The Alphabet Garden

Free President's Day Poem!

2012-02-20T01:27:00.000-06:00

OK, so I was inspired to make a mini book for the poem that I wrote for President's Day. I know! We will study this poem as a class for sight words, rhyming words and punctuation and then add it to our Poetry Journals. Anyway, I will try to make a reader for the kids to go with the poem but for now, here goes... President's Day Poem

Star Spangled Sight Word Match Up Game!

2012-02-17T23:59:00.001-06:00

A new game to play for President's Day and our study of America to help with that sight word reading! These are all of the sight words used in Scott Foresman for Units 1-5 plus color words. I can't enough of all of these fun graphics and I NEED as many Go-To Activities as I can get my hands on!

Star Spangled Sight Word Match Up Game

Our America Unit!

2012-02-12T21:13:00.000-06:00

This is my second year to use Deanna Jump's America unit and I love it!!

We make a book out of the activities (of course!) and so I wanted some writing pages for the book this year. So, here they are!!

America Unit Writing Pages

Valentine ABC Flashcard Game

2012-02-07T20:29:00.000-06:00

I know most Kindergarteners know their letters and sounds by this point in the school year but I have two new ELL students that still need work with letters and sounds. Hence, the game...

Valentine ABC Flash Cards

Valentine Nonsense Word Flash Card Game

2012-02-06T23:03:00.001-06:00

I put this game together to play in small groups to help increase nonsense word fluency. You mix the poem cards in with the nonsense words and when you get to one, you stand up and sing song the poem. The kids love it!! If I play it with one group, I sure better play it with the other two or I don't hear the end of it! :)

OK, I don't know why the first two cards on the first two pages are all wonky! When I click on it and download it from Scribd, it displays normally to print. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

Valentine Nonsense Word Flash Card Game

Snowman Nonsense and Real Words Activity~~~Updated!

2012-01-23T22:13:00.000-06:00

Hey!! I thought I would update this activity by adding some real word cards, mats and a new worksheet so the kids have to differentiate between the two. Have fun!

Snowman Nonsense Real Words

Happy New Year and Snowman Nonsense Words!

2012-01-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

Hi all!! I didn't actually drop off the face of the earth, I just acted like it! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year's Day. I'm in the midst of cleaning up Christmas but the new semester is looming and I felt the need to work on school stuff. So....I just put together a very simple nonsense word activity. Not enough brain power to come up with an amazing game but this will be a good "Go-To" Activity during literacy center rotations. The kids can practice reading the words with a partner and then record them on the half sheet.

***On a very exciting note....we are on day 170 of my husband's deployment to Afghanistan!! Two weeks from today, I will be on a plane to meet him in London for a few days!! This CAN'T be my life! Pinch me, I have to be dreaming. Now, just to whip out a week's worth of lesson plans and I'm off...

Thank you so very much for your thoughts and prayers, they have meant a great deal. :)

Snowman Nonsense Words

Our Pumpkin Book!

2011-10-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

You would not believe how late I am in even STARTING this pumpkin book!! Seriously...it will be November next week and we aren't finished with the FIRST page! We'll make it but the ground is a little shaky right now...

So, of course, we had to have a poem for the month for our Poetry Journals. I had originally planned to have several poems a month for the journals but reality has reared it's not-so-fun head and I think we will be doing good to get in one poem a month. Such is life...

Anyway, I pulled out the poem board I made for Five Little Pumpkins last year and lo and behold, it held up pretty well. I wasn't certain how it would last since it is an interactive board for the kids to use during reading rotations. I bought all the cute little wooden pumpkins, fence pieces, moon and stars at the Hob Lob last year but they still carry them, I checked. :) I glued it all down on a foam board and velcroed the poem cards to the board. We have practiced and practiced reading it and will add it to our Poetry Journals next week.

Next we will make our Five Little Pumpkins artwork for our Pumpkin Book.

I staple 4-5 pages together and cut the edges in the shape of a pumpkin. I did not come up with all this cleverness... the fabulous ladies on my team were doing this before I arrived on the scene, I am just good at copying.

Here is the Five Little Pumpkins page. You can use Popsicle sticks for the fence or strips of brown construction paper. It varies from year to year depending on my mood ....and my supplies.

Below is the page to use with the Poetry Journals. I tried to leave enough room for the kids to illustrate a picture next to each line. Remember, Jessica Meacham has all kinds of poems ready to print for Poetry Journals, I got this amazing activity from Jessica and have loved watching the kids get a handle on rhyming, punctuation and sight word recognition through this process. Check her out here!

Five Little Pumpkins

This is the pumpkin pattern page that I will copy onto orange construction paper for the kids to make their artwork for the book. The script I will use on this page follows. Have fun!
Five Little Pumpkins Pattern Page 001

Five Little Pumpkins Script

Pumpkin Graphic Organizer

2011-10-24T23:18:00.000-05:00

Just a little something until I come off the high of 50's Day!

Pumpkins Graphic Organizer

50's Day Hand Jive!

2011-10-22T23:11:00.000-05:00

We practiced to the song, Born to Hand Jive three times on 50's Day! If you turn up the volume you can hear the song but I think hearing the kids chant the steps is hilarious! Believe me, they were worn out by the time we filmed this video but they were so adorable!!

Personalize your own slideshow

A Laugh for your Friday...

2011-10-21T00:07:00.000-05:00

OK, despite the fact that I should be posting about our 50's Day today, or Heaven forbid, be in bed, I thought I would share a funny (at my own expense) story with you. (And because posting for 50's Day would require me finding the cord that connects my fancy phone (which is WAY too much phone for me to handle) to my computer in order to download the pictures BECAUSE my regular camera politely died today before I could take any pictures of said 50's Day).

Are my very long, run-on sentences giving you any indication of how my week has gone? Bear with me...

****Disclaimer*****
I love our staff, respect our administration and couldn't ask for a better group of people to share the daily joys and frustrations of this job with-education is a tough field today. We have to be willing to show up every day , give it our absolute best and choose our battles wisely. The children are worth it. As simple as that.

I know that we all have days, weeks, months where we have to remind ourselves why we have chosen this particular career as our profession. When forced to wonder, I repeat to myself, "I LOVE these children, this job DOES matter, the children are important and SOMEONE has to want to do this with a willing heart. "Send Me, Lord. I will go."

That being said, after depressing faculty meetings with added responsibilities, extra duties and questionable requirements added to the soup, I give you the gift of this story ...

My team divides up afternoon duty-half of us go to car line, the other half take bus duty. Michele, Susan and I take Kindergarten out every day to load buses. On Wednesday of this week, it seemed to be a typical day in the bus line. After loading the first seven buses, two remained. While waiting for the last two buses to pull up, we're chatting and laughing with the giddiness of speaking to other adults at the end of the day while holding children's hands keeping them safely away from moving buses.

We are waiting for Bus 804 ( a fictional number provided to preserve the privacy of the innocent) and notice that it is only slightly slowing down as it makes its approach to the breezeway so we think it is pulling up a little further before it will stop and load. Well, 804 doesn't actually stop (unbeknown to us, all of the older children have loaded the bus and the driver is happily moving along thinking he has everyone on board). So I start walking towards the moving bus, thinking the driver will see me and stop. I'm walking, I'm walking, he's picking up speed, he's picking up speed, I'm jogging, I'm jogging, thinking surely he will notice me in his rear view window and stop. He's moving up the hill... faster, faster. I start to pick up the pace. I start running, all the while weaving in and out of car line traffic. Now I just happen to be carrying a huge umbrella since it looked somewhat rainy when we left the building. Rain would have only made the story more interesting, thank goodness the umbrella only served as a prop in this scenario...

