Opposites from Dr. Seuss Week!

During Dr. Seuss week we focused on opposites. We spent one day reading Dr. Seuss' 'THE FOOT BOOK' and making a list of opposites. Then I used my foot template to assign each of the kids opposites that they had to draw. When they were done we shared them as a class and discussed each one. Then we hung them in our room.
This is something I will definitely do again, because I really felt like it helped sink it in for the kids. And because I wrote what opposites they had to draw I also felt they were exposed to opposites they would not have been exposed to otherwise.

Just click here to download the worksheet.

Making Leprechauns!

This is one of the best days in Kindergarten! I love making our leprechauns and so do my kids! I usually hate using paints in class because they are just so MESSY! However, for our leprechauns I make an exception because they just turn out so cute. This is a listening activity for my kids, they have to follow my directions in order to end up with a Leprechaun. The instructions I give go something like this:
Write your name at the bottom of your paper
Make  a big square on the top of your paper
Put a long rectangle under that square
Put a line through the square
Make a three leaf clover on the hat (I say make an upside down U three times and add a stem)
To make his beard you want to make it like a cloud
Make a cloud all of the way around
Make an uppercase U for his face
Draw on lips, eyes, and a nose
Then make a rectangle for one arm, another rectangle for the other arm
Make a square for the front of this jacket
Make a line down the square
Add buttons next to the line
Then for the hands, make one bit uppercase U next to a lowercase u without a tail
They'll look like mittens.
Next add two rectangles under his jack to make his pants
Add ovals for the feet

This is an easy way for the kids to understand how to make them and keep them on track.
My morning group I did NOT have them use a black crayon to trace them and they still turned out pretty cute, however my afternoon class did use a black crayon to trace their picture and I think that may have turned out better....

After they are drawn and traced have the kids color them using water color paints. Let them dry and then cut them out, they'll be so CUTE!

Have fun!

Seasons Tree

So, we started our Seasons Unit this week and I have been scouring pinterest in hope of finding something new or exciting that I could do. Unfortunately there just weren't that many ideas so I came up with my own based off of this painting:

First, we made a poster talking and explaining the differences between each of the seasons (I use sticky-notes for this). Then we talked about what we wanted to achieve with this art project (i.e. to show the seasons changing). Then I went through the instructions with the kids as follows (this is a great activity for the kids to practice listening skills):

1. Start with the earth/ the ground.
2. What color should the (or usually is) ground be in winter? A: White
3. Color that section white.
4. What color does the ground start to be in the spring? A: Light Green (it's coming to life!)
5. Color that section light green.
6 What color does your grass turn to in summer? A: Green
7. Great! Color your summer grass dark green!
8. What happens with your grass at the end of summer and in fall? A: It starts to turn yellow
9. Color your grass in fall yellow!
10. DO NOT draw pictures on this paper or draw leaves on the tree, that will come later.

Then show them how to put on the leaves. I used white "snowballs" for winter, pink "buds" for spring, green leaves for summer, and red/orange/brown leaves for fall.

I have my kids take one in their hands squish it up, dip the bottom in glue and put it on their paper.
Show them where each color goes and how to get the glue on the paper without getting it all over their hands.

They really turned out cute and the kids loved doing it! It was also good for me to see who could follow the directions and how well they were doing with their fine motor skills.

TOO MUCH FUN!

This is the template I used:

Just click here to download the Seasons Tree!

Groundhog Day Worksheets

Hello friends! I'm sorry these are so late, but I created few Groundhog Day worksheets this morning! I hope you enjoy them (I even used some of my new clipart!!!)
Just click here to get them off my google docs account.

Have fun!

Animal Five Sense Poems FREEBIE

The other day as I was searching through other teacher blogs for ideas I came across Mrs. Larremore's Chalk Talk blog. She had the cutest Penguin Five Senses Poems. I decided to take that idea and create animal poems for six different animals. Later this year, we do an animal unit and I'm planning to use these. Thanks Chalk Talk for your awesome idea!!! Click here to get it free.

Happy Birthday To Me! (Another Free Unit!)

Last year I got a wonderful idea from The Teacher Wife, where for her Birthday she gave herself a classroom Birthday party. The kids loved it and had a great time even though technically they were still doing "school" work. Ever since then I've been thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday (which is coming up on the 26th), and the other day when I mentioned it to my kids they basically jumped out of their chairs with excitement! So, I had a little time this weekend to finally put it all together. I think it's going to be a blast! I've added it to Tpt as a FREEBIE, just click here! You can use it as a birthday celebration for yourself or as a combined birthday celebration for all of your kids Birthdays!

Have fun and Happy Birthday!:)

This Year's First Freebies!!!

Well, despite the craziness of this week I have actually managed to create two units for next week. Yay, me!:) Or, "Yay Bri!" as my 2-year-old nephew would say! Both of them are FREEBIES on TpT. Both of them are pirate units as I just purchased some adorable pirate clipart from KPM. I knew I wanted to use them for the non-living unit I was working on and then I just started thinking about all of the other things I could do with them as well and before I knew it the other unit sort of just popped out! My kids already know we're going to be talking about and using pirate stuff next week and they are super excited! I've never done a pirate unit before but I have a feeling it's really going to be fun:)

For the Pirate Non-Living Unit please click here.

For the Pirate Pattern, Ordinal Number, and Measurement Unit please click here.

I hope that you enjoy both of these units!

-Bri

We're Starting To Get Eggs

We're finally starting to get eggs back on our 35 Book Challenge Wall and it makes me so excited! The kids have to read 35 books (by themselves) before they can color in the egg and return it to put under Horton. We read "Horton Hatches An Egg" during the first week of school and it really motivated the kids.

A Letter + A Sight Word + A Number A Day

This year the other kindergarten teacher and I have started a new program. Simply we call it the "Letter A Day" program, but in reality it's much much more than that. It also includes a sight word a day and a number a day. We use white boards and markers for this and it takes up about 20 minutes of our day. We talk about the letter for the day, what sound it makes, and how we write it. Then we write it on our white boards, we do the same for the sight word and the number. We simply rotate through the alphabet (changing it's order every time we go through it) and our sight words. That way the kids get their alphabet and sight words 6 more times during the year instead of just focusing on one a week. It works so much better and already I can see a huge improvement in my students. For the number we just use the number from that day in the month. For example, today's number was 4 because today is October 4th. This way you hit each of the numbers 1-31 multiple times during the year. Click here to get the specific format for this program.

Dr. Seuss Hats

We made these Dr. Seuss hats the other day. The kids colored them, cut them out, and then we added their pictures on the bottom! It's a great classroom decoration!

Dr. Seuss All About Me Book

I'm planning to use this book at the end of next year but you could use it at anytime. It's on TpT as another FREEBIE! I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Me-Book-FREEBIE

PS-If you're getting sick of all these Dr. Seuss items let me know and I'll move on to something else :)

Thanks,

Bri

Dr. Seuss Word Wall

Here's a Dr. Seuss Word Wall I've created for next year. It's on TpT as a FREEBIE. I hope that you enjoy!!! Just go to: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dr-Seuss-Word-Wall

-Bri