Happy New Year's Eve and a Linky Party

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone out there.  I hope everyone was able to enjoy time with family and friends during Christmas!  Time is sure flying by and I can't believe that 2013 is almost over.  I have lots to be thankful for and can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for me.

My colleague and I are new to the blogging world and just started our blog in November.  I am linking up with Simply Kinder and excited to find and meet fellow educators and share ideas with.  Come and join in the fun and meet new people.

Sorry forgot to add the link :(

January Writing Journal

January will be here soon... and I just finished my January writing journal.
This is the journal I use each morning. The format is simple to foster students to be self starters. The left side includes a name and date section as well as a quick math review. Right side includes writing prompt, picture box and lines. All you have to do is run the set double sided, staple as a book and you are ready to go for the month. This journal has 20 days worth of journal pages. This is a simple way to start each day. I prefer this over the composition books because the prompt is written out each day. This packet contains 2 sets of January journal that have been differentiated for two levels of kindergarteners. The first set is on track level and the second is slightly lower level. Students complete a left and right page each morning. Left Page includes Name and date, simple sentence reading and CVC word writing as well as simple addition and making 10 question. For the lower level set the left page has addition using pictures and number writing practice. 
Easy way to differentiate. Writing everyday creates writers!

You can pick it up in my TPT store
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-January-Writing-Journal-1031635

Here's a picture from last month's journal from a Kindergarten Friend.

Parents Christmas Gifts

Each year my students create ornaments to give to their parents for Christmas.  I use a pipe cleaner and tri beads.  I used to let the children pick 2 different colors, but this year I missed seeing the usual red and green tri beads.  I divided my students into small groups and they made a pattern using red and green tri beads.

Once they completed their pattern, I twisted the pipe cleaner together to make a circle.  I then added a ribbon hanger and a tiny bow.  I attached their picture to a piece of green felt and hot glued it to the back of the circle to make it look like a wreath.

Here are the completed wreaths minus the pictures.

I am off to finish the rest of the gifts because tomorrow is our last day before our winter break begins.  We will be performing our song, "I want to be an Elf" and then they will take their gifts home to their families.

Happy Holidays!!

Run, Run As Fast as You Can!!!

Gingerbread cookies have to be my all-time favorite Christmas cookie.  Every year I share the baking experience with my kindergarteners.  The sense of smell is definitely brought to life in this activity... they love smelling the cinnamon, molasses, cloves, and ginger. Here are a few photos...

Yum! Yum! Yum!

I just became a Melonheadz Addict

Nikki over at Melonheadz has started a club for anyone that loves her awesome clip art!!  

Click on the link above and find out how you can join myself and others in becoming Melonheadz Addicts!

We are down to our final week before our Winter Break.  We still have some end of quarter assessments to finish and I need to complete my checkpoints for TS Gold.  We are also getting in our last few practices before our school's Winter Program.  Our kindergarten classes will be singing "I want to be an Elf"  They sound and look pretty cute.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a fabulous Happy New Year.  

Snowy Clean Fun

Well let's just say our classroom has been a little messy lately with all the Christmas crafting... so I used the old shaving cream trick to clean up.  My little friends were anxious to help, we began with some snowman since that had been the theme of the day and then we practiced writing some CVC words- the result engaged kindergartners and clean tables :)

Elf Naming

My kindergarten students were very excited to receive our package from the North Pole.  Our first task was to name our elf.
I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to contribute their idea, so first each student wrote their idea.

Then I selected 5 names and we made a graph to record our votes.

We had a tie so we took another vote between the two names.

And... the winner is  BUDDY!

You can get the elf naming and smart board file free at my TPT store

Sheri

Christmas Cards... Printmaking

There's nothing better than homemade Christmas cards.  Today in Kindergarten, we made cards for our friends and family members.  Since this was the first time I did printmaking with this group of friends, I decided to have them do snowmen for their first print and then I let them do another one of their choice.  To prep for this activity, I cut the bottom of styrofoam to go containers, or you can use plates.

Step 1:  Have students draw on the styrofoam with a pencil.  It is important to press hard and use thick lines.

Step 2: Roll paint on styrofoam.

Step 3:
Flip on top of construction paper and apply pressure...

Step 4:
Make as many prints as you need.  Re ink as you go along.

Happy Holidays...

Welcome December

I was at a workshop yesterday, so today was my first day of December with my kindergarten friends.  This morning we started with our December journals.  Here are a few shots of some writing from this morning.  My December journal is available in my Tpt store.

December Currently

I can't believe that it is already December.  There are lots to finish at school before our Winter Break in 3 weeks.  I did my first linking up with O ' Boy Fourth Grade to share this month's currently.

A much needed outdoor break

Monday after a 4 day weekend means a long day in kindergarten… I thought I would post a fun relay if you need an outdoor break.

Color Sort Relay:

Divide students into teams.  Run this game as a relay.  Each student is given a cube train.  When it is their turn they run to the other side and break apart their cube train and sort by color.  Once they have sorted their cubes they run back and tag the next member.  Great gross and fine motor activity.

 This game could be easily adapted for older students as well. Put some masking tape on the cubes and write an addition/subtraction/multiplication problem.  On the other end have students sort by sum/difference/product etc…

If you don’t have color bucket just use paper plates..

Have Fun!