Five for Friday {May 30}

It's a great Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs to share my Five for Friday.

We're still having lots of fun at school, but truth be told, we're all fading.  When Kindergarteners begin fading, you know you're in trouble.

Summer!  It's so close I feel like I can reach out and grab it!

I'm craving lazy days and oodles of time with my kids, but we're finishing off the year strong.  I know I'll miss my kindies like crazy when they leave me, so I'm soaking up their almost first-grader goodness with the time we have left.

1.  We're still starting every day by popping our countdown balloons.  This week we had a bubble party with the other Kindergarten class, we hung out with bare feet in the classroom, we chewed bubble gum, and we enjoyed some outside reading time.  

2. We planted seeds over a week ago and watching them grow has been such a disappointment!!  I'm not sure what we did wrong.  Maybe the seeds were old???  Only about one third of the class has a sprout.  Bummer. :(  

On a positive note, next week is Worm Week (LOVE!), so all will be forgotten with these boring old plants.

3.  We made these addition ladybugs this week.  A fun craftivity to go along with our BIG addition/subtraction review push to finish off the year!

4. We received our last pen pal letter for the year this week.  We have been so lucky this year to be class pen pals with two awesome classes.  My in real life bestie is a kindergarten teacher in Colorado, and one of my blogging besties teaches Kindergarten in Texas.....it's been so much fun for us to write back and forth and for my students to learn more about these very different places!  They were intrigued by the mountains in Colorado and the Spring dust storms in Texas!  So much fun!  

5. My students completed their final writing assessment this week.  This piece goes into their permanent file at school.  Both of these sweeties began the school year barely able to write their names.  They are going to first grade as writers!  So proud of how hard they've worked this year!

My weekend will be filled with baseball, planting flowers, and getting Memory Books put together!  Bring it on!  Hope yours is awesome as well!

Five for Friday {April 18}

Hi, friends!  Happy Friday to you!  

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs again today for Five for Friday!

Check out what we were up to this week!

1. My students helped me put together a fun package on Monday to mail to our Texas pen pals.  This was sooo fun and my kiddos LOVED it!  They thought it was awesome that they would be surprising their pals with a box full of Easter eggs!

 2. We did some writing about Spring Break early this week.  I love teaching writing, and writing at this point in the year is just the best!  They have grown so much and have become so confident!

 3. The finished product of our "Buggy Over Books" display!  I had the students color the letters.  I think that adds a really personal touch to the board.

 We completed book recommendations for the display.  I chose five familiar books and asked students to choose their favorite to write about.

 Pete the Cat was the overwhelming favorite (Of course!  EVERY kid loves Pete!), but a few students chose one of the other books.

 And the bugs.  OH the bugs!  They. are. precious!

 The bugs are from Doodlebugs' Spring Directed Drawings pack.

 4. We had some Easter egg fun during math stations this week.  Skip counting practice!  It was a hit!

 5. We wrote a pen pal letter today.  It will be on it's way to Texas soon!  And we got a letter from our Colorado pals today, so we'll write them back next week.  Pen pal love is such a fun part of Kindergarten!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Five for Friday {October 25}

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I have today off because of Parent-Teacher Conferences this week.  I'm so looking forward to some extra time with my kids after lots of time away.

Here's what went on at school this week!  

1. We are wrapping up our first science unit on the 5 senses.  We put our tastebuds to the test on Tuesday!  

The kids LOVED this fun activity!  

 We worked together to figure out the four tastes - salty, sweet, sour, and bitter.  The cocoa powder was so funny!  It smells great and the students were excited to taste it, but then.....it's SO bitter!  And, of course, lemon faces are pretty funny too!  I had my camera out during this activity to catch their expressions...priceless!!

 This sheet comes from Kindergarten Smiles' "Our Five Senses" unit found HERE.  I tweaked it a bit and turned the spicy taste into bitter.

Science is SO MUCH FUN in Kindergarten!!

2. We were all smiles on Wednesday when I read the students the notes that their parents left them at conferences.  Some parents ran out of time or missed the table, so I wrote a few myself.  Such a fun way to encourage these kiddos who are working so hard!  

 You can see the post I wrote about everything that was on the hallway table by clicking HERE.

3. We are so lucky to have two pen pals this year from two parts of the country!  We've had two letters waiting, and I had the best intentions of writing both classes back this week, but we only got one letter finished.  This is the sign that I post when a letter arrives in the mail.  It always brings LOTS of excitement!

Colorado friends.....your letter is on it's way!

 Texas friends..... your letter will be mailed out next week!

We LOVE our pen pals!!

4. Our reading curriculum story for this week was Life in an Ocean.

The class loved this non-fiction story.  I had some fun extensions planned, including a class book that we made using these ocean animals...

 BUT...I forgot to take pictures of the finished products!  Look for a post next week about our ocean extensions.

5. This one is not school related, but I had such a fun night with my kids last night with this activity!  We got "BOO'd" on Sunday night -- this is something new to our neighborhood this year and so much fun!  The rules are that once you get Boo'd, you are supposed to BOO two houses within 24 hours...but that just wasn't possible with my crazy schedule this week.  SO....last night we headed to the store, got all the treats we needed, and devised our BOO plan!  My son, Trey, got the job of ringing the doorbell and running away as fast as he could.  Both of our BOO's were successful!  Such a fun memory for the kids!

It got me thinking...this could be so fun at school!  Maybe next year???

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!