Happy Halloween!!

It's almost Halloween and there are some amazing products over at TpT.  Use the button above to go to my store...or use this link to see some other great bloggers having sales this weekend!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

OOOOh!  Spiders!!
What do you know about spiders?  Well, my kindergarteners knew a lot about these amazing creatures!  On Tuesday we brainstormed all of the things we knew about spiders.  I wrote each sentence on a colored circle.  Later in the day we added heads and legs to our spider bodies and then attached them with Sticky Tack to the giant web I had painted ahead of time.  They are so funny! I had the web on top of our Reading Hut for about 2 weeks and not one child mentioned it to me.  I'm not sure if they even saw it.  And, I thought they were so observant, lol.  Below are pictures of our "What I Know About Spiders..." web.  Wowie, wow, wow!! This week will be an adventure in the life of spiders.  So many exciting and interesting things to learn!  

 Here is a close up of one of our spiders!

"Cats"

Here are just a few of cats from our project with our 3rd grade buddies.  This activity was actually a glyph from one of the fabulous units I purchased on TpT.  Thanks for such wonderful ideas.  Each is so different.  The eye color was determined by if the child had a cat at home or not.  If they liked bumble gum better than lollipops their cats were given teeth. They are so creative!  I love it!

Didn't they turn out cute?

 

 

"Fire!  Stop, Drop and Roll"

This past week we learned all about fire safety.  As one of our activities each child dressed in turnout gear.  Below are the pages of our book that we made.  Sorry about there being so many, but I didn't want to leave anyone out!  Aren't these precious?!

Observation!  Yikes!

Hi All,

I'm being formally observed for the first time in like 20 years!  Oh, boy!  I know it isn't a big deal, but I'm still a little nervous.  I'm just glad I've had a few weeks with my little kindergarteners before the big day!  This year our school district is focusing on Math Common Core.  Therefore, my first observation is going to be a Math lesson.  We've been doing Math Wall activities since the first day of school, so this will be part of my lesson on Monday.  We've also been doing Math Talk pictures.  If you've never used Math Talk it is amazing.  The children observe different pictures looking for patterns, creating and sharing their own math stories or mathematical thinking.  We work on number bonds, counting by 2's, 3's, etc. during our Math Talk time.  Below is the picture we will be using for our Math Talk lesson on Monday.

For this particular lesson I'm also introducing our "Ten-Frame" work mats.  The children have been using ten-frames daily on our Math Wall activities, but this will be the first time they have used a mat to aid them in solving a CGI story problem.  I'm very excited to see how it goes!!  I'm adding our work mats to my TPT store.  So, if you're interested stop on over.  Here are a sample of a few!  Have a great day!!

3rd Grade Buddies!!

We had our first visit with our 3rd Grade Buddies from Mr. VanHouten's class this past Friday.  They came in to help us with our first painting project.  It was the first step for our Halloween cat glyph.  Check out our pictures below! 

Kole and Bradley painting their plates for our cat glyph!

Logan and his big brother Maddox busy painting the cat.  

And, Natalie and Selena working together.

Ethan and his sister Emma working together.  Also, Johnny met a new friend, Dylan.  Miss Beadles is assisting Jacob while they all work on their cats and paper plates.

Hi Will and Sydney!!! Thank you Mr. V. and students for being our buddies this year!!

This past week we spent time learning about Christopher Columbus!  He sailed the ocean blue in 1492.  The boys and girls learned many interesting facts about Columbus.  This week we will be learning all about "Fire Safety".  Please talk to your children about where your meeting place might be if your house should ever catch on fire!