Letter K~

This week we worked on the Letter "K", we made kites to hang on our alphabet wall in the hall.  We used oil pastels for the 1st time this year, the students did a great job! 

Sticker Book~ Freebie

I created an assessment tool that we use after each unit in our "Wonders" reading series.  If the student masters the popcorn word they get to pick out a sticker to put next to the word! They Love This!
Mcgraw Hill Wonders Sight Word Sticker Book

More Popcorn Words~

At the beginning of the year I make each student an envelope to hold their popcorn words.  I send it home every monday with the popcorn words we have learned and with our new word for the week.  The students practice their words at home and bring their envelopes back to school on Thursday so the envelope can be updated for the next week!

 

Go Away, Big Green Monster!~

Around Halloween I read "Go Away, Big Green Monster!"  This is one of my favorite books to read close to Halloween.  The students really like it too!  We then made our own Big Green Monsters!!  I did not give them a pattern, we used our "listening ears" to make our own variation of what we thought the monster looked like.  It's fun to see how different each monster was!

Door Decorations~

For the past 2 years our elementary school decided that all the teachers should decorate their doors for Christmas.  Last year I did a gingerbread house, but this year I decided on an Igloo.  I figured if it is winter related I could leave it up through January.  Plus we make an igloo out of milk jugs after Christmas, so I wanted this to be my theme.  I'm not completely finished yet, but these are some of the pictures so far.  

My 1st Teachers Pay Teachers Item!

I'm so excited that I have finally created a Teacherspayteachers item!  I try to keep my classroom very organized, but that doesn't always happen.  :)  I was hoping this would help other teachers!!!

Check it out!
Giraffe Binder Covers and Spines

Field Trip

We were lucky enough to get to take a field trip to Fargo on October, 8th.  We went to "Rapunzel and Her Dragon" as MSUM.  The students loved it!!  Then we headed over to the Fargo Air Museum for a picnic with the planes and a tour of all the neat planes.  

We had too much fun!

The Mayflower Project~

We finished our Thanksgiving art project today.  The students loved making themselves into pilgrims.  They were pretty excited to "set sail".  I ran out of room on The Mayflower so I decided to make Plymouth Rock near The Mayflower.  

Plymouth Rock 

The Daily 5~

This is my first year using the daily 5, but I'm excited to say it is going well.  I have only introduced read to self and read to someone.  Our days are jam packed and we haven't had a lot of time to learn all 5.  My students are rocking at reading to themselves.  Next week I plan to introduce listen to reading.  Wish me luck.

 These are the book boxes we use.  I have been putting different leveled readers in their book boxes daily.  I have all my books leveled by Lexile and AR levels.  I also use books from our reading series "Wonders".

Thanksgiving~

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is almost here!!! In less then a week it will be here (kind of crept up on me).  We have been talking about the Pilgrims, Indians, and the Mayflower.  We even watched Charlie Brown's The Mayflower Voyagers.    We have been lucky enough to have this awesome Teepee in our room for about a week now.  Our Kindergarten aid brought this in for us to use.  We use it during rest time, daily 5, and center time.

We also started an art project today.  We are making ourselves into pilgrims.  When we are done we are going to set sail in the Mayflower.  I will post more pictures when we set sail!

Popcorn Words

In my classroom we call our sight words "popcorn words".  I like this name because the words should just POP when we see them.  We have a bulletin board where we practice our words and can see them easily from our desks.  We use the sight words from our reading series.  We just recently started "Wonders" by McGraw-Hill.  Each week 1 new popcorn word is added to our list.  

 I also recently made a magnetic board to hang on our door.  We practice our weekly popcorn word every time we leave our room.  I think this is good practice through out the day.

Letter I~

I'm a little behind.  We worked on the letter "I" last week for our letter of the week.  We made ice cream for our art project.  I used 1/2 glue 1/2 shaving cream mixed with paint to make it stand out more and look like actual ice cream.  The mixture makes it puffier than usual paint.  We finished with a cherry on top! :)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

One of my favorite books is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.  I always do a unit in the fall with my class.  I started the year creating a coconut tree for our reading corner.  I got the idea from pinterest.  I used an old carpet roll and covered it with brown butcher paper.  Then I used an umbrella and covered it with green butcher paper leaves.  Make sure you start from the bottom and work your way to the inside of the umbrella.  I started from the middle and went out and I had to make it twice.  I then used foam letters I bought at Michaels to decorate the trunk of the tree.  I used a Christmas tree stand to make the tree stay upright.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree!