Five for Friday ~ February 3rd

It's February! January went by in a flash! Not that I'm complaining ~ I prefer warm summer weather to cold winter weather. But, I really can't complain about the weather because we've had a mild winter here in Indiana. It's been cold, but we've had so little snow that it's felt weird talking about polar bears & penguins. But, since it is winter we have gone ahead with our snowy themed units. If you live where you don't have snow & cold, what is it like teaching about chilly topics?

We spent last week learning all about hibernation. I love it when we get to spend time talking about animals. (The kids do, too!) I was impressed by how much they retained ~ the kids were able to tell these fact for me to record!

After reading lots of books about hibernating animals & watching some really good videos on You Tube my darlings were able to do some nonfiction writing. I was pretty happy with their work.

 "Bears sleep in winter because food is scarce."

 "The groundhogs go to sleep in winter and wake up on spring."

 "Groundhogs are mammals. The groundhog sees a predator." The label says "whistle."

You may be done with your hibernation studies, but you may want to check out my Hibernation mini unit. It contains lots of materials for you to use when learning about hibernating animals. 

Check it out HERE.

One thing I love about kindergarten is the love my little students share with me. I spend more waking hours with these little children than their own parents during the week & I feel it is important that they grow to trust & love me as much as I love them. One of my little cuties made this cute picture for me. (I'm not exactly sure what animal it is supposed to be, but I really like it!)

I joined up with a bunch of teachers to participate in a Valentine exchange. We needed to create valentine cards to send to our pals all around the country. My kiddos created these darling heart trees with Q-tips & paint. I hope our pals like them! 

We haven't had much snow (I don't think there was any measurable snow in January), but it's been pretty cold so we've build a number of cozy fires in our fireplace. Hubby & I enjoy sitting by the fire to play Scrabble while sipping on glasses of wine. (Riesling is my favorite.) Even though I prefer warm temperatures, I do enjoy sitting by the fire. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen many pics of my fireplace ~ most likely with a glass of wine and/or with my little dog Macie. (Not a follower? Check me out @kinder_doodles on Instagram.)

Groundhog Day! On February first we made these cute little "weather predictors." The kids loved their groundhog puppets and paper plate burrows. We made them on Wednesday so they could look for shadows on Thursday morning. Of course, February 2 was bright & sunny! January was nothing but gray (seriously ~ the most dreary gray cloudy month of all time). The one day we needed no sunshine it was bright, so of course the kids saw shadows. Oh, well ~ this is Northwest Indiana, so I really don't expect spring to come early groundhog or no groundhog. 

Thanks for spending some time with me! Now, hop over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to visit some more awesome blogs. 

Five for Friday

I can't believe that it's been nearly a month since my last post! Where did May go? Seriously! It seems like the month just started. I'm joining Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. So here it goes! (I know it's Saturday ~ I fell asleep while I was writing this post yesterday.)

Granddaughters! Everything that is said about grandchildren being the best is so true! I have so much fun with my little darlings.

Cousins! I am so happy that my granddaughter have so much fun together. My family moved to Indiana from West Virginia when I was a toddler, so I never got to hang out with my cousins. It's wonderful that these little girls are growing up together.

 Amelia says hello to Bob.

Sisters Isabella & Olivia have fun with cousin Amelia. We took a walk in the pasture on a sunny day in early May. 

Amelia's sweet baby sister Madelyn. This picture was taken several weeks ago ~ she's a sitting up baby now! Boy, time really does fly!

Our butterflies emerged this past week ~ the kids had so much fun watching them flutter around. Well, not this little guy. He came out with tiny, malformed wings & can't fly. Because of his little wings the kids called him Nemo. After a few days in the net the kids were concerned that the butterflies would knock themselves out hitting their heads on the net, so at their request we let them go. I thought we would be able to keep them for a few more days, but the kids were worried about them. We did keep little Nemo because he can't fly. I hope he can hold out another 7 more days of school, then I'll put it outside.

