Roll A Turkey - A Thanksgiving Freebie

Greetings blogger buddies! Lindsay here . . .

How many of you can remember back to your first year of teaching?  I can clearly remember being so young, so clueless, and so POOR!!  Man, waiting for that very first paycheck seemed like forever!!!!  In the meantime, I was super resourceful and creative . . .In fact, I used to make a lot of hand-drawn or self-created worksheets, charts, etc. because the price was right . . . they were free! 

Well, next week I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my kinder kiddos and I needed one more fun Thanksgiving center. I found an idea for a game online, and harkened back to my teaching roots . . . (drumroll please) . . . I created this one-of-a-kind, handmade "Roll a turkey" game template.  Here's how you play:

Students play in groups of two or three, each with their own "Roll a turkey" mat and something to draw with.  Students take turns rolling a 10 sided dice, and whatever number they land on, they get to draw the corresponding turkey body part.  If they already have rolled a number, they draw nothing and lose that turn. The first one to complete the picture wins.  This is a fun way for my kiddos to practice number identification and have fun too! I will probably laminate the playing mats so they can use wet-erase marker to play again and again.  For older students, you could create mats with math facts for each body part (such as 4+6 = beak).  Students would have to look for the math fact to correspond to the number they rolled.

(Click on image for link to worksheet)

Hope you have lots of super fun Thanksgiving celebrations planned with your kiddos as well!  If you decide to have your kids "Roll a turkey" let me know how it goes! :)

Lindsay



Holiday Words Up and Running!!

Hiya Peeps!! Happy Veteran's day...it is sunny and 70 here in Cali, and I have been holed up at my computer getting the Holiday Words ready to go on TPT! This is what I do to put off doing my report cards...just call me Little Miss Procrastinator!
Here is a sneak peek at the holiday words. I added another activity  so you will get a grand total of 5, count 'em, 5 fun filled activities to do with your kiddos during the month of December. Here is what's included!



This packet includes everything you need to help your students learn Holiday Words and write about them! 5 activities are included, which can be used in your literacy centers for the whole month of December. Writing Activities include:


1. Holiday Words Book writing center-picture/word mats, lined paper, and cover


2. Holiday Words ABC Order activity


3. Holiday Words Rebus Sentences activity-sight words included


4. Write your own Holiday Words Story paper


5. Holiday "Making Words"-letters included for word building

Click on the picture to go to my TPT store!

Well, I'm off to get ready to take my 8 year old and her friend to see "Jack and Jill"! Ugh...wish me luck, not exactly my choice for a movie, but you know how that goes...being a mom!

Tuesday Randomness and a Math FREEBIE!

Hi friends! Kerri here...
I have tons to share today and I am not exactly sure why? But anyways, here we go...
Here are my bowl of fruit art projects that I got straight out of the TLC art book "Fall" (Do you have it?? It is seriously AWESOME!) I think they are so sweet and classy...

I like the dots on his letters. I think he was channeling me when he wrote this!

We will be writing about what we are thankful for tomorrow using the paper I shared in this post, and gluing both onto large construction paper to be hung up. Very festive!


Next idea comes straight from my mom, who was a teacher for 35 years and is my hero. She helps out in my classroom every Friday (I know! How spoiled am I??) and she is simply AMAZING! She used to cut out all kinds of pictures from old magazines and have her kids use them as writing prompts. Since she retired, she gives all of the pictures she finds to me so my kiddos can do the same thing. I introduced it today and the kids were SOOO stoked. They thought the pictures were HILARIOUS and the pictures really helped them to describe what they saw in the picture. Check out a few...

I love how he predicted what they would do with the wood here...

I love that she added herself to the picture...

This little guy was NOT stoked to get the feet picture, but he worked it out in the end...

Easy, instant writing center, and the kids LOVE it!


Next sharing idea is a foldable flip book. I think this comes from Dinah Zike, who has a plethora of foldable ideas in her books that she sells. This one is my fave because it takes 1 minute to make and is such a good way to reinforce vocabulary that you are working on... Take 3 (or however many you want) pieces of paper, stagger them, fold them over and staple the top. Done and done. We made this one to practice our number words a few weeks back, but we're going to make another one this week to write about and illustrate weather and season words...

