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!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Christmas vacation is finally here!  YAY!  Last week was lots of fun, but it felt sooooo long!  We did lots of crafts and had fun going around the world to learn about how Christmas and other holidays are celebrated using Caitlin Clabby's fun Holidays Around the World.  The week ended with Polar Express Day ~ we watched the movie, wore PJs, and had a fun Christmas party.  Boy, was I ready for a break by the end of the week!

 Every class decorated their bulletin board like a different Christmas carol.  We did "Oh, Christmas Tree!"  We made the little trees and snowflakes in class.  The ornaments on the big tree were made at home.  I like to have the kids do an at-home family project ~ it's fun to see what they make!

We made frame-worthy art work for our parent gifts.  I like to have the kids make something from scratch (not a kit) whenever possible.  These pretty winter scenes took a few days to make.  First, they painted the background using a mix of blue & white paint.  Next, they traced and cut out trees.  Once the trees were in place, they used Q-tips to paint snowflakes.  Finally, silver glitter was glued in swirls to create frosty winter winds.  

Chippy the Elf watched over the class all December.  Here, he is sitting in a little sleigh that one of my students made for me.  The kids were amazed that the sleigh was in a different place that day!

 Craft Day with our third grade book buddies!  The Kinders had so much fun creating these cute reindeer with the big kids.  And, the big kids liked being able to help their little buddies.

Not exactly Christmas ~ but, getting six new tablets for our classroom certainly felt like Christmas!  Every kindergarten class in our district got six HP tablets for use in our classrooms!  

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!)

Holy Cow! I'm Posting My Five on Friday!

Wow!  I feel on top of things ~ as long as I try not to think about my Bin of Shame on the floor behind my desk...  Every year I vow to not allow stuff to pile up, and I've been pretty good so far this year.  I stayed after for a little while to work on my Literacy & Math stations for next week, and it happened ~ the dreaded Bin of Shame made its appearance!  You know the one ~ an innocent looking little bin that holds a couple of things you need to sort through that somehow morphs into a huge pile of "I was wondering where that was!" by the end of the year.  I am determined not to allow this little white bin turn into an unwieldy pile!  If it's rainy this weekend, I may spend a couple of hours in my classroom to rid myself of the Bin of Shame as well as the Piles of Shame that are lurking in the corners waiting to pounce while I'm benchmark testing my Kinders.

We had a CrAzY week ~ it snowed on Tuesday.  Seriously... it's still November!  Needless to say my little Midwestern Kinders reacted to the white stuff as if they had just been dropped here from the Equator and were seeing snow for the very first time.  Of course, not everyone had snow pants & boots yet, so that lead to a chorus of "Why can't I play in the snow?"  Happily it is pretty much gone, so recess has gone back to normal.  Let's see, we had fire & lockdown drills, three birthdays, a full moon is on its way, and today was  reward  that they had been looking forward to all week.  Oh, and I got observed.

Anyway, despite all craziness, my little cuties made me proud & made me smile.  Here are five things from this week.  Happy Friday!

1. The Pilgrims crowd into the Mayflower!  The Kinders made these adorable pilgrims for our hallway bulletin board using a cute craftivity from Kindergarten Smiles.

 OK, so I work with some amazing people ~ some amazing people with a sense of humor.  When my class was at recess, and I was working on things in my room, they added a little more details to my bulletin board!

 The plane! The plane!  Love Boat!

2. Reward Day. My Kinders filled their class ten frames last week.  Yay!  For their reward we had Stuffed Animal Day today!  They brought their favorite - small - plush friend to school today.  Here they are reading -at family flip books to their friends.

3.  We broke out the glitter today!  I like to use the lids of copier paper cartons as "glitter stations."  A piece of construction paper makes pouring the glitter back into the little apple sauce containers.  Some of my glitter stations are over five years old!

4.  Yesterday my Kinder Diva partners and I  went to Elkhart to the Free Teacher store to do a little "shopping."  Well, it's not really shopping if it's all free is it?  Anyway, here is a picture of us with our overflowing shopping carrs.

5.  My newest product!  Check it out HERE!

I have a companion set for literacy.  You have until tomorrow (11/16/13) to enter to win this set.  Click HERE to enter.

Ta Da!  My Five for Friday!

Five for Friday - on Monday

Happy Labor Day!  Today marks the end of summer (and the start of school for many of you).  For me, it's the last day of a long weekend.  I have already had my first eight days of school, and am happy that tomorrow isn't my first day.  If you had asked me if I wished school started later a couple weeks ago, I would have said "yes."  But, with the first few days behind me, I am happy that we started when we did.  So far we are off to a great start ~ I have a wonderful group of Kinders this year!

And, now for my very late Five for Friday:


 1.  #Kindergarten:  Something to Tweet About!  Those little birdies are "online."  This is my hallway bulletin board.  The birds are mounted on clothespins and will hold first day of school pictures of my kiddos.

2. Welcome!  Get this banner in my TpT store.

3.  Four generations.  My dear mother is holding her 24th great grandchild.

 4.  My little darlings.

 Isabella on Sundance

 Olivia going for a stroll

 Amelia is alert and happy

5.  The newest - and tiniest - christening gown.  Amelia was so teeny when she was born, the gown I made last year was too big, and the gown my mother made many years ago was way too big, so I needed to make a new one.

 Christening Day

 Close up of the bodice 

 Readers who sew will appreciate this picture.  I will not be quitting my job to sew newborn clothes any time soon!  The gown was really a simple project - a nice pattern and wonderful fabric.  But, the trickiness was in the tiny size!  I assume factories that make newborn clothing must have sewing machines equipped with tiny presser feet.  I must say, though, I am happy with how the dress turned out.  Now we have christening gowns in three sizes ~ perfect for any future baby (Unless we get a boy!  lol)