Sweetheart Math

I created a new little math packet using heart candy.  The colors included are those found the SweeTarts brand hearts bag.  I plan to use the activities this week with my kiddos, so pictures of the activities in action to come at the end of the week.  It is a freebie that you can get here.  Pictures of the activities are below.

Use candy hearts to measure the 3 objects on this sheet.

Graph candy hearts by color.  Indicate which has the most/least.

Complete addition problems based on the number of hearts you have of each color.

Tally the number of vowels in words found on your hearts.  My students are struggling to remember which letters are vowels, so I thought this might be some good practice.

It would be "sweet" of you to leave a comment if you decide to download these activities.  What do you have planned for Valentine's Day?

Kindergarten Writing Makes Me Smile

We have been working on writing in response to books we have read.  This week we learned about different types of communication, and on Friday, we focused on writing.  More specifically, we focused on letters.  Our writing center has had stationary and envelopes all week to write letters, but I wanted to do something that would really get the kids excited about letter writing.  On Fridays, we are able to choose our own read aloud, so I chose The Jolly Postman.

My kiddos LOVED this book!  It was fun to see their excitement in recognizing the nursery rhymes and fairy tales.  My favorite was one student saying "Are there 2 big bad wolves?  There was one in the 3 Little Pigs and on in Little Red Riding Hood.  Is it the same wolf?"  Good question!

During writing time, students were then given the task to write about a letter that the postman brought to someone they know. A student then called out, "Don't forget the details Miss Hennon!"  I asked her what we could use for details in our sentence and she said, "Well, you should probably write who the letter is from too."  Such a smart cookie!

"The postman gave my dad a "lebote" (envelope). "
This one made me smile because he was determined to use our vocabulary word, envelope, that we had discussed early in the week.  

"The post girl gave me a letter. It was from my sister."

I'm sorry these next two are turned sideways.  They are upright in iPhoto.  No cooperation from Blogger here! :) 

"My friend gave me a note.  The post girl gave my mom mail.  The post boy gave my dad mail."  She is working through different vowel sounds.  She knows that /ee/ makes a long e sound, so she is associating that with all vowels (like in "noot" = "note").  

"The postman gave my mom a letter.  It had a picture and a flower in it. "  Earlier this week, we read Dear Juno and in the story, Juno got a picture and a flower in the mail from his grandmother. 

I'm proud of all their hard work and the progress they have made in writing!

I'm curious to know what you use for writing paper.  This year, I have been using monthly journals (notice we still have room in our January journals that we are trying to fill in before going on) with just a single line for students to write on.  I have used commerically available journals in the past from Lakeshore, plain paper, lined paper and folded paper books.  I'm debating where to go next with the type of paper my students write on.  What do you use in your classroom?

Five For Friday Linky Party (Feb. 8)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for "Five For Friday Linky Party" today to share 5 things from my classroom this week.  It has been a busy week learning about different types of communication.

We are watching You Tube videos on the iPad using the QR codes I created.  (See this post for more on QR codes in my classroom).  This guy is watching the sign language alphabet and trying to make the letters on his own.  We are also learning to say hello in different languages on You Tube.

We are sorting valentines by vowel sounds.  I circled characters on some extra valentines and students are sorting them into Target dollar bin mailboxes.  You can see a post about this activity here.

We cut out symmetrical hearts at the dramatic play lab.  Students then "addressed" and "stamped" them and had the opportunity to be the mailman and deliver them to their friends' mailboxes.  The mailboxes are just paper bags with students' names and pictures on them.  They will take these home at the end of our 2 week unit.  The postal vest is from JoAnn Fabrics.

We are using the Zoob Car Designer kit to build vehicles at the block lab.  Students have built everything from cars to lawn mowers. I thought the lawn mower was pretty creative!  They are loving this center.  He is looking at directions on how to build a car, but students were encouraged to try their own creations too.

"The mailman brought a letter for my mom and my dad.  my sister got one too."

We are working on writing in response to a story.  Today we read "The Jolly Postman" and wrote about what the postman might bring to someone we know.  I plan to write a post with more writing examples this weekend, so check back later this weekend!

What was on your agenda this week?  What are you looking forward to next week?  I'd love to hear your plans!

Techy Teacher Tuesday Linky Party

I'm linking up with Katie at Queen of the First Grade Jungle for her Techy Teacher Tuesday linky party.

Our current unit is entitled "Words and Roads Take Us Places".  You would think this would be about transportation (well, that was our assumption anyway), but week one is about communication and week two is about different types of transportation.

