Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Peek at My Week & Winner Announced!

Spring Break is over. It's been a beautiful week---weather related, and a beautiful week of doing absolutely nothing! :)

But it's over. Here's a look at what we'll be covering for the next couple of weeks!

 
Source: Chalk Talk






















Alligator Pie---Source: Deanna Jump


Handprint Elephant & Handprint Lion
 Source: Gummy Lump Toys Blog


These are just some of the activities we will be doing the next couple of weeks, as well as my  Mimio Unit on the Zoo. If you have a Mimio, you can grab it here.  It's free. I think you can use it on a SmartBoard as well...where there's a will there's a way I'm sure.




Back to the grind tomorrow----pictures to come of all of our zoo fun!!


Here's the winner of the Rhyme to Read App Giveaway and Buggy Measuring.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Oh and have you heard about the HUGE giveaway that Kreative in Kinder, Mrs. Jump, and Mrs. Wills is having??? Be sure to check it out! There will be 3 winners!

                              http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/ 


     
  

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Spring Break Giveaway! & a FB freebie

I'm on Spring Break (finally). I have been quite unproductive as far as blogging and school goes. Sad. I should be doing school work, creating, paperwork....but nope. I've been reading, making wreaths, walking the dog, and being a lump on the couch. Quite productive I think. 

I am also excited to blog a little about an app that I was asked to test drive!
The Rhyme to Read app features 20 books that each focus on a word family.  There are 4 stories for each short vowel.

There are two versions..... the first is a free download of book #1--that way people can try it first (you can buy the rest from in-app). The second version is just buy the whole 20 book set. It's $9.99 but totally worth it! OR you can buy each book for $.99 but might as well buy the whole set I think!



Here are a few snapshots!


Displaying photo.png




Displaying book_open_04.png  

Rhyme to Read is a beginning reading program comprised of 20 short books. (Yes, 20!!!)

Each has a running list of the word family on the left and then has the sight words (introduce 35 sight words throughout!) located at the top. Students can touch each word to have it read to them!

Each of the twenty books, four per short vowel, highlights a specific word family (e.g., bat, cat, rat).



Each family is color-coded throughout the series with a different color (e.g., bat, cat, rat).  

Thirty-five common sight words are introduced and previewed the first five times they appear. Sight words are distinguished by black type.



Displaying Nell.png

I love how everything is color-coded. This definitely helps my kiddos because I color-code as well when working with word families!

Displaying photo 1.PNG 

It also provides various ways that you can use this in the classroom or at home!



Before you download please make sure you have iOS 6.0 or later (or else it won't work!)

And guess what!! They are letting me give ONE away to ONE lucky person!! How cool! I'm also throwing in my Buggy Measuring!





So easy to enter! Just follow our FB pages!! (I've also added a new fan freebie, but you have to like my page to grab it!)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Friday, April 18, 2014

Five For Friday!!

Yay! I made it on a Friday. And not only that....it's now MY Spring Break! I've been so jealous of all of you who have already had your break...ours is so late this year. But now it's here and I'm in need of a nap. A full moon + last week before break....cray-cray children! :)

The week before spring break for teachers..... Two words: CROWD CONTROL. 

Now it's Five For Friday time!  


                                    
 




We worked in "eggy" stations this week! 

Crack open a egg and clap out the number of syllables of each picture. Sort in the basket.

 Easter Egg Math.


Making words


 

Every year we dye Easter eggs. 




 

We played a math review game on the Mimio. The students are split into two teams. They click on a bunny and a question comes up. If they get it right, they can put their team picture on that bunny. The team with the most wins. 

Grab it over at Mimio Connect
 





We had an Easter Hat Parade at school today!
 

We had an egg hunt too....but somehow...my pics are gone! :(

 

I'm featured over at Greg's blog! And we're having a little giveaway!!

SSK




I'm also having a 25% off sale over at Teacher's Notebook. They are including an extra 10% off at check out!! No code needed!


 
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/nickit


These items and more are on sale!



 

Sunday, April 13, 2014

It's a Sunday Catch-Up!

I'm such a terrible blogger. I really don't have a lot to blog about considering I only worked two days last week. I have had a few doc appointments to try and get some things figured out. (Here's to hoping insurance pays it all! :/  LOL) 

All is well just been a rough past couple of weeks. So in saying that, I don't have a lot to share. 

I have been creating like crazy....b/c well...what else is there to do when sitting in the doctor's office for hours on end three days a week! Take a laptop and get to work! :) I'll share some new stuff at the bottom of the post.

Here's a few things that we did do last week when I was there.

Addition problems using these awesome glittery eggs and plastic flowers I found at the Dollar Tree. 




Middle sounds practice in small groups. This is my Monkeying Around With Middle Sounds sheet from my Middle Sounds Mayhem pack.
 


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Middle-Sounds-Mayhem-1183425


And here are a few new things that I worked on last week. If you aren't a follower of my Facebook page---you should become one. I offered up one of these activities as a flash freebie last week. You never know when I might do this!


I think this has to be my most favorite ever!!! Use a fly swatter ruler to measure various bugs and other items. Recording sheet is included. I LOVE my followers. Check out this awesome feedback I received when I offered this up as a flash freebie! And they were all so fun to read! Click on the picture to check it out!




And of course...it's that time of the year for life cycle fun! :)


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lift-Learn-Frog-Life-Cycle-1202210

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lift-Learn-Butterfly-Life-Cycle-1202218 

 Click on the covers to check them out!

They are flip books. You create the cover and there are two versions for the life cycle (one with words and one with numbers for those littles who need to match numbers). There is also two pages to write about the life cycle---each page has a different type of writing line to use.

Each page is part of the flip book. Once the pages are created, you put the pages together and you are done!
 


Please excuse how bad the gluing looks. I had NO glue stick! LOL I was pouring glue out of a bottle to get my pictures on. Grrrr....

 

I will be back at work next week ALL week and then FINALLY spring break! :) More pictures to come next week with all of the fun we will be having!

 

Monday, April 7, 2014

Bumblebees & A Winner

We've been studying insects and other bugs this past week. We started off talking about what an insect is and how we know that it's an insect.

We spent some time learning about bees and my students this year LOVE crafts. So of course after spent time studying this insect, they said...where's the craft? 

I've been making this bee for a while now. I don't have a pattern because honestly you really don't need one. I draw two different size circles on yellow. The students cut the circles out and add their own stripes, antennae, and faces. We use wax paper for the wings. 



 

I forgot to take a picture of all of the bees once they were hung up but oh so cute! And of course, we tied in writing after completing a tree map about bees.

 I like the bees. The bees are happy. The bees are outside.

 Bees can fly. They are black and yellow. They sting. Bees have a hive.


 I like the bees. The bees are nice they go buzz. They are black and they are yellow.

 Bees can fly. Bees have six legs. Bees have wings. Bees are black and yellow. Bees can sting. Bees have hives.


We also watched a video about bees.




I finally picked a winner (sorry!!) from my Middle Sounds Mayhem giveaway!!

Congratulations Marianne!! Check your email!