Fall Trees and a Pumpkin

Today we finished up our fall trees.  We used the same pattern as our apple trees, but use red, yellow, and orange to make fall leaves.  I call up to four kids at a time to a table to paint while the rest of the class is working and playing at traditional kindergarten centers.  This is what we do the last 30 minutes of the day and it allows time to do individual assessments and to get everyone packed up to go home.

So last week we did a class pumpkin.  Every class did one and they were auctioned off at our Fall Carnival.  Well we kind of ran out of time to really spend time on our pumpkin so I thought we should do something simple.

Presenting.... Our Pumpkin

It's "pumpkin pie."

These are the things I come up with when I am under a time crunch.  Lol!  I wonder if they were able to make money off my pumpkin.  I didn't glue anything down, so they could have carved anything they wanted.  I missed out carnival because I fell asleep and woke up the next afternoon.  No kidding.  I couldn't believe that I was that tired and my son didn't bother waking me up on a Saturday.

In other news (I always wanted to say type that.), I have had this little organizer sitting on my desk and I have been wondering what I should do with it.  Any ideas?  Leave your comments below.

Daily Deal Today!

I have a Daily Deal today on Teachers Notebook.  You can get my Fall Math and Literacy Center Fun pack at 40% off.  So today you can get it at $5.40.  This packet contains 6 literacy activities, 7 math activities and a bonus graphic organizer.
Here is what is inside:
*24 Clip It! Syllable Cards
*24 Clip It! Rhyming Cards
*26 Clip it! Alphabet Cards
*78 Alphabet Puzzle Pieces
*A letter/not letter sorting activity
*Trace, Build, Write Letters Mat and 26 alphabet tracing cards (scarecrow)
*Number Puzzles 1-10 (pumpkins)
*Build it! Ten Frames 1-10 (scarecrow)
*Match it! Ten Frames 0-20 (scarecrow)
*Link it! Number Order 1-25
*What Comes Next? Numbers
*Count and Graph Fall
*Trace, Build, Write Numbers with sorting mat and number cards 1-30 (scarecrow)
*Bonus Beginning, Middle, End graphic organizer (stars)

 

This packet has 111 pages.  I have a few new things that I am hoping to finish and upload tonight.  Be on the watch for them.  I will discount them for the first 3 days! 

 

I almost forgot!  Here is a picture of one of the math centers being used in my classroom.

 

Look at What We Have Been up to

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We have been working on patterns.  I gave everyone some bear counters and they used them to create color patterns.  Here is a look at some of those patterns:

 

We read The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid and sorted buttons with our sorting trays.

 

I started a new listening center.  That is one cool little headphone jack!  It can connect up to 5 headphones.  I love that the CD player is portable and I can have my listening center anywhere in my room.  I have been working on recording my own CDs to go with books that I have in my classroom.  I record the books using my lap top and a bell so students know when to turn the page.  Then it is easy to burn a CD.  You can use the recording device on your IPhone too and download it into ITunes to burn a CD.



We worked on writing and building numbers this week.  I just uploaded this center activity to my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook stores.  It is part of my Fall Math and Literacy Center Fun! packet.

 

This is one of the games that came with our Math program, Everyday Math.  I used it as a station/center this week.

We looked for shapes in magazines and created shape collages.  Here is a picture of the triangle collage.  We added to the collage during our math stations.

 

 

We stamped shapes this week during math stations too!

 

 

A few weeks ago, we made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees with our names.  I thought I should take a picture before I sent them home. :)

 

 

I purchased a few new toys for my room! ;)  Notice the megaphone.  Lol, it comes in handy on the playground.  They can't ignore me any longer when I have to remind them that we go one at a time down the slide.

 

Here is my new fall packet!  Check it out!

 

 

 

 

Hanging Art and Painting Leaves

It seems that every teacher I know is always struggling to hang up artwork and classwork.  It seems we never have enough wall space or bulletin boards.  Last year, I came up with the idea to use a binder clip with a Stikki Clip.  I was frustrated that I had to use more that one Stikki Clip to hang up papers, one at the top and one at the bottom.  So I stuck a small binder clip in the Stikki Clip and attached it to the wall.  Can we intelligent ;)!  Here is what it looks like.  I took this of one hanging outside my classroom in the hall.

I also have some classwork hung up with clothespins that are hot glued to the wall.  I didn't hot glue them to the wall, but I know who did and I'm not tell.  They hold work up too, but they are not easily removed and repositioned. 

If you notice, I also have a strip that I can hang work on too, but it's just not enough to hang everyone's work up.  Do you like our fall leaves?  My students did a little finger painting with red, yellow, and orange.  Then I gave them a leaf cut out to trace.  After they traced the leaf, they cut it out and I hung it up.  Kinders love to finger paint and I was surprised at the many that had never done finger painting until we did these leaves.  That just means we need to paint more often. 

So next week we go to school Monday - Wednesday and then we are off for Thanksgiving.  I know many of you get the entire week off.  Let's just say I am a little jealous, but I do have a lot that I will be doing with my class and one thing we are doing is taking a field trip to a nursing home and singing Thanksgiving songs and rhymes to the people there.  We have a lot of practice left to do on our singing and we are dressing up as Native Americans.  We are tie dying shirts brown for this, and we are making some pretty patterned necklaces.  We have already made our headdress which I have already posted about.  We just need to add some feathers. 

I also like to do a pilgrim costume and let the kids eat lunch with them on.  More on that later.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!

Seasonal Sensory Tables

I have been changing my sand and water tables to match the season and the themes.  I know it's a little late, but I here is my Halloween themed sand table.  I put rice in the table and Halloween toys.  All the toys came from the Dollar Tree except the mini pumpkins and the couldrons.  They came from Michael's.

Today, I changed out both tables.  I left rice in the red table and added some silk fall leaves and a few styrofoam gourds that I purchased at the Dollar Tree.  I finally removed the split peas from my clear table and added brown beans, foam leaves, and stryofoam gourds in different colors.  I also added some new scoops and a few scarecrows.

I would love to see what other people are doing in their classrooms to add to the season.  Feel free to shoot me a comment and tell me about it.  Maybe I have inspired you to change out your sand table or to even create one at home for your own children.