February Week 1 Lessons - FREE President's Day activities
I can’t believe is is February already! I love teaching this month, and I also love that it is a short month because February always flies by. Between President’s Day, Valentine’s Day and all of the fun activities we have planned, it just flies.
Have you noticed how much easier your days have gotten? I specifically design my curriculum so that by now, I spend very little time explaining directions and expectations. My students know the format of my activities and lessons and we focus all our energy on learning the content.
“This resource has literally given me my life back! I am no longer searching everywhere trying to gather GOOD, STRONG educational resources to help me teach my kinders.”
Heads up! Looking ahead, I am prepping for President’s Day this week and I copy these adorable activities. These printables are in our freebie library.
If you want to sign up for free, I’ll send you a link! There is a form at the bottom of this blog post.
If you are already a member, these printables are on page three of the freebie library.
Let’s get started!
Have you printed my free February lesson plans yet?
Print them HERE, and then I walk you through the plans with ideas and tips right here on this blog post.
What are we learning this week?
Independent morning work: spelling color words, middle sounds in CVC words, sums of 5, teen numbers and counting on
Phonics: we are finishing segmenting and blending first, middle and last sounds this week and doing the post test. Next week we are starting Unit 4 CVC words and word families
Math: this week we take our post test for Measurement and Data, and then we start teen numbers and place value. I have so many fun activities to teach those tricky teens!
Guided reading: our theme this week is Sweets - fluency passage with comprehension questions, mini reader with traceable words and cut/paste sentence builder
Enrichment - our unit this month is all about friendship and social skills. This week we read How To Be a Friend and discuss what it means to be a good friend, how to make new friends and how to keep/treat the friends we have!
No prep centers this week includes a groundhog color by word families, label the groundhog, a FREE heart numbers to 20, ordering teen numbers cut/paste and our I See February Mini Book.
Groundhog Day - this is such a fun unit to teach this week!
This blog post will show you how I teach the kindergarten standards using these resources.
Whether you’re teaching via virtual learning, homeschooling or you are in the regular classroom, my lessons and resources will help you and your students.
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Before we get started on this week’s lessons, I thought I would share a few ideas for Valentine’s Day since it is coming right up!
NEW - JUST ADDED in 2022!
I now use a digital calendar and morning meeting kit.
CLICK HERE to learn all about how to transform your mornings.
It can be used in both Powerpoint and Google Slides.
ALL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP Thematic Unit for February
I absolutely love using thematic teaching to incorporate reading, writing, favorite read aloud books, science, social studies, art and more! CLICK HERE to visit my thematic teaching homepage and see all the units I use throughout the year.
In February, we learn All About Friendship and Social Skills and it is so much fun. We use four favorite read aloud books with coordinating themes and activities. It is packed FULL of activities, so don’t worry if you can’t get to every activity that is included in the unit.
WEEK 1: How to Be a Friend
This week is all about introducing what is means to be a friend, how to make friends, how to treat the friends we have and basic social skills.
I love to start my units with a slideshow. This helps students build their background knowledge and make connections. Plus, it is the perfect way to get them excited about what we will be learning about this month.
If you don’t have this book, here is a read aloud version on YouTube.
I found it is best to stop, talk, clarify, share and make connections throughout the book.
For example, on the page that talks about how to cheer up a friend when they are sad, have the kids share and discuss this!
“Have you ever had a friend that was sad? What did you do to cheer them up?”
After the read aloud, I have them get up and wiggle first to our favorite Dr. Jean songs like “Hello Friend” (see this blog post about why we love Dr. Jean - scroll to the calendar section.)
After we wiggle and say hi to our friends, I show our friendship slideshow below.
We talk about what they like to do with their friends, how we should treat our friends, how to make a new friend and more. Building their background and activating their schema helps students connect to the new material we will be learning about.
This slideshow comes in a PDF format that you can bring up on your computer and project right on to your front white board. Super easy and simple for you!
On Tuesday, I show students these adorable “I Can” posters about how to be a good friend. I love having students practice saying them to encourage positive behavior. You can hang these up in your classroom and have students practice reading them throughout the unit.
I refer to the posters when I see students being a good friend too. For example, “I love seeing how Carly can be a good friend because she is sharing her crayons with Kyle.”
These cards are perfect for pocket charts. We read them and sort them as “What a good friend does” and “What a friend does not do."
Then students can color and complete the cut/paste sorting activity where they cut out the pictures and sort them under the correct heading.
Then they can trace the words under each heading.
A couple different versions are included in the unit. One has the numbers on the cards, and the other just has the animals so students have to remember which order they go in. Use one or both!
When I see certain behaviors from students, I can now say, “Are you being a good friend by ________?” and students immediately know what I am talking about. They can complete the writing activity shown above as well finishing the sentence starter, “A good friend _______. A good friend does not __________.”
