Talkin' Turkey

I'm going to pretend that it's almost time for Thanksgiving break, and not he middle of December. I took lots of pictures of the fun craftivities that we did in November, but never got around to posting them. So, here they are. Happy Turkey Day! (Just a little late...)


This is a recycled bulletin board from last year. The hedgehog was so cute I just had to bring him out again, This year our turkeys in disguise flew in with our painted fall leaves once the pumpkins rolled away. The turkeys are a family project ~ I love to see their creativity!

Directed draw turkeys.  I love how the turkeys are drawn according to explicit directions, but turn out so different! Kid artwork is the best!

Math craftivity ~ first we "baked" some paper plate pumpkin pies using torn paper & cotton balls. I had to help them cut a slice (it was a bit too thick for our kindergarten scissors to cut). Once the kids had their slice of pie they stuck it onto our graph. I was surprised that so many kids lie pumpkin pie.

This is an oldy-moldy craft from an old book I've had forever. The kids don't mind that the book was published back in the 1980s ~ they are just happy to be able to use glitter!

Super simple scarecrow craft looks special because it has real ribbon & glitter leaf stickers.

Another paper plate craft. This time the kids painted the plates to make tails. (We did this craft on Veterans' Day, which served as an inspiration to the little guy who painted the flagish turkey tail.)

I hope you enjoyed our Thanksgiving crafts even if it is the middle of December.  

The Bees Knees!

Kids love bugs! We ended our bug unit with a visit from a beekeeper. One of my teaching partner's students has a grandfather who grows hops (which he sells to local microbreweries). To help with pollination he also keeps bees. He came to school yesterday to teach the kids about bees and their hives.

Z. was proud to stand with his grandpa as he talked about raising bees. The big jar on the table has a piece of "natural" honeycomb from wild bees. The small jars hold dead bees ~ the kids were a little nervous that he would bring bees that would sting them. But, they did like getting to see the specimens close up without fear of being stung. :-)

Everyone got a kick out of the beekeeper's hat and gloves! 

After learning about how the smoke of burning pine needles calms the bees the kids got to check out the smokers. They had fun squeezing the bellows to feel the air puff out of them.

We learned how the bees make their waxy honeycombs and even got to touch them! The kids made me proud when they recognized the fact that the cells are hexagons! 

Of course, no presentation on bees would be complete without a little taste of honey! The kids got to dip a stick into honey from the very combs we held. On a side note ~ if you suffer from seasonal allergies try local honey. I've been eating a tablespoon of honey every day for the past few years & my allergies are greatly diminished. Not only does local honey make me feel better during the bothersome allergy seasons, it tastes great!

Of course, we needed to create some cute bees for our classroom! I love the personality of the bee in the inset picture. It's one of the quirky, less-than-perfect Kinder craft that I like best. 

 

Five for Friday ~ I'm on Spring Break!

I'm officially on spring break! Yay! We aren't going anywhere, but I'm looking forward to not having to get up at 5:25 for a week. We were so busy this past week with finishing up report cards, St Patrick's Day & our spring party.  A few years ago our PTO decided to run a day before spring break party instead of the Valentine's Day party. We teachers plan activities for Valentine's Day. It works out pretty well ~ the kids were pretty much checked out & a party was a fun way to end the week.

Here are a few pictures of my busy week for Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday link up.

1. Our day before spring break party was so cute! I have a great group of moms this year who have planned some really fun parties for the kids. This one was a camping theme ~ complete with a teepee, campfire, scavenger hunt, craft, and dirt cups!

 Singing around the campfire.

School-safe campfire! The fire ring is made from paper towel tubes strung together with yarn. So creative! The kids had fun gathering more tubes for firewood.

Nothing is more campy than a craft made from wood!

These little cuties are showing off their nifty necklaces.

The kids went on a scavenger hunt around the room. Of course, TP tube  binoculars helped them find the objects!

A teepee was set up for anyone who needed a little break from the camping fun.

The kids loved using hammers to crush Oreos into dirt! They topped chocolate pudding cups with their dirt & a couple of worms for a tasty treat.

2. We made these colorful rainbows by tearing paper & arranging them ROYGBV (no indigo paper). It took a while for the Kinders to tear their paper strips. I'm always surprised by the fact that so many kids have difficulty tearing. I guess I need to do more torn paper projects.  

