Gobble, Graving and Giving Thanks - Math and Literacy Centers for November

Happy Tuesday folks!  Lindsay here . . .

Well, I have been experiencing some major technical difficulties over here on the Mrs. Messyhair side of Teacher Bits and Bobs and I have been SO frustrated to not be able to share with you all the things we have been doing in Room 17!  (Darn you Google for not letting me upload pictures and documents!! - insert angry shaking fist here . . .)

Soooooooooo . . . today I will be brief.  You will just have to take my word for it that October was amazing, that my kids and I did a unit of study on bats culminating in them filling out a bat outline and presenting their "research" to our neighboring kindergarten class, that we had so much fun with our Haunted House art and writing about our field trip to the farm.  Cuz it happened.

But alas, October is over, and I wanted to share with you some Thanksgiving goodness for you and your chitlens before its too late!  Hot off the press, I give you GOBBLE, GRAVY AND GIVING THANKS - Math and Literacy Centers for November (click on the image to check it out in my TPT store):

Your students will GOBBLE up these math and literacy centers for the month of November! Included in these centers are:

1. Giving Thanks Graph (sorting, counting, graphing, comparing numbers)
2. Turkey 10s (Writing, counting and sequencing by 10s)
3. Mashed Potatoes Measuring (measuring to the closest inch; recording data)
4. Gravy and Gibblets Sentence Scramble (write, cut and glue scrambled up Thanksgiving sentence)
5. Pumpkin Pie and Picture Puzzles (building Thanksgiving words)
6. Ten Little Turkeys reader (original text reader that will help students practice counting down from 10 to 0, numbers/number words, reading)

I used the Giving Thanks Graph, Picture Puzzles and Turkey 10s today in centers and they were such a hit!  Easy to follow directions, but the classroom was SO QUIET (as often happens when their little brains are being put to good use!!) 

Here are Pumpkin Pie and Picture Puzzles - building words...

 

Here is our Giving Thanks Graph: sorting the pictures, counting, graphing and answering questions about our data....

And last of all, the completed Turkey 10s!  I was so proud at my kiddos for getting this by themselves!  I had a volunteer mom cancel for centers at the last minute, but I explained to my kiddos what they were to do, and left them with some 100 charts (just in case!) and they did great!

Sorry that is it for now!  Hopefully I can figure out the problem with Google (maybe it just hates me?) and will be back with more soon!

Have fun watching the election results tonight!

Lindsay

Pass the Turkey, Y'all!!

Happy Saturday, Peeps! Kerri here...
Well, it's come full circle. First, my daughter asked for Doc Martens for her 13th birthday, and it made me remember when I got my first pair. I was 15, and they were black and AWESOME. I had to drive to some obscure hole in the wall in Whittier to find mine, but I found Sarah's bright purple ones online in about 30 seconds! Oh, how the times have changed!

Tonight,  we were at the mall and I found myself buying her a sweater at Wet Seal. Anyone out there in blogging land ever shop there in high school? I know I did. That store and Charlotte Russe were the bees-nees back in the late 80's-early 90's. Oh wait, did I just date myself? How is it possible I was in high school in the 90's when I am only 28?? :)

Anyway, back to full circle. I can't believe that A-I am the mother of a teenager, and B-I can't believe she is shopping at the same stores I used to shop in! It is totally surreal!

But, back to the subject at hand...Pass the Turkey! I finished up my latest set of centers this morning, because I hate to remind everyone, but Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks. HOLY GUACAMOLE, I say! How on Earth is that possible?? I feel like it was just 90 degrees and the first day of school, and yet here I sit, wearing a sweatshirt and blogging about turkey!

Take a look at these cutesy cute centers... (click on each pic to go to my TPT shop)

This month there are 11, count them, 11 centers for your kidlets' learning pleasure! Because my kids and I have been doing these types of centers each month since September, they are becoming such independent learners! Since they know the format, they are able to focus on the learning objectives and content standards without asking "What do I do again?" a million times. It is heavenly!!

We will also be starting our November Words Writing Center this week. Here is a sneak peek...

Here are some pictures of my kids using the October Words writing pack, so you can see the format. Their writing is REALLY coming along using these mats every month, and they LOVE it when I pull out the new mat! Lots of ooh's and aah's. It makes me feel so accomplished!