It is quickly becoming obvious that this driver is not stopping so I move up to a run (now bear in mind, at 45 yrs. old, I am LONG past my fighting weight which really only lasted for about six months in 1989 anyway, so my physical prowess must have been a sight to behold for the 7,645 parents in car line). So I am running UP hill waving said umbrella madly, yelling for the driver to PLEASE stop. At this point, cars are honking, parents have rolled down their windows yelling in vain trying to help my attempt to get the driver to stop this bus!!! I am asking the Lord in silent prayer to please not let anyone have their phones out because I do NOT want to see this play out on youtube.

Blessedly, the driver pauses just long enough at the top of the hill to give me time to catch up to him. I run to the door of the bus, try to catch my breath and the driver, bless his heart, just looks at me... just looks at me. I have to tap the door with the umbrella and stare at the driver pleadingly to o.p.e.n. the door! When he does, I breathlessly try to tell him, politely and kindly, that he pulled off without Kindergarten and did he not notice?! He said he saw me running behind the bus and didn't know what I was doing back there?! Really?!!! I told him, with all due respect, that the next time he sees a fat teacher RUNNING behind his bus, waving an umbrella, would he please STOP the bus!

The story does have a happy ending. Susan walked up behind me, on the trail I had blazed through the car line, with the four children in tow to finally, safely load them onto Bus 804. They look somewhat stunned at having witnessed this sorry display but all's well that ends well.

Having put these precious children on the bus, Susan and I turn to walk with grace and dignity back to the building. There are a few morals to this story, I have decided.

1) Dress accordingly. I mean, you never know what you are going to ask of your outfit when you get dressed in the morning for this job. Dress for maximum coverage and minimal jiggling.

2) Allow these moments to let you find the humor in your everyday no matter what outside factors creep up in your job to seemingly steal all of the fun. There will be SOMETHING in your day to make you laugh. Embrace it when it comes, it may be all you get that day!

If anyone is still with me here, and bless your heart if you are, I will cheerfully post on 50's Day this weekend.

Bless all of you who join me in hanging on to the fun in this job and giving these children a reason to laugh, hope, smile and succeed!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Your comrade in arms,
Julie

More Fifties Fun!

2011-10-15T22:10:00.002-05:00

Mr. Potato Head Pattern

Fifties Fun Facts

Fifties Day Graphic Organizer Freebie

2011-10-10T19:28:00.000-05:00

I wanted to show you the pages that I have used the past few years for our Kindergarten Scrapbook for Fifties Day. This year, I am going to have a Mr. Potato Head art project for the kids to make for the artwork for this page. (Another great idea from Pinterest...it's addictive~*~*!) Once I have the pattern made, I will share and let you know how it goes. I also have included a Graphic Organizer for Fifties Day to help the children formalize in their thinking specific ways life was different in the 50's from the way it is now. I'll let you know how this goes, also!!

Fifties Graphic Organizer

Another Fifties Game Freebie!

2011-10-10T00:28:00.000-05:00

Fifties Fun Math One to One Correspondence
Fifties Fun One to One Correspondence Directions

50's Day and some Freebies!

2011-10-08T20:25:00.002-05:00

The 50th Day of school is FAST approaching!

We are currently on our mini Fall Break and I wanted to use this time to put together a few fun Fifties Games, not to mention...clean out my closet, re-organize my bathroom and clean up my desk. Uhhh, we'll see how that goes... And BTW we are officially on the 100 day countdown to the mister coming home!! 80 days DOWN!
Thank you, again, for all of your sweet messages and prayers, he is doing well.

But First...

OK, I HAD to break down and finally order one of these.
The past several years of putting something together has gotten old
so I bit the bullet and ordered this costume from Glor's Store on ebay. $75 later,
it is mine but the quality is amazing and she makes them in many colors
and plenty of sizes! I also ordered some white Keds but there are plenty
of saddleshoes out there if you're feeling crazy!

I made this chart last year using Google images so that we could
compare and contrast life in the 50"s and life today.

Of course, we had to read Dick and Jane books!

Although, Little Golden Books were first published in the 40's,
you can find plenty that depict life in the 50's.

On the 50th Day of School, we all wear 50's clothes, have our picture taken

in front of the "jukebox" holding a (gasp!)real live vinyl album!

We transform the classroom into a "Soda Shop", play 50's music,
drink sodas from a glass bottle and have ice cream floats!
Last year, I had a darling little girl with allergies to dairy and nuts
so we had Jello sundaes instead!

We had Fifties Fun Centers with Mr. Potato Heads, Slinkies, Charlie Brown coloring pages,
Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs and Silly Putty-all toys that children played with in the 50's!

This year, I am adding a 50's Graph from Deanna Jump and a few games that I have put together.
It is a super fun day and good way to teach the children about the life
their grandparents (or great grandparents!) lived.

Rock and Roll is Here to Stay,
We Had Fun on Fifties Day!

Fifties Fun Math Patterning Directions
Fifties Math Patterning

I just added this label that I cut out and attached to a Crystal Light container with Mod Podge and scrapbook paper for the pattern pieces.
Fifties Fun Patterns Label

Tate Farms Fun!

2011-10-01T10:33:00.000-05:00

This free slideshow customized with Smilebox

Apples!

2011-09-29T20:53:00.001-05:00

Well, tomorrow is the last day of September and we are off for our field trip to the pumpkin patch so I HAD to get my apple unit posted! Of course, we are incorporating all content areas in this study, that is what makes these units so much fun, year after year! Lots of pictures, so hang in there with me...

This is where it all begins...

Every few days, we have a new apple for a snack. One day, Granny Smith, another day, Golden Delicious and the final day, Galas. Simple...green, yellow and red.

Now, we use this cute graph from Deanna Jump's Apples Unit to graph which apples were our favorites.

The red Galas were the favorite overall! We used this opportunity to talk about More and Less-our Topic Two concept for EnVision Math.

We broke out the Math Journals to illustrate this concept.

My example.

Our apple poem from Jessica Meacham for our Poetry Journals.

We will practice identifying sight words, punctuation and rhyming words using different colors of highlighters for each. The first time we do this will be in small group. It will take a few times before they are able accomplish this independently but they will get it!

We will also make an Apple Book...this is the cover.

Good Job!

Art work for the Kindergarten Scrapbook.

We wrote our first sentence for this scrapbook page using mostly sight words. It was good practice for phoneme segmentation for sounding out apple.

We learned about the parts of an apple. We put on our pretend lab coats and talked about how scientists research an object they are studying. We talked about labelling and making a diagram.

We have also learned about Johnny Appleseed, of course.

We finished a sentence about Johnny Appleseed.

Hard at work...

We sounded out the sentence together in small group.

We talked about important details to include in our illustrations.

Once we complete our Johnny Appleseed artwork, this page will go in our Famous Americans Book.

Naturally, we dressed up as Johnny Appleseed!

This photo will go on our Apple page of our Kindergarten Scrapbook.

We have read The Apple Pie Tree and will make a page for the Apple Book
about how an apple tree changes through the seasons.

We read Ten Apples Up On Top! and tied in More and Less easily!
We will also make a page for the Apple Book from this story.
Look for that in a few days...

Apples Cover Script
Apples Diagram Labels

Apples Scrapbook Script
Apples Ten on Top Writing
Apples Parts Writing
Apples Life Cycle Writing

Apples Diagram Script

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...Eric Carle Fun!

2011-09-18T00:55:00.003-05:00

All I know is...you can't miss with Eric Carle. Just a hard, cold truth, people. :) The kids always enjoy Brown Bear, Brown Bear! Due to scheduling and adjusting to a new math program and the way it fits into the schedule, I condensed my bear unit (part one, anyway) to one day. So, last Friday was Brown Bear, Brown Bear Day, officially! Of course, we start with reading the story just for fun. Then we read it again!

