Five for Friday- November 1st!

 

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday!  Yesterday at bus time I said, "Oh, I forgot it wasn't Friday today," and one of my little girls said, "That is EXACTLY what my mom said. She said it should be Friday today!" As you can guess, her mom is a teacher, too.

Thank you, Kacey, for hosting!

 

 

I updated my Fun in the Fall Prezi with some of Thanksgiving videos that I love. I also have some Election Day video on there, too.  If you don't have the prezi, you can get it free at my TPT store! It's fun to use for those in between minutes that you want to have something right there to use.

 

 

Here is my favorite turkey video. You have probably all seen it, but in case you haven't, I just love the way he struts. We might as well get right into the next holiday...

 

 

 



 

I added little thought bubbles over Quite Mouse's head - mainly to help the kids remember the "sh" blend.  He makes me smile so I thought I would share him.  He is all over the room- just to remind the kids to use inside voices. (I have a great little group- just a loud one!) Here are a couple spots  he makes an appearance. 

 

 

 

This mess of a view is by my door but I thought I would show/explain it. I put up different  hands with different sight words each week.  The "sh" spray is over the phone.  The alligator and bear groups are the way I send my class to lockers to pack up.  I just put every other child alphabetically into a group so when they open the lockers in the hall (which are in alphabetical order), they don't have someone right beside them.  It works so much better.  

My iPad Class Rules Sign was free from For His Glory TPT store!

 

  

I have a problem with my love of correct punctuation usage. Every time I go through my McDonalds for my happy, large unsweetened iced tea, I see this sign and want to jump out with a sharpie and add a period. Actually, I would probably add an exclamation point because I completely overuse them. I literally go back over my posts and remove exclamation points because I don't want to annoy people by sounding too over-exuberant. (I feel like this was a confessional post of my issues with punctuation marks.)

The ironic thing is that today I did NOT have my $1.08 ready because I was too busy taking a picture. oops. 



We talked about small moments this week as we began our Narrative Writing unit.  I wrote this post about some of my favorite things to do to introduce and teach about small moments, as well as some of my favorite books to use.

My favorite activity was having the children dig a chocolate chip out of a cookie like they 'dig' a favorite small moment out of their life (or day) to write about.

Yum.  These were so good.  I made them using pre-made cookie dough. Tops brand, no less- and they were great!  I added one mini-Hershey kiss to each cookie for an extra special "small moment" to dig out.

Then we made this anchor chart to share the moments we chose for a story.  I just taped on the "chocolate chips" so we can reuse the poster (which is lopsided... I tried to make myself feel better by saying that cookies are all different shapes... but still- how hard is it to make a circle?)

 

 

One of my sweet girls brought me this "treat" for Halloween.  It's a perfect way to end this busy week! Did anyone else think having Halloween on a Thursday was not a good idea since Friday was still out there as a "normal" school day?  WOW! 

 

 

Happy November 1st! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Playdough- and LOTS of FREEBIES!

*** I updated the TPT freebies in this post HERE.  Sometimes links don't work anymore or items aren't available anymore.  If you'd like the most recent freebies (plus some new ones!) see this post.  

This week I made some pumpkin playdough for one of my Free Choice centers.  I used my new favorite homemade playdough recipe with Bisquick.  I love the consistency. It is so easy- and even I can't mess it up always turns out great! 

Here is the recipe:

Bisquick Playdough
2 cups Bisquick
1 cup salt
2 cups water
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp oil
 
Mix all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 3 minutes.  Scrape and stir the bowl. Microwave for another 3 minutes. If it is not quite ready,  microwave for another minute.
I made a double batch, and this time I did put it back in the microwave for another minute because it was sort of sticky. That worked perfectly.

I added LOTS of pumpkin pie spice, a little cinnamon, and some orange food coloring.  Yum. 

This was a Free Choice Center while I was making glue ghosts with another group, and it was such a hit!  My room smelled so delicious- even our Principal came in to see if we were baking pumpkin pie. NO KIDDING. 

Erin from Creating and Teaching made these perfect Pumpkin Counting Playdoh Mats! Thank you, Erin!  How great are these?! I just found them and they are off being laminated now.  I cannot wait to use them.

Okinawan Girl has these absolutely adorable Halloween Freaky Faces Playdough Mats FREE at her TPT store.  These are so much fun, too!



Here are some other super pumpkin freebies that I found!  Enjoy! I like to just know they are here in one spot when I need them. 



Sarah Burk has a cute  Pumpkin Craftivity that the kids will have a ball making! I am going to put out lots of different textured papers, tissue paper, shiny paper... and let them go crazy making their own beautiful pumpkin during Free Choice!  I can't wait to see my pumpkin patch when they are done. It's fun (for both the kids and for me!) to have some activities the children can make completely by themselves.



This Pumpkin Roll, Color, Cover game  from Young and Lively Kindergarten will be so much fun to use with a Pumpkin theme!

Kindergarten Lifestyle made a great Pumpkin Pals Letter and Number Concentration Game.



Nicole Ricca has a Pumpkin Mini Unit freebie.  Her products are always wonderful. I just love them. This is a great unit to learn about pumpkins.

She lists the activities included in this packet:
-Inside & Outside Pumpkin Lesson & Craft
-Pumpkin Investigations Activity
-Pumpkin Life Cycle
-Planting Pumpkins
-Pumpkin Jack Experiment
-Pumpkin Seed Estimation
-Pumpkin Craft


Edna Wallace Lickety Split Lessons and Stuff shared these Pumpkin Power Four Free Literacy Centers.  These are great!

Michelle Rist shared her Pumpkin Science and Math Book which would be perfect to use before you carve your pumpkin with your class!

 

Kid Sparkz has some cute Number Matching Cards!

Lauren Thompson made these Pumpkin Number Cards which would be wonderful for so many things.

Lauren also shared a Pumpkin Hundreds Chart Mystery Picture that I love!

Crystal McGinnis made a Pumpkin Number Ordering Activity and a recording sheet to practice writing numbers 0-20.

 



Chelsea Dowd made a fun Pumpkin Number ID Ten Frame Center.  The children clip a clothespin by he correct number.

Megan Groves made a cute Pumpkin Roll and Cover activity, a great math center.



 Where is My Little Pumpkin by Virginia Olivelli's Little Language Learners is a great activity for learning postitional words.





 My Fun in the Fall Canadian Prezi and Fun in the Fall US Prezi are new at my TPT store! They have several videos about pumpkins, how they grow, songs, and stories. Please stop over and try it out!  It has lots of fun videos and links for fall!

I want to tell you about a great give away my blogging friend Stephanie from Principal Principles is having at her blog!  She made some wonderful games and is giving them away to a lucky winner! 
Stop by and join in the fun!   She is giving away:

I'm a Reading Rock Star Grades 2-3

I'm a Reading Rock Star- Kindergarten-1

I'm a Math Hero- Kindergarten-2

Have a great day!