Growing Patterns

Here's a quick and fun freebie for growing patterns. I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs, A Place Called Kindergarten. We worked on her ice cream scoop idea for growing patterns and then then I had students design their own growing pattern in their math journals. Here's some of my students' work:

And here's the quick simple ice cream sheet, modeled after A Place Called Kindergarten:

Enjoy! And now I'm off to eat a scoop...or 2, or 3, or.....of ice cream!

Book Shopping Organization for Kindergartners

I have decided to change the way I run Reading Workshop this year. I'm going to have my students do book shopping RIGHT when they get to school from now on. In the past, I have had students book shop DURING Reading Workshop. This ends up taking a lot of my teaching time, to manage and organize them. Now, students will check this chart and book shop on the appropriate day. That way, when Reading Workshop begins, I can focus on conferences and pulling strategy groups.

I decided, at the suggestion of my awesome teammate, to plan my Writing Workshop conferences at the same time as book shopping. So students know on the same day they will get to book shop, and I will be sure to spend a few minutes during Writing Workshop with them. This helps me be sure to visit with everyone during Writing Workshop each week.

I hope you find this little freebie as helpful as me! Click on the image above for a free PDF. I am lucky to have access to a large color poster printer at school, so I printed this big, laminated it, and hung it on a bulletin board. I can easily erase and adjust the schedule if I will be absent or we have a school event. You can easily use this small version as well.