I have these picture cards from last year to use as our story map.

Check out this post from last year and the variation on the story map that we made then.

This little guy made sure we recited the story in the correct order!

They did a great job retelling and no, we didn't get loud at all...

We colored character pictures to make our own Story Bags.

We told the story together and laid out our pictures one at a time.

They were very serious about getting their pictures laid out just right...

I usually use paper bags for this project but low and behold, the cupboard was bare. Baggies worked just fine. The kids wrote their name on the front of their baggie with a brown sharpie. I think that was almost their favorite part! At the end of the day, they took their bags home so they could retell the story to their family.

I brought this poster back out from last year for the kids to use as another retell activity.

These small pieces were from the bulletin board set that I bought last year (and totally forgot to use this year!). I attached them with velcro and numbered them on the back. I also have word cards to be used in addition to the picture cards.

We also used gummy bears for a sorting activity in our math journals that afternoon.

This activity was also good practice for writing color words.

One to One Correspondence.

Of course, there HAD to be an art project!

This project is from my friend, Suzan, at Krazy for Kindergarten. She used this as a Five Senses activity. Amazingly, no one ate their gluey Big Red gum....

Their job was to fill in their name and their partner's name into the Brown Bear script
and then illustrate their partner. This writing activity came from April Larremore at Chalk Talk.

Brown Bear Scrapbook Writing

Brown Bear Scrapbook Script

Making their bears with googly eyes, crinkled brown paper, pompoms and Big Red gum.

Here's the finished page that will be added to their Kindergarten Scrapbooks. I added the Brown Bear caption to the page after the photo was taken. It was a fun day and I felt we did justice to Eric Carle... for now.

Thank you!

2011-09-08T23:01:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Charles Sipe and Teacher Certification Degrees for placing my blog on their list of "Top 50 Early Childhood Education Blogs"! What a sweet surprise to come home to after school! Anyone who does this for a living knows that the first month of school is the most difficult so it is nice to see September. The children are starting to "get it"...woohoo!! It is fun to get to see their personalities come out by this time, too. We are always a work in progress but it does keep the apple shiny to receive such a special award after a day in the trenches. Thank you, Mr. Sipe and TCD!!

Story Map Chart and Graphics

2011-08-29T22:06:00.001-05:00

Wow! I feel as if I fell off the face of the earth for awhile there! I hope you are all having a great start to your new year! We have completed our 16th day of school and are beginning to get the lay of the land with the new group. It takes a few weeks but the kids are doing a great job adjusting. We even completed our first full day of small reading group rotations! Woohoo!!

I was googling an image for Plaidypus Lost, our third story in the Scott Foresman program, and I came across this post from April at Chalk Talk from last year. I loved the idea of a permanent Story Map to use week after week with each story read. I am currently making my chart and will include a photo when it is complete but I am copying the same design shown in the Chalk Talk post.

Here are the graphics and text I am using for my pirate theme this year, which I am loving by the way! I printed the text on colored paper and will use a large sheet of white chart paper for the chart.

Story Map Chart

Thanks to Scrappin Doodles...
Story Map Graphics

I also made these signs to differentiate fiction and non-fiction books that we read in Scott Foresman. I have used google images to download pictures of the book covers and laminated them. As we read each story, we will place the cover under the fiction or non-fiction sign. I have been meaning to do this for the past several years so finally, here they are!

Fiction Non Fiction Signs

I'm WONGing it!

2011-07-26T15:20:00.002-05:00

Well, you can't actually search inside. Sorry about that!

Well, ladies and our few gentlemen, we are all just weeks or for some of us, days away from starting over with a fresh batch of kids. Is this when a lot of you, like me, seriously question your career choice?! I LOVE my babies once we are a month or so into school but the first few weeks are painful...as in FULL.OF.PAIN. for everyone! The kids are exhausted and somewhat bewildered- we wear them out, don't we? And of course, being much older, we are definitely worn OUT. That being said, the only way and I mean THE ONLY WAY to start off the year is with PROCEDURE, PROCEDURE, PROCEDURE. Did I hear AMEN?! Did I?

After my first and somewhat, disastrous, but chock-full-of-lessons-learned First Year back to teaching, I spent that summer seriously re-evaluating the year. I knew things had to change and my sweet friend, Lana, told me I needed to WONG it. I am sure that most all of you are aware and have probably read Harry Wong's book but after staying home with my girls for many, many years he was fresh news to me. His directions are clear, simple and repetitive. This works for children but it also works for us, doesn't it?

Children need to know EXACTLY what to do when it is time to line up, go to the bathroom, go to lunch, what to do when they have a question, how to walk through the hallway, how to sit on the carpet during whole group, what to do if the kid next to them won't.stop.bothering.them, etc. If you SHOW them, model all of these procedures, have them practice, practice, practice then the answers are clear. They feel more sure of themselves and you start to form a group.

I re-read this book right before school starts every year just as a re-fresher and it makes such a difference. The single best advice I give to new teachers, students teachers or elementary ed majors is to READ THIS BOOK. The more confident children feel about clear, succinct, simple and oft-repeated directions and procedures for doing everything, the more smoothly they are able to function as a class, a team. This allows everyone to work together and for those having difficulty, the consequences are plain and upfront-no surprises. I love it!

By the way, thank you all for your very sweet comments about my husband's deployment to Afghanistan. I so appreciate them and all of your prayers. It means a great deal to our family. Thank you so very much. That is just another reason to love blogging-you meet so many wonderful people! Thank you for taking a moment to write-you are amazing!

Parting Gifts and a Good Man

2011-07-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

You know the expression, behind every good man is a good woman. Well, if you will kindly indulge me, I wanted to tell you about a good man behind a thankful woman.

My husband retired from active duty after 23 years in the Army in April and while bittersweet, we felt thankful for all the many opportunities it had provided us. We were also happy knowing that we could finally relax and not have to worry about deployments, excessive travel, etc..

Well, there is another expression...if you want to give the Lord a good laugh, tell him YOUR plans. Greg's government contract job has sent him to Afghanistan for six months and he left yesterday. We have been apart much longer than this...the longest deployment was for 15 months in Iraq. Chin up, we've done it before, we can do it again, we are used to this, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger...all that, whatever, it still stinks!

However, I am proud of him and what he does and I am fully confident that all of this fits into the Lord's plan for us. There are so many military families who have been asked to be apart many more times than we have and for even longer so I am NOT complaining. I did want to tell you, though, what he did before he left, if you'll let me brag for a moment because I know I am blessed.

In the midst of shipping his trunks out, taking care of plans, paperwork, etc. he took our daughters to see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter, celebrated my oldest daughter's 19 birthday, took care of the yard, checked all the cars and in general, tried to take care of six months of "Dad" jobs ahead of time. He also took the time to put this together for me. Not an easy task...

THIS is the way to my heart..forget jewelry!

And while in Walmart, he saw me looking at this and asked what it was. When I told him and explained that Deanna Jump swears by it, he was putting it in the cart before I could turn around. When I told him that I could wait for this (we were shopping for his last minute things), he said, "If Deanna Jump has it, you should have it!" :) He patiently listens to my blog talk, I must say, so he knew who Deanna Jump was! So I now I am the proud owner of my own personal laminator. Woohoo!

So here we are in all of our glory and I will think of him every time I write on my fancy new easel and will try not drown my sorrows in laminating film...

Thank you for allowing me this rather selfish post. I am just feeling very thankful.

Scott Foresman Sight Word Business Cards!

2011-07-06T19:37:00.001-05:00

I got this idea from Michele Potts who used this study system with her students last year and was very happy with it!

