A whole lotta randomness...and a Mother's Day craft!

Good evening, Bits and Bobbers!! Your long lost friend Kerri here...

I am SERIOUSLY slacking in the blogging department friends!! I don't know what the problem is, well actually I do. I am trying desperately to get back on the yoga bandwagon, which is an hour a night. Well, that pretty much cuts out blogging, since blogging takes an hour also each time I do it, for some reason?? 
Sigh...not enough hours in the day, man!! But today blogging beat out yoga, so here we go!!

Here are some things my kidlets and I have been up to lately...

We started our Rainforest Unit by using Abby's Mystery Box activity to introduce it. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the Mystery Box. Ohmyword, they go CRAZY for it!! They had so much fun guessing what was inside the box...

It was a red-eyed tree frog!!

 Then they wrote all about it. I call it a power write-they write as much as they can for 5 minutes, then I choose some kids to read their stories to the class, using Mr. Microphone, of course!!

We also started making some art projects for our Rainforest Open House extravaganza! Luckily the flowers and butterflies double nicely for Springy projects, until I put them up for Open House!! Aren't they so pretty??

I love how they look on my wall...swoon! So bright and cheerful!! 

We also have been learning about American symbols, and we step drew Lady Liberty for one of our projects. This step draw is from Deanna Jump's America Unit, which I LOVE!! Aren't they so fun??

I just love my mini anchor chart stand!! It holds all of my America and Rainforest posters perfectly!

My kids also presented an Oral Report on an American Symbol of their choice. They did such a fantastic job!!

Her White House is AMAZING!!

Love the initials for the Presidents on this one!!

Lego White House!!

 For Earth Day, we had SOOO much fun making Maria from Kinder Kraze's fabulous watercolor Earth Day projects. Disclaimer: I hate paint, so I was wary about letting my kids use the watercolors, but they did AWESOME!! Okay, okay, paint isn't so bad after all!! :)

Okay, here is my new idea for a Mother's Day craft. For years, we made these plates, which I LOVE, but this  year I decided to mix things up and make a cute little bowl  (from IKEA for $1 each) for the moms...here are the steps!
You need a 5 by 5 square of copy paper, crayons, mod podge, a sharpie, tissue paper, and a foam brush.

1. Draw a flower on the paper with a sharpie, add your words, and color with bright colors.

2. Bubble cut around the flower and mod podge it to the bottom of the bowl, like this...

3. Cover the entire bottom of the bowl with mod podge and squares of tissue paper. One layer should be enough.

 4. Let it dry overnight and voila!! It will be beautiful in the morning!!

Well, that's all I got peeps!! Off to wash my face and snuggle on the couch with my Kindle!
XOXO Kerri B

Earth Day Fun!!

Happy Sunday, Bloggy friends! Kerri here...

Well, we're back from Branson, Missouri, y'all!! IT was soooo super fun! We explored caverns, kayaked down the Taneycomo river, went to the Titanic museum, and even caught a show!! I don't want to go back to school tomorrow!! Waaaaa.

Here is my favorite picture from our trip...

Earth Day is just a over a week away!I can't believe it!! Where the heck is April going??

Earth Day is one of my favoritest days (holidays? What do I call it exactly??) to teach my kidlets all about, mostly because they REALLY take it seriously and become so motivated to help keep the Earth clean. 

Here are some of the activities that I did with my class last year to celebrate Earth Day...

First, we made this super EASY PEASY (and pretty) Earth Day art and wrote about how we could help save the Earth...

Here are the dimensions, if you would like to make them with your class, along with writing paper and the Earth template for your kids to color and cut out (clipart courtesy of DJ Inkers)...

9 x 12 light blue background
5 x 12 skin color (I folded it in half, traced one my kids' hands and then cut it out once)
Earth pattern (click picture above to access this)
3 x 4 paper folded in half for the heart (I used pretty scrapbook paper)
Writing paper so the kids can write how they love the Earth (also included with download, click photo above)

We also made a little "I Love the Earth" bubble map to help us describe the Earth. This helped us when when we wrote about it (click image to download)...

We also had LOTS of fun playing with examining earthworms in a VERY scientific way after reading Diary of a Worm...

