Duh Duh...Duuuuuh Duh: A Shark Craftivity

I introduced the book Smiley Shark to my class today, accompanied with this little Shark Craftivity.  We are doing an ocean unit this week, and that means learning about SHARKS!!!!  Kids are so mesmerized by sharks for some reason (maybe I am too...), and if they are interested in it, that means I need to tie it into the standards somehow.  :)

I am trying out a new video app... here is us making our shark craft today...

You can find this goodie in my TpT Store.  It comes with the shark craft and 5 different printables.  Head over to take a look!

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Fishy Subtraction

I love when I can find or think of fun math crafts to do with my students.  Here is a fun art project that I displayed for Open House, showing off the students' subtraction skills!

We had giant punch outs of fish bowls lying around, so this was a perfect backdrop for our subtraction art project.  I went out to the playground and collected some sand to place on the bottom of our bowl.  The students spread glue using glue sticks on the bottom of the bowl and sprinkled the sand on, just like they would with glitter. 

The kids sponge painted fish onto their bowl.  They could place as many that fit in the bottom of the fish bowl! 

 

I cut out strips of black construction paper, and each child was asked to place one "x" on a fish.  I sat with the kids to have them write their subtraction sentence with pencil on the top of their fish bowl, and once I confirmed that it was correct, they traced it in marker.  

I did this craft over a span of 2 days because we had to wait for the sand and fish to dry.  The students had fun, and I love how they turned out!

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Babysitting Baby Chicks For a Day!

My lovely new friend, Christy, from Crayons and Whimsy, was SO generous and let my class babysit her chicks for a day!  She hatched these bad boys with her class, and let my little ones enjoy them for a little bit.  Make sure you click on the image below to check out her adorable blog.  

We just finished studying the life cycle of a chick, so getting to see the baby chicks in real life was such a treat for my kids!  I mean, look how adorable this little guy is!

The kids sat in a circle and gently placed their hands on the ground, anxiously waiting for a little chick to walk across them.  This is the closest they got.  Those chicks were smart, they huddled in the middle of the circle, out of reach from the children.  ;)

This photo cracks me up, because this chick is seriously staring straight at the camera!  Christy had marbles in the water to make sure the little guys didn't "fall in."  I was stressed that something horrible would happen to the chicks under my watch, but everything turned out fine!

Here is my Chicken Life Cycle for Kindergarten if you looking for a resource to study this unit. :)

Thank you Christy for sharing your feathered friends with us!

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Summer Bucket List Linky Party

This is the second annual Summer Bucket List Linky Party hosted by Miss Kindergarten, A Cupcake for the Teacher, and A Modern Teacher!

I still have a month left of school, report cards, a Kindergarten graduation to plan, and millions of more things, but I already have a summer bucket list that I hope to accomplish!  I am really excited because this is the first year that I WON'T be working this summer!! (normally I teach summer school, but not this time!)

I have been stressed out about my Word Wall all year.  I feel like it takes up too much space, and I want to be able to organize it better!  Look at this Word Wall I found from First Grade Fresh.  The wall is tall and skinny, and would take up less space.  I might try it next year!

I have been obsessed with Downton Abbey!  I need to start and finish season 3... this is definitely on my summer "to do" list.

Maybe I'm doing a little traveling this summer....

I take after my mother in the way that we kill plants (mom, you know it's true!).  They can't live more than a month!  Even succulents!!!  This would be my dream... 

Country Living makes it looks so pretty!!

I really need a side table next to my bed.  Look a the DIY TV tray fixed up by Simple Home Life:

It would match my room, and I love the little flowers to add a little color. :)

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Instagram 101...photo apps!!!

I am loving how the teachers have been sharing so many photos on Instagram lately, especially on Tuesdays using #teachertalktuesday to categorize all of our photos together!  If you want a short overview on the Instagram basics (including what a hashtag is) you can check out my previous post HERE.

Today I want to share some apps that I use, or know of, that you can use to edit your photos, add words, or change the filter.  Before I even used Instagram, I used some of these apps for my blog, so maybe these can be helpful!

Here is my favorite app: Diptic

Cost: $1

What can it do?: You can do a collage of pictures all in one frame.  If you want to share several pictures, but don't want to post them all, you can organize and place them into the little boxes.  You can also write text onto the picture too!

Here is an example of me using Diptic on one of my photos:

I wanted to share three images from my Ocean Unit and I was able to write my blog name on the picture.

InstaCollage is a free version of the app I showed you above. :)

App: A Beautiful Mess

Cost: $1

What can it do?:  You can choose cute fonts and shapes to write on the photos, add boarders, edit the picture, and so much more!

