Young & Lively Kindergarten

Bon Voyage Sale!

Hi Friends! We are headed out on our very first cruise & I am so excited that I just wanted to throw a sale while I am gone! No sense in me being the only having a great time. Just head on over to my TPT store & load your cart up!

FYI- If you are one of my ActivBoard/Promethean Board Calendar users you may want to consider stocking up now. Due to the continued updating & much larger flipcharts, I will be increasing the price to $10 each beginning in July.

Got Art?

Want to incorporate an art center into your classroom but don't have enough space for an art easel? No problem! My husband built this compact art center for me for less than $10 several years ago. I love being able to not only use that empty wall by the sink but have the art center so close to the sink.

We purchased shower board from Home Depot for about $5 and they were kind enough to cut it to size for me. My husband built a small "frame" around the back of it and attached it to the wall with small cabinet hinges. He also added a small block of wood underneath near the bottom with another hinge. That way I can just pull the block of wood down so the board will hang at an angle if needed so the paint will not run down the paper as quickly. (Sorry to all of the visual learners such as myself...the close up pictures I took of the back & underneath did not turn out well!)

I had some old clipboards that I took the clip off of using a small screwdriver and screwed them into the easel to hold the children's artwork in place. The clipboards are only 98¢ at Walmart if you do not have any old clipboards lying around. There is actually enough space for 3 kids to work at a time but I only added 2 clips for papers because that is all that I had on hand at the time.

The paint tray came off of an old broken easel that I just happened to find in storage. My original plan was to use a $3 plastic tray from Home Depot that is used for drywall mud or spackle.

So there you have it!

A compact art center!

On a side note, I change out the art mediums and/or activities in my art center quite frequently so I am not always cleaning up paint. Here are some suggestions that I can come up with right off the top of my head....

Dry erase markers- Write directly on the board so no paper is needed.
Artist oil pastels (that's what is in tray in the picture above)
Dot Art Painters (Bingo dabbers)
Water colors
Finger paints
Gel pens/markers & black construction paper
Stencils & Colored Pencils
Glitter glue (trace name and/or sight words)
Wikki Sticks are great to stick directly to the board on outline/trace name or sight words on a paper that has been clipped to the easel.
Rubber Stamps & ink pads

Back to School Freebie and To Do List...

Summer is a wonderful opportunity to take a break from school and get over the burnout that settles in around the end of the school year. The sad part of summer (other than it's short life span) is that my mind begins to think about the new school year all too soon! Here are some thoughts going through my head today..

how do I want to rearrange my classroom this year?
the file cabinets need to be organized...and painted.
the old reading curriculum needs to be moved out.
the new reading curriculum moved in...how am I going to organize it?!?
My classroom library center...ugh...I really intended to order CDs to replace all of the cassette tapes so they store flatter and need to find a better way to organize all of my books & tapes.
I have too many TPT projects started and each one needs just a little time spent on them to get them finished up and posted.
the math common core training I attended this week has me ready to approach my math lessons differently and ready to plan new activities this summer while they are fresh on my mind...

...until the pool caught my eye...and I smelled sunscreen on a little body running through my kitchen while I type...and the sun coming through the window is making the computer screen hard to see...and it may rain later this week...

Enough of the procrastination! I think I may do a better job of thinking about school from the pool! As I go put on my swimsuit, I leave you with a new beginning of the year freebie that my kiddos love doing! Click on the pictures below to grab this up!

Happy Summer!

Yes, I am happy, happy, happy! Summertime is my favorite time of the year! In just 4 short days my behind will be sitting in a chair by the ocean & my feet in the sand! I will most certainly be reading a good book and hopefully not one that is too educational!

To celebrate my reunion with summer, here is a quick project for you...

In my classroom. we use community pencils so that only adults are using the electric pencil sharpener. Every student starts with 3 or 4 pencils...when one breaks they put it in the "need to be sharpened" cup & take a new pencil as needed. When the unsharpened cup is full, I just put them all in a Ziplock bag and send it to our parent volunteers to sharpen & return. Now we can't have a dull, plain pencil cup & I am too cheap to purchase the cute $17 cups in a certain teacher magazine with" really good" stuff in it. Here is my quick solution for that!

Start with my favorite recyclable item...a cake frosting can. Yummy!

Peel the label off & use clear packaging tape to attach the label to the cup.

Yep, its that simple!

Print the labels by clicking the picture below.

My cup runneth over!

I just need to say that I have had a lump in my throat and tears threatening to fall all day as I have gotten email after email letting me know that someone else has donated to my DonorsChoose.org project. It is amazing at how generous people really are and how quickly the donations add up when they are matched dollar for dollar. Don't tell my husband, but I even donated to my own project! Oh, he really doesn't mind...but he had no idea how much it would cost to be married to a teacher!

The matching code TREAT will go through Friday so get over there quick to give and don't forget to print out your receipt if you need it for a tax deduction.

Now here is a summer freebie worksheet for CVC words...

I have a bargain for you!!!

