We love to pretend

This is how I have kicked off my holiday season at school for the last several years.  How many others enjoy wearing pajamas at school, while drinking hot chocolate, eating cookies and watching a great movie?  I love to watch my littles, who sometimes don't know what "pretend" really means.  They have to take care of their ticket until movie time so they won't be put off the train.  It never fails that at least one of them really think I will put them off the train, but can't figure out how.  Of course nobldy has ver been left behind.
What fun!!!

working independently

Does anyone remember these yellow manipulatives from an old reading series?  They are still useful.

I love watching the kids do these syllable counts.  Even the weakest students like a reason to clap.

Last, but not least, our annual candy corn graph.  I actually made this graph, but still can't upload and share anything yet.  I'll figure it out one day.

apple fun

Last week I actually correlated math and ELA into an apple unit.  We read "Up, Up, Up It's Apple Picking Time" in ELA and discussed it to pieces.  I don't think I've ever gone into as much depth as this.  Trying to get ready for Common Core for next year.  

In Math we read "Ten Apples up on Top".  As I read I stacked these little shot cups on a stool by me without saying much about them.  It got very quiet as I got to the end of the story.  Would the cups fall? 

By Friday we were ready for some fun.  I divided them up into groups and let them try to stack the cups on a group members head.  How many could we get up there?  They loved this.  One group actually got 5 up on top without holding them, but I could get to them for a pic before they fell.

We also tasted 3 varieties of apples.  A,green, Granny Smith, a yellow, Golden delicious and a red, Red delicious.  A lot to discuss there.  Finally we graphed our favorite.  Golden delicious won this time.

Labeling

I saw this on Pinterest and LOVED it.  My littles loved it, too.  We've been labeling for a while and finally a crazy Friday came.  Can you tell what they mostly wanted to label. I had 6 post-its on my eyes.  This was so much fun for everyone.  Thanx Pinterest <3

We've been i school almost 6 weeks and this is the only picture I've taken of my room.  It's my morning corner.  You can see the calendar, pocket chart for straws, days, months, behavior chart, book basket and morning message for the first few days of school.  Noise chart is above the message.   

Kindergarten Common Core

Louisiana has introduced teachers to the Common Core this year and as A Kindergarten teacher am VERY VERY  overwhelmed.  This book seems to have what I need to survive the insanity.  

Click below to learn more about this great resource!

Kindergarten Common Core

A visit to Target

The town I live in doesn't have a Target : (  So when I go and find this much good stuff I get really excited.  It doesn't take much.  They had lots of different colored baskets and bins in the $ spot.  I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet.  I picked up few more of the small dry erase boards since my littles love using them.  The dry erase pockets will be great.  Now I won't have to laminate so many sheets.  Can't wait to go back.