Tuesday, March 27, 2012

3D Shapes Anchor Charts

We have been talking about 3D shapes in my class for a while now, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it! :)

Here's the anchor charts we make:





I draw a picture of it.  Write it's name, and then we list characteristics:  What shape do you see if you trace it?  How many edges?  faces? corners?  And then my Kinders use post-its to draw their own version of a real life  3D shape  (ice cubes, party hats, kickballs, cans of soup, etc.)

There you have it!  3D shapes on anchor charts! 

My question:  Spring break plans?  Where did/will you go, what did/will you do?  I'm on mine this week- and it's consisting of:  dentist visits (for me and my 4 yr old), painting backdrops for the school musical, and then a whole lot of relaxing and reading The Hunger Games.  I'm on like page 30 of the first books.  It's getting good! :)  I've got a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old- so we wont do any big vacations until they get a bit bigger!!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

And the winner is...


The lucky winner of my very first giveaway!  Check Amy out here at The Resource(ful) Room

Thanks to all who participated!  I had a great time! :)  I look forward to hosting another once I reach 200! 

Amy- leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll be sure to get you your amazing stuff!!

**One of my good friends just had a baby yesterday, so I'm off to go see them!!** 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tooth Fairy

Something strange happened to me today. 

I go to get my kiddos from gym today and I see 2 of my students walking back to the classroom.  One with a tissue to his nose.  My girl says boy has a bloody nose, she's taking him to the office.  Fine- she's a responsible girl, and the boy is so sweet- I have no worries they will get there safely!

I get to gym to pick up the kids, and the teacher says Boy took a nose dive off the scooter and got pretty booger'd up.  Not sure if he came to school with a tooth missing or if he lost it in the nose dive- but pretty sure 2 other teeth are lose- bloody nose- and busted lip  OUCH!

I bring my kids back to class and call Boy's mom to see if he came to school with all of his teeth- yes- he came to school with all teeth in tact.  That leads us to a full on tooth hunt.  Never found it- still, at this moment, it's lost.

So, I'm thinking he probably swallowed it during the nose dive, clean-up, somewhere in there.

BUT, being his first lost tooth- WE HAVE TO GIVE THE TOOTHFAIRY SOMETHING!  So here's what the tooth fairy is getting tonight:  (I changed the words, to keep confidentiality!)

So, to close:  Has this ever happened to you?  How did you handle it?  Do you want a copy of your own for future use in case this ever happens to you?

And, my giveaway closes on Thursday at 5:00pm.  So don't forget to go HERE to enter!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Must See Websites and a Giveaway!

I attended a techonolgy training put on by the tech crew at my school.  I always look forward to this day- they really spend time helping you on the needs and questions you have.  There's a loose agenda, and time for you to ask questions specific to your needs.  So I always leave with a sense of learning new *and useful* tips.

I'd like to share what I learned-

Great websites:
BrainNook  A plethora of great online games focused on reading and math!
Speakaboos  Bring stories, legends, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes to life!
Pete's PowerPoint Station  A gazillion ready-made PowerPoint presentations at your fingertips!
Jefferson Count Schools, TN  More PowerPoint presentations for all categories!
Kinetic City  FUN online science games!  You can play them as the teacher on a projector so the kids can play along- or set them up at their own computers in the lab to play!
Graves, KY PowerPoints  MORE PowerPoints- ready made and ready to use!
Cool Math  Similar to FunBrain- the kids will love this!
Worksheet Works  I'm not a worksheet pusher, but if you need a quick re-enforcement tool- here's what you've been looking for!  Customizable to what you need.  Sweet!

I hope you get some great use out of these.  Here's my question:

Do you use any of these already?  How do you like them?  Do you have any others to add to the list that I should check out??