These are all of the Scott Foresman Sight Words Units 1-5. I also included color words and "name". They have all been formatted to fit Avery Business Cards #8371 and #5371. Each child will have access to these cards in their Bee Binders. For each unit, I will add the sight word cards to a binder page made for business cards. This will enable them to practice reading the cards at home with their parents. Practice, practice, practice!!

Sight Word Business Cards

Sight Word Business Cards 2

Sight Word Business Cards 3

I'm not sure why this page looks so wonky but I just downloaded it straight

off of Scribd and when you click print, the words yellow and blue should align with the rest of the page.

If you have trouble printing this page just let me know.

Sight Word Business Cards 4

Sight Word Business Cards 5

School Prep...Bee Binders!

2011-07-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

Alright, I have not had the courage to face Sam's yet to pick up the binders and colored copy paper but I wanted to post the pages so YOU can prep your binders if you are more together than I am!! I have to be very clear, these pages are directly from Jessica Meacham's website. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jessica!!

Check out my page here that I have posted on how we utilize the Bee Binders. Once you have tried them, you will LOVE them!

Bee Notebook Cover Blank

BEE.book.Introduction

These are the labels that we use for the inside of the folders. Self explanatory, I know...

I used Avery 8860 1' x 2 5/8" labels.

Bee Folder Labels

Lunch Printables!

2011-07-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

I thought I would post this info that our team includes in the Bee Binders on the first day of school (if we have the lunch numbers available by then). Once each child knows their number and can enter it independently at lunch, I let them take a trip to the Treasure Tub once back in class. Last year, all but two children knew their lunch number by the end of the first week! Woohoo!!

K Lunch Number Letter Blank

K Lunch Number Chart

Two upper grade teachers use this spreadsheet for their classes and they shared it with me. I LOVE it! I staple this sheet on the front of a large mailing envelope. This enables me to know exactly how much lunch money has been collected if ever a question arises.

As I check Bee Binders every morning, I write in the amount of money collected next to the child's name and list the total number of lunches to be bought that day, place the money in the envelope and send it with my lunch helpers to the cafeteria. The cafeteria staff has told me that they like the simplicity of this chart and how easy it is to read. They just return it to my mailbox every afternoon for me to pick up for the next day. Simple! Thank you, Mrs. Strode and Mrs. McFerran!

Lunch Chart Updated Blank

Math Offices

2011-07-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

Our Kindergarten Team plus our First Grade Friend goes out to dinner a few times a year to celebrate birthdays. Wednesday was the day and after a movie, we all enjoyed dinner at P.F. Changs. OK, yes, we were loud. Yes, we were THAT group of women at the restaurant who are oblivious to how loud and obnoxious they are being. :) Well, we don't get out much. Anyway, while we were celebrating Michele's birthday (two months late) Maisha told us about a Math Office she was going to make for her class this year. I LOVED it so I am STEALING it!! Of course! But she gets ALL the credit. Right, Maisha?!

She got the stickers at Dollar Tree. So yesterday, Lana and I hotfooted it over to DT and picked some up too.

Now DT also has stickers for money recognition in this same format.
I already have some at school so I will include them in the Math Office, as well .

10 file folders for $1 isn't bad. I'm sure there are better deals out there
but I wanted to go ahead and play around with the arrangement so I picked these up.

I made a header for the folders and a 100's chart.

My Math Office

When I made the chart, I wanted to differentiate between fives and tens

so I highlighted them in different colors to make it easier for the kids to recognize them.

100 Chart

These pictures are dark but you get the idea...don't you?

The space below the color words is where I will put the money sticker.
Of course, I will laminate the folders and add a name label to the front once school starts.

Thank you, Maisha!!

I can't wait to see how they look all shiny and laminated!!

I also found this computer paper which I will use for the First Day of School Homework.
These colors will look great on the scrapbook page.

Look at these!! Dollar Tree has plenty!
Lana picked some up since her classroom is decorated in a movie theme.
I grabbed them up to use when we learn about adjectives.
You have to check this lesson out at The Inspired Apple if you haven't seen it!!
(Look for the March 9th post.)

Summer Break/School Prep Part Four!

2011-06-28T20:56:00.000-05:00

OK, scrapbooks! Where to begin...actually, as soon as you complete one class set at the end of the year, you take a few week's break and you get a serious start on next year's set!! Seriously. I know this must seem like a crazy endeavor and as a team, we do question our sanity somewhere in mid-May every year when we show up at school bleary-eyed and comparing how many hours we spent on these things over the weekend, griping and carrying on! BUT, it is a labor of love and I imagine we will keep it up until one of us cries uncle!

I can't explain how proud the children are to present this collection of their year's work to their parents on our Awards day...it is priceless and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Every year, we (our team) all come up with what we can do throughout the year to make this an easier task...so here goes...

I start with a few pages that I can prepare beforehand during the summer.

I use the die cut in our work room before the building closes for summer
and cut out a few shapes that I like to use (school, shamrock and turkey).

I print the scripts and back them with scrapbook paper.

I make scripts for each page and file them in the order that we would
complete that page within the school year.

First Day of School, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Apples, Pumpkins, etc...

I cut out the pirate ships for the front cover.

This was the cover I used this year. I included a photo of each child wearing our
pirate hat on the left side of each cover. So cute!

Messy...keep plenty of scissors, glue and water bottles on hand!

This is what my First Day of School page looked like before I started using the school
die cut as the background for their photo.

On this page I include a class photo from the first day, their Kissing Hand and script.
I also use their First Day Homework page on this layout.

This is our 50's page that I prep by making the TV and having it ready to go!

I print the poem and have it cut out and ready. I file the poems but I do go ahead
and get their handprints done the first week of school at some point!

K Scrapbook Handprint Poem

Wow! 200 Followers!!

2011-06-28T17:36:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you to all the wonderful friends out there who are following my blog! All of your wonderful blogs have so inspired me and my ideas about teaching that I feel very thankful that we all have this as a positive way to share ideas with each other. Thank you for all that you offer to share and for your encouragement in making what can be such an amazing job (although a difficult one at times :)) even better!

Julie

First Day of School!/ School Prep Part Three

2011-06-24T08:10:00.000-05:00

Here are a few things I like to have for the first day of school. I actually have this sheet on a clipboard in my hand when parents come to the room on Orientation Day. I don't think anything is more important to know on the first day of school than HOW each child is going to get home that day!! Our former principal liked to say that all of our efforts to educate were useless if we failed at getting each child home safely...truer words were never spoken! And as we all know, with brand-new dazed, tired kindergartners this is no easy task. So....be prepared! Have this sheet in your hot little hands as you meet parents at Orientation and the morning of the first day to grab each parent as they come in. Michele Potts has used a similar format for years and yes, I stole, stole, stole!

First Day Checklist

OK, so this is a bit cheesy but I AM a bit cheesy...I give this to parents as they are standing at the door trying to muster the courage to leave their baby with me at BIG school that first bittersweet morning. I remember so clearly taking my first born to Kindergarten and standing in disbelief at her classroom door realizing that my job was to LEAVE her there! Any small reassurance helps, I think...

First Day of School Poem

This goes home in the BEE binder the first day. Parents help their child complete the Homework page and I include it in the Kindergarten Scrapbook...so sweet. Again, Michele Potts shared this with me several years ago...thanks, Michele!

First Day Homework Letter

I usually print this on school-themed computer paper that I find at Dollar Tree in the teacher section. Yay, Dollar Tree!!

First Day of Kindergarten

Summer Break/School Prep Part Deux!

2011-06-22T00:25:00.000-05:00

Well, in my never ending quest to ATTEMPT to remain organized and calm (ha!) I have updated most of my forms, letters, charts, etc. to have ready to copy when we go back for teacher workdays. I will post them here through Scribd. I hope they help!

