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.  

Surprise Black Friday Sale!

I’ve decided to throw a little bonus black Friday sale!  Just click on the image below to go over to my shop and save 20% on everything!

Happy online shopping! I can’t wait to get started in the morning!

Silhouette Winner & HUGE Sale!

First up….the winner of the Silhouette Portrait Giveaway!

If you weren’t the winner this time, you can scoop up one of these AMAZING bundles Silhouette has put together for Black Friday.  And I’m serious when I say these deals are AMAZING!

Take a peek:

Use code:  KINDERS

Here’s what’s included:

• Silhouette CAMEO®
• Silhouette Portrait®
• TWO $25 download cards
→ FOR $299.99 ←
That’s right...
If you buy a Silhouette CAMEO® at full price,
you get two $25 download cards and a Silhouette Portrait® ABSOLUTELY FREE!!
Retail price for all of this would be $406.93
(over 40% savings!)

• Silhouette CAMEO®
• Silhouette Studio®
• Designer Edition Software
• Dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette)
• $25 download card
• a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool
→ FOR $229.99 ←
Retail price for all of this would total $406.93
(over 40% savings!)

• Silhouette Portrait®
• Silhouette Studio®
• Designer Edition Software
• Dust cover (the color is decided by Silhouette)
• $25 download card
• a hook, a scraper, a spatula, and a pick-me-up® tool
→ FOR $129.99 ←
Retail price for all of this would total $286.93
(over 40% savings!)

40% off consumable products at silhouetteamerica.com.

This excludes machines, subscriptions, download and gift cards.

Cannot be combined with any other offers. Rain checks not available.

FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25!!

***************************

This is the biggest promotion Silhouette has ever held!!

Head over to Silhouette now and use the code

KINDERS

at checkout.

Happy Shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Image Courtesy of eighteen25

I am so thankful for each one of you amazing readers.

Thank you for your support over these crazy past 3 years of this blogging life!

As I head out the door to celebrate with my family, I am reminded at how blessed I am to be part of this blogging family.

Have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Centers & Turkeys in Disguise

We had a lot of fun with our Thanksgiving centers over the past couple of weeks! It makes my heart so happy when the children love to practice what we are learning during whole group at centers!  These are centers that I’ve used for a couple of years now, but if it isn’t broken, why fix it?!

These next few math centers are part of a new center pack that I am working on.  I have quite a few activities done, but I’m testing some out to see how my kiddos enjoy them.  I hope to have them finished soon! (Said the girl who hasn’t finished any pack in a LONG time!)

Remember that sentence reconstruction pack I told you about a few weeks ago? The one that I was SUPPOSED to finish?  Well, this is one of the activities in it.  I never finished it :(.  I’ve started and not finished and October pack, a November pack, and a December pack! Someone tell me to finish! ha!

 This is another pocket chart center we did this week.

The children keep their response sheet in their book boxes so they can practice reading the sentence during our read to self time.

I have 2 write the room centers for literacy centers this time around.  For the first they searched for sight words, and the second was ABC order from Cara’s November Write On pack.

And we always have a math write the room!

This is a sequencing center – we counted by 10s this time around.

Turkeys in disguise is one of my all time favorite Thanksgiving projects! My families really did a great job with this activity and the children are so excited to share and talk about their creations!

The writing project is from one of my all time favorite bloggers – April from Chalk Talk.  If you haven’t visited her blog, you MUST.  She is always SPOT ON for what kindergarten children need.  I LOVE the simplicity of her activities.  Chalk Talk is the first Kindergarten blog I found over 3 years ago, and she totally inspired me to start my blog.  Please go over and check out her blog!

Just one more day to enter my Silhouette giveaway! Be sure to scroll down to enter!

Morning Baskets and Sight Words

It’s been a whirlwind these past few weeks! We had our first big dance competition this weekend, and I also had report cards due, so life was a bit…crazy!

I thought I would share with you what’s been in my  morning baskets lately.

The children complete the activities in these baskets after they finish their morning jobs.  We will only work in them for about 10-15 minutes, so the activities are quick and highly engaging!

I pulled out a lot of Lakeshore activities that I had on my shelves this time…

While the children are working in their morning baskets, I am finishing up reminding kids to make lunch choices, children are bringing library books down, I am entering attendance/lunch choices, etc.  We will work with the activities for about 10-15 minutes – some children work longer if they complete their morning jobs quickly.  We go straight into our daily calendar right after morning baskets!

I also wanted to share with you how I am tracking our sight words this year! 

Last year, each child had individual ice cream scoops like these

As they mastered each set of 10 words, they got another set of a different color and added a scoop to their ice cream cone.  They LOVED watching their ice cream scoops grow!

Because I have a larger class, I decided I wanted to do a big giant scoop!  The scoop that is in my room now has pictures of each child on the scoop that designates which set of cards they are working on.  As they master a set of cards, they move their picture up one scoop!  The children LOVE it!  They are so excited to learn their sight words!

I use these packets for my sight word work: (just click on the image to go to see more)

 

I still have 2 days left of work this week!  I will be back tomorrow to share what we did for centers over the last 2 weeks!

PS – Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a Sihouette Portrait! It will be ending soon!

Click {here!} to go to that post!