First, my classroom must have an interactive white board, a good sound system, and a personal microphone (to save my voice!!).
For manipulative, my "must-haves" include linkable cubes (I use the unifix brand if I can find them!) and poker chips for the visual representation lesson of each unit, plus stuffed animals and puppets to go with almost every song in Kindergarten.
My "must-have" curriculum resources are my Kodaly Today book series and my American Methodology book. It is so important to have a firm foundation of pedagogy before you begin writing lessons and planning activities.
Side note: Before I did my Kodaly training, I felt like I was re-inventing the wheel every week, and teaching the same slightly altered lesson to multiple grade levels. Now, I have a plan in place for each grade level, and I'm not stressing about what to teach, but I get to spend my time dreaming up new ways to teach it and new ways to practice each unit.
These are some of my "must-have" items in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers!
I can't live without my presentation slides! It helps me organize my thoughts (and my visuals!) as I go through the final stages of presentation.
One of my favorites is my set for Paw Paw Patch! My students love this game and it's an action-packed song with tons of usable material.
For the game, students line up in a long ways set (double line) facing the front.
1 - One student skips around the entire set and back to their spot for the first verse.
2 - The students in one line of the set follow the leader around the set for verse 2.
3 - In verse three, students link elbows with their partner and follow the head couple around the set.
4 - At the bottom of the set, the head couple makes a bridge.
5 - Other couples go under the bridge and back to their spot, with a new head couple at the top.
In these slides, students can tap the beat, tap the little paw paws in the rhythm of the focus phrase, label the form and work on writing the new rhythm.
After presentation students can practice their new rhythm with a few form and part-work exercises. My second graders are learning this right now and having so much fun!!
Another "must-have" on my list are my Kindergarten Comparatives cards!
These cards are perfect for the visual representation lesson of each unit. I call them my "Super Secret Spy Cards" and we pretend like we have secret codes to send each other (Thanks Lauren Bain for this idea!).
I ham it up a bit and put on my Mission Impossible theme song and pass out two cards to each student (one high/one low, etc.). Then, I sing one of our known songs in one of the voices (high or low, fast or slow, loud or soft) and student show me the card that matches.
Some options for assessment include having one student at a time come up to the board and point to the correct card, or have students face the outside of the circle so they can't really see each others cards.
Pro-tip: Make the comparing cards the same color or it's very easy to cheat. Ha!
What's on your "must-have" list?
Let’s Connect!
Thank you so much for the shout out! I am so glad you are enjoying "Who Has Seen the Wind" and my Level 2 Bundle!
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