Well, that's all I got tonight. I have 23 report cards hanging over my head that I have not even started yet, and Conference week starts on Monday. I know, I know, but don't judge, peeps! This is how I roll. Procrastinate until the situation becomes dire, and then bust a move and get 'er done! Works every time!

I leave you with these 3 questions...
1. Did you wear Doc Martens in high school?
2. Did you shop at Wet Seal?
3. Are any of you obsessed with the show Gold Rush like I am?

I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to know! 

Wish me luck, I'm gonna go show those report cards who's boss!
XOXO Kerri B

Friday FREEBIES...and a FANTASTIC find!

Happy Friday, friends! Kerri here...
Oh. My. Snaps! Praise Jesus that it's finally Friday! Was this not the longest week EVER?? And, we had no kids on Thursday due to a staff development day, but it was STILL the LONGEST.WEEK.EVER! 

I was super excited today, because A-Some of the staff got together at a fellow teachers house after school and had a...ahem...beer. Am I allowed to share that? Did I really have a beer today? I haven't had beer since my wild college days involving 40s of Miller Lite and parking lots outside the restaurants where I worked. Gross.   
Anyway, back to today's beer story. This one involved my mom, who came with me since she helps out in my classroom every Friday, but did NOT have a beer (she only does White Zin-the 2 buck Chuck kind), and a kegerator at my colleague's house. Yes, you read that right. A kegerator. This guy is SERIOUS, peeps. He has a kegerator AND a pool. Now that's living!!

Here is the other reason I was excited. I got to have a real live date with my Mister, without the children! YAY!! But here's how pathetic I am. We sat in our car in our driveway for like 5 whole minutes because I COULD not for the life of me decide where to eat. Cheesecake Factory (too far), BJ's (too busy), Mexican (over it already). We settled on Stonefire Grill because it is DELICIOUS, and guess what's right next door?? LAKESHORE!!! You bet I dragged my Mister on over there after dinner! Darn straight!

Guess what I found whilst at Lakeshore?? These little gems...

WORD RALLY!!!! It's like a little baby boggle game that is 2 inches square! I am SOOO excited!!
These babies were only $2.99 at Lakeshore and I cannot wait for my kidlets to make oodles and oodles of words with them. I was going to make a worksheet to go with them, and I still might, but then I might just save a tree and have them use their wipey boards to write the words on. Either way, LOTS of spelling and learning is sure to take place! Here is a closer-up view...

Aren't they TOTALLY WICKED AWESOME?? I know my kidlets will think so! So Hurry Hurry Chicken Curry over to Lakeshore, or google it, and get your own Word Rally cubes!

Here is a FREEBIE for y'all to help your kiddos with sequencing. We are using the 6 traits of writing this year, and to help our kids with organization (specifically Opening, First, Next, Last, and Closing or as we call it "The Hamburger" style of writing), we created a story sequence activity. For this activity, our kids will have to cut out the sentence strips, glue them in the proper organized order, and then illustrate each sentence in the boxes below. 
I made 3 different ones for them-A Day at the Beach, Getting Reading for School, and Making Lunch. I plan on making more of these for them, if they do well and seem to enjoy it. Of course, I will be sharing with all of my blogging buddies, so stay tuned!

Click on the picture below to download your  own Sequencing set via google docs...

Well, I've gotta jet. Gotta get ready to watch my Gold Rush! Is anyone else as obsessed as me with that show?? I LOOOOOVE that show, and last year, when I went to Oregon, I seriously considered stalking the Hoffmans, who live right near where we were staying. Isn't that so creepy? That's how obsessed I am!

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek of my newest set of Lit and Math centers (which are soooo close to being finished, I can almost taste it!)...

This pack is chock full of Thanksgiving goodness...and it is turning our SUPER cute!! I can't wait to tell you more tomorrow!
Toodles!
XOXO Kerri B

Bats, Haunted Houses, and a Spooky SALE!

Hiya Peeps! I'm baaack...
We had a SUPER busy week last week, learning about Bats and making Haunted Houses. Let's begin, shall we?
We spent 2 weeks learning about bats. The first thing we did was make a circle map for bats...