Julie

Once we get our class lists (and yes, this is usually just a few days before school actually begins so this is always a JUST BARELY MADE IT sort of thing!). Even still, the children love to get a letter from the teacher before school officially begins. I did not come up with this format, I did find it on the internet a few years ago and would give credit if I remembered where I found it! :)

Welcome Letter2

I also like to send a letter of encouragement to my students beginning First Grade. I want them to know that I am thinking about them and wish them well! I print this on school themed computer paper that I usually find at Dollar Tree this time of year.

K Former Student Letter

Here is a copy of my handbook that I provide for each parent. I send this home in each child's BEE binder on the first day of school. I do have a Parent Signature page on the back of the Handbook to be sent back for my records. This alleviates MANY negative issues throughout the year. It is all there in black and white! :)

Kindergarten Handbook 1

Summer Break/School Prep Part One!

2011-06-16T20:49:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break so far...I don't know about you but it is sooooo nice to get some extra sleep! We have been very busy these first few weeks of summer but it has been nice to take a break from thinking about DIBELS, bus duty, grading work, etc. It never fails, though, once I catch up on some sleep I start thinking about all the ways I need to get ready for the NEXT school year. I want to be prepared!

Like all of you, there are so many things I like to do over the summer that will make next year run all the more smoothly. For the first day of school, I give all of the children a Back To School Bag at the END of the day. This isn't an original idea, of course, but I like to start gathering the bags, candy and other items over the next month and put these together before we head back for Teacher Workdays. Once we go back for workdays, this is the kind of thing that falls by the wayside so I like to have them ready beforehand.
There are many variations to this idea and you can find them by googling "back to school treat bag".

We are the Providence Pirates so I like to have a friendly pirate theme to anything that I can.

I found these bags at Michael's last year so I had better start looking for them now!

For this script, you can change the clipart to coordinate with your school mascot
or any other design you would like.

Here are the items you will need to fill the bag:
lollipops
Tootsie Rolls
erasers
Lifesavers
paperclips
pencils
pennies
Smarties
Hershey Hugs

K Your Back to School Bag

Check back for other Back to School Prep ideas!

Famous Americans!

2011-06-02T10:20:00.001-05:00

I thought I would share our finished Famous Americans books with you.
I really like their covers...I tell them that THE most Famous American that needs
to go on their cover is THEM! They love it!!

Ok, while I am happy with our finished product, I know I fell short on this book. My aim for next year is to try and have one famous American that we study each month and then add to our book. We'll see..if wishes were fishes and all that. I had wanted to include a child (Ruby Bridges), Eric Carle (since we did study his work for a solid month!), women (Mae Jamison, Helen Keller-both from Alabama) and George Washington Carver (also from Alabama). I have gathered books on all of these historical figures and will work to get my patterns, lessons, activities compiled over the summer. That being said, I am still happy with all that we did accomplish with these books and how they tie in with our Course of Study.

The artwork for Martin Luther King Jr. is based on a TLC unit. The Johnny Appleseed
patterns were made based on a project that I saw in an Oriental Trading Co. catalog!
I get some great ideas from them!!

The George Washington and Abraham Lincoln artwork came
from Deanna Jump's American Symbols unit.

OK, for Dr. Seuss, I just used the same patterns that I used for Martin Luther King Jr.!
I didn't think he would mind. :)

Here is one of our favorite Famous Americans, Mrs. Lawson! She selflessly has come to my room every Monday for the past two years to read to my students. They absolutely love their time with her! I cannot express what an invaluable gift this is that she so freely gives to these children. Thank you, Mrs. Lawson!

Here is another Famous American, one of my fabulous Peer Mentors, Kionna! This is a huge perk from having a K-8 school. We are able to request some of the best middle school students to help in our classrooms for one period a day. Kionna has been assisting in my room, however, since she was in the fourth grade! How lucky am I?!

Brittney, another wonderful Peer Mentor, came to say goodbye after her 8th Grade Graduation.
There were tears...

...and some laughter! We will miss her terribly but wish her
well as she moves on to high school.

So Exciting!!

2011-05-31T13:09:00.000-05:00

Wow! I can't believe the school year is actually over! This year seemed to go by especially fast, even with all of our snow and tornado days. I took a much longer break from the blog than I wanted and was pleasantly surprised when I checked on it this morning.

The California Teaching Credential named not only my blog but my great friend, Suzan's blog as two of the top 50 Kindergarten blogs! Click here to see their website and find the other amazing 48 blogs that made this list. I've got to admit, this news made my day!

OK, the end of the year went exceptionally well even with a week taken out due to the storms. There were several small units that I did not get to ...my Matter Matters unit, one of my favorites had to go by the wayside. Boy, I hated that but we did have a lot of fun with our end of the year Fairytale unit! I don't guess the kids knew the difference!

We started our unit with discussing the elements of a fairytale (see previous post) and learned some vocabulary words often found in most fairytales. I think I will add woodsman or woodcutter..he seems to pop up a lot.

I made this set last year and just used google images for the clipart.

I really like the James Marshall versions of fairytales-he has a funny sense of humor
and the kids get a kick out of it! I began the unit with Hansel and Gretel. We looked out for our vocabulary words and the different elements of a fairytale. Next year, I will chart all of the elements and their examples in the fairytales that we read. Michele Potts made a great chart and I wish I had taken a photo of it-loved it!

You can't go wrong with Little Golden Books and the kids recognize them from our 50's unit-a nice tie-in.

For Hansel and Gretel, I used this map that Lana Holzer shared so that we could reinforce map skills. I just love that they know what a compass rose is and how to use it! (Next year I will have a mini Pirate unit incorporating this skill since we are the Providence Pirates.)

The children color this map and we practice using the compass
rose to answer questions about Fairytale Land.

This is the artwork for Hansel and Gretel. Since I did a compare/contrast
for each of the other fairytales, next year I will read a different version of this story.

I read both of these versions of Little Red Riding Hood and then the children had to choose which one they liked better and explain what they liked about it.

We followed the same format for each fairytale...read two versions, compared and

contrasted and then wrote about one of the versions. For The Three Little Pigs, the children

were able to choose which pig's house they wanted to make.

Maisha Booker came up with the cute Frog Prince art-the kids loved it!

The day of our Fairytale Ball, everyone dressed as their favorite fairytale character!

I love how clever some of their costumes were!

Did I have some princesses or what?! So sweet...

We start off the Ball with a Parade through the school. We have 150 Kindergarteners and our school is K-8 so this is a lot of fun to travel all over the school. The middle schoolers were so sweet- clapping and cheering for the little ones. It was touching. Then we made our way to the cafeteria where we had three centers set up. I wish I had taken more photos to show you!

Lana Holzer (aka Snow White) taught the children some of her fairytale songs that

she has written at one of the centers. The children got to dance with Ms. Holzer too!

Another center was our Crown Making station. We ordered kits from

Oriental Trading Company and the children were able to decorate their own crown.

At the next center the children have their photo taken in front of our backdrops (Party City) and enjoy a cupcake and punch. We also have a coloring sheet and crayons for those that finish their cupcake early.

Look at those faces!

And here is the Dream Team...hot and tired but happy at the end of the Ball!

Ms. Fowler, Mrs. Graham, Ms. Potts, Ms. Booker, Mrs. Hicks, Ms. Holzer

Thankful, Thankful, Thankful!

2011-05-04T15:54:00.000-05:00

Well, it is good to feel back in civilization again. We just got power back this afternoon after a full week, wow! I am NOT complaining, though, so many people lost so much from the tornadoes and please continue to pray for the families who lost their homes and for those who lost family members. It is heartbreaking and very sobering. We live in Harvest, Alabama and the last tornado that went through our area was the F5...we were extremely blessed that it skirted our neighborhood, extremely blessed.

