Halloween FUN!

Happy Halloween Eve!

We had a weekend of Halloween fun at my house!

{this was Luke's first Jack o' Lantern experience- it took him a while to warm up to the goop!

 {Elmo for Ella- my little brother made the middle one, and my hubs made the moustache guy- he's getting ready for "Movember"}

Here are the little gifts I made for my teammates and the office staff:

{inspiration from this website}

Aren't they adorable?!

{I made my own tags because I wanted them to be specific to school}

I also made a set for both Luke and Ella's classes. Ella is so excited to give them to her friends! She helped me make the rice crispie treats and put the eyes on :)

If you're looking for a last minute activity tomorrow, I'm going to throw this in one of my math tubs! Snag it up if you like!

Have a happy and safe Halloween... have you seen this ecard yet?! LOVE!

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Mummies and goodies oh my!

Hi!

We were knees deep in Red Ribbon week activities this week- you know how the week is a little nuts-o because of all the dress up days! Oh, and Mrs. A decided to get a stomach bug on Tuesday! blegh!

Last year at this time...we had an epic stomach bug at the Alderson household. ALL 4 of us were sick for a WEEK! It was awful!! And I know that it was exactly this time last year because when I pulled up last year's newsletter to edit this week I was apologizing for being absent so many days in a row!

I don't know what it is about this time of the year!

Anyway... it was only a one day deal this time. Not so bad.... not so great, either! 

So some of the things I had planned got pushed back and squished in but what can ya do??

I had these little mummies planned for our door this week.. did you see Caitlin's post last year?? A-door-able! I got my inspiration from her door!

{is this a hot mess or what?!}

I'm sorry this is an awful picture- I didn't have my camera so just made do with my phone!

It says "Our mummies say.. 'Don't get wrapped up in drugs"

I love that it ties in Halloween AND red ribbon week :) Plus, my kids have a thing for tear art this year. Fine motor skills anyone??

On another note- some of my best blogging buddies and I are throwing a "Trick or Treat" sale on TPT starting tomorrow! I'm still working on my Thanksgiving packet, but everything in my store will be 20% off!

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Monster Match!

Hi ya'll!

I made this this weekend and thought I would share before it gets too late to have some monster fun! eeeeek! You guys, Halloween is next week! And did you realize that Thanksgiving is 4 short weeks away?! ahhh! 

Ok, We *finally* introduced 6-10 last week, and we're working in stations all week this week so I wanted to add some more fun things onto what we're already doing in Math!

This little freebie will help your kids build sets (up to 15) in a super fun way!

{click on the picture to snag}

Who doesn't need a few more googly eyes in their life?!

You just provide your students with some googly eyes and they have to add the correct amount to each monster.

Included are 3 different levels of ten frame cut- and- paste activities!

I hope you can use it! 

We're going to have a fun day of pajamas and Red Ribbon week mummies tomorrow {pictures to come soon!}

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Story elements

Happy Sunday friends!

We've been working *really* hard on story elements- especially setting and characters, and beginning/ middle/ end in my classroom lately!

I introduce these basically on the first day of school- as soon as we start reading and my kids know it like the back of their hand by this time in the year!

I introduce setting first with this anchor chart:

And I introduce characters with this anchor chart:

Then, after we read each story we go back and talk about all the story elements. 

Now- this year I have a Smart Board so I have a file I just pull up and we insert everything into it, but this was a picture from last year. As the year goes on, I let my kids come up and help draw with me. Can you guess what this story is?? 

I wish I had a video of us doing this- it's very interactive. My mentor teacher when  I was student teaching taught this to me (she is AMAZING!) We have a sound effect for each story part- After setting and characters we chant what the anchor charts say- the "star" of the show *main character* (like an announcer introducing the show host) after wish we hug ourselves and wish really hard.  Problem is all their favorite... we say "dun dun duunnn" like a suspense movie and for resolution we all pretend to have a magnifying glass out.

This helps my kiddos out *SO* very much in retelling (which we all know is a huge Kindergarten skill) and eventually they will become masters at summarizing! 