Then we used this fabulous worksheet from Anna over at Crazy for First Grade to write down 4 bat facts we had learned...

We also made a Bats tree map (Where did I get his? I love it!! Please tell me if it is yours, fellow bloggers!) 

and a Double Bubble map comparing/contrasting Bats and Owls (We learned about owls the first 2 weeks in October)...

We culminated our unit with a direct draw/labeling activity and Bats facts writing (using our Tree Maps to help us!)...TADA!!

We glue or all of our scientifical writing/maps/worksheets in a science notebook, and I save them for the end of the year. It is muy impressive to see all of their science in one place, and they feel very grown-up and fancy using a science notebook!!

We also made uber-cute Haunted Houses to celebrate my favorite holiday! (Snark snark!) These are SUPER easy. First, we step drew a haunted house on brown and traced it with our beloved sharpies. Next, we cut it out and glued it onto dark blue. We added a moon and 2 tombstones for extra added spookiness. Finally, I let them choose 8 foamy Halloween shapes (Thank you Michaels!) and stick them wherever their little hearts desired. They were in H-E-A-V-E-N!!

After the art was done, we used it as inspiration to write Haunted House stories, using the fabulous writing paper from What the Teacher Wants (LOVE IT!!) Aren't they spookilicious?? And easy peasy lemon squeezy too!
We also did my Costume Party Part/Part/Whole Math Center this week, and they kiddos LOVED it! Okay, it was probably due to the fact that they got to use the spooky erasers, but whatever gets 'em excited, right??

You can pick this little diddy up for 20% off (which makes in just $1.60-come on now!!) along with lots of other fun centers through tomorrow (10/29, not 10/28) at both Lindsay and my TPT stores!! Check them out!

Saying a little prayer for all of my East Coast blogging buddies today. Praying you'll all be safe and sound through that giant storm!!
Take Care...
Kerri B

Spooktacular SALE, and a winner!!

Happy Friday, Peeps! Kerri here...
I'm gonna keep this SHORT and SWEET because I'm walking out the door to dinner, and I promise I will be back tomorrow with Bats and  Haunted Houses, but I just wanted to let you know that Lindsay and I will be throwing a little SALE in both of our TPT stores, to celebrate the upcoming Halloween/Fall Festivities!!

Here are some items from my (Kerri's) TPT store that might get you all excited to celebrate Halloween or Fall with your kidlets...

Lindsay has this adorable set of Spooky centers in her store, perfect for your Kindergarten kidlets!!

Finally, here is the winner of the Educational Insights gift code giveaway! Thank you all for playing along...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be back tomorrow! Happy a fabulous Friday!
XOXO
Kerri B

Goofy Pumpkinheads FREEBIE!

Happy Friday, Peeps!! Kerri here...

Can I just say "TGIF!!"" with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! My word, what a week! Let's just say that I was at school 2 days in a row at 7:00 a.m. (One of the days for a leadership meeting, the other day I THOUGHT we had a leadership meeting, but we did not. DANGIT!) and another day I had to take my parents to the airport at 7:00 a.m. 
And then there was the massive allergy attack that hit me yesterday morning in the middle of our AR time and lasted the entire day! My kids were seriously freaked out by all of my sneezing and snotty nose running. It was disgusting.  Suffice it to say, last night I was asleep on the couch at 7:30. My poor husband, having to deal with a tired, snotty nosed, crabby wife!

Today was better because A: IT'S FRIDAY, Y'ALL!! and B: I have all my pull-outs on Fridays, so I basically teach all of 5 minutes (well, after centers and AR of course!) the whole day. It is GLORIOUS! Combined with Baja Fish Taco for dinner (DELISH!) and frozen yogurt, and I am one happy lady!

Anyway, back to the blog post at hand. Yesterday, amidst all of the sneezing and nose running, we managed to make some pretty hilarious goofy pumpkinheads that I first saw from Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching (I LOVE her blog, by the way!!) I knew that we HAD to make them since they were sooo silly. So, introducing our Goofy Pumpkinheads!!

Aren't they a HOOT?? We also practiced writing this poem in our VERY BEST first grade printing...

