Sunday, 16 November 2014

Race-way Ordinal Numbers FREEBIE

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We started talking about ordinal numbers around Halloween as we were singing and acting out the all-time favorite poem "Five Little Pumpkins."  To extend the children's learning in this area we thought of other times when we would use ordinal numbers - they mentioned when lining up to go to library, gym, etc. and also in a race!  I brought in my son's Wheelies Rampway and that's exactly what we did - had a race! 





The kids took turns racing their cars down the ramp way.  We made note of which car came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.  It was a really fun way to teach ordinal numbers!  We filled out our response sheet writing out our ordinal numbers.  You can do this activity with any type of ramp (the kids could even make it themselves).  If you'd like a FREE copy of the recording sheet, race on over and click the image below!


There are 2 different recording sheets depending on if you're working on numbers 1st to 5th, or 1st to 10th.





Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Thanksgiving FREEBIE!

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This is a super quick post to share a FREEBIE with you!  We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada a few weeks ago.  I just love Thanksgiving...food, family and friends...what a great way to spend the day and reflect on all our blessings!  We made our very own hand-print turkey with all the fall colors.  This was a super-easy and quick activity that the kids enjoyed.  It even got them talking about 'cornucopias' which they were somehow fascinated with...the look of them and the actual sound of the word!  


I know that the American Thanksgiving is quickly approaching for friends and families just south of us.  If you'd like your own copy of the hand-print poem printable, just click the image below.  


Sorry I'm late with this post for all the Canadian followers and bloggers, but at least you can store it away for next year!

Have a great week everyone!

Thursday, 30 October 2014

Happy Halloween in the Haunted Cafe

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 This post is to share a Halloween Freebie with you!  The kids have been having so much fun in the weeks leading up to Halloween.  We carved the pumpkin that we picked on our recent Pumpkin Patch Trip.  It's actually much bigger than it looks.  It took both my E.C.E. and myself to roll it across the floor and somehow haul it onto the table!  There was lots of goop (pulp) and many seeds to scrape out.


The kids have also been having a great time at our Haunted Cafe.  My wonderful E.C.E. Mrs. Caruso set this one up for the kids.  They have been taking turns playing different roles:  customer, chef (some in the witch role), server, etc.




Even my daughter and her friends have been busy playing before their own school day starts!

At the end of each month we discuss what we learned and what we liked.  Many of the students chose to write about the Dramatic Centre.  Here we are using our phonetic writing in our Memory Books.

"I liked the Haunted Cafe Dramatic Centre."

"I liked the Haunted Cafe."


If you would like to create a Haunted Cafe in your Dramatic Centre, here is a little FREEBIE for you...A poster/sign and menu.  Simply purchase the cauldron, plastic spiders, insects, etc. at your local dollar store.


Happy Halloween!



Thursday, 9 October 2014

Kindergarten Learning Goals

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I made the Ontario Kindergarten Learning Expectations into large posters for a friend of mine who teaches K at another school within our School Board.  Her Principal wanted to see all the teachers talking with students about what the expectations were and wanted them posted visually in the class.  She wanted staff going over 'Success Criteria' with students so that students knew what was expected of them.  In her school, some teachers have a 'Learning Goals' wall or bulletin board.  I thought this was a great idea, since giving students the vocabulary for what they are expected to do helps them focus their learning.  Posting the expectations serves as a visual reminder for students for what the expectations are.  A lot of the learning in Kindergarten happens around the room at a variety of learning centres.  So instead of placing the learning goals on a board, I've placed them around the room at the various centres.  This helps students remember how to use the centre and what they should be doing at that particular place in the classroom.








The curriculum document has so many great examples of what that expectation might 'look like.'  For example, the expectation 'communicate in writing, using strategies that are appropriate for beginners" is very general.  As a class we talked about what that might look like and came up with our own success criteria (blank page provided in the package).  We wrote it out together and posted it at our Writing Centre (which is not the only place where writing takes place, but it seemed appropriate).
 


This is our Building and Blocks Centre.  It has blocks of various shapes, sizes and textures, as well as 3-D solids and a variety of play materials such as dinosaurs, animals, etc.

 This is our book shelf.  Here we talked about looking at pictures to help us gain an understanding of what the text might say.  We talked about conventions of print (front cover, directionality of text, etc.), and I see the students remembering what to do when selecting a book.  They will follow the print with their fingers, look at the pictures to help them figure out text, and their sense of story when 'reading' has improved too!

