Ocean-y Beginnings & a freebie

We've started our ocean unit this week and already having a blast! We passed around seashells and was able to touch real sand from the beach. Many of my students haven't been exposed to this before so they were in awe of what I had available for them to see and feel.

 

We also labeled an ocean scene to help us during our writing time!

 

The next morning when they arrived at school, our ocean friends had shown up! I love having large animals around the room so students can see what they look like and we can add facts to them to create anchor charts. 

I also wanted my students to see what real-life ocean animals look like, before we even start talking about specific sea creatures. So I pulled up the Monterey Bay Aquarium Open Sea Cam.



Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream


We also watched the live feeding of the fish in the Kelp Forest Cam!!
You are able to actually hear the diver talk and explain what he is doing! I think I was more excited than the kiddos!!! 

Here's a picture I took of what it looked like!!

They do other feedings too for the sea otters, the open sea cam, and much much more. If you aren't familiar with this aquarium, you should become familiar with it!! It's soo awesome. One of my favorites to use each year.


After all of this fun, we listened to Rainbow Fish and then we made our own Rainbow Fish!

This is one of my favorite themes to teach so I can't wait to show you more!!



Here's a Memorial Day freebie I made last year......click to grab it!

 

If I Was a Dinosaur....

As promised from yesterday's post, I'm back with pictures from my kiddos dinosaur writing. We wrote a lot about dinosaurs the last two weeks but one of our favorite writings was when they talked about what they would do if they were a dinosaur.

I made a huge chart (no picture sorry) that said If I was a dinosaur.....and had boxes that said live, eat, look, etc.

I modeled first by saying..if I was a dinosaur I would be green, have spikes, 4 legs. I would live near the water and eat fish. 

Then I modeled how to follow what we wrote and create my picture. After, I modeled how to write each sentence.

The kiddos did great!! 

 If I was a dinosaur, I will live in the woods. I will be green.

 If I was a dinosaur, I would eat fish and I would eat another dinosaur. I go to the woods. I would be red. 

 If I was a dinosaur, I would be purple. I would have nine legs. (Whoa!)

 If I was a dinosaur, I would be yellow. I would have four legs. I would have four teeth. I would have sharp teeth. (She finished on the back---check out those teeth!)

 How cute!!!

 (This kid can spell and read anything you give him---so everything is spelled correctly. No inventive spelling here!)  He would live by the playground and be heavy!

I created a little sheet for you. Click on the picture to grab it!

 

 

March Currently & March Family Project

Don't you hate it when you have TONS of pictures that you took of a really awesome activity and you get home and you didn't save them!?! Grr....I'll have to blog tomorrow about our final Black History project that we did last week. It was soooo fun! And turned out great!

But it's March now. Currently Time!
I love Farley's new design!!! Especially the colors!

 

Yes--I am a fan of The Walking Dead. Who knew?! It all started when the hubs and I could NOT figure out what the big deal about this whole zombie thing was. Until last year--a day of nothing on TV, it was raining and gloomy. So let's look at Netflix----well let's try out one episode. Which led into the first two seasons watched that entire week. Hooked. Yes. 

 I did nothing today. Battling a horrific headache since last night. So nothing today. 

 I take that back---I did walk the dog because it was 70 degrees today. B-E-A-Utiful!! Tomorrow will start off in the 60s and be in the 30s by lunch. Ugh. Over it!

I'm wanting some new shoes. Particularly navy or black.

And I need to finish some projects that I've started. And the ones that are in my head that I haven't quite begun yet. 

Burlap, hot glue, paint. Whatcha think?


This month I wanted to do a fun family project. I hate homework. I give it to the kids. It never gets returned, the parents do it for them, and the list goes on. But when I do a family project....it's soooo much better!! And a lot less paper! ;)

So our project this month is of course---building a leprechaun trap. I did this one year for an OBSERVATION! With an intern. Oh my goodness----it was sooo fun! So why not let the parents get involved.

In our room--our little guy is named Pat. He's been around for years. I talk about him a lot. And then stuff seems to happen (kinda like with Charlie---our Elf on the Shelf). 

Here's the letter I'm sending home as well as the writing paper. I left it blank in the area for the name, as well as for the date you would want it returned.


Click on the picture to grab it up!! 

Currently & a Freebie

Happy New Year!!!! Can you believe it's 2014!!! Wow--where has the time gone? And you know it's time for Farley's Currently!

Listening---We're watching What Happens in Vegas---such a fun movie.

Loving---I was able to rest quite a bit this past week. In fact, just this week, I rarely left the couch except to walk the dog or clean a little. Quite nice.

Thinking--Seriously---who came up with the idea that we should go back to school on a Thursday--the day AFTER a holiday??? ugh.

