Back to School BBQ

It's hard to believe that summer is coming to an end.  I had a fun, busy summer, and am sort of, kind of, a little... ready to start thinking about school.  It's always hard to give up lazy days spent relaxing on my front porch, and getting to spend lots of time with my darling granddaughters.  But, the calendar tells me that it's time to get back into school mode ~ ready or not!

But, here's a fun Blog Hop that will make the transition a little easier. 

 

In this blog hop you will find resources and recipes!  I can't wait to see what everyone has to offer.  It is just like a big picnic.

My first offering is a link to my newest product ~ Serving Up CVC Words.  Kinders & Firsties can always use lots of practice with CVC words, so in the spirit of this hop I created a fun food themed set of activities.  There are four different activities, each with differentiated worksheets for additional practice.  Want to try it for FREE?  Click HERE for a sample.

 

 

 

 

 

And, now for the food!  We try to eat yummy, healthy foods (we eat lots of fruit, veggies & salad), and I like to find new items to add to our list of yumminess.  I found this recipe for Quinoa & Rice Bites on Pinterest & we LOVE it!  I've actually made it twice in the past ten days.  (See pin HERE.)  The first time I made them I used a regular size muffin pan.  When I made them this week I used a mini muffin pan.  I liked them better small because they were crispier.  These would make a great alternative to tator tots.  Quinoa is has lots of protein & is very filling.  Little tots lovers would have fun dunking them into ketchup or their favorite dip.  I think leftovers would be good in my lunchbox with hummus.  YUM!

 

My delicious dinner ~ Free Range chicken (raised by next door neighbor 4-H member), roasted eggplant, zucchini, and candy onions from the farmers' market, blueberries picked at a local farm, and
Quinoa & Rice Bites.  I was soooo excited to eat this meal!  (Yes, it was delicious!)

Fresh veggies from the Farmers' Market & fresh basil from my herb garden.

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup black rice (I used a mix of rice)
• Cooking spray, for the muffin pan
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup finely chopped Vidalia onions
• 1 cup dairy-free shredded mozzarella cheese (I used real cheese)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped finely
• 1/3 cup grape tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 chives, chopped finely, for garnish
• 2 cups homemade tomato sauce, for serving* (We ate ours without sauce)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the quinoa and rice according to package directions. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked quinoa and rice with the remaining ingredients, except the chives and pasta sauce, and mix well to combine. Transfer the quinoa and rice mixture to the muffin pan. Using a tablespoon, fill each muffin cup to the top, then using a spatula, press down on the mixture to create a flat surface.

Bake until golden brown, for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Using a teaspoon, gently remove the rice and quinoa snacks from the muffin cups. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with the chives, and serve with the tomato sauce on the side.

 

 

 

Now, hop over to Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations to see what's cooking!

Flip Flop Blog Hop

Yay!  Summer is almost here!  But, there are enough days of school left to think about adding some new activities to your classroom.  I'm so excited to join a group of amazing bloggers & TpT sellers in this fun Flip Flop Blog Hop!  For this blog hop we were paired with another teacher, traded products, and got to use them in our classrooms.  I was lucky to be paired up with Maja Austin of Kooky Kinders.  I was doubly lucky that she uses the same reading series that I do, and the product that she sent me was a fun sight word review game! 

Maja shared her Fishy Scrambled Sight Word Match game.  Click HERE to purchase.

This set included cute fish bowl & colorful fish cards.  The bowls had mixed up sight words ~ the fish had the sight words.  The object was, of course, to match the scrambled words to the correct fish.
I found that this set was great for differentiation with my small groups.  Some of my kiddo were able to figure out the words just by looking at them, others used magnetic letters to help them to figure out what their words were.

