E is for Elmer and Eggs!

Hello! We worked with the sound of short /e/ this week....so, of course, we had to read Elmer...it's one of my favorite books for letter "Ee."Usually, I have the children make a patchwork elephant to look like Elmer. This year, I decided to let them create their own elephant. I love the picture in the book where each of the elephants "dressed up" in honor of Elmer. They turned out really cute! I also gave them the option of making Elmer, if they wanted. I'm going to hang these up with the caption "Cherish what makes you unique!"

We also painted Easter eggs...we have all next week off for spring break, so we didn't have a chance to complete a lot of Easter activities. We will catch on them when we get back. Don't these eggs look beautiful? Each child painted two; we cut them out and glued them back to back to hang up in our classroom.

Thanks for checking in and have a great weekend!

V is for Volcano

Hello! Hope you're having a good week. Just wanted to share a little science we did this past week. We were working with the sound of letter "v" so we did the volcano experiment with baking soda and vinegar. It was awesome! Loved all of the squeals as the lava bubbled over the top! That's one of the things I love about teaching kindergarten!!

The children did this in groups of 2 or 3 and each child had a turn to pour in a little of the vinegar. (I did put red food coloring in the vinegar, but it doesn't show up well in the picture...) Thanks for checking in!

WOW: Work on Words Center: Updated!!

Hello! I can't believe a whole week has gone by since I posted our St. Patrick's Day projects. We have spring conferences next week...busy week ahead.  I also work part time at Hobby Lobby (LOVE that discount!) so that makes it doubly busy...anyway...I spent a little time after school working on my word work activities. I would like to say right at the start...none of these are my original ideas. I've seen them on Pinterest or found them on other great blogs from teachers who are generous about sharing their ideas.  Here's a pic of the center:

I have some puzzles, magnetic letters and sight word dice in the center.  We use the sight word dice for roll and color activities like this:

 I just take a clip art image and add a sight word to each space. The children roll the die and color the space to match.

Here is my version of what I am calling "Stack a word" as found here. (Looks like the original source has been removed from what I can see...) The children read the sight words and stack the squares...if the stack falls over, they start again. Simple but fun.

I also have my version of Word Doctor in the center. The children have to put the "bones" together to read the word and write them on the recording sheet. I saw the idea here first, but made my version using DJ Inkers clip art and words from our word wall.

It is stored in a school box type of container so it's small and portable, but everything fits inside.

I cannot remember the blog post for this idea for the life of me...I've been searching a little while to try to find it, but I know there are a lot of great word work ideas there...sorry! If I find it I will link to it! (Came across the link on pinterest...of course! Here is it!! Check out all of the great ideas in this post!)The children spin the top and record the word it lands on. I think the original post says they are supposed to graph and see which word reaches the top first, but I have them write the word on a recording sheet. (Dollar store cake pan and tops with a laminated word sheet taped in so I can change it.)

I saw these word frames on pinterest and thought they were great! I made my own version using DJ Inkers clip art. I laminated them and cut out a window for practicing words/reading.

I made 3 of them! You can download the frames here.

Stick with me...only 2 more things to share...I have about 20 small containers that contain sight words, made out of foam letters. The children have to take the letters out of the container and figure out which word wall word it is. I also have a recording sheet, so they don't have to do all of the containers, they just write the number of the ones they did.

 I am using a small Target dollar spot pocket chart for this partner activity...I'm sure you've done or seen a version of this...one child hides 6 bones behind the dogs (DJ Inkers clip art again). His/her partner tries to find all six bones by reading a word and checking to see if there's a bone behind it. They have to read the word first! Sometimes they forget that part!!! Anyway...they love it and do it over and over.

Ok; I guess I lied...I actually have one more thing to share...these are sight word pointers and are great for finding sight words in books. The children choose a pointer and look for that word as they read. I printed the words on colored cardstock stars and taped them to straws. They've lasted a couple of years! Simple and oh so easy to make! I've included a template of blank stars if you'd like to make your own!

...as always thanks for checking in on my little corner of the kindergarten world. Have a great day!

St. Patrick's Day Eve

Since there isn't school on the actual St. Patrick's Day, we did our "celebrating of the green" today!
Here are a few of the things we did:

1. This is a 10 frame activity...the children choose a shamrock and dot the matching number with a bingo marker on the response sheet.

2. This is the Write the Room 2 activity from Mrs. Ricca's freebies I posted about earlier in the week. AWESOME! The kids loved doing this!

3. We had Lucky Charms for snack...we didn't do any graphing with them...just enjoyed eating them!

4. We read Leprechaun on the Loose and graphed whether or not we'd like to catch a leprechaun. The children wrote in their journals..."If I caught a leprechaun..."

We also made hats, but I didn't catch a photo of them...it was a fun day! Thanks for checking in and have a great weekend!

Looking for some St. Patrick's Day centers??

Wow! If you are looking for some printable St. Patrick's Day centers...check this out!!

You can find these math and literacy centers here for FREE! They are awesome! A BIG thank you to Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten for sharing!!!!!

Thanks!!

Just a quick note to say a big THANK YOU to Apples and ABC's for nominating my blog for this award!

It's been a busy week; my school had kindergarten round up last night and I have not had time to  complete my list of blogs to pass on this award...but I promise I will do it soon! Thanks again and visit Apples and ABC's for some more great ideas!!

Counting Boxes

Hello! At one of the first Shari Sloane workshops I attended several years ago, she shared an idea using "counting boxes" and I've seen similar ideas online since then. Here's a little info on what I do... I have a treasure chest of "gems" (aquarium rocks...I think...but they were donated to me several years ago...so I call them gems) and a box of buttons for the children to practice counting. (I like them to group the items by tens when counting.) I made sheets to keep in the containers for them to record how many items they counted.

They have to write the total number, then the groups of 10 and how many more.
(Clip art by DJ Inkers)

Here are the sheets for counting buttons (clip art by DJ Inkers):

And this student did if perfectly:

Thanks for checking in and have a great weekend!

Tennis Shoe Ten Frames

We've been working on numbers to 20 in math. I wanted my class to practice numbers in the teens using 10 frames, and really get the idea that 16 is one group of 10 and 6 more. They worked on this tennis shoe 10 frame activity by coloring the tennis shoe to match and writing the number shown in the 10 frame, in the box next to it.

(Clip art by DJ Inkers.)

They also practiced ordering numbers in the teens with this butterfly activity. I printed 8 butterflies with numbers in the teens on them...used up some "extra" scrapbook paper.  They choose a butterfly, wrote the number in the square and the next 3 numbers on the lines. They had number lines to use as a guide for this activity, if needed.

(Carson Dellosa clip art.)

Both of these ideas were inspired by other great blogs and pins. : ) Hope you've been inspired a little today, too.