 I have a math wall where I like to post pictures of the children engaging in mathematical exploration.  This past month we worked on sorting and classifying.  Our learning goal was placed on our Math Wall and our pictures and text demonstrate our learning goal in action.


I would love to hear if anyone else uses or posts learning goals in their classroom, and in what format?
Tomorrow is Friday and it's our Thanksgiving long weekend!  Enjoy!

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

All About Me

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We've been busy getting to know each other!  I put together this pack as we were doing all of our activities together, so it's finally ready just now!  It has so many great activities!  Check it out by clicking the image below.


Included in the pack are a bunch of class graph templates.  Here is our 'How do you get to school?' graph.  We are learning to sort and organize our data.

There are many Rhyme and Chime Poem pages with writing prompts.

An All About Me Glyph, Mobile and Craftivity with Writing Booklet.

And lots of fun little Roll and Cover games to quickly assess your student's knowledge of basic skills (colors, letters, numbers, shapes)!

...and so much more!!!!

Have a great week!





Monday, 8 September 2014

First Week of School with The Kissing Hand

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Starting school for the first time can be a scary thought for some, especially if they've always been with either mom or dad.  Even students who've been to daycare or nursery school may be nervous at meeting new classmates, teachers and being in a new environment.  I know the littles in my class had a range of emotions on the first day of school.  We brainstormed how we felt:


We read The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn.  In the story, little Chester Racoon gets a kiss on his hand, from his mom, when he's nervous about starting school.  Whenever he misses her, all he has to do is put his hand to his cheek to feel her love.  The kids were comforted knowing that their mother's love was with them wherever they went!  Some of the kids already did kissing hands with their moms/dads, and some couldn't wait to start!  

We created a class book, with our First Day Feelings.  Thanks to Brooke Hilderbrand for this great FREEBIE.  You can download it here.





As we read our class book, it was good to know that the students who felt nervous or sad, didn't feel that way any longer!  We're off to a great start!



Monday, 1 September 2014

First Day of School Poster FREEBIE!!!!

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School starts tomorrow!  I quickly put together this First Day of School Poster for my kids so that I could capture the details of their first day of school.  I tried to upload this FREEBIE to TPT, but it just wasn't working for me today, and I'd love for you all to get your copy tonight (if you want to use it tomorrow!).  If you love to capture your kid's special memories on camera, like I do, then click the image below to get your FREE copy!
What to do:  
Print out the page that corresponds with the New Grade your child is in, or the Grade the children in your class are in.  Have them fill in the missing information (age, favorite book, what they want to be when they grow up).  Have them hold up the poster and take your photo!  Place in their memory book for the year!

Wishing everyone a great First day of school!!!

Thursday, 28 August 2014

Peanut Safe Classroom FREEBIE!

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It's the labour day long weekend, which means that school starts soon!  Before starting the school year, we always go over safety protocol for dealing with an anaphalactic response in students or fellow staff members.  We review what the possible symptoms could be (symptoms are vast and differ from individual to individual), and what to do should crisis occur (how to use an epi-pen).  Each year I have students in my class who have allergies to peanuts and/or tree nuts.  I made this poster to serve as a reminder that my class and the whole school, is a nut safe environment.  I say 'nut-safe' because I strive to maintain an environment free of peanuts and nut products, but need the co-operation of everyone who enters the room to keep it this way!  Click the image below to get your FREE copy.


Wishing everyone a great, safe start to the new school year!

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Back to School Sale

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Check out my TPT store sale for all your back to school needs!  Click the Back to School banner below to take you there for great savings.



Here are a few things to help you start your year.  Keep reading down below for a bunch of FREEBIES!!!


*FREE* Apple themed flashcards numbers 1-30

*FREE* vocabulary word cards

*FREE* Number Stamping



I've teamed up with my teaching partner Alessia Albanese to create some Skill Building Take Home Packs.  You can use these in your small intervention groups or you can put them together for your kiddos to take home and practise key skills at home.  Parents appreciate this because everything is so neatly laid out for them - instructions, game pieces, materials - in a neat little zippered pouch.  It allows parents to get involved in an easy, fun way!


If you're looking for additional savings, check out our BUNDLE.



