Spring Cleaning Sale

I know I've said it before...I love a sale!  It means I can buy more and save more!  I am teaming up with some great bloggers to offer a Spring Cleaning sale in my TPT shop from March 29th to March 31st.  Everything in my store will be 20% off!  You don't need to enter a coupon code, it's already discounted!

Thanks to Beth Ann from Zip-A Dee-Doo-Dah Designs for the graphics.

Here are some BUNDLES which already offer a great savings to you.  You can save even more during the sale on these products:

Have fun shopping!

Community Helpers (and a FREEBIE)

 Our class post office really got the kids into the role of mail carrier.  They loved sorting the mail into the mailboxes and delivering the mail to their friends.  This got them interested in the jobs around their community, so we talked about community helpers and the workers in our neighborhood.  We started by looking at different jobs and talking about what they do.  Many of the kids were eager to share what their own parents do (sharing is such a big part of kindergarten!).  With each image I showed them, I made sure to have a female and male example of that same job (example, female and male nurse, female and male teachers and so on).  We also spoke about correct terminology.  We don't say 'fireman,' we say 'fire fighter' because girls and boys can do any job!  The kids were eager to share what they want to be when they grow up!  My wonderful ECE Linda got this activity all ready for the kids.  With each activity, the kids talked about what materials/tools each worker needed and why.  The kids made doctor's bags, fire trucks, smiles (with marshmallow teeth) for the dentist, and Sheriff's badges.    

I've had this prayer since I taught Grade One (in my practicum many years ago!) and I wanted to share it with all of you.  Click the image below to get your free copy.

I've also finished my Trace Stamp Color Cut and Paste it, Community Helpers/Workers pack.  Click the image below to take you to the pack.

Well, it's March (Spring) Break right now and I'm looking ahead.  We usually talk about Spring after Spring break, but that probably won't happen just yet, since we are still in the middle of snow storms!  I think we are all done with winter around here!  Seriously, we need a change of weather! I hope your Spring break is Springy! (unlike mine!)

Crown Me!

I am always looking for new ways to teach sight-words!  Those words that can't be sounded out and just have to be remembered from sight can be tricky for some students!  Check out an older post of mine, here, to see some of the things we do to learn our sight words.  The kids in the class have been obsessed fascinated with making crowns!  Part of this fascination may be from the Disney winter movie hit Frozen.  The girls in my class will spontaneously break into song, singing every verse of "Let it Go" from the movie.  They would make crowns and pretend they were the characters from the movie.  This fascination quickly spread to the boys, who would also make crowns and adorn themselves with them throughout the day.   I ran with their idea!  I made crowns for various skills we've been focusing on!

 Here are the kids own crowns. 

Here are the kids making crowns from my Crown Me! pack.  The kids were so excited to use markers!  Some of the kids worked on the sight-word crowns, and some worked on other skills included in the Early Skills Pack (color words, upper and lowercase letters, etc.).  Because I have a combined JK/SK class, having a variety of crowns available with different skills was necessary.  A few of the SK's are still reviewing letters (and that's okay!), so they worked on that, and many of the JK's are reading sight-words and non-patterned text (which is fantastic!) so I was able to differentiate instruction based on the child's level.  

The kids colored all the words they could read!

They cut out their crowns, and attached them to a long piece of bristol board.  We measured it to their head and they wore their words proudly!

They actually wore their crowns all day!  We had to remind them to take them off for gym class!  The best part was that they had had so much fun doing this learning activity!  

The crowns can also be used for assessment purposes because they are so visual!  Since the kids are having so much fun reading and coloring their words, they don't even know it is an assessment situation.

 Click the pictures below to take you to these packs:

***Check out the BUNDLE for savings***

This pack has:

-Uppercase letters

-Lowercase Letters

-Number words 1-100

-Numerals 1-100

-Color words

-2-D and 3-D shape words and symbols (for pre-readers)

This pack has

-Dolch Pre-Primer words

-Dolch Primer words

-Dolch 1st Grade words

-Dolch 2nd Grade words

-Dolch 3rd Grade words

You've Got Mail! (Valentine's Day Post Office)

The kids get so excited when we change up our centres!  To celebrate Valentine's Day, my wonderful E.C.E. Mrs. Caruso changed our Dramatic Centre (which had always been called a House Centre prior to this year), into a Post Office.  The kids have been so busy writing, writing, writing!!!  They've been writing notes, cards, and letters to one another.  They've also been learning how to label envelopes.  They are learning to negotiate who will take on various roles within the post office (mail carrier, mail sorter, etc.) and it is SO NICE TO SEE them do all these things independently!  They are using classroom resources to enhance their writing (there is a thematic vocabulary board to refer to), and they are engaged and actively learning and being self-directed in their learning.

If you incorporate a Dramatic Centre into your Kindergarten classroom, I have made up a sign that you can use to help set the scene for your Valentine's Day Post Office!  Click the picture below to get your FREE copy!

My kids are having a great time with it, and I hope yours do too!

