I Like Money!

                                            

 I am linking up with Teaching MOMster for her Math Madness Wednesdays linky party for the first time!

We are learning about money this week ~ with the help of a fun Dr. Jean song & my new Piggy Bank product.  We began singing Dr. Jean's "Money Song" last week so the kiddos would know the words before using their new piggy banks & coins.  They learned it very quickly, and sang it during snack & free choice centers! 

These two pictures show the little cuties with their coins in position, and ready to go.

As we named each coin in the song, they held up the correct coins.  They really had fun, and of course wanted to sing the song several times.  I recorded it ~ oh, my how they love to see themselves performing on the "big screen!"  I have found that any time we can sing a concept, they seem to learn it quickly!

Click HERE to purchase.

My set includes everything you need to create your own "piggy bank," and coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter).  Also included are cards for your pocket chart, a sorting mat, anchor chart & eight pages of differentiated worksheets.  And, it's on sale until May 1st!

Springing into Science Blog Hop

I am excited to be a part of this fun Science themed blog hop.  As a busy kindergarten teacher, I find that I don't have a lot of time to devote to all things Science. Literacy & math take up lots of time.  But, our Kinder kids recently had the opportunity to participate in a special presentation by our county Soil and Water Conservation department.  My Kinders got to be Soil Scientists for an afternoon!

 Our guest presenter, Mrs. Benson, taught us about the types of soil in our area.

 Each student was given a "soil" sample made from kitchen ingredients such as cornmeal, cocoa, and flour.  After observing the samples with their eyes, ears (shaking the containers), and noses, the kiddos got to feel their samples.  Mrs. Benson gave the kids words to describe their "soil."  Rough, smooth, powdery, etc.  Some samples included cinnamon ~ which smelled much better than real dirt!

 Before adding a spoonful of water, the Kinders were instructed to give a practice stir in the air.  Mrs. Benson explained that soil scientists add water when studying soil.  The samples really did mimic different soil types ~ the cornmeal was like sand, and the cocoa/flour mix really looked like real mud!

After stirring their little pots of "dirt," the kids had fun trying to make mud balls.

I plan to schedule this presentation with my future Kinders.  What a great, hands-on way to learn about our Earth & be scientist for the day!

Thanks for visiting!  Check out my post about our recent Science Fair project, and enter to win $20.00 worth of items of your choice in my TpT store. 



 

 Hop over to Sweet Integrations for the next stop on the Springing into Science Blog hop!

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April Trade and Grade

It's time for the April Trade and Grade blog hop!  I paired up with my talented daughter, Sarah of Kinder Cakes, for this fun hop.  I'm guessing that we are the only Mother ~ Daughter match up!

This month Sarah sent me her fun Under the Sea themed Literacy Stations set.  This set includes so many great activities nine fun activities ~ all aligned to the CCSS!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my kids love Write the Room!  Sarah's fun anchor words Write the Room cards were a great addition to our collection!  I like the record sheet ~ the kids had to figure out where the words went based upon the shapes.

Seaside Sentences ~ I like to have a set of scrambled sentences available for stations/Daily 5 work areas.  I think that having lots of opportunities to build sentences has really helped my kiddos in their own sentence writing.  Sarah's set has colorful cards with cute pictures.

Short vowel practice.  I like how Sarah has included a coloring element to many of the activities ~ students color the pictures to match the circles on the cards.  I have found that this simple addition to the page keeps the kids from rushing through their work. 

Long Vowels!  I like how there are both long & short vowel activities in this set.  The short vowel activity was in last week's word work station & is now available in the Daily 5 word work area.  This week the Kinders worked with long vowels during stations.  Click HERE to see the post about my Literacy Stations/Daily 5.

We always need CVC practice!

Beluga Beginning & Ending Sounds.  This set has a combination of one and multi-syllable words which is great for differentiation.  I used this set in my stations groups ~ I used the single syllable cards with my little strugglers.  They wrote the letters on a white board rather than on the record sheet.

Rhyming cards ~ we played a memory game with these cute bubble & fish cards.  A worksheet is included.

Crabby Blends ~ This cute activity was in one of this week's literacy station.

This set includes one more activity that I don't have pictures of (sorry!).  A fun real & nonsense word sort features sunken ships.

As you can see, Sarah's Under the Sea themed Literacy Stations set includes enough activities for lots of learning!  Get your sample HERE.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up for the first time with Sugar and Spice's Wordless Wednesday.

 

How do you organize your literacy stations materials?

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had fabulous weather, yummy food, and some wonderful family time!  Here are a few pictures of our weekend.  Plus, a fun linky.

 

Coloring eggs at Mimi & Papa's house Saturday after pizza.

Amelia's first egg!

Wings on ~ ready to hunt for eggs!

 

 

 

 

Gabrielle & Jake

It wasn't very easy to get the little girlies to pose!  They were more interested in their eggs!