I found some YouTube videos for my students showing sign language and a little song teaching them to say "hello" in different languages.  I then went to qrstuff.com and created QR codes for each video I wanted my students to have access to.  They use our classroom iPads to scan the QR codes and watch the videos during center time.  I have been impressed, so far, that they have stuck to the videos I have asked them to watch.  They are excited to watch them multiple times.

Below are the QR codes I created for my classroom.  You can download them by clicking here.  The 2 alphabet codes and the animals code are sign language, and the "hello" code is learning to say hello in different languages.  This time I printed them just as they are and mounted them on a full sheet of construction paper.  See my previous post about using QR codes in my classroom to see them mounted to our closet door.

Have you used QR codes in your classroom?  What have you done to incorporate them?

Valentine's Day Mailboxes

Last week, Heidi from HeidiSongs, posted a question on her Facebook page asking for suggestions to use the small mailboxes found in the Target Dollar Bin.  I read many great ideas there and came up with this.

I purchased 5 mailboxes at Target.  Each mailbox flag is labeled with a vowel.  Students are looking at valentines and sorting the pictures by the middle sound (vowel sound).  This was a huge hit today!  Where did I get the valentines you ask?  Our local Walmart donated many boxes (100s) of Valentines after Valentine's Day last year.  Prior to giving them to students, I pulled out one set of each kind.  You could also ask students to donate unused valentines.  My students are LOVING sorting things like the Disney princesses, Spongebob and sports equipment.  To make it clear to students what they need to sort, I circled the picture I wanted them to sort with a black Sharpie.  I then laminated the valentines so they would last.

Do you have other ideas for using extra valentines in your classroom?

Happy 100th Day and a Sale!

Yesterday was our 100th Day of School- exciting and somewhat crazy.  As one student told me, "it was the best day ever", so that makes it all worth it!

Students were encouraged to dress up like they are 100 years old.  About half of the class dressed up; some highlights are below.

         

No 100th day would be complete without a hat of some sort, right?  We combined a few ideas I've seen floating around.  Most of this was inspired by Kindergals.  We rolled a die then created an addition problem to indicating how many more to make 10.  Example: If I rolled a 6, my addition problem would be 6 + 4.  Students then used stickers to fill in each of their 10 strips on the hat.  

          

We used our 100th day collections to practice measuring by weight.  In the past, we have focused on length on the 100th day, but I wanted something new this year.  So, I came up with this little activity.  Students were each to bring 100 of something in a quart-sized ziploc (I provided this).  We hung them in the hall and talked about the different sizes and weights of objects.  

Above are a few of the bags hanging in the hallway.  After comparing the items in the hallway, I took them down and took them into the room.  I created a recording sheet pairing 6 sets of items.   During our small group activities, my group worked on predicting which item was heavier, then putting the two items in the pan balance to see which was heavier.  Students then filled in the recording sheet indicating the actual heavier item.  The last activity was giving students 2 similar-weight items, having them hold them, then predict.  I was surprised how well they did with this whole activity!

The recording sheet is here, in Google Docs.  You can edit the document to match the items your students bring in for their 100 day collections.  

We made a 100th day trail mix and also had a special 100th day treat.  The trail mix was made from 10 of 10 different items.  The special treat was made from 1/2 of a cheese stick and 2 oreos.  In the past, I have used a cheese stick and either banana or kiwi slices.  You can also see the 100th day bracelets I picked up at Lakeshore Learning (made by Teacher Created Resources).

    

The final activity was rolling a die and coloring to fill a 100 chart then filling in 100 tally marks on the back and counting by 5s.

That is our 100th day in a nutshell.  Have you celebrated the 100th day?  What was your celebration like?  

I'd love for you to leave a comment and/or follow me!

Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is having a huge Super Bowl sale tomorrow.  Use the code "SUPER" to get an extra 10% off already discounted prices.  My store will be 20% off.  I recently completed transportation-themed packets for language arts and math and a mini-packet for teaching solid shapes.  Check out my store: A Very Curious Class.  Thanks for visiting!

Five For Friday Linky Party

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday. I was out Monday and Tuesday with the dreaded flu, so my highlight was being back for the remainder of the week!  Here are 5 highlights from our week.

Today was our 100th day of school!  Here is my class of proud kiddos in their 100th Day hats.  I'll be back with more on the 100th day tomorrow.

We finished our study of space.  The "astronauts" and "mission control" were busy.

We had the opportunity to have the Star Lab visit our school.  We loved visiting and seeing constellations and stars in the night sky.

We explored using "Just Dance" on YouTube for inside recess.  The kids were very engaged and enjoyed participating!

100th day collections were completed at home and returned.  We compared sizes while collections were hanging in the hallway.

Check back tomorrow for the highlights of our 100th Day celebration.  My favorite part was the kids dressing up like they are 100 years old.