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.

 

Click on the picture above to see this product in my TPT store!

 

Here are some pictures showing the kids searching

All Over for Clover. 

...on the clock...

...on the door...

...on the window...

...on our Bear Behavior Chart...

...and on the computers!

 

 

 

A Tiny Visitor!

The St. Patrick's Day fun has already hit my classroom! Today we did a little introduction to the St. Patrick's Day holiday, learned a little about the country of Ireland, and then read a little bit about leprechauns. We learned that they often hide a pot of gold, are usually under 2 foot tall, and can sometimes be found repairing shoes for the fairies who wear out their shoes from all of the dancing that they do. We also read that they can be a bit unfriendly. Now, who can blame them for being so grumpy...everyone is always trying to find their gold! Touch my gold (Reese's miniatures, Rolos, Hershey treasures) and I can get a little grumpy myself!

 

Last March, I came across this idea from The Schroeder Page and found a little "leprechaun-y" door from Hobby Lobby and modified the evidence recording page to fit my little ones. (Will post a picture of the door tomorrow...the picture I took was way too blurry).

 

So today we heard a tiny, little knock at our door and when we opened the door, we found the litle leprechaun door/home in the hallway.  We made predictions of who the home belonged to....Smurfs, Big Foot, and leprechauns to name a few. They had to draw/write what they thought (opinion writing) and the evidence they found to support their opinion.

 

 

 

 

So here is what they will be finding tomorrow!  More evidence! Look at those tiny green feet (hole punch from baby shower section of Hobby Lobby) and the hammer for working on shoes came from the doll house section of Hobby Lobby. Now let's not be too judgmental about that shoe! I know it doesn't really look like a dancing shoe (at least not for a fairy) but I have 3 boys which made finding a Barbie shoe a bit of a challenge...SO...

"You get what you get, and don't throw a fit!"  so I went with it! 

 

This is the book we will be reading tomorrow!
Click on the book below to visit their website.

 

 

I wonder who will visit our class first...the Naughty or Nice Leprechaun. Come back tomorrow to find out and see what mischief those leprechauns can make!

 

Write the Room Scramble Freebie!

Click on the images below to go to this FREE product!

 

Students will love this alternative to traditional worksheets! Students can be active and move while learning using these Write the Room Scamble (sight words and simple sentences). Be on the lookout for more Write the Room Activities to come soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Crazy Days of Kindergarten!

This school year is flying by too quickly! We are down to only 50 school days and I am not quite ready to let this darling group go to first grade! They are so sweet and a lot of fun to teach.  This has been the first year that we have ventured away from teaching from our reading series basal and I must say that I haven't enjoyed teaching this much in a long time. It has definately been a lot of work coming up with our lessons and activities to make sure that we are adequately covering all of the Common Core Standards but I truly believe my students have learned more this year than ever before.  I have amazing coworkers that have made this venture so worth the time and effort that we have put into it.  With that being said...who has time for a blog?!?! Not me! 

 This week has been super crazy with a magic show from our local pedicatric dentist, Kindergarten Open House for upcoming kindergarteners, and then Dr. Seuss celebrations! We have been working on scrambled sentences for several weeks so the kids really enjoyed working on these sentences about The Cat in the Hat this week. Click on the picture below to check out the Scrambled Sentences flipchart.

I show the scrambled sentence on the ActivBoard and the kids write it correctly, illustrate it, and the we check it together. If the sentence is a question, the little darlings have to compose their own complete sentence to answer the question. Here are some examples of what they came up with today. Love their cats in hats and Sam I Am! Unfortunately, I cannot get the pictures to rotate and I am just too exhausted to fight it any more so I am off to bed and will work on it tomorrow night:)

 

 

 

   

 

Goody, Goody Gumballs!

The TPT Super Bowl Sale is going great so to celebrate I created this quick freebie to practice composing and decomposing numbers 11-19 into ten and some ones. Click on the picture below to grab it!

 

I am so excited about starting our Post Office unit this week! All of the hard work of learning letter sounds, sight words, using correct capitalization, punctuation, and spacing between words will finally be evident when my students write one another letters and "mail" them in our classroom post office. They absolutely love getting mail from their friends that they are able to read all by themselves. Check out the new Post Office and Mail packet by clicking on the picture below!

 

 

Have an amazing week!

 

 

Super Bowl Sale

Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Who Stole Your Heart?

