Handprint calendar, BIG Giveaway and End of year sale

 On Christmas Day I opened the most wonderful gift from my daughter who is in Junior Kindergarten (Pre-K).  It was a Handprint calendar!  This year our whole Kindergarten division made these with the kids, and while they were A LOT of work...let me stress A LOT again, I have to say that they were SO worth it in the end.  The original idea is from Little Giraffes, and the templates are free if you`d like to do this activity in future.  As a parent, I love that I have a gift that is practical, yet such a great memory of my daughter at this special age.  Thank you to our Educational Assistants, Ms. Sampogna and Ms. Chiovitti, for helping to put this activity together from start to finish!  You guys are amazing!  Our version was modified for the month of November to include Remembrance Day, but the original version has a turkey for the American Thanksgiving.  Look how cute!

 

Why is it that as soon as I allow my body to go into `rest mode`it protests with all its fury.  I sit here sneezing, sniffling, coughing, chilly and sore.  I am sick.  On the one hand, I`m glad I didn`t get sick while school was in session, because there was just no time to be sick (and I didn`t have to use a sick day either), but on the other hand, I`m missing out on vacation time.  First, I missed Boxing Day.  In Canada, our sales all happen after Christmas and I haven`t seen a mall, store or sale all week.  I know!  Horrible!  Also, the snow has finally arrived and I have been looking forward to taking my kids tobogganing down the hills in the nearby park, but I got them sick too.  I also haven`t done as much work on my TPT units as I would have liked to.  I did manage to finish my Winter Fun pack and am so excited to say that it is part of a Great Big Giveaway.  As a newbie to blogging, I am so happy to be a part of such a great giveaway with such fabulous and talented bloggers.  Thank you to all the bloggers who`ve come by from Mrs. Albanese`s Class and who`ve entered this huge give-away for a chance to win some amazing prizes.

To celebrate the 2012 year coming to an end, here is a Penguin Patterning FREEBIE from my new unit Winter Fun!  Click on the picture to get your copy.

I am also having a sale in my TPT store until December 31st to celebrate the end of the year.  Click the picture below to take you to the sale.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year filled with new opportunities for learning ahead!

Cheers!

It's a Wonderful time of Year

Continued thoughts and prayers are with all those involved with Sandy Hook Elementary.  May they somehow find peace, hopefully through love and faith.

It's the most hectic wonderful time of the year!  We are SUPER, SUPER busy!  The kids are bursting with excitement with all of the fun things going on at school.  In between our many practises for our Christmas Production...I say production instead of concert because our shows are always BIG.  Thanks to the involvement of many teachers, students and volunteers, our school always puts on a very memorable and heart warming show.  We have also been keeping busy in the classroom.  Click on the pictures below to view the complete unit pack.  Here's what we've been working on:

Ordering numbers one to ten.  My kinders are SO good at this now.  In the new year we will be working on numbers beyond 10.  This activity comes from my Christmas unit.

Using one to one correspondence to count sets and write the numeral. Pleae excuse the loose paper at the top of the page.  For privacy reasons, I've covered the student's names.  This activity also comes from my Christmas unit.

Creating the cover page for our December center work.  All the center work that was completed in December will be stored in their files behind this page.  I love that these monthly pages chronicle how the kids drawing skills progress throughout the year, and also how they get better and better at writing their names.  In the new year, we will also concentrate on writing our last names. This page is from my Kindergarten Memory Book.

At the Stamping Center, the students have been stamping Christmas thematic words.  I can't believe I've been teaching for 10 years and this is the first time I've dedicated a whole center to stamping, because the kids just LOVE this center and their vocabulary has grown tremendously!  It's so nice to find activities that engage the boys in literacy, and this is one of them.  Day after day I find the boys going to this center. Fantastic!  This page is in my Christmas Trace, Stamp, Color, Cut and Paste it pack.



I've just finished wrapping ALL my gifts...for my own littles at home and the littles in my class.  I love sharing my love for literacy and books with them, which is why every year I get the kiddos in my class (either for Christmas or at the end of the year) a book.  I hope they like them!

Here is a Color by Sight word activity **freebie**

that I had out this past week.  Despite the interuptions to our regular routine because of practising for our upcoming show, it was something that the students could complete in no time.

I hope you can use it in some way.

Click on the picture to get your copy.

 

This is the last week of school before the holidays.  I absolutely love what I do, but I have to say that I am looking forward to some down time with the family.

Have a great week everyone!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Hello!

Hello!  Hello!  Hello!

Wow!  I can't believe I'm blogging!

I have been reading blogs for some time, and I have learned SO MUCH from them that I wanted to be a part of this sharing and learning community.  Not only have I been inspired with new ideas for the classroom, but I have also learned how to make fondant cakes and boutique hair bows for my daughter (crafty things I enjoy doing in my spare time), through blog tutorials.  While completing my Masters Degree in Ed., I took a mentoring course, and I also mentored a co-worker through our Board's New Teacher Induction Program, but blogging goes so far beyond this.  A special thanks goes to my good friend and teaching partner, Alessia Albanese, and to my tech-savy and digitally creative brother, Anthony Plescia, for designing and creating this blog for me.  I can’t wait to open the doors of my classroom and share my kindergarten experiences with you!