January Week 3 Lessons and Ideas for Kindergarten - Winter FREEBIES
Here in Idaho, it is cold, snowy and it doesn’t get light until after 8am. If I am on duty on the playground before school, it is dark!
But I still love teaching in January because we are in such a good rhythm and all the groundwork we worked on in the fall has paid off. In the next few weeks, so many children are suddenly reading fluently, writing complete sentences and solving math problems.
I just love being a part of this huge learning curve.
SETTING GOALS
Before we get started with this week’s lesson, here is a reminder that a new year means setting goals!
If you aren’t already using my goal setting and awards kit, now is the perfect time to start.
The chart is FREE in our freebie library! Enter your email below and I’ll send you the link right away!
We are getting ready to celebrate our 100th day in school!
CLICK HERE to get ideas + 3 freebies on my blog post, or CLICK HERE to purchase the complete unit.
Last week on the blog, I shared FREE math and reading centers for January, a FREE New Years Card, FREE morning work and so much more.
This week, we continue our math unit on measurement and data, we are working on middle sounds in CVC words, I share a FREE reading comprehension passage for guided reading time, we learn about animals in winter who hibernate and migrate (I love this unit and so do the kids!) and we are having fun with expository “how to” writing.
This blog post goes into more detail about what you see on my free lesson plans shown below.
“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.”
Have you printed my free January lesson plans yet?
Print them HERE, and then I walk you through the third week of January plans with ideas and tips right here on this blog post.
Please note: we are on week 3 in January as week 1 we were on winter break.
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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ALL ABOUT WINTER Thematic Unit for January
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 January, we do All About Winter and it is an absolute blast. It is packed FULL of activities, so don’t worry if you can’t get to every activity that is included in the unit.
ANIMALS IN WINTER
Last week, we had so much fun learning all about snow and winter science.
This week, we are studying what animals do in the winter time. We read Animals In Winter and discuss the words adapt, migrate and hibernate.
Students absolutely love studying winter animals, and they are so engaged.
Below is a quick video that shows the entire unit for the month (I break it down into weekly themes.)
We learn so much about animals, and sometimes I spread this over two weeks since there is just so much content to cover.
We learn about four animals that migrate and four animals that hibernate (if you don’t have time to cover all eight animals… that is okay!)
All of the reading passages follow the same format focusing on the words are, can and have.
After reading the passage, each animal has a coordinating graphic organizer/note taking page.
This makes it so easy to incorporate reading and writing, and it is no prep for you!
Students love to read, learn and take notes about each animal.
Then we sort picture cards and make these adorable flip books.
This is such a cute station activity! Students can sort the picture cards into “Animals that Hibernate” “Animals that DO NOT Hibernate” and “Animals that Migrate.”
Then they can make two different flip books (hibernate/migrate).
Students love these picture cards, and there are so many activities you can do with them. By the end of this week, we have learned so much about how animals survive the long, cold winter months.
Read more on the blog post HERE or purchase the unit below.
FREE JANUARY CENTERS
I am not a huge fan of traditional “centers” - mainly because I have never had an aide. Running centers that change constantly is really hard for my Kinders to complete independently and stay on task. I am working with small groups, so I need my students to be able to complete activities on their own.
I prefer consistent, no prep centers (more on this later in this blog post.)
However, this month I am doing report card testing, so these centers are perfect for a few days. I generally ask parents or volunteers to oversee these activities while I am testing. This works perfectly.
I am sharing all of these centers with you for FREE this month!
I added them to our freebie library, so when you sign up below with just your name and email, I will send you the link and password.
Inside our freebie library, you’ll be able to instantly access over 40 FREE primary activities, including these January centers!
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?
Matching and generating rhymes
Middle sounds in CVC words - generating and matching
Writing missing consecutive numbers
Writing teen numbers and 1:1 correspondence on ten frames
Sums of 5
The format stays the exact same, so once 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.
Plus, these are google slides compatible now if you’re doing distance learning.
You can print a free week from every single month HERE to see how they work for you.
FAST FINISHERS:
I get asked a lot what I do for my higher students, or the ones who finish quickly?
Copy activities from my January No Prep Pack on to the back!
The snowy sight word scramble above is free! It is from my January No Prep Pack and you can click the photo to print.
To keep everything running smoothly, I make sure students always know “what to do next” so they don’t come to me constantly to tell me they are done or ask me what to do. Even worse, some kids will distract others or find something naughty to get into if you don’t keep them busy and learning.
Copy something to the back from my monthly no prep packs so they stay engaged and learning at their seat - now you can get your morning tasks done!
Another option for fast finishers: January 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.
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.
PHONICS
We are getting so good at segmenting and blending CVC words! We have one more middle sound to study before we practice with fun centers and hands-on activities.
On Monday this week, we will be learning the middle sound /u/.
Small bursts of practice, multiple times a day/week will give you better results with five and six year olds rather than one hour long lesson.
Keep your lessons short and sweet to keep engagement high and behaviors low.
I show students all the picture cards and then I model segmenting and blending and then we segment the sounds in each word together.