On Wednesday, we talk about all the different kinds of things we can do with our friends, and activities we can do by ourselves. The children love to share things they enjoy doing with their friends.
We look at the picture cards and discuss the activities.
I ask students, “Would you do this activity by yourself, or with a friend?” It really gets them thinking about what they do with their friends and by themselves throughout the day.
I used to be surprised by kids asking me, “Who can I be friends with?” or “Where do I find a friend?” This makes a fun lesson for Thursday.
I made these cards to show students that friends are all around us! They can be friends with whoever they want.
At the end of the week, I introduce our friendship social stories.
Seven are included in this unit, and we actually use and refer to them throughout the entire month, but this week we read the Feeling Welcome social story and Inviting Someone.
These are social skills that set the foundation of friendships, so they are a terrific tool to start with.
This finishes what I teach the first week of February for our thematic unit, and you can read more about the entire friendship unit on the blog HERE
Next week in our friendship unit, we use one of my favorite books, Peanut Butter and Cupcake to talk about how friends can be different than each other, and how we can celebrate those differences!
MORNINGS IN KINDERGARTEN
How is your morning work going? You’ll love this morning work because students can actually be independent with these daily worksheets and they are aligned to the math and reading standards in almost every state.
What skills are we practicing this week?
Spelling color words
Sight words
Matching and generating middle sounds in CVC words
Writing teen numbers
Counting on (not starting at 1)
Sums of 5
TEACHERS AND PARENTS LOVE MY FEBRUARY MORNING WORK!
“Hands down best morning work I have found for kindergarten! I wish I would have found it sooner. Thank you!”
“LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!”
“I am going to go back and buy the bundle!”
I choose very specific skills each week for students to practice on their morning work. We practice the skills in a specific sequence, and this builds their confidence because they truly can be independent with the standards! Repetitive practice is so important.
Since the format stays the exact same, students understand how to complete the problems (one or two days of your help) then they are set! The worksheets get progressively harder each month to target the exact skills they are learning and can be independent with.
FAST FINISHERS:
I get asked a lot what I do for my higher students, or the ones who finish their work throughout the day quickly?
Copy activities from my February No Prep on to the back of your morning work or other activities each day!
This week, our activities from my February No Prep Pack include:
I See February mini book
Groundhog color by word family
Label the groundhog
Heart numbers 1-20 cut/paste FREEBIE
Sometimes I copy these activities (not the cut/paste ones) to the back of morning work so they stay engaged and busy while you complete your morning tasks.
If not, I use these for centers, fast finishers and sub tubs. I love having standards based, themed activities every month to “fill in” time gaps, for seat work and sub tubs.
Here is a quick video that shows activities included in the entire pack.
I use a few math and language arts activities each week.
Another option for fast finishers and centers are February Boom Cards
If students take their time with their morning work, you can have an option for them to move to monthly Boom Cards to practice the exact skills we are working on each month. The video above shows one of the decks we play this month practicing addition.
My February Boom Bundle also targets these skills:
This works well in the sense that it is a reward for getting their work completed, but my warning is to be careful with this as some students might rush through their work just so they can use the Boom Cards. I think if they prove to you they do their morning work well, then Boom Cards is something they can earn in the mornings.
Learn more and visit my Boom Card monthly homepage HERE
PHONICS
I am so excited we are just about done with the middle sounds phonics unit. We are taking our post test this week and then jumping right into Phonics Unit 4 - CVC words and word families.
I do this post test 1:1 with students, but they know the drill now and it goes super quick.
I do the same pre/post tests in my first three phonics units because the data really helps with placing children into the correct instructional reading groups.
If you missed last week’s blog post, here is a quick tip with middle sounds.
Middle sounds are the hardest for students to isolate and identify in CVC words, and I have found the ones they usually mix up specifically are:
/a/ and /u/
/i / and /e/
Practicing with these centers gives students so many opportunities to see and hear the difference using a variety of words.
This Boom Deck (included in my February Boom Bundle) is such a helpful tool for helping students segment sounds, as well as read and spell CVC words.
While you’re assessing students on middle sounds, your class can be using these adorable CVC matching quilts or playing Boom Cards.
I target one middle sound on each quilt, and the really help students be independent with the activity. Each vowel has three quilts, for a total of 15 CVC quilts!
They also come in both color and black and white. You can laminate the color version so it can be used over and over again.
Purchase the entire kit of CVC quilts HERE or try one for FREE HERE
Next week, we are excited to move on to Phonics Unit 4 - CVC words and Word Families
The unit comes complete with anchor charts, reading fluency/comprehension passages, mini books, worksheets, phonics centers and so much more.
