Winter fun!

     Wow it's finally feeling a little bit warmer her in Minnesota.  January has been a crazy month with two cancelations, because of windchill making the temperature feel like -40 below!  Not what I signed up for when I moved here from Iowa, but thank goodness it's been in the 30's this weekend, so not too bad!

     While all this cold was happening, it was a perfect time to do a winter unit.  I love doing my winter unit right before winter break.  This is the time when I read The Mitten, The Snowy Day, and The Gingerbread Baby.  Since my school doesn't allow any type of holiday related activity this allows me to do a winter celebration at the end of the month.  I always do Gingerbread Baby the week before break, so we can do something fun that last day (make cookies!).  

     I wanted to share with you all some of the fun that we did in the classroom.  There's a few things that I made and some fun center stuff!  I love changing the dramatic play to fit the theme.  Well any center for that matter.  For winter I do a winter cabin.  We include a little ice fishing, some tea or hot cocca, a fire place, lacing cards, you name it!  Every year it's been a fun one to think of how to expand it to make it better!

 The fire place with a box of lacing cards or board books to read.  There is usually a box with some fake flames in it, but I had to do some repairing.  To make the fire place, I used a left over box from a cart and then covered it with brown paper.  Painted on some lines to make it look like brick.  For the flames I used tissue paper and then toilet paper rolls for the logs.

 Our ice fishing pond.  The fishing poles are stored over in the cabin part of the dramatic play.  The fish and fishing poles are both from lakeshore.  To make this I took a small box and lined the inside and outside with blue paper.  Then I added bubble wrap for an "icy" look.

This is how I had the how part of the cabin laid out.  I had an empty tea box and hot chocolate boxes for them to use.  I added cotton balls to use as pretend marshmallows.  I also stored the fishing poles and gloves to pretend to go Ice Fishing.  In the past, I would put hats, scarfs, and extra coats.  Unfortunately, my room has had non stop lice all year, so that was out of the question.  You can also see on one section that I have gingerbread cut outs and rolling pins for them to make gingerbread cookies.

This is a picture from a previous year to show the students making their own gingerbread cookies.  For the play dough I added gingerbread spices to make it look and smell like gingerbread.

This is my magnet board in my literacy center and I used some mitten vocabulary cards that I made and put them in the center to encourage students to write the words from the story.

I am very fortunate to have these wonderful snowy day props.  I put them on the felt board after using them to retell with the students.  They loved being able to come over here and retell a story.

This is my sensory table in the winter.  My great AE went outside everyday and brought in a bucket full of snow for the children to play in.  This was great, because for the whole month of December it was too cold for them to play outside.  I had this great alphabet sand molds from lakeshore that I put in there along with some water proof gloves.

This is a picture from a couple years ago where I made some peppermint white glittery play dough (snow) for students to use in the play dough center.  I put out the book, The Snowy Day, to encourage them to make some of the same things Peter did in the snow. 

I made a few snow man counting mats for the students to use for a small group center and later on in the math center.  I let them use some colorful buttons that I had purchased at Jo Ann Fabrics.  I had them draw a card and then put that many buttons on the snowman.  I had 3 types of cards.  Cards with just the dots, cards with the numeral and dots (shown above), and then cards with just the numeral.  This helped me to meet all of the children's needs.

This is my last picture that I have from my winter theme.  I found this idea on pinterest.  This was on a Time 4 Kindergarten blog spot and I thought it was a great idea  On her blog she uses shaving cream and glue.  I just used white paint, because I didn't have time to run to the store to get the shaving cream.  The students loved being able to paint a scene from the story and then add Peter to it.  With the paint, Peter stuck right on there so there was no need to glue on Peter.

I hope you like some of my ideas that I shared with you.  I would love some feedback on what people think!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

I have been wanting to share these pictures of the dramatic play center in my classroom all week.  It's been a busy week.  My baby girl turned 1 on Wednesday (can't believe how fast time goes by!) and the poor thing also had the stomach flu on Tuesday and Wednesday. :-(  She then passed it on to me on Thursday and Friday, which was no fun.  Then we had her birthday party yesterday.  So it's been very crazy around here.  

So this year we had a food unit for our focused instruction.  I haven't done strictly a food unit in the past.  We of course did some fun food things here and there, but the theme itself wasn't food.  So this was very new to me.  One thing I have done is a pizza unit just for fun.  Who doesn't love pizza?  

It's always has been a favorite with the kiddos.  They know what it is and they love it.  I always like to link my dramatic play to my themes.  So since we were doing food, why not a fun pizzeria!  The kids absolutely loved it.  (We left it out for an extra week, because they were having so much fun!)  Below are some of the pictures from my center.

This is an overview of the work area.  We have an instructional poster of how to make pizza, the pizza crust, toppings, boards for baking pizza, to go boxes, and plates.

Close up of all of the different ingredients.  I am looking to expand on more.  My mom made these ingredients for me.  She was able to sew some really great features to each item.  I am very lucky to have her.  Before she made these for me, I just cut them from felt.

