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Five for Friday {On a Saturday}

Five for Friday {On a Saturday}


I know, I know.  I'm a day late, but I figured a day late is better than not at all.  :)






We continued working on building shapes.  This time we use Play Doh.  The students had so much fun making 2D and 3D shapes using their Play Doh!  The trickiest shape with the Play Doh was the cone.  The students weren't quite sure how to do it, but they tried which was the most important thing.  They thought it was so funny when they were asked to make a sphere.  There were many squeals of "That's so easy!"  





We have working on prefixes in our classroom these past two weeks.  I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought it looked great, but was a smidge too complicated for my Kinders.  So, like any good teacher, I modified it to fit the needs of my students.  We focused on the prefixes re- un-, and pre- during our lessons, so the students had to pick two words with each prefix to put on their rainbow strips.  Then, they colored the word "Prefixes" on their clouds, cut out their clouds, and glued on their rainbow strips.  I think they turned out great!

Want a copy of prefix cloud?  Click on the picture below for a free copy.

Clip art by Scrappin Doodles - Font by KG Fonts



Wednesday was World Autism Awareness Day, and we lit our house blue in honor of our son.  We have been doing this for several years.  This year one of our good friends also lit their house up blue for Colton.  I thought it was so sweet!



My students are just loving this brain break video!  They beg to do it again as soon as it's over!  Does your class have a favorite brain break video?



A little redundant maybe?  Well, the second 5 represents how many days we have until Spring Break.  Can't wait for a little break so I can come back and hit the ground running for all of the end of the year activities.

Have you had your Spring Break yet?

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Amy
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Five For Friday - Back to Blogging Edition

Five For Friday - Back to Blogging Edition


Hi!  I know, I know.  It's been almost two months since I last blogged.  I wish I had a good excuse, but I really don't.  {haha}  I decided tonight's the night to get back into the game and share a little bit of what's been going on in my classroom this week.  What better way to do that than to do a little Five for Friday with Doodle Bug's Teaching.  



We began studying prefixes this week.  We started with the prefix "re-".  As I was looking for resources a few weeks ago, Lori at Teaching with Love & Laughter just happened to have a great freebie on her blog - My re- Prefix Book.  Can you say "perfect timing"?  We wrote the word with the prefix, wrote the meaning of the word, and then I had my students "highlight" the base words on the each page.  I was so proud of how quickly my students grasped the concept of base words.  Thanks Lori!
































Our theme for the past few weeks has been community helpers.  We have been learning about different jobs in the community and what they use to do their jobs.  During center time, I had my students decide what job they would like to have and draw a picture of them doing that job. Here are a couple of my favorites.  :)

Teacher
This is probably my absolute favorite.  He said he wanted to be
a "cleaner owner."  Notice the vacuum?  I head this same boy
tell his friends one day "I have a vacuum, a real one."  Love it!
Want a copy of the "My Future Job" page?  Click here for your copy.  {Border by Scrappin Doodles and font by KG Fonts}


We also worked on building and drawing 2D shapes this week.  I gave each student a baggie with six popsicle sticks and a small piece of yarn.  I named a 2D shape and the students had to decide how many sticks they needed to make that the shape.  The easiest ones were the square, triangle, and circle (with the yarn, of course).  The hexagon and rectangle were a little trickier, but they got it.  :)


We also completed I Am... A Book About Plane Shapes. { This is part of my 2D and 3D Shapes unit that you may have gotten as a freebie from my Facebook Page a few months ago.}  I had to help a few students draw a hexagon, but they did a great job drawing the other shapes.  After we drew the shapes, we labeled the edges and vertices.  I was so proud of how well they did completing this book!




This is what happens when you have a paper plate with glitter on it on top of a cabinet, you open your classroom door to the playground, and there is a large gust of wind.  Suffice to say, I apologized to the custodian about all the glitter on the floor.  She was so sweet and told me it was ok.  Thank goodness - one thing I remember from my education classes was to always stay on the good side of your school's custodian. ;)  {My husband was appalled by this picture.  It may be because we had a similar, um, incident at our house when my son did a little glittering without supervision.  This happened a few years ago, but I still haven't lived it down.  lol}



I leave you with one of our favorite brain break songs from Youtube.  Does your class have a favorite brain break video?  


Thanks for sticking with me!  I hope to share some more pictures this weekend about we have been up to the past few months.  See you then!

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Amy
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Valentine Short and Long Vowel Bump

Valentine Short and Long Vowel Bump


Remember this teaser from the other day?


My class and I have been playing my Hot Chocolate Short Vowel Bump in my reading groups.  They have so much fun "bumping" their friends' cubes off the board.  {I think they like bumping my cubes off even better.  lol}  If you have played the math version of bump, this game is very similar only we identify short vowel pictures instead of numbers.  

I decided to switch my game up a tad and make a Valentine themed version with both short and long vowel pictures.  You can find it here or if you head over to my Facebook fan page, you can get up under my fan freebie button but only until I finish my lesson plans for this week.  {Don't worry - It will be there a while.  I have shopping and cleaning to do before I even start my plans.  haha}


Have a fun and sweet week with your students!
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Amy
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Five For Friday

Five For Friday


Happy Friday! I am so excited to link up again with Doodle Bugs for a good old fashioned Five for Friday!




