Read Across America.

We just finished our  Read Across American Week . The whole school came together to celebrate our love of reading.  Here's how we celebrated at our school...
 We kicked off the week by decorating our classroom doors to mimic the covers of our favorite Seuss books. Unfortunately, my door didn't come out that great, but this beauty belongs to a friend of mine. It's one of the best doors I've seen. Way to go Sam and and Lauren!


Each day the children and staff were encouraged to show Seuss spirit by dressing in a different book inspired outfit. 

• Monday: Cat in the Hat (Wear Red, Black, and White)
• Tuesday: Fox in Socks ( Wear Silly Socks)
• Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday (Wear Mismatched Clothes)
• Thursday: Oh the Places You'll Go (Wear a Shirt you got on Vacation)
• Friday: My Many Colored Days (Wear your Teacher's Favorite Color)

Monday we read Cat in the Hat and did a character description of Thing 1 and Thing 2.  My little ones are still having a hard time describing the intrinsic traits of characters so we practice this skill A Lot! During writing we made this cute Cat Craft. During our Mini-lesson we discussed if we would let the Cat in the Hat come in our house and why.

Tuesday we focused on Fox in Socks. We started morning meeting by having a sock fashion show. The kids loved taking their shoes off and modeling their silly socks. I even got in on the fun too. During reading we read the book and spent the rest of the day working on our rhyming skills. I threw together this quick easy craft. The children were provided with a sheet that had different pictures on them. They then had to find the rhyming pairs and glue them to fox's belly.

 
Wednesday we had a mystery reader come in and read Wacky Wednesday. The kids had fun trying to figure out my clues. We then spent the rest of the day focusing on wacky things.  During snack I read If I Ran the Zoo and we made a list of animals that you find in the zoo. During recess I encouraged the kids to use the blocks and plastic animals to build their own zoo. During writing I had the students work with a partner to create their own Seusstastic animal and describe it for our class book.

Thursday we had a snow day, but here's what I had planned. We were going to read Oh the Places You'll go and discuss vacations that we've been on. Then during Social Studies we were going to use the world map to locate our vacation destinations.

Friday we read My Many Colored Days. During science we did a fun color experiment using zippy bags and paint. The students were split into teams to complete the experiment. The students had to record what colors they were mixing and predict what it would make. They then compared their results with the other teams, and determined if their predictions were correct.

Well, that about wraps up Read Across America. I would love to hear how you celebrated. Don't forget to check out http://www.seussville.com/ for videos, games, and printables. 

You Oughta Know January Blog Hop

This month I am teaming up with the lovely Mrs. McClain and fellow teacher bloggers for another addition of You Oughta Know.  I just wanted to share a great fundraising strategy that was shared with me the other day.

Shoparoo is a fundraising app that allows you to earn money for your school while you shop at any store. You can start earning money in 4 easy steps.

1) Download the app from your app store (Apple and Andriod compatible)

2) Select your cause or school

3) Take a picture of your receipt

4) Start earning money 

As a subscriber you earn fundraising points for the things you buy. At the end of the year all of the collected points can be redeemed for cash. NOTE: you have to earn at least 25,000 points for a check to be rewarded, but if you don't earn enough the points will be rolled over and used towards next year's total.  Our school just started using this. I can't wait to see how much we year.

Check out the websitehttp://www.shoparoo.com/ to learn how you can earn money for your school. Don't forget to hop on over and visit the other teacher authors participating in this month's blog hop.

An InLinkz Link-up

Franklin Institute

Hey everyone! I hope you are having an awesome  new year.  How are those resolutions going?  With holiday travel and congestion over, my boyfriend and I decided to do a quick day trip to Philly. Of course we choose the coldest weekend, but the rest of January was booked for us

We went to the Franklin Institute to see the Animals Inside Out exhibit.
We saw the Bodies exhibit years ago and thought this might be a cool twist.  Basically you get to take a look at what animals look like on the inside. Through the process of Plastination, scientists preserved various body systems of animals.  It was amazing to see how similar and yet so different we are from the beautiful creatures we share this planet with. Warning!!! This exhibit is not for the faint of heart, they do showcase the systems of dogs and cats too.

This would be a great place to take the kids on a rainy day. The whole museum is interactive. You can participate in hands on activities that explore force and motion, electricity, simple machines, optical illusions, flight, and space travel.

I thought the best part was the Sports Challenge. There was this big room that had different types of sports activities and tested the science behind it.  In the baseball section they had a pitching mound and you could see  what type of ball will go the fastest. You could test your reflexes in the race cars section, balance on the surf boards, and vertical jump on the basket ball court. There was even a section dedicated to  adaptive sports like wheel chair racing.

The Franklin Institute is a great place to plan a field trip. The website offers great teacher resources and of course content standard connections.  If you are looking for a way to display the Next Generation Science Standards hop on over to my TPT store to check out my Kindergarten Science Standards Cards.


