This week's literacy stations

I'm finally feeling organized enough again to post about this week's literacy stations.  They will run through next week as well.  I am wrapping up a few winter activities that we hadn't gotten to yet, and I included one of my new "Three Cheers for BOOKS" activities along with our usuals.

"Snowman Noun Hunt" 

(from Rowdy in Room 300's winter pack)

 The instructions for this activity say to have students find the words around the classroom, but I am just having them sort the words into a pocket chart and record them onto their pages.

"Roll a Sight Word"

"Word Bookends"

Beginning and ending sounds

(from my "Three Cheers for BOOKS!" pack)

When I was over by the two girl who were working on this activity, I overheard the sweetest conversation they were having about how "this bird is a blue jay and did you know that there are red birds too?  And I think they are called red jays.  Isn't that cool?"  heehee :)

Our reading curriculum story last week was "If You Could Go to Antarctica".  I love that kids this age love non-fiction so much.  They ate that book up and wanted to know everything about Antarctica.  They loved even just looking at the pictures in the book....so interested in what Antarctica is really like! In this station, they have to list four things that they would need if they were a scientist living in Antarctica, and then draw pictures to match.  Some of the lists have been pretty adorable!  And all of them have had great ideas!

"Pencil, Marker, Glue" page to practice this week's sight words

"Word Build and Write" page to practice this week's sight words

"Sight Word Stamp and Write" -- again, reviewing this week's sight words and also a few we've already covered

"Silly Nilly or Real Deal"

Real and nonsense words

(from Rowdy in Room 300's winter pack)

 This is a fun one!

My students are having lots of fun with these stations.  I hope to be back sharing our current math stations tomorrow!

Five for Friday link-up! {March 1}

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday link-up...

Before you read on, I just want to forewarn you that there is absolutely nothing school-related in this post at all. :)  It's just been that kind of week.  My camera has been out a lot, but it's been out at home as we've celebrated our daughter's 4th birthday!  Birthday week on top of assessment and progress report week on top of heading out of town for the weekend on top of paret-teacher conferences next week Monday and Tuesday equals little sleep and lots of BUSY!

1. Rowan moved up to the next room at her school now that she's 4.  This big change brought tears at drop-off for the first few days (SAD!), but now she just LOVES it!  So proud of her!

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2. Her birthday treat on Wednesday was birthday cake flavored oreo cookies.  Have you had these before?  I can't decide if I love them or not.  Based on the fact that, once I eat one I always end up eating two or three more, I probably love them.  Hmmm....

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3. Last night, our family went to Disney on Ice.  Rowan LOVES Minnie Mouse, and we're preparing for a trip to Disney World this summer, so this was such a blast!  Out of 10, the kids gave the show a 1 million and the hubby gave it a 2.  Ha! 

 Not his cup of tea, I guess.

Speaking of the hubs....check out the awesome photo he got when I asked him to get one of me with the kids.  Rowan isn't looking, Trey's eyes are half closed, and no effort to block out the man over my shoulder.  Makes me laugh.  Proof that I was there, at least! :)

MINNIE!  We pretended that she was waving right at Rowan.

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4. We're headed to Splash Universe in Shipshewana, Indiana for the weekend in a few hours....

Excited to get away and have some fun before the craziness of conference week next week.

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5. Lastly, such an appropriate way to end our February, I think.  Love it.

source: etsy

100th Day Celebration!!

OH. MY!!!

We (finally!) celebrated our 100th day of school last week Wednesday.  It was originally supposed to be several days earlier, but we've had some serious snow days this year and it just kept getting pushed back further and further.  We were all so ready to finally celebrate!!

We had a busy, fun-filled day planned, and there were lots of things that we had to carry into the rest of the week because we couldn't fit them in, but it was such a fun day of celebrating together!

I thought I had snapped a photo of my classroom entrance on the 100th day, but I must have forgotten.  There were streamers hanging down for the students to walk through, and a sign that said "We are 100 days smarter!"

