Leprechauns, Lucky Charms, and Losing It With Report Cards

Hello cyberbuddies.  Lindsay here . . .

I feel as though I have been living in the movie Groundhog Day.  Ya know . . . where Bill Murray wakes up and ever day its the same day again, and again, and again . . .and again. And again. You get the idea . . .

Anyway, in getting ready for conference week next week I have been assessing my little kidlets like crazy!!  Assessing during centers.  One-on-one assessments during recess and after school.  Assessments during "educational video" time.  Suffice to say, my class is ready for the assessments to be over!!  Of course, then I still have the actual report cards to do. All 23 of them. By next week. Yikes.   Hmmm . .. let's procrastinate some more, shall we?  Let me fill you in on what my class was up to last week.  (Besides all those assessments!)

First off, we had SO much fun celebrating Dr. Seuss all last week, although many of our fun activities have spilled over into this week too.  One of the highlights of the week was on Friday when some handsome friendly local firemen came and read a Dr. Seuss book to the class.  The teachers kids were so excited for our extra special guests!  Fireman Travis even brought a red plastic fireman's hat for each kiddo to take home! 

Then, of course, we jumped right into all of the wonderful madness of March!  We made our adorable little leprechauns . . . . Can you see my favorite one in the bottom right corner?  I love his crazy mouth and stilts for legs - classic!

And we have been continuing to work on our Five Senses Unit.  The two most recent lessons we have worked on were hearing and sight.  For hearing, my students sorted pictures according to what makes sound and what does not. This sparked LOTS of great discussion amongst the kidlets.   Then they had so much fun illustrating each other and practicing their keen sense of sight.  And we're not done yet . . . the TASTE lesson is yet to come and is the best of all! (And not just because it involves food.)

This unit is so much fun to teach!  If you haven't already, go visit my TPT store HERE and check out this fun unit!

And finally, in preparation for celebrating St. Patties Day next week (AHHHHHH!!  How did it get here so soon??!!) I have created a little Lucky Charms math center to help my little kidlets practice their graphing, counting, comparing numbers, and using tally marks.  AND it gives them an excuse to eat sugar - yay!  This is an activity that I do year after year with my kiddos, but I decided to beef up the data sheet that the students fill out this year AND create a color-coded sorting mat that will help the kids figure out which shape each colored marshmallow is.  Because let's face it . . . they all end up looking a bit like rounded little blobs of colored sugar that don't quite resemble hats or horseshoes or pots of gold, right?  Problem solved!!  To purchase this little math activity for your March centers this month, click on the preview image below:

Alright, alright . . . I have put off the inevitable as long as possible.  Time to buckle down and fill in some Excel spreadsheets in my fat pants.  Yep, just living the dream here tonight people!  :)

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday tomorrow! G'night!

Lindsay

Spooktacular TPT Sale and Halloween Graph Freebie!!

Hi Friends...Kerri here!
I can't believe we have STILL not had Halloween yet!! I mean, come on...just get this thing over with already! Are your kids a spun as mine are?? Seriously,  like little jumping beans all over my classroom AND we still have to teach them on Halloween! Thankfully, in our district, the kids don't have school on Tuesday, so the teachers can RECUPERATE with a little staff development! HA!
I forgot to take pictures of our Haunted House art yesterday...BOO...oh well. We direct drew a Haunted House on brown construction paper with a black sharpie, cut it out and added foamy Halloween stickers to decorate. No biggie, but they came out cute! Have I mentioned that I am a hoarder of foamy stickers (Halloween, Valentines, ABC's, what have you...) I can't get enough of them. That reminds me...I better get out to Michaels today and get some more! :)


I have a little freebie for you...A spooky spooksters Halloween Graph! I use plastic Halloween themed rings that I picked up a few years ago, but I also included picture cards if you don't have the rings. Copy as many card sets as you need, put various amounts of each type of card into a baggy and let your little pumpkins sort and graph to their hearts content. It may be too late for many of you, but save it for next year!! Hope you can use it!
Click on the picture to download...Clip art courtesy of DJ INKERS :)

Halloween Spooksters Graph

ALSO...In honor of that lovely holiday LOOMING over our heads, I have decided to throw a 
TPT SALE!! That's right...everything in my TPT store (all 5 items!) are 20% off through Hallowen. You can still get your Thanksgiving Words writing pack for next week...on SALE!!
Click the links above to head on over, and have a great weekend!

