Jello Play dough....giving it a try!

Hello! We are working on decomposing numbers in the teens....I saw this idea on A Differentiated Kindergarten (so many great ideas on her blog!) and loved the idea of  the children using play dough and ten frames to make groups of 10's and 1's. I made some work mats and tonight I made the play dough to go along with them. 

I tried the Jello play dough recipe found here. 

(I added yellow food coloring because it was a little pale...but it smells great! )

I also made the lime version.


Here it is, in use by the students:

They also completed these 10 frame activities:

 I believe I've written about these in previous posts...dot the shamrock that matches the 10 frame and "Tennis Shoe 10 Frames."

Thanks for checking in and have a great evening!

Thank You and Snowflake Writing...

Hello! I hope everyone who is back at school this week is having a good one! It can always be a little challenging to get back into the swing of things after Christmas break! Before I tell you about our SNOWFLAKE writing center, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who started following my blog! I realize there are so many great teaching blogs out there...I am grateful to everyone who checks in just to see what's happening in my little corner of the kindergarten world. : ) My goal has been to post and share ideas that work for me, or share other great ideas/links I see online. I do not have a TpT store or sell items, but hopefully you still can find something here you can use!! We are all in this together and I believe the more we share and learn from each other, the more we can help our kids. Anyway...thanks again!

Onto our writing center...I die cut the word SNOWFLAKE and made an activity sheet for the children to write all of the words they could make out of the letters. When I introduced this activity, some of them immediately said, "I see 'no!' They also came up with "we, so, snow, and of."  Here's a picture of the center:

I like the big letters because they can move them around and manipulate them to come up with words. I also set up a sight word play dough center. There are quite a few pics of centers like this on Pinterest. Here is my version:

I put letter cookie cutters in the basket with the activity sheet and a set of colored pencils for them to record the words they made. I also hung up two word lists for them to use. They are not limited to these words, but it is helpful for those who need it.

They can use the cookie cutters to cut out the words, or just stamp them into the play dough.  Thanks for checking in and have a great evening!