Dictionary Fun In Kindergarten :)

Today at our learning table during our reading stations, I took out some dictionaries for the kiddos to use! Here is what we did:

 I set out the dictionaries along with pencils, paper and a bag full of letter balls. 

 These have all of the letters of the alphabet on them. I found them in the hallway in one of the teacher give-away boxes this summer! I was so excited to find these and even more excited to finally use them! The bag had something else in it before but I decided it was a great holder for these! 

 One student pulled out a ball and told the table what letter he/she got. Then, all of the students had to turn to that letter in his/her dictionary. They then chose one word that started with that letter to write on their paper. 

 The boys and girls did an awesome job with this! It was really good for them to have to decide where in the dictionary the letters would be. They were encouraged to look up at our alphabet if they needed to. After a few minutes, they were pros at figuring out where the letters were. It was fun to listen to them say things like "oooh... p comes after m, so I need to turn the pages this way..." I was really proud and impressed :)

I encourage you to try this with your students! It is an easy station to set up and the boys and girls really enjoyed it! Happy letter hunting :) 

Pumpkins- a few weeks late :)

So, as usual I am behind in posting. Shocking, I know! Anyways, here are a few photos from some of the pumpkin fun we had!!

 The life cycle of a pumpkin :)

 We made a double bubble map comparing pumpkins and apples (blue circles). We then tasted pumpkin pie and apple pie and decided which one we liked better! As you can see, the majority liked the pumpkin pie better!

 We predicted what we would see, hear, smell and touch at the pumpkin patch! After we got back from the pumpkin patch we drew what we actually saw, heard, smelled and touched. It was fun to see if our predictions were right or wrong!

 Pumpkin Tree Map! Pumpkins are, have, can....

Catching up!

Wow..what a great start to our school year so far! We have been so busy and I feel like I finally have some time to catch up on here! As most of you know, I got married 2 weeks ago, so I have been pretty busy with that and didn't have much extra time to blog! But.... now that the wedding is over, I can resume my life as a teacher blogger :) We had an amazing wedding on a boat and I couldn't be any happier to be Mrs. Timmer!!

Now onto the new year! To be honest, I have been so busy teaching that I haven't been very good at taking pictures to post. I promise to get better though! I have such a sweet class this year and they are doing a great job! We laugh and have fun all day long. They truly are a special group. I am so proud of how quickly they are learning our routines and how independent they have become in just a few weeks. We have really been working hard on our reading stations and I did have a chance to take a few pictures of  a few stations the other day.

 "Carpet" station- some days we have book baskets and some days we have white boards to practice writing letters and words.

 "Seat Work" station- students always have an assignment to complete at their seat. We are starting to use our journals more everyday as seat work to use to respond to stories we read.

"Learning Table" station- this station is very hands on. Students get to use play-doh, stamps, markers and more! In this picture you can see students using our letter bags to find and write letters.

We also have a Computer station. The boys and girls rotate computers everyday. If it is not their day to be on the computer, they will go to the tub/puzzle station. Now that I have parent helpers coming in pretty much everyday (amazing) the students who are not on computers will be working with those parents on special projects and games.
Students go to every station everyday. They spend about 15 minutes at a station. During this time I pull my small groups for guided reading. I will post a picture soon of the wheel I use that shows who goes to which station.
I did my reading stations this way last year and it worked really well. The students know what to expect each day and although the stations activities change, they know what to do which makes things run smoothly! They truly get excited when it is time for our reading stations which makes me smile :)

Well, I think that is all for now. Check back soon for more updates on our year so far! Have a great week!

-Mrs. Timmer

Summer Roadtrip Across the BEAUTIFUL USA :)

Well hello!! It has been awhile! I have been traveling across the country for the past month and let me tell you, it has been AMAZING! I was constantly amazed at how beautiful the country is that we live in! My fiance and I had the opportunity to drive from TN to Washington state (his hometown) and we did it!! The trip was blessed the entire time! We had no idea where we were going to stay each night but always ended up in the coolest places! We tent camped and stayed in a lot of cabins in State Parks along with a lodge in Montana with a natural hot spring! So fun!! In my opinion, camping in state parks is the only way to do it! Here are just a few pictures from our trip! (I took a TON of pictures but I won't make you all look at all of them ) Ok so I ended up putting up more than I had planned... there are just so many to choose from!! (and these are just from the drive out to Washington!!) I might need to post again about the trip back because Utah and Colorado were probably my favorite!! Absolutely beautiful!! It would be a shame if you didn't get to see them :) 

 The day before we left my fiance, Keesy, signed his first songwriting publishing deal here in Nashville!! Pretty exciting day and a great way to start off our trip!! So proud of him :) 

 And we are off!!! 