As a twist on the game, some of my Kinders selected a fish card & found the matching scrambled word.  Also included (not pictured) are some record sheets that help to extend the learning.  The words included are the sight words from the Wonders reading series, but even if you don't use Wonders, it is a great addition to your literacy stations!  I highly recommend it!  :-)

I was inspired by Maja's cute fish product to create a little fish freebie for you.  My little cuties have been working very diligently on reading CVCe words, so I created a little memory game to share.  Get it HERE. 

And, now hop over to Teach Two Reach 2nd Grade Happenings to see another fabulous product in action!

Learning Stations, Solid Shapes & Initial Letter Cookies

Whew!  What a week we had...  On Tuesday we had a 2 hour delay because of the bitter cold, and then on Thursday we had another two hour delay because of snow!  On Tuesday I went in at the regular time and got lots of work done.  It was so nice and quiet.  I organized my Skill Tubs and straightened up the counter behind my teaching table.  I had hoped to take care of my "Bin of Shame" (you know the one - the little tub that sits on the floor behind my desk into which I toss things that "I'll take care of soon").  Well, I didn't even touch it.  Yesterday I went in at the two hour delay time because our country road wasn't cleaned early enough to go in any sooner.

Despite the shortened days, we did get a lot done this past week.  Here are some pictures of our Literacy and Math Centers, a writing prompt, plus a fun Cookie letter sound activity.

Word Work Station.  The kids sorted CVC words by initial letter, and then wrote some (those beginning with our most recently studied consonants) onto a record sheet.

Math Station.  For our math center activity this week, we are using my Snowman Ten Frame activity.

My Snowman Ten Frame pack includes ten frames and counters for practice making numbers to 20.

After completing the ten frame activities above, students did this page from Deanna Jump's Sneezy pack.  They loved using colored pencils!

Mrs. S.'s Station. This week the kids are working on rhyming words with this Learning Mat from The Mailbox.

I love how learning center activities from The Mailbox include a worksheet for extra practice.  These pages also let parents know what their kiddo does at school!

Flat or Solid Shapes?  This is something I whipped up on the fly.  The Kinders sorted solid shapes and flat shapes (left over Saxon calendar pieces) into two groups. They enjoyed identifying solid shapes in common objects such as a block and a pencil.  This tub is now in one of our Skill Spots for independent practice.

Literacy Small Group activity.  This week some of my small literacy groups practiced sight words using this spinner activity from The Mailbox.  I changed the provided words to some that we are currently studying.

Two Kinders writing words with colored pencils.

Baker, Baker!  My kids flipped for this activity - using a spatula, they lifted a "cookie" from the cookie sheet, read the letter, named the sound, and then placed the cookie on a pocket chart.  I purchased this cookie bulletin board kit (it has a big cookie jar cut out) a few years ago at Target, and never used it until this week.  It is laminated, so the letters I wrote in Sharpie will wipe right off with rubbing alchohol.

 The baker places the cookie on the pocket chart behind the matching initial sound picture cards.  (This pocket chart is part of a Skill Spot - the kids can rearrange the the mixed up sentence strips shown above.  Below you can see some poems in write on/wipe off protectors hanging on the side of the pocket chart stand.  The kids love to look for sight words an letters, circling them with dry erase markers - which are also hanging on the stand.)

This baker means business!  :-) Kinders love to pose for my camera!

This book is a favorite of mine, and my Kinders.  I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Laminack several times - he visited our school, and I attended two of his workshops at our local university.  I have an autographed copy of this book!

After reading Snow Day! by Lester Laminack, we wrote about what we would do if we had a snow day.  The kids used lots of strategies to do their writing - sounding out words, and writing the letters they heard, looking around the room for words, using our Idea Snowman, and asking a friend for help.  Here are a few examples.  I think they did a good job!  Get the writing page here.

