Collage Blanket [A GREAT room mom gift idea!]

I don't normally share things like this on my blog, but this is too good not to share! I kept seeing the ads on my Facebook page or my Instagram for these Collage.com blankets.  When I finally clicked on the website to check it out, I was really impressed!

The website gives you the option to connect to your social media outlets, meaning that it can quickly gain access to your photos (I am all about quick and easy)! I connected to both my Facebook and Instagram by signing in. Then, you just scroll through and choose some of your favorite photos--the more photos you choose the smaller they will appear on your blanket; however, you can choose A LOT or a few.  I went with a few of my family favs!

You can easily play with the layout and move photos around as well...its super simple! I checked out really easily and gave my cell number at check out. I immediately received a text confirming my order and then a couple days later a text saying my blanket was on its way!! AMAZING service!

 We all love this blanket, its SO soft and snuggly! My husband is actually snoozing under the blanket right now as I type this, haha! Ours is a 50x60 sherpa blanket.

I always tell you guys that the second I became a mom, I became obsessed with all the craft keepsakes and memory pages! Then it dawned on me, what a great gift this photo blanket would be for a room mom! You can add photos of their child from throughout the school year and surprise them!! Collage.com always has amazing discount codes so it would be an inexpensive and cherished gift! 

St. Patrick's Day Craft and Other Fun Ideas

St. Patrick's Day is a magical time for the kids.  We always read some fun St. Patrick's books that day and make a leprechaun trap in groups (STEM). We also do a fun cooking activity together! 

For writing on St. Patrick's Day we make this super cute leprechaun craft. There are different writing options to choose from, and I give my students the choice of what writing page they want. You can grab this craft HERE.

Another one of my favorite things to do is put on music and work on a directed drawing. 

I love First Grade Blue Skies directed drawing activities and she has a great leprechaun FREEBIE HERE.  These make for a very relaxing afternoon! A great Friday activity!

Another one of my favorites is this FREEBIE HERE from Sunny Days. It was made for a second grade classroom, but I think kindergarten and first graders would love it as well! Being a mom, I LOVE these kind of keepsake projects!

This would be a great way to turn your cooking project into a STEM project as well! Instead of play-doh, you can use large marshmallows or even the small white powdered donuts!! This way your cooking project is totally independent! You can grab this FREEBIE HERE from Creatively Teaching First.

I would love to hear your fun ideas for St. Patrick's Day below!

You can also grab some of my in store freebies by clicking on and of the images below.

Penguin Unit in Kindergarten

Teaching the Penguin Unit was definitely one of my favorites during the year! The kids learn so much and there are so many fun, interactive, activities to do!! 

I think a lot of kindergarten teachers have moved away from themes like Penguins because it 'doesn't fit into their curriculum anymore'. However, you really CAN incorporate this into your curriculum-your living/nonliving unit, real/pretend, how animals grow and change, and even your life cycle science unit. Of course it is very easy to incorporate all of your reading and writing skills too! Check out my framework HERE that I presented to my administration :)

We always started off our unit by working together to fill out the 'K' and 'W' of our KWL.

We usually always do that whole group in the morning; however, this particular time I had the students write about it during our writing block and they did wonderfully! I did tell them that they had to write one thing they 'knew' and one thing that they were 'wondering'.

During our nonfiction units we also used our 'word splash'. We 'splashed' the words on at the beginning of our unit, then we listened for them as we read throughout the unit.  If we heard a word, I would move the word to the side and we would discuss the meaning.

I had students turn and talk to discuss their new learning and discuss the word splash words. We did this every day! It helps them retain all of the information!

There are so many wonderful center ideas, if you are doing centers anyways, then why not do them thematically?!

At the writing center they did this cute drawing activity. Students will be drawing lots of penguins during writing so this is the perfect way to teach them! At the bottom of the page they wrote about penguins as well.

At our word work center students put their penguin cards in alphabetical order.

Then they used their best handwriting to record the letters.

They read and followed the directions on the activity sheet to color in the correct amount of penguins during math centers.

We were also working on reading ten frames. In 'What Comes Next?' they chose a card, read the ten frame, and recorded that number. Then, they wrote the next 3 numbers. 

To work on reading and sight words, students built simple sentences in the pocket chart and practiced reading them to one another with a pointer.

 There are different activity sheet options in my penguin pack; however, I had students record the sight word 'is' for extra practice.

