Spring Doesn't Bug Us!

Yippie! I survived giving my very first standardized test to kindergarteners! Now, it was a total disaster as one might expect when testing kindergarteners. The content was no problem...the problem was in the wording of the questions and the length of the test. They got restless after the first 15 minutes and just began to bubble in any answer without trying. Overall, they did as well as   can be expected and I am proud to say that it is over until next year!

In between testing and preparing to test, we enjoyed a fun unit on insects. Here are just a few highlights from our learning about caterpillars and butterflies....

 
 
 

After reading the usual caterpillar to butterfly books, we listened to an adorable song Butterfly, Fly by Janice Buckner. It tells the story of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. Here are the little ones starting out as an egg on a leaf.

 

The caterpillar grew and one day he began to get sleepy so he built himself a cocoon. The picture on the left shows the students helping their partner build a cocoon by wrapping them in tissue paper and the picture on the right shows a caterpillar somewhat wrapped in his "cocoon". The song then talks about how the caterpillar wakes up and discovers that he can fly....the kids LOVE breaking out of the tissue paper cocoons & then fluttering around the room! (Sorry, the pictures all turned out very blurry so I didn't post them). I have some butterfly wings that are each the size of a piece of 12 x 18 construction. Normally, I would have them decorate them before this activity and they slip the wings on their arms after breaking out of the cocoons but time was limited due to the testing.

  
We also made coffee filter butterflies that turned out so pretty! I'll post a picture of them when we get the bulletin board put together tomorrow.  During our math centers, we used dot art painters to make c-ADD-apillar booklets. My little darlings loved this activity! They used 2 colors to create a caterpillar and then wrote the addition sentence to show how many circles they used in all. (I gave them a couple of addition sentences to create at first and then they were able to make up their own after they got the hang of it. When the paint dried, they added feet, antennae, and a face.
So cute!

 
 
 
These are just a couple of things we did this week. I can't wait to tell you about our bumble bee learning tomorrow! As for now, I am exhausted and ready for bed!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Boot Scootin' Blog Hop!

 
I am so excited to team up with some of my fellow Tennessee blogging buddies to offer this Blog Hop of freebies! Check out my free item here and then scoot on over to the next blog at the bottom of this post for your next freebie! My freebie is a free Flower themed activity pack that you can download right here on my blog by clicking on the picture below!
 
 
 
 
If you are in need of some morning work for your students that will review many of the ELA & Math Common Core skills for kindergarten check out my Sprinkling of Spiral Review by clicking on the picture below. It contains a sprinkle of this and a sprinkle of that!
 
Beginning of Year Set
 
 
You can find this on Teacher's Notebook here or on Teachers Pay Teachers here.
 
End of Year Set
 
  
 
You can find it on Teacher's Notebook here or on Teachers Pay Teachers here.
 
 
Now Scoot on over to visit Rebecca at The Teacher's Chatterbox!
 
Not only does her adorable blog have some freebies to snag, but I loved taking a peek into her classroom by looking at the pictures she has posted of her classroom and centers. 
 
 
Now if you just happened to stumbled upon this blog hop, be sure to go back to the beginning and visit Elizabeth at Kickin it in Kindergarten and scoot through all of the Boot Scootin blogs by clicking on the link below...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

April Showers Bring.....well, how about April Flowers?!

Next week we will begin our Seeds, Plants, and Flowers Unit so I threw together a few Flower themed time filler activities to share! Click on the picture below to download this mini unit for free from Google Docs (I hope I uploaded it correctly!) ...and I have now uploaded it correctly so it is open to the public!

Check out the Floral Arrangement activity below. I am so excited to do this literacy center idea with my little darlings! Pictures to come soon!


 
 
Have an amazing weekend friends!