10 Best Writing Tips for Kindergartners

by KinderMomma | Teaching Blogs, Teaching Literacy with Freebies

Written by KinderMomma and published by We Are Teachers

When telling people that I teach kindergarten, I often am asked, “How do you do it?” Now, imagine teaching five year olds how to write entire paragraphs. Yes, we are superheroes with the powers of patience, perseverance and the ability to bend at the waist for long periods of time. Here are the best kindergarten writing tips for kindergartners that I have gathered over the years.

1. Teach letter formation in context

Kill two birds with one stone. Kindergarten students need to be taught how to form their letters. This can be done within the context of writing a sentence. Often, when students practice writing letters in isolation, they have trouble transferring handwriting skills to sentence writing. Teach capitalization, spacing and end punctuation while demonstrating proper letter formation.

2. Practice consistently

Have your students engage in meaningful writing from day one. Kids learn to talk by talking, and we know kindergartners have mastered that skill. They learn to write by writing even if it is a large string of letters at first or even scribbling. They have to start somewhere. We give them the tools to develop into confident writers by allowing them the time to write and draw every day. Read more at (more…)

Adult Life Lessons (Taught by Kindergartners)

by KinderMomma | Parenting Blogs

Kindergarten students are experts at adult life lessons. Of course, sometimes 5-year-old children make us want to run and hide in the supply closet. Overall, they are sweet, innocent, happy, little souls.

Their excitement, curiosity and love of life make us think that this is the best job ever. We are the teachers, but our little tiny students teach us everyday. Get ready to stand up (or sit down) and take note of these five adult life lessons.

Adult Life Lessons #1- Always Lend a Helping Hand or Two

At the end of center time, I always ask my forever, eager kindergarten students, “Who wants to help me clean up?” Every single hand shoots up in the air like you are offering them ice cream on a blazer of a summer’s day.

Children want to help you, and they usually do a fantastic job. In fact, most are better than I am at cleaning. They find old staples, tiny little bugs, half chewed pencil erasers, and chunks of glue.

The kids take those wet wipes and clean the tops of the tables as though they are preparing a canvas to paint a masterpiece. Kindergarten students are simply amazing housekeepers, and most of their parents don’t even know they like to tidy up. life lessons for adults

Adult Life Lessons #2- Getting a Drink of Water Solves all Problems

If you have ever taught younger children or have a younger child, you know that this is the age that children love to come up and tell us that their pinky fingers, elbows or eyeballs are hurting them. This seems to be just a little cry for comfort during the long school day.

What seems to work very well is to say, “Go get a drink of water. That will help” They skip away happily and the pains disappear. A drink of water seems to miraculously work for missing their parents, being tired, falling down and having a headache. It’s a downright, freaking cure-all.

Adults usually go for something a little stronger. Let’s learn from our miniature life coaches, and reach for a tall glass of ice water when life has us down in the dumps.

Adult Life Lessons #3- Find Humor Everywhere

Have you ever taught a child the sight word, “but?” I can barely get the word out without happy little faces stifling their laughter. I quickly have to use the word in a sentence to halt their giggling.

This is the age for corny knock, knock jokes and meaningless laughter. Stories delight them. Recess is one universal joyous, contagious squeal. Silliness is their friend, and we are all a little happier just being around them.

Adult Life Lessons #4- Make People feel like the Rock Stars they are

The best part of my day is watching my students when the last bell rings. As soon as they see their parents, they do not care about anything else in the world.

They do not care that their friends are screaming goodbye to them. They do not care that they just left all of their papers and lunchboxes back in the room.

All they can see is that there is a Rockstar in front of them. Their eyes light up like Christmas, and they run like the wind into the waiting arms of their parents.

They are equally excited when they see their teacher anywhere outside of the classroom. After they overcome the shock of learning that we don’t live in our classrooms, they shout our names like they just saw a member of the Paw Patrol.

When any other person (principal, parent or janitor) walks into a kindergarten room, the students are overwhelmed with excitement. The students compliment the person on their hair, shoes or belt buckle.

Young children make other people feel important, valued and beautiful. This is an extremely important adult life lesson that needs to be copied at every opportunity.