We did a little addition practice by feeding penguins some fish.  My Kinders had so much fun practicing addition this way!  {And probably enjoyed eating the goldfish even more ;)}



We have been working on differing sounds in words.  I put together this little skills sheet for students to change up the word "cat".  We started off the lesson by reviewing what CVC meant.  We talked about how the vowel can only be in the middle of a CVC word.  The students then cut out and glued letters to make new words from cat, wrote out the words, and read their new words to me.  We did a similar page the next day.  I was so impressed with how well my students did!  They are reading CVC words like pros!  

Would this be something that you would be interested in as a freebie?



We started our Daily 5 this week.  This is where my students pick their Daily 5 choice by placing their picture next to a number.  As they finish one choice, they move their picture to their next choice.  It is a big change from what we have done previously, but I'm confident that we can get this down in no time at all!  I hope to soon show you how my classroom is set up now for our new adventure.



I received my 10 year pin this week from my school district.  If by any chance you teach in the same district, you know that this means I'm actually in my 12th year of teaching here. {Everyone gets their pins a year to two late.  lol}



I leave you with a funny.  The other day my son picked these books to read before bed.  Of course as he brought me them,  he started snickering!  {Love his sense of humor!}  Sadly, this is not the first time that Colton has brought me two copies of the same book from his bookcase.  I really should check before I buy him books.  lol

Have a great weekend!

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Amy
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Small Update

Small Update


Hi!  Remember me?  I'm the blogger who said that one goal for 2014 was to blog at least once a week.  Apparently, I am bad at goals.  haha

Some of that yuckiness that I spoke about at the end of December followed me into 2014.  However, things have really been looking up this past week! So excited about all the good that is going on! 

I will be back tomorrow with Five for Friday.  I leave you with a picture that I will talk more about this weekend.  Have a super Friday!


P.S.  Don't forget to "like" my Facebook page.  You never know when a fan freebie might show up.  :)
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Amy
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Facebook Fan Freebie

Facebook Fan Freebie


Did you know that when you deactivate your personal Facebook account it also deactivates any fan pages you have made?  Yep - it does.  I deactivated my personal FB account a few months ago and didn't think much of my blog page I made.  I know I should have, but with all the yucky stuff that was going on I didn't.

Yesterday, I decided to post something on my blog page.  I couldn't get on it.  Oops!  Well, I got everything all figured out last night and decided to add a freebie to my page.  Head over to the Teaching is Sweet Facebook page, become a fan, and a great freebie will be waiting for you.  {Hint:  It's my best selling item on TpT and will only be up for a few days.}

As 2013 comes to an end, I want to thank you for sticking with me!  I know I havent' been the best blogger out there, but I am going to try harder in the new year.  Have a fun and safe New Year!
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Amy
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Fun With Verbs

Fun With Verbs


My class and I had so much fun working on verbs in November.  {Yes, November. Remember that I have been a tad absent in my blogging?}

We started out our unit on verbs by singing this groovy song by Have Fun Teaching.  It was great to get the students up and moving.  {Warning:  This song will get stuck in your head and your significant other may look at you strangely when you start singing "A verb is a word.  It's an action word."}


Funny side story - I was being observed on my use of Kagan strategies and this was my little intro to my lesson. See where this was going?  Yep, for some reason right at that moment was when Youtube decided to stop working on my classroom computer. Going with the punches, I had the students sit down to start our strategy.  No sooner had they sat down, the video started playing again.  So we got up and started singing and dancing.  I am so glad my Instructional Coach had a great sense of humor and enjoyed the song.  {She was dancing along with us!}

We also did another activity that got my Kinders up and moving.  I call it The Verb Can.  Original, I know.  Don't be jealous of my creativity.  haha

Anyway, I had different verbs written on slips of paper in an empty can.  I would pull a piece of paper out and my Kinders would act it out.  The students had so much fun!  When they would start to giggle, I would say "The verb wasn't giggle" and that would make them giggle even more.  We had such a great time!

I had a little time this morning and I decided to cutesy it up a bit.  {I have to say it was great getting back into the designing mood.  It's been a while. :) }

I can't wait to take it to school and show it to my Kinders.  They will love the updated version!


If you would like to have your students giggling up a storm while practicing verbs, you can get your copy {here}.  I have it discounted right now for 20% off.


I would love to give away a few copies of The Verb Can to my followers.  The first three followers that comment and leave their email address will get a free copy.

What fun activities do you do in your classroom to practice verbs?

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Amy
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[name=Amy] [img=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8opOb6CXLrHo0N35nhAKwfMwwr4XjsDuyQwpzCMrC-i8DcX-tofRWOZv2nsIx9CFxyfSYuffwMApjKXX_ll1U4eKQlKQxJQOjdlMMJVqNpVwnKiNAaa-FTpUIa99ZdsqRVQVt2KhvPA/s1600/amy.jpg] [description=Hi! I am Amy, a primary teacher with over 20 years experience. I'm excited to share ideas, tips, and tricks to help make your teaching sweet!]

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