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.

Freebie Friday and I am Featured!

Yay!  I was featured on Teaching Blog Addict!  Check out this week's link up to get great freebies from fellow bloggers!

Here is what we have been doing this week.

I really challenged my students this week during our guided reading time with a little rhyming cvc word bingo.  Talk about challenging!  Most of my kiddos could do this without any problems and it was more challenging for them.  I have about 3 kids out of 16 who really struggled and still need work on sounding and blending.  We will be playing this more.  This is from my Thanksgiving Small Group Reading Activities pack.  Click the picture to learn more about the pack.

We have been working on our writing.  The students dictated sentences to me about leaves.  Next week I will cut up their sentences on strips of paper and give it to them to put back together.  They will glue their sentence onto a piece of paper and illustrate.  We will use our illustrated sentences to make a class book about leaves.

We also wrote about bats.  I love some of the words they gave me for this chart!  Did you know that bats have a predator other than humans?  They are called cave crickets.  They look like a granddaddy long legs to me.  When a bat smacks against a cave wall and injures itself, the cave crickets will swarm around it and eat the bat.  Interesting?  Isn't it?  I learned that on a cave tour years ago so if you ever go spelunking, beware of the cave cricket.

My lovely assistant was absent today and I had a sub assistant.  She told me at the end of the day that she was really impressed with the reading ability of my class.  She hasn't been in a kindergarten class that is reading like mine.  It made me one proud teacher!  It made me think, what am I doing that is different from the other teachers?  I know what it is.  It's a little strategy that I use daily that I learned when I taught in a Reading First school.  I still use it the first 5 minutes of every day.  I'll share more about it tomorrow. ;)

This week, I made a new listening log.  You can get it here for free!  Just click the picture below.  Happy Friday!

Thanksgiving I-Spy Freebie

I survived Halloween 2013!!!  It wasn't that bad, but I will say having parents and kids in costumes for a Halloween celebration can be hectic!  I wish I took pictures this week of some of the things we have been doing, but my phone camera doesn't seem to be working correctly so I dug out my "regular" camera and I will be back to snapping pictures next week.

This week we studied bats and spiders.  Did I tell you I have a student in my class who likes to bring me spiders!?  Ummm, your teacher hates spiders kid!  Bring me a puppy, kitten, snake, but please don't bring me a spider.

We made a can, have, are chart about bats and the students wrote a sentence using the chart.  I also gave them a little bat drawing lesson.  They think I should be an art teacher.  Lol!  I have also been told this week that I should be a music teacher.  That is more likely to happen than an art teacher.  I can read music and I do play a clarinet and an alto clarinet.  

Back to the bats.  My students learned some new vocabulary this week.  When we were creating our chart, I heard words like mammal, echolocation, and nocturnal.  Oh, this makes a teacher proud!  Let's hope those words stick.

I started working on this little freebie yesterday with the intention of posting it yesterday, but then I started watching television with the hubs so it didn't happen.  Here it is now!  Click the picture below to grab your freebie and thanks for stopping by.  Oh, by the way, I'm having a sale in both of my shops this weekend.  All items are 20% off through Monday.
Teachers Pay Teachers    Teachers Notebook 

What are topics are you studying this month?  Leave me a comment below and let me know!

Word Family Spiders

I finally took a picture with my IPhone of our word family spiders.  Ever since I updated my IPhone software, the camera only works 40% of the time.  The most annoying part is that I can no longer change songs using my car radio.  How safe is it to change your song with the phone?  It still comes through the speakers and the phone part works.  Apple, if you hear me, fix this issue ASAP or I'm switching to an Android!!!

Here is a picture of our spiders.

The -ig word family.

The -at word family.

We talked about two word families this week, -ig and -at.  I let them pick the word family and the words from the ones that we listed on the board.

If you are wondering how I explain word families, I relate it to their families.  I explain that word families end with the same letters and it's like a last name.  Just like they have a last name that tells who their family is.  Then I explain that the first letters are like a first name and they are different, just like family members have different first names.  They seems to understand and recognize word families quickly.  They also realize that they rhyme.

Tomorrow is our Halloween Celebration!  I love Halloween because of the free candy that I steal from my child my gives to me.  I am the official household candy thief!  Oh, I'm sure I'm not the only parent who does this when no one is protecting looking at the candy.

