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. 

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! 

Hibernation and a Freebie

This past week my Kinders had fun learning all about hibernation.  Little kids are naturally drawn to animals, so they really got excited about this topic.  To get the topic started we turned to books ~ there are lots of great fiction & nonfiction books available.  Here are some that we shared:

    

     
Before we read any of these books, we began a KWL chart to see what we already knew about hibernating animals ~ it was pretty skimpy.  The kiddos knew that bears hibernated in winter, but not much else. On Thursday (no school Friday) we completed the L part ~ we needed another piece of chart paper to list everything we learned!  Here are some pictures (just in time for Five for Friday) of some of the fun we had!

1. Collaborating to make posters.  This was the first time I had my Kinders collaborate to create informational posters.  The kiddos worked with their partners (I have paired up the kids ~ they sit next to their partner on the carpet, and work work with them for partner activities.  We change partners every month.)  I was super happy at how well the kids worked together!  They really demonstrated collaboration and created some pretty great posters!

 It makes me so happy to see how nicely they worked together (even the trio ~ those three worked together because one student was absent). 

 The Kinders proudly presented their work!

Of course, we needed to show off a little!  We made some cute craftivities and did some writing for our hallway bulletin board. 

 2.  This sleeping bear craftivity is included in my Hibernation Mini Unit.  It is a new addition to the set ~ if you purchased it, redownload it to get the pattern.

3.  Here is an outstanding example of some writing.  The little author wrote this All. By. Herself.  (Can you see me doing the Happy Dance?) 

Writing pages are also included in the updated version of my Hibernation unit.

4.  One Dollar Special.

Click HERE to snap up your set for $1.00 this weekend!  The companion Literacy & Math Center set is only $2.00 this weekend so you can create a fun themed week for your students.

5.  Friday Free-forAll

OK, so this has absolutely nothing to do with hibernation, but it is handy.  I have a very bad habit of not remembering usernames & passwords, so I created this to help me to be a little more organized.  Grab it HERE, and then head over to The Primary Gal to pick up some more freebies!  If you like any of my products, please rate it.  Not only will you help me, you will get TpT credit to use towards more purchases.

Two great linky parties:

Have a great weekend!