Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share with you five things that happened this week!

This week we started our three week unit, "All About Me". This first week we spent learning all about our five senses.  Here is our anchor chart that the kids have been labeling all week. The labels are in the library to be laminated (nothing like finding a fun idea on Pinterest last minute!!) so we have just been using sticky notes!

To introduce the Five Senses, I used a Common Core in the Classroom lesson from Discovery Education. My Five Senses: How They Help Me Learn About the World is an amazing three day lesson that really helped my students understand the importance of our senses. Using the wolf from the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood , I introduced the five senses to my kiddos. They were HOOKED! We then watched different video clips, read books about each sense and did a lot of whole group and independent writing to explore how our senses help us learn about the world around us. I plan to do a more in-depth post about this over the weekend!

This week we also began our AMSTI Science Weather Kit. Before we became scientist though, we had to brainstorm exactly what a scientist does. Here is our super cute anchor chart that will hang on our science board all year!

Our first lesson on weather began with a book by one of my favorite author/illustrators, Jim Arnosky, Rabbits and Raindrops. I love his books and so do the kids!  In theory we would have contrasted our weather with the rabbits but since the weather was exactly the same, we had a great time comparing them. My kiddos fell in love with being a scientist and observing the weather. For the first time in three weeks, they were ALMOST quiet! :)

Later we discussed different types of weather that we have here on the Gulf Coast and graphed our favorite kind! As hot as it has been the past few weeks, I don't think I blame them for liking cold weather best!

  This week we have begun our Counting Jar morning work. Counting jar is part of AMSTI Math from the Terc Investigations math book. We have PE first thing so there is not a lot we can get done in the short amount of time so we do our counting jar. The kids come in and they have a counting basket on their table. In the basket there is a bowl of buttons, four empty containers, sticky notes and counting manipulatives. The students count the buttons, create a counting basket containing the same amount, and then write the numeral (if they can at this point) and draw a picture representation of the number. The students post their sticky notes on our class counting jar. After finishing my morning work, I walk around and check their baskets. This has worked out great! We are still working on working quietly and independently but it is going really well!

 We are also starting Daily Data. Right now it is more like weekly data but (fingers crossed) it will become daily soon. Each day there will be a question for students to answer in the form of a graph. Our first question is below. We had a great discussion about what all this chart could tell us. I love the last sentence. "If you put 9 boys and 9 girls together, that is like 9+9=18." WOO HOO!!!

What amazing and fabulous things have you done this week? Leave a comment and then check out all the other Five for Fridays from Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Math Mentor Text - a new linky party

This is my first post linking up with Collaboration Cuties. I love using text in all areas I teach. So I am sharing a project my kindergarten kiddos completed this past week.

We read 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Rich Deas. This is a hilarious book about 10 fat and silly turkeys. One by one they do something more and more crazy and fall of the fence. In the end they are all off the fence and the fence is broken. Those rowdy turkeys then make their way into a tree!

My kiddos LOVED this book and there was a lot of discussion going on about how crazy those turkeys were. When I told them we were going to make our own ten fat turkeys they were ecstatic. In October we read the poem 5 Little Pumpkins and illustrated the pumpkins on a gate. They loved doing that so they were excited to do turkeys. We started the lesson like we do all our directed art lessons. I had them draw a fence first. Then I told them they need to add 10 turkeys, some on the fence and some in front of the fence on the ground. I taught them how to make turkeys using circles and ovals. We drew our first turkey together - they chose where to place it. After talking it over we realized we still need 9 more, so they went back and added 9 more turkeys. We also filled in a writing form to show how many turkeys where on the fence and how many on the ground. 

I also found a cute YouTube video of the story. They loved the book so much I think we may watch it Tuesday and write about what happened to the turkeys once they got in the tree!

Please share any other ideas you have for this book or any other books!!

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out other Mentor Text over at Collaboration Cuties!

Five for Friday!

 Wooo Hooo! It is finally Friday! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 random things from my week!

 This week we began talking about Thanksgiving. To begin our unit we made a KWL chart.
I was surprised by what the kiddos did and did not know. I love to see how their minds work.

 Directed art alert!!! If you have read my previous posts, you probably have realized that I LOVE directed art. When planning this lesson on Native Americans I worried the kids would not be happy to be doing directed art again.  However, when I started the lesson Thursday, one of my kids said, "Oh wow! I love directed art. I wondered when we were going to do that again." The rest of my class seemed to concur which is good because there is still a lot more directed art in their future! We did two different activities. First Native Americans using our fingers.

Then we read the book 10 Fat Turkeys and learned how to draw a turkey using directed art. We then decomposed the number 10. We put some turkeys on the fence and some turkeys on the ground. This was a lot of fun and they did really well! You can pick up my writing template for free here!

 Mamma Mia Cook Off is tomorrow!!! A few of the team members and their spouses are coming to my house tonight to begin cooking our soup. We are going to cook some extra for our dinner to taste test and to take to share with the faculty on Monday. I am excited to have some grown up time with my teacher friends I never get to see!

 Because Mamma Mia is tomorrow, I made aprons and bandanas for a few of us. I have not sewn in a while, but I think they turned out cute. We are dressing as 18th century Italian farmers! I will have to add pictures after tomorrow night!

