Father's Day: ALL-Star Dad!

I made a Mother's Day Cupcake Craft a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to make one for Father's Day too!  Here is a 3-in-1 craft.  The students can choose if they want to make a baseball, basketball, or football for their All-Star Dad!  Behind the ball, are cute questions for the students to fill in about their pops!  Check out my TPT Store to pick one up!





Click {HERE}to purchase!

Click on the picture to follow the link to my Cupcake Mother's Day Craft...

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Adding with Ants!

We have been going buggy in Kindergarten this week!  Our main focus has been on ants and bees...I will post some goodies soon!  I wanted to share a fun and simple addition activity that I did with my students.  It was hands-on and involved our insect theme too!  I quickly, drew a mat that the students could make addition sentences on using little toy ants. (some are white and hard to see..) I bought them at the Dollar Store around Halloween and we have been using them for various math things all year.


I put the students in pairs.  One student wrote numbers 1-10 on pieces of paper and the other student placed 10 ants along the top of the page (I drew circles for the students to have a starting spot for their ants)

Here is how the activity worked:
Student A would place ants in the first two boxes to make an addition sentence ___+___.


Student B would then solve the addition problem and place the number card in the last square.



They took turns putting the ants in the box and then solving the problem.  They really enjoyed this and were focused for about 15 minutes!  This gave me time to float the room and make sure they were understanding the concept of addition!
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Blogger Pinterest Exchange

I am obsessed with the DIY craft that Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B made me!  She made a chalk board for me to use in my classroom!  I love it so much, here is a photo!



I love doing the blogger exchange...Head over and visit the Teacher Blogger Exchange page to be apart of the fun in the future!



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Kindergarten Was a HOOT!

I am so excited about this owl craft and end of the year writing project that I made!  I wanted to make a memory book for the end of Kindergarten to give them at Open House.  I came up with 11 different journal entry topics for them to write about.  The pages have little owl graphics, lines to write, and a space to draw a picture.  I want to make a tree on the bulletin board with the owls sitting on the branches.  It will be titled, "Kindergarten Was a HOOT!"  Here is a snapshot of what the pack includes...



I made 11 journal entry topics, but I made three different sets.  There is a set with small lines for grades 3-5th, medium lines for 1st and 2nd, and large lines for Kindergarten.  There is a separate title page for each grade saying," _____ Was a Hoot!"

Here is the title page.

Sample journal pages...



And my favorite part...the owls!!!


Here is a sample of my students reflecting using the journal prompts.


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Sunflower Seed Math: Adding

We have a little garden outside our class (in no way am I in-charge of this garden, I have a blue thumb...) and we have been growing sunflowers!  They grew so tall and their time was coming to an end, so the centers of them were turning into seeds!  Our class was so excited to pick the sunflower seeds, so I took them outside in small groups and they could pull out the seeds for a couple of minutes...talk about HANDS ON!





We pulled out so many and I let them dry over night.  We just started our addition unit in math, so I thought it would be perfect to use them as a manipulative for adding!  I made a worksheet and they placed the seeds on the sheet to make an addition sentence.  Then they moved the seeds and drew circles to represent the same amount.





We all had a great time  using our addition worksheet in Kindergarten!  And the best part....picking the SEEDS!  If you would like a free download of this worksheet, visit my TPT store {HERE}.


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Winner Winner!

Amy from The Resource(ful) Room is the big winner of my 300 follower giveaway!  Lucky girl, she won a $10 gift certificate to TARGET!  Possibly, to go wild in the dollar bin aka. "a teacher's heaven!"  I am going to email you to get your address to send you the treat!  Thanks to all who commented to participate!  I love the blogging world! ;)

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Vegetable and Gardening Unit!

I am SO EXCITED to post my new Vegetable and Gardening Unit!  There are so many good activities for the kids in it, and I have been using it with my own class.  They especially loved making the crops and practicing in the Emergent Readers!  Please see below to check it out!


This unit includes:
-Vegetable Emergent Reader
-What do seeds need to grow?- response sheet
-2 Tally Mark Math- Cut and paste
-2 ABC order sheets
-7 Cut and paste activities
*Vocab. and picture match
*Circle Map of Vegetables
*3 building sentences sheets (unscramble the sentence and draw a picture)
*Picture sort: garden tool vs. vegetables
*Picture sort: singular vs. plural pictures
-Interactive Emergent Reader- singular and plural
-5 Bubble Maps
-14 color picture vocabulary cards with ideas for use
-Make a list sheet
-2 dice game sheets
-2 Center Activities
*Math Center: 16 addition problems, they sort them by the sums, includes a response sheet
* CVC Word Sort Center: 30 cards to sort by short vowel sound, includes a response sheet
-8 vegetables to sponge paint (or decorate) to make a bulletin board full of crops.  Crops included:
*Eggplant
*Turnip
*Tomato
*Carrot
*Peas
*Potato
*Pumpkin
*Corn
-5 draw, label, and write sheets


I think one of my favorite parts of the crops unit, is that I added these adorable vegetables that you can make into a row of crops onto your bulletin board!



Here are some close ups of the veggies that the kids made...