Close up of the "how to make pizza" poster.

The pizza making area and cash register.

Menus for pizza and the seating area.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures!  Please let me know what you think!

Letters, Letters, Letters!

     Wow!  I can't believe it is almost December and my little will be one in 2 weeks.  Time sure flies by!  We have been doing a lot of work with letters in my classroom.  Most of the students had no idea what they were, which leaves a lot of room for growth.  I have been trying to do a lot of hands on materials.  I do have some great things from good ole Lakeshore Learning that was with the class materials as well as some things the I have purchased as well.  I expanded my literacy center with a small table to include the leap frog letters (discovered at my daughters day care, they match perfectly with the letter factory), the alphabet mystery box game from Lakeshore, some letter cards, and the letter books from Lakeshore.  The center has been full!  The kids freaked over the leap frog letters, which is great.  I love that they can independently hear the letters and I got it at Target for $15.99!  I thought it was well worth it!

 
      We have also been using these alphabet play dough mats that I created.  I like them, because they use the Zaner- Blosen font, which I wasn't able to find.  Each letter has their own mat and the colored version has pictures with it.  I also made play dough mats without pictures if a colored printer isn't easy to access.  I have been there!  I thought a fun way to use the ones with out pictures would be to allow students to draw their own pictures for the letter.  You could also provide pictures or stickers and allow the children to decorate each letter.  My kiddos LOVED these mats.  I introduced them in a small group and they bugged me for a week, asking me when the play dough center is going to be open.  I think the pumpkin pie and apple pie play dough that I used helped out too!  Whatever get's them excited about letters is fine with me!  Below is an example of one of the letter mats.
   

These mats will be available on Teachers pay Teachers on Monday.  I need to use my work computer to combine the files. 

    I also do a letter small group with the kiddos each week.  In my small group I have them say objects that start with the letter, draw a picture of something that starts with the letter, find the letter, and practice writing the letter.  I am in the middle of creating all of these sheets.  I have about half done and have been working on them on a as need basis.  I am hoping to finish them soon.  

    Along with the letter group pages, I am working on a Winter Unit.  I love doing seasonal topics.  I am working on doing so activities with counting, one to one correspondence, sorting, sorting by groups, rhyming, alliteration, patterns, letter identification, letter sounds, number identification, etc.  I will have activities that go a long with The Mitten, The Gingerbread Man, The Snowy Day, and Ten on the Sled.  All of the activities will not be affiliated with any Holiday.  I work for a district that doesn't allow us to do anything for the Holidays.  It's a bummer since I love Christmas, but totally makes sense for some of the students in the district.  I'm not sure if it will be one big unit or a bunch of little units.  I will keep you posted as I develop more things.

New Chevron Word Wall Headers!

Oh my goodness!  This is kind of crazy!  I am doing two posts back to back.  I felt I had too much information with the farm to put it all together in one.

I have been making things like crazy!  It seems like a lot, but I need to get this all done very quickly.  I start back at school on Friday, which I can't believe is almost here!  I spent yesterday and today at an amazing training having to with best practice of teaching native americans.  It also include information about their history and today we went on a field trip to different sacred sites, which was very cool and a great experience.  Tomorrow I will be organizing my classroom, because everything is in boxes and I have no idea what materials are already there.  I have an idea, but I need to really figure it out.  It will be amazing if I can start decorating, but I am not sure if that will happen.  Anyways, it all needs to be ready for open house by next Thursday!  Which is crazy!  So if you were wondering why I have been posting something everyday on teachers pay teachers that is why.  I finish it for my classroom and then I put it up, so hopefully others will want to use it in theirs as well.

My newest thing is my word wall headers, which you can get on my teachers pay teachers site.  Yes they are chevron and match my job chart and center signs.  I did mention I'm a tad obsessed with chevron right?  I think they will look great and I made them a great size to go with my word wall cards.

These are the colors of the word wall and a few pictures.  I love the print, since it goes perfectly with Zaner Bloser handwriting!  Also the pictures are super cute.  I purchased the clip art from scrappin doodles and kpm doodles.  Both have super cute clip art!

I really hope you like these.  Like everything please let me know what you think!

Farm Unit

I have finally put up my farm unit on teachers pay teachers.  It's a little ridiculous that it took me so long, since it was done in the spring.  I just had to combine everything into one pdf file, but it is done an I am hoping people will like it.

I love doing the farm unit.  I think it's the Iowa country girl inside me that is excited to share it all with the city kiddos that have no idea of a farm.   I feel like I do some pretty cool things for this unit that I am going to share.  Yes it's August and no where close to farm time, but I thought it would be good timing to share this now when I posted the unit and I'm sure I'll have new stuff from my new class when the farm theme happens again in spring.

In my farm unit I have:

3 different complete the pattern sheets with pieces to go along with the patterns.

Make your own pattern sheet.  That I made 2 and had students use the farm animal counters from Lakeshore to make their own pattern.

Here's a picture of the students trying to make their own pattern.

