I feel like December has been a whirlwind...

I can't believe I have not posted since before Thanksgiving.  The Holidays always get hectic and I get distracted.  We went on a trip to my mom's in Mississippi for Thanksgiving.  Then we had a couple weeks of busy, busy, busy at school and then it was Christmas break.  I had every intention of working on some things for the new year (and I may still) but last minute runs to WalMart and making reindeer pancakes for my girls became the priority for the holiday.  :)  I have a few more days off so I will try to work on a few things for 2012.  Here are a few things we did in my class during the couple weeks leading up to Christmas.  I know it is late, but maybe it will be helpful for next year.  :)

Building sentences using a color code

Building sentences with sight words using Christmas bulbs

using magnet letters and little erasers to count one-to-one

Painted Poinsettias. After they are cut out you out red on green and glue yellow dots for the center.
They are really pretty all together on a bulletin board.

A Christmas mobile and writing activity

We love to become Sight Word Champions!   If they read all of the learned sight words by the end of the  9 weeks
they get to write their name on the chart.

These were Pinterest inspired.  My Grade Chair did them and then all of us in the pod had to do them too.  They are so pretty hanging from the ceiling, I don't even want to take them down.

Foldable Fun!

I was waiting and waiting for Foldables week over at Thinking of Teaching, and then I got busy and missed it.  Now that I have a minute to myself (gotta love Saturday Morning cartoons for a good mommy moment) I can post and link up to show some of my foldable ideas.  Luckily the linkup is still available.  I hope you will hope over to  Foldables Week and see the other great ideas too. 

Here are some foldables I like to use.  The greatest thing is you can use them for just about anything. 

I use these flip books for lots of things.  They are easy to make. Just take 2,3 or 4 pages (or half sheets long ways) and line them up in a row just offsetting the ends by about an inch.  Then fold the top over so that all the tabs line up.  Then staple the top.  Write the word or a math problem you want to study on the flap and then lift up to draw a picture or write a definition or draw a math problem.



This is a neat little way to make a mini book.  You can write  and draw about anything, or put vocab words with illustrations.  You fold into eighths and then cut the middle like above.  Then grab the two that are standing up like mountians and pinch them together.  Then push the sides together so that the two sides that are touching the table in the picture are touching each other.  Then pull the pages together and it makes the little book like below.





I have been using these a lot for letter sound practice, shapes and position words.  I got the idea from Fran at Kindergarten Krayons and adapted them to what I needed in my classroom.  I have a couple of these as freebies on here if you wold like them. 



Thanks for checking out my Foldables ideas.  I will look for some more to add on here. 

Tawnya

A Peek at my week - 11/11/11

Linking up over at Clutter Free Classroom for another peek at my week.  (She doesn't have it ready yet, I will link up tomorrow hopefully.)

First I have to say Happy Veteran's Day to all Veterans including my husband, his father, his mother's father and his nephew who is still serving in Iraq.  We are so grateful for your dedication and service to keep this great country free.  We especially are thinking of those who gave all on this special date of 11-11-11.

My week was really different this past week.  We had a field trip on Wednesday and we had Veteran's Day off so our schedule was adjusted.  I had to squeeze in two phonics lessons on Monday so I could still give the assessment on Thursday.  Monday was great, I felt prepared and my class did great work at centers.  I was doing a practice video during guided reading groups in preparation for doing the real thing on Tuesday.  (I'd been asked by my Principal to video my small group reading lesson to show in a faculty meeting).  Then as I am starting my 2nd group guess who walks in the door...yep you guessed it...my principal for an informal observation. Guess where she sat...yep, right at the table with us.  For some weird reason I did not turn on the camera for this group so I did not get her in the video (I bet she appreciates my technology failure).  Luckily, my group went SO great while she was in there.  Everyone else was on task and quiet too so I was a little disappointed the camera was not on.  Later I got an email from her asking to video that lesson cause she liked it so much.  She left great comments too.  It is so nice to get good feedback from her.  :)  If you would like to see the lesson, I did get the group before her on camera.  They did great too.  We were working with our letter of the week "F" and stretching words to spell them.  Then I used a letter spinner on my laptop to make CVC words for them to read.  If it was a real word, they wrote it down.  If it was not a real word I asked them to tell me what letter to spin to make it a real word.

Then Tuesday was the real video day.  I was ready and the kids did great today too except for one little stinker who took out a wooden letter puzzle (that they are not allowed to use during this time and he knows that) and he dropped all 26 pieces on the floor during the video!!! I am sure my face turned red, but we just kept on going and my parent volunteer helped him clean up.  I hope it is ok, I have not seen it yet.  It makes me the most nervous for my colleagues to see me and "critique" me, even though I know they will be nice.  :)

Wednesday was Field Trip day!! We went to Diamond D Ranch in Jacksonville to finish up our Farm Unit.  We had beautiful weather and the kids had a great time!  I had 18 kids and 9 parents!  I love having so many parents who take the time to come with their kids.  It really makes a positive difference.  Here are a few pics from the trip.  I love feeding the cows the best...EWWWW! the long slobbery tongue is gross!!

