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!!

Fall ten-frame mats {FREEBIE}

I spotted these adorable little guys at the Target Dollar Spot a few weeks ago...

 ...and of course I KNEW that I could use them for something, so I scooped up a couple of packages.  

They're teeny tiny and sooooo cute!  

I felt inspired to find a way to use them, so I whipped up some ten-frame counting mats.  They are great for students to practice "building" the numbers 1-10.

 I love me some ten-frames -- horizontal, vertical, whatever!  It's all good practice!

Click the pic below to head over to TPT to snag them up for your classroom....for FREE!

Happy first day of October!

Race to 100....and a bloggy break

Who knew that such a simple game could be so LOVED by my students??!?  I whipped up a version of this game around Christmas and my kindies enjoyed it so much that I've made a couple of different versions since then.

"Race to 100" is the simplest concept ever.  It's a partner game -- each partner chooses a color.  One partner rolls a dice and colors that many squares.  Then, the next partner rolls and colors.  They continue taking turns, coloring the boxes in order.  The person who rolls the exact number to land on 100 is the winner.

I usually make enough copies that each pair can play twice.  The winner of the first game brings that page home, and the other partner takes the other one home, whether they were the winner or not.  They love it.  

This game board is fun and Springy, and the KPM Doodles clip art is so cute!

Please grab a copy for yourself if you'd like it!

On another note, I will be taking some time away from the blog while I tend to a situation that has arisen in my life.  I am needed for my family right now and just am not in a place of having the mental energy needed to maintain this blog effectively.  In time, I will return.  I look forward to that day!