Resources for the Kindergarten Class 

Tools

ABRACADABRA
ABRA is a free, interactive web-based literacy program developed by the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP). It is designed for early elementary school-aged students, their educators, teachers and parents. The first levels of ABRACADABRA  are appropriate for Kindergarten children and can be used in conjunction with a teacher's other approaches to literacy development.  Currently ABRA contains 32 alphabetic, fluency, comprehension and writing activities linked to 17 interactive stories and stories written by schoolchildren.

While the complete version of ABRACADBRA (ABRA) is available as part of the CSLP’s Learning Toolkit, which contains the electronic portfolio EPearl and must be stored locally on a server at the school board or educational centre, a lighter version of ABRA is available at http://abralite.concordia.ca .

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Those who work with children are seduced by the simplicity of LopArt , as well as by the originality and creativity it allows. Whether it is used during free-time or for structured learning activities and projects, LopArt is a highly stimulating learning tool. It offers more than exceptional, yet simple and intuitive drawing/painting tools.  It gives access to an on-line gallery as well as the possibility of creating postcards which the children could send to their friends and family, helping you to connect to their real world.

For educators, the site offers learning activities for all levels of elementary education.  The activities are in line with the Québec Education Programme's philosophy and approaches.

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Practical ideas and resources

100th day of school celebration activities
Celebrating the 100th day of school is one of the many themes you can use to create significant learning activities for the kindergarten class. Find new ideas.
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Homemade instruments by Nancy Stewart
Nancy Stewart is a singer and songwriter,  In this page of her site she shares how to make musical instruments with the children from everyday items.  She also suggests activities to do with these instruments.
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Bingo Board Maker
This free  3x3 and 4x4 bingo board maker allows you to create bingo boards for a great variety of vocabulary. You can select images from a list of 1,000s of images. So, you can choose to create bingo game boards for all types of contexts and learning situations.
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Preschool4All
The creation of teacher and mother, Zehavit Meltzer, the site offers a collection of meaningful preschool activities for all children whether they are learning at home, attending daycare or are part of a school program. It offers three entry points: the preschooler, the parent and the educator.
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Image collections

Respecting copyright is important.  Here are images that you can use in your projects, your web pages, your documents and your communications.

Image and Sound collection from the RÉCIT du préscolaire

A list of copyright-free collections, including the images from the Grand Monde du Préscolaire, offered by the Service national à l'éducation préscolaire.

Image collection from the CS Laval RÉCIT

A collection of pictures on popular themes.

Picto

A collection that can be used by students for their projects, whether in paper, electronic or web form.

Books

ECE Science: More Than Dead Leaves and a Magnifying Glass!
An excerpt from Tonya Wright's blog "Room to Grow: Making Early Childhood Count!" in which she has listed my some of her favorite Science books for early childhood educators.
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Book of the day Activities
The author of this blog post offers says: " When I taught Kindergarten and Prekindergarten, I dedicated the whole month of September to “ Getting to Know Us.” I didn’t worry about teaching letters, numbers, or shapes because my primary goal was to have my classroom be a happy and functional place. [...] We have to help our students become independent members of our classroom societies. In order to do this, we have to learn the rules and how to treat each other. Here are a few books and activities that are good reads in those first couple of weeks of school!"
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Predictable Books
"Predictable books make use of rhyme, repetition of words, phrases, sentences and refrains, and such patterns as cumulative structure, repeated scenes, familiar cultural sequences, interlocking structure and turn-around plots. These stories invite children to make predictions or guesses about words, phrases, sentences, events and characters that could come next in the story." This site offers a commented and organised list.
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Videos for the classroom

VodZone Videos (Video-On-Demand) listed by the competency for which they could be used. List Compiled by Ann Quesnel, GRICS.

• VodZone instructions
• Competency 1 videos
• Competency 2 Videos
• Competency 3 Videos
• Competency 4 Videos
• Competency 5 Videos
• Complete list in one document

Share your favourite resource

Do you know something we don't?  Do you have a resource - book, CD, site, article, document, or your very own good idea - you like?  Please let your colleagues know.  Just contact us here to tell us about it.