This school year is going by way to fast! I can't believe that January is already half over and it is already time to start thinking about February. I'm sure it will go just as quickly as January with Groundhog Day, President's Day, Dental Health, and of course Valentine's Day to fill the days.


 Here is a quick game that we play at our Valentine's Day party that I submitted and had published in The Mailbox Magazine several years ago. It is played like Doggy, Doggy, Who Stole Your Bone only using an empty chocolate heart box instead of a bone.

 


A student sits in a chair with their back to the class and the heart is placed under the chair. After a chosen student "steals" the heart and hides it behind their back, the class recites the chant and "sweetheart" will turn around and take 2-3 guesses as to who stole their heart. If sweetheart guesses correctly, he/she gets to be the sweetheart again. If they do not correctly guess the theif, then the heart theif gets to be the sweetheart. Continue playing until all students have had the chance to be the sweetheart.

I'll back back soon with more February ideas. In the meantime, check out some of these February things...

 

Enter to Win!

Counting to 100 for the 100th Day

Its almost time for the 100th Day at my school. The kids are so excited because we have been counting the days since day 1 of school. By now most of the kids are able to count to 100 by ones, fives, and tens. Here is cheap and easy activity that I use to  help students with learning to count to 100 and recognizing their numbers.  

 I copied several 100 charts onto different colors of cardstock and laminated them. Then I cut a couple of them up into puzzle pieces and had the kids put the puzzles back together on top of an uncut 100 chart. As the kids got better at it they had to put them together without using the uncut 100 chart as a guide. 

 

We started off just cutting them into straight strips by the tens families so the kids would notice the patterns. 

 

These games are so easy to store... I just put them into a clear sheet protector so the pieces stay together and they fit perfectly in a file cabinet.

 

New Store Freebie!

I finally took the plunge and created a store on Teacher's Notebook! I have been pleased with Teachers Pay Teachers but the quarterly payout seems so far away sometimes and Teacher's Notebook offers immediate payment so we'll see how it goes! I don't have much listed in there but I am working on it even now. 

Come check out & download my free Love to Learn in Kindergarten flipchart for ActivBoard!

Did you know that SMARTboard & other interactive whiteboard users can also use ActivBoard flipcharts. Just download their free software at http://www.prometheanworld.com/en-us/education/products/software/activinspire. The link is near the bottom of the page under Why ActivInspire? 

Go download the software & then download this free flipchart. Comment below with your email if you get it to work & I'll send you an additional flipchart for free!

Snowcones, Snowballs, or Snow Cream!

The best part of teaching kindergarten is that all you have to do is add a novel item to a learning activity and the kids think it is the greatest thing and do not even realize that they are no longer just playing. For example, these cheap ice cream scoops that I found at the Dollar Store, a styrofoam bowl, and some ping pong balls quickly become an ice cream parlor to practice beginning sounds. 

 

I found some cheap ping pong plastic golf balls and taped some pictures to them (stickers would have worked much better and maybe a coat of Decoupage). The kids then use the ice cream scoop to add the "snowballs" into the correct bowls. 

 I have also used paper snow cone cups with the the letters written on them to hold the "snowballs" but they didn't hold up as well. The kids really loved them but I had to rig something to hold them upright while the kids did the activity because they just weren't quite coordinated enough to manage them on their own without the balls rolling all over the place.

A snack of Snow Cream flavored ice cream (or real Snow Cream for those of you with real snow) makes the perfect end to this activity.

    

 

Snow Time!

If you haven't used any of this Instant Snow then you are really missing out! It only takes a small scoop and water and it instantly expands up to 100 times its original size. Although pricey ($16 for a small 8 oz jar), it does last a long time. It is cool to the touch and while it isn't good for making snowballs, the kids love playing with it and searching for white objects (arctic animals such as snowy owl, Snowshoe Hare, Polar Bear, Arctic Fox, etc) that are hidden in it. The best part of all is after everyone has played in it I let them know that this "snow" is the stuff that they put in baby diapers! Oh, the giggles, gags and laughs! If a diaper is handy, then we do a little water/diaper experiment to see how it works. Perfect way to have a Snow Day at school!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you! This means that for the next 3 months everything I write the date on will most likely have a funny looking 13 from where I try to camouflage the 12 that I will write by mistake!