If you are wondering where I got the word family spider craftivity, it came from Susan Moran Jones-TGIF.  It's a freebie from her store.  Thank you Susan!

What are your plans for Halloween tomorrow?  I'm going trick-or-treating with my family.

Freebie Friday!!!

It's Friday so you know what that means.  Friday freebie!  This week's freebie is a number the room activity.  My students had so much fun writing the room that I thought we would number the room next week.  I know many people do this as a center activity, but I did it whole class last week since I had two grades in my room at one time.  Yes, you heard that right.  I don't usually have two grades so luckily I had printed out a differentiated write the room activity from my new Write the Room CVC Words and Pictures pack.  It was a true lifesaver!  You can learn more about this pack by clicking the picture below.

Here's a look at the cards.  

Look how engaged everyone is!

I also received my Elf on the Shelf with the new Birthday book and outfit free!  I was one of the first so many (can't remember the number) of teachers to register on their website.  I can't wait to use this in my classroom throughout the month of December and for student birthdays!

Please excuse the bad pic, my flash would not cooperate and I usually use my IPhone.  I really need to find my camera and take it to school.

Thanks for stopping by.  You can grab your freebie by clicking the pic below.  I would love to hear from you.  Leave me a comment below and let me know what you would like me to blog about next.

Friday Freebie on a Saturday

I fell asleep as soon as I got home yesterday.  I can't believe I slept that long!  I'm also excited to say that I'm a dot com now!  Check it!  Just type www.lessonplansandlollipops.com.  I think it's super cool!  I learned to follow directions and make it work too.  Well I have had a super busy week and I didn't have much to share.  Sorry about that, but next week is more promising.  Oh and my retired aide is subbing next week for my wonderful new aide.  I miss her, but she is happy in retirement land.  We still go out for dinner from time to time so it's all good. 

Today, I made a word building activity to use with my kids this week during guided reading.  I color coded each set of letter card so they are easy to sort and the kids can keep them separated easier.  I also included a work mat for them to make the words on.  This is a CVC word making activity with teacher directions.  The cards are cute little candy corn which is perfect for this time of the year.  All you have to do is print out the letter card and a work mat for each student.  Laminate and cut apart to make them last.  I like to store my letter cards sorted by color in individual baggies.  Then I put all the small baggies in a larger baggie or page protector.  I also put each of the work mats in a page protector and store everything in a 3 ring binder.  If you click the picture below, you can grab your freebie.  Before you go, leave me a comment and let me know if you would like to see more activities like this.  Thanks a bunch!

New Blog Look, My Guided Reading Tub, and a Freebie

I love my new blog look!  To celebrate the new look, I have a little Halloween Ten Frame Freebie for all my followers.  I also want to share what's inside my guided reading tub.

Here is what my tub looks like.  I have it stuffed full of things for this week.

I bought the smaller whiteboards in the Target dollar spot, but I have also seen them at the Dollar Tree.  These fit inside the container nicely and I no longer have to get up and get my larger whiteboards.

I have my sight words to review at the beginning of my guided reading lesson.  I review sight words with my students at least 3 times a day.  I have multiple copies of the sight words so I don't have to search for them.  I have a set everywhere that I am sitting/standing to review.

This week, I have smaller copies of my sight words and a few CVC words in baggies for the students to build sentences.

I have my pointer fingers and the books that I will use with my groups.  The students love using the fingers to point to the words.  I do take them away at one point in the year because brain research shows that students need to be able to track with their eyes because we actually look at more than one word when we are reading.

These are my whiteboard erasers.  I bought microfiber washcloths at the Dollar Tree and cut them into four pieces.  The work wonderfully and they are cheap so I can't go wrong there.  The bonus is that I can wash them too.

Now to get my Halloween Ten Frame Freebie click the picture below.

I almost forgot.  I'm linking up with Table Talk with C and C for a Fall/Halloween Giveaway!

This is a huge giveaway!  There are over 25 products!  One of my products are included in the giveaway as well.  Click the linky pic to check it out.

Freebie Friday!

Happy Friday!  I survived the week after being off all last week.  I am exhausted!  I am keeping this post short tonight.  Here is the freebie I promised last night.  It's a set of ten frame number puzzles in neon pink and green for numbers 0-20.  Just click one of the pictures.  Enjoy!