New Products on Teachers pay Teachers & a Giveaway

It's been nearly a year since I entered the bloggy world!  I'd been following several blogs and thought "I bet I could do this."  Thanks to my friend & fellow teacher, Kim C. - who encouraged me to start a blog, I am one week away from celebrating my one year blog-iversary!  Thank you to my followers & visitors!  I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and ideas, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading them.

To celebrate my up-coming second year in Blogland, I am giving away all five of my Jolly Snowmen packs! I have included a number of entry options that include following my wonderful daughters' blogs.  All three of my beautiful girls have blogs:  Sarah is kindergarten teacher  (just like Mom - smiles!), and has just started her cute kinder blog, Emily recently graduated from nursing school (she already had a BS in psychology) & has written several popular self-published books has an author blog,  Gabrielle, my youngest, is just starting her career in advertizing, and has a fashion & lifestyle blog. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Another endeavor I have begun this past year is making items to sell on Teachers pay Teachers.  Again, it was something I'd been following, but it was my teacher friends who suggested that I put the things I made up for sale.  I wasn't sure that anyone would want my little activity packs, but happily some of them have sold!  I won't be able to quit my day job (actually, I would never want to do that - I love teaching kindergarten!), but I do like the idea of a little extra income (for shoes & important stuff like that!).

Number Bond Flash Cards 
Cupcake Literacy Activities

I'm a Guest Blogger!

I'm so excited for the opportunity to be a guest blogger on Kindergarten Lifestyle.  My post describes my Skill Tubs and includes a link to a Cupcake CVC Freebie.  Thank you, Jeannie for hosting me on your blog!

To thank my visitors, I have another freebie for your own Skill Tubs - a Cupcake Ten Frame Memory game.

Thanks for visiting!

Linda

Groundhog Day

Just a quick post to show the cute Groundhog puppets we made last week.  I hadn't originally planned to do anything about Groundhog Day because it fell on Saturday.  But, after reading Who Will See Their Shadow This Year? I just couldn't resit making some sort of craft.  These little critters were seriously thought up on the fly!  I had about 4 minutes before the Kinders were due back from recess when I thought it up!  Luckily, they go to a special right before lunch, so I had time to whip things together for them to make their puppets later in the afternoon.  (PS  Thanks Mrs. S. for helping me with the paper plates!)

The Kinders were so excited to use their little groundhogs to predict the weather Saturday morning!  Yesterday many of them told me that they did look for a shadow - and happily didn't see one!  We'll have to wait and see if their little guys predicted correctly or not!  :-)

Some of the kids decorated their plates to look like a groundhog home.

100th Day!

Hooray, hooray!  It's 100th Day!  Today we had our much anticipated 100th Day of Kindergarten!  My Kinders and I were so excited to come to school today.  Our day was filled with all things 100 - everything from counting to crafts.  I took lots of pictures, of course.  I wish I had permission to show the kiddos' faces because the look of excitement and delight as they worked *quietly* in the six different 100-themed stations.  Yes, they worked quietly!  There was happy chatter around the room, but no crazy noise.  I was tired at the end of the day, but very happy - this has got to be my best 100th Day ever!

We made our crowns yesterday - the Kinders wanted to wear them all day

 today!

We ate the number 100 for a quick morning snack!

 

 

 

 The 100 Club.  "Members" join by counting to 100 for me.  Once they count to me, they get to write their name on their "membership card" with a Sharpie (more fun than a regular marker...)

100 piece snack - the kids counted out 10 pieces each of 10 different treats with the help of a volunteer dad.  (I was so lucky to have seven parents come it to help with our activities!)

Kinder Bakery - working in small groups, the kids counted out 100 sprinkles to create one of a kind cupcakes with the help of a mom.  They filled out a "recipe" card (see below).

Cupcakes!

I got the idea for these counting mats from Pinterest. They are laminated so that I can keep them from year to year.  (I made a class set because I thought they would be helpful when we study numbers to 100.)  The kids brought 100 small items from home, and with the help of a mom, they counted them by tens.

After placing a Fruit Loop onto each space of a 100s chart, they created colorful necklaces.  They placed a pony bead after each 10 "Loops."  
I didn't take a close-up, but the little slips of paper seen in many photos are the kids' schedules.  When they visited a station, they got a sticker.  Click *here* for a copy.

 100 Stamp Books.  Using 10 ten frames and 10 different rubber stamps, they kids had fun creating a unique book to practice counting by tens to 100.

 Secret code.  This is an older resource shared by one of my fabulous teaching partners, so I don't have a link.  Kinders filled in numbers on a 100s chart to reveal a hidden picture. 
 

As an optional activity, students & parents were invited to send me a photo of a collection of 100 items that were too big to fit into a zipper bag.  Several students did so, and we enjoyed a fun slide show as we ate our 100 item snack.  One little girl's collection was so creative, I asked her mom for permission to share it on my blog.  Happily, she has allowed me to share this fun collection. 

Hooray for 100th Day!  What did your class do?

Heifer International Read to Feed

Our students (second - fifth) participate in the Reading Counts to encourage reading.  PTO provides incentive to reward those who get a certain number of points.  This year PTO decided to tie this reading program with Heifer International's Read to Feed program.  The goal was to get all students, kindergarten to fifth, involved in a reading program.  The goal was to read 5,000 books by the end of the year.  Having secured sponsors, each book read would be worth $1.00 to purchase an animal for Heifer International.  Kinders & Firsties earn dollars through read alouds and other grade-level reading activities. 

In order to extend the giving to our middle & high school students, the PTO put together a wonderful video starring students & teachers.  Click on the link below to view it on You Tube. 

Morgan Township Day of Giving video

PS  Since this video was made our students not only reached the year-end goal of 5,000 books read, but surpassed it by about 1,800 books!  (We are readers at our school!)  That being said, our year-end goal has been revised:  Can we read 10,000 books before June?  I think we can.  :-)  My own class has read enough books to purchase:  a trio of rabbits for $60, a flock of chicks for $20, a goat for $150, and have about $50 left to go towards our $250 water buffalo!  

Heifer International

 

 

Daily Five - A Little Help, Please

This semester the primary teachers at my school are doing a book study of The Daily Five.  I read it two summers ago, and am looking forward to reading it again - and discussing it with my collegues.  As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I do an I-Chart to help my Kinders while working in Stations, Skill Tubs, and other partner activites.  I love it!  They know just how to behave and what is expected of them as they work.  We (my Kinder partners) do a variation of listen to reading, word work, and writing in our weekly Literacy Stations. 

Here's the part where I would like some help:  If you have any tips, ideas, thoughts, or links about implementing The Daily Five in kindergarten, I would love to hear them!  Please leave a comment, a link to your blog, etc. below.  I am very excited to hear from my fellow Kinder Teachers.  Thank You!

Freebie Friday at Teaching Blog Addict

I am linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for this Freebie Friday.






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