Marble Candy Canes

Mmm...looks like yummy whipped cream, doesn't it??

But it's not.

It's shaving cream and red paint.

We used it to make marble candy canes.

Updating a few December projects.

We are now officially on Christmas break. ; )

Enjoy the weekend!

5 Days and Counting!

Well, we are down to the last 5 days before Christmas break.  December, as we all know, can be a crazy, busy, fun month. I always like to give my students a little Christmas gift. The past few years I've purchased ornaments for each of them. Last Sunday I had an idea....that I would like to make each of my students a gift this year. So I got busy and crocheted each of them a little snowflake ornament.

I did a few each night and finished today...one week later! I needed to make 16 of these beauties!

I found the pattern here. I absolutely love to crochet and was happy to find this cute pattern. It is very easy and quick!

I attached each snowflake to blue card stock and added a hook for hanging...so hopefully, they will look like this on each student's tree...

I definitely plan on doing this again next year, but perhaps I will crochet over the summer, so I am better prepared come next December!

Hope your month is going well! Thanks for checking in on my little corner of the kindergarten world!

Grateful

Another holiday will soon be here...a time for giving thanks and a wonderful time to teach children the idea of gratitude.  I like to create this "tree of Thanksgiving" with the children. They trace their hand and we write something they are thankful for on it.

It's also a good time for journal writing...I saw this idea on Pinterest and created a template for my class. They draw a picture in each square and then sound out and try to write the word that goes with each picture. Some of the children didn't complete all 6, but that's ok. ; )  I think it's important to teach children that not everyone enjoys the same blessings, so it's important to give thanks for what God has given us.

This is our Morning Prayer for November (it was a free download from Kindergarten Hoppenings quite a while ago...not sure if it's still available on her blog or not...)

During November, we do "Thankful Thursday" at prayer time. Every Thursday, we go around the circle and take turns saying something we are thankful for.

Thanks for checking in and have a super day!

The Lost Sheep

Hello! Here's another little game I've added to my Religion center. It is a version of roll and cover using a religious theme.

Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep!

On the board, the sheep are black and white. As they roll the numbers, the children cover the sheep with a colored version. Simple but fun. I used DJ Inkers clip art....so cute! You can download the Lost Sheep game here. I also have a Pinterest board of Christian themed projects!

Thanks for checking in!

**Edit: I have had several messages from people who want to print the game, but their administration will not allow sharing outside of their organization. I'm sorry for this, but I can't do anything...please contact your school/organization's admin if you can't download or print. The sharing settings are correct on my end. Thank you!! (Your organization will sometimes not allow an email from me, stating this...so I have tried to share, but simply cannot let you know that!)

October??

Oh my...I cannot believe it's already October! These first few months of school have flown by and my little blog has been neglected! I've had several ideas for blog posts over the past few weeks, just have not had the time to sit down and get to it. Nevertheless, I would like to share a few ideas with you from my Religion Center.  I feel fortunate to be able to have these type of materials available for my students. One of my goals this year was to add new materials to the center to incorporate religious themes along with our literacy and math skills. One of the first activities I added was  roll and stack Noah's Ark.

 I used DJ Inkers clip art to create the mat. The children roll a die and build a stack of cubes to match the number on the ark. You can (or should be able to!) download it here.  I have not had the best luck in sharing with google docs...so I hope it works for you!

I printed several mats on different colors of paper.

Thanks for checking in...up next: The Lost Sheep Activity!

Ready to go!

Hello! Here are a few photos of my *finished* room...really, it's always a work in progress, isn't it??

 Housekeeping/dramatic play area for September....

View from the back of the room

iPad/listening center. I have 3 classroom iPads.

Writing center

A few of our reading buddies; magnet center to the left.

Religion center

Circle/large group area, math wall

Thanks for checking in! Have a great day!

A little organization....

One of my goals this summer (which didn't actually happen over the summer) was to organize all of my center materials. I like the idea of having them organized by month, but do not have the storage space to do each month separately. I decided to group the centers into Sept/Oct/Nov, Dec/Jan/Feb, and Mar/Apr/May into a 3 drawer cart.

                                  (I downloaded these cute labels from Miss Kindergarten.)

I sorted through the items and pitched ones that I don't use, had missing pieces, or were outdated. I like these big drawers because I can fit everything in them...like counters or manipulatives.

And then, when I was done, I still had a pile of stuff left...these items I just sorted into reading and math for now, but eventually want to break them down into skill tubs.

The best part was seeing everything I had...now I know what I have to begin the year and what skills I still may need to supplement. Sorting is always a good thing. ; )

Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

Word Wall Title Freebie

I added this title to my word wall...you can find it here if you'd like a copy! Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

Day One!

Not day one of school, but of classroom set up! I went into my classroom and worked for a few hours today. It always feels good to get things a little organized. I feel like I made a lot of progress! Here are a few before and afters:

I was happy to see that my SMART board is now mounted! It used to be a portable board, which was nice, but the cords were always a problem. This will be much nicer.

Here's that same area in the front of my room after I put up my word wall (on the right) and reading focus on the left. The children's cubbies are also in the front of the room.

Here is my math focus/calendar wall. The shelf under it houses math materials....I'm still working on that area!!

This is the 'before' of my writing center. I worked on the writing focus board today. I started to put out a few supplies, but again it's a work in progress.

On the left I hung up ideas for writing, color words, alphabet chart, etc. The section on the right holds pocket charts for our daily schedule and the "Today I will learn..." pocket chart.

Here's a sneak peak at my classroom library....I get so discouraged....frustrated....don't know the exact word for it...at my lack of space!! I guess even though it's a small area, it serves the purpose. I just wish I had room to spread out the books and reading buddies.

That's it for today! Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

Creative fonts!

