Teacher Keychain

I want to share this adorable keychain my BTSA coach gave me!  I absolutely love my new keychain.  And it was made perfectly for me; sparkles, pink, and polka-dots!

We went out for a celebratory end-of-the-year dinner and she surprised us with these gifts.  How cute is the gift box?!  She ordered them from the Etsy store, Once Upon A Sugar Tree.  They create personalized jewelry, keychains, and all kinds of fun stuff!

Farm Diorama

This week we worked with the story, "Old MacDonald Had A Woodshop" and talked about farm animals and.  We made a diorama with farm animals and my students loved their 3D projects!  I usually don't show my students completed art or drawings when modeling because I want them to use their own creativity.  But having a completed diorama made a huge difference.  It was great to refer back to the model because a 3D project was a whole new concept and was difficult for some to understand.

Have you made dioramas before?  They are so easy!  I used the bigger sized construction paper and cut it to a square.  Fold it diagonally then cut from one corner to the middle.  Then fold the side over and use glue or tape to make it stick to the bottom.  I used double-sided tape to make life easy!  I pre-made blank dioramas to make the assembly easier.

             

First, students colored their farm animals and barn, then they cut them all out.  Each student had a little paper envelope to keep all their pieces together.  Cutting was the tricky part because they had to remember to keep the stand for each animal!  Needless to say, I had a couple extra copies of the animals for some accidental animal redos!

Next, they colored the scene on the diorama; the grass, mud for the pig to stand in, the sky, etc.  

Lastly, they glued the barn against the back wall and all the animals throughout the scene.    

You can download the farm template here!

 

Math Games

We got to go to a math games training last week and it was so amazing!  Our brains were fried after, we learned about SO many games!  All the games practice important math skills and build strong number sense.  All the games used common things like dice, cards, and dominoes.  I wanted to introduce the rules and routines with a simple activity so we've been using dice to practice "greater than" and "less than."  Students roll the dice and grab the larger number with their left hand (so they get in the habit of putting the larger number on the left side of number sentences).  I stamped everyone's left hand so there wouldn't be any confusion!

Students playing at their table, "Shake, Catch, Hands off!"

My 2 lower students used 1 dice to practice subitizing.

They rolled the dice and said the number.

Students rolled the dice, and used the sentence frames to compare the numbers.  

They said, " ___ is greater ___."  If they rolled doubles they said, " ___ and ___ make ___."

They're talking too which is helping them gain a deeper understanding of numbers!  My students love how much fun they are having with the math games and I love that they are building a strong number sense!

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week and we were all feeling the love!  Our PTC spoiled us and had so many treats and lunch every day.  I got cards and flowers from my students, so sweet!

 

A little gift from our principal, he's the best!  You can never have too many of these cups and I love that it has our school logo!

Our principal also put on "The I.O.T.W.Y.M.B.T.N... W.Z. Contest!"  Throughout the week, there were different challenges and Friday afternoon was the final contest.  Our Kinder team was team BAMF and we took it to the next level!  We decorated the staff lounge and put treats in all the boxes, we had too much fun!  We even dressed up as gangsters for the final contest on Friday (we changed after-school).  There was a lot of friendly competition throughout the week and the Friday contest was so much fun!

                 

A little friendly competition is good for everyone!

Team BAMF won!! Duh!  And we won a gift card for all of us to get lunch, awesome!!

Tablets

I love using tablets in the classroom and my students LOVE tablets too!  A couple times a week, we have tablet time and students work on a specific app.  We used to work a lot on Starfall so students could practice letter recognition and letter sounds.  Lately, we've been using different apps that practice CVC and High-Frequency words.

This is my favorite app!  Students practice CVC words with an adorable turtle in Kids Learn To Read (Lite).  This app is fun because students earn points and play while they practice spelling, blending, and reading!  Even on a tablet screen, the games are hands-on.  They spin the blocks to build the words!

I love how each word is sounded-out at the end, so great!

This is another app that I love!  Students practice HFWs with Parrot Fish in the Learn To Read Sight Words Lite app.  They have to identify and read HFWs in the fishtanks.  The game has lots of animation and different levels!

