An end to the Zoo :(

We finished our zoo unit this week and I'm pretty sad! It was one of my favorites we've done all year! 

We learned about hippos....

Here are our charts I forgot to post of lions and cheetahs ....

And talked about verbs as they pertain to animals (you may remember we did this with adjectives as well)

And we made one more book from Kim Adsit's Animal Blasters pack (highly recommended!)

The kids had to draw animals on each page that fit the skin covering...

And as promised, here are their zoo books they have been working so hard on!

I tried to pick samples from students at different levels of writing. These great templates are from Deanna Jump's Zoo unit (also highly recommended)

Near the end of the week we graphed our favorite Zoo Animal -

On Friday we went to the zoo! I'm going to do a separate post on that once I figure out how to get the pictures from my DSLR to the computer. (Not quite as easy as transferring from my iphone)

This week we did Cowboy centers. Just for fun, and because I'm grasping at straws to keep some of  my spirited kids engaged before spring break!

rhyming

real/nonsense words

making words

ending sounds

ABC order

asking/telling sentences & punctuation

sight words

sentence order

more/less

before and after

skip counting

number order

All these and more are in my Giddy Up! Cowboy Centers. Next week we'll be covering St. Patrick's Day, if you need some new ideas check out my Lucky Leprechauns Unit. Field Day is next week too, and then a long glorious week of relaxation. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Check back later for a recap of our zoo trip :)

Center Organization & Storage

I've had a few emails lately about how I store and organize my centers to keep track of it all. I'm sure there are a gazillion ways to do this, but here's what works for me.....

A hard copy of each center pack I make goes into a file folder.

This contains all the directions, hard copies and worksheets

The game pieces go into ziploc baggies sorted by game

Then, both the file and the ziplocs go into a hanging pocket file. I love the pocket ones because nothing falls out the sides. They can be a little pricy so I try to catch them on sale or add them onto my supply orders. If you don't mind paying full price you can get them here.

Then the pocket file goes into my filing cabinet. I have them in order from the beginning of the year to the end.

As you can see, mine don't actually hang. My cabinets seem to be missing the metal rods to hang stuff.

And that's what works for me!!

Seuss Week!

Did you all have a great time this week? I didn't get to nearly half the things I wanted to do due to two reasons.
a.) On Monday morning I opened my email to see that my formal evaluation would be THAT WEEK.
b). On Monday morning during reading the office staff walked in with a new student for me.

Needless to say, I was swamped between the two. But we did still manage to have lots of good fun that is funny. I'll preface this post by saying you are NOT going to see the oobleck, truffula trees, or thing one and two cupcakes that I had planned in my last post.... there just wasn't time.

We started the week by reading about Dr. Seuss and some facts about his life. Then we started our book study with The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat comes Back. My kids made their hat glyphs from my Seuss on the Loose Unit and then we compared our data.

The kids also did some really great writing this week, I am so proud of their progress. We started by talking about what they would do if the Cat in the Hat came to their house.

Obviously two very different personalities.....

Then we read Fox in Socks and played a little rhyming game with the words from the book.

After reading a few of the books we did a setting comparison:

The kids wrote about the Lorax:

And we made the cute pinterest-inspired hats:

The kids also wrote about Horton, and what made him such a great friend.

And what they would do if they ran the zoo....

They also practiced labeling by themselves and did a great job!

We made our green eggs and ham on Friday, with this cute worksheet from primary perspective.

We also watched Horton Hears a Who! It was a great day....

The last writing we did for the week was about our favorite character from the Dr. Seuss books. I picked these two to show because I am so impressed with how they sounded out once-ler and family redunza!

click to see larger! 

We made two handprint crafts this week (pinterest inspired) :

And here are some of our centers. Sorry some are so blurry.

sorting at words from non at words

sneetches pocket chart

beginning l blends

matching sentences to pictures

rhyming words

building numbers

addition match up

patterns

measuring hats

We also talked about Lions, Elephants, Cheetahs and habitats this week. I forgot to take pics of our animal charts, but I"ll post those next week along with our zoo books the kids have been working so hard on. Here are our habitat books, from Kim Adsit's Animal Blasters unit. I love how they are shaped like bears :)

Next week we are headed to the zoo! I think we might do some of my cowboy centers, just for fun. (And because I'm witholding all St. Patrick's activities till the week after, you know.... the week before spring break!)

I have two new blogs for you all to check out this week....

First up one of my co-workers Perrine at Modern Kindergarten 

and second Becca at Kindergarten Kids - I love all the cooking she has been doing with her class! I don't utilize my oven enough, that's for sure!

Now go! Show them some love!

Books we loved this week: