I just put up our hot air balloons!

They make the classroom look so cheerful!

Each balloon has writing on them..Up. up. up! I see the… We go over the … I’m having a fun day!

Our Rainbow Wishes!

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I know March is coming to an end but my little Leprechaun quilt makes me feel so happy!

Has Your Leprechaun Moved In Yet? Plus a Fun St. Patrick's Day Freebie!

During literacy centers this week my little leprechauns played this fun sight word game. Each child picks a friend to play with and they take turns spinning, reading and coloring the word on the coin in the leprechaun’s pot. The first friend to fill their pot with gold is the winner! Click here for this activity.

Using a pencil and a paper clip children take turns spinning for a word on the gold coins!

We also made this fun little napkin book. The pictures to glue on your napkin book are included with the link above !

With all this talk of leprechauns our favorite leprechaun “Paddy” started moving in his furniture yesterday! I sure hope we can catch him before St. Patrick's Day!

Thank you Chicago! Dr. Suess’ “Thing One” and some Rhyming Fun!

Chicago Facebook Freebie

These are our darling “Thing one –25” hats! My team partner saw them from a friend and I had to make them too!

We wore them all day in celebration of Read Across America. During MATH we practiced addition using our hats. For example: we added Thing 6 and Thing 4 and found Thing Ten! We decomposed Thing 15 into Thing 10 and Thing 5!

After lunch in honor of Dr. Seuss we practiced rhyming with our graham cracker and blue frosting erasable-edible boards. So Fun! (We used a popsicle stick for a writing tool).

TPT Sale Going on Now!

WOW! 3 million teachers on TPT. That is truly amazing. I am thrilled to part of this wonderful group.  I can hardly wait to shopping myself! Use the Promo code TPT3 at my store to get 28% off Starting tomorrow (Thursday) and goes through Friday. Actually you can start shopping at 12:01 EST!

Got Napkins? And a Freebie!

We made these darling little napkin books last week. I had them prepped for Valentines week but the the week was too short to get them done. Napkin books are great activities for your independent literacy centers.

Below are a few samples. My Kiddos love doing these fun books!

Start saving those party napkins! 

Here is a napkin book cut and paste for St. Patrick's Day. My local grocery store has ton’s of napkins displayed now! Happy Sunday! Kim

Going a Little “Birdie” Plus paper Mache Pattern freebie!

These are some “smart little Quackers who love to subtract”

Our little duckies have a message in their tummies about ducklings.

We went on a field trip to Centennial Farms I got to hold chicks!

Happy Hen addition facts.

These are our paper mache roosters and hens for open house.

They are made out of foam core and then hot glued to a dowel and wooden block. We use paper towels (The thick school kind) and starch to paper mache. I get a parent volunteer to cut them out for me. Thank you so much Mr. Tello!  Next we paint them a solid color then add polka dots the next day. I have my parent volunteers add felt beaks and crowns with hot glue. The feathers on the sides are my kiddo’s hands cut from construction paper.Here is the pattern for the Hens and Roosters! Enjoy

3 Cheers for Readers Workshop and My Dear Friend Kim Adsit!

This  is a THANK YOU BLOG to my AMAZING friend Kim Adsit from our K Team and especially ME! We dove into Reader’s Workshop last spring  and made it through the first of Kim’s FANTASTIC units Blasting off with Readers Workshop and part way through Powerful Partnerships. My teammate Charlyn calls Kim’s units “her bible.” Everything is ready for you to be successful down to the prompts, anchor chart, materials and teacher tips.

Above my kiddos are “shopping” for their
“Good Fit” books!”Private Reading” is going strong! Partner Reading! AWESOME! My children love this and so do I!   I can meet with individuals and check their progress easily.

Kim’s next unit Powerful Partnerships teaches children how to read together, and share information about what they have read. Our Poetry Journals and Poetry Bonus Pack are a favorite for shared reading. LOVE IT ALL!

We finished Powerful Partners and are so excited our wonderful Principal Mr. B. gave us a half day sub so we could prep our new anchor charts for “Digging Deeper.”
I am so blessed to have such a dedicated team to work with. We all worked together and got three charts ready. We begin tomorrow!

Bottom line if you have not tried out these amazing units jump in you won’t be sorry!

Love you Kim A.!

My attempt to make it feel like “Winter” in 80 degree weather and a Freebie!

The weather has been so crazy here in Southern CA. Cold in the morning (well cold for us) then 80 in the afternoon! So here is my attempt to “chill” up the season. I found these at the 99cents store!

Friday we made our Tortilla Snowflakes! Yummy !

We are also doing a little winter writing while wearing our shorts and t-shirts!

Click here for freebie!

It’s a Sale! Little Snowman Fun Freebie! And time to get my mail center going!

Winter is here! Well in just about every state except here in Sunny Southern California! So I thought I’d bring a little touch of snow to my classroom when we return!. My daughter made this darling snow globe as a holiday card at her after school program. I think it is so cute so I’m going to make them when we return. I’m going to make a few changes:

1. A thumb print sun

2. The poem “5 Little Snowmen Fat” on the back!

3. Then my kiddos can write “Let it snow” or “We love snow” on the front instead of Happy Holidays.

Five little snowman pattern link ! Cut a blue circle the same size as the white poem. Children use their handprint to make snowmen, and after they are dry they decorate with colored markers. For fun put white glitter on for the snow balls. I plan on using their thumbprint  in yellow for sunshine! I’ll post pictures when they are done.

January is a fun time to get your kiddos excited about writing Letters to their friends. I have mine already to introduce when we get back from break. I am adding this as one of my literacy center activities. They always love sending and receiving mail!

This Week’s Holly Jolly Literacy Centers!

Santa's Sight Word Sack was a big hit! My Kiddos were excited to take them home to practice their words!

Last week we worked on the “it” family this week the “un”. My little guys are really getting the hang of these rock and roll activities now!

Santa's Sight Word Scramble! On page one unscramble the words, on pages two and three use those words in a sentence!

My Gingerbread Glyphs were finished today. We compared the Gingerbread Man classic story with the Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

Here is the "Key"we used for our glyphs. On the back we wrote about what information the glyph told us.

New Literacy Center fun Pack from KinderbyKim and a Big Cyber Sale!!

I’m so excited I finished my New Holly Jolly Common Core Literacy Center Fun Pack just in time for the big sale!

My new pack includes 9 Literacy Center activities that will get your Kiddos in the Holiday Spirit and reinforce many Common Core skills! Check it out now in my TPT shop!

These fun syllable cards and printable sheet are a sample of one activity you will get in this Literacy Center pack!

Sleigh Bells Ring are you Listening to the vowel sounds you are hearing? Some of my Kiddos really struggle with hearing those vowel sounds so I created this one to practice!

You can never get enough rhyming! So when I purchased thee darling elves from Melonheadz. I had to make this Fun Little Rhyming Elves book. (It is 5 pages of rhymes)

If you are looking for some great activities for Celebrating Holidays Around the World this is a fun Pack too! Monday we will begin our travels I’ll start posting the activities as we visit different countries.