Here's a quick look at some of the Christmas-themed activities we've incorporated into kindergarten this week!
You all know how my little nugget loves to measure!
I was delighted to find this Christmas themed measuring unit from Simply Skilled in Second, and even more excited that it's FREE! It's called Merry Measure (cute, right?) and you can find it right here!
Colby measured each of the Christmas objects and wrote his findings on the recording sheet.
We usually use one-inch tiles for this sort of activity, but to mix things up I had him measure with this ruler that I found at Wal-Mart. Each inch is a different color which makes it easier for my little man to read. It's also jointed at each inch mark and folds right up! At only a dollar, it was a great find.
Gingerbread Shake & Spill! So much fun! We used the fabulous, free Gingerbread Shake and Spill Math Mats from Teaching in Progress. There are mats for numbers 3-10, plus a blank mat (which we used for this activity). Colby spilled out two-sided math counters, and we wrote how many of each color on the math mat with a dry-erase marker.
Then Colby showed the combinations on these free worksheets from The Linton Academy. The .pdf includes worksheets for numbers 6-10. (You can find them here!) We recorded the combinations as we discovered them, though we plan to make similar charts after Christmas break that are better organized.
Here's a closer look at the shake & spill mat. (And here's a link to the math counters I bought, if you need some: Learning Resources - Two-Color Counters, Math Manipulatives,)
Now this was a really fun activity! This pocket chart center is just one activity from from the Gingerbread Literacy and Math Combo Pack by Caitlin Clabby.
Using the printable reference sheet provided in the pack, Colby unscrambled the sentences and built the gingerbread man story in the pocket chart.
We worked on the independent reader a little bit each day. Colby wrote the word "the" on each page and colored the pictures.
The finished product was pretty great!
Colby looked at the pictures on these gingerbread boys, then stamped the initial sounds on the recording sheet.
He colored the gingerbread boys on the recording sheet to correspond with the correct letter. This was the first time we'd used stamps for a school activity, and he loved it!
This fun worksheet required Colby to follow the directions to color the gingerbread men. He likes coloring and counting, so this was fun for him.
I tried hard to get a good picture of this "If I Were a Gingerbread Boy" worksheet, but it's still a little tough to see. Colby drew pictures of what he would look like if he were a gingerbread boy (surprisingly, he would wear a lot of denim) and what his gingerbread house would look like. He also wrote that he would run away from a fox, and a dog. Sounds like a good plan to me! You can find two FREE versions of this worksheet (one for a boy, and one for a girl) right here.
You can also find this and the other activities in the 145-page Gingerbread Literacy and Math Combo Pack. We barely scratched the surface of what's included, and will be using more of these activities next year!
And here's a little Gingerbread Write the Room Math Fun, from the three-tiered activity by Marsha McGuire. I am a huge fan of her products; they are simple, meaningful, and fun. Best of all, everything is differentiated. There are two or three options to choose from, so you can match your child with the activity level that best suits his or her abilities. I find that I can usually use more than one of the options - one level might be good for reviewing or reinforcing skills, while another will offer a little more of a challenge.
Here you can see that Colby worked on some simple addition within 5. This was great practice for him! He loved the colorful pictures. (Only a portion of the activity is shown here.)
Also from Marsha McGuire, this I-Spy Gingie's Numbers activity was a blast!
There were multiple options for this activity; here you can see Colby practicing numbers 0-20. He uses a magnifying glass to find the teeny, tiny numbers hidden in the picture and writes them on the recording sheet. He then writes the two numbers that come after. This was the perfect activity for him to help reinforce the "teen" numbers. (He can count past 20, but for some reason always skips "15"!)
For more Christmas ideas, check out our Pinterest boards:
TpT Shops and Blogs mentioned in this post:
