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Saturday, December 19, 2015

A Few December Activities!

It's been FOREVER since I've blogged.  Time has completely gotten away from me.  Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks.  I'm highlighting them with Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday!
We have been reading 'old lady' books lately.  After reading "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" we read a simple version emergent reader.
Then we colored the animals from the story,
and the old lady.
Next, we stapled a ziploc bag to the back after cutting out a circle 'stomach'
Finally, we retold the story, placing the animals in her stomach.
The little ones loved this.  They took them home to retell the story to mom and dad!
If you are interested, you can find the patterns, emergent reader and more HERE.
We went on a Gingerbread Man hunt after reading lots of different versions of gingerbread stories.
One of the best things about being at an elementary school is having older students to participate in some of our activities.  This little one was lucky enough to have his older sister join us.
Of course, after reading all the clues throughout the school, we find him right in our own room.
 Snip, Snap!!! He was delicious!
During centers, we set up our own gingerbread shop, pretending to bake and decorate cookies.  It was so much fun.
And, of course making cookies out of play-doh is a must!
Here are a couple of our art projects.  We decorated our own gingerbread man along with his house!
Our classroom elf made an appearance, too.  We named him Charlie. 
We have kept a journal everyday of where he appears in our class.
 We also made our own elves.
 I'm loving the wood grain that the sweet ones drew on the shelves.
 They turned out super cute and make an adorable bulletin board!
We've also managed to squeeze in a lot of learning into our activities.
Here, this sweetie is coloring an AB peppermint pattern.
First, we practiced making different patterns as a class, then we practiced doing patterns independently.
We also sorted items by what would fit into a stocking and what would not.  I used real items first.
Then it was time to see what we learned.
They cut and then glued pictures where they belonged.
They did great!
My newest pack is 144 pages long and filled with tons of Christmas themed activities.  You can find it HERE.
Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to highlight your latest activities!
Thanks for Reading!  Have a great day.  :)




Sunday, November 29, 2015

Cyber Monday Sale!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  You may have heard about Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Sale, so if you're not all shopped out…...
Everything in my store is 20% off, plus add the code SMILE at checkout to receive a total of 28% off all my products!
Just in time for Christmas, I created this pack
Here's what's included:
Colors of Christmas:  Match Santa colors to ornament color words or 
play a matching colors game.
Rudolph’s Nose:  Students use tongs to pick up and match pompom 
to Rudolph’s nose by color.  Three versions to choose from allows for differentiation.
Christmas Tree Colors and Counting:  Students can use pompoms, jewels, beads, etc. to decorate Christmas trees while practicing one to one correspondence.
Gingerbread Cookie Colors:  Students match colors of cookies to cookie sheets with color words.  Two versions offered, depending on the level of your learner.  Can be used with cookie sheets or made into a file folder game.
Gingerbread Cookie Counting:  Students count out cookies on plates.
Gingerbread Shape Cookies:  Students match cookies by shapes of
 buttons on the gingerbread cookies.   Can be used with cookie sheets or made into a file folder game.
Colorful Christmas Tree Measuring Activity:  Use Unifix cubes, paperclips, links, blocks, or a ruler to measure and record the length of trees.
Holiday Lighting Math:  Students read the string of numbers to figure
 out the missing number.  A student-recording sheet is also included.
Peppermint Patterning:  Patterning cards, individual cards to make and show patterns, and student pages to color patterns are included.
Gingerbread Ten Frame Cookie Counting:  Make ten frames with the help
 of cookie sheets and cookies.
Gingerbread ABC Cookies:  Upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet 
on gingerbread cookies, along with plates to sort letters and letter 
sounds.  Also includes gingerbread cookies with pictures of letter sounds.  Black and white versions of alphabet cookies are included to save on ink.  Use a spatula to pick up cookies!
Holiday Lighting ABCs:  Both upper and lowercase Christmas light strings are included.  Students read the sequence of letters and find the missing bulb.  Student recording sheets are also included.
Santa Sight Words:  Use magnetic letters, letter tiles to build words, or write preprimer sight words with a dry erase marker
Inside My Stocking:  Students sort items by things that could fit inside a stocking and things that would not fit.  A student sheet is also included.
Christmas Categories:  Sort presents by toys, clothes, and goodies 
to eat. A student recording sheet is also included.
There are 141 pages in all!
This is just a peek of what's inside.  Right now I have it priced at $3.00, and then you get 28% off that. After the sale, the price will go up.
I plan on using these activities the whole month of December, so check back to see this pack in action.




Saturday, November 14, 2015

SPED Gives Thanks $1 SALE!

