Hump Day Highlight :: Good Friends Class Book

Hi there!

I'm liking this Hump Day Highlight linky with Mrs. Stanford's class!  It's nice to check in mid-week.  Click the image to hop over and see what other teachers are up to this week!

The book we are focusing on this week in our reading curriculum is Farfallina and Marcel.  I love this sweet story about friendship.  

You know I'll take any chance I can to create a class book. :) We had a great discussion about friendship and it led right into this prompted writing activity that will make a super sweet class book.

 Isn't this just about the sweetest thing you've ever seen???  

So much wisdom from this precious 5-year-old.  Totally made my heart pause and think YES!  Exactly!  Never forget this!

Sometimes I think Kindergarteners should rule the world.

OR....maybe not......

Ha!

Good friends SHARE THEIR WEAPONS.

Too much.  So funny.  I love my job.

And P.S. -- look out for this one some day. ;)

Just kidding.  He's sweet as can be.  It's a bow and arrow.  Just so funny that THAT is what he thought of.

The rest were just sweet...

 ...and touching...

 ...and funny too.  

This one is serious about his candy! Ha!

And the speech bubbles.  "Do you want gum?"  "Yes."  "Thank you."  Hee hee!

CLICK HERE to grab this page from Google Drive if you'd like to use it with your class.  It would be a great one to save and use close to Valentine's Day too when we're all feeling the love!!

Hope you're having an awesome week!!  Happy hump day!

Five for Friday {November 7}

I'm a day late, but I'm linking up with Kacey for Five for Friday!

1. November means these adorable directed drawing scarecrows which I LOVE.  

CLICK HERE to read last year's scarecrow post for more information on these cuties!

2. We have been working hard during writer's workshop!  This week, we celebrated 16 minutes of stamina two days in a row!  The kids are doing a great job taking my specific feedback and putting it into their writing.  

This little guy is working on organizing his work and remembering to add details, details, details!

 This sweetie is stretching herself to go beyond just labeling her drawings.  She is ready for sentences and did such a great job this week!

I just LOVE watching budding writers!!

 3. Last week we made this awesome story map for our Reading Street story, Armadillo's Orange.

4. We began Math Work Stations this week.  Finally!  I just kept putting it off this year because other things filled the time and it seemed overwhelming to start.  BUT, since we run them exactly like our Literacy Work Stations, the students knew exactly what to do and they ran so smoothly this week!

These Fall Counting Mats are free in my TPT store.  Click HERE to check them out!

5.  I implemented "Learning Partners" by mistake a few weeks ago ;), and it has been awesome!  I randomly paired students up for an activity, and the pairings ended up being so perfectly matched that I decided to keep these pairings and call them Learning Partners!  Anytime we have a partner activity to do, the students find their Learning Partner and off they go!  So easy and makes our transitions so much calmer and quicker.  A happy accident!

I overslept by an hour yesterday morning.  I know you can relate....isn't it a terrible feeling to realize you've woken up late??!?  Thankfully, for me, waking up an hour later than normal still means I'm up at 5:50. #earlyriserperks

I saw this quote and it made me laugh.  So, so true! Ha!

Any other early risers out there????

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!!!

First week recap

I survived my first week back with kids!  And, actually, it went awesome.  As in, it really felt a little TOO easy!  My kids picked up on our routines and expectations quickly, and everything ran so smoothly all week long!  I enjoyed every minute, and am praying that it continues!! :)

This is a random recap of our week!

We completed our first day portraits.  These have already been laminated and will go in the students' memory books at the end of the year.

This letter goes home with my students on their first day.  I know that parents always want to know everything that happened that day, but all the students might remember is that they played outside. (Playing outside was a BIG favorite all week....of course!!)

We used a few pages from Nicole's Straight Up Standards for Back to School pack.  They were perfect for some formative assessing this week!  This particular page gave me a chance to teach expectations for using scissors and glue sticks as well.

