"How To" Books

I wanted to share with you all how Writer's Workshop is going in my room. In a word... fantastic! Our district uses the Lucy Caulkin's Writer's Workshop, and I've been supplementing quite a bit with the fabulous Writing units by DeeDee and Deanna. What I really love about their units is that the easy, to the point lessons really level the playing field for all kids. Everyone can be successful. I'm going to illustrate my point with writing samples from two of my kids. One who started the year fairly high, and one who didn't. Now this is by no means a comprehensive sampling of my class. I do still have some who are drawing pictures and struggling to put down even a beginning sound. However, the concepts are in place and once their letter/sound correspondence is in place I know they will take off too. We are doing Informational Writing right now, so these are How-To Books. (I believe you can click them to see them larger)

Happy Thursday!!

Hi Friends!
I'm blogging from the pool deck at the beautiful Rosen Conference Center. I attended some wonderful sessions at the SDE Florida Kindergarten Conference today! I can't wait to post all about them when I return!

While I've got some downtime I wanted to share with you two office products that shoplet sent me to review. The first is the C-Line Bound Sheet Protector Presentation Book. Now I know what you are thinking.... Kindergartners don't do presentations/reports! But I've found another use for this fabulous little book! I took all the pages from my alphabet wake up work and slid them in.

Now my kids can use them in a center with a dry erase marker! It cuts down on paper, and because they are bound together in a book, they all stay nice and organized! The book itself is very well put together, and at $3.20, it won't break the bank! It has 12 pages inside, so it will cover MOST of the alphabet, but you'll have to leave out two letters ;)

The second product they sent me was the C-Line Expanding File with Handles. This little briefcase like file is really light, and nicely put together with leather and fabric. It feels very sturdy.

Inside, there are expanding files:

Making it perfect for transporting files to and from school without things spilling all over the place and getting disorganized. In the picture above you can see my Reading A to Z files in there, ready to go home and get folded. I'm all about products that help me better organize my life. It's $12.44, so not expensive either.

Tomorrow, I've got another full day of session, and I can't wait!!!

The Big One!

 

Starting tomorrow through Tuesday Midnight my entire store is on sale for 28% off using the code "cmt12" at checkout! Here's some of my winter stuff you might want to check out: 

A whole lot of Thankfulness

Hi all, Happy Black Friday! This post is going to be all over the place, so bear with me!! It's been awhile since I've posted. 

First, we went to the zoo! It was a beautiful late November day, temps in the low 70s! All of the animals were out and active because it wasn't too hot. In seven years of taking Kindergarteners to the zoo, this is the first time I've seen the Florida Panther!

Second, I'm just about ready for TPTs Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale. I've recently uploaded a Holiday Mega Pack perfect for December. It covers Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. I spent my day off Wednesday laminating everything so it will be ready to use with my kiddos on Monday. I also uploaded two dice sets: one focuses on counting, the other addition. I'm also ALMOST done with a new set of Valentine centers that will hopefully be posted before Monday! 

 

Third, here's what's on my Cyber Monday wish-list:

(sorry they are so small... I have no idea how to get them bigger!)
   

Can you tell I'm nearly done teaching letters/sounds and about to get all up in here with word families??

Fourth, I did not do ANY shopping today! I did head out to Best Buy quickly (was in and out in less than half an hour) to check out refrigerators as we are getting one for Christmas :) Here's the two I've got my eye on:

Fifth, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here are just a few things my class did before break: 

Sixth, does anyone have any tips for presenting in front of your school faculty? I've been asked to do so and am feeling awfully nervous! 

FL Kinder Conference

How many of you will be at the Kinder Conference in Orlando on November 29th - 30th? I know I asked once before, but a lot of people were up in the air. I'd like to put together a bloggy meet-up, if there will be others going. Let me know!

Pumpkin Fun

Can’t believe I almost forgot to post about Halloween!! Traditional Halloween activities ( costumes, candy, etc.) are frowned upon here, so we spent the day learning all about pumpkins. Trust me when I say, this thrilled my kinder-pups just as much!! 

I posted a picture collage on wordless Wednesday, but let me show you a little better!

These activities and more can be found in my Pumpkin Mini Unit on TPT.

Election Day Freebie

It’s almost here folks! The end of the political ad nonsense! I am so DONE with them! Give me back my cleaning supply, ice cream, and soda commercials! 

This week we started learning about the voting process. Civic participation is one of our Social Studies Next Generation Standards, and with the election on Tuesday I wanted my kinder-pups to feel involved. 

We started by reading "Amelia Bedilia's First Vote" and as we read talked about how voting works, ballots, voting booths, etc. Then I showed them my voter registration card and we made Voter Registration Cards (from Cara Carroll) for each student. 

sorry, had to pixelate for safety!

On Friday, they got to vote for the first time. We voted on a snack to eat that afternoon - chips vs. popcorn. Each child got a turn. They had to show me their card as proof they registered and I checked them off to ensure each child voted only once. 

Then they took their ballot into our booth, circled their choice, and dropped it in the box. 

Once everyone had voted we tallied up our votes and graphed. Then we analyzed which had more and which had fewer (Common Core - Counting and Cardinality). 

Popcorn won, so that's what we had for our snack! 

Next week we'll be talking about campaigning, choosing a candidate, and voting again! This time.... Cookie Monster vs. Elmo for President!! 

These activities are available in my Election Day Snacktivity Freebie on TPT. 

 

Wordless Wednesday