Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Bunny Blog Hop

A Tisket, A Tasket, Freebies for your Basket!
Several phenomenal teachers and bloggers are joining forces for an amazing bunny blog hop!  As you follow us along the bunny trail, you will visit some of your favorite blogs and discover a few new blogs too!  Each with a fabulous freebie just for you!

Thank you for hopping on over to my blog! 

Easter Egg Surprise
I hope you find some wonderful Freebies while you are hopping along.  We are graphing our "Surprise" Easter Eggs tomorrow.  I filled lots of plastic eggs with jellybeans and put them in a cute little basket.  Each child will get to pick one egg from the basket.  After opening the eggs, sorting and graphing the colors......guess what, we get to eat the jellybeans!  Yummy!  I love yummy lessons!  Have a great Easter.  Check back later to see pictures of my classroom having a blast with this activity. 

Click on the picture below to download this graphing freebie!
Thanks for stopping by and visiting!  If you are new to my blog and liked what you see, don't forget to follow me.  A Tisket, A Tasket, next up with a Freebie for your Basket is Renee from Fantastic First Grade Froggies.  Hop on over!
Fantastic First Grade Froggies

Just in case you didn't join us from the beginning, here is an ordered list of all the participating blogs.

Stephany from Primary Possibilities
Sally from Elementary Matters
Lory from Fun for First
Linda from Primary Inspiration
Nicole from Mrs. Rios Teaches Second Grade
Brian from Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings
Liz from The Happy Teacher
Jennie from JD's Rockin' Readers
Sarah from Learning is for Superstars
Teresa from Fun in K/1
Nikki from Teaching in Progress
Faith from Kindergarten Faith
Renee from Fantastic First Grade Froggies
Amy from Happy Teacher Heaven
Leah from Learn with Leah
Nicole from Teaching's a Hoot
Kristy from The Phonic's Phenomenon
Rich from Mr. Giso's Room to Read
Susanna from Whimsy Workshop
Amy from Motivate to Learn
Lola from Preschool Wonders
Kimberli from Mixing the Next Batch


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Build a Sundae & Review

Spring break was wonderful, but it does feel good to be back in the classroom.  I think my kiddos missed me.  We picked up right where we left off before spring break with addition and our long vowel review. I don't think the kids missed a beat

In math today we reviewed addition, and I got out our "real" pennies!  The kids love being the teacher, so I had one student write out an addition problem and his/her partner got to answer it.  Then of course we switch roles.   I had to remind them that they needed to keep their numbers under 10, or I believe I might have seen 1000 +1000!   It is so funny when they learn/hear/memorize simple, but big number addition problems.  hehehehe  :o)

The kids have also gotten soooo excited seeing some of the new addition activities I made for them.  These are from my Build a Sundae, Addition and Subtraction set.  It is amazing how motivated they can get to do a paper when they see something on it they love - ice-cream!  :o)  Yummy!

On this little paper the kids are cutting out the ice cream scoop answer to solve the addition problem.  We also worked with the Build an Ice Cream Cone center set, and the kids built their own ice cream cone addition problems.
  
We are going to get out the Banana Splits next week! Click here, Build a Sundae - Addition & Subtraction, or on any of the pictures to find this resource on TpT.

This week we are also reviewing "long e."  Now that the kids have figured out how to do our weekly crossword puzzles, from our Crossword Puzzle Phonics Fun set, they are flying through them.   Way to go Kindergarten!  I missed you.

"Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward for him."  Psalm 137: 3

Sunday, March 17, 2013

A Blogging Friend's Giveaway

I am excited to be helping a blogging buddy with her fantastic birthday giveaway.  She just celebrated her blog's 2nd birthday and is giving away 3 great bundles -  I Love Literacy, I Love Math, and I Love Learning.

I am giving away my Lessons From a Lemonade Stand unit in her I Love Learning Pack.


Click on the picture above.  
Congratulations Tiffani over at Time 4 Kindergarten.

"Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed." Proverbs 19:17

Friday, March 15, 2013

Spring Break is Here!

Spring Break is Here!!

We are headed to the zoo today with some friends.  I am looking forward to spending time with my kids!  If this is your spring break, have lots of fun too!
Yes, I can't wait to see the hippos.  They are my favorite!