After a great day at the museum we ventured down to Reading Terminal Market for something to eat. For those of you who have never been, Reading Terminal Market houses a variety of food venders featuring different ethnic and regional cuisine. It reminds me of indoor Food Trucks. You can even purchase fresh meat, fish, cheese and groceries. Of course you have to stop by one of the many amazing bakeries and confectionery boutiques for dessert. It is worth the drive down the Turnpike.

Thanks for stopping by!

2015 Resolution Linky

I'm teaming up with Second Grade Nest to share my 2015 New Year's Resolutions. Hop on over to her blog to check other Resolutions. firstgradenest.com

So here are my 2015 Resolutions

SALEM:

For the past 2 years my boyfriend and I have said that we should drive up to Salem to celebrate our anniversary in October. For one reason or another we have never managed to get there. This year I want to book the B&B early so there is no excuse why we can't go.

PIANO:

As a kid I took piano lessons for years. I never really devoted as much time to it as I should have. This year Santa brought me a new Keyboard to play around with. I want to learn a few songs that I can play during Morning Meeting. We sing a lot in my classroom so it will nice to have some accompaniment.

                    YOGA:  

I use to take a Bikram class on Saturday mornings but the cost just became too much. With the money I have been saving from tutoring I should be able to to get a monthly pass.

I'd love to hear some of your resolutions, you can leave them in a comment below. Happy New Year!

Kicking off the Holiday Season.

We just finished our Thanksgiving show which means it is time to gear up for the holidays. I just wanted to share something I saw on Facebook last week.

Caring Santa
Simon Malls will be teaming up with Autism Speaks to host Caring Santa.  Special Needs families can make reservations with Santa before the mall opens. This program provides a more subdued environment so that children may enjoy their visit with Santa without the added stress of a crowed mall or long lines.
Check out http://www.autismspeaks.org/caring-santa for times and locations.

You Oughta Know November

Is it just me or is November a ridiculously busy month? The past two weeks I had Teachers Convention, Report Cards, Parent/Teacher Conferences and my 40 minute unannounced observation. If your November has been anything like mine you may be scrambling for extra time in your schedule. This month I am teaming up with some excellent teacher bloggers to share some classroom advice. To save you some time this November, I complied a list of great books to help celebrate Thanksgiving.

Many of you know that I am obsessed with scholastic. I take advantage of all their great deals and promotions to build my class library. These are some of my favorite Thanksgiving non-fiction books.

• Sarah Morton's Day
• Samuel Eaton's Day
• Tapenum's Day
• On the Mayflower
• The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving

Scholastic also has some really great resources on their website. You can even sign up to receive letters from the New World! Some things were a little too advanced for my Kinder's so I just paraphrased the information. They loved looking at the photos though. Check it out for yourself here. http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

You can't forget all of the great Thanksgiving read aloud stories. Last year my kids loved Turkey Trouble. They had so much fun creating disguises for their turkeys and then writing a turkey free menu for Thanksgiving.

• The Littlest Pilgrim
• Bear Says Thanks
• T is for Turkey
• Turkey Trouble
• The Night Before Thanksgiving
• Pete the Cat The First Thanksgiving
• Happy Thanksgiving Biscuit
• The Great Turkey Race

...and many many more!


I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving favorites. Don't forget to stop by these other fantastic teacher bloggers for more great suggestions.
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Celebrating Halloween

Another successful Halloween completed. Getting through Halloween at school can be arduous. The students are so excited that it is difficult to get anything accomplished.  The day is too long to waste just playing games so this year I planned some excellent Halloween related activities that kept the kids engaged and learning.

We started out our morning ELA block focusing on the classic Kindergarten Halloween story, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.  I found this great packet on TPT.
 The packet includes anchor charts and sequencing activities. First we read the story and used the anchor chart cards to retell the story as we read. I then split the students into two teams. I had each team use real objects to retell the story. Everyone wanted to be the stinky shoe that went Clomp Clomp. The students then went back to their seats and completed the cut and retell worksheet for independent practice. We've been working on retelling guided reading so this fit perfectly.

Then I had the students complete this adorable craft that my coworker found on toddlerapproved. I copied the template on to colored construction paper and had the students cut and sequence the pictures to create the scarecrow. I was surprised at how well they were able to cut the hands. Many of the students actually tried to cut in between each finger!

When everyone was finished we watched this cute youtube video of the story that was turned into a song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiUflxXF-Zg  The students love getting up and dancing.

After lunch we invited the parents into to help us with our Pumpkin Investigation. We counted how many ridges were on our pumpkin, we measured the circumference of our pumpkin, we tested to see if it would sink or float. We cut open our pumpkin and counted the seeds by making piles of 10 and then the parents carved the pumpkins into silly faces.

 Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the Halloween parade and end our day. How did you celebrate this year?