Five for Friday: It has been too long!

Every.Single.Day....LOL!

I have revised this post four times now because I add items to my drafts but then never have enough time to finish them. Seriously, this has been going on for four weeks but I am sitting down to finish it now. It has been crazy with the Indians in the World Series, Halloween, elections, colds, assessments, conference nights (three of them!), hubby traveling... BUT this is getting done. Woot woot!

We finished our units on spiders and bats before Halloween but I wanted to share how cute these little things came out after reading "Stellaluna" to the class. We compared events in the story from what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. 

Fast forward over Halloween to the present in prepping for Thanksgiving already. We learn and review many concepts in kindergarten but I love doing auditory skills with the kids. It requires a lot of understanding and concentration. I pulled this picture up on our interwrite board and then we review the words 'beside' and 'between'. I call on kids to go up to the board to show their level of understanding. For instance,  "color the body of the turkey between the pilgrim and the indian brown". It is great in reviewing as well as refining those listening skills for test preparation =) Plus, they love using the dry erase markers on the front board as if they are the teacher!

We read so many books in learning about the presidency and elections. Two of my favorites were "Duck for President" and "Grace for President" (which ironically is about a girl becoming president). We compared and contrasted both stories and set up a mini voting booth in the classroom. The kids made their own voting cards with pictures from picture day as their ID and then presented that before voting for Duck or Grace. They each received a voting sticker before we tallied the final votes. It was a lot of fun!

I have major mom working guilt ....all of the time. I really have difficulty during these conference weeks when I have to work late. I try to squeeze in every minute with the boys. They love breakfast foods that I really don't have a lot of time to do in the morning so I made some time for pancakes, bacon, and waffles for all of them! Kyle celebrates WIG Wednesdays in his class. It serves as an acronym for reaching their goals. 

This is what it looks like in getting ready for one conference night. Tons of prep!

You know what keeps me sane? Running and working out! My miles have gotten to 7-8 before school but it helps with my stress level. I ordered these cute running pants to help celebrate our 'Believeland'. So very proud of our Indians and Cavs teams this year!

I finally finished this CVC pack now that my kinders are getting better at blending sounds. I differentiated it so that it can help the high, on track, and struggling readers. We have used it quite a bit and the kids really like it. Each letter of the alphabet is on a pumpkin seed. The picture goes in the box in the upper right and then the kids use the letter seeds to complete the words. I'm working on one for December too! Check it out!

CVC Differentiated Activities

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday: Baking with the 5 Senses! Yum!

Ahh....I saw some of my kinders doing this during free choice time this week. I love it!

We studied Johnny Appleseed this week and discussed parts of his life. The kids made their own people and added the pot Johnny wore in the story. They added their own names before writing three facts on the apples about Johnny's life.

This was our last week studying apples before we begin pumpkins next week. We took all of the apples we had collected and made apple biscuits! Each kiddo got a Pillsbury biscuit that they made as a crater to hold all of their diced apples. After putting the apples on, we added some brown sugar, cinnamon and a slice of butter to add some flavor. They were yummy! I even had some friends licking their plates! =)

 We began our five senses in Science which tied in nicely with our apple baking. We made our own little anchor chart on our people to add each sense with something that would go along with it.  They came out great!

I finally finished my color pack. I like the kids in my class to always complete my items I create in case I need to tweak them. You will find 10 colors and each one contains: a color sign, word web, word search, color practice with writing, stamping, counting syllables, and much more! Check it out in the link at the bottom. It's on sale =)

Learn Your Colors!

We just finished the high frequency word 'see' this week which brought us up to my first differentiated high frequency book. The kids cut out the letters to complete the repetitive sentences while following the directions to make the illustrations. This worked out as a great tool for those that were not baking with me. They enjoyed being able to 'READ' their own books!

Interactive & Differentiated High Frequency Book

Have a fantastic weekend!

Five for Friday: Applemania!

Ha! This is so my class. I always have to say that a question needs an answer even before they start. LOL!

We continued with our apple investigations. We learned all kinds of scientific terms including hypothesis, non standard units, observations, estimations, and using data to help make educated guesses. We measured our apples using links, counted the seeds inside, noted the color, and how well it floated. The kids had a blast!

                                    

You can grab all of these activities in my apple unit!

All About Apples!

                                                                   
Many of our station activities in the afternoon involved apples. These two were a big hit and I loved being able to hear across the room the phonetic sounds they were making as they tried to sound out their CVC words.

These are more activities from my apple unit. We talked about making words that fit into their shapes as they labeled their parts of the apple. I think they enjoyed making the interactive flip books to show the sequence of growth from a seed to an apple tree too!

We are still in the preliminary stages of writing in my room. I have one or two kids that really get it but most are still making illustrations and labeling. We used chart paper to show what they need to be doing as they write everyday in their journals. 

It has been a struggle to get my little guy to go to school with a smile since he has started his Transitional Kindergarten class. Finally, this week, he went EVERYDAY with a grin and a blow of a kiss. Each day we hear a little bit more about what he is doing too. One day, he started belting out the pledge of allegiance and then his school song. I'm so happy that he loves it! It makes my heart happy!!

Have a great weekend!