Eeeeeek! Spiders!

October is here already! Which means..... fun Fall themes! I love this time of year. There are so many fun themes to incorporate that get the students excited about learning.

This week we talked a lot about spiders. It is fun to see the kids get squeamish but excited at the same time when learning about them. We launched our Spider week by reading, "The Very Busy Spider," by Eric Carle. It is a great predictable book for students to read along! Not to mention.... I have a pretty fantastic time myself making all of the animal noises. It's a talent I have. Maybe I should add that to my profile description. Just kidding.

After reading, each student was given a paper spider to choose whether or not they like or do not like spiders. We graphed our information to compare which was more or fewer or the same. We found that most of our students do not like spiders. It was close though! I had three boys absent this day.... so our results may be off a bit.

 

 

 

One of my favorite activities to do with my students is make a spider web using yarn! I don't remember where I got this idea, but I have done it for several years now and LOVE IT! I give each student a letter of the alphabet and we toss the yarn in order from the student who as A to the student who as Z. The kids think it is hilarious! Especially when...say... the teacher has to step into the web to get the yarn that wasn't tossed hard enough.. and then nearly trips in the web.

 



 

The black blob in the middle is our spider puppet. Her name is Delilah. Why her name is Delilah, I'm not sure because normally I name my stuffed animals with the same first letter as the animal. You know, like Ted the Turtle, and Elmer the Elephant. BUT, for some reason it hit me one day, that the spider's name was Delilah. And she has a southern accent.

 

We later used our graph to write about whether or not we like spiders. Of course we had to make a spider, too! We displayed them in our hallway! Sooo cute!

 

 

I was probably having a little too much fun playing with my Instaframe app....

 

We had a short week this week due to some awesome professional development, so I didn't get to do all of our spider fun just yet. (We had Rick Wormeli visit for two days. Check him out!) I have a wolf spider in a jar, that my dad so kindly caught for me one year. It makes me nauseous to simply carry the jar, but the kids love looking at it! OOooo! I also bought spider rings so we could read this book! An all time favorite!

 

 I had fun making a some new literacy and math centers to use in the next few weeks. You can check it out in my TPT store here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great week!

 

 

It's All Good....

There's nothing quite like teaching precious kindergarteners the essence of learning with Pete the Cat! I am IN LOVE with these books. Not only are they adorable, catchy, and down right perfect... they also teach amazing morals that the students can understand.

I had a blast reading the Pete the Cat books this week and using his songs to incorporate a fun colors theme. A teacher friend of mine owns the Pete the Cat Puppet and let us borrow him for the week!

We started the week with the original story, "Pete the Cat; I l Love My White Shoes." We took turns reading the pocket chart and matching the shoes to the color words. I got these adorable shoes from Alyssa Plummer. Thanks Alyssa! You can grab this freebie from here tpt store here. We even played a little hide'n'seek game with Pete later on in the week using her game pieces.

The kids loved 'reading' their color word book with Pete! Although this was a challenge for some of them, it was great practice to find the color word, write the color word, and color the picture to match. Click on the picture to take you to this freebie! Talk about following directions! AND YES, I had many friends color the page the wrong color or circle words that were no where near the right word, but it is all part of the learning.... or so I keep telling myself. And then we have to stop and 'smell the soup.' This saying comes from The Teeny Tiny Teacher, and if you have not read her blog yet.... you should. Click on the link to take you to her 'smell the soup' post. Her blog is medicine for the soul and will make you laugh out loud. Although you should probably wait to click on the link until finishing my blog... because once you read hers, you will be hooked... and my blog will then be a mere figment of your imagination. Forever.

Later in the week, we discussed writing in our journals. This is normally when you hear the, "But teacher I don't know how to write yet!!!" (in the most whiny, sincere voice) and quite possibly followed by tears. I then responded in my most excited teacher cheer that they can write! (while wearing my giant magic reading glasses because there is no talking while I'm wearing the glasses..) I explained that writing is simply drawing what you see in your brain. "Close your eyes and think of Pete the Cat," I say. "Can you see him?"

"YES!" They squeal!

