Our Week in Pictures

We had a very busy week with Open House being this week!  Here is a peek into our classroom this past week.

Our birthday party fun continued in our dramatic play center.  Next week we will be using puppets!

In the time students had after breakfast, they practiced reading the pictures in books and magazines.

We started using our Dollar Tree magnets in the Language Arts and Math centers.  See my post about these here.  The magnet board is from JoAnn Etc.

At the block center, we built block people.

At the math center, students sorted buttons by attribute and explained how they chose to sort.

One of the letter sounds we learned this week was /d/.  We made our dinosaur dazzling with sequins.

Thanks for visiting our week in pictures!  What did you do last week?  Next week we start a new unit on family and friends.   Have your visited my TpT store?   I'd love to hear from you with a comment and/or by becoming a new follower.

A Thrifty Find My Students Love!

One of my favorite stores to find things for school is the Dollar Tree!  There is one close to my parents' house, which is about an hour from work, that always has great "teacher items".  On a recent trip, I found some educational magnets that my students love to use during centers.

I picked up magnet sets for compound words, color & shape words, initial sounds and numbers.  Each set is a sheet of magnets that break into many smaller magnets.  Below is a closer picture of the initial sounds set. I think the graphics are great for a dollar!

My students are in love with these magnets.  They have been out at centers for 2 days, and at both the math and language arts centers, students have spent 20-25 minutes just manipulating the initial sounds and number magnets!  They are trying to make words, matching initial sounds and matching upper and lowercase letters at the language arts center.  At the math center, they are matching numbers to sets of objects and putting numbers in order.  My advanced students are trying to match the numbers to the number words.

Using the math set of magnets.

Where do you find great (cheap) materials for your class?  I'd love to hear!

Awesome Resource

I wanted to do a quick post to share an amazing resource I've used for the past couple years but forgot about in the hustle and bustle of the new year. I was looking for a rhyming activity to send home today, and remembered this site. I knew I had to share it with you!

Click the picture above to visit the website!

This site is maintained by the Florida Center for Reading Research.  It offers materials to use for Langauge Arts instruction and intervention.  Intervention is one of my favorite uses; great materials to send home for families to use!  The materials are in black and white, so I typically print them on colored paper or allow children to color them depending on the activity.

Each activity gives directions for the activity and the picture cards or recording sheets needed for the activity.  I noticed today that there is now a section on the site showing correlations to the Common Core State Standards.  Activities are split into grade bands and are grouped K-1, 2-3 and 4-5.  

I hope you can use some of these great, FREE materials!

Please consider leaving a comment if you are able to use this resource.  I'd love some new followers! :)

First Full Week {Sunday Snapshots Linky Party}

I am linking up with Clutter Free Classroom for Sunday Snapshots Linky Party!

This week was busy, busy, busy as it was our first full week of kindergarten!  Our theme this week is "I Feel Amazing! I Feel Fine!", which is an all about me unit.  We use a scripted reading curriculum (Success for All) so this is how our theme is determined.

We explored pattern blocks this week.

In our Dramatic Play lab (center), we are having a birthday party!

In the Math lab (center), we are sorting buttons by attribute.

In the Art lab (center), students are drawing self-portraits or looking at a list of feelings and drawing "feeling faces".  This child is happy!

These are just a few of the things happening in my classroom this past week. This week is Open House, so we'll be busy getting ready.  Check back next week to see what we are up to!

I'd love to have you follow my blog and leave a comment!

What's Your Name?

We have been focusing on names this week.  One of our Everyday Math skills this week is creating a graph.  We used letters of different fonts to spell our names then created a graph to show how many letters are in our names.

I started by bagging each students' name in a snack-sized bag.  Students were given a strip of construction paper to glue their letters on.  The letters are 1 inch by 1 inch, so I cut the strip 1.5 inches wide and 1 inch longer than the child's name (if the name is 4 letters long, I cut the strip 5 inches long).

Students then glued their letters in the correct order to spell their names.  We used the letters below that I found at a Lakeshore Learning store.

We then counted the letters in each child's name and taped it to our graph.  As we went, we discussed which column had the most/greatest, equal, least/fewest.  My students loved it; they really seemed to understand making and reading a graph, and it looks great for Open House next week (a bonus!).

Mark Your Spot

It has been a busy week!  We started using our Lab Journals this week (see post here), but my students are having a difficult time finding the next page to write on.

These are our lab journals.  They now have name stickers on the front.

I found this idea on pinterest:

Their journals are only 1/2 the size of a composition book, so they do not need a bookmark that big!  I came up with this idea instead.

I took a regular office paper clip (the larger size).  The ribbon is in the scrapbook section at Hobby Lobby.  (50% off through today...only 50 cents per 6 foot spool!).  Each piece of ribbon is about 6-8 inches long.  I counted out 12 dots; I didn't actually measure. 1 spool of ribbon made 14 bookmarks.  Fold the ribbon in half, then loop it through and tighten around the clip.  If I made them again, I would use coated paper clips so it doesn't rip the paper, but I think these will work for their journals.  I made them so the paper clip will actually clip on the journal with the ribbon sticking out so they can easily find the page.

How do you help your students find their page?

Can anyone tell me how to include a link on a picture?  I want to say "click on the picture" to go to the link, but I am having a difficult time figuring it out.  I'm sure it is something very obvious, but I'm not finding it.  Thanks in advance.

Enjoy your weekend!

First Day Photos

There have been so many cute first day of school frames floating around on Pinterest.  I love them all, but I never got around to making one of my own.  I did find the sign you will see below and used it instead.  I cannot remember where I downloaded them, and the file is on my work computer.  If it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit!

I wanted each of my students to have a copy of his/her picture.  Have you seen the deal WalMart is currently running?  A FREE 5x7 print for the first day of school.  The fine print says "one per child".  Well ok said this teacher, I'll do just one per child.  The kind woman at my photo department said I was the only person to take advantage of the deal so far!  You just have to ask for it!  Click here for a link to WalMart's site for more info.  I got 21 5x7 pictures (1 per child) for free- the original bill was $48!  I have foam frames for students to decorate with their pictures in them.