Oh baby! I'm back . . .

Hey there blogger buddies!!! 

Wow!  How is it October already?! Y'all must have thought I fell off the face of the earth in September or something . . . Thank goodness Kerri has been hard at work creating fabulousness to share!!

Well, first of all . . . . (drumroll please) . . . I would like to introduce Mr. Jackson Joseph Messner!!  Born August 23 weighing all of 9 lbs. 15.5 oz.  (My mom - also a teacher - was quite perturbed that they didn't just say ten pounds.  "Don't these people know how to round??!!"  Love you mom!!)

Here are the proud mommy and daddy - and baby!  Check out all that hair!  Actually, we weren't at all surprised about his hair . . . but we were shocked he wasn't born with a 5 'clock shadow like daddy!

And here is peaceful, sleeping Jack.  We're lovin' his perfect baby mouth and the lovely sound of his snoring!!

Life has been a wonderful, crazy ride since our little man arrived.  My days consist of feeding, diapers, and lots of naps . . . for Jack that is!  He has decided that his favorite (an only!) place to nap is right on mom's right shoulder.  Sure makes it hard to keep up with the blogging . . . or answer the phone . . . sheesh, its hard to get anything done these days!  But in the back of my mind the countdown is on until I have to return to work in November, so I am soaking up every snuggle and smile until then and paying absolutely no attention to the fact that my right arm has fallen asleep and there is a crick in my neck! :)

Being away from school, in the meantime, has been so surreal.  I have not yet met my kinder class for this year, but I am getting excited to meet them all and let the fun begin.  Having a substitute start the year with my kiddos was really tough . . . (How were my kiddos gonna learn how to rotate through centers the *right* way without me???!!  Would there be magic play doh awaiting them on their tables the very first day??!!  What if they learned the wrong motions for the Alphafriends song - YIPES!!)  Okay, well I was definately learning a lesson in GIVING UP CONTROL (thanks Kerri, for opening my eyes to that which was so obvious to everyone else), and it turns out, things are okay without me!  Well, at least until November . . . then I'll be whipping that class into shape!  Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, I thought I would share this Seasons Graph with you - its a great math activity to do as a group any time of the year!  In addition to graphing, you can have your kiddos practice comparing - greatest, least, more than, less than, etc.  Enjoy!

Just click on the picture above to access the file! :)

Anyhow, I am off to feed the little man . . .and perhaps squeeze in a shower here sometime today?  (Too much info?  C'mon, all you mommies who have had infants know what I'm talking about!!)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Lindsay (Jack's mommy!)

Color Words Graph Freebie!

Hi Peeps! Kerri here again...
I have not been doing a very good job keeping up with Teacher Week 2011. Boo! I only posted Monday so far, and technically this post should be saved for Friday. I wanted to post some pics of my classroom, but since we don't start until September 6th, it is not quite picture ready!! Getting there, but not quite yet...


Lindsay had her baby yesterday (YAY!) and I got to cuddle him today...sooo precious! I am sure she will be posting pictures of him all over this blog as soon as she gets home from the hospital. 


This is a quickie post, just to share a little color words graph I whipped up to have my Firsties work on during the first or second week of school. I plan on giving them baggies of unifix cubes that have all the colors of the rainbow in them and they will sort them, color how many of each, and then analyze the data (just most and least...nothing TOO crazy for the first week of school!) It will also help them practice reading their color words, which most of them hopefully will be able to do (Crossing fingers!)  :)


That's all friends!! Click on the picture above to download. Hope you enjoy it!

Looking Forward and Looking Back

Hi again...Kerri here!

Taste the Rainbow Skittle Math

So, I don't know about your kiddos, but mine absolutely go B-A-N-A-N-A-S whenever they get to graph candy or some other sweet treat! M & M's, Lucky Charms, Skittles, Jelly Beans, Conversation hearts, we do it all. Little do they know that they are actually practicing important math skills while their grubby little hands sort, count, and add up the treats! We graphed conversation hearts in February after I found this totally great worksheet from What the Teacher Wants, so for March I thought I would make a Skittles math packet. 


Looking forward to April, I also made a math packet for Jellybeans... Enjoy!

Jumpin' Jellybeans Math