Rocket Addition Worksheet!

We're teaching addition this week and talking about rockets so I made a quick little worksheet that combines the two! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween and FREEBIE!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope that everyone has a great Halloween this year. I know that most of us cringe a bit when Halloween comes in the middle of the week because we know that the kids are going to be a bit CRAZY for the rest of the week, but I have to say that I really enjoyed today! It has been so much fun. I have never been part of a school that does so much for Halloween. My kids dress up, go Trick-or-Treating, get gifts from the principals, and play so many games. It's been a blast!

I'm a baby. I have my baby dolls, a bottle, and a binkie around my nec and I'm so happy! It was really hard to find costumes here so I just used what I had in my closet!

Teacher Star and I all dressed up!

Teacher Star had never dressed up for Halloween before.

Our Morning Exercises!

Teacher Star doing morning exercises!

Getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating!

Look at our stash! SO MUCH CANDY!

Decorations

More Decorations

I just love the sign. I got it off pinterest!

 

 

 

 

This last picture is a photo of the math/art project we did this week. I taught the kids about AB and ABC patterns and we made witch hats using one of those patterns. Then I put them on a picture of each corresponding kid. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved seeing them on the wall. I have attached below the JPG for this project. Just click on it, save it to the desktop and you're good to go! Have fun! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning About Trapezoids!

We are also learning about Trapezoids this week (along with the 5 Senses that we're doing this month). As I was thinking about how to make learning about Trapezoids fun for today I stumbled across this great idea on pinterest:

I absolutely loved this painting and decided that it would work for my kids as a creative art project/math project.

To start out the project I introduced trapezoids; we talked about the shape, what it looks like, how it is different from other shapes we have talked about. Then we did a shape sort with trapezoids, squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles.

During the sort I focused on having the kids tell me what the shapes looked like and how they knew they were different from the trapezoid(s).

Next, I showed them some other modern art that uses shapes to create an image or design.

The kids really enjoyed seeing these images and were excited to make their own modern art using trapezoids. Given our limited time for this activity I used a premade trapezoid paper for the kids. You could have the kids trace their own trapezoids onto paper as well and outline with a black marker, or use this template:

Just click on the image, save it to your computer, and print as you would any normal picture.

Then, I had the kids color it with pastels and I lamanated them for the wall! They looked amazing!

I hope you enjoy this project! I think it turned out pretty great!:)

Love,
Bri

I'm Back! And It's Time For the 5 Senses!!!

OK! OK! I know I need to apolgoize for being absent for the past two months! It's been quite the adjustment moving to Shanghai, China, learning a new school curriculum, working on learning Chinese, and just adjusting to a new life. But I feel like I am finally ready to start blogging again and add all of the fun things I've been doing with my kids over the past two months!

First, let me introduce you to my kids:

This picture was taken after our Family Sports Day this past Saturday! Aren't they so cute!

Next, let me introduce you to my Chinese co-teacher. Her name is Star and she is the best co-teacher I could ever hope for!

We're so excited that Sports Day is over!

Aren't we cute!

Star is so awesome!

The K1 Teaching Team! (And one of our kids from the other class!)

This month we are talking about the 5 Senses and I have a ton of stuff to put up! Unfortunately, I only have a few minutes this morning so I'm only going to add some of things I've been doing for the Sense of Hearing. Later this week I will add things for the Sense of Smell and the Sense of Touch!
We just started the Sense of Hearing today so I don't have a ton to add yet, but I did make some noise bottles over the weekend for my kids and a cute label for you to print if you want to make your own. I'm kind of limited in what I can find here in Shanghai so I only used things that I could find in my own kitchen: salt, sugar, rice, noddles, water (with food coloring), etc. But the kids absolutely loved them today! I put them in our science cornor and will just let them explore them for the rest of the week. To print the label, just click on it, save it to your computer and print. It's in a PNG file. Have fun and I'll add some more soon!!!

I just used whatever container I could find! The kids like the variety though and the plastic vs. the paper cup, etc make very different sounds!

Exploring the sounds and containers!

Have a great Monday! I hope you enjoy this printables!!

Love,
Bri

A Job in Shanghai!

I officially have a job in Shanghai! I am so excited! We were a little worried there for a moment that I would not have a job before we left but this morning I was offered a position as a Kindergarten teacher! The only downside to this job is that I have to be in Shanghai by August 20th, meaning we have to leave here on August 17th, cutting our family time down to the bare minimum before we leave. But we are so excited to have found this position as it gives me nights and weekends off as well as holidays to be with Tim. All of the other positions I've looked at don't give you Christmas off, and you have to work until 9 pm and all Saturdays and Sundays. So, yay for Kindergarten!

I AM DONE!!!

Well, I have officially finished my last paper, my last day of graduate classes, and my master's degree program! You may all now call me Master Bri :-) Just kidding, please don't call me that! But I am so excited to finally be finished and ready for the move to Shanghai next month!

I want to thank Tim and everyone else for their support over the past two years!

Love,
Bri

Everyone Matters

So, I've been listening to a lot of books on CD this summer while I workout, do housework, etc, and the other day as I was listening one of the characters said this amazing quote: "Everyone matters or no one matters." It really hit me, struck me as quite profound, and I decided that I wanted to make a printable of it that I could put in my home. I've attached the ones I've made to my google docs and you can print the one that strikes you as well.
As a teacher though, I feel that this idea of everyone mattering is something we should consider and reconsider every day in the classroom. If we don't go in remembering and knowing how important our students are, then we won't treat them in way(s) that they deserve. Sometimes, it really is difficult to remember this when someone is screaming or messing around or just plain irritates you, but we always need to remember that each and every one of our students matters, no matter what! I really just love this idea and I hope that you enjoy this quote as much as me! When we move back to the states and I get another teaching position I'm going to put it up in my classroom!

I think it's a great lesson to teach our kids at school as well, that everyone, no matter their background, culture, language, race, etc, that everyone matters!

Love, Bri

Just click on the links below to find the one you want:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3ZVkis1xxh6SjdnTTYzSEYwbWs

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3ZVkis1xxh6SHYyZ3dUYjBGbnM

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3ZVkis1xxh6TDgtc09NOElJZU0

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3ZVkis1xxh6Z0VYRGYzb3BkV00