b or d center FREEBIE!

Hi friends! Back to school is creeping up and I am frantically trying to prepare myself! I will start setting up my room next week and then in-service starts the 31st (ah!). This is what my new room currently looks like:

See why I'm panicking?! BUT it is huge and I cannot wait to get it all together.

I did get to meet the other kindergarten teachers yesterday and they seem amazing, so I am excited about that!

b or d Center FREEBIE

I have been working on some alphabet centers for the beginning of the year and I have a FREEBIE to share with you.

Every year, kiddos have trouble deciphering between b and d. It is one of those tricky things that we deal with all year. I made this center for some extra practice working on this skill. It is a "b or d?" sorting center. You can grab this freebie over at the K-3 Connection facebook page. (Click "like" then "fan FREEBIES" to access it as well as my other fan freebies.)

Here are some other ideas I found that can also help your students with b and d. Just click on the picture to see where it came from.

'Tis the Season and Giveaway

It is December and you know what that means... Christmas, CHRISTmas, CHRISTMAS! Yippee!!

We busted out the Christmas-y centers this week. I am giving some away again! Be sure to stick around until the end to see how you can win them.

These are a few of the literacy centers from my 'Tis the Season Math and Literacy Centers. These centers are festive, but they could easily pass as "holiday" centers if you aren't allowed to celebrate Christmas at your school.

(Please excuse my not-so-great pictures. Do anyone else's kiddos get super distracted when they catch you taking pictures?)

ABC Order

Students put the cards in alphabetical order and write the words in order on the recording sheet.

CVC Stocking Stuffers

Students match the picture to the word and write the words on the recording sheet.

Deck the Halls... with Ending Sounds!

Here students put the pictures on the tree with the corresponding ending sound. Then they write the ending sound on the recording sheet.

Write the Room

Kiddos find pictures around the room and write the word beside the matching picture on the recording sheet.

(My kids are obsessed with write the room! Why are clipboards so fun?!)

All of the centers have a cover page with visual directions as well as a recording sheet.

Want to win these festive centers? Head over to the K-3 Connection facebook page, like it, and leave a comment on the latest post with your email address! I will pick a winner by the end of the weekend. 

Congrats to Thursday, Breanne, and Marie! Check your email ladies!

Good luck!

Double Linky! Let's Talk About Blogs, Baby and Five for Friday (April 5)

Let's Talk About Blogs, Baby!

Melissa from First Grade Smiles is doing a "Let's Talk About Blogs, Baby!" linky party.  I love it and it is perfect for newer bloggers! Here are my answers:

The question I added is:

"How often do you post on your blog? How much do you think is too much/too little for blogs you follow to post?"

I would love to know what you think since I am still sort of new to the whole blogging thing. =)

Be sure to link up so that I can see your answers!

Five for Friday

TGIF!! This was my first week back from spring break. It always takes me a little while to get my head on straight when we've been out of school for a while. I was worried my kids might be a little wild, but they were great!

Here's a quick look at my week:

1. This afternoon we played an (unplanned) math game. I think I've seen something similar on pinterest somewhere, but I randomly thought of it this afternoon and my kiddos loved it. I loved it too because it is a quiet game. =) A lot of you have probably played something similar. We played with time cards, but you could really play with any matching game.

Here's how we played: Students stand in a circle. Pass out one card to each person. Without talking, students have to find their match. (We matched digital clocks to analog clocks with the same time, but you could match upper and lowercase letters, shapes, addition problems to their sum... you get the idea.)

It was nice to do something unplanned and fun in celebration of Friday!

2. I ordered some book bags with my free $10 from Scholastic. I really want to send them home next year! The only problem is... I can't figure out how I want to do it. I have looked around online, but I haven't found what I'm looking for. I would like the kids to do an activity with their book, but another issue is that the bags are too small to fit a regular sized piece of paper. I would LOVE to hear any of your suggestions and how you do it in your classroom.

3. Here's a peek at a couple of the centers we've been doing this week. They are from my April Showers Bring May Flowers set.

Here the kids pick a pattern and complete it. Then they color the flowers on the recording sheet to match the pattern. They LOVE pocket charts.

Here the kiddos match rhyming words and then write them on the recording sheet. Our copier at school sometimes makes worksheets tiny with no warning. Drives me crazy but I can't stand to waste the paper and copy it again!

4. So today, my kiddos were practicing marking their vowels. They put a "line for long, smile for short". One of my kiddo's papers looked like this:

I obviously had a hard time figuring out if those were lines or smiles. When I asked her what it was, she said, "It's a smile that's talking". I couldn't help but laugh at that. =D

5. We started a countdown to summer this week. Only 29 school days left. That is so insane to me! I can't believe I am almost done with my first year of teaching. Where did the year go?

Don't forget to link up and have a fabulous weekend!