100th Day of School

Monday was our 100th Day of school... a.k.a the most exciting day EVER in kindergarten. We have been counting up to it all year, so the students were super excited when it finally arrived! I didn't get many pictures in all of the excitement but here is some of what we did...

I was finally able to wear my 100 Day shirt I made on Vistaprint last summer!

We made "I am 100 Days Smarter" necklaces ahead of time so they were ready to wear when they arrived on the 100th day.

We started the day by finding and counting 100 pictures during morning work.

We wrote our numbers all the way to 100! I made a few different levels for this activity. This little sweetie is tracing all of the numbers.

This kiddo is filling in the missing numbers. I have another level where there are only a few numbers on the page and the student has to supply the majority of the numbers themselves.

We completed a poetry mix-up activity where we read a poem and had to put the mixed up lines back in the correct order. (Don't you just love my original poem?! haha)

We read a couple of 100 day books.

We also wrote about something we wish we had 100 of, tried to see how many times we could write our names in 100 seconds, filled out a 100 day checklist, and other fun things! Some are pictured in my post from last year's 100 day.

All of these activities and more are included in my 100th Day of School Activity Set.

Want a chance to win it?! Just leave a comment and tell me what kind of things you do on your 100th Day. I will choose a winner over the weekend. Good Luck!

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!

Elf on the Shelf

This was my second year to use an Elf on the Shelf in the classroom. It is great to help tame the kiddos who are getting so anxious for Christmas and all the holiday festivities in December.

I have seen many teachers who "request" an elf from Santa and have it "sent" to them. I like to have my elf just show up one day with his book and act like I am learning about him at the same time my students are.

The first day he showed up in our tree along with his book. We read all about him and the rules that go along with him. One of the rules is that you have to name him... so we finally settled on "Prince". We had some interesting names to choose from...

The second day Prince found a new spot on the pumpkin we had in our room from one of our field trips. One of the kiddos "accidentally" knocked him over. Oh. My. the DRAMA that comes with touching the elf! He stayed knocked over because no ones is supposed to touch him. When we left for lunch, the secretary put him back on the pumpkin where he was before. The look on the children's faces when they saw that he had moved was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. They were so glad he did not lose his magic. =)

We watched An Elf's Story to help reinforce the idea that we do NOT touch the elf. It totally worked. Definitely a must have if you use the elf in your classroom.

Here is some more of the mischief our little elf got into...

 Toward the end of his trip, he brought a friend from the North Pole to visit our room!

(These letters to Santa are from Macy's.)

Some days it can be SO hard to think of an idea for the elf, especially on those crazy days. How do you use Elf on the Shelf in your classroom? Click here to see my other Elf on the Shelf posts.

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!

Five for Friday--December 6

It is Friday! Yippee! Time to link up for Five for Friday! Stick around until the end for a giveaway!

Today was a half day due to freezing rain that is supposed to be coming this afternoon. Don't get me wrong--I love a half day, but it makes the kids crazy and it makes their poor teacher crazy too. This is what my afternoon is looking like now so I shouldn't complain...

Our Elf on the Shelf showed up this week. The kiddos are so into it! They had some interesting name suggestions...

"Prince" is the name that won the vote. I have BIG things planned for Prince this year that I will share with you soon. In the meantime, check out my Elf on the Shelf posts from last year.

Have you seen the bundles put together for the victims of the Central Illinois Tornado? There are some great resources and a ridiculously low price. All of the proceeds goes to the Red Cross specifically designated to the victims of the tornadoes. 

Do you use a timer in your classroom? Most teachers do. Online-stopwatch.com has some awesome visual timers for classroom use. It helps my kiddos know how much time they have left without them asking me! I just put it up on the projector. So easy.

 

We started using my 'Tis the Season Math and Literacy Centers this week and I am giving some away! Just 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. 

Have a great weekend!