Feeding the Catfish

Catfish feeding is a great surprise!

Love falling asleep on the bus on the way back to school.  That means they had a great day of learning.

Thursday we tried to get back into the normal routine...phonics test, reading lesson, centers, writing lesson about our fun field trip, math lesson, centers and music.  I love having a short week until the next week begins.  I look forward to time with my family, but I am excited to get back to my kiddos at school too.  I am lucky to love both of my jobs.

That was my week.  I hope you enjoyed.  I look forward to linking up to all of your blogs.
Only one more week till Thanksgiving...lots of turkey stuff next week.

Tawnya

Just a little thank you!

I noticed today that I am up to 20 followers and have almost 1000 page views!!  :)  I know it is not a lot, but it is really something to me for only having been blogging for a few months.  I appreciate all the great ideas I have gotten off fellow bloggers' blogs and I just hope I can be an inspiration too.  So to say thank you I am adding a freebie I was working on today.  I hope you will keep coming back to see what fun I am having in Kinderland. I will try my best to be more consistent with blogging, but you all know how it gets in the teaching world sometimes...CRAZY!  I also live in twinland at home so sometimes the little sweeties demand a lot of my attention (which I love to give them don't get me wrong).  I do need to sleep sometimes too.  I have a lot of ideas I am working on though that I look forward to sharing.  I have a grade level workday on Friday and I am planning to work on making some little books, reading assessments and math games.  Check back!


TPAN Flip Book

A peek at my week...a little late

Linking up with Clutter Free Classroom again for a peek at the week ending 10/21.

My week was a short one.  We had a planning day on Monday (Yeah! I got my report cards and awards done).  Then we had a staff development day on Tuesday (Yeah again! I love collaborating with my team.  We shared a lot and I got a lot of good ideas from them).  So then the kids come on Wednesday after a nice long weekend all rested up and ready to get back to learning.  They were great all day. I really do have a great class both academically and behavior wise.  We finished up our unit on Friends at School and went outside to use sidewalk chalk with our friends from a couple other K classes.  What Fun!  On Friday we were able to sit on the curb in our bus lot and watch our High School's Homecoming parade.  They parade lines up on the street behind our school and then the start by driving through our bus lot first before going on to town.  It is really a treat. The kids love getting out of class and seeing the firetrucks, floats and especially the sirens.  It is a big deal for the whole town.  :)  All in all a good short week.

Here is a look at some of the great writing I have been getting from my cuties.  I am really impressed with how much they are learning.  Of course I have several who still need much guidance, but I thought these were shareworthy.

The pig jump in the mud. The pig (got?)    I don't think she finished  her sentence.

My horse likes (with the x on the next line for the /ks/ sound on the  next line) to play outside.

The kid (meaning a baby goat) fell in the mud.

The pig walks around the farm.  

Also, I created a little reader for one of my guided reading groups and I gave it to my 31/2 year old twin daughters just to see if they could grasp tracking the print and they did it!! I was so happy I made a video and posted it on Facebook.  I love seeing kids learn, especially my kids.  :) (My own kids and my school kids!)

Look at them tracking that print!  Love it!  The idea for the book cam from Fran Kramer @ Kindergarten Krayons!

Big Confidence boost!

Hey all!  I am sorry I have not posted in a little while.  I have been busy at school and home dealing with my little darlings.  Things are going well and I am feeling great about our routine.  I am already seeing such great progress.  I have had great success with my Writers Workshop.  They love following the 4 rules of writing as inspired by Kreative in Kinder.  Also, I had a chance to share what I have been doing in writing with my team at our last meeting and I got a really big compliment from my grade chair.  She is like the writing guru of our team, so it means a lot to hear her say she loves what I am doing.  :)

Another great big kuddo from my principal came this week too.  As part of some staff development, the whole faculty watched several videos of some of our staff teaching a small group math lesson.  It was great.  I love learning from my colleagues.  I received an email today from my principal asking to video me teaching a small group reading lesson to show in a faculty meeting.  I feel so honored that she asked me.  She is the kind of principal that you really want to impress.  I hope it goes well.  :)

I am working on a few things to upload.  I hope you will keep coming back.  I will get some more pictures up this week.  :)

Tawnya

Let's hear it for WRITING!

Look what I did today thanks to the wonderful inspiration from Crystal @Kreative in Kinder.  I loved her posts on Writer's Workshop and the 4 rules of writing.  I decided to do the lessons with my class.  It was great and I am hoping to see some better writing from them.  :)

Don't laugh at my drawing, I know it is not great, but they liked it.  :)