Five for (Fall Break) Friday

I love a beautiful October day! And, if it happens to include a day of Fall Break it's even better! October in northwest Indiana is very pretty. The leaves are amazing right now. In honor of this colorful season my Five for Friday features all things fall.

My kinders worked hard on making numbers to five in various ways using my Apple Basket Number Sense activities. To round out the lessons we made these cute apple baskets to add some fall color to our room (and, to show off their learning of course).

My set includes 42 pages of number sense activities that are perfect for this time of year.

 Purchase it HERE. (PS you can get just the craftivity for free in my store.)

Beautiful autumn leaves. To create some lovely leaves for our hallway tree we had fun sponge painting these papers. I had traced a leaf shape on the back before painting. The kids cut them out once the paint had dried. Because the sponge painting was random they were surprised to see the results. They will stay up until Thanksgiving ~ by then we will need to make some snow for the tree!

Scrappy Owls have come to roost in our tree branches. We made these cuties using my freebie and some left over scrapbook paper I found in the hall. (When we teachers come in to set up for the up-coming year anything that is no longer wanted/needed it put out into the hall with a "Free to a Good Home" sign. I scored a stack of pretty paper from the cast-off pile!) I think the kids did a great job ~ each owl is so cute and unique. 

 Get this craftivity HERE. Please rate it if you download it. And, if your kids make them I'd LOVE to see them. Post a link in the comments or send pictures to via Facebook.

Hedgehogs! I wanted to do something different this year on our hallway bulletin board. (It's to the right of my door & the tree is to the left of my door.) Like our leaves & owls, this bulletin board will take us through November. (Which is great because my youngest, Gabrielle, is getting married in November & I'm not sure how creative I'm going to be until after the wedding...) The cute little hedgies are made from paper plates ~ I folded them & pre-cut the head/snout before the kids painted them. Once dry, I stapled them along the edges & the kids glued on the paper spines, wiggle eyes, and pompom noses. I've never used glue sponges, and really wished that I had some for this craft. But, in lieu of glue sponges I put some white glue into milk bottle caps. (We have a ton of them on hand because our PTO is saving them to have benches made for our playground. Check out the program HERE.) I figured  using 18 caps for glue wouldn't set back our bench goal too badly. :-)

I asked our kindergarten TA to put some words up for our hedgehog bulletin board ~ I wasn't picky, I just thought we needed it to say something. Well, not only did she come up with a title, she created this fabulous harvesting hedgehog! She is a wonder! She looked at some pictures online & painted it!

Trip to the apple orchard with some of my girls (Gabrielle had to work). Sarah (in last car) is also a kindergarten teacher so she was on Fall Break. Emily, in the front car, is an author and sets her own hours. (Check her out on Facebook.) What a fun activity for a crisp fall day!

 A ride on the Moo Choo is a must!

 A harvest of cuties! My little darling granddaughters in a giant cornucopia.

 Enjoying apple cider on the front porch of the apple orchard's big barn.

Background papers by:

$1.00 Sale!

Tonight might be the end of my Spring Break ~ but, it also marks the eve of another great Dollar Sale brought to you by some of my fellow Indiana Blogging buddies.



Here's what you can get in my store for $1.00 ~

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Check out the savings at this linky.

An InLinkz Link-up

This Week's Literacy Stations & a Little Bit More

I really do want to post more than once a week, but here I am linking up with Five for Friday with my only post for the week.  Not that there's anything wrong with that... (Seinfeld reference)  I do have to say that this is one of my favorite linkies.  I really enjoy reading everyone's random posts! 

This week seemed to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  I've been on meds for sinus & ear infections this week.  As any teacher knows, being sick adds another ~ not so fun ~ dimension to the classroom.  Anyway, here are my five:

1. Literacy Stations for this week.  We spent a lot of time this week working on the alphabet & sight words.

 Playdoh letters

 Alphabet Arcs

 Lakeshore Learning file folder activities (not pictured is a worksheet from Teacher's Helper)

 Sight word spelling with magnet letters

Listening Station

2. Pete the Cat.  My Kinders LOVE Pete!  We read books, and watched them on You Tube.  It's so cute when they sing along! Some of the little cuties really get into it!  *smile*  Here are some cute Petes wearing some rockin' shoes!

3. Chevron Daily Schedule Cards by Kinder Cakes.  My talented daughter. Sarah, made these cute schedule cards.  I have them mounted on polka dot ribbon with Velcro.  The kiddos can tell at a glance what we are doing, and how many activities are left in the day.

4. Minnie Mouse ~ I mean Amelia Grace.  I love her little smile!

5. All About Numbers posters are now available for purchase!  Please click HERE to buy.  Today I forgot to silence my phone and finally heard the CA-CHING of a sale on Teachers pay Teachers!  Around 8:00 this morning the TpT app informed me that I had a sale!  So, if you are reading, Thank you for buying my Decomposing Dinos game!  (As exciting as it is to hear the ca-ching, I really do need to remember to put my phone on silent for the school day...)