 We celebrated our first class birthday on the third day of school.  I always let the birthday boy or girl choose a book from a stash that I collect throughout the year and I write a special note inside.  This year, I created this Happy Birthday tag to attach to the front of the book as well.

We always read Wemberly Worried on the first day of school.  This year, we did a sharing circle after we finished reading and we shared how we had felt that morning before coming to school for the first day.  Later in the week, we re-visited the story and completed this page for our memory books.

 These were my lesson plans by Friday morning!  Ha!  Pretty typical for the first week, I guess!

This sweet little note was delivered to me by one of my new littles on Friday.  LOVE.  And I know that I'm her first teacher ever, but I'll gladly take the compliment anyway!! ;)  

Happy weekend, friends!!

TPT Back to School SALE!!

It's almost time!!
Tomorrow and Tuesday, TPT will be holding it's back to school sale!

Many stores, including mine, will be 20% off...plus, if you enter the code BTS14, you'll get an additional 10% off.  This is one of my very favorite times to shop TPT.  I just love dreaming about the new year and stocking up on resources to use with my new crop of kindies!

I uploaded a new Write the Room product tonight as well.  The clip art for this one is absolutely some of my very favorite ever.  Seriously....just LOOK at that caterpillar!  Too cute for words!

Click the image to check it out!

I have a FULL wish list and can't wait to grab some new resources tomorrow!  Happy shopping!!

Five for Friday {March 14}

Amazingly, I actually taught five full days this week!  With the winter we've had, it seems like I haven't taught a full week since before Christmas.  Boy am I tired tonight and so ready for a weekend...but I'll be back at school tomorrow preparing for next week.  The life of a teacher!

We had a fun week, so I'm linking up with Kacey for Five for Friday!

1. Our book this week with our Reading Street language arts curriculum was If You Could Go To Antarctica. Don't Kindergarteners just love non-fiction books?  We've been learning about Arctic animals for the past several weeks, so they thought it was fun to learn about the continent on the opposite side of the world.  After reading, we did a word splash about what we might see if we went to Antarctica.  All of these ideas were from the book.

Then, each student chose either a penguin or a seal and they used it in a drawing of Antarctica.

 

 They chose five words from the word splash to fill the boxes on this page.

I stapled them together to display on our "Star Kindergarten Work" bulletin board.

 If only it didn't still look so similar to this right out our windows.  Snow, snow, go away!!

2. I received several sweet notes from my students this week thanks to an at-home March is Reading Month challenge.  Love these precious kids!

 3. We just began a new writing unit.  For the next few weeks we'll be working on "Writing for a Reason".  This week, the kids made signs to remind us of school expectations.  

Always use your manners.

 When the signs were finished, I gave each student two pieces of tape and they got to choose a place in the classroom to hang up their sign.

Don't throw snowballs.

 They LOVED this!  They could hardly believe it when I told them that they got to use tape! Ha!  

Do not run in the lobby.

 We took them down at the end of the day today and they went home.  I might do this more often with other projects!  The kids took so much pride in choosing the perfect spot to display their work and showing it to all their friends.

Don't hit in gym class.

(I use the Writing Through The Year packs by Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills as the main part of my writing curriculum, but tweak it to work for me and my students.)

4. We planted seeds this week!  We are investigating how our seeds grow in sand, soil, and pebbles.

Some sweet artwork during Choice Time...

5. We're gearing up for St. Patty's Day on Monday!  I found the CUTEST leprechaun directed drawing activity over at First Grade, Blue Skies. Look how completely adorable they are!!

 I absolutely LOVE doing directed drawings with my students.  And since I am a terrible artist, I am so thankful for the creative geniuses out there that can give me step-by-step instructions!

 I mean.  Seriously.

 I love having these hanging up in our classroom!

 We had to get to know a little about leprechauns so that when they invade our classroom on Monday (Shhhhh!  Don't tell!) my students will know what they're all about. ;)  Can't wait!

CLICK HERE to link back to last year's post to see what the leprechauns like to do in our classroom. :)

Happy weekend, friends!!