SIX for Friday {May 9}

It's Friday!  Hip, hip hooray!  And time for Doodlebugs' "Five for Friday"!

Remember last week when I only had THREE for Friday, and I posted it on Saturday?

Well, this week I am back to posting on Friday, but I have SIX!  Hope you don't mind!  Ha!  Lots and lots going on in Kindergarten these days!

1. We're headed on a field trip next week to a local farm and we're busy getting ready!  Research and crafting!  So far....pigs and sheep!

I found these farm animal templates and the writing pages for free HERE.

2. I enjoyed spoiling my own kids' teachers this week for teacher appreciation week!  I love sending a small gift for them every day.  I had a student so that for me one year and I thought it was SO thoughtful!  

One of my sweet kiddos brought me this gift on Wednesday --  all of my favorites!  A GREEN cup filled with GUMMI BEARS, and a bowl full of delicious RASPBERRIES.  I loved this special gift!

 3. I had a new student join my class a few weeks ago.  I was checking his paper the other day and he asked me to add a word to the top.  When I asked him which word he wanted, he said "Happy!"....I thought that was sweet!

4. We have moved into our final science unit -- living and non-living.  This week we took a science nature walk outside and looked for living and non-living things.  We made this list when we came back in.

 And then we completed this science journal page.  These come with our science curriculum.

5. I was so excited to come home from school the other day and see a box from Lakeshore Learning on my doorstep.  These cuties were inside!  Lakeshore's math manipulatives are awesome!  So colorful and durable!  

 It's the perfect time of year to introduce a new manipulative and re-energize the kidlets as we wrap up our final weeks of Kindergarten.  I know that they will flip over these!  I can't wait to introduce them next week!

6. We whipped up fun and easy handprint gardens for our moms for Mother's Day.  The kids did a great job -- they turned out really cute!  What mom doesn't LOVE anything with a precious little handprint???  

Happy weekend, friends!!!

Three for Friday (on Saturday)

Hi there, friends!

I'm popping in today with a three for Friday!  On Saturday.  Seriously, what is that??!?  I hardly had my camera out at all this week, so I only have four things to share.  And I had plans last night, so I'm posting on Saturday instead.  I knew you all would forgive me because the last few weeks of school are not for the faint of heart and teachers are just BUSY in May.  There is no way around it!

1. I hosted our Girls Only Lunch on Tuesday.  I only have six girls this year, so I was really looking forward to this day of pampering and loving on these sweeties. 

We had a picnic at our carpet area complete with girly cupcakes.

 I invited each of the girls' moms to join us and they were all able to make it!  It was so much fun.  After lunch, all the moms painted their daughters' fingernails and toenails.

I picked up some nail polish and each girl got to choose a color to take home with them.

 Melt me.  These girls.  We had the best time.  There were so many smiles and giggles.  Definitely a highlight of my year.  Hopefully a highlight of theirs too!

Now I get to look forward to my Boys Only Lunch with all 18 of my busy boys.  I might be asking for prayers on that day!  Ha!

2. I changed out my math stations this week and the kids had a lot of fun with the new activities!

Addition, addition, addition is our focus right now!  We are practicing like crazy!

 I whipped this activity up quickly and it was a hit!  We use these bugs for all sorts of things -- especially in the Spring.

CLICK HERE to grab this page from Google Drive!

 Race to 100!  Just change up the graphics on the page and the kids think it's a brand new game!

Again, we're working hard on addition, so the kids used two dice and added them together.  

You can grab a copy of this game by heading back to THIS POST from last year.

 Lima bean math is a classic and always a great activity for addition practice.

3. My sweetie had her Kindergarten screening on Thursday.  She is so ready for Kindergarten, and I am thrilled for her because I know how much she'll love it!!  

That's it for me today!  I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend!

HAVE-TOs and CHOOSE-TOs {a post about literacy stations!}

I've written about my Literacy Stations routine before (CLICK HERE or HERE for more info), but I recently implemented something new and am loving it!!  I have to share here because it's so great and allows my kids to be so independent.  You probably have your own awesome ways of running literacy stations already.....but in case something about that time of your day just doesn't run as smoothly as you'd like, maybe this will work for you too!

The inspiration for my Literacy Stations originally came from this book by Debbie Diller.

I have taken Debbie's approach and tweaked it to make it work for me and my students.  And, after attending Kim Adsit's conference this Spring, I added one of her great ideas to make it work even better!

