Down By the Bay...

Hey everybody!

Happy Memorial Day!! Thank you to those who have fought for our country!

It's been a very exciting week...there are only SIX SCHOOL DAYS left! I'm pumped...in just a little over two weeks I will be in summer vacation!!!!!!!! WOOT!

This past week in kindergarten we had an "Ocean" Theme Unit! To help prepare for this unit I had to go lamination crazy....

I laminated some blends, dipthongs and ending sounds cut from the Circut "Ocean of Words" cartridge.  The kids would then practice combing them together to make words.  Here are some of them that I made for the week. 

There job was to find as many blended words as possible.  Since there were so many with so many different combinations, I created a list of words they could try to find. 


I also created a "Sight Word Hunt."

The kids read popular books about the sea such as "Down in the Cool of the Pool," "Commotion in the Ocean," and "The Rainbow Fish."

For rest time, I bought a doodle book.  This book has little doodle ideas to help spark creativity.  The page below is one of the examples I used for the "Ocean" theme!

We also learned about the coral reef.   We read Gail Gibbons' book "Coral Reefs" as a class.  After we read the story, we talked about what the coral reef looks like.  I showed them a video from YouTube to give them a real sensation. 

To help them further understand the coral reef... the kids drew a picture of the reef.  Everybody picked one thing that they wanted to see if they visited the reef and drew a picture of it.  They cut it out and I put it on the big bulletin board that I posted outside.   Below is an example of our in progress board!

Here is a closer look of some of the coral they made.

The kids loved the activity!

There is more they are working on...but I don't have pictures! More will come soon!

<3
Em

MMM...M...Farmer's Market Good!

 Hey All,

As promised, I am going to post some more fun and recent things we have been doing in kindergarten!  We have been talking about saving verses spending.  Here is my bulletin board talking about how money works!

Here is our farmer's market!  We practiced spending and saving there too! Well...here are some pictures of what it looked like!

The kids walked around and picked out things that they needed to make fruit salad and fruit pizza.  We also had extra goodies such as candy, soda and other yummy unnecessary goods.  The point of these goods were to throw the student off...to see if they were able to overcome their wants and urges and get their needs.  Many students did well...but some only purchased the candy.  Sigh.

Here's an example of what one of the kids bought:

After we bought all of the fruits...my mom and I cut them all up and put them on a platter.  Then the kids got in a buffet line and make their very own fruit pizza!

Also to help celebrate good foods...we did a "What Am I?"  We read the book "Who Am I?" as a class.  Then we practiced making predictions by giving clues.  The clues in this book were the following: "I am red.  I am good to eat.  I am juicy.  What am I?"

 That's all for now!!!!  Take care!

<3
Em

FYI: I Am Still Alive!

Hey Everybody!

It's been a long time...but I now have some free time to share with you some of things in kindergarten!!!!

First of all, for Mother's Day (I know...so long ago!) We grew sunflowers.  While we had them growing in the classroom, we talked about the process of a flower.  I read them the book "The Tiny Seed," by Eric Carle.  Then we talked about how to take care of a plant and then planted our own.  Every day during snack, we watered them.  

They sat on the window seal so they could soak up the sun.  Some grew into big, beautiful flowers, while some died.  The kids understood some plants just did not live.  I should have planted extras for the kids to take home.  Ah. Well.

In Reading we read "Curious George" books.  I wasn't originally a fan of them... but as the week went on, they grew on me.  That troublemaker is always getting into trouble! So to practice word families, we made our own banana words! I put them up on the bulletin board!

Here is a closer look at them... 

We also labeled parts of a flower... this creation is from Teacher's Pay Teachers... it was for free!

In addition to plants, we talked about "Needs vs. Wants" and "Saving vs. Spending"  During this unit we read the book "Max and Ruby: Bunny Money" by Rosemary Wells.  We talked about what is the difference between a "need" and a "want."  Then we created these cool collages!

 

One of my students was being silly and said he needed a woman... 

Sassy huh?

That's all for now! Lots' more coming up!

<3

Em

The Fun Continues...

Hey Everybody!

Another week at Hemlock Creek rolled by right before my eyes!!  We had a very short planning week.  First of all, we had field trip (that ended up being cancelled) and then we had a 1/2 day!  Therefore, not too much went on at school.

Last Sunday, I pleaded and pleaded with friends to lend me their toy cars.  Well... this is why! I made a sight word parking game. (Inspired by the one on Pinterest!) This is the parking lot! I used the Cricut to do my bidding!

Then I took cars and put sight words on them!

 

And then away they went parking the words! I want to thank my friend Jamie, for lending me her son Nick's cars at the 11th hour of the evening I needed them.  The hassle was totally worth it! If you are interested in using my board, please feel free to do so.  The boys loved this center and usually played with the board during free time!

In my math diff group, the kiddos matched up Easter eggs.  I have one little boy that is in love with these eggs...despite the fact he sometimes complains about doing them while he is doing them!

 In science, my kiddos made a movie! That's right! We practiced planting a seed.  (They are making plants and cards for Mother's Day on Sunday!) They used the iPad to do their bidding.  It was pretty successful...for the most part.  Technology has always been my cross to bear.

We also played memory, with time in mind. I made the clocks from a website that let's you make your own personalized set of memory cards.  Again, you might see the obnoxious bright blue paper in the background.  That is still left over paper from VBS last summer.

To celebrate time...we made "The Grouchy Ladybug Clocks."  My version was inspired by my friend Brittany H.  She is teaching in L-Casio right now in kindergarten.  After making them, we read the story and practiced telling time.  The kids LOVED them! I let them take them home to work on telling time with their families!

We always just have too much fun!

In case you are wondering, the rest of my year breaks down as such for themes in kindergarten:

May 14th-May 18th: Season's of the Sun
May 21st-25th: Ocean Animals
May 29th-June 1st: Water/Stars and Stripes
June 2nd-end: Summer Fun!

Anybody have any ideas for me...please pass them along! Also--anything that I can benefit from will be accepted in open arms:)

That's all for now... off to jam out!

<3

Em