So we began to look at the shapes used to draw Pete the Cat and I slowly used my sad, pathetic artistic ability to draw this cute guy. I have to say... I was impressed with myself. He is so cute. I also informed them that one way to write words is to label a picture. We barely touched the surface about labeling, because by now we've sat on the carpet for longer than a 5 year old can handle, but I'm hoping this will be a good start to lead into my labeling literacy center down the road.

LOVE HIM!



And this is where I would insert the picture of me using the Pete puppet... however, I will not. Because apparently I am allergic to something in our school and my eyes were too swollen and red to wear my contacts and feel human. Sigh.

Or maybe it's the 24 students who have already decided it is time to be sick. Nonetheless, we had a terrific week!

And as Pete would say, "It's All Good...."

Back to School!

It's official! We've been back in school for 8 days! I never thought we would make it that far, but we did! I have a class of 24 precious sweethearts this year. I have to say it has probably been the best beginning to a school year I've ever had... as I knock on wood while admitting this.

How is it that every year when school starts I forget how EXHAUSTING it is!? I mean, it feels as though my legs or feet will never be the same. Not to mention the relaxing pedicure that took place on the last day of summer feels nonexistent and only a figure of my imagination! Although I do feel my first day back to school this year was VERY GOOD, this pretty much sums it up....

 

 





I had a ton of fun using Deanna Jumps Names packet this past week! I highly recommend this packet to anyone for beginning back to school fun! We started the week with reading "The Wheels on the Bus." Oh, but not just once, not twice, but we read three different versions of this fun ditty! My awesome teacher friend across the hall had an adorable pop up version that not only made the kids giggle but myself included! Here's my teacher example! You never get too old to enjoy a craftivity here and there. (sorry it's sideways) oops.

This is the writing prompt that goes along with the pocket chart activity in this unit. Yes, that is indeed a green and pink floral carpet you see behind this picture. I was cutting things out at my grandma's house, because we all know that this time of year... or let's face it, all year long we are carrying around a bag of things to cut out! Oy.

Out of all of the cute name activities we did this past week, the self-portraits were by far my favorite!!! Look how cute they turned out! Mrs. Jump included the very helpful tip to go around the room while they are working on their hair, and write down a word on a post-it note that begins with the same letter as their names. The kids loved helping brainstorm words that begin with the same letter and yes... most of them make you laugh because they are so far off from what their names actually begin with. But, at least we get a nice chuckle out of it and will help us dance with joy weeks from now when the light bulb goes off and they get it.... we hope!

 

 

You can find the cute names packet by Mrs. Jump here.

 

 

I am excited about this upcoming week! On to colors and introducing Pete the Cat!

Have a great week! 



Butterflies!

I am soooo happy to finally be enjoying Spring! And with Spring comes caterpillars! I can hardly contain my excitement that our class caterpillars will be arriving next week!

It is so fun to watch my kinders gaze in wonder at the complexity of caterpillars and the metamorphosis process! I am eager to use my butterfly observation journal again this year! It is a great way for students to record and document the growth and changes of the caterpillars.

 

 

I also made several other activities and printables to enhance my literacy centers!

 

 

Students participated in hands on activities to put in order the life cycles of butterflies, chickens, and plants.

 

 

I suppose we can learn more than the process of metamorphosis from a butterfly... Simple life lessons are in nature all around us..

 

 

 

You can find my butterfly unit here! Enjoy!

 

Magic Seeds!! What will they be??

I absolutely LOVE this time of year when the excitement from the students switches from snow days to sunshine!! I am more than overjoyed to be back outside at recess and integrating so many science standards into curriculum as the seasons change! The past few weeks, we have discussed the needs of plants, parts of plants, the life cycle of plants and more!

As St. Patrick's day approaches every year, we read books about leprechauns and tease the idea that a leprechaun has been playing tricks in our classroom. This year a leprechaun left us some magic seeds! Well, of course we planted them right away with the excitement that something amazing will grow! Some students guessed a flower might grow, while others predicted a magic beanstalk will appear! I love their imagination!

Each day, we watered, observed, and anticipated the magic. We also wrote about the needs of plants and compared it to the needs of our own bodies as well! Finally, after some growth appears we begin discussing what it might be and measured it. The students came to a conclusion that the leprechaun had tricked us and gave us grass seeds!

