Back to School, First Week of School, Friendship Activities and Centers for Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten

Are you looking for back to school, and the first week of school activities and centers that are hands-on and fun for students that will make the transition to school easy for you, as well as your students?   Then, you will love our Back to School Friendship Unit!  This unit has been created and practiced throughout my 11 years of teaching 4K.  The activities in this unit are great for children 3 1/2-6.  The activities revolve around friendship books and back to school rules, routines and getting to know our school environment.  Click {HERE} to check it out!

A great way to help students feel welcome at school is to have them share and tell about their family.  At orientation give each family a piece of cardstock and construction paper and have them include photos of their family doing their favorite activities together.  Send this home with each child so they can learn about their classmates.

Make the boys and girls feel welcome on the first day with this cute welcome gift.

My favorite first day of school story is Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister.  I love the message of sharing and friendship.  The boys and girls love retelling the story with story puppets.

I like to collect a sample of coloring the first day of school to put into their portfolio to show growth throughout the year. 

The boys and girls feel so special coming home with a certificate for the first day of school.  They love sharing this with their families. 

They will love wearing this cute first day of school crown.  A great thing to share with their families.

Throughout the first week we discuss the rules of the classroom.  It is important that they know the expectations of the classroom within the first few days.

Preschoolers are all about everything being fair.  We talk about characteristics that make us special, like hair and eye color.  Then, I have the boys and girls to color the popsicle  sticks to reflect them self.  We use these sticks for turn taking throughout the year.

The boys and girls love making friendship bracelet.  I used pony bracelets, but pipe cleaners work just as well.

Children love games!  In small groups, I place the Get to Know Your Classroom printable on clipboards with a pencil.  We search the room for all of the items.

I like to have a few centers ready for each area of the classroom.  I like most to be open-ended, however I also like several to focus on important skills.  The center above is perfect for shape tracing.  Laminate and add EXPO markers for a fun activity.

School Trace is perfect for pre-writing development.

Shape matching is a great way to get the boys and girls talking about shapes.

Sticker My Name is a great way to help students focus on each letter in their name and name identification.

The dough activities are great for fine motor skills.

If you like these centers and activities check out out seasonal bundles.  Perfect for preschool, pre-k, ECE.  The activities and centers revolve around popular and vocabulary rich books.  Check out the bundle {HERE}.

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Shape of the Day Calendar Companion

Are you looking for new ways to incorporate important concepts into your daily routine?  Concepts like shapes, colors, name, letters and numbers?  Then, you and your students will love our Skill of the Day Calendar Companion!  Click {HERE} to check out the bundle.  Check out Shape of the Day below.
Shape of the Day Calendar Companion was designed to be a part of your daily morning meeting or carpet time for preschool and kindergarten leveled children.

Shape of the day is a great introduction and/or review activity to learn about shapes. As the year progresses the children will learn more about shapes, like the number of sides, corners, shapes in our environment and how to draw shapes.

Shapes included in this unit: circle, square, rectangle, oval, triangle, heart, star, diamond (and rhombus), trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, octagon.

All of the signs and labels are available in color and black and white. The signs are also available in large and small to fit any area of your room. The shape checklist is the perfect tool to use to observe students shape knowledge throughout the year. This unit is designed to use several weeks at a time, several times throughout the school year.

Shape of the Day fits nicely with your calendar.  Use this product during calendar time and make it a part of your regular day.

I place the Shape of the Day sign at the top and we practice reading it.  Then, choose which shape you want the boys and girls to work on.  We work on each shape for about a week.

After the boys and girls identify the shape they will search for the shape throughout the seek-n-find.  They will use a dry erase marker to circle the shapes.

Attach the dry erase marker to the board using putty.

After the boys and girls find the rectangles they will trace it on the tracing sheet using a dry erase marker.

After they trace the shape of the day, they will practice drawing the shape.  This is a good time to talk about sides, corners and lengths of the shape.

Then, the boys and girls will complete the 2D shape portion.  They will search through a variety of objects to find all of the matching environmental shapes.

Laminate an extra sheet of white paper and staple it to your board.  Place putty on the back of the shape cards and the boys and girls will pull the shape of the day objects and place them on the 2D card.

When you feel the kids are ready, they can share more information about shapes.  They can explore how many sides and corners each shape has.

