My youngest son is about to start an exciting new adventure in August. SCHOOL! As worried as I am that he won’t be ready for kindergarten, the more important question is, “Is kindergarten ready for Paxton?” Seriously! I’ve set out on a mission to have him as academically prepared for kindergarten as I possibly can. I’m excited to share our “Prepping for Kindergarten” journey with you this summer and for part one, we are exploring Prepping for Kindergarten with Hands-On Learning.
I’ve been a teacher for 10 years. I’ve taught Kindergarten pull out through 4th grade. As much experience and flexibility as I have had, one product or company that is always in my classroom would be ETA hand2mind VersaTiles.
Why would I incorporate the same tools into all of these grade levels?
- hands-on
- self assessing
- easy to differentiate
- engaging
- fast paced
The list could go on and on. So when I was contacted by the company, I quickly requested materials that I could use with my son as we prep for kindergarten. I was so excited to find this huge box of goodies waiting for me! Seriously! LOOK at all of these amazing manipulatives and games?
Paxton was as excited as I was! This pack is the Hands-On Standards, Number & Operations, Grade K, Small-Group Kit!
The first things that caught his eye were the frogs and the tens frame that looks like an egg carton. Paxton is obsessed with learning to add. While he can only recognize numbers 0-5 right now, he can count and do basic addition to 10 on his fingers. We immediately started with addition facts and even building patterns. He loves the bright frogs! I added a couple of dice to step the game up a notch.
We also gave the Ready! Set! Match! game a try. He loved this game and even challenged his older brother to a battle. I really like that it adds the number words to the mix We plan on making our own cards to go through 20 this summer to extend our learning a bit.
The Rekenreks were a lot of fun as well. We pulled the number cards from the Ready! Set! Match! game to use. This was also great for continued practice for counting to 20. Let’s face it, those teen numbers get us!
Of all the goodies in my kit, this is where my heart is! I love VersaTiles and now Paxton does as well. I’ve always preferred the kindergarten cases over the upper grades ones because of the clear window to see your pattern. ETA has now redesigned all their cases to have this feature! YAY! For our first attempt with using the cases, I was pretty proud at how quickly he caught on. This is really going to help our counting, but also our number recognition as well. What I love about VersaTiles on top of all of the points I listed above is that you can make your own worksheets! This makes the products meet the needs of your students or your own children.
Paxton gave it a go alone while I cooked supper. As soon as he finished, he said, “Uh oh, Mama. I missed it because the pattern isn’t right.” How awesome is that? He then went back and complete the page again. For a child not even in school, that is a pretty mature response and desire to learn. We are off to an awesome start with our “Prepping for Kindergarten” activities with the help of ETA hand2mind! AND they want to help you out as well! Want to win a small group kit for your classroom? Enter below! Must be in the US to win and you pick your grade level kit!
Click here to enter: a Rafflecopter giveaway
