Happy Holidays!

 

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Although I loved getting a snow day on the Friday before break, I'm bummed I didn't get to say longer goodbyes to my little ones.  I miss their smiling faces already!!

Pre-K Celebration

We do a couple events a year with the pre-k students at our school.  It's always fun for the pre-k students to see what kindergarten is like and for kindergarten to see friends and siblings that they might know.  Yesterday, we threw a celebration lunch for the pre-k students after their holiday concert.  They came to our classroom to read a book, learn a song, eat some lunch, and have cookies/cocoa. Here is a video we took of the class learning the song The More We Get Together.  They are so cute!!

Business Cards

Zazzle has the cutest business cards ever! I've been lusting over them for awhile, but didn't ever see a need to have them.  Our assistant principal today suggested that I should get some made so they could pass them out on tours and show prospective parents the blog.  So....I finally get to have some! I am SO excited.  I feel grown up ;)

Snow Globes

To go along with our snow globe writing, I thought it would be fun to create real snow globes with the kids inside!  I did them last year and learned a few tricks along the way to keep it as easy as possible.

Materials:

-Empty glass jars

-Laminated pictures of students

-Glitter mini trees and sprigs from craft store

-Glycerin (found in the soap section)

-Glitter

-Snowflake confetti

-Hot Glue

-Sandpaper

-Glitter spray paint

-Glitter ribbon

Directions:
-To get the labels off the jars, fill the inside with hot water and wait a few minutes.  It makes them easier to peel. To get the sticky residue off, just wipe clean with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball.
-Spray paint the lids with the glitter spray paint.  Make SURE to use something permanent in case they leak, you don't want runny paint everywhere.
-Scratch the inside of the lid with sandpaper, it makes your objects stick a little better.
-Hot glue picture and decorations to the inside of the lid.  Make sure not to get close to the edge or else it won't seal properly.
-Fill the jar with water, glitter, snowflakes and a couple tablespoons of glycerin.
-Put the lid back on and hot glue ribbon along the edges.

*Don't use fake snow, it dissolves and makes the water cloudy!

Shaving Cream "Snow" Sight Words

A really fun rotation we like to use is shaving cream sight words.  It's extra fun during the winter because it looks like snow!  I lay out a variety of our heart words (sight words) and the kids write them and say them in the shaving cream.  I think it 's such a great way to keep them excited about our heart words, especially towards the end of a set.  

Paper Snowglobes

When I taught 4th grade, we wrote a descriptive paper on what it would feel like to live in a snow globe.  We ended up making snow globes in a jar and snow globes on paper to accompany our writing.  I loved the project so much that I knew I wanted to scale it down and do it with my kindergartners.  We read the story Snow Globe Family by Jane O' Connor, then made a list of the things we would do if we lived in a snow globe.

They wrote their lists on these templates to create the base of the snow globes. 

Then we used fun "snow paint" (half Elmer's glue and half shaving cream), glitter, and snowflakes to decorate our snow globes.  After they were done, I taped on a clear plastic plate and we had the top of their snow globes.  They turned out really cute!

Pinterest Collaborative Boards

I'm slowly learning the power of collaborative boards on Pinterest.  It's a great way to see and share ideas from other Kindergarten teachers around the country, but now I'm seeing the power of using it with a primary team or grade level team right at my school.  For our professional development class, we are working with incorporating more math games and stations into our routines.  I created a Pinterest collaborative board for us to pin ideas to and give us games to make and discuss.

TPT Wishlist

Here are the latest items that have been hanging out in my Teachers Pay Teachers cart...just waiting to be bought!

The ULTIMATE Printable Phonics Pack

Christmas Around the World Scrapbook

Listen UP! Listening Station and Reading Response Unit-December

Penguin Week Wrap Up

We wrapped up our penguin week by assembling our pages together into a non-fiction book about penguins!  They turned out awesome.  Here's an example of a book:

Obsessed-Washi Tape Ornaments

Everything I love came together to make possibley the cutest ornaments ever.  We used Polaroids, washi-tape, chevron and fancy stickers on our popsicle stick ornaments. Here are some instructions on how I made them:

1. Hot glue 4 popsicle sticks together and attach a ribbon loop at the top.
2. Cover each popsicle stick with assorted washi-tapes.
3. Choose a sticker and take a Polaroid.

Easy and adorable.

Polar Express Day

Today we did a unit on the Polar Express including a train ride, a conductor, hot chocolate, AND Santa. We started off our morning doing a rotation. Our stations were: Polar Express themed surveys, sanding wood for a snowman project, and making reindeer ornaments.  Here are the surveys I found.

Most Popular Pins this Week

Here are the most popular pins from my Pinterest this week!

Finished and unfinished baskets using placemats via The Creative Chalkboard

The reading strategy unit we use via Kinder Gals

Shaving cream snow paint via Growing a Jeweled Rose

Penguin Week

To celebrate the first week of December, I decided to do a penguin unit. A good amount of ideas came from Deanna Jump's unit found here.  I also found out something SO EXCITING at the library, you can rent book boxes full of songs, videos, puppets, and books on a topic.  And...they have a penguin one!  It was like Christmas.