We barely made it out of school and I don't mind saying, we've had our share of duck and cover but last Wednesday was unbelievable. We had a delayed start of two hours but as I pulled into the parking lot, the sirens were going off. We went straight into duck and cover and other than a time of about 45 minutes, we remained in duck and cover for over four hours. Our babies did so well. No one cried, no one complained. My class was in the boy's bathroom (I know... but it did feel very safe) with newspaper on the floor to put their little heads down. It was funny, during the brief moments we were able to let them sit up, they just sat thumbing through the paper looking as if they were waiting for their second cup of coffee at Waffle House. :) Precious.

At one point, though, it was serious enough that the teachers were told to duck and cover as well. I've never had that happen before. I'm thankful there aren't pictures of that... That was the only time, I truly felt some fear. It passed though and a peace came knowing that the Lord was in control and we would be alright in a few moments one way or another. He kept us safe and I am so very thankful. We were finally able to dismiss between the tornadoes-we had to wait for a window of time long enough to get the buses out. We have app. 1100 students so dismissal takes awhile on a normal day. Bless our parents, though, they hustled to pick up their children and we were all out of there before 2:00. It was already flooding and trees and power lines were down all the way home before the next series of storms hit. I was glad to get home. My husband and youngest daughter were already home and we spent the better part of the rest of the day in a very small guest bathroom with our two dogs. Do you know that I had not charged my cell the night before and it barely had any power but that it held through until the very last tornado passed through so that we could maintain contact with my oldest daughter (away at school) until it was all over? Thank you, Lord!

I learned a few things this week...you CAN live a week without electricity (email, internet, blogging, etc!) that having water truly makes all the difference. You can live with cold showers, you can log an unbelievable amount of time reading, you can sure put those girl scout skills to work with cooking outdoors, that Lean Cuisines don't taste all that great cooked over a campstove (blech!) and that your family really are some pretty cool people to spend time with. No experience is ever a waste of time, effort or energy. There is value in every single moment of every single day. It is a gift from God.

We went to a hard hit neighborhood to try and help on Saturday. I would like to say we actually contributed a great deal but the truth is, we just felt like gawkers. We wanted to help but most people looked so stunned as if they didn't know where to even begin. We tried to help people collect belongings from the rubble but the truth is there really wasn't much left where we went. It was very humbling.

I think the best way anyone can help right now is to donate to the red cross and to give blood. I think Tide Loads of Hope is a good idea, as well.

Thank you for letting me have this time, I feel as if I just needed to talk. I hope this finds you all well and it will be good to get back to the classroom tomorrow.

Love,
Julie

The Very Busy Spider, American Symbols and Matchbook Sentences

2011-04-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

We just finished our third week of our Eric Carle unit with The Very Busy Spider.
Such a simple little story but they love it!

Of course, if Gail Gibbons has written a book on a subject, I want it!!
Her books are simple and full of facts just right for this age level.

We charted our spider facts and tried to be as specific as possible!

I completely forgot to make copies of a real graphic organizer so I improvised!
I really wanted to follow the same process I've used for the past few weeks because I
have been so happy with how well they are progressing in their writing following these steps.

Day One: Read a fictional story on the subject-whole group.
Day Two: Read a non-fictional book on the same subject-whole group.
Day Three: Chart facts-whole groups.
Day Four: Use a graphic organizer to write three or four facts on the subject-small group.
(This step involves the most time-editing, sounding out words, check for spacing
and proper use of upper and lower case letters.)
Day Five: Write final copy-small group.

We added our art work to the writing for our Eric Carle book.
Next week we will add our final page to the book as we study The Tiny Seed.

I wanted to show you all how our American Symbols books turned out. Remember, I bought this unit from Deanna Jump and started it in February. This is a great unit that you can buy on tPt. It also includes lessons on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington but I am adding those pages to our Famous Americans books!

I used an Alabama die cut for them to label where EXACTLY they live!

I got these pages from Musings of Me and her wonderful unit that she is making for each state!

I LOVED the directed drawings in this unit and will definitely use this unit again next year!

I also wanted to show you a cute little activity we picked up at a workshop a few years ago.
I am making sentences from our Scott Foresman readers that the children have read the week before. (This was from some random page that I had on hand as I was improvising at my table one day this week!)

Cut a sheet of copy paper into thirds. Fold almost in half but leave a small strip at the bottom to fold UP.

Students are given a baggie with the matchbook sheet and a cut
up sentence that they have to piece together.

They glue the sentence inside the book and then write it themselves.

They write their name on the small flap and illustrate the cover.

You could also use this with any story and have them write their favorite part on the inside or they could write about the characters, setting, beginning, middle, end-whatever you choose. If it is a non-fiction book, they can write facts on each flap inside.

I think I will use this as a go to activity during our fairytales unit. Stay tuned!

Fairytale Vocabulary Match-Up Game

2011-04-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

Fairytale Vocabulary Match

Elements of a Fairytale

Fairytale Graphic Organizers

2011-04-17T01:15:00.000-05:00

While we are on our mini Spring Break, I am looking ahead to our last thematic unit of the year~~~Our Fairytale Unit! We have taught this unit in May for the past four years and LOVE it! We use this theme to really focus on Story Elements - characters, setting, plot, beginning, middle, ending, etc. of a story. I thought I would try out a few organizers that I plan on using this year. I will post new documents to include with this unit pronto. See what you think!

***I have noticed that my Scribd documents are showing a plain (boring!) font but when you click to download, the document will appear with the FUN font that I used while making said document! FYI***

Fairytale Graphic Organizers

The Very Grouchy Ladybug

2011-04-10T12:26:00.001-05:00

Our second full week of our Eric Carle study was all about The Grouchy Ladybug! They love this story -they really like just how grouchy that ladybug gets!

We start off reading The Very Grouchy Ladybug using the puppet and the clock.
This year I chose two student assistants to use the puppet and keep up with the time on the clock.
The next day we read ladybug and beetle facts.

I bought this pack of Insect cards from the Target dollar spot and they each got a chance to share their two favorite cards with the class. It was amazing what many of them already knew.

We used this chart to list facts we learned about ladybugs. I had to fill in every available space!
My team and I have been very excited to see how the writing process is unfolding for the
children through the step by step process we are using with the graphic organizers that
Deanna Jump has provided through her tPt sight. Click here to see what all she has to offer!

I wish I had taken a photo of the graphic organizer we used for our fact writing but I sure didn't!
The day we charted the ladybug facts in whole group, we used the organizer to write four ladybug
facts in small groups. The next day each child wrote their four facts in paragraph form to include
in our Eric Carle books.
I can't emphasize enough how much easier it is for the children to write these facts in a paragraph after
they have used the organizer. I think if we utilize this process thoroughly in the last five weeks of school (we do a LOT of writing for this unit and our fairytale unit in May) it will, hopefully, embed the writing process in their thinking to use in the upper grades.

I took this photo before she wrote her fourth fact but since this was her second time writing these facts she felt confident in her writing and it flowed fairly easily.

Next came the artwork!

They each painted their own paper red one afternoon.

The Very Grouchy Ladybug page in their book.

Another day, we made our Aphids math page.
Simple but they enjoy using the hole punch and the ink pad!

I think I will add a script to this page about aphids-it just looks a little blank!
Ladybugs Are a Gardener

Of course, we charted the Ladybug Life Cycle and recorded this in our Science Journals.

We learned The Five Little Ladybugs poem and will include it in our Poetry Journal next week. I like to give the children at least two weeks practice with a poem to really focus on learning it and then recognizing the sight words, punctuation and rhyming words.

Five Little Ladybugs

This is a Hungry Caterpillar story sequencing activity that I found online a few years ago.
I looked and could not find it's source but I did find another sight that actually had quite a few
literacy and math activities for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Click here to see what they have!

