March FREEBIE! Clip-Cards Math Center

Just finished up this great set of St. Patrick's Day themed clip-cards for my own classroom and wanted to share them with you for FREE! This simple math center goes great with the St. Patrick's Day Number Sort, the Roll, Count & Graph Activities, the Letters & Sounds Sort and the Play Dough Mats. 

The set includes cards for numbers 1-20 and are designed to be printed double-sided making them self-checking! I LOVE centers that my students can be independent with - and I know that they love the ability to check their own work...

See the dots for self-checking?!

All you need are some clips - I used these great little ones from the craft store!

I set them out on a little tray with the clips so that my students can carry the whole work to their workspace without trouble.

You can download these cute clip-cards for free HERE!

March Math Centers: Number Sense Sort

(affiliate links included for your convenience!)

With spring just around the corner, the time to pack away the snowflakes and penguins has finally arrived! Just a few days ago, I switched out one of our math centers for this standards-based St. Patrick’s Themed number sort.

I love that it has so many different representations of each number and includes numbers 0-20! Right now, I just have 0-10 out and have the other numbers in a ziplock bag on the shelf until I see that my students are ready for them. I also love that it includes an extra page of coins with Montessori colored beads! 

Number Sense Math Center

These centers are also self-checking (if you can print double-sided)! I absolutely love that my students can check and correct their own work which frees my time up for individual and small group instruction during our work block. 

When it comes to cutting out tons of laminated centers (which most of us have conquered from time to time), cutting out circles is simply the worst! I invested in this 2" circle punch from the craft store and couldn't be happier! It has saved me so much time and painful blisters on my fingers.... It was worth the $15 I spent ... and more! 

You can find this printable center HERE! 

More March Math Centers: Roll, Count & Graph

My students love playing games with dice of all sorts and I LOVE dice games because they're learning while having fun! Roll, Count & Graph activities are a favorite in my classroom so I usually keep a seasonally themed activity available as a choice on my Math shelves. I recently put out a couple of activities from this Rainbow Shamrock Roll, Count & Graph pack.

Roll, Count & Graph Activities

On one tray, I put a color dice and a coloring worksheet along with a rainbow of colored pencils. Students roll the dice, identify the color, match a colored pencil and color one shamrock that color. They continue rolling and coloring until all of the shamrocks are colored in. For my youngest students, the activity ends here -- but for my older students, they might count and graph the shamrocks from their coloring page onto one of the graphing worksheets.

On another tray, I have the graphing activity set up with a color die and colored pencils. Students roll the dice and then color the corresponding box on their worksheet. Sometimes I introduce dot markers or manipulatives to cover the spaces on the graph. With older students, we discuss most/least, more/less etc.



I love that this pack is low-prep! The worksheets come in color and black and white versions, so I can print and go OR I can laminate for repeated use. The worksheets can be easily differentiated for students on different levels and the dice are easy to assemble.




You can find this activity HERE.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - DIY Interactive Book

A while back, I picked up a sticker book version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then completely forgot about until I found it last week. Since a single stickerbook doesn't last very long in classroom of preschoolers, I made it into reusable interactive book - just like this Interactive Farm Book that I made last year!

Materials: 
Stickerbook
Cardstock paper
Laminator & Laminating Sheets OR self-adhesive laminating film
Velcro w/ adhesive

How To: 
1. Carefully take the stickerbook apart at the binding - Before starting, examine how the book is put together; you may only need to remove a couple of staples from some books. Other books are bound more securely and require a sharp utility knife or heavy duty paper cutter. However you deconstruct your book, just remember how it all goes back together!

2. Remove stickers & adhere to cardstock paper, then cut individual stickers out leaving a small boarder. I left more border on the smallest stickers to make them easier to pick up and manipulate.

3. Laminate each page of the sticker book & all of the cut out stickers. Leave some space around the stickers so that another border can be included, ensuring that each sticker is completely sealed in the laminate. If you do not have access to a laminator, you can use self-adhesive laminating film or even packaging tape.

4. Add Velcro to the inside of the book & the back of the stickers.

5. Finally.... you're ready to read & play with your new interactive book!

Tips & Tricks: 

• This project works best with stickerbooks that have larger stickers. 
• If using a book with small stickers, leave extra laminate border & use poster putty for adhesive instead of Velcro. 

In my classroom, we use this book in addition to the picture book to work on expressive & receptive vocabulary, comprehension, retelling and early math concepts. I really love this kind of interactive book for kids who aren't especially interested in reading - it provides a new, exciting & hands on way to experience books for children who don't like reading!

Fun FREE App for PreK!

I'm always on the look out for high quality, affordable apps that have a valid learning purpose for the classroom... recently I discovered two FREE apps - 123 Ninja and ABC Ninja from Alligator Apps that I just LOVE!


ABC Ninja is just like that other addictive fruit slicing app that so many adults have mindlessly played... I think that this, however, is a great learning tool to reinforce letter names AND sounds! I don't feel guilty letting my three year old play this on the commute to and from work and my students just about beg to play the 'ninja game!' The sound effects and music are subtle and not annoying in the least -- and are even minimalist compared to some apps, which is great for my students who have hearing loss; too much background noise & sound effects can be overwhelming and confusing! The game play is customizable with three different levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard), can be adjusted to focus on capital, lowercase letter names and sounds and can be set for a time limit from 1-10 minutes! At the end of each session, data is displayed but cannot be emailed - I've used the screenshot function on my iPad to capture data when I need it.