I am also super excited about this cute little teacher's apron I saw on Etsy... I wore it for the first time today and it was SOO AMAZING to have everything at my fingertips...pens, erasers, BANDAIDS, nurse passes, stickers, etc. etc. Check it out...

Click on the picture to go to the Etsy shop!!

They also have others styles if owls don't float your boat. Of course, I couldn't resist them! :) My kids were very enamored with my apron and were giving me tips about what I should put in the pockets! 

Here is a  Math freebie for you to put into your Math Stations. It is a number word graph using either a 10 sided die or 2 regular dice. The kids roll 'em, add them up or say the number and color one square that has the number word. After rolling for X amount of time, they analyze the data and answer the questions on the back. If you use 2 regular dice and they roll 11 or 12, I just told my kids to roll again...no biggie! I don't know what it is about dice graphing, but my kids go BANANAS over it. You shoulda seen them today in centers!! Click on the picture to download...

Finally, here is a picture of my sweet mommy who I love so much...What a blessing and an amazing mom she is!!

Halloween Boo-Hoos

Happy Monday Blogger Buddies!  Lindsay here . . .

Hope you all survived the Halloween madness with your kiddos! This year I missed out on the costumes, the candy, the parties, etc. as I was home with baby Jack . . . The countdown is OFFICALLY on - only 10 more days until I am back at work - YIKES!  (Although I'm not sure yet if my hubby will be able to pry Jack out of my fingers that morning and actually get me out the door . . .)  

Anyway, I don't have anything truly academic to share on this Monay morning, but I thought we could all use a good laugh instead! This YouTube video is a clip from Jimmy Kimmel -  He asked parents to tell their children that they ate the rest of their Halloween candy and catch it on video . . . and the results are hilarious, and a bit frightening at times too! Pay extra special attention to the two little boys at the end - they are my FAVORITES!!

 

2+2=5 . . . Classic!  Hope you enjoyed it!  Happy Teaching folks!

Lindsay

Word Ending Sort on TPT! and a Writing FREEBIE!

Happy Saturday, Peeps! Kerri here...
I am OVER MY HEAD in paperwork and assessments, trying to get ready for Conferences in 2 weeks. Add to that short 4 day weeks for the whole month of November and there is like NO TIME to teach! How will I have time to teach all of the fantabulous ideas I get from all of my bloggy friends!! NEED...MORE...TIME!
Because I am a procrastinator...(I don't wanna do report cards yet!!) and because we are learning about word ending this week (-s, -ed, and -ing), I just uploaded this little word ending center to TPT...on sale for only $2! And..it has ADORABLE furry friend clip art, if I do say so myself. Perfect for Fall...and very kid friendly~check it out!

Click on the picture above to go to my TPT store. It will be on sale until Wednesday!


And...here is a writing freebie for those of you who would like to have your kiddos write about what they are thankful for...or whatever else that is Thanksgiving themed! We will be making "still life" bowls of fruit for art this week to go with our "I am Thankful" stories. Pictures forthcoming!! Click on the picture to download your copy!

Have a great weekend, friends!

After the fact Haunted House art...and a Houghton Mifflin Freebie!

YAWN!! Hey folks! Kerri here...
Is anyone else as exhausted as I am?? I didn't even have kids today, but man, I am still SOOO beat from all of the festivities yesterday!
I know this is too little, too late, but I feel compelled to post about our Haunted House art that we made last Thursday, mostly to have a record I can refer to next year. 
I used Rachelle's (www.whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com-my favorito!) fantastic Haunted House writing paper from her SUPER DUPER Halloween unit, and we step drew Haunted houses (well, actually they look more like castles-whatever...) with Sharpie markers (my kids feel oh-so grown up when they use sharpies!) to glue next to the stories. We added Foamy Halloween stickers (I love them!) and a moon. Tada! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. Check 'em out!

Easy and fun for my kiddos. :)


Also, this week we are teaching Theme 3-Week 1 from the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series. I made this little response activity for the story Seasons, because frankly, I think the HM workbook is L.A.M.E. and I try to use it as little as possible. Did I really just write that out loud? Whatevas...
You can use this response worksheet with any book you read about the seasons. It will also work for science lessons. Click on the pic to download!

I'll be back later this week with a super cute Classroom Pets themed math center and maybe a Lit center too...if I get my rear in gear!

Have a happy week...show some love, leave a comment!

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!