Sunday, October 28, 2012

Pumpkin Patch Video :)

Please excuse the pictures if they are hard to see. I am just trying this out! (They are pictures taken with my iPhone which are not the best quality). If this works out like I am hoping it will, the next video will be much better quality. I promise :) The music is a song that my fiance wrote and it is also him singing :) Enjoy!!

Patterns

I know that patterns are not a Common Core Standard  (which is hard to believe) but I think that they are so important to learning! We see patterns everywhere, especially in our reading! Although I do not spend a lot of time on it,  I still teach patterns every year. (Even though it is not a standard.. gasp!! ) The boys and girls always love learning about patterns and especially love being able to find patterns in the real world!!  I feel learning about patterns gives them a sense of confidence because it is something they see everywhere and are able to understand fairly quickly.
First, we learned about sound and movement patterns..





Then we learned about color, shape and other patterns!



Do you still teach patterns in your class? 

Friday, October 26, 2012

100 Follower Freebie!!!!

I am so excited to say that I have 100 followers!! Blogging is so much fun and I am so thankful for each and every one of you!! I love being able to share ideas and learn new things to keep Kindergarten fun!  I hope that you all enjoy some of the products I share as well! There are lots more ideas stored in my brain. Finding the time to create them is the tough part! I do enjoy it though and have no problem staying home on a Friday night to create things :) Anyways, THANK YOU to everyone and here is to the next 100 :)
Now onto a freebie! I have been thinking about our upcoming DIBELS test in December and wanted a fun way for my students to practice real and nonsense words. Well here you go! This is a fun Thanksgiving themed game that I hope your students enjoy playing! Click here to grab this freebie from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!!
Freebie Fridays



Have a great weekend!! :)






Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Frosty Takes On The Globe

Have your kiddos told you about Frosty yet?? I am so excited to say that we are going to be a part of Frosty Takes On The Globe!!

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In a few weeks (we are #23 on the list) we will be getting Frosty in the mail!!! Click here to read all about this!!! The boys and girls were so excited when I showed them this site! It especially got them excited to practice writing because I told them about his journal and how we would be writing in it. Talk about motivation :) I will be sure to keep you all updated on Frosty's adventure and when we can expect him to arrive in our classroom!! 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Stretching Words

Today during writing we worked on s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out our words! I used my "Writing Worm" to model how to stretch out a word. The boys and girls thought this was just the greatest thing ever :) This was of course until I told them that they were going to get to use worms to stretch out their words as well.  The excitement on their faces was priceless. All of a sudden, writing became much easier and they had more confidence! I love using "writing worms"! This is also great for just segmenting words in general for things like DIBELS :) I got my worm (which is much bigger) and the student worms at the Dollar Tree!




Sunday, October 7, 2012

Classroom Change and A Freebie!

I hope you have all had a great fall break! Mine was very relaxing! I got to spend most of my time with my fiance before he had to fly out to Washington state. Since he has been gone I have been pretty much doing school stuff non stop! It has been nice getting some things checked off of my to do list! One of those things was to re-arrange my classroom! I like the way I had it set up before but I just felt that there was a lot of wasted space. Plus I had all 4 of my computers together and this allowed for a little too much talking during our computer station so I decided to separate them. :)  Hopefully this new set up will workout like I am thinking it will inside my head. But as you all know, sometimes things just don't go as well as you plan so we will see :) Here are a few photos of the new setup! I am pretty excited about it and am excited to see my sweet kiddos faces when they walk in on Monday! Oh yeah, I am also going to start using "community supplies" on Monday as well so I will let you know how this goes! Anyone out there currently do this and have any suggestions? 




Now for the freebie! I needed some sight word sheets to use during my Literacy Stations so I decided to create these! They go along with our Treasures Reading Series so they may or may not have all of the words you need. Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to download them for free! :) I plan on cutting them apart and maybe making a little book out of them. Not sure yet :) 
Have a great week!! 


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Common Core Writing Rubrics

I have spent lots of time trying to come up with the best possible way to create a writing rubric for my Kindergarten team. I have made probably 5 different versions of this and am finally happy with the one I just finished today! Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers Store  to get these to use in your classroom! Please let me know how these work out for you in your classroom!!
These Star Writing Rubrics are based on the Common Core Standards and can be used for both Kindergarten and First Grade. I have included several different rubrics for Narrative, Informative and Opinion Pieces. I have also included several different rubrics for conventions. There are also posters to print and hang in your classroom to go with each rubric and individual convention posters to print and use throughout the year as well. Directions are included and examples are given on how to use these rubrics in your classroom! I hope this helps your transition into Common Core and writing! 




Thursday, October 4, 2012

Fun On The Farm! (and a Freebie!!)


I am on fall break this week and have been working on a Farm Unit to use next week when I go back to school! You can find it in my TpT Store!  It includes over 65 pages of Literacy Station activities :)

I hope you find this easy to use and helpful! Have a great day!!
Oh yeah.. Click here to get this page for free :) Enjoy!!