Five for Friday...Easter

I work with the best Kindergarten Team ev-er!!  They are amazing ladies.  Some days I don't know who has more fun...us or the kiddos.  Many afternoons will find us chatting, planning, discussing kids and concerns, life and such for an extra hour or more.  One day I looked up and it was, Oh My Gosh!  It is a quarter to five.  How did that happen?

I'm feeling lucky that I live in a school district that lets us have an Easter Egg Hunt.  That is just what we did today.  We asked each kid to bring in one dozen (of course some forgot....some brought extra...and we had some extra too).  100 kids x 12 eggs = a boatload of eggs.

I was really proud of my little kinders for following the rules and only taking 12 eggs until everyone had found 12.  They counted...put extras back on the ground....helped friends get to 12...and then when everyone ready, they went and found all the extras.  No one complained about what was in their eggs....or not getting a particular kind of egg (we talked a bunch about that before we went out).  I really was proud of them.

Before the day began I made a little treat for all my peeps.  I enjoy working with the entire staff at my school!  They are the best.  When I saw this from Bunting Books and Brainbridge,  I knew I had to make it for Friday morning.  They turned out pretty cute and my "peeps" loved them.

And what did I send home with my little kinders?  These cute little cups, a pencil, and a few goodies (some sweet, some not).

What else did we do today?  A little sorting and graphing with AIMS (yes...I have had this for-ev-er in my files too).  Thanks to Fran Kramer at Kindergarten Crayons for suggesting putting the jellybeans in plastic eggs instead of boring little cups (I also think that helped some of my students who were sad they were not getting the eggs they brought back and afraid they would not get any to take home).

We also applied to be the Easter Bunny's assistant (a freebie from Rulin' the Roost to go with the book by Jan Thomas, The Easter Bunny's Assistant)  with our reading buddies and watched a little Beatrix Potter. 

This Five for Friday is all about today...FRIDAY!!  Seems like we did so much just today, plus the beginning of the week was stressful and sad (but that is a tale for another day).  I am on spring break and my hubby is off too...so I plan on having some fun and getting some Grandma-loves.  I am linking up with Doddle Bugs Teaching!  So Fun!

Old Dog....New Tricks

Can you teach an old dog new tricks?  Some days I wonder.

Example number one....this bunny is from my old files when I first taught Kindergarten 28 years ago (it was a thermofax ditto that I made a copy of today, so that it would go through the machine we now use to run off construction paper).  Yes it is old...but so am I and my kiddos loved it.

Example number two...it has taken me nearly two weeks to get brave enough to figure out how to use raffle copter. I have 100 followers and that means it must be time for a celebration.  I wanted to be up front and fair, so rather than having my husband pick a number out of a hat (I'm low tech like that) I am trying to use raffle copter.

Since I don't have any products for sale just yet (so far everything is free) I thought I would give away signed copies of two books by my favorite author.  My favorite author is Patricia Thomas.  I have an inside track...so I thought signed copies of the book might be fun.  The two books up for grabs are Stand Back Said the Elephant I'm Going to Sneeze and Nature's Paintbox.

What do you have to do to win?  Follow me here...on Facebook....and at my TpT store.  Leave me a comment and increase your chances of winning.  I will pick the winner (or rafflecopter will actually) Monday, April 1st.  That somehow seems appropriate since trying to figure this giveaway thing out makes me feel more than a little foolish.  And now that the weekend has passed...I want to give everyone more time to enter. So I will pick winners on April 1st.  Good Luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Missing Addend....Egg Hunt Style

We are getting ready for to a quick trip to Easter this year.

With Easter coming early...I didn't want to miss out on a chance for an Easter Egg hunt.  Do you get to do that in your school?  We still do, so to go along with that I created an egg hunt for missing addends.  Is there a better object for hiding  this time of year that little eggs you can find everywhere....or anything better to hide them in than a basket?

