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

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

Managing Math Expectations and Math Materials ~ Ep. 113

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

A Kindergarten Social Studies Unit: Families ~ Ep. 111

Honest Talk on Handling Teacher Burnout and Difficult Students ~ Ep. 110

PODCAST

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...

Honest Talk on Handling Teacher Burnout and Difficult Students ~ Ep. 110

Classroom Management

Apple Spotify Amazon Music You can only do so much because your job is to help the classroom of students. You have to help the whole classroom. And this was something I learned the hard way as well.~ Zeba from Episode 110 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary Some years...

Kindergarten Case Study: Supporting Students With Big Emotions ~ Ep. 109

PODCAST

Apple Spotify Amazon Music We are more than teachers, as you know, we do so much more. But one of our biggest jobs is actually detective, because behavior is communication. When kids are misbehaving or having big behaviors, they are trying to communicate with us.~ Zeba from Episode 109...

How to Teach Emotional Intelligence in Kindergarten ~ Ep. 108

PODCAST

Apple Spotify Amazon Music It's super important to spend time explicitly teaching kids what the different feelings are, how to identify them, and then strategies they can try when they're feeling that way, and then giving them time to practice those strategies.~ Zeba from Episode 108 of The Kindergarten...

Creating Meaningful Parent-Teacher Partnerships ~ Ep. 107

PODCAST

Apple Spotify Amazon Music The biggest complaint that I get from parents at conferences is that their kids don't talk to them about what they're doing in school.~ Zeba from Episode 107 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast Episode Summary If you've ever wondered how to build better communication and trust with...

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...