Track each child's progress.  This will help you determine which shapes and activities they need to spend more time on.

Assessment tool are included as well.  This is a great sheet to share with parents at conference time.

Once a week have the boys and girls follow along using a clipboard.  

All of the activities are common core aligned.

If you like this you may LOVE the growing bundle! Click on the picture below!

Summer Sight Word Games, Centers and Activities {EDITABLE}

Are you looking for summer themed sight word activities, printables and games that you can change to meet the needs of your kindergarten and/or first grade children? Then, you will love Summer Editable Sight Words Printables, Activities and Games. Type in 20 sight words on one list and they will spread throughout all of the activities. There are a variety of activities that will meet the needs of a variety of students. This unit is perfect for summer school, review, introduction to sight words and skill strengthening in grades kindergarten through first grade, home school and students with special needs. This unit provides many hands-on opportunities.

This unit is a part of a GROWING UNIT-which means the price will grow as each unit is added. To SAVE BIG purchase while it grows! Click {HERE}.

 

This unit is easy to use.  Type in 20 words you would like to work on and the words will spread throughout the document.

A Class Checklist is also included.  Add students names on the sides.  The words will appear on the top.

These half sheet checklists are perfect to use on one-on-one meetings with the kids.  Send the lists home to practice and add stickers to the box when they have identifies all of the words.

Some students may only be able to focus on 5 words at a time.  They will love these simple lists.

Matching and simple sight word search printables are a great place to start.

The boys and girls will have to find the sight words in each row.

The boys and girls will read, trace and write the sight words.

The sight word cards allow you to create fun hands-on centers.

 

Seashell BINGO is great for individual and small group sight word project.

There are several games the boys and girls can play with these fun ice cream cone cards.  While they play Go Fish or Memory they will write the sight words on the ice cream printable.

They will love fishing for the colorful ocean animals and practice reading and writing sight words.

The boys and girls will roll the dice and follow the directions.  They will write the sight words on the flowers as they move through the board.

The boys and girls will search the room for bubbles.  When they find the word, they will color the word the matching color.

This unit is also available in a GROWING bundle.  Click on the picture below to check it out.

Back to School, First Week of School and Getting Reading for Kindergarten Centers and Activities

 

Are you a kindergarten teacher looking for fun and engaging centers for the beginning of the year?  Then, you will  love all of the activities included in our Back to School Packet.  This unit is also great for homeschooling parents, summer school teachers and parents trying to get children ready for kindergarten.  The skills included in this unit are skills that we look for in the beginning of kindergarten.  Click {HERE} to check out the unit.

 

 Help students make connections with themselves and peers throughout the first few weeks of school with fun large group activities.  The can share how they get to school each day and how they are feeling throughout the first few weeks.  

Are Children love to share about their family.  Who Lives in Your House, is a fun way for students to share a little about themselves and share with teachers who takes care of them.

Help students feel comfortable in their school with this fun scavenger hunt.  Students will listen to clues and help determine the building location.  The boys and girls can meet their new teachers and the staff of the school.  This is also a great way to discuss the rules of the building, recess area and hallways.

Help the boys and girls learn where important things are around the classroom.  Help them partner up and then search the room for the locations of the materials.

Many kindergarten students are still working on their name and letter order.  This cute flower helps them work on their name and makes a cute keepsake and or room decoration.

There are lots of opportunities for the boys and girls to practice writing their name within this packet.

Many children are still working on shapes and numbers from 1-10 and writing numbers 1-10.  There are multiple printable books that work well for independent work and homework.

Help students build on their shape knowledge with printables and activities.

Many kindergartners are still learning their uppercase and lowercase letters.  This unit has tons of alphabet practice in a variety activities.  Students will use a dabber or marker to color uppercase an lowercase letters.

Children will practice matching and tracing uppercase letters.

Children will practice writing lowercase letters and identifying several sounds.

Children will build letter puzzles and write the letters.

Children will search for letters on the bus and practice writing them as well.

The boys and girls will order letters from A-Z.

The boys and girls will identify numbers, match objects to numbers and write numbers 1-10.

Children will count and graph the total number of school items.

The boys and girls will identify the numbers and draw the matching number of gumballs in the machines.

The boys and girls will complete the patterns.

Click on each picture below to find more centers, activities and ideas to help you and your students get ready for the first few weeks of school!