This is one activity we use to practice nonsense words in small groups.
It is very simple and not very original but they enjoy it!

I call out one letter at a time and the children say the sound it makes as they write it on their white board. The first child that is able to read it as a word gets a sticker. Not exactly rocket science but it is great practice for speed and fluency for DIBELS.

Practice, practice, practice!

Eric Carle Scripts and Clipart

2011-04-02T19:33:00.000-05:00

Eric Carle Book Scripts and Clipart

More Eric Carle and Famous Americans

2011-04-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

I love the way these crayon resists turned out!

I really enjoy seeing how they took the same basic picture and made it their own.

I used a graphic organizer from Deanna Jump as a pre-writing tool for our butterfly facts. I'm trying to use these organizers more often. I think they truly help the children organize the information in a very concrete way. I believe this skill will help them progress in the writing process as they move up in grades.

Here we wrote "butterflies" in the circle in the middle of the paper and wrote one fact in each box surrounding the circle. So simple. This enabled them to feel successful as opposed to feeling frustrated when I handed them a sheet of paper today and told them to write butterfly facts. We want success!! Please go to Deanna Jump's blog and her tPt store to purchase these organizers and so many other great units. You won't regret it and no, I am not getting paid to say this!

We read our Hungry Caterpillar word problem and made this time page.
I am going to post the scripts and materials needed for these pages very soon.

Doesn't he look handsome in his new glasses?!

The cover of our Eric Carle books. Of course, we have to use tissue paper!

I loved this butterfly life cycle project from April Larremore at Chalk Talk!

We used white pony beads for the eggs, pipe cleaners for the caterpillars, felt for the chrysalis and pipe cleaners and tissue paper for the butterfly. We completed this project whole group and
I called them over to me in groups to show them how to make the butterfly.
I hot glued the caterpillar on for them and threatened them with their lives if they touched the hot glue!!
They handled themselves beautifully, I must say.

Today we wrote butterfly facts in small groups. It was SOOOOOOO much easier after having used the graphic organizers yesterday. Wow! We then added both of these works to our book.

I decided to staple the life cycle project on the top of the page-a sort of lift the flap book if you will...
Our first week of Eric Carle was a success...next week we will begin with The Grouchy Ladybug and our study of beetles. Did you know they are the largest insect group in the world?

Maisha Booker has completed this wonderful book on Important Women in History.

She used a Deanna Jump graphic organizer and the kids really seemed to get the hang of it!

So proud.

Don't you think by the end of this unit, they are able to organize the facts
they have learned in a simple, concrete manner?
Thank you Deanna Jump!

Birthday Wishes!

2011-03-30T18:03:00.000-05:00

This invite card generated with Smilebox

April = Eric Carle!

2011-03-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

Once Spring has Sprung, it is time for the Eric Carle unit! Susan Johnson added this unit to our lineup a few years ago and I love it! I keep wanting to add more to it so I have to calm down-May is for Fairytales so I can't spill over! Of course we begin by reading this book.

We re-visit an old favorite.

We learn about the author and how he creates his amazing artwork.
He gets a little messy and we like that!

We learn about spiders and how they compare/contrast with insects.

We also review and flesh out a plant's life cycle through this book.

We learn about a ladybug's life cycle and other important facts about beetles.

I've added Eric Carle activities over the past few years.
I find quite a few things on sale at Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Ross.

These items are all added to our Eric Carle tub full of reading activities that children may use
once they have completed their work at their literacy center.

Our Eric Carle tub is placed at my daily literacy center that I call Reading Street.

We make an Eric Carle book and this will be the first page in the book.
The kids love to illustrate how messy he can get while he is creating his artwork!
I used a Sissix die cut last year but this year I will put my Cricut to use to make his body so that I can make it slightly bigger.

We practice map skills, use a compass rose and illustrate where Eric Carle
lives and where we live on our U.S. map.
The children will write a page of facts about Eric Carle.

We'll practice time telling with the Hungry Caterpillar.

We learn about the Butterfly Life Cycle and will write facts about butterflies.
I liked this wheel but I think I will use the paper plate art that April Larremore has at Chalk Talk to illustrate the life cycle this year.

I love making this page! I usually do this in small groups to attempt
to lessen the confusion and to help them lay out the design.

A math addition page using aphids!

We begin the study with butterflies.

We learn that every life has a cycle-just like a circle.

Everyone illustrated the life cycle and labelled it in their Science Journals.

Next we use a crayon resist to learn about symmetry in a butterfly's design and about their habitat.

It is a directed drawing that we work on whole group.

Everyone has their own interpretation - I love seeing what they come up with!

Look at that face, don't you love it?!

We lightly add blue watercolor to fill in the white space and then watch
what happens when we paint over the crayon.

The watercolor beads up and "resists"!

I'll post a photo of their artwork on display in the hallway-it turned out really pretty! This was a great diversion for today-we are in the middle of state testing school wide and K and First are trying to be very quiet for the big kids. We are having to alternate days for PE so we are trying to get creative to keep from going stir crazy. We had a nice, long fun center time this afternoon to let off steam!

I pulled this activity out from the beginning of the year for a reading activity.

The world of Eric Carle is fascinating-they really get into it!

A felt storyboard for The Very Hungry Caterpillar for story retell. They are VERY careful with the pieces!

He used the puppet for story retell-it was awesome to listen to!

A teacher's copy of Scholastic from last year that I had laminated to save for this purpose!

Colorforms for Brown Bear, Brown Bear story retell-three years and not one piece lost! I drill, drill, drill the importance of being careful and getting ALL of the pieces back where they belong...so far, so good.

A tub of butterfly pieces for all of its stages -this plastic is very smelly but they still enjoy it!

OK, he just REALLY wanted me to take his picture with his green work folder. How cute is that?!

I haven't decided how I will use these but I am thinking of some type of game...
Any ideas? Leave me a comment with your idea-there are app. 36 pieces and they come in a variety of insects. Let me know what you think!

This is a lift the flap book that we will make once we read The Tiny Seed.
The kids will write a fact on the inside of each flap.

I will cut these flowers from our school die cut and I have a page of ladybugs that I made last year. I just copied and pasted the book cover from google images. The kids will measure the height of their flower (I will have a varied length of stems) with a non standard unit of measure-the ladybug square!

Much more to come! I love this unit! Tell me what you like to do with
Eric Carle books and help me think of something cool to do with the accent pieces.
I look forward to hearing from you!

Scott Foresman and Such!

2011-03-28T21:01:00.005-05:00

I thought I would share a few things that have made both Scott Foresman's Amazing Words and literacy centers somewhat easier lately. None of these ideas is all that original or earth shattering BUT I really like the results I am seeing with these centers. The BEST part is these jobs require NO COPYING and the grading is quick and simple! Woohoo!

I downloaded these rhyming cards from Lana Holzer's blog http://acreativeclassroom.blogspot.com/ and had them laminated.

The kids practiced matching them up to one another and you can see, it got a little silly!

They had to choose their favorite pair...

and write their own rhyming sentences.

This is a bit of a challenge so I tried it with my higher group first. They worked on this while I Progress Monitored for NWF last Friday.

They did a good job and "got" the concept. I will do this with my other groups but with more guidance.

She even made up a third line!

I just looked over and saw this and my heart melted. I have never even shown them the Whisper Phones! Why, I do not know, especially after I see this! I love these kids.

Ok, another literacy center that I have incorporated once a week is for the kids to write and illustrate four of the Amazing Words from our story on a Four Square paper. I usually have them complete this as a center on Wednesday. (On Monday, they make a Four Square paper using the letter of the week.) I am loving their illustrations and the reinforcement it provides for the practice of these words that are often not the words that I would choose as "Amazing" from the story.