Read the blog to learn all about this unit, plus print the two activities shown above for FREE CLICK HERE
Need a little review and practice with stretching out the sounds in words?
The video below is perfect when kids need to stand up and get a little brain break.
MATH
This is a busy week of pre and post tests.
Just like with phonics, in math we are finishing one unit and moving on to the next.
You do not have to use the math assessments I provide, but I like to use the data to guide my math groups. I prefer to teach in small groups as much as possible, and the data helps me level students.
This week we are taking our measurement and data post test, and moving right into our teen numbers and place value pre test.
Weeks when we are testing, the no prep activities from my February Pack that I mentioned earlier really come in handy.
For example, I like to have activities ready to go so when students finish their pre/post assessments, they have standards-based activities to work on instead of wasting time.
These math activities are part of THIS bundle
(I mentioned this earlier in the blog post with morning work.)
You’ll love how versatile this pack is and you’ll never have to search for “fillers’ again.
Next week will be in full swing tackling place value and the tricky teens. Check out the unit HERE to see what is coming!
Teaching reading is all about building confidence, teaching new vocabulary and sight words explicitly and exposing them to familiar resources repeatedly to build their fluency.
This program does all of that! We use the same three resources every week (shown here) - a reading fluency/comprehension page, a sentence builder and a mini reader.
“I love all of these sets! I have been buying them month to month and I like the consistency of them. The students are able to do them on their own now.”
Once you use this program for a few weeks, you’ll see so much growth and you’ll love that you don’t have to give directions each time. The children know exactly how to get right to work and love to make guesses about what the new theme will be each week.
Each day of the week is designated for one of the activities. To see my routine for guided reading, please CLICK HERE
These work so well for many settings including small guided reading groups, whole group, online and homeschooling.
The key is that all three resources are tied together with the exact same pictures, sight words and vocabulary - so all week students are building their confidence and fluency.
Personally, I like to use these in my small group literacy time.
WATCH THIS QUICK VIDEO TO SEE HOW THE FEBRUARY READING PROGRAM WORKS!
Read more about February guided reading HERE and try a freebie!
WRITING
We are starting opinion writing this month. I absolutely love this unit, and so do my students. I mean, what six year old doesn’t love to give you their opinion about everything (including their opinion about my hairstyle and outfit each day!)
We start this week just by learning what an opinion means. They love getting to circle which one is better, and then we discuss with the class which one they circled and they always get super excited to see which one “won” in the class.
Then on Tuesday we move on to using the word “prefer” and they trace the sentence starter and fill I which one they prefer. I provide so much structure and scaffolding that writing is fun and not overwhelming.
We do a lot of oral practice using a sentence starter, and then giving one detail why (keyword: because)
For example, I will say, “In your opinion, what is the best sport?”
I want them to restate the question, give their opinion and one supporting detail.
For example, “In my opinion, soccer is the best sport because I can kick the ball hard!”
For more information about this writing unit, and try a FREE lesson CLICK HERE
DAILY KINDERGARTEN REVIEW
I originally created this print and teach program last spring when we were all thrown into distance learning.
The key to a successful distance learning curriculum is consistency and simplicity. Parents are busy and stressed right now, and they simply cannot sit down every day and teach their child a new lesson.
With this curriculum, they do not have to! I designed every single day to promote confidence and fluency with the exact standards we are learning each month.
The standards stay the same for at least a week in a row (sometimes longer), so students recognize the format and know exactly what is expected.
Here is a peek at what this week looks like:
Standards this week:
Tracing/writing complete sentences
Color the sight words
CVC words: middle sounds
Sums of 5 hearts
Teen numbers as a ten stick and extra ones
More or less using heart ten frames
Counting on (teen numbers)
Reading response journal
Our emotions
Writing about our emotions (with a sentence starter and adorable snowman emojis.)
“I love everything from "Keeping my kinders busy"!! My class looks forward to their afternoon review language arts and math worksheets each day and feel confident being able to compete them with little to no adult help!”
I am currently homeschooling my daughter for kindergarten, so I am using these as a daily review.
See how students can quickly become mostly independent with these daily activities throughout the school year.
Please note: if you’re using these in the classroom or homeschool, you don’t need to use the My Tasks Today page.
Just copy the math and language printables front to back each day and you’re set!
NEW! FEBRUARY BUNDLE
You asked, so I listened!
I now offer money saving monthly bundles.
I bundled all of the resources together that I use to teach the standards this month. I include the resources shown on my free FEBRUARY LESSON PLANS
LOOKING AHEAD…
Print these adorable FREE activities for President’s Day!
CLICK HERE
Return to my February lesson planning homepage HERE
I hope these teaching tips make your week go smoother! My goal is to share ideas and tips every week on a blog post for the week coming up. This will hopefully take some stress off of you.
See you next week ❤️
Blessings, Michala