Springtime fun :)

One year ago today I started this blogging adventure.  I am so so happy to have found this outlet to share with and learn from such talented inspiring teachers. It has been such a wild and blessed ride :)

It has been great to be back with my kiddos after spring break but boy and I pooped! I always forget how tired I am coming back after a break. It's not helping that my body doesn't like sleep this week :/
The kids have been loving our unit on plants. Their new favorite song is "Flower, Stem, Leaves and Roots" (to the tune of Head Shoulders Knees and Toes).  Tomorrow we are going to eat different parts of plants. (thanks Pinterest)  We are also going to plant lima beans and marigold seeds (this is the first time I will actually be GROWING flowers with the kids...wish me luck. Keeping plants alive Gardening has never been my strong suit.

I have been TERRIBLE at taking pictures this week. We have been using Caitlin Clabby's fantastic plant unit. This thing is packed. Check it out in her store here. Here are a few things we are going to be working on tomorrow and next week.

A few weeks ago we used Kim Adsit's unit on the presidents and made some ADORABLE flap books.

I decided to adapt the idea and make a sunflower book. We have been talking all week about how BIG sunflowers can get but I think this will really help them get it. Each flap has an unscrambled sentence about part of the life cycle with a picture inside.

You can grab the sentences and pictures here. 

I got the inspiration for this one from one of my teammates. She did the same thing with scrambled sight words in flower pots. I decided to make it a math activity with our teen numbers. After coloring the sample and putting it all together I came to a few realizations. I'm going to copy the leaves onto green paper, and we are not coloring the roots :) Also, I might just do 11-15 or 16-20. Either way I think it turned out really cute! Grab this activity here. 

 

Thanks to Ashley Hughes, and KPM Doodles for the cute spring graphics!

Don't forget to check out some of my resources for spring in my store :)

Spring Cleaning

Hi friends. I am closing out my Spring break and gearing up for lots and lots of teaching heading into our last quarter. This is my FAVORITE time of year to teach. I just love all of the activities and learning that happens during our plant and insect units. I've been working hard the last few days to create some things to be ready for when I go back next week and I wanted to share with you.

I haven't made a set of interactive emergent readers since the Winter so I'm excited about these! There are 5 different books each with a color version and student version.
Click on the pictures to find them in my store!

I also finally finished my Spring Morning Work. I have been doing smaller theme based packs for a while but this pack has 4 weeks of common core goodness. Here's a preview of some of the pages:

Rainbow fun!

It was another colorful day in Kindergsrten today. I don't know what it is about rainbows but they make everything so much more bright and cheery even on an ugly rainy day :)

We made this rainbow brace map this morning with some interactive writing.

 Speaking of brace maps, I love how my partner teacher arranged her schedule cards into one.

We also made these cute sight word rainbows in one of our centers this week. They picked 6 different words written on shamrocks, and they practiced writing the words in rainbow colors. This was one of those golden center activities where nobody moves or talks or breathes until they are finished haha.

UPDATE: I do not have a digital file of this particular rainbow image but you can grab a version in google docs here if you need one. You will have to enlarge the image on your copy machine to get it to this size and the lines are not as straight as my original image but it's the best I can do :)


And they look so cute hanging up with our silly leprechauns.

Rainbow teen numbers freebie

We are celebrating St Patrick's day this week in my room. We started talking about leprechauns this morning...it's always funny to me to hear them recount the havoc that leprechauns caused in their VPK rooms the year before. We read Jack and the Leprechaun and then talked about what kind of treasure we would want a pot filled with other than gold. Then we did this super cute crafitvity (thank you Pinterest) from Peace, Love & Learning. I forgot to snap pics of their writing but some of my favorites were "spiderman toys" "monster trucks" and "donuts".  

We also did a  directed drawing activity for a leprechaun. They turned out hilarious. You can download the instructions here.

 We have been working a LOT with hammering in the base ten concept with teen numbers. It seems like they get comfortable with it but it doesn't always stick. Today we built the numbers together using some base ten blocks and then I set them loose with their own set to build and record the numbers. It was great to see the ones that couldn't be bothered with the blocks because they could decompose the numbers fluently, but the others really benefited from using the manipulatives. Hello differentiation :)

You can grab a copy of the activity from google docs by clicking on the picture below.

 Don't forget to head over to TPT to take advantage of some March Maddness savings!!

I hope you are all having a great weekend. If you are already on Spring Break I am JEALOUS!! I have 2 more weeks! I am linking up with some of my friends and throwing a sale in my TPT store. Here's some new stuff you can pick up over there.

Easter morning work is coming soon I swear it!! Until then, happy shopping :)