Math Tubs and Literacy Centers

Two blog posts in 2 days- must be some kind of record! Actually, school has been closed since Thursday due to weather so I have a lot of free time on my hands.... Well, I could clean the house but this is more fun. 

I just wanted to share our math tubs. I wish I could say we get to them every day but .... something seems to always come up. I'm going to do better. I have to redo all of them anyway but these are from a while back. Basically, I have 5 math tubs. I pull a small group and the rest of the class does one tub a day. This way it is very easy to maintain because each tub can last 4 weeks. The directions for each tub stay the same- the activities change. So the kids already know how each tub works. 

Math Tub 1- Roll a die, count out that many erasers, put them on the background, and complete the recording sheet. The recording sheet is front and back so the student has to roll the die a total of 8 times before getting another background. I have collected erasers for years so I have many different counting objects. I am going to make this center harder. Next time, they will have 2 dice and a different recording sheet where they have to add and write a number sentence. 

Math Tub 1

Math Tub 2 

Math Tub 2 is the pattern block center. In this tub, the children were making numbers out of pattern blocks. 

 Math Tub 3

Math Tub 3 is the playdough tub. In this tub, they were making gumballs. I have lots of different playdough mats and I change the activity out monthly. But it always involves play dough.

Math Tub 4

Math Tub 4 is the file folder games tub. This tub is the hardest one to maintain. I made a whole bunch of these folders and that took a lot of work.  I thought I had more pictures of the folders....Next year it will be easier. 

Math Tub 5

For some reason, I don't have any pictures of tub 5. It was a writing numbers center but I changed it to the clip card center. Basically, there are 5 or 6 bags of clip cards with paper clips inside and the kids match the number with a paper clip. I also have some bigger ones with clothespins. These are the ones I'm going to put in the tub for this month.  I've been putting my husband to work laminating this weekend. I think these were all free on TPT. :) 

Literacy Centers

I don't have many pictures of the literacy centers. I did want to share one or two. I finally finished putting my listening center onto donated iphones. It was a lot of work but I think it will be worth it. Now to get the kids to actually listen to the  whole story...

Another center that has worked out pretty well is what I call the Shower Curtain Center. Not a very catchy name but it's the best I could come up with. It's basically a word work/phonics center made out of shower curtains. Here are 2 examples:

I just do activities on a shower curtain. I buy the cheap ones, cut them in fourths, and come up with an activity. They are very durable as they have been stepped on numerous times. I wrote all their names on one chart and they had to match with letters. (I couldn't take a picture of that one.)  Several charts I wrote sight words for them to match. The possibilities are endless.

Kindergarten

Let me begin by saying I can't believe it's been over a year since I

wrote anything on this blog. No 2016 posts at all. There's been a lot of change. I moved to KINDERGARTEN this year!! 

I taught first grade for 10 years and really loved it. Then I had to move to 2nd. I know some teachers love second grade but I am not one of them. I really enjoyed getting to know my second grade team and of course I loved the kids. But I don't know, second grade just didn't seem like a good fit for me. The first year in second was extremely hard- probably one of the hardest years in a very long time. Maybe the hardest year ever besides the very first year as a brand new teacher. I looped with my students from first which seemed like a good idea at the time but probably wasn't the best thing to do. I had some children with extreme behavior issues and it wore me down. So there was no time for blogging. I tried a couple of times but I was really in survival mode. Last year was a lot better but I still missed teaching little kids. Especially reading. Maybe I'm weird but I like teaching phonics and reading from the very beginning and I'm confident in what I'm doing. Second grade shook my confidence. So when there was an opening for kindergarten, I asked and received. 

Boy, was it a rude awakening at first! Much different than I expected. But I liked it immediately. Now we have our routines down and that we're in the last half of the game, it feels a lot like teaching first graders again. 

The room I acquired is on the old side of the school so it is much smaller than my old first grade room. (I switched rooms in 2nd grade 3 times..... which was part of the problem.) I went back to the forest theme mainly because of my giant wooden chair that I love and couldn't leave behind. I found lots of new woodland animals to incorporate this year. One big raccoon is still in my car I found last month.... 

I wanted to share some pictures of my room that have been on my phone since July. 

Small Group Reading Area

View from the Door

Classroom Library

Add caption

Home Living Area- The only place I could find to put it and  there's no sink and it barely fits but they love it!

Labels!!!!

I bought out Dollar Tree this year. What's sad is I just bought about 6 more tubs for something else I'm planning. I said I would NOT buy another tub or bucket or container this year.

My Chair! with some animal friends from Dollar General.... 

I love this little squirrel basket I got from Michael's for way too much money. Even with a coupon....

Calendar/Whole Group Area

Student Work Board