Penguins and January Word Work Words!

I have been LOVING winter break! I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and now I have been relaxing up in the mountains of North Carolina! I am a total fan of cold weather (maybe because I don't live in it...I'm not sure), but I have been so happy up here!!

Here is some of my family that is up here. Two of my sisters weren't able to come :( One has work and the other will be going into labor any day now!! I will be an Aunt for the first time!!

I also just finished my penguin unit! This one took me awhile, but I am so excited about it! Here is a preview of some of the items included...

I will leave the unit on sale until Monday!! I hope ya'll enjoy it as much as me!!

I also finished up my January Word Work Cards! Just click on the picture below, re-download the cards, and the January words will be on the last page!! 

Enjoy!!

Elf Update!

We have been having a blast with Snow, our elf!! The children really look forward to seeing her everyday and she definitely is great to have around to help me out with behavior!!

Last Tuesday Snow was fishing for some gold fish...

On Wednesday we had our first field trip of the year. We went to see a wonderful play. Snow left me some paper to write down a naughty and nice list ;)

But, unfortunately one of the students touched Snow! So on Thursday she was not feeling great! Luckily, Santa sent some magical recovery dust (I downloaded it HERE for free). The kids had a blast sprinkling the magic dust on her...

and it worked! Because Friday she was all better. But, we couldn't figure out why she was holding a marker?  

It took a while for someone to finally go to the bathroom and see this....

Snow was cheering us on for FIELD DAY!!! Woo-Hoo!!

After the weekend, we arrived to school and found this...

Eeks! I can't believe she saw a mouse!! haha ;) 

I hope your students have been enjoying their Elf as much as we have!! I just love ours!!!

Look Who's Here!! The Elf on the Shelf!

I am OBSESSED with the Elf on the Shelf! I just can't help it! I LOVE it!! I know a lot of people think he is creepy...I just don't see that haha ;)

This year I have a couple students in my class with special needs. I know a couple of them don't do well with change. So, on Thursday I wanted to make sure to give them a little 'heads up'. I told the students that I had written a letter to Santa asking him for an Elf to come to our classroom. I told them I wasn't sure if Santa was going to be able to send the Elf because there aren't enough for all the classrooms and homes. But, if we did get one then we are super lucky!! Of course they had a million questions and I answered them all...how tall is he? Why is he coming? Does he talk? Can he play with us? ....

On Friday the students ran in looking for the elf, but he wasn't there. I told them that I didn't think the mailman came yet, but maybe he wasn't coming.  Then, before school was out, a special package was delivered to our class! It was freezing (came right out of the freezer) because it was a speedy delivery straight from the North Pole!! The kids couldn't believe it!! They thought they were touching snow! (we are in Florida so any kind of frost can be considered 'snow'). We read the book and quickly gave our Elf a name...Snow!! Santa also delivered the Elf on the Shelf DVD so we watched it before we went home. The DVD is totally a MUST! It really explains the Elf and even shows Santa packaging the Elf in the box that they come in.

This morning the kids were so excited to come inside and see where Snow landed!

She was 'bored' over the weekend without us, so she decided to make us little Christmas and Hanukkah countdowns! 

I can't wait for the students to see where she lands tomorrow...this is such an exciting and fun way to get ready for the holidays!! 

I found some ideas for the Elf and have them on my Pinterest board HERE if you need any :)

Cyber Monday Sale... Started Early!!

Thanks Ashley for the super cute graphic!! I just love that Penguin stuffed in at the bottom (right where my diet coke goes!!) I am actually buying that penguin pack during the sale so I can start creating my next unit!! Yay!!

Everything in my store will be 20% off. Then, if you enter the code CMT12 at checkout (Monday and Tuesday), you will get an additional 8% off! That is 28% off all items :) This doesn't happen often so it is time to stock up!! I have been adding to my wish list all week!! (I found lots of great clip art too!)

I combined my Gingerbread Unit into one big COMBO Pack...

It is the Yummy Batch of Literacy Centers...

with the Yummy Batch of Gingerbread Math...

I also have my new Christmas Unit on sale...All Wrapped Up! There are plenty of centers to get you through the month of December!!

If you don't need the entire unit, I did split the crafts up into one pack. So you can get all the crafts for only $3 during the sale!! I have to get a couple of these crafts done during this week. I took down EVERYTHING in my class before Thanksgiving...now it is definitely time to redecorate! 

and if you already spent way too much money at the malls on Black Friday, then don't forget to download this new freebie...

TPT Shopping!! Woo-hoo!!