Learning Stations

My Kinders have been doing such a great job working in our Learning Stations!  I really think that the time spent "building stamina" was worth it!  This wonderful practice of giving students time to practice proper behavior came from The Daily Five.  We (my teaching partners & I) don't really do a full-fledged version of The Daily Five, but more of a mix.. Our Learning Stations combine a weekly four and one math station.  (Yep, we sneak a little math into our Literacy Block - there is, after all, literacy included in all content areas.)  The four skills we focus on are: Listen to reading (Listening Station - usually not pictured), Writing (we often include some sort of fine motor activity such as cutting or tracing at the beginning of the year), Word Work/Literacy Skills, Reading Skills (including working on skills that lead to becoming a good reader), and finally Math Literacy.  Mrs. S. usually heads up the Reading Station, and I do the Math Station.  I am fortunate to have volunteers on most days - an eighth grader comes in on Tuesday & Thursday, an some moms come in on Wednesday and Friday.  These volunteers help out as needed in the remaining three stations.

Here are some recent Learning Stations:

Sort picture cards by the first sound.  Draw pictures on the record sheet that begin with the letter sounds. 

Sorting Sandwiches.  Sort out "sandwiches" onto letter or number "napkins.  I have found that color-coding materials by simply drawing a line around the cards helps Kinders to keep materials organized.  Each student in this station had his/her own sack lunch to sort out.  Each bag had color-coded pieces, which happily ended up put away in the correct bag.  A modified worksheet from Teacher's Helper (not pictured) was used for a record sheet.

 Playdough letters.  I didn't have time to laminate the cards - so I popped them (two - back to back) into page protectors. 

Shape ID & graphing.  The blue tub is a mushroom container.  We eat lots of mushrooms at my house, and I save the containers.  They make perfect tubs for handing out manipulatives and little pieces for craft projects.  I also give them to my kids when cutting out pieces that need to be glued onto a page (such as the one below).  They can place the pieces into their tubs as they cut.  This really helps to prevent pieces from becoming lost or mixed up with a neighbor's pieces!

After sorting and graphing the shapes, students sorted and glued shapes.  This page from Teacher's Helper also gave them the opportunity to read and spell the names of the shapes.

Word Sort.  The sight words were sorted by the number of letters, and then written onto the record sheet.

Two part station: Cut out and sort pictures by initial sound, and then trace and write letters and words.

Write the room.  Oh my, how the Kinders love to do this!  There is nothing cooler than wearing groovy star glasses (I popped the tinted lenses out) and writing with a sparkly pencil.  In this installment, the kiddos searched for words beginning with P & S. 

Read, Spell, Write!  I wrote sight words and -ap & -am word family words onto laminated fall leaves (use a Sharpie - wipe off with rubbing alcohol).  The kids read, spelled, and wrote the words.

Making 10.  In this Math Station, the Kinders used two colored counters to give the ladybugs various combinations of ten spots.  They then practiced writing number sentences.

Literacy Stations for this Week

It's hard to believe that the end of the school year is near!  We have only two more weeks of Literacy Stations!  There will be a few days left after we complete these next two rounds of stations, but we will be busy with other activities.  I like to wrap up my year with some nice closing activities and crafts.  The kids always enjoy helping to clean up and put away things on our final day.  Kinders love to help clean up and tidy the classroom for the "little kids" who will call our classroom home next fall!

Reading Station.  Popcorn flip-over game.  Students take turns pulling a card from the popcorn container.  If they read the word correctly, they "pop" the word over and replace the card.  Click on the link below for this activity.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9MDNKX0hULWprS2c

This is the record sheet for the activity above.

Literacy Station.  Groovy Short Vowel Word Sort from www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/kidsrcute

Record sheet for above activity.

Writing Station.  One of my wonderful partners came up with this fun activity. After creating a flower, students choose sight words to write onto them.  The cards are two sided - one side has the correct spelling, and the other is wrong.  They must decide upon the correct spelling before writing the word onto their flower.   I chose some of the more frequently misspelled words for my cards.

Math Literacy.  Dominos again!  This time they are being "parked" according to their sum.  This parking lot was included in a recent link, below is an updated link that includes the record sheet below.  https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-Zg8ty5Slq9QmF3bG1hYjRwb00