New Years Freebie

I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my students to celebrate the New Year and come up with some resolutions! I came across a bunch of paper bags that I had folded earlier in the year and never used so I decided to make a New Years Resolution book out of them. Click here to go pick up a copy for free! This is a super easy book to make that will be fun for you and your students! I am excited to see all of their resolutions! :) Happy New Year!!!

CVC /Addition Game

Hi!!! I know I have not been around for the past few weeks and for that, I apologize! I am thinking I should make one of my New Years Resolutions to blog at least 2 times a week!! I truly do enjoy blogging and creating things to share with you! I just finished making a fun game for your students to play when you return to school for the new year! Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to check it out! It is on sale until 12/31! I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!!

Click HERE to go to my store! :) 

Silence For Sandy Hook Elementary

Tom the Turkey

I absolutely love this time of year!!! There are so many fun activities to do and one of my favorites is our Tom the Turkey project! I found this idea a few years back and always enjoy seeing everyone's creativity!! I send home a letter to parents with the following poem:

I also send home a turkey black line and have them come up with a disguise for him! The boys and girls are always so excited to come in and share their turkeys! They turned out super cute this year!!! 

Election Fun!!

I don't know about you, but I am so thankful the election is over simply because I do not have to listen to adults be ugly to one another. I found this picture that I absolutely LOVE and wish everyone would post it in their house, car or workplace to remind them to be kind!!

With this being said, my Kindergarten team and I wanted to come up with a FUN election for our students to participate in. We wanted something that would help them understand what an election was and how it worked, without the actual politics. I don't know if you have checked out Debbie over at  K Is For Kinderrific's page yet or not but you need to!! She is a colleague of mine and I absolutely love coming up with and sharing ideas with her! We both teach Kindergarten at the same school and have a lot of fun! She was a huge help in planning this election!! Seriously, be sure to go check out her page!! 

We decided to have our Educational Assistant who our kids love and one of our secretaries run for "Principal".... (Of course it was just pretend but they took the idea and ran with it!) They created speeches, posters and told the students what they wanted to hear! (extra recess, popcorn parties and longer school days---the longer school days idea came from my class!?!?)  Here are a few pictures from the "debate" and our voting process!!!

 Waiting to hear the speeches

 Ms. Burton introducing our candidates!

 Showing that it is important to shake hands and be kind! :)

 Time for the debate!

 Ms. Penny, our Kindergarten Assistant who we LOVE!!

 Ms. Stephanie one of our amazing secretaries!! We LOVE her!!

 The Candidates

 Our voting booth!

 Super excited to vote!!

 Our ballot!!

 Waiting patiently!!

 Thumbs up if you voted!

 Kellen really wanted to make sure I took his picture while voting :)

Ms. Penny came around the morning of the voting and gave every student a penny that said "Vote for Ms. Penny" How cute!!! She also promised them a popcorn party which she did follow through with and the students loved!! 

Our "I Voted" stickers!


And the winner is...........

MS. PENNY!!!!!!!!!

The boys and girls had a great time with this election and I am sure it is something they will remember. We also did an Opinion Writing Piece on why we voted for the person we did. I am of course home and left these at school so I will be posting some of them soon. Be sure to come back and check it out and please remember:
Be Kind!!! :)

Catching Up!! Fall Rotations, Bats and More!

I know I am a little behind, but I have always been taught "Better Late Than Never". I am a firm believer in this!! :) Anyways, here are a  few pictures from the last couple weeks! Time is FLYING by and I have been so busy teaching that I have slacked on the pictures! I am so proud of all of my STARS and how well they have been doing!!

These pictures are from our Fall Rotations that we did on Halloween. Rather than having parties on Halloween, the Kindergarten teachers participate in fall rotations. Basically we each pick an activity that is either fall or Halloween related and we rotate classes all day long! It is tons of fun for the kids and the teachers! The teachers teach the same lesson/activity all day long to every Kindergarten class. This is great because the students get to move around all day and the teachers only have to plan one activity! Of course it is for 140 students but that is okay :)

In my class we read The Monster At The End Of The Book  and then made these super cute Shape Monsters!! I was soooo happy to find the shape patterns here from a fellow Nashvillian!! Check out his blog! He has lots of great ideas and items at his TeachersPayTeachers store!

 Now onto our pictures :) 

How sweet is my class!?! I am so blessed :)  We also talked about bats! The boys and girls really enjoyed learning about bats! It is always fun starting a new topic and listening to all of the things they tell you they already know about the topic. I love how kid's minds work!! We spent a few days learning about the bats and doing research on them (hello common core!!) and then of course we had to write about what we learned!! I am so happy to say that most of my students wrote these on their own! I mean there are no "I like" or "I cans"!!! Wooohoo!!! They are producing informational pieces!! Love it!! :)

Nothing says October like Spiders!! Check out these super fun hats we made after learning about spiders!!  I got this idea from Pinterest!! Click here to see where this idea came from!! 

We also had TONS of fun using dice to complete these Spider Spelling sheets!!! Students had to roll the dice and then write the word that was in that column. The first one to the bottom was the winner! I cannot remember where I got this from so if it is you please let me know so I can give you credit!! My students loved it!! 

Of course we also did leaf rubbings! So much fun!!
Happy Fall!! :)