Pumpkin Mat Freebie

 Work on fine motor skills while working on numbers at the same time.  

Head on over to my blog, by clicking on the picture below, to see how I use this and to grab it for free.

Yuck Soup Class Snack Activity

Have you ever read Yuck Soup by Joy Cowley?

Makes a great "non-Halloween" activity for those who are "not allowed" to celebrate AND a great activity tied to a book if you are!



Students all contribute a snack, mix it up, and eat!

Activity comes with a class book, graph activity, and parent letter!

Also makes a great activity for Thanksgiving because it's all about coming together as a community to meet a need!

Stop by Simply Kinder for all the details!

Pumpkin Book Report Family Project

October is a great time to do Pumpkin Character Reports!

Students read their favorite book at home with their family, create a fun pumpkin, and then bring them to share with their peers!  It makes a great day for the Halloween without getting too Halloween-ish!

Be sure top by Simply Kinder to see all of last years pumpkins!

 Now is the time to be sending this free project home!  

Happy fall everyone!  

Apple Number Writing Book

It may be October, but apple freebies are still in season! For the past few weeks my kindergarten students have been working to write their numbers in proper formation. This can be a very daunting task (especially for the tricky numerals like 5 and 8).

I created a simple apple-themed book to give my students an opportunity to practice writing numerals 0-10. The book also doubles as an emergent reader to foster early reading skills.

Each page of the book features two rows of handwriting line to provide ample handwriting practice. The first three numbers in each row are provided as dashed numbers for students to trace and build muscle memory.

Stop by the Kinder Craze blog to download a FREE copy of the Apple Number Writing Book. While you're there, be sure to click around and check out my new blog design. I've added lots of features to help you quickly find more great freebies and resources.

Wishing you a wonderful fall day! 

Spider Mini Unit

Happy October Freebie Friends!

October is one of my favorite months of the year, even if it is almost 100 degrees here today ;) I wanted to share with you a fun little freebie you can use this month!

One of my favorite stories to read in October is Aaaaarrgghh Spider! by Lydia Monks. It is such a cute story and my students really get a kick out of it!

If you haven't read this story yet, it's about a spider that decides he wants to be a pet spider. He shows a family all the things that make him a great pet, but all they see is a scary spider! And coming from somebody who truly dislikes spiders, I think it is a really cute story! Ha!

After I read this story to my class, we make a class graph and analyze whether we think spiders do or don't make good pets! You can definitely do this activity even without the book!

Then we use this graphic organizer to recall what the pet spider does in the story. Since this is for our pre-write we just write one or two words in each bubble instead of a whole sentence. For example we might write "feed itself" or "dance".

After that, we use what we brainstormed to complete our opinion writing prompt: "A spider makes a _____ pet because..."

The students write whether they think a spider would make a good or bad pet and then write why.

Of course we have to make a cute spider craft to go with our writing ;)

{A spider makes a good pet because it can feed itself.}

While I was browsing instagram last October, my friend Marsha posted some adorable spider buttons that she found at Jo-Ann Crafts and Fabrics! I obviously had to go out and buy them!

Accompanied with the pumpkin ice cube tray and foam dice I found at the Dollar Tree, they made for the perfect math center!

To play, have your students roll the die and place that many spiders in the "ten frame". Then using a different color, figure out how many more spiders are needed to make a ten.

You can download this mini-unit in my TpT store for free!

Enjoy!

Color By Number Turkey Freebie

Turkey day will be here soon! What better way to put your student's excitement to good use than with a
Color by Number Turkey? For an added twist, give each student a dice so they can roll and cover each part of the turkey.

This Color by Number Turkey is yours to download by FREE when you stop by the Kinder-Craze blog. 

Have a great night everyone!

Firefighter Color by Number

October is Fire Prevention month. If you need a quick activity to enhance your fire safety unit, this Color by Number Firefighter might be just what you're looking for!

Cut this single page printout in half to create two half-page coloring pages. My students love coloring the small pages and I love that they are engaged in learning their color words.

Stop by the Kinder-Craze blog to grab your freebie. While you're there, be sure to check out a few additional resources and activities for teaching fire safety in your classroom. 

Bats & Spiders - Oh My!

I love October! I love the cool autumn air....ok we'll let's be honest - I live in Texas so I really need to say cool-er as in it's not 100+ anymore, not really cool! Anyways - I love it -- pumpkins, Halloween, creepy critters.....

Speaking of creepy critters, let's talk about bats and spiders! I love teaching my kinder kiddos about bats and spiders. In fact, it's the very first big nonfiction unit we do each year. Kids are inherently interested in bats and spiders and they have very definite opinions about both. So, I love to capture their attention and take advantage of their interests. Ah - yes! I'm a sneaky teacher!! :)

Here is a freebie for you. It's all about bats and spiders! I've included some graphic organizers, surveys, and graphs -- a great supplement for any bats and spiders unit! I hope you like it!

Please also join me back at Kindergarten Lifestyle. 

Roll Like a Pumpkin and Other Fun Movements!

I love anything fall themed, especially cute cut outs!

Aren't they cute?! 

I also love getting my students to move around in creative ways!

I put the two together, and voila!

You could stick these in a cute little basket and use them when you need little "brain breaks" throughout the day. It's also a great way to throw in verbs and nouns, and fall vocabulary. 

Head on over to my blog to download the little labels!

Halloween Emergent Reader

Boo!  Halloween is on it's way!  I made a little Halloween Emergent Reader, that uses the sentence stem, "I see a _______."  It's great for teaching the little ones how to follow along, and read a book of their own!

Head on over to my blog to get a copy!

Happy Halloween!

~Michelle Griffo

Celebrate Johnny Appleseed's Birthday With a FREE Apple Directed Drawing Activity Kit!

There are so many benefits to guiding your students through drawing!  But, don't stop there...once students have done their drawing, be sure to explore your options and see how you extend their drawings into the realm of literacy (Hint: the possibilities are ENDLESS!).  Swing on into Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business to grab your free Directed Drawing guide:

 

 

 

Spider Mini Unit

Even though I am not a big fan of spiders, I sure do love teaching with them! 

I created a fun little mini unit based around a fun spider book that integrates graphing, writing, crafts and math!

Head on over to my blog to check it out!

Happy Fall!