The Mr. and I have been trying to be a little healthier lately so I have been trying to cook dinner every night and have leftovers for lunches. I have been using Rachel Ray's cookbook, Just In Time. We have had some amazing dinners this week and I have not spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Our favorite was Hoppin' John Soup with rice!! We have had 3 meals from this book this week and they have been excellent! If you are looking for a good cookbook with fast easy dinners, check this out.

This has been a crazy busy week and tomorrow is going to be more of the same but I know it is going to be a lot of fun! What crazy fun things have you done this week? Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  or comment below and let us know!

Witchy & Wild Things Wednesday!

Happy Halloween Eve!!

I just wanted to stop by and give you an update on how my Wild Things project was going.

Monday we read the book Where the Wild Things Are and made our very own wild things. We have been talking about adjectives so we made a list of adjectives to describe our wild things.



Tuesday we started talking about opinions. The kiddos were full of them but were stumped when I asked them why they liked what they liked. That took a little longer. When I asked if they liked the book or not, I was afraid that everyone would say they liked it. Luckily I had one person say they did not like it. This worked out perfect. Her reason for not liking the book (it was about monsters) ended up being a few of the kiddos reason for liking it. We had a great discussion about how our opinions are never wrong but we can always change them. After watching the video on Discovery Education we had a chance to discuss more reasons whey the kids liked/disliked the book and who liked the book or video best.

Today we read and watched different book reviews. Two for Where the Wild Things Are and two on two different books. We discussed the different parts in the reviews. The kiddos are getting really excited about writing their own reviews. Today, we also wrote about when we feel wild. I am so impressed with their writing, it keeps getting better and better!

Tomorrow we will write two different book reviews. First we will review Where the Wild Things Are. We have been orally reviewing the book all week so it should be the easiest way (fingers crossed) to teach them the format. (Here is my form!)

Today we also made pattern witches. They turned out too cute!!!! I found the idea on Pinterest. I will say that considering the picture on Pinterest is work by 5th graders, my kiddos did AWESOME! Next year I will have them all turn their paper "tall ways" and only give them half a sheet of black paper to make a skirt. That way they have more room to actually make a pattern with the legs. For the shoes, I folded a piece of black paper in fourths and just drew a shoe and cut it out. I love the different placement of the feet and the different directions they turned them.

I am headed to the kitchen to make some mummies in a blanket for our Pumpkin Party tomorrow! What fun treats do you guys have planned for Halloween with your kids?

Melissa

**Cooking Update**

I used two cans of crescent rolls and a large package of beef smokies. I unrolled the roll, patted the rolls into a sheet of dough. I looked for the uncut roll of dough but I didn't see it this time at my store. I used my pizza cutter and cut small thin slices of dough (see above). I wrapped the strip of dough around the smoke and left a gap near the top. I will put small dots of mustard on them tomorrow for eyes. I also made a few regular piggies in a blanket for the grown ups and just some blankets for anyone that doesn't eat meat. (see below)

 Toasted Mummies!

Five for Friday

I am really making an effort this week to set a blogging schedule. I have found that linky parties help a lot with this! So, I am doing my second linky party for the week. I hope this will help me boost my posts!

 The best thing about this Friday is EARLY DISMISSAL!!! The kids got out 12:00 and the teachers stayed and got to work in their rooms. For me that means inputting grades for report cards and getting ready for Peer to Peer coaching we will do on Monday. 

This morning we had our Open House Math Breakfast. The parents are invited to come eat a biscuit with the kids and then we show them how to play our math games we have been learning.

 Counting Jar

 Roll and Record on the Promethean Board

Build It 

 My kiddos LOVE LOVE LOVE this. They were so excited to have their parents come to schools with them and even more excited to TEACH them what we have been learning. I really love this day. It gives the kiddos ownership of their learning, it makes them feel great, and the parents see how much they have learned in just 9 weeks. I am so appreciative of all the parents that came out this morning to support their children!

I love this picture!!! By the end of the Open House the kids had brought their parents and their library books to the carpet to read. They were reading them together and my heart melted. Maybe it wasn't math but WOW! What a powerful time for the children and the parents.

 Our Class Tree

 Our Class Tree Hall Display

In September we adopted a tree right outside our classroom window. We got a chance to explore around the tree to see what was under it. We measured how big the circumference of the trunk. And we drew pictures of what it looked like in summer (it is still 90+ degrees here). We are anxiously waiting to see what will happen to our tree when it starts to get cold. We think the leaves might change and maybe even fall off. 

Back at the beginning of the month we did a unit on Farms. I have posted pictures on my classroom page of the Directed art cow pictures we did but I wanted to share them again. Today all the parents were so excited by the pictures, a few even said they wanted to frame them! Made this teacher proud. I found my directed art instructions from Deep Space Sparkle and then tweaked it just a bit. We used crayons to draw the cow and color spots and the utter. We also used crayon the draw a sun (optional). Then we painted the sky with a blue color wash. Then we figured out how to use all "the extra blue paint" to make green grass. I must say that all the cows turned out FABULOUS!

 And on a personal note...

 Today the hubby and I are headed to north Alabama to visit family and attend a COSTUME WEDDING! Yes, you read that right a costume wedding. It is for my husband's BFF and should be very interesting. I am very excited to be able to dress up and finally get my husband to participate.

Well, that is my 5 for Friday! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!