Dinosaurs Galore!

We have loved learning about dinosaurs the past two weeks---me especially. This is such a fun theme to teach--the kiddos are into it, I see serious improvement in their writing (mainly because they like the topic) and it's just fun!!

Here's a peek at what we've been up to---fantabulous writing!!

My dinosaur eats meat. Dinos are big. Dinos have sharp teeth. Dinos can run. Dinos have two legs.

(Check out the arms on that T-Rex---funny!)

          My dinosaur is big. My dinosaur have two legs. My dinosaur is brown.

                         (That pink item is a piece of meat!)

       Dinosaurs can lay babies (lol) also they can be reptiles. 

                           They are animals.

 

                                                     Dinosaurs can walk. Dinosaurs eat meat. 
                                                           Dinosaurs are creatures.

I was so excited when I saw these writings plus the others I didn't take pictures of. My kiddos are doing great. I love their inventive spelling (the word dinosaur is up everywhere in the room) and how they reference the room for words that they know are available.

Today we learned about Paleontologists and what their jobs are. Of course the dinosaur poop was the biggest hit. 

 

Then we used some of Deanna Jump's Dinosaur Unit and created out own T-Rex fossils and then used chocolate chip cookies to excavate fossils.

  I think my little T-Rex in the middle had back problems before he became a fossil.

    Unfortunately this paleontologist in the making broke the rock and the fossils within it.
 

 

But this dear kiddo was intent on digging out those fossils without breaking anything.

The kiddos really enjoyed these activities as did I. 

Don't forget to check out my Dino-Families activity pack to use when reviewing word families.

 

You can grab it here from TPT or here on TN. 

 

   

   

Getting Aquainted Linky and Giveaways

Don't forget to enter Jessica's giveaway over at Fun in PreK-1!!! She's reached 100 followers and is offering up 15 awesome prizes from some amazing bloggers and I'm so thankful that she asked me to be a part of it!! 

Click on the picture to take you there!

 

I saw this awesome linky party over at Flying Into First Grade and it's a great way to get to know the awesome bloggers out there!!

  

The rules for this linky party are as follows: Share 3 things about yourself that you like or like to do using your initials.

Well don't laugh but my initials are ANT....haha I know I know.

A---Apple Juice and Apple Ipad
 
 Hooked on apple juice right now...I go through spells for juice--apple, orange, grape...now it's apple.

And of course the Apple Ipad---it's not mine, it's my classroom's but I love it and so do the kiddos.

   

N---New Girl..I Love This Show!!
 
 
T---Teacher

Of course...I've always wanted to be one (some days I do question this) but I do love my job

 
 

Link up to get acquainted!!!

Numbers in Base Ten + Giveaways! (and a freebie)

Giveaways galore!!! First of all check out Jessica's 100 follower giveaway over at Fun in PreK-1 and enter to win 15 awesome prizes from some amazing bloggers!!!
 Click on the picture to take you to her rafflecopter and make sure you enter!!!

 

The second giveaway is from Jivey over at Ideas by Jivey. She has reached 200 followers and is offering up 3 amazing giveaways!!! She's giving away $25 to spend at her store, $20 to spend at Scholastic and one of those Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpeners that everyone is raving about. You can enter all three of her giveaways!! Click on the picture to take you there.





Ok--decomposing numbers...ugh...totally not fun for my kinders. But they have caught on really quick to this concept!! I'm so excited...last week there was a lot of hooorahhh, awesomes, and high-fiving going on. It's crazy to get so excited about something like this but woooh this is a little hard for some!

First of all...the black mats are shelf liners cut up. I use these, not only to keep the materials quiet, but to keep their stuff organized. They are a busy bunch.

I decided to use the overhead tens and ones. They worked great and the kiddos enjoyed them. 

 













You can see in the picture above some smiley face counters as well. I ran out of the ones counters for the overhead so we made do with those. Then we played this spin and cover game. I'm not sure where I got it from, so if you know let me know!

The kiddos would spin and it might would say 1 ten and 2 ones and they had to figure out what number that was by making it with their counters. Then we covered up the number on the board.

I would also show a number on a card and have them make that number. We did these activities a couple of times this week. I teach my math in small groups so this was a great way to differentiate for that lower group (who did VERY well!!!).

Here's a little something I created for you. Click on the picture to take to Google Docs. 

Giveaway!!!

My buddy Jessica over at Fun in PreK-1 has reached 100 followers and she's having a HUGE giveaway that I'm so lucky to be a part of!!!

Make sure you click on the picture to take you to the giveaway. The rafflecopter code isn't working for me so head over there to enter!!!

There are 15 amazing prizes up for grabs!!!
 

 

St. Patrick's Day Link Up

I'm linking up with Sharing Kindergarten and her St. Patrick's Day product linky party.





Make sure you check out the party and grab up all the stuff you can to celebrate this day of green!! 