Pets! Over the years we have had lots and lots and lots of pets. We've had everything from cats & dogs to mice & rats, lizards & snakes, fish & frogs, rabbits & ferrets, birds, a guinea pig, horses, and for a short while we even had a goat! My girls love animals! We are "down" to Macie the chihuahua, and two house cats (Ella & Sweet Little Kitty), three horses, several barn cats, and "foster" German shepherd Vader. Wow! 

Macie & Ella are a couple of little beggers! They are always hanging around the kitchen looking for something to drop. :-)

Recently I broke out my second to last bottle of Spiedie Sauce to marinate some chicken. My husband is from Syracuse, NY and that's where I discovered this yummy marinade. I'm not sure if it's available anywhere besides New York, but you can get it online HERE. (I just have my in-laws send it to me since I can't get it in Indiana.) Cut chicken or pork into strips & marinate, put onto skewers & cook them on the grill. It's so delicious! 

With only seven days of school left I'm going to let my Kinders spend more time playing games & working in our literacy stations. They really love literacy stations! Here a couple of boys are sorting pictures by final sound. This is an activity from my May/June Literacy station set. You can get it separately or in my new growing bundle. January - May/June are done. I plan to finish it over the summer. Click HERE to purchase.

Five for Friday ~ April Fool's #2

OK, I know it's April 8th, but does Mother Nature?? We've had rain, sun, snow, sleet, rain, snow, sun, rain, snow, sleet, snow, rain, more snow... All TODAY! Seriously! What is happening???

This is what the Weather Channel says our overnight/early morning forecast looks like. Ahh ~ April in northwest Indiana! Tomorrow my daughters & I are participating in a "Chocolate Walk" downtown. Twenty + businesses will be giving out chocolate delights. I can't wait ~ but I wish it was warmer.

I love picture books! I'm a serious picture book junkie. I can't go into Barnes & Noble without coming out with a bag of them, my Amazon cart usually has several of them every time. But, there is nothing better than FREE picture books! This is my latest haul. My order came in the same day that we got our freebies from the book fair (our PTO runs three book fairs per year & they let teachers order books based upon the sales. This year we each got to choose about $120 worth of books, so I got a bunch of hardcover books).

Do you use interactive notebooks? I really hadn't until this year and I love them! So do my students. They provide engaging practice of important skills, and because they are in a notebook the kids can go back to refer to them as needed. Below are some examples of my CVCe interactive notebook. 

I like how the little cutie labeled this page as a "book about lazy e and not lazy e." :-) 

Click HERE to purchase my CVC & CVCe bundle.

It's Science Fair time again! In the past few years participating has been required. The primary grades do grade level projects ~ we do my Watching the Grass Grow project. It has all the elements of the scientific process, is easy & cheap to do, and the kids have fun doing it. Here are some pictures of my Kinders working on their observations. I created our display board the first time we did this project and kept it so we only have to plant seeds & print out the booklets each year. It's a pretty easy peasy science fair project!

Differentiation! The little darling on the left is typing her observations on an iPad using the Super Duper Story Maker app. It's a great app that lets her create stories and write responses with ease. 

Click HERE to purchase.

I've started to revamp some of my older products. I've learned so much about creating products, making things look nice, and what to include in products since I've started selling on TpT. This is a before & after shot of one of my very first products. EEK! It didn't even have a cover! When I created it I didn't own much clip art or fonts so my products weren't as cute. This freebie has been download well over 1,000 times in its old form. Hopefully the new version will be downloaded (and rated, please) even more times! Check it out HERE.

BONUS!! Recently we took our darling Amelia somewhere nearby for the day ~ can you guess where we went? The picture clues below include: Amelia on a John Deere harvester, at the wheel of a big ship, sitting on a trolley, and the attic of a Fairy Castle. One more clue: we were in Chicago. Leave a comment if you know where we were. :-)

In addition to the regular displays we took in an amazing Lego display. There were some incredible structures, but this replica of Cinderella's castle was our very favorite creation. 

Now be sure to hop over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up your own Five for Friday. Have a great weekend!