A farm patterning worksheet for extra practice!

This is one of the 4 barns in my beginning sound game.   There are 4 barns each have a different animal on the barn door.  It also comes with picture cards of pictures that start with the same beginning sound as one of those 4 animals.  You put the barn together and then the students take the picture cards and find the barn that they go into.  The kiddos loved this game!  It was fantastic, because they need to work more with alliteration!

Farm initial letter activity.  Students can use a dry erase, wet erase, or letters to write the initial letter.

(There is a worksheet that goes along with this as well.)

Farm animal writing pages.  Wet erase markers work the best when you laminate the cards.  There is also a worksheet to go along with this.

These are the farm letter cards where students count how many letters are in the word. 

I also used these cards to let students write the words below the cards with magnets.  They really enjoyed doing that.

There is also a rhyming game that goes with the set.  In the barn there are two doors, which you use to put two cards that rhyme.  The kiddos get to choose the words they want to rhyme by using the color cards that go with it.

They really enjoyed playing this game, since they were pretty awesome at rhyming. :-)

This cool worksheet also comes with it.  There are 2 pages for it, but this should give you an idea.  The last thing is a simple creative writing where kids draw what they would be if they lived on a farm.  I encourage the kiddos to try to write what they drew and then I go around and dictate what it is and why they choose it.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that sheet.

I hope you like this unit.  Again if you would like to purchase this unit go to my teachers pay teachers site!   Please let me know what you think!  Good or bad.  I would love the feedback!

First Time Products on Teachers Pay Teachers! (Center Signs and Job Chart)

I did it!  I finally have put up two products on teachers pay teachers.  I have been wanting to do this from a few months now and have finally done it!  I am very excited for both of these products!  I am obsessed with chevron and bright colors, so I made a classroom job chart and center signs.  I am excited to put these in my classroom and am hoping that others will want to as well!

Here are a few pictures of my center signs.  More picture to come of the final product once I get to a laminator and into my classroom again.  You can find my center signs at my teachers pay teacher site.

This is an example of the large center signs.  In the pack is a  variety of colors (yellow, lime green, purple, pink, orange and blue).   You can use these to label your centers or you can also use them to manage your centers.  

I use them to manage my center.  I printed them on card stock and cut them in half.  Then I added star stickers to signify the number of students that can be at each center.  Each student has their own clothespin that they use at centers.  They then choose what center and put their clothespin on a star.  The students know that if there are stars they can play there if not they need to choose another center.  I do a very open center time.  Where I let the children choose where they want to play and they can play there for as long as they like.  I believe that children need to have the opportunity to develop their play, which takes a lot longer then 15 minutes.  Below is a picture of what it will look like with the stars.  

Here is a picture of the small center signs.

Here are a few pictures of the classroom job chart pictures that are on teachers pay teachers.  Like my center signs, more pictures will come once I get to the laminator.  I saw a very cute job chart on pinterest that used ribbon to hold it together and I plan on doing that!

I hope you like them!  Please comment and let me know what you think, since they are the first things I have made and I am considering doing other backgrounds if people seem to like them.  :-)  

I am also working on two things for teachers pay teachers and my classroom.  The first is putting together everything from my farm unit that I did in the spring.  I am almost done writing up explanations and putting it in a packet.  Look for my next blog post to include the unit and the pictures I had from the spring.  (I know it's late, but I do have an 8 month old. :-) )

The second is my word wall cards.  They will be chevron of course! They need to match the rest of my stuff. :-)  Those will be coming hopefully soon as well.  I want it all done by Wednesday, so we will see if I make that goal.

End of Summer

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone!  I still have so much to do before the school year starts and am trying to spend as much time with my baby girl as possible!  I am currently working on my job chart and center signs.  Yes I am the person that has made new center signs every year, because I want something different.  They are both going to be chevron themed.  I am a little obsessed with chevron.  Hopefully they will be done tomorrow, but we will see.  I am also hoping to put them on teachers pay teachers!  It will be my first time selling anything, which is exciting!  I have been working on putting my farm unit materials together as well, but have not been the fastest with that.  I have focused my summer on getting the house put together and spending a lot of time with my 8 month old, Izzy.

Tomorrow I will finally be moving all of my teaching stuff out of my living room and into my new classroom.  I am very excited about my new position, teaching all day pre-k at a native american immersion school.  I know I have a lot to learn and a lot to do.  I don't think you realize how much stuff you have till you can't walk in your living room and boxes are stacked.  Hopefully, it will all fit in the classroom.

I was finally able to see my new classroom yesterday and I am super excited to get everything organized.  Might sound weird, but I love setting up a classroom and getting everything in place.  It's a lot of work, but definitely rewarding when it's all said and done.  Pictures will follow once I get everything situated.

I have decided to do a chevronish theme.  I found some cute chevron boarders at lakeshore that go great with the crate seats I already had.  They also had this new pattern called calypso, which was very cute! I bought the polka doted and the striped boarders to go with my teal and green chevron.  I am thinking it will look great!