BE SURE to take advantage of this AMAZING sale!  For today only {SUNDAY}, some of your favorite TpT SPED Sellers are putting on a sale. {You don't have to teach SPED to find some great products.  They work in the regular class, too!!!} You will find products normally selling anywhere from $3 to $5 for $1 only!  
In the search box, simply put in #SPEDGivesThanks and see what amazing products appear for only $1!  It's our way of saying THANK YOU for all your support throughout the year.
Here is what I am offering for $1
My newest pack with a Turkey theme.  It's perfect for Thanksgiving!
and for Christmas I have a retelling pack to use with the book 'There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell' by Lucille Colandro.  You can click on the pictures to take you to my store.
Be sure to check out all the great deals!
Happy Shopping!

Friday, November 13, 2015

Turkey Fun!

It's Friday and time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to showcase our week.
Little hands were strengthened with these fun fine motor activities.
We 'basted' turkeys by squeezing pipettes of water onto foam turkeys.
We scrunched tissue paper onto corn cut outs to make some colorful corn.
Unifix cubes were a big part of our learning.
 We measured with them, as well as practiced one to one correspondence.  Then, we stacked the cubes to compare our towers to see which one had the greatest number of cubes and which one had the least amount.
We used muffin pans to work on colors and counting.
Colored pompoms and tongs added a fine motor element, too.
We worked on letter sounds by finding pictures that started with our letter.
You can find all these Thanksgiving/Turkey activities in my newest pack HERE.
My family celebrated my mom's birthday with a party.  
It was very sweet.  My mom doesn't like a lot of attention drawn to her, but I'm pretty sure she had a great day!
Tell us about your week.  Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and link up!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Acorns, Leaves, and Squirrels!

 The perfect fall weather this week has lent itself nicely to our learning with acorns, leaves, and squirrels!  I'm link inking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to showcase it with Five for Friday.
Leaves were all round us, even in the classroom.  I filled my sensory table with fall leaves {for the sake of clean-up time, I chose artificial but real ones are super fun}.  I also have a small rake.  Little ones took turns spreading out the leaves and then raking them in a pile.
This was a favorite activity, plus raking is wonderful for a crossing the mid-line activity.  :)
'When the Leaf Blew In' by Steve Metzger was a favorite read this week.  I have fallen in love with this book, as well as my little learners.  It lends itself to some really great learning fun.  We retold the story several different ways.
Originally, this was to be a sequencing activity where we glued the animals in order coming out of the barn front and back onto a sentence strip.  That way the sweet peas could take it home and retell the story by themselves.  When we finished, several wanted to staple their strips to the barn to make a retelling headband!  I was like 'what a great idea'!  I love it when I learn from them.  :)  This whole retelling/sequencing activity was completed over a couple days because we colored the animals, which was the perfect opportunity to talk about using realistic colors and coloring in a defined space.  Next, they cut apart the pictures {this along with the coloring added a fine motor element}. And last, we retold the story when we glued on the pictures.

We also added a gross motor activity by using retelling pictures/necklaces to act out the actions of the animals.  To add more cognitive fun, little ones acted out first, and then the others guessed the animal.  I could have used this book alone all week and still not had enough time!  


 You can find these activities and more HERE.
Another fall favorite is 'There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves' by Lucille Colandro.


My little ones can't get enough of the old lady puppet! {Perhaps that is because she usually tries to eat their hand when they feed her the retelling pieces?!?}  They also did wonderfully retelling the story with these activities.
 They took home their own easy reader to tell the story to their families.  I love any opportunity to get any and all books in their hands at home.
A sequencing activity also helped retell the story.  Since my little ones are so young, we usually do these as a group activity, but for older learners this is a great literacy center idea.
You can find this retelling pack HERE.
 Since this week was 'all things fall' we also worked on specific skills with the help of colorful acorns, squirrels and trees.
We color matched and counted squirrels and trees.
Shapes were reinforced with the help of acorns and leaves.
Acorns helped us match upper and lowercase letters, plus work on letter sounds,
Trees and ten frames helped us with math skills.
These were just a few of the activities found in my newest pack.
Here's a closer look.




You can find it HERE.
{And it's half price through the weekend!}
Fall wouldn't be complete without some beautiful tree art.
These beauties were made by dropping liquid water color on coffee filters with droppers and pipettes.
After the filters dried, they were glued on light blue construction paper, along with tree trunks.
Then, to add some dimension, tissue paper was scrunched and glued to represent falling leaves.
 So beautiful!
What was your week filled with?

Thanks for reading!  Have a wonderful day.  :)