Friday, April 26, 2013

My First Five for Friday...

I love reading the Five for Friday posts that pop up on my blog feed every Friday. Today I've decided to jump in on the fun and do one of my own!




1. It was a tough Monday back to school after a gloriously restful Spring Break! Sometimes a girl
needs a Reeses Pieces break in the car to get her home! :)

 

2. It seems like I am constantly taking distracting toys away from my kiddos... they have hidden pockets, for real! This one was too cute...

 


3. Earth Day was super fun this year!

 


4. The teachers on my team always order lunch out on Fridays... it's nice to look forward to eating something other than sandwiches and carrot sticks! :)  I loved this fortune!

 


5. We had fun starting our Ocean unit this week! The kids loved learning about starfish!

 







 Have an awesome weekend!






Monday, April 22, 2013

Happy Earth Day!

Wow, I am one tired kindergarten teacher! Today was our first day back from Spring Break. Yes, we do have the latest Spring Break ever! But, it's a slippery downhill slide from here... 18 more days!

Today we celebrated Earth Day! The kids in my classroom had never heard of recycling or conservation. So, we had lots to discuss!

We read 3 Pandas Planting and discussed all of the ways that the animals in the book helped the Earth.




We did some Earth Day writing, then we made some cute headbands from Danielle KG Teacher's Earth Day Freebie!






So fun! I also have a new freebie up if you need something to practice those CVCe "sneaky e" words!

 




Thursday, April 18, 2013

Spring Break is Ending...

Tomorrow is Friday... and normally I'm very excited when Friday arrives. It's a fun, relaxed day at school and, well, everyone loves Friday! But tomorrow is Spring Break Friday which means that my week off is coming to an end. I've found time to relax this week, but I've also been busy! Check out what I've been working on!







 I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Painting with Q-Tips!

What a long week this has been as we creep s-l-o-w-l-y to Spring Break! Yes, it seems like a really late Spring Break... but, our county chooses to take the break after state testing. I'm looking forward to the week off!

I wanted to share something that we've done a few times in class this year that my kids absolutely L.O.V.E... painting with q-tips!

 Whenever we do a whole group painting activity, I never have enough paintbrushes to go around... so one day we decided to use q-tips instead and it worked wonderfully! Each table will get the necessary colors on paper plates with a few q-tips on each one.

 

 We talk a lot about how we only get paint on one side of the swab and we don't mix colors. The kids catch on very easily! (Well, except one kid from the table in the picture above.  Unfortunately, we're not always using our listening ears!)

Last week we painted butterflies. We talked about symmetry and we painted one wing, then folded the butterfly and rubbed to make the paint transfer onto the other side. The kids were amazed and had so much fun!

 



 I know that painting with kindergarten kids can sometimes be a scary thing... can you say messy?? But, they are so engaged when we paint and they have a lot of fun. And using the small q-tips is awesome for those fine motor skills. Try it!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Pass the Torch!


Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

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Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!


Greek Roots:  Kinder-Style!

My kindergarten kids had a great time with our lessons from the Greek Roots unit!  I chose to work on the prefix un- and using -s to make plural words.  We completed the lessons whole group and I projected the picture book on our whiteboard and we read about how prefixes and suffixes have the power to change the meaning of words!  We also read about how adding -s or -es to words makes them plural.


After reading the picture book and discussing what we read, the kids were able to cut out their own puzzle pieces and add the prefix un- or plural -s to the end of a word by gluing them down.  Then, they wrote the new word they made.






After finishing their independent part of the lesson, we came together and each child shared the word that he/she made and we talked about what the words meant and how they were changed by the prefix or suffix.  It was a great way to get some vocabulary practice in! 




 





Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

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