Snowman Craftivity!

We had so much fun making our snowmen yesterday. Our school is about 6 miles from the coast, so most of my students have never seen snow. They love reading about snow and they loved making these snowmen from my Winter Math and ELA 135 Pages of Printables!

The snowmen are so big and just look great as my 'window curtain.' In the Winter Printables packet, this is only about 5 pages of 100, but I decided to make the snowmen with lined chart paper rather than the white paper I suggested in the packet. I wanted to have a writing activity that didn't take too long so I could get these up!

Some students wrote more than usual. What I was most impressed with is how my students' coloring, glueing and cutting skills have improved since the beginning of the year. I know that isn't at the top of most State Standards checklists, but it does help when a student can concentrate on coloring and then apply those details and descriptions to their writing.

My students were so involved with this activity! I know some teachers will know what I mean when I say I am so proud of their cutting skills!

I didn't edit any of the writing. They read what they wrote to their table buddies and I displayed all of their work.

Yes, this is such an improvement over what was done at the beginning of this year. And this child was so proud of her work! She cut around the lines, and colored with pizazz! She was following directions until she came to the mittens!

You can see the chart paper here. I say to use two sheets of construction paper and let students cut the corners to make a circle. We were out of white art paper and bulletin board paper, so I improvised and I really like this! I think I like the chart paper the best. It isn't too heavy for hanging and students loved writing on the chart paper.

Can you tell how focused my little ESL guy is? He didn't even realize I was taking a picture. I think coloring gives ESL Kinders a sense of accomplishment. They are trying so hard to learn English and may feel behind the others. A coloring project like this really gives them a chance to soar to the top of the class. 

I love my students faces when they are involved with a project. I took about 40 pictures, and could look at them all day! 

If you are interested in Winter themed activities for ELA and Math, the Winter Math and ELA Printable Packet contains 135 pages of ELA and Math printables. I like to call them processing sheets.... all engage students!  There is measurement, Emergent Readers, a Counting Book, writing, Artic Animals.... and of course the snowman!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog! I hope you enjoy looking through my students pictures. I am so proud of them! (I have to add one more of their snowmen!)

Okay, that's it! Thanks for being patient with all my pictures! 

Hope Everyone Is Having A Thankful Thanksgiving!

Holidays are always bittersweet for me. I miss so many of my family members that are no longer here, but I love being with the family that surrounds me now. When you really think about what is important in life, it always comes back to family and loved ones.

I always think about my students also. Past and present. Are they warm and looking forward to a nice family gathering? Do they feel loved and safe in their homes? I know most are having a wonderful holiday, but some I know are feeling frustrated and miss their lunches at school and our tasty snacks, and the feeling that they are safe. To all children, all over the world, I pray that they find a safe and loving place during this season.

Here is my 'Turkey Curtain.' I love making a curtain out of my students' work!

I used this as a center and we made 'at' words. The Turkey on the purple paper was rather difficult for some of mine. I gave them a number, they put the number on the turkey's belly! Then they had to show the number 4 different ways. Most drew the number, tallied the number, wrote the number word, and then make a number sentence such as: 4 red flowers and 2 blue flowers makes 6! It was a cute activity and I am going to make some of these up for the next big holiday coming up!

I also made a pumpkin "curtain" last month. The pumpkins were cute but when we added the turkeys, it was so amazing! Most of the time when my students are doing a 'craftivity' I am pulling small groups. The Mouse Can See Leaves is the best little book to pull at anytime for small groups! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pam

Third Graders Reading To My Kinders!

Students get so excited about summer (don't we all,) It seems each year I have the  funniest and most adorable students ever. They all have a great sense of humor and we really have some fun times. At the end of the year my students all want to tell me what they are doing over the summer break!

I am always excited to hear what my students are going to do over the summer. Some of these things never happen, but it is fun to talk about. So if it's fun to talk about, it has got to be fun to write about!

As a writing 'craftivity,' I always give my students a Summer Bucket List Assignment. First of course, I had to explain what a bucket list was. When I knew they had processed this new bit of information we went on to talking about our Summer Bucket List. They were all excited to write their list, but when I pulled out the buckets and shovels, they were ready to roll!


Here are the products of a 3rd grade class at my current school. I think they did an awesome job!

You can see that some of her students really wrote a lot! I've added some writing papers to this craftivity since Ms. Hobbs did this. I love them!

You can't imagine how proud we were of this child. She really came alive when writing using the craftivity! She was really proud of herself and wasn't a bit nervous when she read aloud to my Kinders.

I taught this student's brother in fifth grade AIG. She was so happy to share her writing!

This is a fun packet for any grade level. My Kinders will be doing this next year and I'll let them write or draw and label! My BF teaching buddy, Jodie Yantachka (a link to her TPT Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Sugar-Spice-And-Everything-Nice) sent some of her student work down for my Kinders to see! Jodie is the best writing teacher. 

This is from her third grade class!

Have fun!

You can pick this free packet up from my Teacher Pay Teachers store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Summer-Writing-Craftivity-Summer-Bucket-List-705768

Have fun and let me know how the craftivity goes! 

Dodecahedron Frenzy!