Oh- and don't forget to sign up for my giveaway- it's Grand-tacular ;)  Click HERE to enter to win these:









And one more thing :)  Don't forget to link up to Jeannie's linky party to gather all K-2 blogs in one spot **GENIUS**  :)  Click HERE to link up :)  Thanks Jeannie- you are making my blog surfing much, much easier! :)

Friday, March 16, 2012

100 Followers Giveaway!

Ahh!  I'm so over the moon excited about reaching 100 followers!  Thanks so much for all the support! :)

Now it's time for the fun, it's the Grand-tacular Giveaway!  I have asked lots of awesome bloggers to help me out, and here's what you will get if you are the WINNER!











In a nutshell, you get:  any 1 item from Abby's store, $10 to TPT from Holly, Reading Strategies set from Staci, $25 iTunes gift card from Staci, a customized clipart set from Hilary, story pack from Mor, and a math pack from Megan!  Awesome giveaway! :)  Thanks to all the lovely bloggers joining me in this giveaway :)

Here's how to enter:

1:  Follow all our blogs and leave ONE comment saying you did so.
Let's Teach Something (you're already here!)
Crisscross Applesauce
Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits
The Inspired Apple
Mrs. Carvitti's Clippings
Going Nutty
A Teacher's Treasure

2:  Follow our TPT or TN stores and leave ONE comment saying you did so.
Mrs. Carvitti's Clippings
A Teacher's Treasure
Let's Teach Something
Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits
The Inspired Apple

3:  Leave a comment saying what your customizable clipart pack would be if you win!

4:  Blog about the giveaway-spread the word! :)

There you have it:  4 ways to win big! :)
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to all my lovely followers- I can't believe I'm up to 100!! :) You all are the BEST! :)

Oh- and once you enter this giveaway, stop by Holly's giveaway at Crisscross Applesauce- she's got a GREAT giveaway going on too!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Life Cycle of a Butterfly, Shamrocks, and some sunshine!

My Kinders are knee deep in the Life Cycle of a Butterfly unit.  They love this activity we did yesterday.  You can find the printable here at Making Learning Fun.  I used a bean for the egg, macaroni for the caterpillar, a shell for the chrysalis, and bowtie pasta for the butterfly. 

Here's some pictures:

To add some character, I had them use markers to color the pasta.



Super fun, super cute and a great way to visually see the life cycle! :)

I teach at a Catholic School, so St. Patrick's day is more than leprechauns and pots of gold in our school (although I LOVE that part of St. Patty's Day... click HERE for the fun activity we did last week with leprechauns).  St. Patrick used the Shamrock to teach about the Trinity.  Here's how my Kinders showed the Trinity:

And to end this post on a sunshiney spring note:
I came to school on Tuesday to these on my desk.  I love when kids send flowers in for the teacher :)


OH and please spread the word.  I'm 6 followers away from my giveaway celebrating 100 followers!!!  Come one, come all- let's get to 100 and sign up for a chance to win some GREAT prizes!

It's beautiful here in Indiana today- I'm out to enjoy the weather with my boys!

Question for this time:  What is your favorite part about spring time??

Friday, March 9, 2012

Looking for a Leprechaun

I just finished an activity with my class that is soon becoming my MOST FAVORITE activity I do with my Kinders.  I won a giveaway from the amazing Reagan that included her Looking for a Leprechaun activity (available on her TPT store-click the link to visit it!).  Ah-May-Zing!!!!  My Kinders were so engaged, excited, enthusiastic, and just plain awesome for this whole activity.  The best part of this activity?  It's FUN but also academic- there are task cards at each clue and the students have to finish the task before going to the next clue... things like Find the vowels, match rhyming words, addition problems, time, money, etc.  AND it's only $3 on her TPT store- it will be the best $3 you ever spend.

 I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Message on the board when the kids came in my room:
Little green glitter footprints ALL OVER my classroom!




The little leprechaun even walked ON MY DESK!  (The kids couldn't believe this!  How dare he?!)

