HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

"My class is so low!  I don't even know where to start!  Can you help me?" This is a question that I often get asked via email, so I thought that I would go ahead and post this reply as on my blog, just in case anyone else has the same question.   I hope that at least a few of you will find it helpful. The idea for this frame came from the blog here!   We think we are going to do something similar for Mother's Day. Question: "I teach Kindergarten.  Love everything you have and have seen you at the Indiana K Conference before.  I haven't bought some activities in the past because my classes usually come in knowing all or most of the letters and sounds. This year I have one child who reads at a higher level....so I'm working on her plan.  The rest of the class is low to average.  Some of my low kids don't know any of their letters or numbers.  They can't identify their names.  They really need a lot of basic support and you...

Hello, everyone!  This week I am going to tell you what my lesson plans were for the first week of Kindergarten.  Each week, my lesson plans will be aligned with the free  Pacing Guide that I posted a few years ago and have been updating yearly.  I hope that will find this post useful, particularly those of you that are new to Kindergarten! When you look at my lesson plans, keep in mind that we are on a half day kindergarten schedule for the first four weeks, from 8:15 – 11:35.  After that, we teach from 8:15 – 1:20 until the end of the second trimester at the end of March.  Then, during the last trimester, the children stay for a full day, from 8:15 – 2:15.   This is just the first two weeks of my Pacing Guide, but if you check it against my lesson plans, you can see that I am teaching the same concepts this week that are on it. So here we go!  I’ll include links to other blog posts or my web page if there is more informatio...

Today I am excited to share a  Pete the Cat Match Sets freebie , and also to tell you about my Wiggles book, “Wiggles’ First Day of School.”   We have been working hard all summer with one of our wonderful illustrators, Laurel Lane, trying to get this new book just right, and I love the way it came out!  And the Pete the Cat freebie is a good one! More details to follow below. Real quick, how cute is this First Day of School frame idea???? My old job share partner made it for us!! ( She made the frame from this idea here !) “Wiggles’ First Day at School” Remember the first Wiggles story that we published in August, 2011?  It was called Wiggles Learns the Rules at School , and the purpose of that story was to help the class learn some basic school rules.  (Check my blog entry here for more on this one!)  The second story was called, Wiggles Learns to Pay Attention , which was to help teach children the habits that help them pay attention and ...

I was delighted when I received an email in which I was asked to review ETA Hand2Mind Versatiles Readiness product!   I have seen this neat teaching tool at conferences over the years and have even taken home a few free samples to try out!  Years ago, I tried them out with my class, and I have been drooling over them ever since!  If my class had had any budget at all, I would have happily bought a set for them to use as an independent center. So it was with great pleasure that I readily agreed to try out and review the Versatiles Readiness Kit!   When I received the kit in the mail, I was glad to see that there was a variety of books included that covered all of the basic subject areas.  It also starts out easy enough for all children to complete, such as simple letter and word matching for Kindergartners and Pre-Kinders.   Versatiles Readiness Kit for Pre-K and Kindergarten- the GIVEAWAY includes this entire kit!!!! The kit includes boo...