Searching for eggs that are hiding is a great way to practice addition, subtraction, composing and decomposing numbers.  My kiddos are really good within 5, but they still need practice with larger numbers.  Some still just guess, but most are ready to find a way to figure out the right number hiding.  Some are so good they are already fluent up through 10.  The great thing about this activity is that I can easily differentiate by only giving as many objects (in this case eggs) as my students can use and still be successful.  I made a math talk card to help them with their thinking, and a recording sheet to keep track of their games.  I left space for adding subtraction and equal signs (or addition and equal signs) for when your kiddos are ready.

 

Just click on the picture above to grab them. 

100 followers

Oh my goodness!  How did that happen?  I was beginning to think my little blog would never make 100 followers, yet here I am!  Time to Celebrate!! 

Stay tuned...I need to get through Science Fair and then I will think up something fun.

Five for Friday....Reading Week Style

I wanted to link up with DoodleBugs'  Five for Friday. 

1.  I thought all week, as our snow was melting that I would post my melting/melted snow piles as part of my Five for Friday randomness.  But alas...this is what I woke up to today.  Actually this is our outdoor classroom area at school.

2.  I had a truffula forest grow in my classroom this week.  The trees had a little trouble standing up on their own....but yardsticks inside the foam pipe covers and extra duck tape had us good to go all week.

3.  Some silly blue-haired things (numbered 1-24)showed up in my classroom too.  They were wearing these great blue wigs and had a parade through several classrooms.  What fun I had telling these silly blue-haired things to put themselves in order, and then listen to their conversations as they tried to get in place for our parade.  "Where is 9?  We need 9 right here."  I have to be over here....I am 19 and 19 comes after 18"

I tried my best to be their fearless leader...the Cat in the Hat.  I wore black pants and a black sweater.  I safety pinned a white oval to my sweater and added a red bow.  The hat I have had for a long time....maybe 30 years long.  But you can find many imitations and even some "real" ones, if you look.

On our way out of one room and into another.

4.  The Kiwanis helped put on a green eggs and ham breakfast this morning.  Do you like green eggs and ham, apparently most of my students do!  (even though they didn't eat very much).   " I like them Mrs. Izatt....I just wasn't hungry." 

And we had to add another page to our growing Dr. Seuss books.  I loved this one....

 

5.  To end my randomness...How much do you know about Dr. Seuss?  He wrote more than just children's books.  I shared these two books from my collection in the teacher's lounge.  Not so sure how my parents (or school board) would react if I tried to read the one on the right....haha.  It is a however a fun little read.  The cartoon book is fascinating considering the time period and how many of the characters he drew ended up in other books.

The leprechauns are coming!

Do you ever get so excited about what is happening in your class that you just have to tell someone?   I do!  And today was one of those days.  I was grabbing people out of the hall....come check out my class....come see what my kids are doing.  Look at them work....aren't they doing great!

Our schedule today got a bit switched around because many of our staff went to a funereal for the dad of a fellow staff member, and others covered our classes or took a class into theirs (that's what happened to mine).  My fellow team member said that my kids were awesome!  So I was praising them like crazy after lunch, thinking of course I bet this doesn't last (doubting Thomas that I am).

Our afternoon started out with our math stations (I really wanted to get them in so that we could focus on Dr. Seuss activities next week).  They did a great job staying on task and working together.  I looked in the hall...no one to tell.

Then we worked on our calendars.  I have my kiddos do a calendar  about the first of each month.  Today being the first, of course we needed to get this done.  I use a great little calendar with numbers to trace.  I use the calendar generously provided by Ms. Gonzalez on her class website.  You can find it here.   But what to put on the top?  After much debate between lambs and lions, shamrocks, leprechaun I decided, at the last minute, to have a pot of gold and a rainbow.  I like when kids of any age can be given freedom to be creative on their own, so with just a wee bit of leprechaun story telling  and a sample rainbow I turned them loose.  What wonderful work, focus, and engagement!  I was so excited at what they were creating I did finally find someone who would come in and look (and give extra praise).  Here is a sampling of what we were creating:

They were working so hard...checking to make sure their colors were in the right order.  So fun to watch them come up to my sample and check the colors.  There was the occasional why don't we have indigo?  Some of them are just too smart.

