Valentine Literacy Games

So here is attempt number 2 at posting something on Teachers Pay Teachers!  It has some games that I like to play during small group time and eventually let them play on their own.  It has been up there for a while but I just keep forgetting to let y'all know!! :)

Just for my blog readers...

Here is one of the games that is included in the pack.

Broken Hearts

You can find the entire pack HERE.  :)

Enjoy!!

 

First attempt...

Well, tonight I posted my first products to Teachers Pay Teachers.  It is a group of Valentine Math Games!!  In honor of this I have decided to post one of the games here for my fellow bloggers, readers, teachers and parents!  Enjoy!

You can find my full listing HERE!!

I will be posting some literacy games soon!!!

Happy!!! :)

So some of you may have noticed the new button at the bottom of this blog... it is my other obsession... Polka Dots(I know... big surprise!! :) ) and Personalizing EVERYTHING!!!! Who doesn't like a few colorful dots and your name on anything you can put it on right???? I create a lot of my products with teachers in mind!!  :)  Well, it was a little hobby that has turned into a big business and I LOVE it!  A fellow blogger, Kristen Walsky at First Grade Teaching found my Porter's Polka Dots Boutique and she so sweetly asked if we could do a giveaway on her site.    If you haven't already, head on over to her BLOG and enter to win the giveaway!!  It's super easy!!!  Thanks Kristen!!!  

Oh and follower too if you haven't already!  She has some fantastic teaching ideas!!  

Now, on to other things - like what has been going on in our polka dot classroom this week.  Well, we have been playing catch up! We had sooo many fun things to do before we got our for Christmas that we didn't get it all done...so what do you do???  You turn Christmas Reindeer activities into Winter Reindeer activities!! :)  Just go with me on this...the kiddos did!!  :)  They had a blast!!  I used Deanna Jump's Reindeer Unit and did a little adaptation!! :)

 The kids had a great time rereading Deanna's Reindeer Book and looking at real reindeer on the internet.  Completing these All About Reindeer books was quite a task but after the first couple of pages they caught on and were able to put the words in order by using the sentence rules we have been talking about.... and talking about... and talking about!  :)  Sometimes I feel like a tape recorder... :)  My favorite part was seeing how good their reindeer drawings were.  Some of them were really cute!!

So I turned the glyph (minus the lights and ornaments on the antlers)  into just a cute art project to accompany the cute books!  

Busy Busy Busy!  I love to see this!  :)

Proud!! 

We also did our own reports about reindeer and I will post those at the beginning of next week... if we don't have a snow day.  Expecting a lot of snow in Atlanta on Sunday night.  Secretly wishing for one... or two... :)

Have a good weekend!

Attack of the Target Dollar Section - Valentines

I should know better then to even go near that part of the store but my buggy just seems to drive itself to that side of the store!!! :) Look at all the goodies I found!!  I love when I find all the good stuff before it is all picked through.  As I went through the bins I quickly tried to think of all the things I could do with each treasure I found...I came up with some but I would love to hear any fantabulous ideas anyone else might have!

2 came in a pack - thinking some sort of partner game??  

Definitely some patterning going to go on here... :) or counting too! :)

I was thinking something with math - I bought enough so I could have 20 - 

I think I may laminate these and either write letters or number/number words on the hearts so the kids could match beginning sound / number - or maybe laminate and cut them apart to make a matching game?

O.K   - this wasn't in the dollar section but I couldn't pass it up - they were only $5!

Maybe storage for an activity?

Who could pass these up??  I had to control myself and only get 4...I sooo wanted to buy all 10!  :)

I think I may get creative and create some games/activities to use with my new toys!

Decorating Trees

We also had some fun decorating some Christmas Trees using Deanna Jump's Christmas Unit.  The children decorated a tree using lights and then they graphed/tallied what color lights they used.    

On Wednesday morning they were excited to come in and not do their typical welcome work!!  They got to color a candy cane if they liked them and decorate a star if they didn't.  I think the tree turned out beautiful.  You can't see it in the picture, but we counted to find out that 21 children like candy canes and 2 do not.  :)

Drowning Phone...

I will posting some new pictures of some of the fun stuff we have been doing during our Gingerbread Unit soon - I usually snap my pictures with my phone but I dropped it in the toilet yesterday morning before school so right now I am praying that it will turn on after being submerged in rice for 2 days.  Anyway, all of my most recent pictures are still on my phone so I will post them as soon as I can recover them.  Here is one that I did get before the phone drowned...

Poor Gingerbread man...

A Kindergarten Thanksgiving

Wow!  Thanksgiving krept up on me so fast!!  This week has been crazy busy, but it is one of my favorite weeks of the kindergarten year.  Preparing for the annual Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast is always an exciting time for our students.

We worked very hard all week preparing our costumes.  The children had a great time making their headbands, pouches and shirts.  I put a plain white t-shirt on their School Supply List back at the beginning of the school year so we would have them for this special day.  I took the shirts home and dyed and frayed the edges.  Then during the week my para helped the kids stamp their own shirts.  This was the first time I used actual t-shirts and I think they turned out so cute!  I usually use the brown paper bag, but this way really wasn't any more trouble then the bags.  I think we will stick with the t-shirts from now on!! 

Each class was responsible for bringing something to the feast to share with the entire Kindergarten.  The only requirement is that is has to be something (or something close) that was actually brought to the first Thanksgiving.  Our contribution this year was butter.  I love to make butter with my kinders because they love seeing the whipping cream turn into the butter right before their eyes.  It tastes yummy too!!

Here is a shot of what was brought to our feast this year:
Popcorn, dried berries, bread/butter, jerky and pumpkin cookies.

Before we head to our feast we have a Thanksgiving Parade through the entire school to show off our adorable Pilgrims and Indian costumes.  The big kids show their respect by waving and clapping as we go by.  It is so much fun.  We eventually make it into the cafeteria where our feast is usually held.  We have wonderful parents and para-pro's that prepare the plates so they are ready to hand out when we arrive. We share our food together and the children have a great time sitting with their friends talking about this fun experience!!

 

During the week we did some other really fun activities.   I purchased Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Unit and we had a ball with it.  I will post some more photos later this week. 

One activity that I do have a picture of right now is a Turkey Word Family Activity.  The kids had a great time writing and reading their favorite word families!!  I had to differentiate this activity to meet the needs of my students but by doing this all of my children were successful at their particular task. I got this cute turkey idea/activity from a very kind teacher whose blog I came across recently.  

Thank you Mrs. Carroll at The First Grade Parade!  

Happy Thanksgiving!!