Thursday, April 25, 2013

Career Day Writings

Here are a few of the writings for Career Day that I said I would post.
 When I grow up I want to be a Kindergarten teacher. And we read a book called When I Grow Up. 
-Olivia

Here is the book. I highly recommend it!! The boys and girls loved it!

 When I grow up I want t be a safari man.
-Alex

When I grow up, I want to be a bug scientist.
-Isaiah

I love career day. It is always fun to see what everyone wants to be when they "grow up". I hope that each and every one of my students always strives to be exactly what they want to be. Although this may change down the road, as long as they have a dream, they can be anything they want!


D Day- Day at Lucky Ladd Farms :)

Here is a sneak peak of our trip to Lucky Ladd Farms for D Day!! We had a blast and the kids are exhausted  I am exhausted!! :) The boys and girls played on the amazing playground, petted and fed farm animals, planted a sunflower seed, went on a hayride and smiled the whole way :) I love days like this!! 


 Learning about sunflowers in the outdoor classroom!
 I wish schools had outdoor classrooms like this!! :)
 Getting ready to feed the animals!
 Best friends having fun!
Brushing the goats!

I will hopefully upload more pictures this weekend! For now, I am thinking about calling it a night. Yes, I know it is only 6:10. It's never too early for bed right? :)


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

ABC Countdown to the End of the Year!!

It is crazy to think we started our ABC Countdown to the end of the year on Monday!!! For A day we always do Aloha day. Students dress for a luau, bring in fruit for a fruit salad and their beach towels!! This is probably my favorite day during our countdown. The kiddos always have a good time and are just as excited as me to be spending the next 26 days doing different activities!!
The boys and girls are saying "ALOHA!!!!" (love the hula girls in the back and the wide open expression in the middle :) 

For B day we did Bubble Day!! We blew bubbles with bubble gum, wrote an informative piece on "How to Blow a Bubble" (pictures coming soon), blew bubbles outside (pictures coming soon) and then did this fun bubble craft! I usually use paint and soap to create these but this includes using a different straw for each student and color (and lots of time). This year, I used actual bubbles and food coloring and they turned out great!! The boys and girls loved seeing the big bubbles show up on their papers and then pop them!

Today was C day and we had Career Day! We were so busy today that I forgot to take pictures! :( I will take some pictures of their writings and upload those soon. I had lots of different careers today including; football players, a rockstar, a drummer, a principal, a Zookeeper, A "Bug Scientist", lots of teachers and more!!!! It is pretty exciting to think that these students can be anything they want to be :)

This is what I sent home to my parents explaining the ABC Countdown and a list of the different activities!!



I am so excited for the rest of our ABC countdown including our Day at the Farm tomorrow for D Day!!!


On a side note, here is the Music City Miracle Choir singing the National Anthem Monday night at the Nashville Sounds baseball game!! They did great!! So proud!! :)


Myself and the other 3 co-directors including my fiance and  good friends Stacy and Aubrie are kneeling in front :) 

Spring Writing Craft

I am SO proud of how well my students are writing. I am amazed every year at what 5 and 6 year olds can do!! I love watching the writing process and love the looks on their faces when they "get it". Here is a Spring writing craft we did a few weeks ago! These have been hanging up in our classroom to brighten it up for spring!! Click here to go grab this craft for free!!!


2013-2014 Calendar!

I know that we are just getting into the last few weeks of school but I am already looking ahead to next year! I really needed a calendar to use to start my planning so I updated and posted my 2013-2014 calendar on Teachers Pay Teachers! I know lots of you downloaded my 2012-2013 calendar (THANK YOU!!!) so I hope you find this one useful as well! It starts in August (2013) and ends in July (2014) I reeeeaaalllllly wanted to post this as a freebie but due to the new TpT policies of keeping freebies to only a few pages, I am selling this for only $1.00!  Click here to go to my store! Happy planning!!!


Monday, April 15, 2013

Subtraction Buzz!!

Here is a subtraction freebie for you to use in your classroom! This is the Spring version of my Snowman Melts game! These only go through 5 but I am planning on making more to go through 10 later this week. I will most likely make this an addition and subtraction pack so be sure to check back! My students love the Snowman Melts game so I am excited for them to play this one! Click here to get yours for free!!  Enjoy!! :)



Sunday, April 14, 2013

Quiz Quiz Trade

Do you play Quiz Quiz Trade in your classroom? This is one of the BEST things I have discovered this year and I am so thankful I did. My students love it and they are pros at it! Check out my friend (and colleague) Debbie Burton's post explaining what it is!!! Click here to go to her blog! 
This is us playing Quiz Quiz Trade with syllables! 

Insects!!

We have been doing an Author Study on Eric Carle so what better time to learn about insects!?! We have been having lots of fun reading Eric Carle books and non-fiction books on insects as well! We have been creating a list of "Insects" and "Not Insects" and it is fun to add to the list each day as the boys and girls come in excited to tell me something they want to add!





Group Work Success!!

One thing that I am proudest of this year is my kiddos ability to work together. I have really stressed this and held them accountable for not only themselves, but their partners or groups as well and they do an amazing job of helping each other. They have really learned the difference of "helping" not "doing" the work for them. This has been something that took a while to teach, but the results have been great!!


Bowling and Brenda Lee !!

We have been working really hard on subtracting and since I have had this in my car since November I decided to get it out to play subtraction bowling!!
Talk about a good time!!!! Instead of using a recording sheet, we just wrote the subtraction problems in our journals and it worked great! This was not only fun, but a great way to practice subtracting. It gave a great visual as well. Each child got two turns. We always started with 10 for our first problem and then used whatever number was left as our second problem. Ex. Ms. Mentzer knocked down 4 pins so our problem was 10-4=6. Then she knocked down 3 pins. Our new problem was 6-3=3. We then of course had two more turns just for fun and said the problems out loud rather than writing them down. This is an easy, cheap, (the bowling set was like $12) fun activity that we will use over and over and could even be played at home!!!





On another note, the Special Olympics Choir that I am a co-director of had our Spring Concert on Saturday!! We had such a good time and the boys and girls did amazing!! We even had a special guest come and sing her hit song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with us!!! 


The Music City Miracle Choir singing with Brenda Lee!!!! (She is so sweet!!) Check out the choir on our Facebook Page!!!

It Is So Hot Hot Hot!!

My students absolutely LOVE the Snowman Melts Game from my Teachers Pay Teachers store! They beg me to play so I decided to make this an early finishers activity. As you can see the group quickly grew as they were eager to finish their work so that they could play. They are playing the addition one. I really think they just like saying "It is so Hot, Hot, Hot!" :)  I am hoping to make a subtraction version of this game this week! Click here to go to my store to get this game for your classroom!




Something About Sidewalk Chalk

We finally had a nice enough day to go outside and use our sidewalk chalk that the Leprechaun brought us! There is something about combining sidewalk chalk and Kindergarten kids that makes me smile. It could be the fact that we were outside or the excitement on their faces when I told them we were going out. Maybe a combination of both. We of course had to write some sight words and do some addition problems first but then they were able to draw or write whatever they wanted. They had a blast! :)