Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Happy Birthday Freebielicious!

Have you heard? Freebielicious turned ONE this month! This last year has been amazing and we are so happy with our wonderful Freebielicious family! This little blog has twenty-five amazing authors...teachers with hearts of gold! Our only goal is to continue be a blessing to primary teachers!
Well, guess what? You could win a prize package valued at over $500, which includes an iPad mini!!! 


iPad Mini Giveaway from Freebielicious!

You have three chances to win. Follow Freebielicious on Pinterest, follow them on Facebook, and follow Freebielicious by email. Enter to win by October 30, 2013 at midnight. The winter will be drawn on October 31, 2013 and announced on Freebielicious. One entry per person and entries will be verified. Good luck!!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Bat Unit (3 weeks)

This week we kicked off our bats unit! One of my students favorites! We decorated our bulletin board with this cute and easy bat craft from Cupcake. 
In the word work center, when my students complete their work, their 'go to' activity is always the  word work cards. They found the Halloween cards and started writing right away :)
We did tons of fun bat activities this week, but I totally forgot to take pictures. Hate when that happens!!

On a different note, my school is having us complete frameworks this year. We have to  hand in each unit we teach and make sure everything is aligned to Common Core and contains ESOL strategies. Here is my framework for my bat unit. To get the links, you will need to click on the image below and download the plans. The links are hyperlinked in the PDF document. Hopefully you can find some ideas! 

Head on over to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten to check out what others are up to!!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Word Work

I am ALL about making my life easier! That is why I decided to make monthly word work packs this year! I will have all I need for the month stored in a bag and each year I can just pull that bag out, add the activities to the word work center, and I am good to go! During rotations, I am pulling my reading groups, so I knew these activities had to be ones that met the Common Core standards, but were easy enough where students were able to complete them totally independently--no distracting my reading group unless blood or fire is involved! ;)
Here are some activities that my students completed last month.
Sorting colors
Matching upper and lowercase letters
Matching letters with the correct beginning sound picture
We also did lots of name writing! Here the student is writing and drawing some of her friends.
They also used the same name cards to sort their friends by the number of letters in their name and they spelled their friends' names with magnetic letters. All meaningful activities...and yes, we made it through September with little to no distractions!
I received a couple questions asking me how I set up my word work center so I figured I would share it with you. Hopefully this is not a disappointment, because the center itself is really nothing special, but it works for my class!
1. Magnetic Letters. These are used for a variety of activities in my word work packs.
2. Where I store most of the magnetic letter activities. In the picture you can see the sight word mats. They will use these mats on our magnetic white board and they will find the correct letters to spell their sight words. There are a bunch of mats to choose from. I also have the letter mats, CVC mats, and more stored here! You can find some freebies on TPT.
3. Word work cards. This is the best 'go to' when the students finish a different word work activity before their center is over.
4. Students will use these whiteboards and dry erase markers to spell words found on the word work cards. They can also use the dry erase markers for many of the other word work activities instead of using magnetic letters. The dry erase markers wipe off lamination easily with a tissue.
5. These bags store all of the monthly word work activities. The bags contain the 'I Can' sheet and all the materials needed to complete the center.
6. Handwriting cards
7. Bucket used for letter, letter sound, or sight word games found in my word work packs.
8. Materials students would need to complete an activity sheet. I usually don't give an activity sheet at this center. Most of the activities are all hands on/collaborative; however, there are times when I want them to record their findings. Inside the pencil case I have pencils, markers, and crayons.
9. Play-doh stampers. These are another great alternative for some of the word work activities. Instead of using dry erase markers or magnetic letters, students can stamp the letters with play-doh!
My students already started their October word work activities. Here they are filling in the missing letters.
And here, they are recording their CVC words!
Here is an October word work freebie to get your kids ready for Fall!! (Anyone else love candy corn? I really like the pumpkin candy corn!!!)
Enjoy!!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Learning All About Apples!

We had so much learning all about apples during our apple unit! My students are also doing so well at rotating and completing their centers independently while I am pulling reading groups.

At their math center, they wrote the room. This was their first time doing this and it was a HUGE hit!! They were so quiet walking around the room and they were so excited to 'hunt' for the different ten frames! 


At the writing center they are still working on labeling. For those that can't read just yet, they had to use their beginning sound knowledge to determine where there words went.


At the word work center, the children had to work collaboratively to piece the apples back together-matching upper and lowercase letters.

When they were finished they used the word work cards to write their apple words. I love these because they work for all levels. Some of my students can write a list and others can just write one word and illustrate it. Hopefully soon they will be able to use the words to write a sentence!

In science, they observed an apple and labeled the parts. 
I love when students go above and beyond and make their activity sheet look so cute :)
Then, we ended our apple week with a birthday party for Johnny Appleseed. We started the morning off with this cute FREEBIE from Donna at Peace, Love and Learning
We made our own Johnny Appleseed hats :)
and delicious apple trees!!! (with blue and orange apples of course)
 We played Apple Roll and Race. Why do kids love dice games so much??
These apple activities can be found in my apple unit on TPT
Now we are getting ready to start our bat unit!! I LOVE teaching this unit!!