I always use the I do, we do, you do approach where I model new material first to show students exactly how to do it. Then we practice together (chorally out loud) to build confidence and then they get to try on their own. A lot of people forget that crucial middle step of doing it together.
Middle sounds in CVC words are actually the hardest for students to be able to isolate and identify.
This Boom Deck is such a helpful tool for helping students segment sounds, as well as read and spell CVC words.
Four different games are included so students practice first sounds, middle sounds, last subs and spelling the complete word.
Audio is included so students can play independently, or use this whole group and let me teach your lesson! This Boom Deck is included in the January Boom Card Bundle.
After we learn /u/ middle sound on Monday, we are ready to solidify our phonics skills and middle sounds using worksheets, centers and hands on activities. My kids always love these!
The worksheets I created focus on two middle sounds at a time.
I found it was way to confusing for most students to have five vowel options at a time, especially because students mix up /i/ and /e/ (they sound so similar!) and /a/ and /u/ when we are first learning.
Before I pass them out this week, we review the /i/ and /u/ sounds.
We absolutely love phonics quilts. If you’ve been using my previous phonics units, then your kiddos already know the routine.
Don’t you love not having to constantly give directions? It saves so much time and they get right to work!
I introduce the centers as well, but they are familiar with almost all of them from the first sounds unit and last sounds unit.
We also love clip cards! After the do the clip cards, there is a coordinating recording sheet for accountability.
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
We love learning about measurement and data.
To see how I introduce the vocabulary and get kids excited about this unit, read THIS blog post as we actually started this unit in December. Scroll down to the math section on the blog post.
I share a cute video and read aloud book on the previous blog post to get this unit started.
But we are a few weeks into this unit and having so much fun now! What is planned for this week?
Lots of hands-on, engaging activities that the kids have a blast doing.
We love the cut/sort and paste activities. It gives me a lot of insight as to where the kids are at with their understanding. You can do them whole group or children can complete these on their own.
The two feet/four feet game is so much fun to play.
The kids have never really thought of animals having a different number of feet, so they get really into it.
They sort the cute picture cards on to the mats and then they record their answers onto their recording sheet.
If you are planning on measuring things around the room with the feet, model, model, model first! Make sure the kids are lining the feet up so they are barely touching end to end or you will get some wild answers.
What is great about this activity is there is a student foot and a teacher foot, and a place to record both answers on their paper. The rug is the same length, but we discuss why the student foot has a “bigger” answer (the foot is smaller.)
I prefer small groups for many of these activities.
If small groups are not possible for you in math, you could try partnering students up and pair a student strong in math with a student who struggles more.
I love watching students help and teach each other.
Get started with the unit and print this freebie over on the blog post HERE
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.
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.
Students love the adorable new themes each week, and this week is all about sledding.
To learn more and try a FREE COMPREHENSION PAGE shown above, visit my blog post HERE
WRITING
Reading and writing go hand in hand.
They compliment each other, and they should be taught together. We have so much fun with writing, even if it is only a few minutes each day.
We are working on expository “how to writing” that we started last month. I tell my kiddos that they are the teacher and have to explain how to do something to me - whether it is how to make a sandwich, how to brush their teeth, etc.
This week we are doing the mini books that students love!
Each page has a picture word bank and a sentence starter. They love the prompts such as “How to take care of a dog.”
You’ll love these scaffolded activities because kids won’t constantly ask you how to spell a word, what does next, what to write, etc. The structure of these printables give them direction and confidence so they can just focus on writing. Each of their books will be slightly different because they get to choose to do “first”, “next”, etc.
Each day this week we do a different mini book, and then after all this practice at the end of the week we work on choosing a prompt from the adorable picture word bank and get to writing an entire page. Kindergarten kiddos can do it!
Print this FREE How to make Slime book to see how easy it is to teach sequencing words and “how to” writing.
Here is a video of the entire unit in action.
I added new Boom Cards to the unit an they have been a huge hit! They work so well for virtual learning, homeschooling and in the classroom. Learn more about the unit over on the blog 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.
Standards this week:
Writing letters with correct directionality
Tracing/writing complete sentences
Labeling pictures with a word bank
CVC words: last sounds
Sight words - matching the mittens and coloring
Addition using winter pictures
Teen numbers as a ten stick and extra ones
How many more to make ten?
Reading response journal
Writing about our emotions (with a sentence starter and adorable snowman emojis.)
“This resource helped our district quickly and effectively come up with a distance learning packet for our students, when we were given little time to do so...I am extremely happy with this resource and how it helped us! Thank you for all of the work that you have put into helping other teachers!”
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, 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! JANUARY 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 January Lesson Plans
LOOKING AHEAD…
ASSESSMENT AND REPORT CARDS
Are you getting ready for testing and report cards? Our second quarter ends at the end of January.
This kit makes it so easy to assess your students and document data. Parents can easily understand their child’s progress and if their child needs to continue working on specific skills. Print a freebie and learn more HERE
Return to my January lesson planning homepage HERE
Did you miss last week’s blog post? I shared a free New Year’s card for the kids to make HERE
See what we are up to next week 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