Tie Dye, a Freebie, and Looking Ahead

I took a small break from blogging this past week.  I had a lot going on at school and at home.  Well I'm back to tell you what we have been up to.

We did a little finger painting last week.  I put red and yellow paint on the paper and the students mixed the colors.  I gave each student a leaf to trace and cut out.  These turned out cute.  I'll have to remember to take a picture of the finished product tomorrow.

We learned about pandas and made a can, have, are chart about pandas.  The students used the chart to help them write about pandas.  We worked on writing 3 sentences about pandas.  One sentence for each section of the chart.  We also watch an online panda cam which was so cute.  We even found video that was taken of panda twins and how they changed in the first 100 days.  We loved the video so much that we watched it twice and invited the neighboring class over for the second viewing.  You can go here to check out the video.  Pandas are 100 days old before they get their name.

We made Indian Native American costumes last week.  Each student brought in a t-shirt and I took them home to tie dye brown.  I was told by the other K teachers that I did fancy tie dying.  Check out my fancy work below.

 After the shirts were dyed, we cut fringe on the bottom and the sleeves.  We added a paper and ribbon belt that the students decorated along with our headdress and our patterned bead necklace.  We worked on patterns while making the necklaces.  Last year we strung pasta, but this year we used pony beads.  I had a lot of pony beads in my cabinet so I thought we should use them.

 My new Smart Board was installed last Friday.  I am happy to have a Smart Board that works properly.  My last one had issues.  Oh, did I mention that I also got a new laptop?!  Now I don't have to worry about the virus the last one had.  Russian videos kept popping up.  At least I think they were speaking Russian.

 My wonderful principal walked in today carrying these echo mics.  I have 24 for of them now.  It so weird that he bought them for use because I was talking about them last week and how I use to have one to do my daily weather report with.  Now I just need to figure out how I am going to use 24 of them.  If you have ideas, please share them with me in a comment below.  I'm begging.

 Before I left school today, I got out my December books.  This is just a few of my books.  I actually have another tub of holiday books and more at home, but these are the ones I plan on using for the month of December.  Above you will see Hanuka.  Below you will see a stack of Christmas books.  The stack is bigger than it looks.

I only have three Kwanzaa books, but I plan on adding to this collection and my Hanuka collection too.  One more day of work and then I am off for Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow is a half day for the students.  If you are already beginning your December plans, then check out this freebie I posted last year.  Just click the picture below to get your freebie!

Oh yeah, I updated my Gingerbread Math and Literacy Centers pack and my Christmas Fun Literacy and Math Activities.

December Crafts

It's been a while since my last post.  Time sure does fly!  I have spent my entire holiday break ill.  :(  I have finally decided to post the crafts that my students made during the month of December.  I know it's too late for anyone to make them this year, but you can pin this page and make them next year.

We started off the month by making these cute footprint trees.  I try to make something with footprints or handprints each month.  I think it's a good record of how much students grow during the year.

Then we started making ornaments out of cinnamon dough.  These ornaments smell great and take a few days to air dry.  We painted the cinnamon ornaments with glue and sprinkled them with glitter.  We also made reindeer ornaments out of craft sticks.  I gave each student a brown marker to color their craft sticks.

After all this ornament making, we made large swirly ornaments to hang in our classroom.  To make the swirls, fill a paper plate with shaving cream.  Add a few drops of paint.  Give students a craft stick to swirl the paint in the shaving cream and then press the cutout or shape onto the shaving cream and remove.  Scrap off the shaving cream and you have paint swirls left on the paper.

Last is a craft that my students made with the librarian.  I just thought they were cute and I ended up assisting with this during my planning.  I do that sometimes.  I go in early and end up helping.  I actually don't mind.

 

Now that 2012 is coming to an end, I have began thinking about my goals for 2013.  My number one goal is to get more organized at home.  It seems that I have one idea where things belong and my hubby as another idea.  We need to get on the same page and get with the program if we ever want to get ourselves organized.  My classroom could use a little more organizing too since I moved into a different room this year.  Let's just say I am the happiest ever teaching at my new school, but I do miss my old friends.

 

My number one school goal for 2013 is to focus more on writing.  I just don't feel like I am giving it my all when it comes to teaching students to write.  I will be looking for new ways to add in some writing where I can.  If you have any ideas, I would love to hear from you so leave me a comment and Happy New Year!

Tuesday Tidbits

It's a new month and I am changing out my sensory tables.  Today, I scooped out all the beans and rice that I had in my sensory tables and I added fake snow to one.  This is the kind of snow that you buy for a Christmas village and it is sooo cheap.  Only $2.50 for a large bag at Wal-Mart.  Yes, I broke down after 6 months and went to Wal-Mart.  I only went because I couldn't find this stuff in the other stores nearby.  Here is what the empty package looks like if you want to go pick some up to use in your classroom.

 

So the photo is giving me fits.  Sorry it's sideways.  I bought three bags of this stuff to fill my sensory table.

 

I plan to add some holiday stuff in with the snow.  I'll have to take a pic and repost later.  I was in a hurry to get to an appointment after school so this is as far as I got today.

