Penguins, 100 Day, Bucket Filler & More!

 It's time to highlight my week with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Five for Friday.

After reading these books, we went through real life scenarios and decided if the actions of others were bucket filling or bucket dipping.  Then, we sorted pictures of bucket fillers and bucket dippers on our magnetic whiteboard.

Each little learner pulled a picture from a bucket.  We discussed what was happening and then they chose where it belonged on the board.

 To help reinforce the concept, an emergent reader was colored, read aloud all together, and then taken home to read with moms and dads.

Our own buckets were hung up in the classroom.

To fill the buckets, I hot glued pompoms to popsicle sticks.

When someone is a bucket filler, it's easy to add a 'warm fuzzy' to their bucket.  Everyone is very excited to fill up others' buckets.  One of our classroom jobs is 'kindness reporter'.  That person is on the lookout for bucket fillers.  They take their job very seriously!

You can find these activities in my Bucket Filler Pack on TPT HERE or click on the picture below.

We also made these cutie patootie art projects in which everyone drew a picture of something they could do to be a bucket filler.

I love how it really has everyone thinking about all the nice things that can be done for others.  I definitely have seen an increased awareness of compassion and empathy for others!

This week we celebrated our 100th day of school.  Wow!  This year seems to have flown by….

Here's a peek at some of our activities.

 Everyone made a crown by putting 100 smiley face stickers on it, cutting it out, and stapling it to a sentence strip.

Lots of sweeties wore special shirts decorated with 100 items.

{So stinkin' cute!}

We also moved and grooved to a 100 day playlist on YouTube.

We stacked up 100 items in 10 groups of 10.

Other activities {not pictured} included making a necklace by stringing 100 fruit loops and making a 100 day snack by sorting lots of yummy snacks into 10 groups of 10.

This week, we also learned about penguins.  One favorite fiction book is 'Tacky'.  We worked on finding the missing number in a sequence with the help of 'Tacky' and his friends.  {Quick link to Tacky activities}

Our art project consisted of making these sweet penguins.

As a parent, I always loved any project that consisted of handprints.  I am hoping these are a hit at home!

It was career awareness week at school this week.

Looks like our future is bright!

 Our kindergarteners are learning about things in the sky this week.  They made these projects.  I wanted to share because they are super cute!

How was your week?  Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to let us know!

Five for Friday {on Saturday}!

Yikes!  This four day week was LONG!  Maybe it was the moon, the weather, or some unknown circumstance, but whew! I'm glad it's O.V.E.R !!!

The worst thing about teaching in the winter is the fact that we can't get outside.  Everyone gets a little stir crazy, for sure!  One of my fellow co-workers shared this hilarious video with me.  It is very share worthy, so I am sharing it with all you fellow teachers who may not have seen this yet.  Enjoy!

Are you into Tieks?  I don't have a pair {they are pretty pricey}, but some of my blogger buddies swear by them.  They are supposed to be super comfortable.  That's especially good for all of us teachers who are on our feet during the day.  Anyway, there is a pretty cool give-away for a pair, plus a trip to see Aladdin on Broadway, two round-trip tickets to NYC and a two night stay at a luxury hotel in New York.

If you want to enter the give away, you can do it HERE

Ok, now on to some of our learning fun.  Hibernation was our topic.  Of course, we read 'Bear Snores On' and then we played a fun little game.  One student was the 'bear' in the cave.  I covered a small table with blankets.  One student hid his/her eyes while another hid in the cave.  The student who hid his/her eyes had to guess which student was missing.  Seems pretty simple, but it actually was difficult for many of my little learners.  It was a great way to use the skill of memory and knowing classmates names, while being engaged in a super fun activity.

As you can see, they LOVED this activity.

We also made this art project of a bear hibernating in a cave.  It was simple, yet required everyone to listen and follow directions.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the step by step directions, but did get this adorable picture!

This little guy is showing me his hibernating skills along with his bear. 

After gluing on all the parts, we sprinkled this

on top of the cave to represent snow.  I plan on putting these bear cuties on my bulletin board outside my room.  Most of my learners can tell others all about hibernating and why.  They are like little sponges soaking up all kinds of knowledge!  I am so proud of them.

We also worked on patterning with mittens this week. 

I have a magnetic whiteboard divider in my room {It's the best.  I highly recommend this, if you have any extra classroom money}  My learners took turns making a pattern with mittens {backed with magnetic tape} on the whiteboard, while the others recreated the pattern with a set of their own mittens 

It was a great way for me to quickly assess everyones ability to pattern.  I had everyone check their own work and make any corrections, if needed.  They really enjoyed this activity.  That's always a win-win in my book…..they are learning AND having fun.

How was your week?  Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and share!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

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Bucket Filler and TPT Sale!

This Wednesday and Thursday all my products will be 20% off, plus when you add the code START16 you will receive an extra discount at check-out time.  Click HERE to go to my store.

This year I have tried a variety of of character education/discipline techniques in my class, but the one that is working the best for me is 'Bucket Filling'.  It goes along with these books:

I developed a pack of materials I have been using to help implement this program in my class.  Here is a peek at what's included:

Bucket Filler Activities: 

• Guide for ‘How to Implement a ‘Bucket Filling’ program in your classroom

• Parent Letter to send home explaining the program

• Pages of buckets to print off to use individually.  Place in a pocket chart, on library pocket cards on a poster board or on a bulletin board.  Offered in both color and black and white to print on colored paper {ink saving option}

• Warm ‘fuzzies’ to be passed out to students who show bucket filling behavior.  

• Anchor Chart materials:  Both bucket filling and bucket dipping behaviors are included.  Discuss the behavior and sort accordingly.  Pictures are included, as well.

• Emergent reader: Helps to explain the program in simple language.

• Class Poster

• Awards for being a bucket filler, including an “I am a bucket filler’ necklace.

If you would like to take a closer look you can click HERE or on the cover of the pack.

I plan on doing a post in the near future about the success I have been seeing.  What I really love is how it teaches empathy for others.   It's good stuff!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

The Snowy Day and The Mitten Activities

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to showcase my week with Five for Friday! {Even though it's really Saturday} :)

 Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at taking a lot of pictures this week, but I think you'll still get an idea of our activities.

We started off with one of my favorite winter books 'The Snowy Day'.  The little learners did awesome answering essential questions after the story.

We also did these activities from my 'Snowy Day Retelling Pack'

You can find it HERE.

We also did a couple art/writing products to go along with our story.

I absolutely love how they turned out.

With this art project, each student could pick the shapes they wanted to use to re-create a snowy scene from the book.  This was a great way to not only review basic shapes, but to also talk about how to use shapes to make pictures.

The little ones also drew what they would like to do on a snowy day {IF we ever get enough snow to go outside to play in it!}

With this activity, I combined a couple of freebies I found on TPT.

'The Mitten' was another one of our reads this week. The learners sequenced the order of the animals going into the mitten.  You can find the pack of activities HERE.

 I love all the fun things you can do with a mitten theme.  During circle/learning time, we match upper case to lowercase letters on mittens and hats.

Plus, we worked some more on ten frame, tally marks, and number recognition.

You can find these activities and more HERE.

I have started bundling some of my Literacy/Retelling packs, as well as Extension Activities to go along with popular winter themed books.  By bundling these packs together, it saves money. If you would like to take a look.  Just click on the pictures below to take you to my store.

Finally, my Chiefs are still in the play-offs!  Yippee!  This week they play the Patriots {super nervous}.  Hoping they can carry the momentum and continue the road to the Super Bowl.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)