Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! I hope all of you are feeling loved by your students and by the people you work with. My kiddos have been extra sweet this week and I got a huge supply of chocolate from one of the sweet girls on my team today, which I think I'll need these last few days!

We're still deep in our ocean learning and this week we've been reading Big Al and The Rainbow Fish. Today we compared the two stories and made venn diagrams {that I forgot to take a picture of!} and then I let the kids be a little creative and use paper and beads to make their own rainbow fish. They loved getting to use the beads!

In math, we've been using our fish and shark to compare numbers. The kids love this game {we call it Hungry Shark}. Two kids are fish and one is the shark. The shark has to decide which fish to eat based on the greater number, then we all write the inequality on our marker boards. You can get the cards for it here on google docs.

Speaking of math, we're working hard to master our facts to 5, which is still a little tricky for some of us. To help, I made a new pack that has centers, games, fluency activity sheets, fluency checks, and flashcards. We used some today and the kids were so proud of themselves!

You can get these activities in my new pack by clicking the picture below. I had a brainstorm for another game to add to it at lunch today, so it will be updated hopefully by the weekend. {Go ahead and grab it now while it's on sale!}

Don't forget the big sale at TpT today and tomorrow...I'll be clearing my wishlist as soon as I make it home from Wal-Mart {why did I wait until the last minute to get Mother's Day stuff??}. :)

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Vickie

We got back from the beach this past weekend, and I have been in common core meetings ever since! Monday and Tuesday our county had meetings for us to become more familiar with the Language Arts standards {kindergarten used these last year, but 1st grade will be using them next year also}. Today, a group of teachers from my school met to meet about the math standards. We are working to develop lessons for Florida's CPALMS website, which basically is the central location to get standards and resources. The state is trying to get more quality resources and lessons, so we will be busy this summer getting some things together. We are still trying to determine if you will be able to get to the lessons {they're all free} if you don't teach in Florida. As we were going through the K-2 standards today, I was wondering what other teachers who used the kindergarten common core math last year struggled with the most. I would really like to make my lessons correlate with standards that my blog readers need resources for or help with. Any suggestions on what standards you would like addressed would be very much appreciated.

Did you use common core last year? Are you using it this year and if so, what did/do you think? 

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Vickie

Just a quick post tonight to give you a little freebie in case your district is moving to using the common core standards next year. Beginning in 1st grade, students will now be asked to use a 120 chart instead of the standard 100 chart. Although I teach kindergarten and we do not use this chart, I am working with a group of teachers this summer on math lessons for our state website (CPALMS if you're in Florida) and went ahead and made one for us to use. Click the picture to download your own copy. There are a variety of fonts included and you can choose the one you like best.

Frame is from Fancy Dog Studio

Our school implemented common core in kindergarten this past year and I LOVED it! I truly think it has made such a difference in the way my students think about their learning. They are really able to explain their thinking and reasoning, both in language arts and math. I also love that the standards focus on really getting deep into a few key areas rather than trying to cover so many things that the kids never really have a chance to do any deep thinking. For example, in kindergarten the focus is on number sense in math (no more money, time, etc. that were only covered a *little* bit). Next year, our first grade will begin implementing the standards. Have you taught the common core standards yet? How do you feel about them? I would love to hear your comments!

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Vickie