Adult Life Lessons #5- Delight in the five senses

Kindergarten students have heightened senses. They take notice of the small things. To them, they are big things. They love to touch, taste, smell and hear new things. This is why we have to frequently remind students to not eat the glue or pretend it is Chapstick.

When you put up new decorations, they come in acting like they just saw their baby brother or sister for the first time. They are amazed and delighted. Imagine if our significant others acted this way when we get our new haircuts.

Children smell popcorn in the lounge from outside the school in the bus line. They breathe in deeply as they are smelling a rose for the first time.

Small children see the world in a positive and exciting light. Take these adult life lessons to heart, and the world will be a better place.

What Kindergarten Students Should Know

by KinderMomma | Parenting Blogs

Kindergartners should know many important skills. What did you learn in kindergarten? What does a child need to know before kindergarten these days?

Kindergarten is no longer playing and nap time. It has become the new first grade. The days of only developing social skills and letter and number recognition are long gone. At the end of the kindergarten year, students are expected to decode words, write numerous sentences and understand place value.

These are skills that were once taught in the first grade. If this is the end result, what should the starting point for students be? Prerequisite skills are now taught in pre-school. Enrollment in Pre-K has dramatically increased in this time.

Pre-K has replaced kindergarten in the development of social and emotional skills. So, what skills then should 5 year old students be equipped with to begin school? The following are what kindergarten students should know before the first day. kindergartners should know

Social Skills

Students need to know how to establish a give and take with others. Children at the age of 5 are able to engage with other students in a proactive manner. They express their feelings and understand that others have feelings, also. Turn taking is very important to developing socially.
Students should be independent. Separation anxiety is common in kindergarten, but it should go away after the first few days of school. It is a good idea to do a part time pre-school or, at the very least, drop your child off at a play place at the gym. If this is the first time your child is left with someone else, it might not be such a great experience for you or your child.
Kindergarten students should know how to dress themselves and go to the bathroom on their own. This is very important. It is also a good idea to teach kindergarten students how to tie their own shoes. This will make your child’s teacher very happy.
Following directions is imperative for kindergarten. Successful students listen well and can focus for longer than 10 minutes. Flexible seating is very common in kindergarten these days and allows students the opportunity to move around while focusing.
Understanding simple commands is essential and should be practiced at home before the beginning of the year. Read your child instructions, and have them follow through with completing the task.

kindergarten students should know Academic Skills

Kindergarten students should know the letters in their name and be able to say their first and last names. It is very helpful if they are able to write their names. This is probably the first thing that they will be asked to do once they are in school.
The three pincer grasp is important for kindergarten students to know. This refers to the proper way to hold a pencil with the pencil between the thumb and pointer finger and resting on the middle finger.

This should be modeled by parents to avoid students holding the pencil incorrectly. This becomes a bad habit that is hard to correct. Students naturally want to grab the pencil with their fists. It is very hard to break a child of this learned grip. I advise my students to pinch the pencil and then rest the pencil on the middle finger. Click here for ideas.

Rote counting to 10 is a skill that kindergarten students should know. This is easily learned by watching PBS televised shows. Songs are also fun ways for students to memorize rote counting.

Kindergarten teachers often expect students to know how to count to 10. Pointing to objects as you count helps students learn one-to one correspondence. Simple modeling of counting and pointing to everyday objects does wonders.

Concepts of print refer to the knowledge that students have about books. A kindergarten teacher can tell right away if a student has or hasn’t been read to at home.Students mimic pointing to the text in a book from left to read if they have been read to. They know what a title is and that the pictures help tell a story.

kindergarten students should know

Kindergarten teachers are prepared to teach students everything they need to know. The foundation that they have before arriving at school helps to speed along the process. Students develop socially and academically at a quicker pace if they have these prerequisite skills. Early learning is essential for prolonged academic success. Tips for parents can be found here.

