Five for Friday June 12

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

Dr. Jean wrote these wonderful activity cards and is sharing them with you FREE! There are 60 fabulous, fun learning activities to do with children that would be perfect for over the summer.  It's a way to really engage with your child and make some wonderful memories together!  The cards would be great to print out and send home with your students for summer, too (if you are still in school, like yours truly...)

I added a little design and pictures to them for Dr. Jean, so if you would like them, just click on the picture or HERE to download them!  Have fun!



My books for my little sweeties came to the house!  How exciting to see this box!  It seems like a dream to me to actually have the real, live books!  The whole experience working with Dr. Jean and SDE was something I will remember forever.  It was perfect.

I signed each book, and then as the children sat on the rug, I went through each page to show them their fabulous pictures- and to talk about the activities on the pages that we had done over the year.

Then, they got a chance to look through their books.  They studied everything. It was so precious.  I carefully put each book in their folder afterward so I knew the books would get home safe and sound.

Hopefully, this will be something they can keep forever to remember kindergarten and some of the fun things that we did!

One of my students' mothers who teaches in another district took it to her school, and they ordered eleven for the district.  That made my day.

The book has  many practical, easy to implement ideas and variations for teaching literacy concepts. We each chose our favorites!  It goes with any curriculum or your own curriculum, because they are just fun ideas that work, and that both Dr. Jean and I have and do really use. Plus, the children really enjoy all of these activities and they help the students remember what they're learning.

Click on the picture below or HERE  if  you want to go to the link for the book! 



We are working on a Math Recipes book now! 



If your kids  really need to  get their wiggles out this time of year (or anytime of year) and get those feet moving- this is your song. We love it!

Our favorite part is when it builds and builds until we can yell, "GO!" at the top of our lungs! (at about 1:07 in this video... Luckily my sweet friend is in the room next to me and totally understands that sometimes we need this!)

BUT- it doesn't work well for quiet center time... My kids got on Prezi for iPad time- and guess what she was watching? I don't think they realize I can tell if they're not on the app they are supposed to be working on... because their feet are moving wayyyy too fast...

We had our Kindergarten Orientation for the new little sweeties coming to our class next year. I had my current class write a book for the new class about things the new kindergarten students will like about kindergarten. Each of my students had a different activity to write about. My current class felt so grown up to be sharing their wisdom- and it's a great time for discussions about what we loved about school when you read the book to your current class, too!

This would be fun to have your class this year do for the incoming class!  They are so proud to make the book.  

My friend Sarah from A Sunny Day in First Grade made and shared these wonderful autograph books.



She made covers for Kindergarten through 3rd grade so you can share these with all of your teaching friends.  I did!  My class had the BEST time writing in each others' books- and I had the best time watching them.

I put markers out on each table, gave them each a book, and let them go!

They will never forget their love of Minecraft...

You should have seen Albert beam when he read that he was "awesome!"

This was the page I used to write in each child's book.  I MAY have written "You are a bucket filler!" and added little hearts going into the bucket.  I love how she decided to do the same thing.  So sweet.

Thank you, Sarah,  for such a wonderful gift!


I was out for meetings one day last week, and this was on my desk when I got back the next day. It was the first thing I saw, and it MADE my day! 



And FINALLY...  My daughter Ellie made me these fun salts for my birthday!  I can't wait to use them.  The ideas for them sound fabulous!  She bought Kosher salt and added the other ingredients into the food processor!  YUM!

Happy Weekend! Thank you for stopping by!



Five For Friday March 21

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday on this fine SPRING day!

 

Here is a look at my week!

 

Monday included lots of leprechaun shenanigans.  Of course we had our gold letters and gold sight words out for centers and free choice.

Here are some other fun little leprechaun goings-on that took place.  The kids loved the mini leprechaun cookies. I loved eating the pre-made sugar cookie dough using the pre-made sugar cookie dough to make them.

We made a We Are Lucky class book, thanks to sweet, wonderful Sarah from A Sunny Day in First Grade.  I LOVE her products. Every one is so well made and so perfect to use in the classroom. Plus, she shares so many wonderful freebies- like this one! This book is free at her TPT store!

We had Open House last night, so I quickly put it together without laminating it- but I am going to do that now, so it lasts.  The parents loved it. They love reading our class books with their children. 

 I am lucky because I am hape.  (happy)



We also finished our Lucky Journals!  We worked on a couple pages each day, and the children really took their time. It is a simple way to have children write a little, and great even for morning work. If you would like a copy just click on the picture below.  If you don't include the "Leprechauns hide..." page, you could use this anytime in the spring.  Maybe you could go on a lucky clover hunt outside on a nice, spring day!