They really turned out cute! A little glitter for gold adds just the right touch. I really like the little leprechaun that one little guy formed from paper scraps on the lower left picture. 

3. We did made these cute leprechauns using the directed drawing instructions from First Grade Blue Skies. My kids love to do directed drawings. They are always amazed at what they can create!

4. As you may know from earlier posts we use Guiding Readers by Deanna Jump & DeeDee Wills. This week we studied long e spelled ee & completed this page. One of my kinders wrote the sentence on the left. My granddaughter who is in kindergarten wrote the one on the left. (My daughter Sarah is her teacher & also uses Guiding Readers.)

5. March in Indiana comes in like a lion, and we hope will go out like a lamb. But, being in the Midwest sometimes March waddles like a penguin. (Fingers crossed that the little lambs will come frolicking along soon!)

Bonus item #6! Have you tried Face Swap on Snap Chat? It's fun, but a little unnerving. My daughter Sarah & I posed for this picture. Look at the photos of our real faces, can you tell which features were swapped? This swap is OK, but the one my husband and I did is downright frightening! It really confused my 2 & 3 year old granddaughters. (It's too creepy to share on social media. lol)

Have a great weekend!

Dr. Seuss Week

Like most kindergarten classes we celebrates everyone's favorite doctor's birthday with a week of Seuss~tastic activities. I snapped a few pictures of our fun to share with you.

We began our week with the Cat. For fun we made these cute hats ~ a simple project, but the kids loved them. As I was stapling the bands onto them I had to laugh at the fact that little kids like to wear paper hats. This little troop took the craft a step further ~ they used scraps to fashion cat-like bow ties! The little guys on the right made tabs to hook their ties onto their shirts, the two on the left started to glue their ties onto their shirts. :-) I quickly gave them a piece of tape...

In the background you can see our hallway craft tree bedecked with some pretty awesome directed drawings of the Cat. I found the directions on Forever in First. The kids were so surprised at how much like the Cat their pictures turned out (for the most part). They are all so cute (I'm particularly fond of the last one).

There's a Wocket in my pocket, and a ____ in my ____. After reading the book my Kinders worked in pairs to create their own silly combo. Can you read the first one? If you hang around little kids long enough I'm sure you know that the Zore is in their drawer. The last one is a great illustration of the sweet innocence of littles.

Finally, we made these cute little Hortons The faces are painted paper plates (who doesn't love a good paper plate project), and the ears & trunk are printed on card stock. (This pattern was given to me & it has no markings as to who made it. Is it yours? If so, please comment so you can get credit for this fun craftivity.) I always seem to be drawn to the less than perfect creations, which is why I took a pic of the little guy with VERY close-set eyes.

Well, that's another Wacky Week for the books!

Winter Science & Writing

Happy New Year! I hope that you are off to a great start to 2016. We started the new year with a little bit of snow ~ just enough to cause excitement, but not enough to make a snowball. Geez, you would think my students were plucked out of some tropical locale and dropped into the middle of Antarctica! We had to stop everything to go to the window to admire the snow for a few minutes. (Because, you know how rare snow is in northwest Indiana...)

Really, though this has been a very snowless winter so far. We did have a lovely snowglobe type snowfall the weekend before Thanksgiving, but that's really all the snow we've had. It does feel a little funny reading snow themed books when the grass is still green. But, it is winter ~ snow or no snow!

With that in mind I thought I'd showcase three of my winter themed Science & Writing units. First up is my Hibernation mini unit. In this unit you will find vocabulary cards, hibernating animal cards, facts about hibernating animals, writing pages, and a fun craftivity. Click HERE to purchase.

Waddling in second is my Penguins unit. This set includes a fact sheet, posters, penguin species trading cards, writing pages, and a penguin craftivity. Click HERE to purchase.

New this winter is my polar bear unit. It includes facts, charts & posters, vocabulary cards, writing pages, and two craftivities. Click HERE to purchase.

And, now for a freebie (or three)! Click HERE for Penguin Problems, HERE for Snow Buddies Ten Frames, and HERE for Snow Buddies Sound Boxes

Here's to a great 2016 & a mild winter! 

PS Here is a picture to prove that I really don't totally dislike winter... On the first day of Christmas break I went ice skating (for the first time since college) with my daughter & two of my granddaughters. It was so much fun! And, I didn't fall down!