5 Fine Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers

by KinderMomma | Parenting Blogs

fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Today’s post is from a guest writer. Her name is Angela Ellington and she is the Creative Director of The Truthful Tutor. Angela Ellington is a tutor located in Los Angeles, California. She has been a tutor for the last six years and has had hundreds of clients over that time. She has learned that one of the most important things for success is beginning early. She has a website where she offers tips, tricks, and resources to other educators and parents. She also creates worksheets for educators and parents. She hopes that she will be able to help people get the resources they need to make sure all students are successful. To read more about her, visit https://www.thetruthfultutor.com.

fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Being able to hold a pencil, color, write letters, even picking up little things is all thanks to fine motor skills. However, for little ones the strength in their little finger muscles may not be built up for these tasks. However, they need to develop these skills before they get to kindergarten and are expected to write, draw, or color within the lines. If they have not practiced fine motor skills, it will be harder for them in school. So, below are five fun activities that can be done with your kids to help them develop these skills. fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Q-tip Painting

The first fun activity for building fine motor skills is Q tip painting. Please note that this actually takes some fine motor skills to begin with. This is a great exercise for improving existing fine motor skills

You can also use this activity to practice different words with your child. You can print out pages of sight words, and then they have to take a q-tip and paint little dots along the word. You can also do this with different lines or zig zags. For sight word worksheets, click here. For trace the line worksheets, click here

This activity overall is a little more fun than just tracing. I would suggest having multiple colors of paint so that your children can choose or use different colors throughout the word. This allows them to be a little more creative with it, and it will keep their interest longer.

fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Slime Spelling

Slime is all the craze right now. It is being used in science projects, and craft stores seem to have dedicated sections now for the making of slime. Did you know that slime can actually help with fine motor skills?

Introducing Slime Spelling: In this activity, your kids will form letters with slime. They will have to roll it out and try to form it together. Then, they can watch as it loses its form. Let me tell you, they will definitely be laughing over that.

To makes slime follow one of these recipes from Little Bins for Little Hands. If you don’t have slime, don’t want to make it, or want a more solid option, work with Playdoh instead. fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Pipe Cleaner Weaving

This will probably be the activity that looks the strangest, but believe me your kids will have hours and hours of fun with it. There are two main things that you need for this activity: pipe cleaners and a colander (note if you don’t have a colander or would rather not use one a box with holes punched in it will work also).

Your kids will practice putting the pipe cleaners into the holes. Extra points if they can flip it over and weave them through again. This overall helps them with the skills of putting something small into another small thing, which builds up those fine muscles that they need. Once they get the hang of it, it may even be one of their favorite games.

Pom Pom Sorting

Pom Poms in general are a great way to work on fine motor skills. Likewise, sorting activities are amazing for so many reasons, so why not put these things together.

There are also so many different ways that you can do this sorting activity. You can ask your child to sort the pom poms by color, by size, You can even put other items in the bin, and they have to separate the pom poms from the other things.

The easiest way to have kids sort them by color is to have colored cups, and they will put the pom poms in the cup of the same color. This is also helping them with color recognition. For sorting by size you may even have them put them in a line from smallest to the biggest. Really, the possibilities are endless.

fine motor skills activities for preschoolers

Scissor Skills

Another reason to have fine motor skills is to be able to cut out pictures effectively and to cut straight lines. Printing out cut and paste for children to complete is helpful for building fine motor skills.

There are other worksheets that just practice cutting straight or curved lines. These are just as helpful for working on fine motor skills even if they are not as fun. There are many great worksheets and scissor skill projects out there, but some of my favorites are found here.

What Activities Do You Do?

There are so many great fine motor activities out there, and I couldn’t fit them all into this one short article, but maybe we can add more in the comments. Please comment below with your favorite fine motor skills activities.

Classroom Resources on the Cheap

by KinderMomma | Teaching Blogs

Did you know teachers don’t make a lot of money? I know, “Duh!!” We are forever scavenging for classroom resources that don’t cost a pretty penny.

My husband dragged me kicking and screaming into the thrifting world. He is quite frankly, the Cheapest Man Alive. We resell on Ebay, and it actually grew on me.

Thrifting is the best way to buy classroom resources and products. You can find some exciting materials for not a whole lot of money.

Here are my tried and true tips for stocking your classroom with new and used materials for a fraction of the high price of Lakeshore.