I love group projects! Makes me feel so good to see my students all working together and having fun!
The Dodecahedrons are so fun and do not require writing a ton of copy or coloring for hours. My Kinders love them!

My Kinders are learning to color while they are learning CVC words. I think they are doing a better job than at the beginning of the year. They enjoy making the dodecahedrons.

My kinders pick which family they want to make. They trace the words first, since the pictures might be hard for some to figure out. (Like wed.) Then they color and write the word on the dodecahedron circle. When they cut them out, they place them on my desk for me to put together. They watch me, but it is really hard for me class to put the tabs exactly right.

If you would like to make some with your students, I have this for sale on my Teacher Pay Teacher store along with the Dodecahedron for Digraphs! 

Click on this link or the pictures below to check them out.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Family-Dodecahedron-Cooperative-Learning-Project-1596326

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Digraph-Dodecahedron-Cooperative-Learning-Project-1604146

Hope those links work for you. I am still learning this blogging business, but it is fun! 

They are really pretty just like this, but look nice hanging from my window. I'll take a picture of my window this week and post it! Hope you are all ready for this coming week! Most of us will be out of school for our Winter Break. We are out Friday at 12:45 and then will meet in our Media center for a Staff lunch! Can't wait. Thanks for visiting! Pam

Veterans Day!

Veterans Day was an all day event in  my Kindergarten class. Having lived at the coast for only three years, I wasn't used to being in a non-military community for a holiday like Veterans Day. I took the time to talk about our military, to watch Discovery Education videos about our military, and to share some of my family experiences being a military 'brat.' I gave my students time to discuss and share with their shoulder buddies and also in front of the class. Most of my students knew about the military only from play and cartoons.

We wrote letters to my nephew, David Cody who has just joined the Army. I am so proud of him, but at the same time I am sad because I know what a sacrifice this will be for him as far as being away from family and friends.

With my Kinders they have to have some kind of connection before they can even begin to write. I was hoping our day of talking, watching, discussing, and sharing would prepare them for their afternoon writing activity.

I believe by coloring they are beginning the writing process. They are thinking about what they are doing and getting their thoughts together.

As they finished, I hung their work out for all to see.

Tuesday we started another activity and I took down their letters to my nephew, David Cody and got those ready to mail to him.

I thought they turned out great.

It is nice to see Kinders beginning to understand a little about the world around them.

They made connections to our military which was different than just TV shows or cartoons.

They thought about a real person, my nephew, wanting to help his country.

Some just thought about fighting, but we talked about helping children all over the world.

If you would like my Veterans Day Writing Activity, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Veterans-Day-Writing-Craftivity-for-Kindergarten-1560777. It's $3.00 on TPT, but can be used for many years to come. On the pictures there is a year, that has been taken off.  Please leave me some feedback and consider following my TPT store for new product notification!

Freebie! CVC Word Work for Rotations, Stations, or Centers!

I still call them Centers. I guess it is just stuck in my head. I know a lot of teachers call them rotations or stations. Some like them, some don't. I love centers! Centers keep my students moving and they are practicing what they have been taught. Centers free me up to work one on one or with small groups.

Centers also let students choose how they are going to complete their work. This is from a Daily Five, read to self rotation. I like the way he found a spot that he felt comfortable in. 

Sometimes an entire table is working on one center. This may not be their table, but I put the graphing on the RED table. I like the pencil boxes because all the tools students need for each center is in that box. (Please just overlook my messy room!)

This is from my American Symbols Unit on TPT.

This is one of my Black History centers. We call Black History, Shades of Color in my K room because when students color a picture of themselves they were coloring their faces black. I told them to really look at each other's skin color. We are all shades of some color. I am not white, but actually pinkish. Someone else is a little tan mixed in with a brownish color. It helps them realize that we are all different colors as well as shapes and sizes. We are so fortunate to be living in the USA where a man of color, a black man, an African American man was elected President! I guess when Obama is replaced in 2016, I'll add the new president, but I will leave him in my packet.  Now when a woman of any color is elected, that is when I will jump up and down and Woo Hoo for the USA!

Finally my Freebie! This is the 'at' family part of my CVC Word Work Collection. This freebie contains all the pages that have to do with the 'at' family. In the complete unit I have 27 Word Families represented and a little over 105 picture cards (I put some new ones up.) 

There are several reasons I like to make units like this... one is that they keep my students engaged and learning what I want them to learn. They are not boring. The main reason is selfish, I will not have to keep on telling my students what to do. I take the time with the first family to explain everything, and I help them fold and go over and over what to do. The next family I might have to go over a tad, but it is familiar to them. After that they are good to go and can do this all by themselves. What teacher doesn't like that!

Here are some videos that explain how to make the products included in this Unit. 

This video shows how to assemble the little 'hotdog' book.

This video shows how to make the Scrambled Letters book.

This video shows how students use the four square activity. My dear co-worker explains things so nicely! Her blog is Sugar~Spice & Everything Nice! Jodie's research projects are great. I use them all the time and I feel my students are learning more than just information about bears and all. They are using their brains to think! Try some of her freebies (you will be glad you did!)

I think this is all I needed to add. If you read down to here, THANKS! Hope these videos help! Pam