Five for Friday! September 13th

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!  

First full week Friday- check! It is my wonderful dad's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Here are some favorites from my week! 

We just finished up our first COLOR week!  I blogged about red, yellow, blue, and green here yesterday.  Today we ended with purple.  We read some Harold and The Purple Crayon Stories from my treasury book, then, the children drew their own Harold stories with a purple crayon. 

 I made this paper for the children to use.  Just click on the picture if you would like a copy!

I used 11X17 size paper for their stories and had the children try to label some of their picture.  I had a few write the first letter of one thing down- so ... that's a start!
I have tried having blank books for the children to use, and I found they prefer this one page OR small ( 1/4 size paper) books at this point for this activity. 

It was a hectic half day, and I didn't even mix our red and blue water.  :(  But it is ready to go on Monday!  That is fine- I will combine it with our orange mixing. 

I have a folder of pictures for each color.  The children LOVE looking at all of the pictures. This is such a great vocabulary builder since we learn different kinds of flowers, birds, vegetables, fruits, and bugs! 

We also made a card to cheer on  my daughter's college swim team- the Niagara Purple Eagles!  (There is actually a "k" at the end of luck!)

 How could I not use this for "Number Two?"   Number two is definitely one of my favorites this week. It is not perfected, but I am sharing it anyway!  First of all, some of you know from past posts that I love teaching about punctuation marks. We have SO much fun with them.  Here is a little story to illustrate this truth...  I had a little boy two years ago whose parents told me was a "selective mute" basically.  He had only said a few words the entire pre-school year.  This year his brother started pre-school, and the dad told the teacher, "His brother didn't talk to anyone either, and then Mrs. Kisloski got him all riled up about punctuation marks and he couldn't stop talking."  So---  those things are sort of magical.  ;) 

On to this idea-  Wednesday, on Dr. Jean & Friends wonderful blog (I added the wonderful part!)she shared some ideas from her trip to California.  I absolutely loved this  song idea:

Writing Song (Dawna Hunter)
(Tune: "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes")
Top to bottom,
Left to right (Left to right)
Top to bottom
Left to right (Left to right)
My mind knows that writing goes
Top to bottom
Left to right (Left to right.)

I can't wait to use it.  SO I started thinking of other songs as I was drying my hair this morning and came up with one for knowing the names of punctuation marks.  You need to make the punctuation mark as you sing the name- for example when you say, "Question mark" you make the top part in the air during "question" and the dot as a punch, during "mark."  "Period" is a hand out like stop.  "Ex-cla-ma-tion" is the line down, and "point" is a punch.  "Comma" is a one hand comma, "Quotation marks" are  air quotes, and  "E-lips-sis" is hitting your hand with each syllable .

This little song goes to Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, too:

Question mark
Period,
Ex-cla-ma-tion  POINT!
Question mark
Period,
Ex-cla-ma-tion POINT!
Comma,
Quotation marks,
E-lips-sis,
Question mark,
Period,
Ex-cla-ma-tion POINT!

Here is my Punctuation Mark poem to explain what each mark does  (We haven't started this yet this year.):

 

Our first classroom birthday celebration:  Think- cupcake crumbs E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.  - and 4 spilled milks. OH and red faces with that scary red frosting that seems like it is made of Sharpie ink...  WHAT?!  It was almost funny. Almost.  Did Pete  Mrs. Kisloski cry?  GOODNESS NO! I kept on singing my song... "I love this FRIDAY, I love this FRIDAY!" 

We celebrate birthday's pretty simply in our class.  The special person brings in snack for the day.  We sing. And each child draws a special picture for the birthday person that I turn into a book.  I have the birthday person share some of his/her favorite things- animal, sport, color, anything else, to give the class ideas to draw.  They write the special person's name on top of the paper and their name on the bottom. I take a picture of the birthday person with all of our friends around him or her, and that becomes the cover.

 Here are some fun birthday songs to use in your class!

(This one might be good to use while you hand out snacks because it is more subdued.)

This number four made me think of a fun little "quick images" activity we have done- SO SIMPLE that I am sure you do it.  When we line up, I have all eyes on me and I bring my hand out from behind my back with some fingers up.  They tell me how many they see  as fast as they can.  I do one hand, or both.  They try so hard!  The last few images, as we get ready to actually move into the hall, I have them whisper the answer.   I tell them when I show zero, they have to be completely quiet.  Ta da. 

I will leave you with this one.  We read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? this week and have been brainstorming ways we can fill other people's buckets.  This was a good interactive writing activity. I didn't take a picture of our poster yet.  I will next week.



My big bucket in the middle of the picture below  is full of blue glass stones from the Dollar Store, to look like drops of water (kind deeds!).

After we read the book, each child drew a picture to show how he/she could fill someone's bucket. I taped on a blue stone to take home as a reminder- to put beside the bed or some place special, so the children could  remember to do something kind for someone when they saw it.

We LOVE this song from The Learning Station!

I had to share this picture- because who could ever be a better bucket filler than Christ?!?!?!  This little sweetie tries so  hard to write his whole name- and I have told him I am fine with "Chris" since his name is so long. Apparently, he is expanding it one letter at a time- and this made me laugh out loud.  :)

My Primary Character Education Prezi is FREE this weekend! Stop over to my TPT store if you would like it!



 Have a wonderful weekend!