 

I have changed the center activities that my students are working on this week to fit in with the holiday season.  This first center is one of the freebies here on my blog.  It the Penguin Color Word Match.  Students match the color word to the color.  This can be played as a concentration type game or use them as an assessment to see which color words students recognize.  If you missed the post, here is the link.

 

Another center this week is a gingerbread word family sort.  This is from my Gingerbread Math and Literacy Centers packet.  You can get it in my TPT or TN store.

 



I also have my Ten Frames puzzles out this week for my students to practice ordering numbers.  It is also from my Gingerbread Math and Literacy Centers packet.

 

I have one last thing to share.  I bought a few things at the Dollar Tree recently.  The books are dry erase and allow students to practice writing words, letters, shapes, and numbers.  The cards are matching games.  One of the games makes a picture when you have the correct match.

 

 

Yeah, for some reason the pic will only upload upside down.  Well when I figure out how to fix that, I will.  I even flipped it on my computer, but it still shows up like this.  That's what I get for taking pics with my phone. :)  It's almost as bad as spell check.  Well, I hope I have given you some new ideas.  What kind of centers are you doing this week?

 

One last thing, Tips for Top Teachers is having a giveaway and this one's HOT!  Not only are they giving away lots of classroom teaching materials, but one lucky winner will win a Nook!  Check it out and enter yourself to win.

 

 

 

Santa Sight Words Game Freebie

I went shopping online this week and I bought a few things on Cyber Monday at Teachers Pay Teachers.  One of the things I bought this week was "It's Calendar Time!  Daily Calendar Book" by Growing Kinders.  You can purchase this item here.  I have been looking for a way to keep a few of my students more engaged during calendar time so I thought doing a calendar book would be a great solution to this.  I'll let you know how it goes as I plan to start this in December.

After reading Smedley's Smorgasboard post this week, I learned where he got his great hat projects from so I popped over to Teachers Notebook and bought "Alphabet Phonics Headbands" from The Moffatt Girls.  You can see it here.  We made the letter R headband today.  My students loved them!  I also purchased "Phonics Watches" from them and my students LOVED these!  I was a little skeptical about the watches at first, but I haven't seen my students this excited about anything in a while.  I even had to repair a few that got torn off.  They did not want these to fall of and they did the best coloring ever!  You can check them out here.

Ok, so a little shopping has inspired me to make a new freebie.  I just finished creating a sight word game for my students to play during reading groups.  I used 66 words from the first 100 Fry words list.  Many of these words are also in the Scott Foresman Reading Street units 1-3.  You can get your free copy here.  Enjoy!

What kind of activities do you have your students do during reading groups?  Which activities do they like doing the best?
 

December Planning and TPT Cyber Monday

I started planning out the month of December today.  There is so much that I want to do for the month.  My teammates are using the senses and the holidays as the themes for this month.  I want to add in Christmas Around the World and do their themes at the same time.  Who knows, they may want to do some of my stuff.  I'm new to my school this year if your wondering and I am loving kindergarten again.  Sometimes it seems we need to go on a little soul searching journey to figure out what we really want to do teach.  I tried out a few other grades and realized that I truly am a kindergarten teacher.

So for the month of December I am going to be teaching the following:

• Hanukkah
• Kwanzaa
• St. Lucia Day
• Las Posadas
• Christmas
• The Five Senses

I am going to be using my Gingerbread Math and Literacy Centers that you can get in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook store.  Tomorrow I am throwing a sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Everything is 20% off plus the additional percentage offered by TPT.  The last day for my Teachers Notebook sale is tomorrow.

I will also be using my Christmas Fun Literacy and Math Activities.  This item is also located in my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook stores.  This packet has a great snowman glyph with a data collection tally sheet and a mini-book.  There is a fingerprint Christmas tree craft, a syllable sort step book, a letter writing form, an emergent reader written by me, and more.  I do want to say that the snowman glyph can be purchased separately.

 

I hope everyone had a great break!  Happy shopping on Cyber Monday!  I know my wishlist is full. ;)

 

Snowman Glyph

I just added this to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and my Teachers Notebook store.

This is the snowman glyph from my Christmas Fun Literacy and Math Activities packet. I have included a the directions to create the snowman glyph along with the patterns that are needed. You will get the glyph key that can be displayed along with the finished student products. There is also a glyph mini data booklet, a form to write about the data, and pictures of examples.

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale

I'm throwing a sale today for Election Day!  All items in my Teachers Pay Teachers store are 10% off today and tomorrow.  This sale includes my Thanksgiving Fun Literacy and Math Activities and my Christmas Fun Literacy and Math activities.  I will be adding some new things soon.

Christmas Fun Math and Literacy Activities

I have been working hard on a new item to add to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and Teachers Notebook.  Check it out.  Here is the item description.

This packet contains the follow activities:

*Fingerprint Christmas tree craft with an original poem rhyme written by me.
*Roll and Color number word and color word recognition sheet and cube.
*Santa letter writing form
*Snowman Glyph, tally mark data sheets, and data mini book.
*Syllable Sort Step Book directions with photos and patterns.
*Christmas word building activity, letter tiles, and recording sheet with teacher directions.
*Christmas theme emergent reader written by me.

All the patterns needed are included and I have included photos of the finished product along with directions.