Top Ten First Day of Kindergarten Books

Posted in Book Collection, Reading by teachingeveryday

My oldest daughter be going to kindergarten this week (sniff, sniff) and we have been reading lots kindergarten books to prepare. Here are our favorites (in no particular order)…

Planet Kindergarten by Sue Ganz-Schmitt– This is the perfect book for a kid (or parent) who loves space. Everything about the first day of kindergarten is related to a space mission. The teacher is the commander, the classroom is a capsule, and classmates are crewmates. Hilarious story with very cute illustrations!

Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis– Dexter’s big sister tells him all about kindergarten and helps him find his lost stuffed animal on the first day.

Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum– In this story the mom is nervous about kindergarten and her son had to reassure her that everything will be fine. The illustrations show mom small and blue when she is anxious and big and colorful when she feels fine.

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate– This rhyming book shows the teacher and her twenty-six students (from Adam the alligator to Zach the zebra) getting ready for kindergarten.

Look Out, Kindergarten, Here I Come! by Nancy Carlson– It is a simple story about a little mouse who is excited and then a little nervous about kindergarten. It is written in both English and Spanish.

The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten by Maureen Fergus– Just as the title says, Mom comes to kindergarten… and embarrasses her daughter because she doesn’t know the rules.

Tom Goes to Kindergarten by Margaret Wild– Tom the Panda is nervous about kindergarten so his parents stay with him the first day. Then they want to come back because it is so much fun!

The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing– Cute book that is written in the style of “The Night Before Christmas.” My daughter thought it was funny that the teacher had to ask the crying parents to leave.

The Berenstain Bears Go To School by Stan & Jan Berenstain– Sister Bear is nervous about going to kindergarten in the Bear Country School so she meets her teacher and checks out her classroom. On the first day of school she has lots of fun building blocks, painting pictures, and looking at books.

Kindergarten Countdown by Anna Jane Hays– This rhyming book counts down the week before kindergarten with numbers and days of the week.

14Apr2014

Number Memory Game

Posted in Common Core, Free, Math, Numbers by teachingeveryday

I loved playing Memory (or Concentration) when I was growing up. If you are unfamiliar with the game, all of the cards are face down on a table and you take turns turning over a two at a time to get a match. It’s a great game for improving (you guessed it) memory. We have a few different versions, but I thought it would be fun to make our number game to work on math skills.

Use notecards or cut cardstock to make twenty cards.
Have your child write the numbers 1-10 on ten cards.
Have your child put stickers on the other ten cards. One sticker on the first card, two on the next, and so on.
Play Memory by matching up numerals with the correct number of stickers.

Common Core Standards

(kindergarten- Write numbers from 0-20)

(kindergarten- Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality)

(kindergarten- Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted)

12Mar2014

Bowling Math

Posted in Common Core, Field Trip, Math by teachingeveryday

Bowling is a fun indoor activity when it is too cold or hot outside. We found a local bowling alley with a weekly special for preschoolers ($3 that includes one game, shoes, and a drink). Though, even the smallest bowling balls are pretty heavy for little ones, so I recommend it for kids over 3. Big Sis has a great time bowling, and it is educational, too! Playing a sport is always a learning experience in my book. But the bowling alley is also a wonderful place to practice math in the real world. Old school bowling provided lots of math practice when you kept score with a pen and paper. Yet, even with today’s bowling alley computers keeping score, you can still ask your kiddo some math questions. Then just look up at the screen to check the answer!

You can ask about…

Counting- Count how many pins are still standing. (kindergarten- Count to tell the number of objects)
Make a ten- You started with 10 pins. Now there are 6 pins standing. How many did you knock down? What number plus 6 makes 10? (kindergarten- For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number)
Simple addition- You knocked down 2 pins last turn and 3 pins this time. How many did you get in all?
Two-digit plus one-digit addition– Your score was 33, then you knocked 5 more down this turn. What is your score now? (first grade- Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number…)
Subtraction– There were 10 pins and you knocked down 5. What is 10-5? (kindergarten- Add and subtract within 10)
Relationship between addition and subtraction- There were ten pins and I see 2 still standing. How many did you knock down? You can think about it as “what number plus 2 equals 10?” Or you can think “10-2=?” (first grade- Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem)

(Common Core Standards appear in italics. They correlate with specific standards in different grade levels. These standards are used in almost every school in the country. Click the Common Core tab above to learn more.)