Weather Five for Friday (January 17)

Do you ever have a week that seems so crazy and jam-packed... then you think back and you can't think of the reason it was so chaotic? Well, that was this week for me. BUT it is Friday AND a three day weekend! Yippee!

This week we barely started our weather unit. I am going to share some of what we have done/are going to do. There is a pack of freebies if you stick around to the end!

On the first day we talked about weather, we made an anchor chart that shows the different types of weather. My kiddos were already familiar with the types of weather because we talk about what the weather is like each morning during calendar.

We have been using the poem "Weather Ways" to go along with our unit. We read the poem each day and look for sight words, rhyming words, etc. throughout the week. At the end of the week, we add the poem to our Poetry Notebook and do an activity. This week the students unscrambled the mixed-up poem and glued it in the correct order. (The poem and mixed-up activity are included in the weather freebie!)

We did read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and wrote about whether we would/would not want it to rain food. I loved listening to the kiddos answers and reasoning behind them. (This page is included in the freebie.)

As I was planning my weather unit, I realized I had ZERO books about weather. Oops. So I ordered a bunch from Amazon and I can't wait to use them! These are the books we will be using...

                                      

                                                         

                                        

           

Thanks for reading through this post! Click the picture to grab your Weather Freebies!

Have a great MLK weekend!

Christmas Fun and Freebies!

This month has been full of fun and craziness! I love December and all things Christmas, but phew! It is exhausting with a class full of five year olds!

Somehow we have managed to accomplish some learning mixed in with all the excitement, elf on the shelf, gift making, and preparing for the Christmas Program.

We made this fabulous elf craftivity where the students wrote about what they would do if they were elves. 99% of them would "watch kids and fly to santa to tell him who was bad". No surprise there. =)

You can get this free elf craft here. I made my own writing sheet to go along with it that you can download here.

I used this multicultural construction paper so that the kiddos' elves would look more like them. They loved it!

We worked hard with this poem last week. My class loves working with poems and I love it because they don't even know they are learning!

Each week, we add our new poem to our poetry notebook and do an activity that goes along with it. This week they were hunting for sight words. This poem would also be great for senses or rhyming words. On Fridays, the students take their poetry notebooks home to read their new poem to their family.

You can grab a copy of this poem here. (Disclaimer: I did NOT write this poem. I am not that talented.)

Have a great week and try to stay sane until break!

Pumpkins Galore and a Giveaway!

We have had a week full of pumpkin fun! I am linking up for Five for Friday to tell you alllllllllll about it. Stick around until the end for a chance to win some pumpkin goodies!

We cannot celebrate Halloween at my school due to religious reasons... however pumpkins = fall so they are fair game!

 "Five Little Pumpkins" was our poem this week. The kiddos loved it. This version is a little different than the one I learned as a kid--no witches or magic included.

We went on a field trip to the pumpkin farm on Thursday. The kids love it and so do I! If you live in the Nashville area, you should check out Walden Farm. They do a great job and make it easy for the teacher to have a stress free day--which is ALWAYS a good day in kindergarten.

After the farm, we did a "pumpkin discovery" activity with the pumpkins we picked on our field trip. 

This is part of a freebie by Nicole Ricca that you can grab here. There a lots of great whole group activities in the mini-unit she made!

We whipped out my new Pumpkin Math Centers this week. (Hang around to the end of this post for a chance to win them.) We are hitting numbers 0-20 HARD.

In this center the students put the pumpkins in order and then write the numbers on their recording sheet.

Here they count the pumpkins on each side, then decide which side is greater.

Here they practice number fluency by rolling a die and then reading the numbers in the matching row.

Here the students scoop a handful of pumpkins, count them, and then tally the amount.

This week was the first time I used dry erase pouches for my center recording sheets. (You can see them in the center pictures above.) Can we say huge paper saver? The kids love them too. Dry erase markers = the most exciting thing on the planet when you are five. Don't you wish a marker could bring you that much happiness?? I got my pouches with my scholastic dollars last year. Here are some similar ones you can grab on amazon for much cheaper.

Want a chance to WIN my Pumpkin Math Centers? Just leave a comment with your email address on this post and I will pick some winners by the end of the weekend!

I sent my Pumpkin Math Centers to all of you who commented. Thank you for reading my blog! If you missed out on this giveaway, don't worry! There will be plenty more. =)