The Witch Stocking Patterns

This was so much fun to do today! Each of my kids made a pattern on a witch's stocking (they could make any kind of pattern they wanted) and then we put them all around a giant witch. I saw this idea on pinterest but they were having the kids make their own witches; we just didn't have the time for that, but I actually think this turned out better. In order for it to make sense, I had to come up with my own poem/saying to go on the inside but I think that it turned out alright. It goes like this:

There once was a crafty old witch who had so many bare legs she didn't know what to do! Then one day that crafty old witch had a witchity thought, and decided that maybe, just maybe she could make those legs up!

"Patterns! Yes, patterns! That's what I'll do!" She cried,

and then she added the patterns to her legs by her sides!

Great Quote

So I was on facebook today, ran across this quote, and had to share it. I hope you like it!

PJ Day- Best Day Ever!

Today was our PJ day. For the National Reading Day we read Llama Llama Red Pajama and K-2 wore PJs to school to celebrate. It was great! I love PJ day, I'm always so warm and comfy on that day:)

Look What We Made Yesterday- ZERO THE HERO!

I absolutely love these!! Probably the best activity of the year so far! The kids loved it too, I even had one child come back today and ask when we were going to put our capes back on. He was really disappointed to learn we weren't going to put them on. The kids colored their Zero The Hero character and then glued them onto their crepe paper capes. After everything was glued on I pined them onto their shirts to wear home. We also used Jack Hartmann's Zero The Hero Exercise song and again they LOVED it! If you haven't taught 0 yet you need to teach it this way!

Writing Rainbow

This year we are really focusing on writing. I use this writing rainbow to teach my students abou the different levels of writing and we discuss how we can get to the next level. It's really good for them to see where they're at and what they should be working toward.

Parts of An Apple

During our apple week I made this apple to help teach my students about different parts of an apple. I also put this in their centers and had them label their own apples.

5 Senses: Taste

This is the poster I used to help teach my students about taste. It was very hand and I also made a smaller version to put at their centers and they can to write each kind of taste. It worked really well.

Apple Prints

During our apple week we made apple prints. It was a lot of fun but really messy! Then they had to write what kind of apple they liked to go with their painting.

It's Fall!

It's finally fall! I love fall and the wonderful colors that it brings. These are just some of the fall art work that we did this year. I had my morning class do their differently than my afternoon class and I rally like the way both of them turned out. My morning class made trees with their hands while my afternoon class just did dot painting to make their trees. I actually liked the dot painting better than the hand trees...you can decide which one you liked better!

10 Apples Up On Top

This was a great activity! We read Dr. Seuss' "10 Apples Up On Top!" and then make our own project with 10 apples up on top of our heads.

Who Took The Apples From the Apple Tree?

My kids love this book! They have sat on the rug for the past two days reading it (during reading time) and when they get to the end they just laugh and laugh. It was so much fun to do. It's similar to the "Who Stole The Cookies From the Cookie Jar" but is instead "Who Took The Apples From The Apple Tree?" Each page says, "___________took the apples from the apple tree. Good Grief, said _________. Not me, not me!" Each of the kids had to write their name on the paper and attach a picture of them and an apple (any color they wanted). After that I put the book together and secretly added a page at the end that said, "Mrs. Hardy took the apples from the apple tree!" They were so surprised and about fell over laughing because they thought it was great!

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.

Sorting on Our Johnny Appleseed Hats

So last week we spent quite a bit of time learning about Johnny Appleseed and I knew my kids were dying to make their own Johnny Appleseed pan hats to wear home. However, instead of just making the hats, I turned it into a sorting activity. I gave each child a handful of colored shapes and they had to decide how to sort them. As you can see in this picture, this little boy sorted by color. This way they weren't just doing a fun activity but were also re-enforcing their sorting skills.

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!

5 Senses: Smelling

One activity we did for the sense of Smell was "Guess that Smell!" I put out four cups with four different types of items inside (peanut butter, lemonade, honey, rotten egg) and then I put tin foil on the top with a small hole. The kids then had to smell each one and guess what was inside. They then drew pictures of what they thought was in each one. I had shapes on the cups for the kids to be able to draw for example that in the circle cut they guess it was peanut butter, etc. It was great and it was a little difficult for some of the kids but they loved it!

Writing With Paint Bags

My wonderful husband helped me fill these bags the other day with paint! Thank you honey! These are so great because after they are made the kids can use Q-tips or their finger tips to write letters, shapes, etc onto the bags. I would make sure to use really heavy-duty bags so they don't rip especially if they're using a Q-tip because the Q-tips can rip through the plastic. Once you have the bags filled you just tape them onto a piece of poster board and you're ready to go. The poster board helps the letters, shapes, etc show up better. I use them in centers or when I have students who struggle with writing specific letters.