Spiders

Why do I love teaching about spiders...when I really don't like them?! Today I took out all my folders for the next 3 weeks to start prepping everything.  Right now I am sitting on my bed that has literally been taken over...

Is this normal? 

Anyways, I came across some super cute spider, bat, and pumpkin activities that I cannot wait to do!! I love decorating the classroom in October!  Here is one simple activity that is super easy to prep, and the kids love it! Before we complete the sentences, we sit together and brainstorm different adjectives.  Most of the boys always end up writing scary, spooky, or awesome, while the girls always seems to choose beautiful, pretty, and nice.  It is fun to see what they come up with!

We make the spiders with our hands (except our thumb) and the eyes are hole reinforcements. I am attaching the sheet that is seen in this picture in case you want to try it out this year :)  I am also attaching another one I just whipped up really fast (trying to be creative).  I got the cute orange frame from Kirsten Peters McGrath over at ETSY.

Spider Sheet (creative) 

Spider Sheet (seen in picture) 

Enjoy!

Friday Cafe

Every Friday our class does a cooking project that correlates with the theme.  I usually put the cooking activity at one of their morning rotations.  This year I am sending out an email the Friday prior to let the parents know what donations I will need.  Then they 'reply to all' with the ingredient that they will send in.  You can do it this way or if you don't want so many emails you can send out all your cooking activities for the month (or for a couple of months) and have parents sign up to bring the ingredients for the week.  Right now this is our 'Friday Cafe,' but if you have any other cute ideas please let me know!!! So far we have made:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Trees

'All About Me' faces

Apple Trees

Coming up soon in our Friday Cafe we have:

-Apple taste testing: Trying red, green, and yellow apples-plain, with peanut butter, and with caramel.  We will also try apple juice and apple pie! Yum!

-Fire trucks for our mini theme on careers and Fire Safety Week

(pictures to come)

Enjoy!

Pinspiration!

While I was 'blog stalking' this summer I saw so many posts talking about bucket fillers.  I had never heard this term before and had never read any of the bucket filler books.  I figured it was a behavior plan and since my school already has one that we need to follow, I kind of skipped over the posts.  Well, I WAS MISSING OUT!!  This past Thursday our third grade book buddies were scheduled to come to our classroom and meet my kids for the first time.  They were so excited to meet them, but I wanted to find the perfect project to start off the year.  The third grade teacher suggested that we read:

 

I actually read the book to my kids before the third graders came down, because I wanted to make sure they were going to understand the book (I totally underestimated them!).  When our book buddies came we read the book again and did a project I found on pinterest (addicted):

The children all loved the book and really seemed to understand the concept.  Later that same day my kids were playing at free choice centers and I was sitting at the reading table.  I overheard one of the boys stand up and say "drip, drip, drip." Right away I looked up and asked him, "What's the matter?"  He said, "He is dripping from my bucket when he knocks the truck into my tower!" I couldn't believe that they were already using the bucket filler lingo!  At the very end of the day one of the kids came over and gave me a hug goodbye and another student said, "Oh, wow! He is really filling your bucket, isn't he?"

I am now in love with Bucket Fillers.  I have already shared the concept with the parents of my students in hopes that we can continue using this in school and at home! LOVE IT!!

While I am talking about my 'pinspiration' I will show you some other pictures of anchor charts that I have gotten from pinterest as well.  Seems like most of these ideas came from a WONDERFUL blog, The Inspired Apple

seen HERE

Enjoy!

Candy Corn Game

I have had so much fun finding new ideas on pinterest! I think I have spent the majority of my free time this week making new anchor charts and activities for my class. 

I saw a couple of activities for kindergartners where they were matching the lowercase/capital letter with a beginning sound picture.  Being that it is almost Halloween, I decided to create a candy corn version of this idea!

I can't always print in color (I have been using so much colored ink lately), but I figured I can print the black and white on card stock and quickly color them in  before laminating.  (In the pack I include a color version as well!)  Hopefully you can use these in your classroom!

Candy Corn Game 

Enjoy!