Welcome to Kindergarten Cafe!

I’m Zeba, and I’m here to help you find the *kindergarten magic* in your classroom. I create resources and share strategies to make your teaching easier, more engaging, and focused on those magical moments of growth with your students. Whether you teach kindergarten, preschool, or first grade, you’ll find ideas and activities to bring that *kindergarten magic* to life. Feel free to reach out—let’s make teaching kindergarten magical again!

recent

Top Strategies for Teaching Personal Space in Kindergarten ~ Ep. 118

Minimizing Disruptions During Kindergarten Small Groups ~ Ep. 117

Help Kids Move Beyond Labeling to Writing Sentences ~ Ep. 116

Kickstart the New Year with Growth Mindset Strategies ~ Ep. 115

A Developmental Approach to Teaching Writing with Melissa from Teaching to Transform ~ Ep. 114

Classroom Activities and Lessons

Help Kids Move Beyond Labeling to Writing Sentences ~ Ep. 116

Literacy

How to Help Kindergarten Students Transition from Labeling to Writing Full Sentences Teaching kindergarten writing sentences can be one of the most rewarding yet challenging parts of early education. Many students enter the classroom ready to share stories with enthusiasm, but when it's time to put those...

Kickstart the New Year with Growth Mindset Strategies ~ Ep. 115

Holidays

Apple Spotify Amazon Music You definitely want to one teach students about how our brains are working and why challenges and mistakes are important in the learning process and two you want to celebrate the effort that they're putting in and the progress that they're making and not just...

A Developmental Approach to Teaching Writing with Melissa from Teaching to Transform ~ Ep. 114

Literacy

Apple Spotify Amazon Music If you don't allow that independent time where they are showing you whether they want to write or not, showing you whether they draw pictures or not, if you don't allow that, you don't know what to teach them. You don't know what they're ready...

Managing Math Expectations and Math Materials ~ Ep. 113

Math

Apple Spotify Amazon Music Counting collections are an awesome way to give kids lots of extra accounting practice. And as they get going through the year, they can really work on showcasing how they are counting, how they're organizing their counters. It's a great way to get them to...

A Kindergarten Social Studies Year-Long Plan ~ Ep. 112

Classroom Activities and Lessons

Apple Spotify Amazon Music We zoom out to our local community, Then we zoom out even further to our global community. And we can use that as a launching off point for talking about how to take care of our global community, how to respect differences.~ Zeba from Episode...

A Kindergarten Social Studies Unit: Families ~ Ep. 111

PODCAST

Apple Spotify Amazon Music It's a great launching off point when you're talking about families to then talk about, well, some families have different religions, some families eat different food, things like that. ~ Zeba from Episode 111 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary Teaching about families in kindergarten is...

Kindergarten Small Groups for Teaching Letter Sounds ~ Ep. 106

Literacy

Apple Spotify Amazon Music This is your permission slip to be creative with the way your small groups are and that really small groups should be about targeting the skills your students need and practicing those skills.~ Zeba from Episode 106 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary Small groups don’t...

Kindergarten Case Study: Supporting Kindergarteners With No Letter Knowledge ~ Ep. 105

Literacy

Apple Spotify Amazon Music Don't panic if they don't know all their letters and sounds when they are first coming to kindergarten. It's okay because you are going to teach everyone letters and sounds.~ Zeba from Episode 105 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary It can feel overwhelming when a...

Teaching the Alphabet – 6 Things To Do with Each Letter w/ Droppin’ Knowledge with Heidi ~ Ep. 104

Literacy

Apple Spotify Amazon Music There's so much research supporting letter name knowledge and supporting it as also a predictor for later literacy learning.~ Heidi from Episode 104 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary If you're deep in the alphabet trenches like I am right now, this episode is for you....

Best Storage Solutions for Centers in Kindergarten ~ Ep. 103

Classroom Design

Apple Spotify Amazon Music I have tried many different ways to organize materials. I feel like I finally found a way that works for me.~ Zeba from Episode 103 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary Wondering how to manage all those center materials without creating chaos or drowning in bins...