Pumpkin Patterns and a Halloween emergent reader

Hello Friends,

I thought I would share with you a few things that we did this week and a couple of things that I plan to do this coming week...

In our kindergarten, we still believe that patterns need to be reinforced. We have taken out the old "AB, AABB, ABC" language, but continue to teach the repeated pattern concept. It is true that patterning is taught in most pre-K classrooms, but I believe that it must still be reviewed and reinforced in kindergarten. We do many patterning activities, but this one is my favorite. After exploring patterns, we send this home and ask parents and child to create a pattern upon this pumpkin. They can use anything that they have at home. The variety is always fun and because it is such a simple project, we usually get 100% participation.




You can download this patterning activity as a google doc HERE.


We also did some pumpkin investigating. Here we are measuring the height of our pumpkins using unifix cubes. This is from Deanna Jump's Pumpkin Patch unit.

 We also made a mini book of the pumpkin life cycle. You can click the image below to take you to Five Fabulous Pumpkin Literacy centers resource.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Five-Fabulous-PUMPKIN-Literacy-Centers-for-Word-Work-776294

We are going to make these witches next week. I know that many of you cannot do Halloween things, but we still can in our school. The kids will follow the step by step directions for how to create the witch and then write some sentences about it. This will be a project that will done during our Writer's Workshop time. This witch is free in my TPT store. Click the image to take you there.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Witch-I-can-draw-I-can-write-Halloween-fun-pack-157819


https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Witch-I-can-draw-I-can-write-Halloween-fun-pack-157819

5.  We will also be creating a few more Halloween characters as well as reading a Halloween emergent reader. These are taken from my Halloween I Can Draw, I Can Write packet.



https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-I-CAN-DRAW-I-CAN-WRITE-I-CAN-READ-FUN-PACK-155980


Be safe and healthy! Until next time!

Blessings,

Looking for Some Fun Scarecrow Activities?

Hello my Friends,

If you are looking for some fun Scarecrow ideas, click the image below to take you to my Blog Hoppin post!

http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2015/10/fun-scarecrow-ideas-and-scarecrow.html

Until next time!

Blessings,

Five for Friday..... Totally random thoughts... :)

Hello Friends,
I have been having a wonderful, awesome year BUT I have been so terrible at taking pictures.... I am going to TRY to write a Five for Friday post, but may not have images for all my five thoughts... We shall see....

1.  It is October here in Central Illinois and the weather has been amazing. Our trees are still green. Our grass is still green and our flowers are still blooming! Wow! That does not happen all the time in October. I love this picture of our school garden. The garden is just gorgeous and we have been able to have so many learning activities in it.....

2.  We THINK this is a pumpkin plant, but are not sure.... One thing we are happy about is the fact that our fall has been mild, so the plant is producing a few of these little pumpkins... or squash... or.....


3.  We made these 3D honeybees today. We added ALL the details with pins; NO glue! The eyes are felt circles held on with pins. We added many little pins to show that they were compound eyes. The wings were made with parchment paper and attached with pins. The stripes are felt strips and the legs, antenna, and proboscis are made from craft stems.  It was an AWESOME experience! I went over the safety rules for using straight pins and they were so proud to "be old enough" to use this "grown-up" tool!

4.  We took a field trip to our local apple orchard... fun times......

 We did a few math centers this week that centered on apples.... They loved this one..... They had to use their "magic eye" to match the dots on their dice with the dots on a master sheet and THEN color their recording sheet correctly. It was great for subitizing.....

 ..... gluing apple seeds onto a ten frame.... (apple seed were black beans).......
These were taken from one of my newest resources....

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Five-APPLE-licious-Math-Centers-FOR-LITTLE-KIDS-2115961


5.  Finally, this is the newest addition to our family... My son has a new puppy... A pretty German Shepherd name Zooey. He is learning quickly how much energy it takes to raise a puppy... and how sharp puppy teeth can be! I was happy to have both of them over for dinner last week.... and VERY happy to be able to send Zooey back home with Will..... :)

Well... that's it for now! Don't forget to hop over to Doodle Bug Teaching for more Five for Friday stories!
http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/2015/10/five-for-friday-linky-party-october-9th.html
Until next time!

Blessings,