Using Music as a Tool

In my Kinder classroom we can often be found singing.  Kinders love music, and are very forgiving of my less than American Idolish voice.  (I'd be in the blooper reel...)  Our classroom is filled with tools for my students use in their quest for knowledge, and I often see *hear* them using songs to help them to figure things out.  We recently got our six boxes of Jolly Phonics and have been having fun with the cute songs and motions.  I can't wait to use Jolly Phonics next year beginning on day one!  I can see already that it will prove to be a smart purchase!

In addition to the kindergarten standards, we sings songs to learn how to spell words, remember classroom rules, and understand math skills.  When we were working with ten frames to make numbers to twenty, I came up with this little ditty:  (Sung to She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain)  When a ten frame is filled up, you have ten, when a ten frame is filled up, you have ten, when a ten frame is filled up, when a ten frame is filled up, when a ten frame is filled up, you have ten!  Very catchy!  I think we sang it about twenty times one day.  (The following day several kiddos said that they had it 'stuck' in their heads - YAY!)  Another song-tool that came to me one day was to sing the "Story of Five" to the tune of Are You Sleeping? 

I wanted to create a visual to go along with my "Story of..." songs, so I made this Growing Number Sense bulletin board set.  (Available for only $2.00 on TpT)  I am pretty excited about it because I made most of the clip art in it!  (Title page artwork is from www.mycutegraphics.com)  I still need to figure out how to make the background transparent, but I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. 

For a really great article on using songs as a teaching tool, go to Heidi Songs.  Her blog gives readers tons of information and ideas for using songs to help students learn to spell.  Be sure to check it out!

Swimming with Number Sense

I do lots and lots of activities designed to help my Kinders to develop a strong sense of numbers.  One of the basic principles of Singapore math is to work with manipulatives, practicing skills until mastery.  My kiddos really love math!  In order to keep their interest and enthusiasm up, I like to create fun themed activities.  Here are some pics of one of my newest TpT offerings.

Under the Sea Number Sense Activities available on TpT

 After making five in different ways using counters (darn - I wish I had taken a picture...) the Kinders colored their fish and arranged them onto light blue paper to create a fish tank craft. 

I read Memoirs of a Goldfish earlier, inspiring many of the fish tank designs! 
                                            

 Seven seahorses swimming in the ocean.  Two are hiding behind seaweed, five are not hiding.  We had fun acting out number stories with paper seahorses & seaweed.

 Students worked in pairs to create seven in different ways using two sided foam counters on a work mat, and then recorded their combinations onto this number bond page.

  Octopus Eights.  An octopus is the perfect sea animal to use when making eight!  The cute sea creature clip art is from Teacherlisasclass.blogspot.com   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Parnello

How Many Ways Can You Make Ten?

Our corporation's math series is modeled on the Singapore method of teaching math.  I had never heard of "Singapore math" until we adopted this series two years ago, and I must say I am a fan of this methodology.  Lots & lots of hands-on practice with a variety of manipulatives really does help Kinders to learn and to understand math concepts.  This past week we worked very diligently on making ten in a variety of ways with... a variety of manipulatives.  Here are some pictures of my cuties hard at work.

In the top two photos the students used our trusty number bracelets, two-sided counters, and ten frames from Sparkle Box to make ten in different ways.  The pictures below show students counting on from a given number and hopping to ten.  Get this in my Buggy for Addition set.

 
 These pictures show Kinders using the bug jar work mat from Buggy for Addition and counters to make ten (some in the jar & some out of the jar).  They recorded their number bonds on this Number Jars freebie.

 Here they are using linking cubes on the caterpillar work mat from the Number Jars freebie and a number bond page from Building Number Sense to continue practicing making ten in different ways.

I'm so proud of my little kiddos!  They worked very hard all week long As a reward for their diligence, they got to enjoy playing a favorite game:  Seahorse vs. Fish WAR!

...Speaking of this game, I am linking up with Teaching Addict for their Ultimate Freebie Celebration.  I was tickled to see my little seahorse - fish game mentioned on their guest list page!

Place Value part 2

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we've been working on place value.  It can be a tricky skill to master, and I wanted something more fun and engaging than linking cubes.  (Don't get me wrong, linking cubes are a valuable resource.  But, with such frequent use, they can get kinda boring...)  So, with that in mind, I created my Hoot for Place Value set.  As it turned out, my creative Kinder teacher daughter made a fun place value set, too!  My Kinders had fun using her Base Ten Apples on Top set to continue building understanding of place value.  Check out her blog post here.

I used components of Sarah's cute kit to a create tens & ones pocket chart activity by hanging yarn with paper clips above the kids' heads.  We did the lesson first as a whole group, and now it is part of a Skill Spot for students to use independently.

Drawing tens and ones on the apple worksheet included in the set. 

This is actually a component of my Hoot for Place Value set.  I didn't get these pictures taken in time for the previous post.  Here the Kinders are arranging numbers 60 - 100 in order.  This proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Because it is in the Common Core (K.CC.A.2 Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence) , we have been trying to practice the skill frequently.

These Kinders worked well together.