Something that I'm working on is a big puzzle for my kids to be able to use in retelling. Each piece has a story element on it- I'm going to blow it up poster size, laminate, etc. and use it for kids to come up and hold the piece to help retell. (now... I realize I am missing the rising action/ climax/ etc.... but we are kindergarten, here!)

We've used this as a worksheet and cut up and glued back together before- the kids love it! Feel free to snag it if you'd like! {click on the picture}

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Months and Seasons

Happy Saturday!

We've been really focusing on the months and seasons lately in math, on top of that 1-5 skill we're still building up :) 

Do ya'll have access to YouTube in your classroom??

If you do... you NEED to check out these songs:

I wake up singing these songs and constantly find myself singing them in the grocery store or such! We made these cute little booklets this week as we focused on each month and the season that it belongs in (along with graphing everyone's birthdays)

We took all week making these booklets, but my kids are SO excited to take them home and show them to their parents!
If you'd like to snag a copy- click on the picture below!

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A few more fonts!

Hi friends!

We've been super-de-duper busy in my class lately. Do any of you guys use iStation?! It is new to us this year and we are DROWNING in getting our kids on the program for the time they are all supposed to be on a week! (It is our new assessment/ intervention tool- a computer program; we used DIBELS before)

I have 3 computers in my classroom.

Tier 3 is supposed to be on 90 minutes a week- 3-30 minute sessions (they cannot be broken up into shorter segments or they do not get credit for it)

Tier 2 gets 60 minutes- 2 -30 minute blocks, and Tier 1 30 minutes a week.

There are just not enough hours in a day and I don't want my kids to miss instruction time!

I think we're going to have to go to the computer lab once a week... and miss stations 1 day :(

I will let you know how it all works out! Let me know if your district uses iStation! I would love to hear from those more experience with it!

Now for the good part!

TWO new fonts for your use!

I'm loving this funky one :))

{click on the pictures to take you to the link!}

I'd love to hear from you if you snag them up!

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Product Swap!

Happy Saturday friends!

It's product swap time again!!

I was lucky enough to be paired up with Amanda from A Special Kind of Class!

I chose to review her "Farm Math Work Station Activities"

This packet is *perfect* for my kiddos- we are still really focusing on 1-5 and will be introducing 5-10 next six weeks with a farm theme!

There are seven math work station activities including adding, subtracting, counting, number recognition, number matching, measuring and estimating.

 This is a number recognition game- your kids flip the card over and find the number!

 I think this is my *favorite* station because we work SO stinkin' hard on "one more" in Kindergarten! Each card has a certain amount on it- your students will count the animals, write the number on the recording card, and then add one more with the animal cards to find the sum. LOVE!

 This is a measuring activity-  I like using some fun erasers or candy, linking cubes, stacking dots, or something I have on hand for measuring!

 This is a number recognition and building sets station. Perfect for 1 to 1 correspondence and recognizing numbers!

 We went to the Corn Maize this week and next week we will begin a fall/ farm unit- so I am so excited to use this during math stations! It will be a perfect and meaningful supplement!

Go check this packet out at Amanda's store now (pssst it's on sale!)

And head on over to her blog to check out a review of my Halloween packet!

{snag it up today or tomorrow while it's on sale for the swap! Halloween is JUST around the corner!!}

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Rowdy Writing

Quick post tonight friends!

I don't know if you noticed... but I messed up my "Rowdy Thin" font! I accidentally edited it into "Rowdy Dots" which I was trying to do... but I thought I had COPIED Rowdy thin and was working on a new document. OOPS!

So, I've had a few people say the link for "Rowdy Thin" takes you to "Rowdy Dots"... my fault!

So- I created another plain writing font. 

Introducing... Rowdy Writing!

{click the picture to take you to the font}

I have a few others I'm working on but this week has been crazy busy for me and both my babies have been sick! Anyone ever dealt with "hand, foot, mouth disease"?! (thank you, daycare!!)

If you don't have all my other fonts...well, you should! 

Click on the "fonts" tab above to see the others! :)

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