 

 

And, now for the linky.  Thank you to Jayne at Smart Kids for this Pinterest Linky party.

 



 

 



An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday

It's been a while since I've had time to link up with Doodle Bugs for the wonderful five for Friday linky party.  I didn't have school today, so I actually had a little time to catch up on some things.  One of which was organizing my photos on my computer.  My school pics were all mixed in with my family pics,  but no more!  I deleted old photos that I no longer needed, and put those from this current school year into a folder marked 2013 - 2014 school photos.  It's about time... we only have 36 days of school left!!!  Holy cow!  How did that happen?  I am really getting sad about passing on my little cuties.  I am really attached to them.

Other than organizing my photos, I finished Easter Bunny shopping for my darling granddaughters and volunteered in my daughter's Kinder classroom.  She asked me to come in to help with her Writers' Workshop.  The opportunity to visit her classroom may never happen again (we had different snow make up days), so I was happy to volunteer.  I had fun & was impressed by her teaching skills. (Well, I wasn't at all surprised... says the proud mother.)

Anyway, here are five things from my week. 

The Postcard Project.  Recently our focus was on all things American.  My teaching partners and I borrowed an idea from a Kinder teacher from another school in our corporation & challenged students to collect postcards from all 50 states.  We helped the process by asking Facebook friends to send postcards.  As you can see, my class collected a ton of postcards!  Friends & family really came through!  (Actually, about half of the cards belong to one little girl!  Her family must know a lot of people!)  We have postcards from all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.  I also received cards from Ireland, Switzerland, Mexico, and Afghanistan!  These cards are hanging in the hallway so everyone can enjoy them.  Thanks Bekah P. for the awesome idea!  We will definitely do this again next year!

Rockets!  We read a few books about space last week and just had to make our own rockets.  We work so hard all week long, so I like to give my little kiddos a little creative outlet by doing a craft each Friday. 

 I guess this should have been included in last week's Five for Friday, but I didn't participate in last week's linky... Week before last we made these fun kites.  It was a real challenge for my little cuties not to mix the paints.  They worked so hard to keep the red red, the blue blue, and the white white and not make pink or purple.  *smile*  I think they did a great job!

 I won a prize!  Yay!  I've entered lots of giveaways before, but haven't won until recently.  Brenda at Primary Inspired gave away two puzzles to go along with her post about how she uses puzzles for sight word practice.  I used the pieces of this puzzle for CVCe word practice.  My Kinders love puzzles, so this is a great addition to my literacy activities!  Thank you, Brenda!

 

 Helpful Kinders.  We spent time talking about being helpful last week.  Here is a sampling our the writing.

Watching the Grass Grow

What is more fun than watching paint dry?  Why, watching the grass grow, of course!  Actually, watching the grass grow has been pretty fun.  My Kinders have been busy this week and last working on our project for the Science Fair.  The primary grades do a grade level project, and my teaching partners & I wanted something simple.  And, what can be simpler than watching the grass grow?

 We only have to submit one display for the Science Fair.  I created this board using my new Watching the Grass Grow product.  I didn't get home until after 5:00 tonight, but I think it turned out pretty cute!  In addition to our display, we will set out a set of cups & the kiddos' booklets.  I think our display will be the hit of the show!

 Using the pages in my new set, we made our hypotheses, recorded our observations, and (will tomorrow)  write our conclusions.  My little cuties really enjoyed being junior scientists!  They were thrilled each day to come in and check out the cups of grass/seeds.  Click HERE to purchase.

 I can't claim the cute cups 'o grass as my own idea, but I can claim how they were made.  We are hoping to reuse this display board next year (it will be a new set of kids...), so we didn't want to hot glue the cups onto it.  I traced the shape of the half cup and taped on bent paper clips which act as holders.  To keep the yarn "dirt" from squiggling out of the cup, I taped a piece of brown paper onto the back.  (If you do this - put the tape onto the paper & make tiny clips into the tape sticking off the edge of the paper.  This will allow the tape to fit onto the cup ~ the little tape tabs will overlap slightly on the side of the cup ~ and the tape will be smoother & less noticeable.  If you sew, you will know just what I mean, if you don't & aren't sure, find someone who sews and ask them what I'm talking about.  :-)  I wish I had taken a picture of this step.)  Plant some green pipe cleaners, and PRESTO!  You have a pot of grass!

 The little cutie on the left got a little mixed up with think/thing, but I do like how she spelled definitely! 

I love the progression of how this Kinder wrote his observations.  He really added some great details!

The Science Fair is this Friday, so we will have to do one more observation & write our conclusions tomorrow.  We also will have to look at the "no water"grass of our neighboring class because it grew!  I guess the potting soil must have had enough moisture for it to sprout!  Who knew...

And, once we submit our display, my Kinders want to rescue the poor weak, yellow grass from the cabinet.  They want to put it by the window so that it will turn green.  Boy, do I love those kids!