Gingerbread!

Flash back to some gingerbread fun!  December has been such a wild month, I haven’t had much extra time.  My husband is working on his MBA and has also been travelling like crazy for work, so I’ve had full time mom duty!  Add in the holiday dance recital, Christmas shopping, and life in a Kindergarten classroom in December, and you’ve got one tired lady! 

So, here are some of the centers we did during the month of December…

All of these activities are from my Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice Gingerbread unit. 

I’ve put in a sale for the next 2 days if you would like to scoop it up for next year!

I started working on some super fun Gingerbread response activities, but guess what?  I didn’t finish them! I’ll TRY to finish them over break, so you can have them for next year.  They’re all common core aligned and will be great for a study of the gingerbread books anytime!

In the meantime….

Kleenslate Response Paddles!

Oh, boy, life is crazy around here.  I’ve been neglecting this little blog, just trying to stay afloat of everything that’s been going on!

I’ve got lots of gingerbread ideas to share with you, but I wanted to tell you about these really awesome whiteboards….

I met the Kleenslate people back in July at the I Teach K conference.  Their white boards are SO awesome.

They are a “paddle” whiteboard and the pen fits securely right in the handle! No more passing out whiteboards and markers.  The markers are super nice too – they last a long time, and there is an eraser built right into the cap. AND – the marker can not be pushed into the marker! So, these are great for those sweet babies that like to push as HARD as they can (just to see what happens), right?!

You do have to teach the children to be careful when they are erasing because the felt erasers can pop off the lid, but with a little but of hot glue, they can be glued right on.

There is even a little hole in the paddle of the board so you could attach a large ring attached to an eraser cloth (cut up washcloth, sock, felt, whatever you wish).

Here’s a little video about the boards:

 

I have the paddles with these absolutely amazing sleeves on the back:

Folks, you can slide in ANYTHING here!  They come with a grid and handwriting lines.  We LOVE the handwriting page for practicing our letters, but I’ve also slid in….wait for it….ten frames!!! I’ll flash a number, and the kiddos fill in the ten frame on their boards.  You could slip any paper into the sleeve – is your mind spinning with possibilities?! I know mine was when I first saw them.

My children are SO excited when I tell them we get to your our dry erase paddles.  Like seriously.  They cheer and clap.  We love to write, hide, and show.  They write their answer (maybe we’ll be stretching out CVC words, our practicing our teen numbers), hide it against their chest, and then show.  It’s awesome because EVERYONE is accountable.  I can see everyone’s answers SUPER quick.

So, hop on over to the Kleenslate website and take a peek at their paddles!

On a side note, today, December 8th, is a day set aside for bereaved families to remember their children that were gone from this world all too soon.  The holidays can be a very difficult time, especially knowing that there will be one stocking that isn’t filled.

I’m remembering my precious Nora tonight (and every day), and all of the children that left this world much too soon.