This actually had been on my to-do list for quite a while, but while I sat at Kim's conference, the pieces all came together in my mind, and I knew how to set it up to work for me in my classroom.

For this year, I decided to use Kim's wording of "HAVE-TOs" and "CHOOSE-TOs".  I might change that up next year, but maybe not.  It's working well for us this year!  This is what our literacy station tubs look like.  The green tubs have been there all year.  These are where the students find their main activity (the HAVE-TO).  They don't have a choice with this one.  Whatever is in their tub for the day is what they complete.

The bottom, clear tubs are the new CHOOSE-TO tubs.  These tubs are filled with activities -- books, puzzles, sight word cards, etc -- that students can choose from when they have completed the HAVE-TO.

Okay....can I just take a second to talk to you about these tubs?  They are the best.  They stack so easily and close up completely so that they look organized and neat!  A HUGE PLUS in a Kindergarten classroom!!  Click the photo for more info.

If you're ever in the market for some great tubs for organizing, I would highly recommend these!!

Anyway...back to lit stations. :)

Currently, I have eight literacy stations in my rotation (done in the morning), and four math stations (done in the afternoon).  This is my shelf.  (I know what you're thinking.  You are jealous of my awesome 1970's orange shelves.  I know.  They rock.  Hee hee.  But, seriously, they are made sooooo well and will be in my room forevermore.  Embrace the orange!  Ha!)

The routine for both literacy and math stations is the same, but my math station groups are larger since I only have four of them.  Again, something that I am thinking of changing for next year.

Here is an example of a literacy choose-to.

And here is a math choose-to.  Each of the choose-to tubs are a little bit different to keep them engaging for the students, but just filled with simple activities -- sight word cards, letter/word/number games, puzzles, books, etc.

Check out these choose-to tubs in use!  As with everything in Kindergarten, we've had to go over expectations many times - choose only one thing at a time, put things away as soon as you finish with it, etc.

The kids are doing great and really feel like the choose-to activities are a special treat!

This set-up allows me so much more time during literacy and math stations.  When the class begins working, I check in quickly with each group, have students read sight words for me, and make sure that everyone has the materials they need.  Then, I am open for the rest of the time to pull students (and next year I'll hopefully figure out how to tie reading groups into the time and pull them while the rest of the class is busy....one thing at a time!).  The kiddos know where to put their finished work for me to look over at a later time, and they get right to work on their choose-to.  Our literacy station block lasts anywhere from 25-40 minutes, depending on the day.  

This system will definitely stick around for me next year, and probably for many years to come after that!  It's by far the best approach I've found, and it runs so smoothly without anyone in the classroom except me and my students.  No para-pros or parent volunteers.  This is soooo nice because it makes it really flexible.  I can run them at any time of day and don't have to depend on someone else to be in the room for support.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!  Do you use a similar approach or something else that works great for you?  Please share!!

Five for Friday {April 25}

Here we go!  It's Five for Friday time!!

And...if I can just say...YAY for Friday.  That's all.

Okay!  Let's chat about my week!

1. Earth Day.  We didn't go overboard, but we did do a few fun activities together.  Talking about how to care for the earth tied in perfectly with the unit we just finished in science, so my kids were very engaged as we completed this graph and bubble map together.

 And we illustrated this cute student reader to put in our book bags.

 These activities all came from the "We Save the Earth" pack by Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten.

2. We completed an Earth Day craftivity to replace the bunny display we had up for Easter.  

The students colored the earth (these pages came from our science curriculum).

 

 Then, they wrote about what they could do to help the earth.  There were so many great (and adorable!) ideas.

 

 My teacher assistant (high school student that comes two afternoons per week) painted each child's hand to finish off their projects.

3. We began our Fictional writing unit this week.  Oh my, are my kids looooving this unit!  The stories they are writing are so great!

This little girl is writing about a princess.

I lovelovelove Spring Kindergarteners.  They are so confident and smart!  This guy's story is about a frog and a dog.  

And this one?  About the tooth fairy.  Melt me.  She has grown SO much this year!  

4.  My students wrote some really cute sentences about the sun on our Brain Boost this week. 

 The sun is really hot.  I love it.

 The sun is hot and it hides up in the sky. (Another little one who has come SO far!  Such a proud teacher!)

5. These invites went home today!  AND I spilled the beans that we're following up our lunch with a little nail-painting party!  I can't wait to pamper these special girls!!

CLICK HERE to check out my Girls Only lunch from last year!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!!