Useful Tools and Resources I Have Found Along The Way
California EEI
California Education and the Environment Initiative
This resource is for K-12 educators who are interested in teaching environmental awareness, understanding of California native plants, animals, and cultures, and environmental care and protection. The best part? They will send you ridiculously awesome free resources. All you have to do is watch an introduction video to learn about their program, and they'll send you two free units. Units include:
- Common Core and NGSS-aligned, content-based curriculum
- Word wall vocabulary cards with color photographs
- Large color photographs for class discussion
- Lessons that encourage critial thinking and allow students to explore and observe their environment
- High-quality color student workbooks and readers for your entire class
- Beautiful posters that align to instruction
Jack Hartmann's Kids Music Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/JackHartmann/playlists
TK-1st Education, Exercize, and Fun
My Kindergarten students can't get enough of Jack Hartmann. He incorporates music and exercise for anything involving rote memory, from skip counting to phonics. We use his videos for daily math warm-ups, but we have also used them for phonics skills and brain breaks. Here are a few video recommendations from his channel.
Zoo Phonics
TK-K Letters and Letter Sounds, Multisensory Approach
As a new Kindergarten teacher, Zoo Phonics was a life saver! Each letter has an animal and a movement associated to help students learn their letter sounds. The visual and kinesthetic aspect help all students access the material in a fun engaging way. I ended up purchasing some materials from their website, but I also found free resources on YouTube. Here are links to some of my favorites.
- Zoo Phonics: We can name letters and say their sounds! - I used this video daily at the beginning of Kindergarten to teach students the letter names and sounds.
- Who Let the Letters Out - After the students learned the zoo phonics movements, we used this video for practice. They absolutely loved it.