My Christmas break has wonderful and I have been blessed much more than I deserve! The break has been so wonderful in fact that when I got to the dentist office this afternoon for a cleaning, I realized I had forgotten to finish putting on my makeup and fixing my hair! I guess the jeans were squeezing the oxygen to my brain after spending the last week in pajamas and yoga pants. The weather has been so gloomy and rainy here that the very thought of getting dressed up and leaving the house has had absolutely no appeal to me. My boys have been content to stay home and play their new board games, video games, and have Ping Pong battles so it was an easy choice to stay home and be lazy productive! I have officially watched EVERY Hallmark Channel Christmas movie multiple times, cleaned out and organized closets and cabinets (the garage sale pile is taking over the garage), redecorated my bedroom and bathroom, read a few books, and did tons of work on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I finally feel like I am catching up on "life"! I am sure I will be ready to go full force when we get back to school on January 7th!

We are planning to do a unit on Jan Brett books when we get back from break. Here is a picture of the story masks that I printed out years ago from the Jan Brett website and attached to paint stir sticks.  Aren't they adorable?! Click the link above to visit her website or click on the picture below to go directly to the story masks/puppets.

 We will use them to retell The Mitten....that reminds me that I need to buy a new white sheet and cut it into the shape of a mitten for the kids to crawl into when retelling the story. The kids always love this activity and they always fight over who gets to be the bear because they want to be the one to let out a very big "sneeze" and blow all of the animals out of the mitten.  

In my home living center, the kids will "sew" mittens like Matti's Grandma (from the book) using plastic canvas that has been cut into mitten shapes and these very dull, plastic needles with yarn attached to them. I have had these for about 15 years and only paid 75 cents for 3 sheets of plastic canvas and $1 for 12 of the large plastic safety needles....a $1.75 well spent!

 

Some of the kids get quite creative and "sew" letters, shapes, or  other designs in their mittens

while others just practice outlining the mitten 

and then there is the "talented" child that leaves you wondering how did they do that?!?!  The good news is that yarn is so inexpensive that you can just cut it off and not worry about untangling the mess!

 

Dice and Ice Fishing Freebie

'Tis the Season for blog neglect!

 

It is that most wonderful time of the year to be a kindergarten teacher but a very exhausting time! No time to blog! Every day is so much fun with the little ones but I got so busy that I forget to take pictures to share! They get so excited just talking about Christmas & then an elf shows up and the excitement is just too much to contain!

 

 This past week, we have been on a "trip around the world" and exploring how Christmas is celebrated in other countries. Can you believe this is my first year exploring Christmas in different cultures?!?! I have learned so much!

 

For many years our district required us follow our curriculum with "fidelity" which did not allow much room for creativity on the teacher's part. Now we did have great success with the required curriculum but it was quite boring for the students and teachers. Thank goodness Common Core Curriculum Standards came along and now we have finally been allowed and even encouraged to venture away from the curriculum in order to meet the new standards.  I don't think I have ever worked so hard, but hear me say I AM HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE! My kindergarten team and I have fallen in love with teaching again! We plan together every single day, during our lunch, during recess, after school and even on the phone at night! Good thing we love each other so much! TeachersPayTeachers.com has been a life saver for us... there are so many great teaching resources to help us fill in the gaps in our curriculum and they are all great ideas because they come directly from teachers in the classroom and have been used with real, live children!  Although we have spent a small fortune buying many of the thematic units, there are so many free resources available that are great. While planning for January tonight, I was reminded how useful those freebies are and threw together a quick dice game freebie. Just copy onto cardstock and laminate or print a black & white copy for each child and add 2 dice. The kids roll the dice, add the dots together (or numbers if you have number dice) and color the fish with the number on it or use counters to cover the numbers if you plan to reuse the gameboard. Now, this is my first attempt at loading a Google Doc so please let me know if you have trouble getting it!  Click on the picture below to open it.

 

 

May you have a very blessed Christmas season!

 

 

Christmas Shopping for Beginning Sounds

My little darlings love this literacy center activity! I found these adorable mini gift box ornaments at Hobby Lobby and attached pictures cards to the sides of the boxes. (removed the hooks too!)

 I put the corresponding letters on small gift bags that I had in my gift bag stash and/or from Dollar Tree.

When students go to this center they will sort the gifts into the correct bag by finding the beginning sounds of the pictures on the gifts.  Click here to get your free downloads!