and write the number in word form in four separate boxes. 

MUST SEE free activity packs for teachers and grown ups!
via Pigeon Presents