Love Letters

Spent a wonderful & relaxing weekend in the mountains with my coworkers and now it is back to the real world. Here is my latest February project. Dental health items to come soon!

 

And for those of you out there with Promethean Boards don't forget to download the new February calendar...it is packed full of a month's worth of activities! And if the 100th Day of School is coming soon for you then check out the 100th day of School flipchart too! I am working on adding more printable items for those without Promethean boards.

 

Frazzled!

Well my graduate classes have started back this week and while I should be working on my homework I am frantically trying to finish up all of my February projects! I hate how quickly I get behind but I tend to do some of my best work under pressure! I survived the 100th day of sch I ool festivities today & should be sound asleep but my mind is racing with things I have to get done! Also looking forward to a weekend trip to Gatlinburg, TN with some cowokers! We had a wonderul parent donate her cabin in the mountains to the teachers at our school! Love spending time with coworkers outside of the school building.

Anyway, here are a few February things I have added tonight. More to follow soon (hopefully!)
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Young-And-Lively-Kindergarten

  

  

Spelling City

This website is a fun way to practice sight words.You can add your own words and all of the games will work on those specific words. There are several  great games but my little ones absoulutely LOVE Hangmouse. Go on and give it a try! Spelling City

Insta Learn Boards

Just curious if anyone out there in teacher land has used these Insta Learn boards? This are a PreK-3rd grade teacher's best friend! Mrs. Lively introduced me to them 12 years ago and I have never seen anyone else use them but they amazing! The boards have letters/numbers imprinted on them and the kids have letter/number tiles to match upper/lowercase or same letter to them. Then they use the strips with a specific skill on them. (pictured are CVC words, and matching numbers to sets) The best part is that they are self checking because only the correct answers will fit. I am able to use them the entire year and just change the skills. They have strips for money, time, beginning/middle/ending sounds, multiplication, sequencing & missing numbers/letters, sight words, upper/lowercase letters and so much more. Check out their website & request a catalog...  Insta Learn . I don't work for them but I just wanted to share this wonderful resource because if my school was on fire, this is the one item I would try to save!

 

Pictures to Go With the Last Post...

Here is a better picture of my stage (with a puppet sticking out) and the adorable pencil he made for me! I have the pencil hanging from fishing line above my bulletin board in the hallway. My son has a smaller green pencil that I plan to sneak out of his room and into my classroom to set on a shelf for decoration. Visit KMAC KREATIONS and chat with Kevin about what you would like him to make for you!

And just look at those adorable snowmen! We finally got smart and send home a family project each month for the child to decorate with their family any way they choose. They are all always so creative & different and boy are those little ones proud and ready to show off their projects. 

Coming Soon! An Answer to all of Your Creative Needs!

My husband and I have a very creative & talented friend that is sure to blow you away with his talents. Kevin McHann's talents are too numberous to cover in this little blog post of mine but to start he is a gifted singer, song writer, artist, curriculum writer, producer, actor....blah, blah, blah!

Now what can he do for you?!?!

Got an idea for a topic of study but not creative enough to get it together? Kevin is your man! Need a catchy song to go along with a unit of study? Kevin is your man! Need props and/or sets built for a school/church play? Need visual aids or (my personal favorite) decorations for your school, church, or classroom? Kevin is definately your man! Visit him at his new blog here. He is working on his blog today but keep checking back and be prepared to be blown away by all he has to offer. He is ready to create something custom for you today! Here is a picture of the stage he made for my classroom several years ago...in this picture I have my homeliving center in it, but also use it for puppet shows, class plays, dance contests, or to put kids on stage with a microphone to sing or recite the days of the week, count to 100, or show off any new skills they have learned. I just sit back with a clipboard & check off skills they have mastered while they kids enjoy the show! Easiest way to assess for report card testing ever! I'll post more pictures as I find them on my old computer....

Stay tuned for a picture of the giant pencil I had him make for me!

Christmas Break Withdrawals

It is embarrassing to say that I have only been back to school for 9 days but I am so glad we have a 3 day weekend! I am having withdrawals from wearing my pajamas for many hours in a day & waking up without the help of an alarm clock. Don't get me wrong....I love my job but it could be improved if the hours were 10-3 and pajamas & sweats were considered professional attire! So here I am on a very cold day with the house at an acceptable level of clean, showered & in a clean pair of pajamas, kids have friends over, vegetable soup in the crock pot, and husband watching fishing channel dreaming of moving back to Destin, Florida so I feel freed up to create more teaching materials for the remainder of the day. Just in time... I have been on a roll these last 9 days & have done some of my best teaching ever thanks to new ideas from Pinterest & teacher blogs I found over the Christmas break. Thanks to all that have freely shared and allowed me to borrow, adapt, and steal your ideas.

