Apples!

I feel like I haven't been on my blog in forever!! School is so busy right now and this past week I took a day off and spent a long weekend up in DC for a friend's bachelorette party! We had a blast!! Here we are after finishing 2 wine tours ;)

In class these past 2 weeks we have been learning all about apples! The students reviewed numbers one through six:

 They worked on beginning sounds (they really impressed me with this too! They completed it totally independently!)

 We completed another 'Just a lil dot' activity...

 I am not a glitter fan, but these turn out too cute!

 I found a new favorite center. The students hunted around the room for ten frames! So fun! The best part was overhearing them helping each other and using their vocabulary terms. I heard students saying, "I found the seedings!" It made me smile :)

 They also worked on some one-to-one correspondence (dice games are definitely a must with my group this year)...

All of the centers above can be found in my apple unit HERE

Tomorrow we are having Johnny Appleseed Day! I am having parents come in and help me run some centers. Our centers will be:

1. Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed! coloring sheet from Peace, Love, and Learning that I found for free (download on TPT by clicking the image)

2. One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Bunch form Deanna Jump's Apple Unit

3. Johnny Appleseed Craftivity (from my Apple Unit)

4. Apple Measuring (from my unit as well)

5. and of course, we will be taste testing! I saw this fun picture on Pinterest and sent it to my room mom. So I am excited to see what yummy items she brings tomorrow for the kids (and me of course) ;)

Starting Monday we are going to be learning all about bats! I am super excited for this unit!! Happy (almost) Friday!!

Writing with Kinders!!

I am so, so, so excited to share this WONDERFUL writing center with you!! 

I have been eyeing Deedee's writing work stations since the end of last year.  I was still eyeing them all summer, so two weeks ago I decided I just had to have them! I couldn't think about it any longer :) 

Well, after seeing the Writing Work Stations for August and September I realized that I needed ALL of them!! The pack really is that great! Deedee bundles her full writing work stations here:

Right away I printed the unit and set it all up in my class.

 I was a little nervous about it because I do have a pretty low class and they are really not writing at all yet! But, after completing one activity with them, I wondered why I EVER doubted them!! Kids always seems to amaze me!

I introduced their new writing center to them and I called a couple kids up to find certain vocabulary cards on the wall. Then, I showed them what their center activity was going to be. Since it was their first time going to the writing center, I only gave them two choices- they could choose to label or make a list. I reminded them to write their name, use a pencil to write words, and use the correct colors to color in the pictures. Then, we started our morning rotations and I left them alone to complete their centers while I lead reading groups---I was crossing my fingers that they understood how to complete the activity.  When the first rotation was over, I went to the writing center to see how they did...HOLY COW...they are amazing...

This wasn't just one or two kids that did this great, they all did!!

These are kindergartners!! On the second week of school!! Can you believe it??

 I could not be happier with Deedee's writing stations! The thing I love about them is that they are the same activities each month, but with different vocabulary cards. Now my students will know what to do, they will know my expectations, and they will be able to complete this center independently all year! 

This writing pack goes perfectly with my other writing packs to complete my writing center.

Five Senses

I am revisiting this old post to link up with The First Grade Parade's Throwback Thursday!! 

This post is in my top three all-time viewed posts so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to revisit it, especially since this is one of the first units I teach when school starts again in August!! Make sure to click on the image above to join other bloggers as they revisit oldies but goodies!!
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I. Am. Exhausted.  

When am I going to get used to the school day again? I got home yesterday and put the t.v. on to watch Big Brother from the night before. I woke up and realized I missed the entire show, so I started it all over again, and woke up and realized I missed the entire show! So, I am now trying for the third time to watch it! Ahh!!

On a different note, we've been having a blast learning about the five senses :)  I am just finishing up my second week on this unit and the children have all learned SO much! They are also making so much progress in the classroom with rules and procedures!

I wish I took more pictures, but here are a couple activities we worked on :) The students cut out and matched the pictures with the correct sense. We have science journals so this was a perfect activity to add into our journal...

...they don't all color this way, but I did tell them I had my camera out and was going to take a picture if they did a good job!! So they reallllly wanted their photos taken :)

The second week of five senses, they added in another page, and they labeled the five senses. Look how great they are doing with coloring using the right colors!! (I have been stressing this during our writing block)   :)

We played lots of five sense games like sound BINGO and I Spy, they were both a hit! The I Spy game we played using all items from around the classroom. I called students up and had them reach in the bucket to choose a card. They then said, "I spy with my little eye, scissors!" (or whatever card was chosen) Then, I had them choose another student to go find that object in the class. It was great! I also had the children work in their first pocket chart center. They had a five sense picture sort and they did fabulous. A couple of the kids actually said they LOVE the pocket chart! haha

We've been working on our five senses independent reader. I was honestly soooo excited that all my students were able to write 'I' and 'can' on each of the pages in their book. I was so, so, so proud!!  They were our first two sight words and the children are doing great with them! These books will go into their book bins so they can continue to practice reading during our morning reading rotations.

I finished Open House this week!! That's always nice to get done with :) Here is my teaching bestie and me getting ready...gotta re-straighten the hair after a long day of school :)

All of my five sense activities came from my unit on TPT. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below.

and you can grab your five sense FREEBIE by clicking on the photo below....Your students will love this game!!!

Enjoy your weekend!!

Back to School in Kindergarten :) and a freebie!

First off, I have to give a huge thank you to Elizabeth from Mrs. Hodge and Her Kindergarten Kids for allowing me to guest post on her blog yesterday! I was able to share a great freebie that I have in my TPT store and that my students this year are already loving!

Here are some pictures of my cuties using the 'Making Words and More' pack.  They are working on their ABC's with magnetic letters...

My first week of school actually went very smoothly. My class is a little loud and of course I felt like I was repeating myself over, and over, and over; but, I love my group of little ones already!

Here are some activities we did this week...

 The kids had a blast practicing making glue dots! They did such a good job! I was so proud of them! We decided to sprinkle some glitter on our monsters at the end :)

You can grab the glue dot practice for free HERE

We also had so much fun with playing the monster number roll. I think I need to make this game for a couple of our upcoming themes as well!

We also made our Monster Glyph (which I now have on my hallway bulletin board). I used googly eyes instead of having the children cut out the eyes. My kids are working very slowwwwly right now at centers, so I thought that would save some time!!

Everyday I had the students make one page in their Monster Classroom Rules book. The children loved making this! They couldn't wait to take the books home.

All of these activities and much more can be found in my Monster Unit here on TPT :) 

I am putting my entire store on sale for Labor Day! Thanks Hadar from Miss Kindergarten for making this cute button!! Have a wonderful weekend!!