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!! I am so thankful to all of you for even reading my blog and I am so thankful for all the friends I have made in the blogging world!

I have some units for December that I wanted to share with you because...THEY ARE ON SALE NOW!! Happy Black Friday!! :)

I also have a new freebie to share with you!! Just click on the picture below :)

I LOVE finding new, great things on TPT!! So, I am super excited to shop on Cyber Monday!! I have already been adding things to my 'Wish List' so it will super easy for me to put them in my cart and checkout! 

Happy Shopping!

Getting Ready for December!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

After Thanksgiving, my kindergarten team and I are going to spend two weeks on our gingerbread unit. Then, we are going to move into discussing the holidays before break!! I am super excited! Gingerbread is one of my favorites--my kids always have a blast reading and comparing the different books (and of course searching for the gingerbread man around school)!

I just re-did my entire gingerbread unit, A Yummy Batch of Gingerbread Math! If you've already purchased this from me, just head back over to TPT and download it again under 'My Purchases.' I updated some of the pages, made sure everything fits into Common Core (with the exception of the pattern activity), and I added in the cutest little gingerbread glyph!!

You can check out the whole unit by clicking below :)

I also added a brand new unit, Math, Literacy, Crafts, And More...All Wrapped Up!!

A couple people have emailed me asking if I would include the Christmas craftivities in a separate pack for them to purchase, so I will be working on that as soon as I beat my family in a game of cornhole ;)

Sight Word Fun!

I found the cutest sight word pack from Kristin over at A Teeny Tiny Teacher! 

Click on the photo to check out Kristin's pack!

I have always done sight word folders with my students, but I was never totally organized with it! This pack makes it SO easy for me! It came with a great parent letter to send home explaining the process (which I LOVE by the way). The students will start out by reading all the lists; then, when they are finished with all 30 lists, they will go back and spell the words. I was doing both reading and spelling at the same time---umm hello? Why didn't I think of doing it this way!! The pack also comes with a super cute 'Congratulations' certificate when the students finish and a great organizer for me to track student progress.

I gave all the students new sight word folders. Each time they get a 100% on their list, they earn a sticker to decorate their folder. They are loving this!

How do you do your sight words?? 

November Unit Update

Hope everyone had the chance to get out and VOTE today :)

I just wanted to quickly let you know that I am spending my day adding to my November Unit.  I have already added over 20 pages this morning and will continue to do so throughout the rest of the day/week. (I am also working on adding some craftivities!)

Make sure to head over to TPT, click on 'My Purchases' and re-download the unit if you already purchased it :)

Thanks!!!

I added these cute little guys too! But, if you don't want to purchase the entire November unit, you can find the Pilgrims HERE as well :)

Currently!

So I watch a ton of reality t.v...and the housewives (yep all of them) are some of my many shows! Gotta love it!! 

I can't, can't, can't wait til' Thanksgiving break! We only get the Thursday and Friday off, I wish we had the entire week, but I am still thankful that I have time to fly up to the mountains and spend some time in the NICE, FALL weather!!! Woo-hoo. This south Florida heat is killing me!!

I have class tomorrow from 8:30-3:30..that is awful...obviously!

I would love a HUGE glass of chocolate milk right now! Anyone going to the store? ;)

I have been SO busy every weekend and I work way too much during the week...unfortunately, my house has been neglected. I need to spend an entire day cleaning it!! But, I am just so tired!! How do you guys find the time!?

Lastly, I always play the baby einstein classical music c.d during our 'quiet work' times. The children love it and so do I!! But in real life, I am totally loving the Lumineers, Fun, and Phillip Phillips...they always make it onto my playlist :) If you don't know their songs..check them out!! You will love it!

Don't forget to link up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her November Currently linky party!!

Voting!

This week and Monday of next week we are learning all about voting!! I first thought that this may be a little difficult for them to understand, but let me tell you...they are doing amazing!!!

I started my lesson this morning by showing them the online video on elections by Let's Find Out Scholastic magazine (You can sign on and show your students HERE).  Then, they read their own Let's Find Out at their reading group. 

The story had some wonderful vocab words-candidates, polling place, booth, ballot, etc. We made sure to go over all of them and I will be using those terms all week!

Then, I explained to students that in order to vote you have to register. I showed them my voter's registration card and then we made our very own!

