Friday, March 30, 2012

LakeShore Alphabet Freebies

I've noticed that putting freebies in the title gets me lots more views, HAHA! There ARE freebies in this post though, and I hope some of you can use them!!

My classroom has been so, so blessed by DonorsChoose lately. Just look at all this stuff that has come in for reading and math!!!


In the words of my (teaching) next door neighbor "It's like Christmas in your classroom! Every time I look over there are more boxes!"


I wanted to use some of the alphabet tools in my centers so I made up some recording sheets the students can use with them.

First up, Search and Find Alphabet Bags. Students can pick a bag, write the letter, then draw and sound out four things they found in the bag that begin with that letter. These are really better for the beginning of the year, but the kids were so excited to explore them.
Click On the Picture to get the recording sheet:

Next, Fill in the Blank Stamps. I received both sets which cover beginning, middle, and ending sounds as well as blends, digraphs and vowel sounds. The students will stamp, then fill in the missing letters. I left this one mostly open space so there is plenty of room for the kids to stamp to their hearts content.


Click on the picture for the Recording Sheets:

Last, The Alphabet Mystery Box. Students pull objects out of the box one at a time and match them up to their beginning sound on the game board. After they have matched them all up they can pick four to draw and write the beginning sound. Again, better for the beginning of the year.

Click on the picture to get the recording sheet:

I also received Alphabet Sound Tubs, alphabet stamps & Stamp pads & a whole slew of Math games and manipulatives so be on the lookout for future posts about those!

If you have any of these great resources and grab the recording sheets, let me know!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

A productive Spring Break

Well, I didn't get to go on vacation (we're saving money for other things) but I can't complain too much because I DO live in paradise......
 
and I did get to see two movies, The Hunger Games and The Lorax
  
I did get to try two new (to me) restaurants, Banana Boat and DownTown Pizza


and I did get to finish up two new units, Dinosaurs and Transportation.
Dinosaur Centers
Transportation Centers

All in all, not too bad!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Spring Freebies

A few weeks ago I had pinned this adorable idea from Mrs. Morrow's Kindergarten .
She had put two dice inside the chick, had the kids shake it, then write addition sentences using the numbers rolled. I looked everywhere for those chicks, to no avail. Until today, when I stopped into the Dollar Tree to pick up sandwich bags and there they were!

Right on the front display. I quick snatched some up and then made this recording sheet to go with them. Grab it for free by clicking on it.

AND right next to those chicks were these cute carrots that I thought would go perfect with our plant unit we are starting next week.

So I grabbed 3 bags of those too, thinking I would make an activity similar to the heart box activity I posted about back in February. So I'm going to number each carrot and then fill each one with letter tiles to make sight words (you could also do spelling words, vocabulary words, cvc words, cvce or ccvc words) and the kids will open each and unscramble and record on their paper. Here's the recording sheet I made to go with the carrots (click to grab for free):

So if you have grabbed either of these two things from the Dollar Tree lately I hope you find these activities useful!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Field Day Fun

The Friday before Spring Break was our field day!! (We don't do it at the end of the year here, because a June field day in Florida would be asking for heat stroke.)

We started the day with a show from PageTurner Adventures! We learned all about telling and writing good stories. The kids LOVED the show!!!
 They loved the giant who sang "You can't have my spoon, my giant golden spoon, this is where I have to take a stand" to the tune of Achey, Breaky, Heart.


Then in the afternoon it was time for our field day adventures!! It was the perfect day.... look at that blue sky!!!
 We had so much fun, playing tug of war....
 racing through the obstacle course...
 Eating Rita's italian ice...
 and conquering the rock wall....

But the best part was the end. You know... the part where the kids go home and spring break begins!!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

St. Patty's Fun

I didn't take too many pics this past week. It was the week before spring break and I was doing my best to maintain classroom management :) Here's some of the St. Patty's fun we had....

Our Leprechaun Glyphs

We learned all about rainbows...
And did a LOT of writing!


Some fun games.....



On Friday we returned to our class to a big (or should I say little??) surprise!!
glitter on our papers, and our hat buckles turned to gold! 
little green footprints!
And a pot of gold filled with treasure!!!!
Here's their investigation work:
It was a ton of fun!!!! Most of these activities are in my Lucky Leprechauns Pack.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Catching Up!

I'm on spring break and it feels A-mazing!!!! I'm going to try to catch up and share with you all about St. Patrick's Day, Field Day, and our Zoo trip this week!

First though, I am so excited! TPT's feedback points system went live this morning! Here's how it works (from their website)

Earn TpT Credits for purchases on TpT. You get one TpT Credit for every $ you spend on TpT. Thing is, you only get the Credits after you Provide Feedback--both a fair rating and a fair comment--on the items that you purchase. We will round up for you, too! If you provide fair feedback on a $4.75 item, you will earn 5 credits. Every 100 Credits is worth $5 that you can apply towards future TpT purchases, but there is no need to wait until you have 100 to redeem them. 50 credits is worth $2.50, for example. 

Here are a few things I picked up this morning (for free with my points!) That I can't wait to use with my kinders these last 9 weeks! 




By Made for 1st grade. It has amazing activities for teaching nouns & verbs

By Babbling Abby. Along with the other long vowel packs - perfect for teaching silent e!

  By Deanna Jump. My kids love doing math journals!

And I recently uploaded a new plants unit, perfect for spring!






Check it out!!