A Few Fun Things

Did you see these?

You can pre-order them on Amazon now!  To be released in February 2013!

And, here's a few videos my class has enjoyed:

BATS:

OWLS:

Magic Squares Winners!

We have 10 winners!!

Click HERE to see if you won one of HoJo's Magic Squares!!
If you are a winner HoJo will be e-mailing you to find out which Magic Square you would like.  

Even if you're not a winner make sure and check out all the FREEBIES from HoJo's TPT Store!  

Click pic to go to HoJo's store and view all her FREEBIES!

And yet another reason I love duct tape!

My kids LOVE the class books they make.  During reading center they are picked first above ALL other books.  They read them over, and over, and over!

One thing that has always frustrated me with making class books is that 1) they took time for me to bind nicely 2) even when I took the time to bind them nicely they still fell apart. . . they are just used too much to hold up for very long.

UNTIL. . . this year I decided to quit putting so much work into making them last because, well, they just weren't going to.  So, I stapled them with my normal classroom stapler (I didn't venture to the workroom to laminate the cover, get the binding machine or even the heavy duty stapler) I just stapled them with my wimpy stapler and then wrapped duct tape over the staples so the staple parts that stuck up a little wouldn't stick the kids.

It's a MIRACLE!  Even the class book we made in September is still holding up!  No ripped out pages, no upset kids because their page is missing and no having to "fix" the books a million times to make little readers happy.

Is it pretty binding?  No.  Do the kids care?  No!

Duct tape. . . I LOVE you!

By the way:  this summer I wrapped a bunch of my old clipboards in duct tape and those are holding up beautifully also!

Scarecrow Season!

It's time for the Scarecrows to make their appearance in Kindergarten!

We have an alphabet read aloud story where a silly scarecrow will use letter sounds to try and scare all sorts of silly things away from A to Z!

Then we'll make a class book using a similar format as the class read aloud:

Our pocket chart activity will use the kids' names and the beginning sounds of their names:

The scarecrow is a pointer we'll use when we read the poem.

Ex:  

a   a   a  

Is what he'll say

When he tries to scare

Addison away!

We'll read our scarecrow emergent reader:

Label scarecrow parts and discuss the parts of a story for the books The Littlest Scarecrow Boy and The Scarecrow's Hat:

And, of course, play some scarecrow math and reading games:

There are a few other Scarecrow activities 

we'll do and I'll post more on that when I have actual pictures for you to see!

If you're interested in any of these activities click the pic to take a look!

And, here are 3 FREE scarecrow poems for you to use to get your classroom quiet, watching you or ready for hallway!

click the pic to download

Magic Squares (Giveaway!!!!)

Have you tried the Magic Squares from HoJo's Teaching Adventures yet?   

They are so much fun! 

 I introduced them this week in my Literacy Centers.

I tried the capital/lowercase match set and the kids LOVED them!  They even. . . gasp. . .asked to "play with them" during Choice Time!!!

I put them in my magnet center (although they can be used without magnets too.)

I put a finished square at the top so they knew what the finished shape would look like.

I put each magic square in it's own bag and numbered them on the back (I didn't want the pieces from different puzzles getting mixed up.)

The best part about this activity is that it's not just 

matching capital and lowercase- it's also problem solving where each piece goes so it matches up to other pieces.  

HoJo makes these for a variety of grade levels for both literacy and math AND she's agree to let me give away 1 (of your choice) to 10 lucky winners!

To sign up for a chance to win one all you  need to do is visit her TPT store, become a follower and check out her Magic Squares.  If you win you get to pick which Magic Square you would like for your classroom!

Here's a free Thanksgiving Magic Square from HoJo's TPT store for you to try!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Literacy Centers. . . confession time.

Ok, here goes. . . I don't do Daily 5.  

Gasp, Sigh, Groan. . . I know, I know!  

Don't hate me! 

 I've become one of "those" teachers who has their center routine down pat and can't seem to change!  

So, since I'm confessing.  

Here's what some of my centers looked like this week:

Whew. . . Big load off my chest!  

Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

We're wrapping up our 1-10 Number Sense Unit.

Here are some of our favorite activities so far:

Our favorite number song:

Our favorite math bucket activity:

Click HERE for a free copy of the number cards.

Our favorite on-line number games:

If you missed the introduction to our Number Sense lessons visit the post by clicking here:  
http://inspiredbykindergarten.blogspot.com/2012/09/number-introduction-time-freebie-alert.html

Next week we take our Collection Boxes to the "next level!"  More on that soon. . . 

I think I'm hearing VOICES (freebie!)

Do you do use VOICES in your classroom?

There are some things that are important but become VERY monotonous to do, even for the kids!  For example: Rote counting during calendar.  Is it important?  Yes.  Is it fun. .  .ummmm not really.

So, we spice up our rote tasks by occasionally using a "fun" voice when doing them.  They perk right up when they know they'll get to use a "voice!"

This year I'm trying to put more choices into my students' hands (mainly because this class can handle it!)

 

I use my Lucky Duck sticks to pick the student who gets to pick the voice we use.

Since I'm letting them pick this year I've made cards to remind the students what their "voice choices" are.  I'm going to put these cards on a ring for the Lucky Duck person to look at when they pick.

It makes rote things like counting, alphabet flashcards, sight word flashcards, etc just a little more exciting for everyone!

I'm also in the process of doing this for our cheers.  More on that soon. . . .

If you'd like a copy of our voices cards please click HERE.

If you use voices I would love it if you'd leave a comment and share some with me!  

Vowels (freebie)

Vowels are the glue that stick words together!

A few things we do when we talk about a vowel:

Sing the vowel song:

Caution:  your class will break out and spontaneously sing this many times during the day!

When we talk about a vowel we use our fingers and say:  

A is a Vowel (hold up 2 fingers to make a V).

It has 2 sounds (point to your 2 fingers).

A long sound (put 2 fingers together and point to the long finger) and a short sound (point to the short finger.)

Vowel exercises:

We become long and short vowels and do vowel exercises.  I'll say let's do 5 a exercises (or 3 e exercises, etc.) and the kids will stand straight and tall, arms in the air and say the long sound of a.  Then we'll crouch down low and say the short sound of a.  We'll do that 5 times.

My class definitely knows their vowels!

For a copy of these posters and a few independent worksheets click HERE.