Hello! I spent a little time this week searching for some new fonts. Thought I'd share what I found...my newest favorite is the sound box font. It lets you create items like this:

So great for the word wall, literacy center items, sight word practice....etc. It's called teacher helpers and you can find it here.  I've also pinned a link on my September pinterest board.

I also found a great tally mark font!!! If only I had known about this one sooner! I've spent a lot of time in the past trying to create tally marks....this font makes it super simple! You can download the tally mark font here.

The other font is called color font. You can download it here. If you have some time to search and browse there are so many fun fonts to spruce up those classroom materials! Thanks for checking in!

Summer Update = )

Hello! Needless to day, it's been a while since I've updated my blog...

I've been taking some time off from school projects. This past school year I had the worst schedule I've had in all of my years of teaching...I was burned out by the end of the year. Kids were great, super family support, but here's the deal...I had 14 children in my class in the morning. After lunch I picked up 6 students from another class (that teacher was part time). So I had 20 students in the afternoon. This made it extremely difficult to carry over any learning from the morning, since 1/3 of the students were not in my room, along with other expectation issues, management styles, etc...you get the idea. 5 and 6 year old children, in my opinion, are not ready to transition and handle this kind of schedule. Yuck. I tried my best to make it work, but I'm glad it's behind me. I'm not going to dwell in the past. So at the end of the school year, I focused on my family, home,  hobbies, and summer! It feels good to rejuvenate and be ready for the new school year ahead.

My older son graduated from high school this year. We had fun celebrating him and his success. I thought I'd share a good recipe with you, since I don't have much school related info to share. I made these lemon cookies  (from pinterest) for the grad party and they were a hit! Super easy and delicious and it made a lot. Recently, while grocery shopping, I came across this:

I thought it'd be great to make orange flavored cookies instead of lemon and this cake mix did not disappoint!

Here's the recipe:
1 box of cake mix
1 egg
1 container cool whip (I did not use the whole container of cool whip when I made these or the original lemon cookies.)
Juice from an orange.

Mix it all together and chill for an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I baked them on parchment paper as recommended in the original recipe. They turned out great! I added enough cool whip to make the dough firm, but didn't use the whole container.

One of these days I will head back to my classroom to sort my learning center items...that was on my 'to do' list this summer. I've also printed a few items and have been pinning a lot of great inspiration for the new year. Stay tuned!

April Showers bring...snow days???

Ha! Ha! Unbelievable...but in the past 2 weeks we have had one snow day and 2 late starts! We should be sporting capri's by now...instead, I'm still wearing my winter coat! But there's light or should I say sunlight at the end of the tunnel. It looks like we'll hit 60 this coming weekend. Time is flying by! The countdown is on: only 36 days til my son graduates from high school! We've been working like crazy to update our kitchen before the big event. I'll try to post some pics when it's all done.

For now, here's a couple of charts we made while working on our animal unit:

We are working on insects this week...a parent generously volunteered to buy our class caterpillars so we can observe them transform into butterflies. But with the cold weather we are having, we postponed getting them for a few weeks. Hopefully spring will arrive soon! Thanks for checking in!

A Little Number Bond Work...

We've been working with number bonds the past couple of weeks. Here's how we practiced them today. (I saw this idea on pinterest, along with this printable. ) The children started with 5 unifix cubes in their bag and we practiced a few number bonds together.

Then they progressively added one cube to the bag to write number bonds for 6 and 7. To complete the activity, I gave them the choice of using 8, 9, or 10 blocks.

The children wrote 3 number bonds for each number.

This was a great hands on way to practice number bonds! I also love the idea of using divided plates to work with the part, part, whole concept. We'll work on that next week!

Shamrock Art 2

Hi again! I'm back with another fun, easy St. Patrick's Day project. I originally saw this on Pinterest, but here's the original source.  I gave the children 4 strips of green paper, all different shades of green. They tore the strips into pieces and then glued them to the traced shamrock shape.

They are hanging on the wall outside of our classroom door. 

We've been working on numbers in the teens and decomposing them into 1 group of ten and the correct number of ones. Here's a picture of some shamrock 10 frames I made. The children choose a shamrock and then dot the matching number on their paper.

We did a roll and color sight word page, too!

thanks for checking in and have a great night!

Shamrock Art

We did a little shamrock project today...crayon rubbings! These can be a little frustrating the first time children try to do them. I found that it helps to tape down the object you are using, in this case the shamrock, to the table. I also taped their paper on top to minimize shifting. I love the amazement at the process of this project...when the shamrock appears in the coloring...it's cool. = )

It's Been Busy!

Hello! It's been a busy few weeks....we did our second MAP test, celebrated the 100th day of kindergarten, had Kindergarten Round Up, and now parent teacher conferences are just a week away! Thought I just share a few random activities we've been working on in the classroom...

This is a caterpillar sight word game. The children start with all of the pieces turned over, so they cannot see the words. (They start with one caterpillar head face up.) They take turns turning over the words and adding them to the caterpillar. If they turn over a new head, they start another caterpillar. After all the words are read, they see which caterpillar is the longest.

We did the 100 Mystery Picture on the 100th day...always a fun activity! And, as seen on Pinterest, I created a "100 Days Smarter" frame:

The frame is just a photo mat that I found at Hobby Lobby on clearance for under a 1.00! I added precut letters to make it quick and easy.

I've had this cardboard cut out of George Washington for a    l  o  n  g    time!! I took each child's picture and then they wrote "If I were President of the United States...." Fun!

Lastly, here's a picture of our QR code center called "Scan and Read." The basket has QR codes with the color words (that I blogged about previously) and some word families that I downloaded (see the link in that post also).

Thanks for checking in on my little corner of the kindergarten world! Have a great weekend!