Monday

We made a schema chart together and talked about what we already knew about penguins.  After making our chart, the class was let loose to explore a variety of non-fiction books about penguins.  When they found a new fact about penguins, they wrote it on a sticky note and added it to our chart.  

We also incorporated penguins into our math.  We sang a song called Percy Penguin and talked about equally sharing fish between two penguins.  The class drew a number and then acted out sharing that number of fish between 2 penguins. They then recorded their findings onto a worksheet and decided if the number was equal or not. 

Catching Snowflakes

We recently did a fun pastel art project showing people catching snowflakes. To go along with the project, we read a few Nellie Edge poems and talked about words to describe snow.  I had the kids write a sentence about snow to post under their art work.  They turned out pretty cute!

December Poetry from Nellie Edge

iPad Grouping

Here are some examples of how I group the students when iPads are available:

• The most common way I use iPads during the day is during a reading, science or math rotation.  I'll set up the app or video I want the kids to use and when they get to the table they get their own iPad to use for the time.
• Sometimes, if I have a specific story I want the class to listen to and read I will give them each their own iPad and we will do it as a whole class, then discuss.
• During rotations, I'll often have two kids share one iPad.  This helps them work on teamwork skills and they will have some sparkling academic conversations during their time as well.  
• Also during rotations, I will sometimes set up one iPad with a story and hook up four headphones to the iPad using an adapter.  This gets them all working together and discussing. 

Guided Access

Can I just say how much I love guided access on the iPad? My first time using iPads with Kindergarteners I wasn't expecting them to be so quick to take pictures of each other instead of staying on the app I had set up, who knew?

After some discussions about iPad expectation, my little problem was resolved.  But, then I found that sometimes their little fingers and bodies hit the home button and bring them out of the app on accident.  That's where guided access is so helpful.  It locks the iPad onto the app you choose and it can only be closed with a password.  That means more uninterrupted learning and minimal distractions.

Here's how to set it up!

Step 1: Open settings

Step 2: Click on general

Step 3: Select accessibility

Step 4: Turn on guided access and set your passcode

Then you're good to go!  Just triple click your home button when you have an app open that you would like to lock your iPad onto.  When you're ready to exit, triple click again and enter your passcode.  

Life changing.

:)

Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys!

One of the best things about Kindergarten is finding every opportunity to celebrate something.  Thanksgiving themed activities took over just about every aspect of our day.  Deanna Jump is amazing and provides the best resources that are cute AND incorporate learning...which is a big deal.  Activities without a purpose, even if they're cute, are just silly.  Most of our activities came from her pack on TPT which you can find here.  Here are a couple of my favorite activities that we did together. 

 These are our pilgrims which we made after learning the types of clothes pilgrims wore, what chores they had to do, and what their journey over on the Mayflower was like.  They wrote about what one item they would take with them if they were going on the Mayflower. We had lots of stuffed animals, sports equipment, and toys going over. 

Our Favorite Songs

I'm pretty picky with kid's music, I usually pick songs that relate to some sort of math or language so we can have fun, move, and be learning all at the same time.

 I grew up on Raffi, so he makes it to the top of our list pretty often. My little learners are obsessed with The Popcorn Song, I can easily say that's a favorite of ours.  Here are some more Raffi songs we use:

The More We Get Together

Willoughby Wallaby Woo

Mr. Sun

Shake My Sillies Out

Heidi Butkus has amazing phonics, math, and classroom management songs.  When we run across areas that need reminding, like bathroom procedures....her songs are great.  These are our favorites:

Please and Thank You Song

Potty, Potty, Flush, Flush (yes...this is a real song!)

Right Hand, Left Hand

Smarty Pants Dance

Lastly, we use Dr. Jean quite a bit as well.  Our favorite song of hers is definitely, Kiss Your Brain.  There is nothing cuter than seeing kinders kiss their brain's during worktime.  Here are some others:

Rime Time

Gumball

Macarena Math

Dr. Knicker Bocker

Shake a Hand

Month Hop

My Favorite Apps

I have a few favorite apps that I tend to gravitate towards when using the iPads in the classroom. Most are free, some are paid for.

One More Story-Reads a picture book aloud to the kids.  I will usually have them listen together, then do a response worksheet after.  The worksheet will have them rate the book and then draw a picture using details from the story.  I’ll also sometimes have them stop in the middle and make a prediction about what might happen on a worksheet.

Endless Alphabet-Dragging letters to vocabulary words.

QR Code Frenzy

I've been on a little bit of a QR code kick lately, there are so many fun ways to use them around the classroom.  My most favorite revelation is that I can easily use them to differentiate work for different students AND they get to have control over some aspects of our activities using them. Here are some of my favorite resources I've found so far:

This shape scavenger hunt is free here through TPT.  It gives me lots of great ideas for alternatives to write the room.