Fun in PreK-1 & Kinder

I've totally lost count of how many weeks we've been in school!  All I know is the 100th day is drawing closer and I'm not ready... report cards are due in 1 1/2 weeks and I'm not ready... need to schedule an observation and I don't feel ready... (I'm sensing a theme here.  Seems like there's always too much to do!) Here's a look at some the things I actually LIKE to do in January... :) Shared Writing This week we learned the sight word "in" and made a list.  Look at all those kindie sentences!  :) Word Work Thank goodness for Marsha's differentiated activities, I couldn't do Daily 5 without her! Poetry My class loved this cute poem!  We had fun focusing on rhyming words and searching through to find all our sight words.  After reading the poem, we illustrate it and keep our poetry journals in our Daily 5 book baskets. Mitten Retelling Fine Motor Craft You can actually grab this activity for FREE from Jan ...

Happy Friday everyone!  Wow, these last two weeks have gone by so fast!  I have been working most of the time, but I was able to get lots more done than usual due to my smaller class size.  Read on for ideas and fabulous Friday Freebies! As January comes we are moving into Transportation, but I know many of my friends will be doing Winter and Winter Animals and so on.  (Yes, you read right... a whole MONTH on transportation.  One week for Holidays Around the World, but a whole month for Transportation.  I don't understand our curriculum!)  Here's some of the highlights of our winter weeks (with some New Year's stuff mixed in): Our New Year's Resolutions (special learning wishes) and party hats.  :) Art: New Year's Fireworks Perhaps it goes without saying, but we did lots of art projects these past few weeks!  I loved their New Year's fireworks.  First they used different colored crayons to draw fireworks on blac...

Saturday is here and Christmas Break has begun!  Well, in my case it's a 4 day weekend, but I'll take it.  I confess I am very jealous of my peers right now that get a two week break.  But I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a good break, and I can't wait to see the exciting stuff you create!  :) What a busy week it has been!  Between practicing for the Holiday Song Program, doing the Holiday Song Program, recovering from the Holiday Song Program, I'm not sure how we accomplished anything at all!  But accomplish we did, and largely thanks to you, my wonderful fellow blogger teachers!  I am so thankful for the great resources you make and share, they were a lifesaver this week for sure!  Here's a look at our week of Holiday Customs Around the World: Art Snowflake Craft Stick Ornaments (Parent Gift) These turned out so great!  I poured some craft (tacky) glue a bowl and they used Q-tips to place glue onto their ge...

Happy Friday  Saturday!  Sorry this post is late, but I got my laptop in the mail yesterday!  Yay!  I couldn't wait to turn it on and start to learn how to use the new Windows 8, which (as you could have predicted) was an exercise in utter frustration.  Why are you only able to properly install Google Chrome through the desktop rather than the Start Screen?  Why isn't there a Facebook or Pinterest app for Windows 8?  And why is Google Chrome insisting that the Forever 21 website is in Dutch?  :) Anyways, this week our theme was Week in Review.  I decided we were going to carry on with Thanksgiving a bit, rather than spend one day for each theme we had this month.  I had several kids absent last week due to sickness or vacation, so it worked out pretty well.  I also integrated nutrition and the five senses back in, but in the context of Thanksgiving dinner! We started the week by sharing our Thanksgivings (which was a lengthy pro...