How cute are they!! They are from Glady's Election Unit that you can find here.  I had my students find their own birthdays on our birthday chart and copy it down. Then I wrote the school name and 'kindergarten' on the board for them to copy. I really wanted them to do all the work :)

I explained to the children (as stated in the Let's Find Out magazine) that when it is time to vote, you have to show your voters card. I told them that I will check their name off to make sure they only vote one time, then they will enter the booth. The booth is private so they can vote secretly. My children took this SO seriously and they were SO excited to get started!!

I am using different questions to vote, from Deedee Will's Survey Says unit. Then, I just created different ballots to go with her questions. 

Look how cute they are in our booth...

Later in the day, I opened the ballot box and we graphed the results. Today, pizza was the winner for the best food!! :) Yum! 

Every day we will vote for something new, then on Monday of next week we will make our choice for President. 

I will say, some of my students were making opinions on Obama and Romney today--I was cracking up! In the Let's Find Out magazine it talks about how Obama likes basketball and Romney likes skiing. Then it said that Obama likes chili and Romney likes granola. Some of my students were so grossed out by the chili for some reason and decided that they liked Romney instead! I told them to hold off on any decisions until we learned more--and to make sure they kept their opinion a secret!! Too funny!

Spiders! Ahh!

I am TERRIFIED of all kinds of creepy crawly things! Spiders, insects, lizards, snakes....Yuck!! But, for some reason I LOVE teaching about spiders :)

We have had a blast this week learning about spiders. We only finished our first week, so we still have another week to go and my kids continue to impress me with the knowledge that they have gained!

We started the unit off by 'splashing' some vocab words onto our Word Splash. I use the Word Splash all year and students love helping me 'splash' on new words. I read the words with them, but I don't tell them what the words mean. Their job is to recognize the words as I am reading. After we read a word we will go over the meaning :)

Then the students helped me label the parts of a spider. They also completed their own labeling sheet during morning centers.

As we read more non-fiction spider books, we are continuing to add on to our comparison chart. The children are loving this chart! I have one for the students to complete at centers when we are finished with our whole group chart.

We also made these precious spiders! They look adorable hanging in my room!! The girls have a bow in their hair and the boys have a bow tie :)

All of these activities and MUCH more can be found in my spider unit. I know I am a little delayed on adding this to TPT so it is on SALE :) You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

Thanks!!

Bats

My students' have been learning SO much about bats! It has really been a blast! We just wrapped up our two week unit so I wanted to share some of the activities we worked on. 

The first week we really focused on filling out our KWL. I spend the first day only filling out the K and W of our chart. I write everything that the children say under the 'Know' column. I make sure to explain to them that sometimes we think we Know something, but it may be a misconception. So as we learn about bats we revisit the K column and cross out statements that were misconceptions and we try to change them to make them true statements. 

I took this picture around day 3, so we weren't anywhere near finished yet, but the children were doing great! It isn't the cutest chart, but it works! :)

Whenever we are learning about a particular topic, I really want all of their centers to be based on the same topic. So we had two weeks of 'Batty' centers!

 Our pocket chart centers:

 They sorted the beginning sound pictures and worked on the sight word 'like'

Then they completed their activity sheet...

We played some dice games! This center is always a hit!

 Students' also worked on writing their numbers. This is big in my class this year! I have a lot of kiddos that need to work on this skill 

They also matched the numbers with the number word. This was the first time my students' did this and it was a little challenging for them. I am definitely going to have to make another center like this for our next theme.

The children worked on beginning sounds here. They would write the letter of the beginning sound they spun. When my students' were working on this they let me know that I made a mistake on the activity sheet! I made a 'P' for pumpkin and the picture is NOT a pumpkin it is a Jack O'Lantern! They couldn't get past this!! (I did update it in my unit if you purchased it) Gotta love kids :)

Another beginning sounds activity. We have done this center a couple times for different themes and my children are rocking it out now independently!! 

 We also had a blast working on this WONDERFUL activity which you can grab FREE HERE from Jodi at Fun in First! They worked in 6 groups and each group had to cut out and glue 100 mosquitoes. At the end they were able to visualize just how many mosquitoes a bat can eat in one hour!

We also labeled the bat whole group. I called on students to come up and put on a label. They loved this! We actually had to do it twice because everyone wanted a turn! :)

All of these activities and much, much more can be found in my bat unit HERE on TPT. 

My students also worked on these candy corn puzzles together. They are great for practicing letter names and sounds!! 

 These candy corn puzzles can be found by clicking on the image below :)

             

I made some new candy corn puzzles for them this week as well. This time they will be at one of their math centers. I am really excited to see how they do on this! Click below to see more.

Enjoy!!