Hi friends! Want to help a teacher friend out AND get something in return? Several weeks ago, I submitted a grant on donorschoose.org to get an iPad for my classroom. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, all donations given to my project between now and May 10th will be matched dollar for dollar if you enter the match code TREAT on the payment screen!

Now here is where the bribery comes in....

Anyone that donates a minimum of $10 to my project will get to choose up to $25 worth of products from my TPT store! Just send me an email letting me know you donated and a list of the items you would like to receive from my store. I will send the items directly to you!

Here's my teacher page where you can donate:

http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1488456

To have your donation matched dollar for dollar, be sure to enter the match code TREAT on the payment screen. This awesome match offer lasts through Friday, May 10.

My students and I greatly appreciate your support.

Kelly

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Check out my Teacher's Notebook store for 20% off of everything May 4-10th!

While you are there, be sure to enter the Daily Giveaway!

We're Not Dragon, We are Flying into First Grade!

Take a look at these adorable dragonflies! My assistant, Mrs. Lively found this idea somewhere on Pinterest and created this adorable bulletin board. The dragon flies are created using plastic spoons and the wings have been cut out of laminating film. Our laminator always puts out about a foot of excess film at the beginning of every laminating project so we save that extra laminating film for different projects throughout the year. The kids used sharpie markers to color the wings. They used a wing template under them that they could trace to make the black lines on the wings first.

The caption says..

We're Not "Dragon",

We're Flying into First Grade!

...and all of the dragonflies are headed in the direction of our first grade classes!

Mrs. Lively is so good at creating bulletin boards... we think schools should hire her full time to do nothing but create adorable bulletin boards for teachers!

Buzzing into Spring!

The bumble bee day of our insect is always one of my favorites. After reading a nonfiction book about bees and getting our facts straight, I then read The Honeybee and the Robber by Eric Carle. We review the beginning, middle, and end of the story and then the kids were able to draw their favorite part of the story. Love the picture below of the "robber" trying to steal the bee's honey!

This next part is perfect for rainy day recess! Before the lesson, I hung die cut flowers around the classroom. I played the Flight of the Bumble Bee and we then got opinions on why this is/is not a good title for this music selection and what instruments are being used to make the "buzzing" sounds. When I played the music again, my little bumble bees buzzed from flower to flower sipping the nectar and returning it to the hive.

Sipping nectar from a flower... Bringing the nectar to the hive....

When I have done this activity in the past, I wrote bee facts (and some opinions) on small post it notes and attached them to the flowers. My little bees would then bring a fact back & stick it to the hive. At the end of the music we would read the bee facts and sort them as facts or opinions. I didn't do that this time due to limited time since it was testing week :'(

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!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Friends!

Only 1 more day until my Spring Break is officially over so I thought I would waste some time on the computer! I love learning about all of my teacher friends out there in the cyber world! Through blogging and Teachers Pay Teachers, I have "met" teachers from the East coast, West coast, Hawaii, Canada, France, Australia, and many other cool places that I only dream of visiting. I love hearing about how differently things are in their schools (ping pong is a required class for all students in France) and how we are so much alike in many other ways. Another way I have learned about other teacher/blogger friends is through Linky Parties so I am joining up with Latoya Reed from Flying Into First with a Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party. Come along with me to find out more about these teacher/blogger buddies!

It's All About Favorites this week...

My Favorite Place to Shop...

I love New York & Company for several reasons...

1. They have cute clothes for school.

2. I can wear a size smaller in their clothes!

3. They give teachers a 15% discount every day!

4. Did I mention that I can wear a size smaller in their clothes?!?!

5. They have great sales and lots of coupon offers.

My Favorite TV Show...

I don't watch a lot of television although it is always on Duck Dynasty or other "man" shows but I really don't have any shows that I HAVE to watch other than The Middle (Wednesday nights at 8 on ABC). This show is so much like my life...a middle class family with teenage children that are too much like my own. The things in my life that makes me want to cry are so much funnier to watch on television. This family has to duct tape the dishwasher to keep the water in, the kitchen table is used for storage rather than eating, the wallpaper is peeling, the oven is used for storage, and the kids are typical middle class siblings that fight just like mine! LOVE IT!

My favorite sweet treat...

Now that my friends is just a hard question to answer! I LOVE all things sweet! I think those large cupcakes from Cupcake Divas are at the top of my list along with fudge, peanut butter fudge, Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts, Peeps & Jelly Beans at Easter, Candy Corn at Halloween, Reese's Christmas trees, eggs or pumpkins. Chocolate of any kind, birthday cake ice cream, Cherry Sours, Brach's Fruit Slices, Wonka Candy of any kind....I love sugar...any questions?

My Favorite Food and Restaurant...

These two go hand in hand for me. I love a good salad (to counteract all of the sugar I eat!) and my all time favorite place to get a salad is J. Alexander's. Look at that salad! Oh dear, my mouth is already watering! I also love Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad with chips & salsa and the Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie!

Well now that I have worked up an appetite, I think I'll go see if there is any chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream left! Now it is your turn to share!

Feel free to link up throughout the week and come back each week for a new topic!