                    

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this weekend so I browsed through Pinterest to get some gift ideas.  I saw a lot of pictures that used handprints to make a flower pot so I created a card for us to make.  Little handprints and student writing is always so adorable!

We did handprints on the front of the card and wrote our notes on the inside.  Students traced the flower pot template (I just printed one from google images) and I cut flowers using the die cut machine.

We glued the pots and flowers last!  They turned out so cute!  Happy Mother's Day!

May the FOURTH Be With You

May 4th is Star Wars day and the boys in my class are obsessed with the new Star Wars movie!  When I saw Michelle's adorable pencil buddies, I just couldn't resist!  I didn't want to print all the color cards so I looked for some black and white ones and found these cute bookmarks!  I printed them on card stock paper and taped "light sabers" on the back.

Stackable crayons from Target!  Only $3 for a 10 pack, can you believe it?!  I hope your students love these as much as mine did!  May the FOURTH be with you!

Library Helpers

We got a special treat today at library today!  A couple 4th graders come in to help the librarian sort and reshelve books.  They come in during lunch recess, can you believe that?!  After my students checked out their books, one of the 4th graders read a story to them and they were in total awe!  So great for the little ones to hear a story from a big kid they idolize.  And it was good reading practice and a confidence booster for the 4th grader.  What a fun activity for all students!

Earth Day

I love teaching my students about Earth Day!  They get so excited and I love watching them take initiative in helping the earth!  It's so cute how proud they are when they pick up trash on campus and turn off the classroom lights on the way out.   It's important for them to learn about the earth so they can protect it as they grow up!  I saw a cute anchor chart at A Cupcake For The Teacher.  We had a class discussion about taking care of the earth and made our own anchor chart.  There are a bunch of teacher approved Earth Day videos, we watched a Peppa Pig video about recycling.

We also made this adorable flip craft I got from Michelle and wrote one way to help the earth.  I hung them outside on the windows and the students loved looking at each others!  Happy Earth Day!

Monthly Calendars

Every month we make calendars and it's always a fun activity.  Students practice their numbers and have a chance to relate numbers to real life!  We also do a little art to go along with the month!  I got the calendar template from Miss Kindergarten (get the Calendar Template).  Some of the calendars have traceable numbers, perfect for pattern practice.  Now that we have learned numbers beyond 20, students are able to fill in the calendar themselves!

Read Across America Day

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday and in his honor, we celebrated National Read Across America Day!  This day is about motivating students to read and we had guest readers who came into the classrooms to read to us.  The day before, we made Thing 1 and Thing 2 decorations and I made a welcome sign for our classroom door.  We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday by reading his books, making Cat In The Hat headbands and doing Dr. Seuss themed activities.  Our Thing 1 and 2 decorations were a huge hit too!  And how convenient that the PLC Principal site visit is on Friday.  Definitely leaving the adorable door decorations up for a few days! 

 

100th Day of School

The 100th Day of School is a big deal in Kindergarten because we learn to count to 100!  The whole day was filled with 100-themed activities.  In the morning, we made 100 Day headbands and paraded around the classrooms to see all the 100 activities.  The day before, we made gumball machines and posters.  We made a gumball machine with 100 gumballs and they turned out so cute!

I set out 10 paint colors and students used 10 Q-Tips, 1 for each color.  They painted 10 "gum balls" of each color so they had 100 gumballs!

We also made posters of 100 items and students glued down beans, foam shapes, gummy bears, stickers, etc.  I forgot to take pictures before I sent them home, oops!  The items were glued in groups of 10 so we could practice counting by tens too.  In the afternoon, students did the 100 Cup Challenge.  They worked in small groups and had 5 minutes to stack and build a structure using 100 cups.  They LOVED this!  They had so much working together and it was great to see them all talking and problem solving.  After the time was out, they compared the other structures to see which were taller.  Loved hearing all the academic language!

The winning team!  They had the tallest cup tower!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school!  I woke up feeling happy, excited, and so very nervous!  This is my first year of teaching and I am so ready to begin my teaching career!

My sister teaches kindergarten too!  She's an incredible teacher and has been a huge inspiration to me!  So fun because we both start school today!  #RossGirlsTakeOnKinder