Sunday, 20 July 2014

Frozen and Monster's University Birthday Bash with PRINTABLE FREEBIES

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I love planning my kid's birthday party each year!  Much like teaching, it allows me to be creative.  So, I know this is a teaching blog for sharing ideas and resources, well, I'm still going to do just that with this post, only the content is about party planning!  I like to come up with a theme nice and early so that I have lots of time to find anything and everything related to that theme, but this year, my kids threw me for a loop!  After my daughter became enamored with ALL THINGS FROZEN, we changed our theme, which sent me quickly searching for all Disney Frozen items, in a frantic rush!  The problem was that everything was sold out!  In my many visits to the party and Dollar store, you'll see what I eventually found!  My kids are born 2 weeks apart so we have one big family/friends party.  We like to do it outside, since it's summer.  Well, we had to get our backyard ready too.  The preparations began with putting up our play-structure.  This was no easy feat, but my kids (and even hubby...I'm pretty sure) would agree it was worth the 3 day job!  Extended family members even came out to help (and it still took 3 days!)
My little guy got in on the action with his screw-driver.

Here is the finished product, from Costco.  This swing set is much cheaper in-store, than ordering it on-line.

I got the Frozen and Monster's University table-cloths and Party plates/napkins/decor from Party City.  They were 50% off! Yeah!  The solid color table-cloths are a dollar more at Party City, but more durable (thicker plastic) than the Dollar store.
Because we were outside, I tried to secure everything down from the wind.  ***I had to bring the munchies inside because the popcorn was blowing away**  I put masking tape around the exterior border of the tables, then attached the plastic table-cloths.  I also tied the table-cloths at the four corners with long pieces of curling ribbon, so they didn't fly up in the face's of our guests as they were eating.



I set up a Craft Station, which was a bit hit!  I had one Flower Container full of beads and stretchy cord to make bracelets and necklaces.  The other Flower Container was full of foamies and stickers from the dollar store, which were used to decorate the Crowns. The foamies and stickers were from Dollar Tree and beads were from Michaels.  The paper snowflakes were from my classroom winter displays, originally from a book Paper Snowflakes Made Easy which is ancient and I couldn't find on-line to show.



Click the picture below to get the FREE template for the center of the Princess/Prince Crown.  Simply write the name of the child on the line, attach to Crown foamie and glue to a long strip of bristol board.  Decorate.
 Here are some bubbles just for fun!

The cake table.  I used material I had from previous years' bulletin board displays, to create a small overlay and back-drop.


The cakes were from a very talented cake artist in the area, Fuenzalida cakes.  I have used him for over 10 years for occasions such as my Bridal Shower, Wedding, Baby shower and now all my parties!


Here is some parachute fun!  I purchased this from Scholastic a couple of years ago for a ladybug theme, but it still comes in handy.

Some craziness going on in the jumping castle!

The balloons were from Bargain Balloons.


I found these Frozen cookies at our local Walmart.  They were gone the next day.



I had a couple of attempts at making these sweet treats, but at first the chocolate covered apples did not look appealing at all.  In the beginning, I tried to use regular milk chocolate and just melt it.  I deleted the picture because it was scary!  I finally bought chocolate melts from the Bulk Barn and all turned out as it should have.  The chocolate melted smoothly and it was so easy to coat the apples.



I made some fun labels for our drinks.  If you'd like your FREE copy of all the labels I used at the party, click the WATER picture below.  I've even included a blank page for you to personalize as you wish:  a banner, label, invite, etc.

There is even a 'SNOW' label if you'd like to make fake snow for tactile play.  Click here to go to a previous post explaining how to make snow!

I used water-bottle labels.  The Mike Wazowski label was so easy - I just cut out circles of various sizes on the Cricut.

 I even found these juice boxes at our local Walmart.  Just perfect!

The party was complete with a special visit from a special princess... Elsa herself.  She had story-time, singing, tattoos, make-up, games, a Coronation Ceremony and even sang Happy Birthday!  Ever After Entertainment did a great job!



The girls left with some hair-clips I made, and a lip-gloss set, and the boys with a Mike Wazowski t-shirt I found at The Children's Place.  The FROZEN box was a gift that held costumes and jewelry, and was from Toys R Us.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great summer with good friends, family, food and fun!  Hopefully, you're not stressing about Back-to-School too much, because whether you prepare well in advance or not, things will work out and come together in the end...they always do!