 "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." Genesis 1:31


Sunday, March 10, 2013

March Madness Sale

Today officially starts our Kinderland March Madness Sale over at Teacher Pay Teachers (TpT)!  Many of us have our products 20% off - WOW!  Check out the list below.
My friend Nicole over at Lanier's Lions was my partner for our product swap before the sale.  She has many great classroom resources, and this past week we used her Kitty Kalculations pack.  I posted pictures earlier showing the fun we were having (the kids totally loved the spinner).  Next week are going to use her Sight Word Secret Code pack.  The kids get so excited when they have to "figure" something out.  Click on the pictures below to find this great pack on TpT.
I told them that now they had a "secret code" to write notes in with their friends.  I could see the girls' eyes light up....the boys not so much!!  :o)

I also wanted to share with you one of my fun spring units. 
I have incorporated many math and ELA skills into this pack and added some very "yummy" suggestions for how to use it.   In one of the graphing activities the kids will try 3 different flavors of lemonade (lemonade, limeade and  pink lemonade).  When everyone is finished picking their favorite kind, the kids will survey the class and record their findings.  YUMMY!

Other activities include are cupcake graphing, addition & subtractions problems, math story problems, measurement, punctuation, adjectives, verbs, mixing words (CVC, CCVC, CVCC), letter matching and alphabetical order.

Let the madness begin! :o)

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7





Thursday, March 7, 2013

A Big Sale & Crossword Puzzle Phonics Fun

March is definitely here, and the madness has begun!!  :o)  Does your March schedule seem to be filled with everything?  Take kids here, take kids there, take kids everywhere!

Back in the classroom we are reviewing, building and growing.  After learning all 44 wonderful sounds, we go back through and review.  We are finishing our 5 week short vowel review where we work on one vowel sound a week and focus on reading words with that sound.  


My kids love it when I give them a challenge, so why not do it with something that "big" people do - Crossword Puzzles.  This fun set, Crossword Puzzle Phonics Fun Set 1, includes words for all 5 short vowels and all 5 long vowels.  Each vowel sound has a crossword puzzle with 5 words and matching picture clues in two different versions: with and without a word bank.   Next week we start through our 5 week long vowel review, and I can't wait to see how the kids do.  
To find the entire Crossword Puzzle Phonics Fun set, click on the pictures above.

To download the Short A and Long A freebie pages, click on the link below!  

In math this week we have been working on chance, probability, and graphing.  I introduced the kids to tally marks, and Nicole Lanier from Lanier's Lions has a fun unit that we have really enjoyed,  Little Kitty Kalculations.
It includes some great activities for counting, making tally marks, graphing, and chance or the fancy word "probability."  The kids have loved getting to spin, count and graph the little kitties.  We start addition next week, and we will be ready because this pack includes some fun addition activities too!
Now for the exciting news.......both of these great products will be on SALE this weekend.  YEAH!!  All of my products will be on sale for 4 fabulous days from March 9th -12th.
Nicole Lanier and several other incredible people from Kinderland will be having a sale too, from March 10th - 12th.  Check it out and enjoy the madness!!

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105 

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Great Midwest Meet-Up!

We are planning a Great Midwest Meet-Up!!  
Come and join the fun!  Yeah!
Please let us know if you can come!! We created a Great Midwest Meet-Up file so we can contact everyone with the details.  Click on the picture above.  We are looking forward to meeting you.

"Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 11:14

Friday, March 1, 2013

Seusstastic Day!

Today our school celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday!  We did several different Seuss activities and ended the day with a school wide celebration.

One of our first activities was with the book, Cat in the Hat.   After reading the book, I had the kids brain storm all the words that rhyme with cat.  The kids picked which words they wrote on their rhyming hat from the list we made as a class.  They loved this book, and were very excited to make Cat and his famous hat.


I got our next craft activity from a blogger friend, Mary from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives.   I showed the kids the craft first and made them guess which book we were going to be reading.  They did it!  :o)  One little boy nailed it ....."That is Horton and Whoville!"  Yes, we read Horton Hears a Who.
Our last activity for the day was our annual school wide celebration - Seuss Readers Theater!  A Dr. Seuss story is presented by the outstanding and ever popular teachers at Marshall Elementary.  This year we preformed Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!  Seuss died before he finished this book, but with the help of Prelutsky and Smith the book was published in 1998.  Our big kids are starting state assessments next week, so the book was a great way to get them excited.

I hope your day was as fun as ours!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24