The most necessary app: Whitagram

Cost: I think it was $1

What can it do?:  When your photos are too big for the Instagram screen, it makes them fit!  I use this for my bulletin board pictures!!!

Here is me using Whitagram to fit this cute flower craftiftivity from Kindergarten Smiles.

App: BorderGram

Cost: Free

What can it do?: It gives you cute borders for your pictures!

I would love for you to share with me some of your favorite apps that you use for photos!  Leave me a comment if you have any good ones, so I can check them out!  

And remember....Tomorrow is Teacher Talk Tuesday, hosted by myself and What The Teacher Wants!  Post a picture of anything "teachery" and use #teachertalktuesday.

See you tomorrow!

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Freebielicious Giveaway Blog Hop!

We at Freebielicious are so excited to announce teaming up with A+ Teacher Images (the greatest t-shirt company for teachers and more, in case you haven't heard of them!). We all received the fanciest custom designed t-shirt we've ever owned AND now we can give a t-shirt of the winner's choice from each of our individual blogs.

I just love my t-shirt because it is so much more than just a shirt.  It represents friendships, fun, and business relations (oh wait and STYLE, of course!) all in one "blinging" design.  Where else could you get all that from one t-shirt?  A  special thanks goes out to Doug from A+ Images.  He worked with us to make just the right shirt to represent our company and is still giving us a shirt to give one lucky winner for each of our blogs!

This is me just loving my new shirt!

(thank you Maria for the adorable collage!)

We have made this giveaway super easy for you to have almost 50 chances to win one of 23 t-shirts.  It is a blog hop, so you can enter as many or as few giveaways you would like!  The contest begins Saturday, May 18th, at 8:00 a.m. EST and ends on Sunday, May 19th, at 12:00 a.m. EST.  Winners will be announced on the following Monday.  Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy!  Start by entering my giveaway here:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner: Jennifer Lofgren!  I just sent you an email! :)

If you don't win one of the giveaways, but you see a shirt that you really just have to have, A+ images is offering our Freebilicious followers 20% off orders of $20 or more by using the code: FREE20

The last stop, you will head over to Freebielicous and enter there!  Thanks so much for hopping through all of the blogs for a chance to win!

Go to our Freebielicious Facebook page and like us so you never miss a freebie or giveaway like this one!

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Elmer the Elephant (elephants are hard to draw!)

Elmer is such an adorable book, and it is always a crowd pleaser with the little ones.  We are going on a zoo field trip in a couple of weeks, so I am trying to squeeze in as many zoo animals as I can before we go!  Today was elephant day in the lovely world of Kindergarten.  

The kids really wanted to make an Elmer craft, but I didn't have any time to...

A.  Make the craft

B. Prep the craft

C.  Actually do the craft

So instead, I googled "directed drawing of an elephant" and we went to town on drawing one and writing sentences.  I lead the class, shape by shape, of how to draw an elephant.  Once we finished, they traced their pencil lines with a marker.  Then I asked them to draw vertical and horizontal lines to make the patchwork, to then color in.

Once they colored Elmer in, they wrote a couple of sentences to accompany their drawing.

I think this little guy is adorable!  Look how cute he turned out...

Sometimes kids can get overwhelmed when you ask them to draw something specific (aka, an elephant...) so I took the directed drawing route to practice listening and following directions, AND to make them all feel successful in their drawing ability.  

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For My Mom

So it was Mother's Day this weekend, and I was in San Francisco for a wedding.  My mom reads my blog once a week, and kindly texts me with typos or weird sentences. (is this one of those weird sentences?).  She is the sweetest thing ever, and I want to write a little about my mommy...she will read this and find a little surprise!

 

Some things about my mother...  she is seriously one if the silliest people I know.  She has the best attitude on life and has the best sense of humor (like measuring plant leaves...).  Have you ever had a year that gave you so many twists and turns, that you didn't know how you would survive it?  That was my past year, and I couldn't have succeeded without my mom's love and support.  Love you mom. :)

 

Here is what we made for the mommies in our classroom...a Cupcake Mother's Day Card...

 

Thanks so much to the moms out there!

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#FiveForFriday

I am so excited for Friday to get here because I am going to San Fran for a weekend wedding!  My favorite linky party hosted by Doodle Bugs, is here today too!  We are posting five pictures from our week!

#MrsMcNosh  #SillyThingsToHang  #TheKidsWereSoEngaged

#MiniTaco  #MonthlyTeacherLunch

#SpoiledForTeacherAppreciationWeek

#Adding

#Mother'sDayCupcake 

 

I would love if you left me a #hashtagcomment

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