Be sure to include the linky graphic and link it back to me so others can join in on the fun!!!

Don't forget to visit the 2 people that linked up before you and leave them a comment/follow/or just read their post.

My Friend from Smart Kids!

Just wanted to invite you all to visit my sweet friend Jayne at her new blog, SMART KIDS! If you have not used any of her Smart Charts you should really try them out! They are packed full of graphic organizers and writing frame templates to go with any unit you might need. The only problem is that there are so many options in the pack that I have a hard deciding which ones to use! I have the garden and insects packs in my shopping cart now to purchase when my brain & body returns from Spring Break. Check out her blog and then visit her TPT store!

Spring Break Surprise!

Spring Break couldn't get here quick enough for me! The flu and a terrible stomach bug was making it's second round in our school and it has been too cold or rainy for recess so we have been stuck inside with all of the sick germs and the nasty smell of Lysol and Clorox wipes! I had plans to head to beach but when I found out they were expecting a cold front and it was going to be warmer at home...saving money and staying home won. With just my luck, we have had snow flurries for the first four days of Spring Break! Just what I needed to spoil my plans of showing off a pedicure in new flip flops!

On the brighter side, I have been able to catch up with some work for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have officially finished all of the monthly kindergarten and first grade calendars for ActivBoards through May! I'm sure I will add more to them closer to May but for now I am DONE! My future plans are to add some new activities to the June/July calendar to make it appropriate for kindergarten and first grade and/or Summer School so check back closer to June for the most up to date version.

When we return from Spring Break, we will work on getting ready for taking our very first standardized test...the SAT 10. We will also continue to work on addition and subtraction fact fluency. Here is a fun game I have used for years that I found in the Mailbox Magazine.

Flipping for Fluency

Pairs of students are each given a set of number cards 1-9 that are placed face up on a table. The students take turns rolling the 2 dice. They can then decide how they want to use the numbers...they can use the 2 and 4 and turn over the 2 and 4 cards OR the two numbers can be added together and the 6 turned over. (You could also include subtraction facts if you want...4-2= 2 so the 2 card would be flipped over). If no cards can be turned over using the numbers, their turn is over. The winner is the player that gets all of their cards turned over first.

Not sure why the picture is upside down!

This game can be played using any number cards 1-9 but you can click on the picture below to print out these free number word owl cards...have mercy on me... they were my very first free product
to post on TPT and I lost the original so I haven't been able to update/improve them yet.

I hope you have a very blessed Easter holiday!

The Last of the "not e" leprechauns!

After a very exciting week of having leprechauns loose in the building, I was glad to see them pack up and go home to Ireland!
If you are not familiar with the Naughty Leprechaun book I mentioned in an earlier post, there are 2 leprechaun brothers, one naughty and one nice. The book comes with a large coin that you can flip to see which leprechaun will visit while the children are at home sleeping.

The Naughty Leprechaun visited us first and the kids were beside themselves when they came in to find toilet tissue thrown all over the room, chairs turned over, empty candy wrappers and tiny green footprints all over the tables. He had even turned all of their bear shaped behavior cards to rotten red! Many of them wanted to write him notes letting him know that what he did was not nice and created a mess that others had to clean up. (Interestingly, I had to talk to my students the day before about doing a better job of leaving our classroom clean at the end of the day so the nightly cleaning crew would not have extra work to do....guess the lesson carried over into a real life situation!)

Here is what a few of them thought of the naughty leprechaun...

"I do not like naughty (not e) leprechaun because he threw toilet paper."

"He or she put paper on the floor and chairs on the floor."

I LOVE kindergartener's writing and invented spelling! It shows how much they know and understand about letter/sound relationships (not to mention how crazy the English language is). I had an upper grade teacher come in around this time and said "how in the world did you know what that said?!" I guess I am fluent in two languages.... English AND kindergarten! I am curious at how many of you could read their sentences without looking at my interpretation.

When the time finally came for a visit from the nice leprechaun, he left small treats and some clues that sent us on a treasure hunt to find a pot of gold. Here is the pot of gold we found at the end of the treasure hunt...all of my favorites...Reece's cups, Rolos, Hershey treasures, and Hershey's Caramel Kisses.

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Leprechaun Clues- Day 2

The leprechaun excitment continued today when the little ones discovered tiny green footprints, a tiny hammer, and a small shoe next to the leprechaun door.

Luckily, our SRO roped off the area with crime scene tape and we were able to collect some more evidence and draw conclusions.

"They dropped the shoe and left looking for the shoe and the princess."

"He is in the room. I found footprints in the room."

"He was hiding under the chair."

After we read, the Naughty Leprechaun book, we flipped the coin from the book and it landed on the naughty leprechaun. That means that while the children are at home asleep, we will be getting a visit from the naughty leprechaun in our classroom. Can't wait to see what kind of mischief we find!

Looking All Over for Clover!

After a discussion about the differences between shamrocks and four leaf clovers, the kids went on a color word clover hunt in the classroom. This Write the Room activity is included in my Marvelous March Learning Center Games.