They have to read the words to me before they receive an "S".

At the listening center, the children illustrate a picture from the story but I have them write a sight word from that week as practice. I know they should be writing a sentence about the story they just listened to but I have them writing their little fingers off so I ease up on them at this center!

Our America-Statue of Liberty

2011-03-26T22:14:00.002-05:00

Our hall display-a work in progress...

We have been working a little each week on the Our America unit that I got from Deanna Jump. I am loving it and so are the kids. We learned about the American Bald Eagle a few weeks ago and this is the only picture I took. Shucks!

This week we learned about the Statue of Liberty. We read The Story of the Statue of Liberty suggested by Deanna in her list of books to use with the unit. This is the directed drawing we used from her unit.

We worked step by step-they loved this!

So intent...

The finished products. Aren't they great? All of this artwork will go in an American Symbols book along with the fact sheets they are making for each symbol.

You can see their eagles made from their foot and hand tracings.

Next we wanted to know how come the Statue of Liberty is green so we started with our own pennies.

They documented what their pennies looked like before the experiment and chose a sentence to describe their penny in their science journals.

Next we added a few drops of vinegar to the pennies to simulate the salty water that the Statue of Liberty is subjected to in the New York Harbor.

This was another opportunity to use the Scientific Method and work through it step by step. Deanna Jump has printouts for this for free on tPt. These are the hypotheses the children came up with! I was impressed.

A day later, take a look!

The shinier pennies turned the greenest!

They documented what their pennies looked like after the experiment on their own.

The last step was to come up with our own conclusion. They are getting very good at coming up with thoughtful ideas linking A to B in these experiments. I can't wait to begin my liquids, gas and solids unit!

Testing Cheerleaders!

2011-03-22T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well, the Ides of March have fallen upon us...a little late, but anyway... Tomorrow is the first day the "Big Kids" will begin their state testing. Our K and 1st teams decided to be testing cheerleaders for them all. We each adopted a few classes and will supply them with treats, surprise notes, letters and posters to encourage them to do their BEST! Here are some of the labels we came up with to attach to our bags of treats (Smarties, mini Snickers, sharpened pencils, Tootsie Rolls, Blow Pops, Twizzlers, Starburst and on the final day...Rocket Popsicles! Good luck, Big Kids!!!

I used Avery Labels 18163 (2"x4")

ARMT SAT Test Cheering Labels

ARMT SAT Test Cheering Labels 2

Spring Nonsense Bingo!

2011-03-20T14:59:00.011-05:00

I added this Bingo game using nonsense words to be used in literacy centers. I'm going to head over to Dollar Tree tomorrow to pick up something to use as markers-maybe small plastic bird eggs or little chicks, maybe just glass vase fill beads. I tried to use a font similar to the one used for the test but after fighting with Scribd for most of the afternoon, I've gone back to good ole' comic sans. Have fun, ladies!

Spring Nonsense Bingo! 5

Spring Nonsense! Game

2011-03-16T19:10:00.001-05:00

Here is the nonsense word game I just finished! Have fun-DIBELS is just around the corner!

Spring Nonsense Game

Farm Blends Game

2011-03-13T20:20:00.001-05:00

OK, DJ inkers Barn Buddies and Michelle's Farm Unit at Musings of Me make me want to hoedown!! Take a breath, I don't see how I could work in a farm unit this year..calm down, Julie. I did want to make another blends game, though, so I had some fun with my new Barn Buddies. Here goes, people:

Farm Blends Game

Primary Graffitti

2011-03-13T10:12:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Cheryl at http://primarygraffiti.blogspot.com/ for recommending my blog. I do appreciate it! If you want to see some fantastic graphic organizers and journal pages, please go check her out!

Luck of the Irish Grammar Game

2011-03-12T22:55:00.000-06:00

March Noun, Verb, Adjective Game 10

March Noun, Verb, Adjective Game 11

March Math Activities

2011-03-12T15:15:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, so I wanted to create a few new math activities for March so here goes:

The first documents are number cards that can be used with markers, manipulatives or Dollar Tree beads (cut to different number amounts) for a one-to-one correspondence activity.

March Math

The next set of documents is a math activity that can be used with manipulatives. I saw some cute St. Patrick's miniature ornaments at Hobby Lobby that I plan to use. I will post photos once I have bought them!

March Math Sum 10
March Math Sum 9

March Math Sum 8

March Math Sum 7

March Math Sum 6

March Math Addition 5

March Math Addition 5

March Math Addition 4

March Math Addition 3

Seuss and Sentence Structuring

2011-03-03T19:01:00.000-06:00

Maisha Booker used this activity at a literacy center this week. I love that the kids are able to practice both the sounding out of words AND proper spacing between words! They came up with some super sentences...

She loves her Ms. Booker!

Someone knew exactly how to get her picture taken by Mrs. Hicks! :)

This is our Cat in the Hat page that will go into our big scrapbooks.

It is difficult to see the cat's face but it is there! The children were asked to write what they would tell their mother when she came home and asked, "How was your day?' if the Cat had come to their house on a rainy day!

The first response most of the children had was to wonder WHY the mother left the children alone! They also didn't think too much of the children's judgement allowing a stranger in the house! Ahh...the times....

Stylish Award-so sweet!

2011-03-02T20:50:00.000-06:00

First of all, thank you to Marlana, Heidi and Jan for thinking of me for this Stylish Award! What fun! I am a little slow on the uptake but thank you very much!

You can find these amazing ladies by clicking on their links.

Jan http://icanyoucantoucanclass.blogspot.com/

Heidi http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/

Marlana http://lilcountrykindergarten.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Here goes:
1. I love spending time with my family even it is doing nothing and I mean NOTHING! They are some of the funniest people around and I soak up every minute.

2. I am addicted to my new Kindle and as a result have been seriously sleep deprived since Christmas.

3. I secretly know that I was born to be onstage singing in Broadway musicals. Fortunately the public has been saved from this spectacle.

4. I love constantly re-decorating my house. Little things like making new pillows, curtains, arrangements, etc. I don't think my house will ever be "finished". Hobby Lobby loves this about me but my husband has a different take...

5. Some days I literally want to run screaming out of the building with the frustration du jour but then I find myself excited to walk back in the next morning ready to see what we can make of our day. :) God's sense of humor amazes me.

6. I like to think of myself as somewhat hip and kinda cool and REALLY funny. My teenage daughters are real quick to set this fantasy straight. Luckily I work with five year olds...know your audience.

7. I thank the Lord for this incredible life I have been given and the amazing people that I am able to get to know. He knows what He is doing!!

More Dr. Seuss!

2011-03-02T20:26:00.002-06:00

We started today by wishing Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday in our journals. I didn't put a sentence starter on the board but I showed the children where they could find the words Happy Birthday and Dr. Seuss in our room (our birthday chart and our basket of Dr. Seuss books). They also had to write "I like you because...". They did a great job but did I get any photos?!!!

So...I mentioned yesterday that after playing the rhyming card match up game with pocket chart that today they would make a Four Square page using those rhyming pairs. I was really impressed! There were only two that struggled with it-most everyone got it!! Yay! I worked one-on-one with the two that had difficulty during our intervention time in the afternoon.

We read about Theodor Geisel and learned what an
interesting person he was.

This is my sample for his page that we will make for
our Famous Americans book.

The children will also write facts they have learned about Dr. Seuss.

I thought I would include some predictable text about
all the books we are reading this week.

We will use these cards again tomorrow as another reading activity. The children will match word cards to each picture as they match them up again.

This week is so much fun and makes it very easy to incorporate many standards into the week's lesson plans. These activities cement rhyming words and nonsense words for many of the children. I love it!