123 Ninja is the exact same concept, except it focuses on numbers 0-99. Again, a hit with my students and my own child. It's customizable with different levels of play, the ability to select target numerals and time limits.

With both apps being free to download & also free of in-app purchase opportunities, it's really a win all around!

The only thing that might make this set of apps better would be to have the letter/number repeated somehow, as my students sometimes miss the target when it's announced. And the ability to email data after the game is played by a student and/or the ability to set up individual student profiles so that you don't have to go back and forth changing the settings every time a new child comes to play would be great. I'd also like to see this game expanded to include a version for shapes and colors - my youngest preschoolers would really love reinforcing options for practicing listening & basic concepts!

p.s. just for the record, I was not asked to write this review and did not receive any sort of compensation for my opinion.

Love, Hearts & Valentine's {FREEBIE}

This weekend, I spent some time updating & adding some new worksheets to my Candy Hearts early math learning packs... then I went to town using them with my 3 1/2 year old! He loved sorting, counting and graphing the hearts - most of all, I think he liked eating them after we were done.

Before we started, I prepared a box of Sweeheart brand candy hearts so that there were no more than 5 of any color. With older kids, you don't need to prepare the box ahead of time! We sorted the colors first - he doesn't know the names of them yet, but was able to match them to the card & put all the hearts of the same color together...

Then we quickly counted each group of hearts - I modeled how to count & touch one item at a time, but he's not there yet. Next, I showed him how to line up the hearts on the graph - we primarily focused on just putting one heart in in each box for now.

Last, we took the hearts off the graph and I helped him to color in the correct quantity of boxes on the graph. He really wasn't into this part and would have just scribbled all over the whole thing had I not had his hand in mine :)

Overall - I'd say great success!And he even got to eat a few of them when we were done!

Check out my Sorting & Graphing FREEBIE:

If you like this activity, there are plenty of similar activities in my other printable activity packs for students PreK-2!

Matching, Size Sorting, Counting & Color Sorting {PreK}

Counting, Graphing & Estimation Activities (Prek-2)

Counting & Graphing w/ FUN graphics {Prek-1}

A Peek at our Week...

We've been working on an All About Me/Feelings sort of theme. The kids have really been in to books lately, so we've been taking advantage of their attention for books and have been experimenting with some fun and wacky stories that I haven't ever used for this unit. I've been focusing on feelings pretty hard, because I have several students who really need to learn how to express their feelings through more words rather than through behaviors - usually challenging behaviors.

"I Aint Gonna Paint No More" By Karen Beaumont has been a real hit! The kids love the illustrations the rhyming sing-song story. I love seeing their faces when we get to the last part... "I'm such a nut, gonna paint my....." Only a few of the kids really get the rhyming aspect of the story and fill in the appropriate word -- BUTT!

 While we read, I usually give the kids dry paint brushes and have them pretend to paint their body parts while we read. This year, we followed up with making body tracings and coloring them in with crayons - our paper wasn't thick enough to withstand prek painting while taped on the wall; I'm sure the administration would have killed me if I let them paint their body pictures while taped up on the freshly repainted wall!

 I love the kid's rendition of their eyes, nose, mouth and ears!

We've also been reading the heck out of our "Pete the Cat" books lately! I took a chance and ordered the Pete the Cat paperback and audio CD bundle.

I've been working or setting up a listening center for my students, but audiobooks can be very tough for kids with hearing loss to listen to - often there's just too much background noise and/or sound effects for the kids to hear the reading over. These CDs are pretty good, with a nice reading pace, good use of music and sound effects for the most part and the kids have really enjoyed listening to them! They especially love that Pete sings fun jazzy songs!

Turns out that you can download the mp3 tracks right from Harper Collins' Pete the Cat page! They seem to be identical to the CD's that I got with my books from Scholastic.

This is really a great book to talk about feelings with - Pete doesn't get mad, or worried, he just keeps on walking and singing - because it's all good!! Fun lesson for the kids. We've talked about how Pete the Cat would deal with friends taking toys, pushing, yelling etc.

I also introduced a new sensory bin for the next couple of weeks. I have several kids who get occupational therapy this year and need to work on a wide range of fine motor skills. I've been wanting to make kool-aid colored noodles for a while, so I had a perfect opportunity as I couldn't come up with a great "all about me" or "feelings" themed sensory bin. I thought about doing a photo tutorial of how to dye the noodles, but my kitchen was a disaster and I just couldn't bring my self to clean it up or show it off. So check out the great photo tutorial over at MamaMiss if you want to know how to do it!  Here's our colored noodle bin:

Here are the kids going to town - they played for a good 30 minutes and I think that they might have stayed another 30 if I would have let them. There were tons of opportunities for fine motor practice including stringing noodles & buttons on pipecleaners and/or string, pouring, dumping, using the tongs to move noodles, putting them in containers with different size openings, scooping and stirring with the spoon etc.

Here's last week's Shredded Paper Sensory Bin -- it was SO simple, but also entertaining! However, it was incredibly difficult to clean up off of our carpeted area!

And last, we also stickered letter M for Me!  Also a great fine motor activity. 

There's a Peek at our Week! What are you up to in your classroom this week? Please leave comments or links to your blog - I'd love to see what you're up to!