Wanting---The rest of the week off----is that too much to ask for? :)

Needing--- 2014 to have some major breakthroughs in quite a few areas of our lives....holding onto His promises....

Memory/Tradition---This was the first Christmas Eve in forever that the hubs didn't have to work (like 8 years or more??). It was so nice to spend the whole day that day with him!



I posted up this little freebie last year around this time---thought you might would like to grab it up if you haven't already. Click the pic.

 

And don't forget about my New Year Sale!!

Happening over at my TPT store until tomorrow!! 20% off everything.

 

 

Currently & A Special Delivery

December sort of snuck (why does spell check want to fix this word?) up on me yesterday! Did a blog post and totally forgot about Currently. How did that happen??

Here it goes!

 

Listening----We are watching The Santa Clause (you know the one with Tim Allen) Such a cute movie.

Loving---This time of year. Pretty self explanatory. I love the reason for the season, the lights, the sounds, the sugar cookies and all other kinds of goodies....it's just fun! :)

Thinking--Whew I have a lot to do. We still haven't decorated. It's kind of hard to get the stuff out of the attic (and I can not do it by myself) and the hubby has messed up his back. So who knows if we will even get a tree up. Bummer. But I still have tons of other stuff I need to get done. It's the most busiest time of the year! :) 

Wanting--We have some stuff going on that I wish would hurry up and get figured out. Waiting is sort of stressful....

Needing--We usually have our kids make the applesauce and cinnamon ornaments for their parents. But this year..I kind of want to do something else (without necessarily spending any money...ugh) but wondering what else to do?! Any good suggestions??

Favorite Traditions---This one was hard. But I love watching all of the holiday movies that are on. I also love going to visit all of my family and being able to see everyone. It's hectic  but it's fun!

Today we had a special delivery show up straight from the North Pole. (I have no idea how our friend came up with the address for Santa.....)

 

I enlisted one of our librarians to help out. She brought in the package and it was freezing cold! (I had no idea my IA was taking these lovely pics of me...LOL what a face. I decided not to even post the other one! LOL)

 

     

They wanted to be able to feel how cold it was. I have never seen my kiddos so excited. It was all I could do not to crack up laughing.

And of course they were able to all help open the present. One of them said, "I like Santa. He is so nice." 

 

Then of course we read the story. 

And they all were able to pick names. Lister? Have no idea where that came from. 
 

 Once votes were cast....Charlie it is. So our friend Charlie will be up to some stuff I'm quite sure. Can't wait to share it all with you!


And don't forget my little giveaway for my Gingerbread Pack.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



And another little freebie for you for the holidays. Leave some love if you grab it!

 

Where Did October Go? Pumpkins and More!

This past week was a blur! I'm so glad that tomorrow is a teacher workday (and it's a workday with NO meetings!) I have lots I want to do tomorrow in my room, organize math stations, clean, organize, clean.....you know...that stuff! :)

Last week was a busy busy busy one...so here are some pictures of some things we did. 

This is our display wall. I love displaying their work like this....adds a little variety to the classroom. Here are our bats (we hung a few upside down!), candy corn man, and silly pumpkin projects. (You can see one spider in there...he sort of looks like a jelly fish!)

A close up of a few of our silly pumpkins! I love all of the eyes on the left pumpkin.

 

My students worked on the pumpkin project while I was at a workshop. Not only was I at this workshop...but another teacher and I were the ones LEADING the workshop. This was a totally new experience for me. I have never be in "charge" of a training before. Totally out of my comfort zone...I can speak in front of kiddos all day...not adults. But I had a blast. 

Donna (the other K teacher--if you are reading this Donna--HI!! :) and I had a lot of fun planning this workshop for the Pre-K teachers in the county about effective strategies to use in helping their students' transition to Kindergarten. We also provided TONS of resources to use in the classroom that aligned with the Common Core, as well as some fun make and take, grab and go activities.

Here are a few pictures..mostly me talking! LOL (Don't you love Donna's scarecrow labeling in the background!!??)

 

 Not feeling how the camera makes me look! LOL Stand up straight Nic!!

Not sure what we were chatting about here but it must've been something good!! They were making their own pumpkin labeling activity.

 

Back in the classroom---we also worked on sequencing the life cycle of a pumpkin. 

 

 Any good ideas on cleaning this tile board?? Expo marker cleaner doesn't do it justice.

Found these small orange paper plates at the Target dollar spot. I knew they would make great pumpkins. So I used the pumpkin life cycle and shrunk it down to 50% to fit the plates. I numbered the plates to help students "see" what to do. So once we made it on the board it helped those visual learners. 
 

 

I found the pumpkin life cycle cards in this pack by Nicole Ricca:

 

Here's a little freebie for you to help you finish out the last week of October! Click on the picture to grab it. Three different themes: Spooky, Monster, and Trick or Treat.