I would love to hear your thoughts!  :)
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Giveaway & Freebie for Earth Day

Weeeee!!!  I am so excited to be at 298 followers (is it bad that I can't wait unti I get to 300 for the giveaway??)!  Thank you for all of you that visit my blog and follow it!  :)  I want to do a giveaway to my favorite place on earth....yep, Target!  Just think $10 to spend in the Dollar Bin... ;)


To win the $10 gift card to Target (aka Dollar Bin HEAVEN) there are 4 things you can do.  Make sure to leave a comment after you do them so you can enter the contest!

1.  Follow my blog {leave a comment}  
2.  Follow my TPT Store {leave a comment}
3.  Follow my Pinterest {leave a comment}
4.  Follow my Facebook Page {leave a comment}

Four easy and fun things you can do to win the Target gift certificate!  I will use a random number picker to choose the winner on April 20th!


ALSO.... here is a freebie for you just for visiting my blog!  It is a project you can do any time of year, but since it is Earth Day, I transformed it into an Earth Day Flower Craft!  It comes with  the template to copy the flower and stem, and labeling pieces for the flower!  I hope you can use it! :)

Click HERE to grab it from my TPT Store!


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Cupcake Mother’s Day Craft


Moms support their children in endless ways every single day. From cooking nutritious, delicious meals to playing with toys, moms handle so much. However, they do all of the cooking, cleaning, and playing with a smile on their face. Thus, they deserve more than one special day each year to thank them for their hard work. Since Mother’s Day is approaching, I love to help students create something to take home. Ultimately, the Cupcake Mother's Day Craft is a perfect way for students to celebrate how incredible their mom is! By sending home a Mother’s Day craft, moms will know how their children think about them even from a distance.




Mother's day is the perfect time to create a gift for students to take home. 


Showing Awareness for Diverse Homes


Honestly, a few students in each classroom may not see their mom on Mother’s Day. Sadly, some students may have lost a parent or do not have their mom in their life for various reasons. The Mother’s Day craft and card fit all mothers in students’ lives to avoid hurting any feelings or making students upset. Thus, there are phrases about mom but also ones addressed to Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. There is even an option that does not include a specific person's name. Honestly, it will be necessary to let every student know that the cupcake Mother’s Day craft is about thanking that person in their life who works so hard to ensure they are taken care of. 




Mother's Day Cupcake Craft Card 


This adorable craft makes the perfect gift for students to show their mom or mother figure extra kindness.  It also doubles as a card! While helping students work, it even creates the perfect one-on-one time to spend with each student before the year ends. 





There are two parts to this gift. On the top, students will decorate a beautiful cupcake. They will select the phrase, such as “You are the Sweetest Mom!” and then add festive symbols. This may be sprinkles, hearts, or anything they like! The supplies can also vary based on the amount of class time. For instance, I had more time, so I used scrapbook paper for the bottom and colored construction paper for the top. The frosting can be in any color! Students may even know their mom's favorite color and want to use that. Honestly, students will have so much fun decorating their cupcakes with any supplies you offer. 


Then, the bottom page has cute questions to answer about their mom. One of the best parts is hearing students say how old their mom is. Since kindergarteners have not grasped the concept of “age” yet, this answer is always adorable! After answering the questions, there is a top edge to glue the pieces together. 





The Cupcake Mother's Day Craft will be such a meaningful gift for students to take home. They will love giving this special gift to the mother figure in their lives. Best of all, Mom will love that her child created something special to honor the important day. 





If you do not want to miss any of the upcoming lessons, join my email list to be notified of all the interactive lessons coming up! By joining the email list, you will also receive freebies for blog exclusive subscribers!  




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Earth Day Tree

I was inspired by two different Earth Day crafts from Pinterest, and I decided to combine the two.  You can find the original pictures {here} and {here}.

The children will use the recycled materials: cardboard, empty liter soda bottles, white paper, and paint to make a cherry blossom tree, or apple tree.


I decided to combine two Earth Day crafts that I found on Pinterest {I am sure you have seen these too!}.  The first one is a Cherry Blossom Tree from Alpha Mom.  She made it look so beautiful painting with a soda bottle...



The second Earth Day art project that I loved was from Mum Paints Lives where she used cardboard as the trunks of the trees.


I haven't done this project with my class yet, we will do it next week when we come back from Spring Break.  I collected liter soda bottles and cardboard to use on our tree Earth Day project.  I tore apart the card board so I could see the ridged side.


I cut apart the card board and glued down pieces to make a tree trunk and tree branches.



I decided to make one look like a cherry blossom tree.  


I dipped the bottom of the bottle in the paint and then pressed it around the branches of the tree.  It did drip a lot, and it might be messy for the kids..we will see!



I wanted to test it out using green paint too!




I am going to let the students choose which type of tree they want to make as their Kindergarten Earth Day project!

 Here is another Earth Day Project that we did.  Another one from pinterest!



We brainstormed ideas of how we could help the earth.  Then I wrote their thoughts onto post-it-notes and placed it onto the poster.  They wrote their own sentence about what their Earth Day promise would be.

Happy Earth Day week!
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