We took some time in the morning to make these 100th day glyphs.  They were fun and look super cute hanging in our classroom now!

  

While the class was in music, I did a little prep work for our next fun activity!  We had a scavenger hunt through the school to find a special 100th day treat.  We counted by tens to 100 and found the numbers in the hallway.  They led us back to our classroom where there were 100 hidden hershey kisses.  We had to find them all to get the treat!

My teaching partner introduced me to this 100th day activity a couple of years ago, and it is a favorite of my students every year.  We place our hundreds chart on the floor and search for kisses in the classroom.  The students must use walking feet and may only get one candy at a time.  Once they place it on the hundreds chart, they may go to find another one.  This year, I added a number to the bottom of each kiss and the students had to match the number as they placed it on the hundreds chart.

This activity is SO MUCH FUN.  The kids loooooove it!!

  

94 was the toughest one to find!  But, we found it and the class earned their treat bags!

Click here if you'd like to snag these tags for yourself....file them away for next year!

Lots of fun writing prompts for classroom books...

I would love to have 100 cakes, but I would never want 100 skunks!

 I would love to have 100 dogs, but I would never want 100 dragons!

"100 Years Old" book...these always make me laugh so hard!  LOVE this fun activity!

 This little guy added a wheelchair to his 100 year old drawing.  Ha!

"If I had $100..."

 "100th Day Line-Up"

We ended up doing this activity on Friday because I knew that it would take some time.  We moved all of our tables and chairs out of the way to line up our 100 items on the floor. 

Some of the lines wound themselves back around and still ran out of space!

Once all of the lines were complete, we analyzed our data!

What a super FUN week of celebrating!!  I am so thankful for my sweet Kindies and burst with pride for them when I think of how much they have grown and learned in the last 100 days of school!  I am so blessed to be their teacher!

All of these activities and more can be found in my 100th Day pack on TPT.

President's Day and March is Reading Month prep

Oh my goodness.  This is shaping up to be the craziest week of my school year so far.  Fun-filled and exciting, but still super busy and just plain old crazy!  Yesterday we celebrated President's Day which was SUPER FUN, but I ended the day with a whole stack of activities that we didn't even get to!  Normally I would have just extended the fun into today, BUT today was supposed to be our 100th Day celebration...except for the fact that we didn't have school due to freezing rain and terrible, unsafe driving conditions.

Crazy Michigan winter weather!!!

Sooooo....our 100th day will be tomorrow, and then Thursday I have a guest teacher because I will be completing individual assessments all day.  So it looks like Friday will be a mix of 100th Day and President's Day leftover fun!  So much for reading, writing, and math curriculum!!  I guess there's always next week!

Here's what we DID get to yesterday...

I was pinspired by these adorable masks (this is the link).  We just made the black hat a little straighter and taller and they were perfect for Abraham Lincoln. 

We cut the plates, colored them with a crayon that matched Abe's skin, and sponge-painted beards.  We added the popsicle stick and black hat once the paint had dried.

 No pics of the finished products (at least none that I can show on the blog), so you'll have to use your imagination....but they were adorable!

Then, we spent much of the afternoon on these cuties that Holly was sweet enough to send me (thanks again, Holly!).  I built mine along with them, so they were able to follow step by step.

It was A LOT of cutting, but my kiddos did really well.  It took us over an hour from start to finish, but it was calm, quiet, and my students were SO PROUD of their finished products!  I think they turned out seriously cute!!

More President's Day projects to come as the week goes on, but not tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be overflowing with 100th Day FUN!  Can't wait!

AND...even as I enjoy all of the fun of this week, my mind is already looking ahead to what's next.  For our school, it's March is Reading Month, and my brain is spinning with ideas!  I have been working hard on literacy and math station activities that I can use throughout the month of March, and I was able to use my snow day today to finally finish it up and upload it to TPT.  Click here to check it out.

I'll post more about it once I get it all prepped and ready to go.

Snow, snow go away.... let us celebrate our 100th day!!!