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!

Spring Break!

Yay!  I'm on Spring Break ~ only it doesn't look too springy out.  Because we aren't going anywhere I have time to relax, catch up on projects, hang out with one of my three granddaughters (2 of them are in Disney World), and generally do as I wish.

I do wish, that the weather is a little better.  OK, I wish it was A LOT better.  At least not snowy...

What's going on?  We didn't have a flake of snow in December when we would have appreciated it!

Here is a little color for this dreary weather.  One day these two little cuties got out the tub of buttons to sort.  I didn't even realize that they were rainbow colors!  They did this on their own!  I emailed this picture to our art teacher.  She was very happy to see that they arranged them in correct rainbow order!  (I'm not sure if the picture in the background served as inspiration...)

Last week my Kinders enjoyed playing this St. Patrick's Day themed game.  It includes an Easter version of all the game boards ~ and is only $1.00!  Click HERE to buy.

Cabin Fever followed by Spring Fever left some of my little darlings a bit out of sort.  We created Positive Posies to help us to remember happy thoughts.  First, we brainstormed a list of feel-good ideas.  The kids chose bright paper, traced & cut out pieces, and then decorated their creations with positive messages.  Everyone was left feeling pretty happy with these colorful flowers!

The postcards are back!  This is what we have so far.  Last year I offered a giveaway to readers who sent me postcards.  If you would like to win any product from my TpT store, please send me a postcard from your state (or country).  On the back, clearly print your email address and the name of my product that you would like to win.  I will select a winner on April 4, 2015.  Good luck & THANKS! See info below to enter.

Crafts & Bulletin Boards

March has been a busy month - what with Dr. Seuss's birthday, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and now Spring Break, we have been busy doing fun crafts.  Here is a sampling of some of the creativities my Kinders have done this month.

Our Thing 1 & Thing 2 hand prints have been a hallway favorite!

 It seriously took all day to make these cutie critters.  In the morning I painted the kids' hands for them to print the faces and hair, after lunch they painted the bodies and later in the afternoon, the details were added.  It was a big project, but the smiles they inspire were worth the effort!

 The following writing prompts were from an issue of Teacher's Helper.  We read Green Eggs and Ham, and then the Kinders wrote about a food that they enjoy.

St. Patrick's Day rainbows and pots of gold.  The rainbows are made of torn paper.  I like how, while they have the colors in the correct order, they are all different.  (I especially like the "exploded" rainbow in the bottom row!)  Glitter made perfect gold!

Feelin' Buggy!  We began our study of bugs this week, which included a discussion of how we feel when encountering a creepy crawly.  The kids first completed their sentence frames, and then drew pictures of themselves - complete with the expression they would likely have.

We first talked about the emotions we might feel when we see a bug, and then brainstormed some things we might say.  This proved to be a little difficult - trying to match a quote with an emotion required a lot of thinking.  This little guy drew such a cute picture - with a speech bubble - that I took a close-up.

I really do think that this little lady would scream "EEK!"

A gaggle o' bunnies!

They all have their own personality.  The Kinders were very happy to get to take them home today to decorate for Easter.  (As you can see, lots of what they made stays on display at school.)

Some Freebies for You!

It seems that I've been so busy making things for my Teachers pay Teachers store, that I haven't posted many freebies lately!  Sorry - I know how much fun it is to get a goodie for free!  These are both things I plan to use with my Kinders tomorrow, and I thought that you might like them.

The first freebie is a writing page to go with this book.  We read it earlier in the week as a part of our reading series, and will read it again tomorrow before writing.  Click here for the writing page.

  (Don't forget to visit my TpT store for more St. Patrick's Day activities.   

Everything is 20% off through 3/13/13!)

We are studying number comparisons in math this week, so I created this little partner game for a fun way to practice. See the pictures below to see some of what is included in the set. 

 

If you download either of these freebies, I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment below to let me know how they worked for you and your students!  Enjoy!

Teachers pay Teachers Sale & a New Product

Here come Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the phoneme trail!  Phoneme segmentation can be a tricky skill to learn.  I made my Easter Bunny Hop activity to help my Kinders practice hopping - er, counting - out the sounds in words.  School is always more fun when you get to hop around!

On sale now!

 

My entire Teachers pay Teachers store is on sale!

Everything is 20% until March 13,2013! (click here)

On sale - just in time for St. Patrick's Day!

Pots of Gold Bulletin Board

We made our Pots of Gold today.  Each pot contains five very sparkly gold coins.  In order to make them festive for St. Patrick's Day, we added shamrocks made from three green hearts glued at the points and taped to a pipe cleaner.  I love how they look on the bulletin board.

I made this using my Cricut.

Lucky pots of gold!

I like the hearts on the coins.