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day. In our classroom, my little leprechaun friend named "Pat" likes to cause quite a bit of mischief leading up to the big day. I talk about leprechauns and we read books and then I begin discussing "Pat". I talk about how he likes to run around and hide in the school, finding classrooms and chair pockets that are not neat and make it even more messy!

The kiddos then begin to "spot" him all over the school as we are traveling to different areas. It causes quite a stir but seems to help with behavior. "Pat" only visits classrooms and leaves treats (sometimes) for those little ones who are on their best. 

In the past, he has made quite a mess in the room but did leave us some "magic" pudding that began white but turned green as milk was poured in. I haven't introduced "Pat" yet to the kiddos this year but I plan on doing this next week. We shall see what he has in store for this class! :)

So here is my contribution to the linky party--my Shamrock Number Practice.

Click on the picture to grab it up from my Teacher Notebook store (it's on TPT too). It's a FREEBIE!! :) Enjoy!  

Dinosaur and Mailbox randomness

So my post that I promised on Sunday about my Mailbox finds...well here it is. I'm just swamped and to be completely honest, I have no desire to blog when I get home...I look around at other stuff. Then I fall out. 

Ah it is what it is---I see a nice restful day in my future soon. 
 
Anyhoo--the other day I received an email from TheMailbox.com about a huge sale they were having where if you buy 1 theme kit, you get 4 free. I was like yeh right...there's gotta be a catch, I'll look at it later.

Well later came and I looked. WOW!! What a deal it was. The theme kits are normally priced $19.95 but they were discounted down to $10 and if you bought 1, you picked 4 free!!!! So here's what I got!

 I bought 4 Kindergarten kits which included: 
Pumpkins and Leaves
Farm and Pond
Ocean and Weather
Apples and Dinosaurs

And one First Grade Kit:
Penguins and Solar System

Here are a couple of activities from the Apples and Dinosaurs Kit. I LOVE how they are color coded and self-checking!!!!

 

I'm still cutting out activities (they come laminated as well---did I mention that bit of good news??). So these are the pictures that I have but my kiddos have been using the Dinosaur activities with my assistant in her small groups as a review and it's been a great little quick activity to use.

I'm so excited b/c I bought all of those kits for $17!!!! Once I cut out more activities and get them organized I'll post more pictures. 

I just posted up on my TN shop and my TPT shop this quick little activity for word families.

 The first person to comment and leave their email can grab this activity up!! 

This activity is for words families that include:

at

am

op

ig

en

og

Also included:

ing

ail

ack

ake

est

ain

It comes with 2 recording sheets to record the words after they are sorted out.

It also comes with cut and paste activity sheets for sorting the word families.

We are loving learning about dinosaurs. More pictures and activities to come this week!!  

Currently

Hard to believe it's March already. I'm kinda glad February is over though---it's wayyy too busy and too short to be able to do everything that is needed to be done. It kinda wears me out. Fun but tiring. 

But now March is here and for me that means--Dinosaurs, Weather, and Spring Break. Who is ready for that?? Me me me me! If only it was sooner rather than later....but oh well just a few more weeks---I think I can I think I can....

Here are a couple of things we did this week (I'm such a bad picture taker---I always forget) but here's what I've got.

Of course we honored someone's birthday yesterday. I didn't really take any pictures of all of that because of all the hoopla surrounding their copyrights and what not but we watched a couple of short videos, made hats, read LOTS and LOTS of books, and practiced making words with word families and working a lot on rhyming activities.

The first couple of pictures are from where we practiced making -at words. I gave each student a piece of foam to use as their work mat. They also were given a bag of letters and we practiced making words. They do very well with this so this was mainly a review. 

This picture is from a rhyming work station. The students had to match the three rhyming cars. I found this activity at the Dollar Tree a few years ago.

This word family activity is a new one that I bought when our classrooms were given some extra money to spend. The students had to match the word family cards to the correct strip. 

Those are just a few pictures...sorry there's not more! I'll try to remember next week to take more once we begin our Dinosaur unit.

Here is my March currently.

I turned on HGTV because Bath Crashers was on earlier and haven't changed the channel. I wish one of them would come crash my house...we need some updates.

This has to be like the 3rd Saturday in a row that I haven't done anything particular besides school and house work. Been kinda nice....

But again...is this laziness helping me?? I really should do um....hmm...what can I do?? I don't have anywhere to go right now....nothing I need to spend money on....no extra money to spend....so nah I'll just be lazy!! :)

I have always wanted to learn how to make clip art and doodles but I'm unsure of what programs I would need. I did download sketchbook express on the ipad but not sure if that's what I need.....ahhh the joys of learning all of this technology.

Can we make Monday an official weekend day??

Ok--so N is hard to come up with....

but yes I like nice people---just be nice it'll go along way

Neatness....it helps 

Negativity---downer

Check back tomorrow----possibly a freebie and to see my new learning centers that I bought for a STEAL from Mailbox!!!!