Then I love when they start adding their own touches.  Someone thought two pots of gold would be good.  Others wanted to be sure the leprechaun was guarding his gold.  Others needed some gold in their pots. 

This little guy told  me that, "pots have holes in them....you know that."  (I am assuming that is how you put the stuff in, like the gold).  I guess I did know that....don't you?

Reading Week Celebrations

I know that Dr. Seuss' birthday is coming right up and many are celebrating reading week....and do I dare say the words....Read Across America.  I am a little confused by what I can do and what I cannot do when it comes to celebrating reading Seuss-style.  I have a million Dr. Seuss books in my room (well almost), and many Seuss characters I have collected from Kohls.  I am still planning on letting my kinderkids dig in and really explore those early readers.  I have been saving them for just this occasion. 

We will have a low-key school-wide reading celebration (partly because our school reading specialist position was cut two years ago and no one is stepping up to take charge) the first full week in March.  We will have a visiting author, Green Eggs and Ham breakfast, and dress up days.  Any other activities seem to be up to the classroom teacher.

We will have a wonderful truffula tree forest in our reading center.  I made  these wonderful trees last year after reading about how to make them on Mrs. Lodge's Library Blog.  She gives a great, easy to follow tutorial.  They are inexpensive, quick, and easy to make.  Most of mine were whisked away to grandkid bedrooms...this is the only one left for my classroom.  So I will be making a new forest this week.

Last year I found these wonderful white boards at Target Dollar Spot.  I have been waiting a whole year to use them.  I also scored some You Did It and You Are a Star certificates.  I don't know if Target has anything wonderful this year...I just don't live anywhere close to one (and haven't been to the big city since New Years), but I would certainly stop by to check if I was close.

Then looking through my things I noticed I had these squirreled away to make games.  Not sure what I am going to do...But I have a week to come up with something brilliant.  Any suggestions?

We have a striped hat die cut and I will be making little books this week for my students to complete.  I will have them draw a picture for each of the books I read to them, or they read themselves.  In second and third grade I made them think of a quote from each book they read and include that on their page.  The little instruction page is from third grade.  I may try finding a quote (favorite part) with my kinderkids.  Even the simplest Dr. Seuss books have great words of wisdom.  I have to admit one of my favorites is from Red Fish Blue Fish..."I don't know, go ask your mother".

 

We will also make silly daisy hats for one of our school dress-up days.  I used the styrofoam plates and pipe cleaners to make the daisy.  I wore the fake flower on the headband as my hat.

We will make these wonderful treats.

(We practiced at home today so I could show you how easy they are).  

Gather your ingredients...Oreo cookies, marshmallows, red sugar.

 Start by separating the cookies...tell your little ones to eat the side without the creme.

Look...I have the same plates as last year.  Just a few, they must be leftovers.

 

 Dip one side in water....then the red sugar.

 Turn them over, then the other.  Yes your fingers will turn red.

 Place on top of the creme.  If you have any white frosting, sometimes it sticks better with a little dab of frosting.  

We will make these silly blue hats...at least I hope that is still okay.  Last year I cut school blue butcher paper into strips, folded them in half lengthwise and drew a line to show how far you should cut.   A couple of staples will hold the two halves steady and makes it easier for little fingers to cut.  They cut on the open side and the folded side becomes the bottom of the hat.  See how cute we were.

 

Here is a quick look at the measurements to make these silly wigs.

 

I'd like to show you the wonderful things I used from Deanna Jump, Vickie Plant, and Kathleen Pederson last year.  But sadly I cannot.  Check out the new things they have created to celebrate a silly week of reading fun. Just click on their name to go to their store.  Then try Deedee Wills and Rachelle Smith.  They also have some wonderful things to go with your silly week of reading.

What are you planning?