Check out some of our pictures :)

 

 

 

 

 

 



I will huff and I will puff!!

We have had a blast with The Three Little Pigs this past week! What a fun folk tale to get kids excited about learning character, setting, and sequencing events in a story! All week long, students were enthusiastic about reading the next version of the story, writing their own stories, or acting out the dialogue.
 
As part of our Unit of Instruction required by our district's teacher evaluation system, my colleagues and I set our minds in motion to plan this action-packed unit. I'm not sure who had more fun with it.... myself or the students!
 
We launched the week by discussing our "I Can" statement of understanding characters, setting, and major events in a story." We read the traditional version or the "Golden Book" version of the Three Little Pigs, along with "Alaska's Three Pigs," "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, "The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs," and more!
 
On Monday, we reviewed what it meant to put a story in order and watched a Brainpop Jr. video on sequencing. (They just love that robot named Mobi.) Students worked in groups to put the story in order using story cards and then made stick puppets to retell the story to a partner. I can not even express how much they LOVED making these stick puppets and telling the story with a friend. It's always a great reminder that they are only 5 years old and have a lot of social skill development and dramatic play needed!
 

 

 

Another favorite activity of the week, was creating our 'setting' of the story with craft supplies. Students used yarn, pretzels, and paper 'bricks' to recreate the little pigs' houses. On the top line, we wrote the title of the story, "The Three Little Pigs." On the bottom three lines, we wrote straw, sticks, and bricks using our phonetic spelling.

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday, we read "Alaska's Three Pigs" to compare and contrast similarities and differences between stories. They love seeing how various authors use their creativity to change a story!  Here is our Venn diagram of comparisons/contrasts. Please excuse the crazy  handwriting.... they were getting the wiggles and needed to move on!

 

 

Another favorite of the week was having partners act as authors and create their own version of The Three Little Pigs! After reading "The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs," students could see how an author can take one simple part of the story and change it to make a whole new plot. Students worked together to come up with either new characters, setting, or a new ending and drew on large paper.

 

 

These little girls came up with the Three Little Pig Fairies and the Big Bad Cat!

 

 

 

This masterpiece became the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Bat! He drew quite the castle!

 

 



Lastly, we compiled our work throughout the week onto a story board to portray the beginning, middle and end of the story. We wrote the dialogue of the characters to reinforce sequencing as well as comprehension. They turned out so cute and they loved them!! They have never been so quiet while illustrating their work....especially on a week with minimal recesses due to cold weather AND another snow storm moving in.

 

 

 I downloaded the sequencing activity shown in the upper right hand corner from Mrs. P's Firsties! You can find it here on TPT!



 
Needless to say, my students were in a little pigs frenzy the entire week. They spent their time in the writing center, writing about pigs, creating their own versions and reading them to the principals or office staff. It is so rewarding and uplifting to see them light a fire about learning. On to Dr. Seuss Week next week! Can't Wait!
 

I love the expression on the wolf's face!

Seuss Silliness!

I'm not sure about you.... but I am definitely getting excited about celebrating Read Across America Week next week in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. My fellow teachers and I have a blast when it comes to using Dr. Seuss books, characters, and themes to launch a fun filled week of learning. Our school takes part in spirit days to get the students excited about reading Dr. Seuss books as well as other books. Our spirit days are as follows:

Monday - Mixed Up Monday (wear clothes backwards, inside out, or mismatched)

Tuesday - Top Hat Tuesday (wear a top hat, red bow tie, and whiskers!)

Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday (silly socks) We have also done Green Grinch Day.

Thursday - Super Hero Day (dress up as your favorite character in a book. It doesn't have to be a Dr. Seuss Book. Bring the book to school to share with the class.)

Friday - Funny Food Friday (eat silly snacks such as green eggs and ham!)

Top Hat Tuesday is by far our favorite. Many teachers get amped up to dress up on these days. SOOO MUCH FUN!

 

 

Each day is fun-filled with reading stories, creative writing, yummy foods, and silliness! I will take pictures of our activities and post soon! What is your favorite Dr. Seuss story? What do you do in your classroom? I would love to hear from you!