 Yes it is!

 I'm telling ya'll... the entire trip was blessed. God knew what he was doing when he planned this trip for us! 

 Heading west on 90!

 Mt. Rushmore was really neat! The town where it is located is really fun too! We camped at the bottom of the Black Hills Mountain and I saw my first buffalo!! 

 Sturgis!

 Montana and the Yellowstone River!

 Montana

 Washington :)

 We made a plate at a pottery place to represent all of the places we drove through on our trip. We did leave off Kansas though by accident! 

 We went on a bike ride down the Hiawatha trail in Idaho/Montana. It is a 15 mile bike ride through the mountains and through tunnels.. Super cool!! Luckily it was all downhill and they bring you back up to the top :) 

 We got to ride three wheelers at Keesy's grandparent ranch in Washington! 

Mt. Adams!

I am going to have plenty to share with my upcoming students about what I did over the summer!! Did you get to do anything fun this summer? It is hard to believe there are only 2 weeks of summer left for me! I head up to Pennsylvania tomorrow to spend some time with my family! I am especially excited to see my nieces! They are so sweet!

Bloglovin

I have been on vacation for the past few weeks in Washington State (we drove from Tennessee) but have been seeing all the Bloglovin posts so I went ahead joined!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I would love it if you headed over to follow my blog!!

I will be posting some pictures from my trip and I have been working on some new products for the upcoming year!! I will be back to blogging soon!! :)

I hope you are enjoying your summer!!

Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT

My Teachers Pay Teachers Store is on sale for the next two days! I also just updated my 2013-2014 calendar and made it editable! This is perfect for planning or for sending home to parents!

Click here to go to my store!

Happy Shopping!! :) 

A Flip Flop Farewell

Every year I enjoy doing a "Flip Flop Farewell" as one of our last writings. They always turn out super cute and it is always fun to see what the boys and girls favorite Kindergarten Memory is. We just started these this week so they are a work in progress but we got quite a few of them finished!

G,H, I, J, K and L Day Oh My!!

We have been super busy with our ABC Countdown the past 12 days! Yes this means that we "technically" only have 13 days left because our last day really isn't a day at all since all the parents do is come in with their child and pick up report cards. What better way to celebrate being halfway through our countdown than with  movie day tomorrow for the letter Mm! Here is a re-cap from the last few days! I want to apologize in advance because I have been terrible at taking pictures. I guess I am just having too much fun :)

G Day- Game Day!! We had a blast playing our games on Game Day. I was a big fan of the game Headbanz! I had never heard of this game before game day but am definitely going to buy it! What a great way to practice questioning and describing!!

H Day- Hula Hoops and Hiking
We had a great time hula hooping and going on our hike around the school! I love this picture of all of my kiddos enjoying nature :)

I Day- Icy Treats and Ink Pens. Students were allowed to use ink pens all day and then we had an icy treat at recess! 

J- Jungle Day

We learned about Jungle Animals and read If I Were a Jungle Animal and  then wrote an opinion piece about which jungle animal we would want to be. I love their responses!

 I would be a leopard because I can run fast. I like to grarrr. I love to hide in dots. It is fun. 

 I would be a giraffe because it is fun. I like to eat out of a tree. It is fun because they are cute. 

 I would be a lion because they are awesome. I would want to have sharp teeth. I can eat animals better. It would be awesome. 

 I would be a monkey because I love to swing on vines. I like monkeys because they are nice. I like bananas. I think it would be fun. 

I would be a monkey because I like bananas. They are fun. They are nice. It will be fun. 

Love their writing :) 

K- King for a Day and Kickball
Unfortunately we did not have nice enough weather to play kickball so we had to reschedule. Here a few of my Kings though!


L Day- Lunch Outside

Today was the perfect day to eat lunch outside!!


I can't wait to celebrate the rest of the year! It is going by too fast! Enjoy the rest of your week :)