Valentine's Card

Do you ever get the feeling you're going to need something so you keep it, although you're not sure what you may need it for?  That's what happens to me at the end of each year, as I go through the kid's containers of crayons.  I just can't bear to throw out ALL THESE CRAYONS, but really, they're just stubs, too short to colour with comfortably.  Now, this bag was FULL of bits of crayons before we started this craft!  By the end, the bag was empty!  It was so nice to put them to good use!  We made melted crayon hearts for valentine's day!  Here's what you need:

-old crayons (we didn't use black or brown)

-a heart mold (we got these tin baking molds at the dollar store)

-oven

 

This was such good fine-motor practise!  The kids were such troopers, peeling away!  At first, I heard a lot of "I can't do this!" or "This is so hard!" but after some initial assistance they got the hang of the peeling process in no time!  I would ask the kiddos, "Do you need help?" and they would respond, "No, I can do it!"  They peeled enough crayons to cover the bottom layer of the heart mold.

The kiddos did a great job colouring the front of the card!  Right in the center is where the heart mold goes.  The best part is that it's a functional crayon that can be used at home by the kids and their families.

We put the crayons heart molds into a preheated oven at 375 degress for about 15 minutes.  I waited until they had liquified completely, then I tood them out, gave the colours a swirl with a toothpick and set them on the counter to harden and cool.  I didn't take them out of the molds until the next day.

Here is the finished product!  The kids wrote Valentine greetings inside (and we inserted a cute picture of the kids too!)

If you would like to make the card above you can find a template for the front of the card if you click here.  There are two different spellings (colorful or colourful!).

Wishing everyone a colourful (or colorful!) Valentine's Day!

Snow

There is so much snow outside, but it's been so cold that we haven't been able to go out and enjoy it!  Well, since we couldn't go outside to play with and explore the snow, I brought it inside!  This week we talked all about snow!

We brainstormed things you could make with snow, and the kids came up with these snow "chalk" pictures.  I am so impressed and proud of how the students are able to represent ideas pictorally.  Even the JK's (Pre-K's) are creating these beautiful works of art.  The SK's really are a great example for them in terms of behaviour and work habits!

We did a choral reading together from this big chart I created.   

You can find the above art activity and this simple reader (as an interactive pocket chart activity), along with many more fun winter activities including literacy, math and science activites (melting/freezing), below:

We made our own snow and talked about how it was similar and different from the snow outside!  This was SO MUCH FUN!  They were sculpting, packing and creating as if it were real!  The best part was they didn't need mittens!

To make this simple recipe, use:

2 cups baking soda

2 tbsp. dish soap (I used Palmolive which turned the 'snow' a slight tint of green, which faded as the kids played with it)

4 tbsp. water

(I used extra water as I found it too flaky)

**I tripled the recipe, to make a large quantity**

It's been difficult staying inside all week, and we have needed movement breaks.  A parent told me about Cosmic Yoga for Kids on Youtube, so we started doing them on our new Bright Links board.  These movement activites allow kids to stretch and move while acting out various stories/scenes involving different animals.  If you've been cooped up all week, you should definitely check it out!

Playing inside with snow was great, but there's nothing like the real thing!  Here's to hoping this week won't be so cold and we can go outside again!

Happy New Year! And a peek at our week

Happy New Year everyone!  It was so nice being off school for 2 weeks, but I'm also so glad to be back!  I thrive on routine structure, and while it was nice sleeping in until 7:30 each morning, it was good to get back into the swing of things.  I love this time of year teaching Kindergarten.  The kids have grown, matured, and know the rules and routines of the classroom so well that it runs like a well-oiled machine!  Their attention spans have grown and their skills have improved so we can do so much more together!

We talked about our New Year's resolutions this week and brainstormed them together.  The kids had so many things they wanted to learn to do this year...draw, cook, make rainbow loom bracelets, and more!  My ECE Linda is so creative!  I was off one day with my little guy who was sick and when I came back this beautiful display was on our front door!  I got the idea for this craft from my teaching partner Mrs. Albanese who got it from Julie Lee.  I love this on-line sharing community!

Right before the Christmas holidays, we had a Bright Links Board installed.  I told the kids that my New Year's resolution was to learn how to use it, and to use it daily with them with interactive games, songs, books and videos.  The kids loved using it to explore Starfall.

During our Guided Reading rotations we used our Winter playdough mats to practise making sets and count quantity.  You can find this product here.  This is a great way to develop 1:1 correspondence.  

We wrote in our Memory Books.  It is amazing to see the growth and development of the students from September to present in the way the JK's write their name and are able to represent themselves pictorally.  They are also adding detail to their drawings.  The first picture has snowflakes and the second has a really great snowman!  I'm sure the parents will love this keepsake charting their child's growth during their Kindergarten year at school.  Click here to find my Kindergtarten Memory Book.

The SK's are getting so good at phonetic spellings, and reading their sight words.  We always circle the words we know from the poem and this little one (like so many others) knew them all!  Next step for our writing: look at our Writing Checklists more to review our work before it's done (check for capitals, punctuation, etc.)

I'm also done my Write the Room, Long Vowels Pack.  It's on the printer as we speak and I can't wait to use it with the kids this term.  Check it out by clicking here, or click the picture below.