Five for Friday: Psyched for Seuss and March goodies!

I am known for being pretty honest and upfront but I always want that in return. If there is a problem then let's fix it! =)

I'm really done with winter. Bring on Spring! I love the month of March because I feel like we are making that turn to warmer weather and the kids seem to grow exponentially. It's also when I do my Dr. Seuss Unit!! Here is my bookshelf for the next couple of weeks....

We had to get our room ready for all of the fun we are going to have so I read "The Cat in the Hat". We then made mobiles to hang....

So, it's no secret, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Target. In their dollar spot, they have TONS of Seuss things! I created a little writing center with all of the goodies I bought. I even put together some mixed-up sentences for them to write out on the lined dry erase boards. I also glued some pompoms to the tops of the markers for easy erasing. It was a major success!

These were the other mobiles we did to add some variety to our room. I gave them the balloon template and they decorated with tissue paper. I love all of the colors! The kids wrote about a place they would like to go. There were some very interesting answers =)

I couldn't finish out the month of February without some dental health lessons. We read MANY fictional and informative texts related to teeth and tooth fairies. One story even told about the traditions of losing a tooth all of the world. We are not the only country that puts a tooth under a pillow but others throw them from a rooftop. It was really neat! Kids made a large toothbrush with their names on the toothpaste. For each bristle, they wrote about one rule they learned in keeping healthy teeth.

I even involved my own family in dental health awareness. We went to our regular six month appointments. Even though I really hate teeth, probably because I always seem to have an issue, I really love our dental staff. They are so great with us! I can make an appointment for myself and the three boys all at the same time! They line us up! LOL! My little guy said it was way too bright so they gave him some cool shades to wear. He did so well. We all got cleanings, flouride treatments, and x-rays. The boys made out great! I thought I was in the clear...he looked at my teeth, flipped the light off, and said good bye until he realized I had x-rays taken. Then it was the long looking...blowing up the picture, beads of sweat coming...decay under a filling. UGH! I have a serious problem getting numb. He hypothesizes that my adrenaline may run too fast and doesn't absorb the medicine. Could be why my epidurals didn't take either. Luckily, he has narrowed it down to a good cocktail that gets me fairly numb. So, the tooth is fixed and hopefully I won't have to go back until our net six month check ups. EEK! It was a productive week, though. We did dental and doctor appts. accomplished PLUS my little guy is signed up for a Transitional Kindergarten class for the next school year. YIPPEE!

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday: February 12th

I finished my last observation this week and I couldn't be happier. Yippee!!

So this happened this week....I have some kids in my class that play "shopping" during our game time. When I got the paper on Sunday,  I decided to keep the ads to let the kids cut out in creating their own shopping board. Oh my word...they were sooooo excited when I shared with them my idea. They quickly began cutting out pictures and gluing them onto their "Kinder Shop". We hung it up and I game them a template with a designated shopping list. For instance, on this day, they had to go grocery shopping so they were copying down the names of food, drawing a picture, and writing the price down for each one. They had so much fun and didn't even realize all of the standards they were covering =)

Another fun writing activity we do in our room is going through magazines and finding some fun pictures. The kids will cut it out and glue it to the top of writing paper. They will then create a fun story to go along with it.

 

We were covering Valentine's and President's Day all week.  This activity was a great one for fine tuning those little motor skills. They tore the paper into little pieces and glued them onto a heart. I gave them a writing prompt and they had to tell who they loved.

We read a lot of books about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. On this particular day, we made Abe with long strips of black paper for his beard. On his tall hat, we wrote about something we would like to do during our presidency if we became a president one day.  This little friend said that she wanted freedom in America =)

"I would help others."

"I would go on vacation."

"If I was president, I would be funny."

~I also introduced the class to 'Kid President' who is absolutely hilarious. I think that prompted this friend to write this comment. 

For my observation, I had the kids doing our normal afternoon rotations. It was a little hectic...some computer glitches, another licked glue, someone farted (and you know how well that goes over in a Kindergarten classroom), but it is what it is. It's my daily life. The kids were divided into five groups- computers, math graphing with conversation heart, interactive poetry, iPads math app, and this long and short vowel activity that I made last weekend. My kids are really having a hard time with the two sounds each vowel makes. I wanted them to have an interactive activity that could clearly show the difference between the two sounds while using illustrations. It went well in the lesson so I am just hoping they retain it for future use =)

Enjoy the long weekend!!

Our Five for Friday!

This had me laughing so hard. It is so me! I could live in Target...I love it that much! It is my sanctuary for when I have had a bad day =)

We finished up celebrating our 100 days on Monday. Who would've thought that 100 Solo cups could provide such enjoyment? Kids had a blast making creations and sharing with their peers. We matched Hershey kiss numbers to our 100 chart, made designs using 100 tangrams, and did lots of writing about things we would do when we turn 100. Each of the kiddos also brought in a little baggy from home containing 100 items and we sorted them by 10s. Our last activity was making gumball machines with our dot markers. It sure was a busy day but fun was had by all!

I was really pleased with the creativity put into making pictures using the cut outs from 1-0-0!

We couldn't slow down after Monday as Tuesday was the famous Groundhog Day. We read LOTS of books, both informative and fictional, related to the little animal. We then made our own groundhogs and wrote about whether or not we would want to see our own shadows based on the weather predictions =)

You might be wondering why we are still reading about Gingerbread..LOL! I'm still trying to finish up my Jan Brett unit. So many great books that I don't want to skip over. We used my story map page and dissected "Gingerbread Baby" in its entirety. They did a fabulous job!

I'm prepping for next week and getting my Valentine pack out. It will be on sale for you! Lots of goodies in this little bundle.  I made write the room activities, high frequency, postal system fun (write a letter, learn to address an envelope, etc.), valentines scrambles, ABC order, fix it ups, vocabulary cut and paste, text connection activities for two books PLUS a craft!

Be My Valentine!

I also have a conversation heart FREEBIE activity for you too!

Let's Have a Conversation FREEBIE!

 Have a great weekend!