There is another page in the little journal that says, "My last name is..."    On this page, I let the kids write their last name with all different colors and fancy ways- because most of them need practice spelling and writing their last name.

  

I also made a different cover in case you prefer rainbows...

This was one of my favorite pictures for some reason, because it looks like the little snowman and the boy are dancing across the snow holding hands.

walk in the snow





Having any sort of "celebration" on a Monday adds at least 8 or 9 days to the week, I think.

We had a half-day conference day last week to discuss our math vocabulary with grades Pre-K- 2nd, so that we were sure we were all using the same math language.  As we went over the language, I realized that I had never actually said the words, "hidden partners," to my class at all.  (Actually, I had never used those words to anyone at all- which I think is a good thing... cause it sounds sort of soap opera-ish to me...) 

Anyway, as we talked math talk for the next couple hours, and everyone else moved on to other math vocabulary, I was sort of stuck on Hidden Partners.  I came up with a fun game to play during that class called... wait for it... Hidden Partners!  All you need is 3x5 cards and a marker.  It doesn't get much easier than that! 

Basically, Hidden Partners means there are different ways to make a number. 

We have been making charts about Ways to Make... numbers 2-5.  

I made 3x5 cards with numbers on them that added up to our target number.  I have 17 students, so I made 9 sets of cards- for example, for "5"  I made 0,5; 1,4; 2,3; 3,2; 4,1; 5,0, 3,2; 4,1; 5,0.  So I would also play the game since there are 18 cards.

I had the children spread out, and gave each child a card with a number.  They could not show their number to anyone until I said, "Go!"

Once I said, "Go!" the each child had to walk around and find a "Hidden Partner" to go with his/her number to make 5. 

 Can you tell we played this on St. Patrick's Day?

Once they found their Hidden Partner, that team of two had to sit down on the floor so everyone knew they were paired up and done. 

The kids loved this game!  We had so much fun.   We also played it with the number four.

I made sets of numbers for 3, 4, and 5.  I just used different color markers for each set  in case they get mixed up.  You could go all the way up to ten!  We are really working on learning and knowing addition and subtraction facts to five right now.

I also thought of a new twist on this guy...

Really- I was trying to pay attention to math vocabulary. I just got one phrase in my head and kept thinking  of fun ways to teach it- and then I may have doodled a little.

See?  What if the numbers "007" were twisted just a bit to make a Number Bond, Secret Agent?  The kids would have to solve the mystery.

Yes. Those are the kind of notes I take at meetings. 

 

BLENDS!  We worked on these guys a LOT this week.   I have several good videos and games to help reinforce blends on my Beginning Reading Prezi.  It's free at my TPT store if you would like it!

Here is a picture of  the specific sections that have blend activities. I used to be able to embed my Prezis, but I can't now.  I have no idea why...  Anyway, if you go get the Prezi, you can play around with it and see the links.

 Here are some of our favorites!

Transformer "h" by Ne-Yo!

I love this Consonant Digraph Sorting Activity from Julie Van Alst. It is free at her TPT store.  Thank you, Julie!

 

I made one set with magnets on the back to use as a center sorting activity.

I took this picture as they were working on it.  Don't worry- I went over, and we checked it together... I see they have "fish" and "shake" under "th."   They are tho thilly.

I made another set that we cut apart and glued onto an anchor chart for our classroom to help us remember the blends.

Plant update! 
Here are our beanstalks... 

This is one week of growth for the grass. 

And these are just about ready to bloom! Happy Spring!

I found The Kid Whisperer this week, and I think I read every single question/answer and scenario on the Educators' Blog.  I learned so many tips, and I wanted to pass it on in case you haven't seen it.  After you read through it, you will be so excited for one of you kids to even TRY to test the limits... :)  

One of my favorites was "How to Help Your Students Deal with Bullies."  I sort of think the word "bully" is a little overused, and some kids/adults confuse any conflict between students as bullying- BUT that's neither here nor there, what I loved about his answer were his suggestions about how to handle someone being mean.  One suggestion he had is to look at the person being mean, and say, "I'M HAPPY!"   OK- as an adult, that just made me smile, because I just picture myself saying this to some adults who just sort of enjoy being mean.  That would sort of shut them down- or surprise them, anyway. 

Get a cup of coffee and enjoy reading his questions and answers! 



This picture seemed like a perfect prescription for the weekend. 





Have a HAPPY one!