Five for Friday ~ Five Day Week

Whew!  I am still trying to recover from having to teach for five whole days in a row!  This was the first week since before Christmas that we didn't have one or more snow/extreme cold day or a two hour delay.  We actually went to school for five days!  We were supposed to have Friday & Monday off for Presidents' Day weekend, but we lost both due to the weather.  Actually, I'm OK with that.  The Kinders needed to get back to a regular routine.  (Now, if we could go back outside for recess, we'll be all set!)

Here are some highlights from our week.  Thanks to Doodle Bugs for hosting this fun linky!

 We played a fun game (Freebie from An Adventure in Literacy) this week.  The kids had fun rolling the big foam number cube!  We played this as a class ~ the student who rolled the number got to pick which word was to be crossed out.  It was not only fun, but great practice reading CVC words!

 Panda Valentine bags.  We had fun decorating our bags to look like pandas.  I think they really turned out cute.  Next year, I have to try to find bigger bags  ~ they were overflowing by the time all the Valentine goodies were passed out!

 We wrote letters to our parents telling them why we love them.  These are so cute!  I'm sure that their parents are going to keep these!  (Old habits die hard ~ the Kinders draw a line through their name with a highlighter on their papers.  Lilah did it out of habit!  I do have to say that since we started highlighting our names, I have had far fewer no name papers!)

 I have to give a shout out to Becca, one of my awesome teaching partners for coming up with this cute idea for our hallway bulletin boards.  Each student got a copy of a blank person to take home & decorate with the help of their parents.  I like these "take home" craft projects ~ it's fun to see what families can do when they work together!

A few other things...

Congratulations to Doreen V.!  She is the lucky winner of the Awesome Prize Package.  And, Thank you to everyone who follows my blog.  I really hope you enjoy getting a peek at my Kindergarten World.

I am having a special sale this weekend!  If you purchase $9.00+ in products from my TpT store, I will send you an item regularly priced up to $3.00 for free!  Email me with this information:  Your TpT user name & the products you purchased that total $9.00+ and the name of the item (regularly priced up to $3.00) & I will send it to you.  My email address is: kindergartendoodles@gmail.com  ***Because I am posting this so late, I will extend this offer to Monday, 2/17/14***

Next weekend I will be a part of a Facebook Free-for-All!  Check out my Facebook page for the link (coming soon!)

Another Snow Day

Can you believe it?  We are out of school again because of the snow.  Today was going to be our 100th Day of school (really ~ if we hadn't had all those other snow days, we would have had our 100th Day back in January!)

But, I did make good use of my day off. (No, I didn't get caught up on laundry or anything like that.)  I finished my Valentine's Day math set.  And, made a quick V-Day Freebie to boot!

Here are the links to my Valentine's Day products.  (Plus a plea for followers.  Seriously ~ I only need 3 more people to follow me on Bloglovin' & I will get the giveaway going for some serious prizes!  Click HERE to see what you could win.)

My recently finished Math set.  Click HERE to purchase.  (Half off until the weekend!)

My companion Literacy set.  Click HERE to purchase. (Half off, too!)

 

And, HERE'S the freebie!

As you can see, they all are cutely companionable!  And, perfect for your Math & Literacy Stations next week!

If you are interested in more freebies, check out these linky parties:

 a Classy Collaboration

Teacher Tam's Educational Adventures

 

Valentines & Presidents

 This past week was super busy with learning and special days!  Our Valentine's Day party was another great success because of the planning done by our fabulous room moms!  (Thank you!)  The Kinders enjoyed painting cute picture frames, playing a fun (and educational - recognizing numbers to 30) BINGO game, and eating yummy treats - heart shaped fruit kabobs.

We made cute Cupcake Valentine bags to collect goodies and cards.

Because of a fog delay - turned fog day off the day before Thanksgiving, we had a make up day on Friday.  Upon entering the room one little boy said, "We aren't supposed to be here today."  Another boy responded, "Why?  Is it Saturday?"  I assured them that yes, we were supposed to be at school.  :-)  It did seem funny to be at school the day after a party day, but we made the most of our make up day by learning about two very important presidents.  We discussed the ways to research information in order to learn more about a topic.  I read the following books, and we made a chart with the facts that we learned about Abraham Lincoln.  Using the facts we listed on our chart, the Kinders wrote "reports" about our 16th president.

The kids wrote their "report" onto a page (freebie here) that was then taped to their stove pipe hats.

We learned a lot of facts about Abraham Lincoln - one being that he loved to read.  These Kinders share Abe's love of books!  

   I only own this book about George Washington - I guess I need to get some more!

After discussing our Founding Father, the Kinders made these cute George Washingtons.

Penguins

My students had fun learning about penguins.  We researched the different breeds and habits using books and the Internet.  They had fun sharing their knowledge of penguin facts by writing a collaborative 'report' and making a Are You Taller than a Penguin? poster for the hallway.  We made penguin crafts -  stencilled penguins and penguin Valentine bags. 

Are you Taller than a Penguin?  The K - 2 kids in our hallway were excited to find out if they were taller than the largest penguin; the Emperor Penguin.  (Most of my kinders were not!)

We cut an oval out of a piece of black paper (folded length-wise) to create both the wings and a stencil for sponge painting a white penguin belly.  Once the paint was dry, the oval was cut along the fold line and glued on as wings, and other penguinish details were added.

I love how cute these little fellas turned out!  The wings are a black oval glued onto the back of the bag.  Everyone was excited about making these to collect their Valentines!