Here is my newest Skip Counting learning center games just in time for the 100th day of school. Check them out here!!

February Calendar

OK all of you Promethean Board users...I've got the February calendar up & ready to go. Thank goodness for Leap Year because you are going to need the extra day just to get to all of the review activities on this flipchart! In addition to calendar, weather, days in school, etc...I tried my best to include review pages for the things I will be testing for in the next 9 weeks...3D shapes, money, time, beginning sounds, punctuation, graphing, counting to 20, color words, and so much more! Go to my TeacherPayTeacher store to check them out! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Young-And-Lively-Kindergarten

Here's another block center idea...

You can download these "highway" numbers, letters, and shapes and print them onto cardstock (I used a glue stick to attach to construction paper) and laminate. Add some Hot Wheel/Matchbox cars and students can "trace" the numbers, letters, and shapes.

b & d Confusion Signs

Found these great ideas in the Feb/March 2012 Mailbox Magazine for Kindergarten to help with b & d confusion & knew I had to make posters to use in my classroom. Print them for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Also, let me know if you have any other visual aid ideas to help with b & d confusion & reversals
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100th Day of School ALREADY?!?!

I'm not sure about you but it is hard to believe that it is almost time for the 100th Day of School! The year is more than half over and I feel the pressure is on to get my little darlings ready for the first grade. There are still a few stragglers that I have got to get caught up and a larger portion that is ready for more challenging work so I tend to feel stretched in several different directions this time of year.

The 100th Day of School is a blast at my school! My Kindergarten Coworkers & I rotate the students between the four classes and do fun activities with them. In my classroom we make Froot Loop necklaces by stringing the cereal by color in groups of ten (ten pink, ten yellow, ten, green, etc) to 100. In another classroom the students write about what they would do with $100 and in another draw how they would look when they are 100 years old and the last class they count out 100 popcorn kernals and pop it in an air popper onto a clean white sheet that has been spread on the floor. Fun Day Indeed!

Here is a simple flipchart we will use to get the day started & use the entire week of the 100th day!

 

Our New Year's Goals

I saw this project several times on pinterest and decided to do it with my little darlings. They turned out pretty cute. Some training goals for 2012 include...shoot a snake,do a back flip onto a surf board, ride a bike without training wheels, do a cartwheel".

Housekeeping Literacy Gifts

This is always a fun activity for Christmas time but can be used any time of the year by changing to a birthday theme. I bought the little present ornaments in the Christmas section and added pictures to the sides of them. Gift bags (I love to reuse gift bags!) are labeled with corresponding letters. Students then sort the presents into the correct bag based on beginning sounds. You could also label bags with 1, 2, 3, 4 and have students sort the gifts by number of syllables. If you can't find the little present ornaments it wouldn't be too hard to wrap small boxes or even put the pictures on the inside of the boxes.

Housekeeping Literacy Ideas

This is an activity I put out around Thanksgiving although it could be used any time of the year. I cut a posterboard to fit my housekeeping table (obviously I need to redo mine since my round table has been replaced with a square one) and place table setting labels on it such as red fork, green spoon, blue cup, etc. to match my dishes. By this time of the year my kiddos should be able to read the color words quiet well and I label the harder words such as fork, cup, plate, etc so they can match objects to words. For my more advanced students I label the plates for food items. They love this!

 

Block Center Ideas

Call me old fashion but I still have a housekeeping center and block center in my classroom! I feel that kindergarteners still need to learn through play so in order to justify keeping these "play" centers in my classroom I made sure they were math & literacy based. Here are a few ideas I use in my blocks center.

Here they had to write yes or no to tell if they are able to create the letters with the blocks given. (I only had blocks with straight sticks & no curved lines. We had just practiced sorting letters by curved lines, straight lines or both so this was just a review for them.

Color Word Printable Games with a Winter Theme

 

More January Printable Math Centers

The January math games for Promethean Board have been selling like hot cakes on Teachers Pay Teachers so I decided to try to convert some to printable learning centers. Here is the Numbers 1-20 games.