What I Made Wednesday with a Giveaway

It's Hump Day!!! I know it's old but I just love that commercial!! It's the middle of the week in the middle of July. I have been reading on blogs and Instagram posts that many teachers are headed back to school in the next few weeks. I'm guessing it's the teachers who live on the West coast or in the Midwest, because teachers on the East coast rarely head back to school before Labor Day. Our district heads back in the end of August, but there have been rumblings of rumors that our state wants to make it a law that school can't start until after Labor Day. We'll see!!

I'm trying to get back into the school year frame of mind and have been working on some activities for the beginning of the school year. I recently finished up a new packet and thought today would be a great day to show it off!

In kindergarten we spend a lot of time focused on the letters of the alphabet. We learn everything we can about those letters. We spend time recognizing them by sight, including both the uppercase and lowercase versions. We practice writing the letters on paper with pencils and crayons. We focus on the sounds those letters make, and find words we know that begin with those sounds. The alphabet is a BIG DEAL in kindergarten, and I am always looking for new and engaging ways for my kinders to work on those letters!

This packet is centered around the alphabet with an animal theme. Each activity includes animals that begin with the letters of the alphabet, and students will not only get to practice identifying their letters but also learning words that begin with those letters. These activities would be perfect for small groups, substitutes, or for students to work on during Word Work rotations in Daily 5.

Here's an inside look at my newest creation!!

This could be a Write the Room activity, or you could put the cards into a bucket for students to pull out and find on their recording sheets. There are 4 different types of recording sheets, each focusing on writing the letters of the alphabet.

Puzzle-piece matching activity for the 'letter buddies', the matching uppercase and lowercase letters. To help students self-check, each piece has the same animal on it, a larger size on the uppercase piece and a smaller size on the lowercase piece. There are three different assessment sheets, focusing on different level of student ability.

A concentration-style activity, one set of cards is self-checking by having the matching letters on the card. There are assessment sheets where students must write the letter for the beginning letter of the animal pictured.

There are several different animal scenes, each with a matching recording sheets. Students use magnifying glasses to search each scene for the letters of the alphabet. Once they locate the letter, they can use a BINGO dauber to dot in the letter on the recording sheet.

This is a set of play-dough mats for every letter of the alphabet. Students can use the mats to help them form each letter from pieces of play-dough. Each mat features an animal whose name begins with the same letter.

Finally, there is a set of pages that are writing prompts. These pages can be used to create a class book. Each letter of the alphabet is represented with a writing prompt. This could be done as a small group activity in the beginning of the year, and students could practice copying from a model or sounding out their response. They are to finish the prompt with their name and the name of an animal that starts with the same first letter. For example, 'A is for Allyson and alligator'. Students can then illustrate their sentence by drawing themselves and their animal.

I am excited to use the activities in this packet during the first few weeks of school. If you would like a WIN a copy of this for yourself, enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below! I'll announce the winners this weekend.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This product will also be 50% OFF until Thursday!! You can grab one at it's lowest-ever price!! Don't worry, if you win one in the giveaway after buying it you can choose any other product of equal or lesser value in my store!! Click the image below to go to my TPT Store!

It's not too late to link up for Spotlight Saturday! This is a weekly linky party for a Teacher's Show and Tell of favorite products, activities, resources, ideas, classroom decor, tips and tricks, or anything else that you do in your classroom and want to show off!