Random Updates!

Here are some random ideas and updates of what I have been doing since I have been MIA. (Sorry y'all... Grad school is KILLING me.)

Easy Hands-On Addition Practice

This is an easy way to make a simple addition worksheet a hands-on learning experience. Just add manipulatives! We drew two circles and used beans to solve the addition problems that came from this set of  free worksheets. Easy, no-prep practice!

International Day--Mexico

Every year, my school has "International Day" where each classroom researches a different country. We then make a banner and bring a food item from our country for all of the other classes to try. The kids LOVE it. I am always surprised with how willing they are to try all the different foods and how eager they are to learn about different cultures.

Our country this year was Mexico. We made Day of the Dead Masks and our food was Mexican Wedding Cookies. The cookies are pretty much all butter and sugar--but of course the kids loved them!

Long/Short Vowel Anchor Chart

My curriculum teaches long/short vowels by having the children mark the vowels in the word. I am curious to know how others teach it? It is a hard skill for my kiddos to grasp, but we are working on it! I made this anchor chart to help them.

St. Patrick's Day and Spring Centers

We have busted out the St. Patrick's Day and Spring Centers. Spring Break is next week (woopwoop!) so we are using some of them this week! 

(Don't judge me for the nasty glue desk. If you teach kindergarten, I KNOW you'd be lying if you said your desks don't look like this the majority of the time! At least I hope so.)

Need some more St. Patrick's Day ideas? Check out these posts from last year.

Five for Friday (March 15)

I am joining the craze and linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

Here are five random things about my week:

1. I finally gave in and bought a new design for my blog. I had a free design before, and I liked it, but it wasn't bright enough for me. I am in love with it now! I got it from Dreamlike Magic. Alicia has a ton of super cute pre-made designs for you to choose from. She even installs them for free! Mine was up about 24 hours later. I am so happy with it and would definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking to change up their design.

2. A virus has been going around my school like crazy. Kids have been going home sick left and right all week long. Luckily, it hasn't gotten to me or my class (knock on wood). I'm hoping we can avoid that. We have been sanitizing and disinfecting like crazy all week. The school nurse was nice enough to get all of the teachers an all natural cleaner/disinfectant for our rooms. Woo hoo!

3.  We have had St. Patrick's Day activities spread all throughout our week. We have read The Night Before St. Patrick's Day  and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover. My kids love the "There Was an Old Lady" books. One of the parents brought us some green treats and had the great idea of putting the kids shoes outside the room during nap so that a leprechaun could leave them some surprises. The kids thought I was crazy when I told them that they had to put their shoes out there because they were too stinky. When they went to retrieve their shoes, they were so excited. I even had one cutie yell, "I love leprechauns!". Its the little things. =)

4. Now that we are done with St. Patrick's Day, I am so excited about next week's centers. It's finally time for Spring! My spring centers are my favorite I have made so far. The graphics are so bright and fun! Now if only we could get the springy weather to stay for good...

5. That brings me to Spring Break. We have a teacher in-service day next Friday, then a week off for break! I love my kiddos, but I am ready for some time to be lazy and visit my family.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Three Things About Me... Let's Get Acquainted Linky!

I am linking up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade and sharing three random things about me for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party.  The three things have to be related to my initials, so here we go!

 (Click the picture to join in on the fun!)

My initials are ANC.

A- is for Amazon. (Could you tell I had a hard time coming up with an "A"?) I am a serious bargain shopper. I buy A LOT of things off of Amazon after I look all over the place trying to find the best deal. Finding a bargain always makes my day! I get it from my mom. We text each other all the time to share our savings. I recently got a (fake) leather jacket that was originally $120 for $40. I was thrilled about it for at least a week.

N- is for Naps. This girl loves her sleep. I hardly have time to nap, so when I do I take advantage of it! I am in bed by nine o'clock most nights and I am not someone that is pleasant to wake up, but I have gotten better.

C- is for CATS. I have always loved cats and I finally have two of my own. They are almost a year old now and they are like children to me. They are a little insane, but I wouldn't have them any other way! Here's a picture of my little babies!

Aren't they cute?

St. Patrick's Day Writing

Here is a cute FREE St. Patrick's Day writing activity I found at The Teacher Wife's blog. I wanted to make it out of construction paper like she did, but the printer wasn't cooperating. They still turned out cute! (Sorry they are sideways... the computer isn't cooperating either.)

St. Patrick's Day and International Day

St. Patrick's Day

This week we started using our St. Patrick's Day Centers. So far the kiddos have loved them! Here's a look at what we've been doing...

In this center the student picks a card and then write the number that comes before and after.

The kiddos practice counting by 2, 5, and 10 in this center. (Sorry about the glare!)

Here they are playing one of their favorite sight word games.

This center is a long and short vowel sort.

You can find all of these centers and more here.

Center Organization

I recently found this great blog post about organizing classroom centers. I wasn't happy with the way mine were so I changed it based on this post. It is so simple, I don't know how I didn't think of it myself! Basically, everything is stored in plastic baggies. You will need one gallon size bag and one or more sandwich bag per center. You put the center cover/instruction page on the top so that you can see it through the bag. The pieces go in a small plastic bag (sandwich size) and are placed behind the instruction page. Then, you put any recording sheets in the back. My kids have done a great job of keeping the centers organized with all pieces in the right place. You can see the detailed post at Shelly Gray's blog Teaching in the Early Years. She has pictures and much more detail than my short run-through.

International Day

We also had a school-wide "International Day". Our class learned all about China this week. Then on Friday, every class brought a food item from their country. I was surprised and proud of how adventurous the kids were with trying all the different foods. They had a blast! Here's a peek at some of our class decor we created.

Have a great weekend!