This week..... hmmm...... a quiet week, I think! And a Freebie, of course!


This week was a quiet one, I think. We did not have school on Monday because of President's Day. My students came to school on Tuesday rested and ready for school. Then on Wednesday, we had Parent Teacher conferences in the afternoon, so our students were only at school until 11:30 a.m. Then we just had Thursday and Friday and it was the weekend! So, I was going to join Doodle Bugs Teaching again this week for Fab 5 Friday, but I was hard pressed to come up with 5 things this week to write about! Oh well.......

Here is an activity that we did in math this week. It is an oldie, but goodie! It is VERY much like the Valentine math activity we did a few weeks ago. But THIS week, my students did it independently. They had to do everything on their own; no patterns, no teacher step by step directions. The only direction I gave them was that they had to create themselves from scrapbook paper and cookies from construction paper. They had to use 2 colors only for their cookies and create a math number sentence explaining their picture. They could not use more than 6 cookies on each side. That was it for the directions and I was quiet proud of their efforts! When they finished their cookies, they sprinkled them with real sprinkles and cinnamon. That is the reason for their dusty look - cinnamon! They sure made our classroom smell yummy!



If you would like the Google doc for this activity, click the image below!

That's it for now! Hopefully I'll be back sooner than I was last week!

Until next time!

Blessings, Cindy

5 Fabulous Things For Friday!

This is my first link up with Doodle Bugs teaching - Five For Friday - 5 fun things that happened this week in my class with my kinders....

1.  Our theme this week was Our Country. We talked all week about the symbols of our country.  I was really proud of the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln portraits that my kiddos did! We reviewed what we had learned this week and I feel confident that they understand why we will not be at school on Monday - Yay!




2.  We had a great time with our math tubs this week. They were all based on hearts and Valentines. One was a really cool measuring activity from Kim Adsit - super fun and cute as a button!



Another was my freebie which I wrote about in my previous post!

 I was super excited that my kinders had no trouble analyzing their data after sorting and graphing their hearts!  Click HERE to get the Google doc for this activity.
3.  We read the story "Guess How Much I Love You!" by Sam McBrantney. This is part of our I CAN BE A PEACEFUL KID unit. We discussed love all week and the kids made these really cute bunnies.

4.  Gulp...... I posted my first religious product on TPT this week - Lent For  Kids - Let's Make a Book! My own students love the books that we make in class and I thought I would start to share some of them in my store. We'll see how that goes!

5.  And finally, how can you not go home with a smile on your face when at the end of the day, you find these notes on your desk and taped all over the room?



Have a wonderful weekend! I hope it is a long one for you!

Blessings, Cindy



New Valentine Packet and a Math Freebie

Hello!
Valentine's Day is this week - yikes! It sure has crept up on me! It feels like I just put away the Christmas decorations! Snowmen are still on my classroom door and snowflakes are hanging from my ceiling! Whew........ So.... I am going to say that is my excuse for just finishing my Valentine packets for this week!
The first one is for my literacy centers. I wrote about it on Blog Hoppin. You can find that post HERE.

Second, I have 2 freebies for you.... One is posted in my TPT store and the other is a Google doc. Hopefully I am not too late for you to get some use from them!

This one is from my TPT store. Children create two Valentines, add some paper hearts, and create a math sentence using the sets that they created. 
 I know that most teachers do candy heart sorting during Valentine's week. Here is a cute mat for your little ones to sort their candies upon. I have also included a graphing sheet.
Have a LOVE...ly Valentine's Week!

Blessings, Cindy

100 year old portraits "Deanna Jump Insired!"

Hello!
This is a short post to share these adorable 100 year old portraits!  My kiddos had the best time with these little portraits! They are totally inspired by Deanna's 100th day pack! I imported faces of elderly people on my Promethean as inspiration for this activity. I created a background sheet for the faces using a border from Ashley Hughes. I added a circle that my kiddos used as a guide for their faces. They tore paper to represent a wrinkled face and gray hair. My co-partner, Lisa, also did this activity and she said that she had 2 little ones who refused to make gray hair! They told Lisa that they were always going to have blonde hair! You go, girls! (Smile!)










Until next time!
Blessings, Cindy

What a Fun 100's Day We Had and an EASY way to make a Fruit Loop necklace!

We celebrated our 100th day of school today; well....... it wasn't really our 100th day....... It actually was our 104th day, but because our 100th day fell on our circus performance day, we postponed our celebration until today.  I have been doing 100 day celebrations for EVER and they have always been CRAAAAZY! I have always been exhausted at the end of the day and would collapse into my chair at the end of the day not at all excited about the next 100th day.

But this year........ things were different........ First of all, because we postponed the official day, we had some time to actually plan and prepare. Most importantly, though, is the fact that I spent some time reading and researching how other teachers celebrated their 100th day of school. I found ideas that I liked and refined them into something that would work for my kiddos.
The first change I made was to use Erica Bohrer's MY 100th DAY COUNTING MAT. This was such an awesome way to organize the 100 items that the kids sent to school! As they were working, I heard conversations such as this, "Why do I have 2 left over? "Maybe you should count your piles again and see if you have 10 in each one." "Oh, yea, I only have 8 in this pile!" Wow - what amazing math talk!

The second most exciting change was our Fruit Loop necklace. I have been trying for YEARS to find a way to make this activity more user friendly. I have tried this necklace so many ways throughout the years; yarn with the ends taped, plastic string, cotton string.... all of these ended up being so frustrating for my little kinders as well as me! If they could get the Fruit Loops through the string, then they would lose count, get frustrated, and give up. So this year ..... TA DA!!!! I found a way that worked wonderfully and my kinders were able to do most of it entirely by themselves - woo hoo!

Here is what we did.....
I cut craft stems in half and the children placed one stem in each circle on their counting mat. This was the first set of 10. Then they added 10 Fruit Loops to each stem. When they had completed each stem, we twisted them together and VOILA - a Fruit Loop necklace with no tears and 100 Fruit Loops! ALL my kinders completed this necklace and that is the first time in 17 years that has happened!


I also changed our 100 day masks. I used a cute border from Ashley Hughes and used Word Art to add the number 100 to the center. I printed this onto cardstock and attached it to a craft stick with clear tape. My kiddos attached buttons, sequins, rhinestones, and feathers to their masks. Cute!

My kiddos also wrote about what they would do with $100 (a lot of ipad touches written about) and 100 days ago, I didn't know..... but now I do....... stories. They made the cutest "Here is What I Will Look Like When I am 100 Years" portraits which I will share in another post.

Have a great rest of the week!

Blessings, Cindy