Five for Friday January 17th

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for her fabulous Five for Friday!  Thank you, Kacey! 

I made my floor Ten Frames this week.  We have had fun with them already.  My kids are even using them at Free Choice time and making up games with them with blocks, Legos, stuffed animals- even food. (And I don't just mean dancing-in-the-squares similar to hopscotch games... actual math games sometimes!)

 

Click on the picture below if you want to see more of my Mitten Activities Post.  

We are almost done with our letter review- and this week was Vv and Ww.  We painted like Vincent Van Gogh for Vv (which is another post for next week...) and wrote our wishes for Ww.   My wonderful mother saves the wishbones every time she gets a rotisserie chicken, and she even spray painted them gold because she is so fabulous.  Everyone got a real wishbone after they wrote their wish.  I practiced making a wish with one of my little girls to show everyone  how to use a wishbone- and even at 5 years old she was on to the trick of trying to put her thumb WAY up on the wishbone to get better leverage.  So tricky, these kids...

 (another American Girl doll)

 (and who doesn't want gum?!)

 

I wrote about our Healthy Habit Day here.  Apparently I was a little too late because I have a bad cold now.  I always get colds in my eyes so I look really pretty that way. But the kids seem to sort of pity me and act extra good because they think I am crying, so there are some pluses.

These just made me smile- so that is always a good thing. Some of their little faces... At first I thought, "Oh no- the ink is low and the kids look sick!" when I printed out the pictures.  Then I thought, "YAY- the ink is low and the kids look sick!"  because that was the look I should have been going for with this activity anyway.

Here is a copy of the little poem. I used different fonts so they could chose a favorite. Just click the picture if you would like a copy.

This silly little window shade game is one of our favorites.  When one of our window shades broke at home, I wrote all of our Kindergarten sight words in each quarter of the shade, in a different color on each quarter.  Then, I sorted our little bear counters to match those colors.  Four students play the game.  One student starts by choosing a word for everyone to find and put a bear on, in their section of the shade. Then, the next student chooses a word for everyone to find, and so on.    The kids play this so well- and it is completely independent.  I can hardly wait for another shade to break so I can make a number game! 

I found a great sight with LOTS of wonderful sightword games.  Sightwords.com is such a neat sight to explore!  Have fun!

Last week, Stephanie from Principal Principles posted that she loved the song Brave by Sara Bareilles. 

Well, I  went to Youtube and listened and listened and listened. And added it to my iPod to listen more.  (That is what I do with songs- totally over do it until I don't like them anymore.)

I like the song for a couple reasons.  First of all, I don't want to wait to say what I really want to say until I am realllllly old- and it accidentally slips out . What if I am one of those older people who just doesn't care and starts swearing? Sometimes I think maybe I will just pretend I don't know what I am saying so I can start swearing.  Not really- don't worry. But maybe sometimes really just a tiny bit.

Anyway, the song is a good reminder to not be afraid to say what I want to say (within reason... ).  I usually think nobody really cares what I have to say, so I don't say a lot or just rush through what I want to say.  That is why I love this blog.  I love that people can read it if they want, and hopefully enjoy it.  I love sharing that way. 

Secondly, I am always telling my children to BE BRAVE when they read and write. Especially with writing.  Be brave and try to hear as many sounds as you can, and get those words down on paper. Be brave and try to draw something you think you can't draw!

Here are some great books to share with your class about being BRAVE.

If you haven't seen Courage by Bernard Waber, it is such a wonderful book. It's great for conversations about being brave, and how courage is being brave for both big and small things.  Here are some pictures from the book:

I added these posters to my Primary Character Education Prezi- so that I can leave one up as a reminder when the children write.

 I also added the song so we can dance to it if we need a reminder to be brave! Or if we just need to dance.


Just click on the picture below if you would like a copy of this Prezi. 

 This is NOT how to be brave.  But how cute are those penguins? 

HAPPY WEEKEND!