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Friday, October 31, 2014

We love class books!

I wrote a post last month about some of our back-to-school class books.  We LOVE class books!  We make at least one or two each month.  Over the past few weeks, we have made three class books and I wanted to share them with you!

In my last post, I asked for ideas about what class books you love to make with your class and Sara commented that she class makes a book based on the classic Ten Apples up on Top.  I LOVED this idea, and put it in my plans for the following week!
Next year, I'll plan to make it in September when we are talking more about apples, but this year October had to do! :)

I tweaked Sara's idea just a bit and gave each of my students 10 apples (I used my 1" circle punch to cut the circles out of construction paper) and they completed the sentence on the page and added an illustration.  They all turned out so cute!



 We also made this class book as an extension to our reading series book Life in an Ocean.  The class always loves making this book because of the ocean setting they get to draw.  My kids go crazy for ocean talk every year!  
 This page is available in this post from last year.
 One of my very favorites.  I said last year that I wanted to make a book like this for each season, but I totally forgot.  I'll say it again this year.  Hopefully I'll remember! :)

I really, really love how this book has turned out both times I've done it with my class.  Click back to this post to read more about this fun book!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Five for Friday {October 24}

Happy Saturday!  I'm a day late with my Five for Friday, but I actually thought to take pictures this week, so I wanted to be sure to link up!

 1. We began our second science unit this week.  We had been learning about our five senses since the start of the school year.  That's such a good place to start, because it's the foundation for exploring the world around us.  We had so much fun with our five senses unit, but were excited to move on to something new this week....Motion!  And we got to explore motion on the playground.  My students were sold immediately!!

2. We completed one of my very favorite class books this week.  Even though this sentence-builder book is a little tricky for some students to figure out, it always turns out soooo cute!  Their little illustrations make it super sweet.
We completed two other class books this week too!  I have a blog post in the works.  LOVE class books!

3. We used this cute cute cute pumpkin life cycle freebie from Erica Bohrer for our interactive notebooks this week.  So cute!
4. We began academic vocabulary with a bang this week!  We added four words to our binders - two literacy and two math.  
 These great pages are from Kim Adsit.
We are really working hard on "speaking like scholars" and focusing on academic vocabulary really helps with that.

5. We did this fun early addition activity yesterday to display for parent-teacher conferences next week.  I punched circles with my 1" circle punch, and each student rolled dice to figure out how many apples and pumpkins to add.

It was a great week in Kindergarten!  Hope yours was awesome too, and that you are enjoying some relaxation this weekend!!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Cute Fire Truck Craft...Step by Step!

I came across this cute fire truck craft as I was scouring Pinterest for a fun addition to Fire Safety week in my classroom.  You can click the image to bring you directly to the site.
I love how it is created using all simple shapes.  I thought it was absolutely perfect for Kindergarten, but the original blog post didn't include any sizes or many details (all you TRUE crafters out there probably like the freedom!), so I did some work to figure out exact dimensions of things to make this cute craft work.  Maybe you're like me and you're more "plan this thing out" than "fly by the seat of your pants".  I like to have a plan and I like to know exact details.  Since teaching is all about NOT re-creating the wheel, here are my step-by-step directions for making this Easy Shapes Fire Truck.

Step 1: Gather your materials.
The exact shapes and sizes I used are as follows:
Large red rectangle - 6"x9" (cut a piece of construction paper in half)
Small red rectangle - 3"x4 1/2" (cut a piece of construction paper into fourths and then cut the fourths in half)
White rectangle - 2"x9" (you can make six of these from one piece of construction paper)
White square (4) - 1 1/2"
Black squares (4) - 1 1/4"
Large white circle - 1 1/2"
Black circles (4) - 1 1/2"
Small white circles (4) - 1/2"

(I used paper punches for all the small shapes -- the circles and the squares.  HERE is a link to one on Amazon.  This is the teeny tiny 1/2" one I have.  You can search and find just about any size you might need.  I love these for simplifying craft prep.  I've also gotten some of my paper punches at Hobby Lobby.)

Step 2: Glue the small and large red rectangles together to build the shape of the truck.
 Step 3: Add the ladder.
Begin turning the white rectangle into a ladder by trimming off part of each end.  Cut in near the top and bottom, and then cut across.
 Like this...
 Put glue only on the very bottom edge of the ladder and glue it to the top of the truck.
 Place the black squares on top to make it look just like a ladder.
 Glue them down.
 Step 4: Add the large white square as the window.
 Step 5: Add the wheels.  I used 1 1/2" circles because it's what I had, but larger would be totally fine.
 Step 6: Add the little white dots to the centers of the wheels.
 Step 7: Add the hose.
I made this part optional for my students.  Some of them thought it was SO COOL  to learn how to cut a spiral.  Some thought it seemed too tricky and chose to leave it off.  The finished product looks cute either way!
 You have a complete fire truck!
In my classroom, we added the word FIRE to the side, but it's super cute plain too.


To complete the craftivity in my classroom, we took a MAKING CONNECTIONS page that we had completed earlier in the week and added it underneath our fire trucks on a large black piece of paper.

I posted it with a tree map on firefighters that we had done as a class.
 Each one has it's own personality, but I think they turned out so cute!

CLICK HERE to go to my post about the MAKING CONNECTIONS page and to grab it from Google Drive.

This would be fun to make during a unit on Community Helpers or you can tuck it away for Fire Safety week next year.  OR you could still fit it in next week as a belated Fire Safety craftivity just because it's so adorable!

Happy crafting, my friends!!

Friday, October 10, 2014

Five for Friday {October 10}


It's been a while since I've joined the Five for Friday fun, but tonight I'm watching last night's Project Runway and taking some time to reflect on my week.  Check out what we were up to this week!

1. We have been working on building our "writing muscles"!  Stamina, stamina, stamina!  This week we got up to 13 minutes!  I am so proud of my talented writers.  Everyone is working hard and many are implementing the things we're working on in our writing mini-lessons.  I just love writer's workshop!


2. We had a lot of fun with science this week.  We are still working through our Five Senses unit.  This week, I supplemented our curriculum with Caitlin Clabby's Five Senses pack.  This sheet came from her pack.  I used a sound CD that I have.  The kids loved this!!  
We also did a taste test, focusing on foods that are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.  This is always such a blast.  The bitter taste of the cocoa powder always surprises the students, and the puckery lemon faces make everyone giggle!

3. I discovered an awesome new October read-aloud!  My class (and my own kids) loved this book!  The rhymes are so much fun.  I love love love finding great new books!

4. We added a Community Helpers poem to our Interactive Notebooks this week.  The Melonheadz clip art mixed with sweet 5-year-old coloring?  Precious.

5. I arrived home on Tuesday to a beautiful box from Lakeshore (love Lakeshore!!) on my front step.  I was so excited because I knew that the farm animal counters I have wanted for so long were inside!  They will be the perfect addition to the farm study we do each May.  But, we'll also get lots of use out of them the rest of the year.  My own kids enjoyed playing with them at home all week, and today I brought them to school and took them out during Choice Time.  We had to take turns because EVERYONE wanted to get their hands on the sweet little animals!

I am so looking forward to this lazy weekend!  Enjoy it, friends!! 

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Fire Safety freebie!

Today's post is short and sweet!  I have a fire safety freebie for you!

We will spend time each day this week discussing firefighters, fire safety, and fire prevention.  I created these pages and I plan to copy them back to back and complete them together as a class.

(The edges got a bit cut off when I posted the image, but I promise they are complete documents!)


CLICK HERE to grab these from Google Drive!

Have a wonderful week!!