I teach at a private Catholic school... hence the religious statues :)

The leprechaun left rhyming riddles for the kids to use as they made their way through the school to find activities and the next clue.  BUT, we had to be QUIET so the leprechaun couldn't hear us coming!!!!  The leprechaun also surprised each of the participating teachers with a Shamrock Shake from McDs.  (Yes, I got weird looks when I pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered 12 shakes at 7:00 in the morning...  I told them I was sorry, that I'm a teacher and they were for school and they offered them to me for 1/2 off!!  JACKPOT- that was MY pot of gold!!)




I let my cadet teacher take them on the scavenger hunt while me and another teacher GRAFFITI -ed  the WHOLE classroom.... (the bag of Lucky Charms was for one of the activities... they had to sort the charms and tell which group they had the most of...)
After getting back to the classroom, we compiled all the activity pages they gathered from throughout the hunt into a book.  They got to glue one of the footprints on it too- as a keepsake :)
We went all out- gold streamers... golden raisins and rainbow marshmallows were on their tables when they got back... gold balloons EVERYWHERE... gold stars and glitter sprinkled on the floor around the pot of gold...  (the janitors are amazing here... I apologized for my mess, and the student janitor said "hey, that's my job- you just keep doing a great job teaching!"  They are AWESOME.)
Pot of gold treasures... necklaces, bracelets, bouncy balls, eraser toppers, etc.
Here were my poems I used:

Let’s start your search,
The search will feature...
Me and my green foot prints.
Find me with the other Kinder teacher!

Not fast enough,
I’ve already vanished.
Try to catch me
Where you learn Spanish!

Opps, I’ve left again.
In school you should study
But for now try to find me.
I’m visiting your big kid buddies!

Shucks!  You just missed me!
This time you should try....
To find me Where
they do science in Jr. High!

Ah man, so close!
I just can’t be beat!
Now see if you can catch me
Where you go to eat!



You can’t catch me.
I’ve been fast from the start.
Try to catch me now...
In the room where you make art!

You’re getting closer,
I’ll take a break in the shade.
So you might catch me
In the first grade!

You’re quick, but I’m quicker!
Say, what is your age
You can tell me,
If you find me on the stage!

Darn, that was a close one!
Am I a her or a him?
You might find out...
In the place you do gym!

You’re back at the start.
But I had to run.
I left my pot of treasures
For you to have fun.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

So- THANK YOU Reagan for this awesome activity.  (Feel free to add my poems to your packet if you want them, I don't mind!  But as you can tell- I'm no Dr. Seuss!!!) Her packet includes:  task cards, clue signs, footprints, and instructions on how to set it up.

My question to you:  How do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day in your classroom?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

March Literacy Centers and Currently!

Freebie alert!! I've just posted my Literacy Center tags on my TPT and TN stores FOR FREE. Check them out- and let me know if you can use them! They are made with clipart from my good friend Hilary at Mrs. Carvitti's Clippings.





 DONE!  My 2nd literacy center pack.  Here's what you get:

House:  Students are asked to read a story to a baby doll and then fill out the reader response paper:
 Letter Tiles:  March words!

 Playdough:  Short e words.  Comes with record sheet (not shown here.)
 Poetry:  Baa Baa Black Sheep



 Teacher center:  Vowel recognition.  Students are supposed to sort the words into vowel groups.



 Writing prompt:  My kite....

You can get it for $5 (OR... if you're looking to get something for free... the teacher center using work with vowels and the writing prompt are FREE) at
Kindergarten - Visual Arts, Reading Strategies, General Science - TeachersPayTeachers.com

OR

And now for my Currently!  I love Farley's blog, her currently's, and her style.  I won a giveaway from Reagan and Farley was a part of it.  I got some great stuff from her- it made me wish I taught an older grade, but I still was able to use her classroom signs- and they are HYSTERICAL and nothing but full of Farley-cuteness.

Anyway, here's my Currently:


Thanks