Saving at Savers

Books– Books are a large part of the classroom resources in the majority of rooms. Savers has the best selection of children’s books known to man, outside of your local library.They are the place to go for all things book-related.
- They have classic picture books that have been saved by your parents, and they are just now donating. The old books by Dr. Seuss that you read as a child are there, as well as plenty of easy readers.
- You will experience many childhood flashbacks. I see Archie Comics, Hardy Boys, old Nintendo and Atari games, Coleco hand held electronics, and the list goes on and on. I buy the picture books in themes for my kindergarten classroom. Holiday lots are in great supply.Savers has plenty of books in each category every time I go.
- I collect books from the same author for author’s studies. Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer, and Robert Munsch books abound!
- In addition, upper grade teachers will also find a vast supply of chapter books and novels. On many occasions, class sets can be found. Many classroom resources are available for middle school and high school.
- Mondays are Happy Hour for book lovers. Half price day!! Yay! Buy 4 and get the 5^th book free. This averages .45 cents a book. Most of the books are in great condition and many are hard cover. If you are there on another day of the week, hide the books you want until Monday. 🙂 Increase your library quickly!!

2. Puzzles and Games– For the younger grades, puzzles and games can add tremendous benefits to your classroom resources. They have many unopened puzzles and games.

We find LeapFrog products on a daily basis. Older models such as the LeapPad 2 are priced very low. I created a center of 4 with the LeapPad 2 for about 20 dollars. Amazing, am I right?

We found a LeapPad 3 the other day for 5.99. They are 137.00 new on Amazon. Score!!!

Goodwill

Center Activities- I find the most used and new center activities from Lakeshore, Trend, and Carson Dellosa at Goodwill. Teachers change grade levels and give stuff away because we have too much stuff! Goodwill prices learning centers usually between 3.99 and 6.99. That is a significant savings if you have ever shopped at Lakeshore. Learning centers are priced between 20 and 40 dollars.

These classroom resources are my favorite to find. I am always looking for center activities. Surprisingly, many items I find are still in the plastic wrap.

More than likely, a teacher has every intention to use the product, but moves to a different position, or other curriculum resources took precedent.

These items are hard to make, and I am that kindergarten teacher that doesn’t like to make things. Our time is valuable. Am I right?

2. Teaching Supplies- Goodwill has a plethora of what I would call miscellaneous classroom resources. There is always an assortment of scrapbook paper for student scrapbooks.

Also, Goodwill has all kinds of binders, used and new. I buy these for my end of the year scrapbooks. Students create a page a month. Parents can be asked to buy these binders for their child to save costs.

In addition, classroom resources such as glue, yarn, pencils, staples, and construction paper are always well stocked and cheap.

Every kind of flashcard made for education is here at Goodwill. Math, Spanish, English, sight words and even algebra are in the supply aisle.

Tips from A Professional Thrifter

When you see a cart at Goodwill or Savers

You need to run like Black Friday shoppers trying to get the last Furbie. I realize that was a while ago. A cart means new merchandise untouched by human shopper hands. This is where the good deals are.

Make use of shoppers’ club cards.

You can only get the deep discounts if you have a Club Card. Savers has 25 percent off the whole store on Thursdays and 50 percent off on Mondays. Also, Goodwill sends you texts on when their sales are on a regular basis. Teachers get 10 percent off everyday and 20 percent off on Wednesdays. You just need to show your id once. They register your savings on your VIP card.

Bring your phone and download an Ebay app.

These apps have scanning tools that allow you to see the market value of each item. This is a great way to make sure you are getting a killer deal.

Look everywhere

Don’t neglect aisles. People dump great items everywhere. We have found the best classroom resources in the beauty or electronics sections of the store. Do a quick scan in each section of the store.

Location, Location.

Some stores are better than others for classroom resources. Better socio-economic areas have better products. Also, managers determine pricing, so some stores have lower priced items.

So, there you have it. Make a fun weekend and stock up on classroom resources for your school year. It really is an enjoyable way to add value and excitement to learning activities. When you have new classroom resources, the teacher and students mutually benefit. Become a Goodwill Guru today.