In 'Time to Find Food' students counted the number of penguins and the number of fish on their card and added the numbers together.

 Another great sight word activity, 'It's Feeding Time!' Students built the sight word on their penguin and recorded the word three times on their activity sheet.

'Penguin pairs' works on rhyming words.

 We also worked on reading and sorting real CVC words vs. nonsense CVC words.

In writing there are a couple of options to choose from. I've done both and can't decide which one I like better!

 We've created an 'All About Penguins' book FULL of non-fiction information that we learned throughout the unit.

We've also used this cute penguin craft as our 'All About Penguins' book! Either way students are learning SO much!

Some of my favorite videos to watch and listen to during the penguin unit are below:

All Things Animals: Penguins episode

All About Penguins for Kids

Top Ten Funny Penguin Videos

Jack Hartmann Penguin Dance

I've linked other videos in my Animal Framework at the top of the post as well!

Kindergarten Halloween Party

I LOVE holiday parties in class because the kids have the best day ever; however, I am all for easy planning!! I want to enjoy the party too and not be stressed out! These are some ideas of centers I have done in the passed, along with ones that I want to try out! 

When I have a holiday party in class I usually have my room mom take care of the centers/emailing parents for donations, etc. But I do tell my room mom some center ideas and things that I want to see. I have found that when I don't take some control of the holiday parties, my room mom has great ideas, but some aren't age appropriate or some are too short and the party is over too quickly (which then means the kids get wild), etc.

I ALWAYS do centers at my parties. The kids have to stay in their center until the bell rings, then we all switch.  If I don't do centers, some kids rush through the activities and are done with the hour and a half party in twenty minutes. Then what? Centers are MUCH easier, trust me.

One of my favorite Halloween centers is decorating mini pumpkins. The kids love this and it also gives them something to take home! I ask that each child donates a mini pumpkin. Then I purchased the foam stickers from Oriental Trading. They stick VERY well!! You can find one pack HERE. 

 At one center we played Candy Corn bowling.  The kids loved this center (just make sure it is somewhere in the corner where the pins aren't flying everywhere).  You can make this center academic too! HERE is an awesome addition worksheet to accompany the bowling. 

 Now this is an activity I haven't tried yet, but I love it! I think it would be easy and fun! You can purchase the mini play-doh's at Target or even Costco.  I found them on Amazon HERE.  I wound't pre-package this center as a kit. I would leave the play doh, beads, eyes, and pipe cleaners out for children to use. Then, when it is time to clean up, you can stick it in a zip-lock bag for them to take home and use again! This idea is from 'A Dab of Glue' and she offers the printable for free as well!
Another cute and easy center is this pumpkin q-tip painting center. When these dry, I add them into their poetry notebooks. You can grab this freebie HERE.

I like to always have one center that is a 'cooking center'. Here are a couple cooking center ideas!

 Make your own monster cookie. I would buy the cookies pre-made from the grocery store. We use food coloring to dye the vanilla icing and I leave tongue depressors in the icing for kids to use as they spread the icing on their cookie. You can ask parents to donate small tubes of gel icing for decorating and you can find the googly eye sprinkles at the grocery store or on Amazon HERE.

 If you haven't use this cooking activity yet in class during your bat unit, then it is perfect for your Halloween party. Super simple and the kids love it!! Again, I used a small tube of gel icing as the 'glue' for the eyes and the fangs. 

I didn't want to have too much sugar so I had mini water bottles at the center for the kids to have a drink. Just made it a little more fun by adding these bat straws!

I usually have 4 or 5 centers at our holiday parties. When all centers are complete, I gather the kids at the carpet for one whole group game.  This gives my volunteers time to clean the room up while we are all together (calming down). At our Halloween party we play 'pin the nose on the Jack O' Lantern'. I've always made a pumpkin and noses in the passed with construction paper, but I found this one cheap online HERE.  This is SO fun and a perfect way to end the party.

Towards the end of the day we watch a Halloween video or two and say our goodbyes! It really is a calm and fun day...not too much planning and prepping involved, but the kids have a blast!!

Here are some videos we have enjoyed in the past:

Dancing videos:

Monster Moves by Koo Too Kanga Roo

Halloween Stomp

Halloween Freeze Dance

Skeleton Dance

Stories/Shows:

The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

The Berenstain Bears: Trick or Treat

The Berenstain Bears: The Prize Pumpkin

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