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

Because... Singing it in Kindergarten!

Almost my entire class can spell because. That's 'because' we sing the Because Song daily. My Teacher Assistant sang this for my first Kinder class and I've been doing it each year since then. The pictures are from the first month of Kindergarten so many are just learning what the written word is and how they can write words to make sentences!

This is a quick video of my little learners singing this year!

We write 'college sentences' in our class. This is from Whole Brain Teaching. Since 'because' is such a long word, singing it helps my students write the sentence! I don't really like the clip art that Chris Biffle uses, but I love his strategies! They really work. Here is his book on Amazon if you haven't read it.

I use my smartboard to write because and have different children come up and point to each letter as we sing it. 

Thankfully, Herding Kats had a post about how to download youtube videos and save them. I was having a time trying to keep my videos organized. Now it will be as simple as saving them on a thumbdrive! 

I have this song included in my Sight Word packet. It is a great way to get all your students loving to write the word because!

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! 

Technology In Our Kindergarten Classroom

My students seem to learn best with technology, color, and interaction. I guess it has always been that way, except now technology is more high-tech.

My Ks are using the little Chromebooks I wrote a grant for last year. Of course at that time I didn't know I would be using them with Ks! I was uncertain if they could use them without a mouse, but they went for it immediately and all three are using Starfall. If you have other websites that are easy for Ks to get around in, please leave a comment.

This is actually going to be my writing center. I have a big ole Teacher Desk that is taking up prime property in my room. This was moved out yesterday so I now have room! These two Chromebooks are now in my little listening center so this is my writing area. My room is actually a mess right now and I can't wait to straighten it out this week. (We had 27 students and just split the classrooms so I have way too much stuff.)

This is my new assistant who is actually a certified teacher. She is showing students how to use the Smart Table. They love this! I can't wait to find time to make some activities on this. We do not have a Smart Board but I was able to get this from the EC Dept.

These pictures are our Cut N Paste Center. They rainbow trace their names and then cut the letters out to build their names. Turns out so cute. I wish I could figure out how to put this in an interactive pdf file so everyone could use this. Any ideas?

The Cut n Paste Center is one of their favorites.

What are some of your students favorite centers?

Today we plan on doing this center. This should be an ongoing center from now on until these sight words are mastered.

I only have 5 girls in my room, so while this will appeal to them because they love to make things and all of my girls play some type of sport, my boys will especially love the graphics.

Thanks for visiting! Pam

How Do You Display Student Work?

We have to have student work displayed in our hall and classroom. I love to do this anyway, but it is a requirement at our school. I wrote about how I display my students work on a previous post.

I thought maybe someone might be interested in  how I display my students' work in the hall. In a previous county we had a pretty strict Fire Marshall and things could not be hanging all over the place (I think it was only 60% of a wall could be covered??)

This is what I came up with a few years ago. I like the way each student has their place on the wall!

I usually only change it once a month, but in the past I have changed it weekly.

I didn't notice till now that one of the little spider webs is crooked!

How do you hang up your student work? Leave a comment below with a link to a pic! I would love to see how others display their students' work!

I have my  Student Work Topper on TPT. I printed my original Toppers pictured above in black and white and then took Sharpies to color in the WOW's (I do this a lot!) No color at the time and I had to finish this! The TPT packet has color and black and white Toppers, plus 10 different describing words! And instructions! Check it out if you are interested in displays! (Click on the picture below for a look!)

Thanks for the visit!