Mr. Pumpkin

Pumpkin, Pumpkin

Round and fat

Turn into a

Jack-o-lantern

Just like that!

Here are the dimensions that I used if you would like to your little pumpkinheads to make these next week:

Pumpkin- 12 x 9 orange cut into a magic circle with a little V cut out of the top.

Stem- 2 x 1.5 inch dark brown. Cut one corner off the top and cut both sides wavy like a pumpkin stem.

Eyes- 3 x 6 inches folded in half. Cut the folded paper into a magic circle and then cut one of the circles smaller than the other.

Eyeballs- 3 x 1.5 black folded in half. Cut the folded paper to make a magic circle and again cut one of the circles smaller that the other.

Mouth- 3 x 6 inch black. Cut the bottom 2 corners and make round. 

Teeth- 1.5 x 2 white. Fold paper in half the long way and cut in half. Cut little rectangles out of both strips of paper and go to town gluing your teeth in the mouth (This is my favorite part, of course!)

Here is a copy of the poem writing paper (via Google docs) if you are interested in that as well...

Well, I'm off to cut out about 100 feet of laminate for my new Spooktacular Math and Lit Centers...

We will be well into the Halloween Spirit next week using these centers! Can't wait! 

I'll be back this weekend to announce the winners of our Educational Insights Giveaway...stay tuned!

Have a happy weekend, Peeps!!

XOXO Kerri

Another RAD Giveaway, a Monster Catcher FREEBIE, and Halloween (darn it!)

Happy Monday, Friends! Kerri here...
I have yet ANOTHER awesome giveaway for you, but first you have to hear me rant about Halloween. Halloween is here people, and there ain't a thing we can do to stop it! I have been in denial for 15 days now, but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to give in and go with it!

You see, I am not a giant fan of this holiday, AND HERE'S WHY. My kids slowly but surely turn into MANIACS in the days leading up to this lovely holiday. Anyone with me?? I barely have to mention the "H" word and I hear all 23 little voices telling me about what their costume is going to be AT THE SAME TIME 5 times a day.

Por ejemplo, today one of my littles asked my excitedly during calendar time if we could count down the days to Halloween, and I promptly told her "NOPE! It's too far away to count the days til Halloween. Sorry. Not happening." Of course, one of my smarties out-smarted me and had already done the math, announcing to the class "16 days to go!!" DagNabit!

Not to mention the copius amounts of candy that is delivered both to my house by my own daughter's trick-or-treating, AND all of the candy that the school collects to donate, which OF COURSE, I have to sample on a daily basis until they truck it away (I can't help it...I lose all my will power come recess time). Blech...I am feeling ill just typing about it!

However, my motto is "If you can't beat 'em,  join 'em!" If my firsties want to be obsessed about Halloween, then they're gonna do some darn good learning in the process! Hence, the birth of my "Spooktacular Literacy and Math Centers" was born!

I have to say that these centers are pretty darn cute, and I think my Firsties will love them! Here's what you get...

I will be incorporating these little spookylicious centers into the next 2 weeks of the Halloween madness, and I will just keep repeating to myself "This too shall pass. This too shall pass!" 

Click on any picture above if you would like to embrace the madness as well! :)

Onto the FABULOUS giveaway!! Remember these guys from Educational Insights?? 

 Well, Educational Insights would LOVE to have 50,000 Facebook fans and here's how you can help!!! They will be awarding ONE lucky winner a $50 gift code to their website to get some of their fabulous products and all you have to do it "LIKE" them on Facebook (and let us know that you did in fact like them on our page)! 
Oh snaps!! How easy is that?? You can enter through Rafflecopter below, and OF COURSE, Linds and I will throw in one product each from our stores! Don't cha just love Contests??

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finally, here is a little Monster Catcher FREEBIE that I will be doing in Math Centers next week in order to promote the "H" word a little bit more...It's a monster catcher! This 2 page math activity has students write addition sentences to show how many heads, eyes, arms, legs, etc. their monster will have, and then draw it in the jar. I think they will dig it, and they can practice their addition at the same time!! Click on the jar to get a copy~

Don't forget to enter our giveaway and show Educational Insights some LOVE!! The contest ends on Saturday morning at 12:00 a.m.

See ya, Peeps!!
XOXO Kerri