SO NASTY!!

Isn't his expression priceless?? This was the BEST ACTIVITY EVER!!

We also had LOADS of fun with my Earth Day Math and Literacy Centers...

Here are my kids having fun with the centers...

Counting Patterns

Graphing

Number Puzzles

Syllable Sort

They also used my Earth Day Writing center to write all about the Earth...

Finally, to complete all this Earth Day goodness, how about another Earth Day Number Puzzles FREEBIE from my TPT store! Click on the picture to download it for yourself...

Whew!! That was a lot of Earth Day fun!! Hope you found some activities that you can share with your kiddies!! Happy Earth Day, friends!!
XOXO Kerri B

Sprinkles of Springtime & Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs - Revamped!

Happy Wednesday folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Well here in Messyhairland it is Spring Break . . . which means sleeping in past 4 a.m. (yahoo!) and spending time with my littles all week long!!  Its a treat to be home with them . . . even when they are teething and tantruming.  But I digress . . .

One of my Spring Break "to-do's" this week was to upload pictures of all of the fun spring activities my kidlets and I have been busy with at school lately!  I feel like I just finished up report cards and conferences in March and all of a sudden it was April already!  Where has this year gone??!!

First off, to kick off the spring season in Room 17 we have our dapper spring ducks decorating our classroom - with bows and bowties (of course!!)

 

In math we have been working on addition with sums to 10 (which for some of my kiddos is SOOOOO easy, and for others is still a lil tricky!).  So in order to sneak in a little extra math facts practice (disguised as a super fun, new, Easter-ish dice game, of course!) I invented "Chicks Chasing Chocolate!!  That's right - hilarious chicks chasing chocolate bars and my kiddos L-O-V-E-D it.  And it couldn't be easier to set up - each kiddo gets two dice to roll, a recording sheet, and a crayon.  The kiddos roll their two dice and then color one bubble for the chick that has the sum of the numbers that were rolled. Every time the dice are rolled one bubble is colored.  The first chick to get all the bubbles colored across gets its chocolate first!  

I actually played this under the document camera first with my class so they could get the hang of it.  Then (due to the fact that I have 30 students and not enough dice!) I decided to have them play in partners - so they took turns rolling the dice, but both players added and colored for each roll of the dice.

(You can download my Chicks Chasing Chocolate FREEBIE in my TPT store HERE!)

In centers last week we got down and dirty and with my Egg-stra Special Egg-vestigation activities (which you can check out in my TPT store HERE!)

 

First the kids examined their eggs and thought of "juicy" describing words.  (My favorites from this kiddo: "cwiyit" and "frajool". Too cute!)

Then they estimated the circumference of the egg with yarn and then measured and compared their prediction to the actual measurement . . .

Next was egg sink & float with regular water and salt water.

The MOST fun (and the messiest - of course!) was the Incredible Hulk Egg.  We measured the strength of four eggs by stacking large textbooks on top until the eggs cracked.  (It was amazing how much weight those eggs held!  And it was ALSO amazing how many old, useless college textbooks I have in my classroom!)

And then the kiddos got to crack open an egg and draw their scientifical diagram (with lots of labels!)...

Finally, the kiddos reflected on the activities and wrote some things they they learned about their eggs . . . (Hmmmm . . . I'm pretty sure that last sentence is just a filler sentence . . .)

But BY FAR my MOST favorite spring activity that I do every year with my chitlens is a whole unit based on the book Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs!

This year I decided to update/revamp my unit . . . Soooooo (drumroll please!) without further ado I give you the new & improved Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs {Simply Scrumptious Math & Literacy Centers and Activities}. (You can check it out in my TPT store HERE.)

Here is a peek at what's included:

Here is a shot of my kiddos doing the Raining CATs and DOGs Vowel Sort.

And here is a peek at our Wacky Weather graph . . .

 

There are TONS more fun, food-filled activities for your kiddos to enjoy in this unit.  Because who doesn't love food raining from the sky, am I right people??!!

 

 

Well, I think that is it for now . . . I am off to enjoy some homemade chocolate chip cookies on the couch with my hubby . . . Ahhhhhh.  Gotta love Spring Break!

 

Have a great night folks!

 

Lindsay