Prayers for Boston

Nothing teaching-related to share tonight folks.  I've had the TV on (like many of you, I'm sure) and have just been heartbroken for the city of Boston after the events that transpired today.

This evening I came across this Mr. Rogers quote, and as a teacher and a mother, it was strangely comforting, so I thought I would share it with y'all:

Watch the news footage from Boston and you WILL see people helping; people running toward those who were hurt and injured. People putting themselves in danger to help a stranger.

  It is good to remember that amidst these sad, tragic moments of life, there is still much good in the world.

Sending love and prayers to those in Boston, and especially to the families of the victims.

Lindsay

Having a blast in Boston - Summer 2007 (I love you Beantown!)

Earth Day LOVE!

Happy Sunday, Bloggy friends! Kerri here...
Here is my favorite picture from our trip so far, which has been super AWESOME already, but ABSOLUTELY FREEZING and RAINY. We even had massive hail today!

Mommy and her girls!

Earth Day is just 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

Five for Friday (of course!!)

Happy, Happy, Happy, PEEPS!! Kerri here...

Wanna know why I'm sooo happy, happy, happy (ala Duck Dynasty)? Because I am currently in Seattle visiting my baby brother, soon to be in Vancouver, getting back to my 50% Canadian roots. Ahhhh, Spring Break is the BEST. THING. EVER!

Here are my TOTALLY random Five for Friday pics, since I am linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly linky party. :)

Number 1: Flower Art. On Thursday, my class made ginormous tear art flowers for our Rainforest unit, and they came out FABULOUS!! I was so proud of my little kidlets' tear art skills!

Next Up: my favorite Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener's kidnap situation! Maybe I should back up...About a month ago, my bestest, most favorite pencil sharpener EVER mysteriously disappeared from my room. This is not the first time this has happened. Last year, the same thing happened and there were ransom notes left, mysterious clues found, etc. All in jest, of course, done by one of my fellow teacher friends, who HAPPENS to be a male, and also HAPPENS to be a practical joker. Needless to say, it was very annoying. Well, guess what happened to my poor pencil sharpener this year...

ENCASED IN JELLO!! WTH, man! I was sooooo peeved at that boy, let me tell you. AND, he has previously done this with my tape dispenser too. What a turd!
But, here is the good news. It still works perfectly!! That pencil sharpener is AMAZING, man!! 

Number 3: My new Origami Owl locket...

I am soooo in love with this locket. It is sooo pretty, and holds my daughters' initials perfectly!!

Number 4: Earth Day art and writing...I know it's a little early for Earth Day, but since Spring Break is this next week, we had to get a jump on things. My Earth Day post is forthcoming, BTW, so stay tuned...

Those ducks in the background crack me up!

I love this little guy's second sentence..."Do not run over animals with cars, just wate for them" Okay?? I guess that's definitely one way to take care of the Earth! HA!

Finally...my new NAKED palette!

I finally bit the bullet and popped 50 big ones for the Naked palette by Urban Decay. Now I have to get my youtube video tutorials on and learn how to use it!! P.S. My 13 year old daughter is SOOOO jealous. Whatever girl! Get a J.O.B.! 

Have a wonderful week, friends! My next Five for Friday will be the Canadian version-WHOO HOO!!
XOXO Kerri B

Alphabet Mystery Pictures!!

Happy Sunday, Friends!!
I am feeling super excited today because I have only 4, count them, 4 days of school this week before we jump on a jet plane and head on up to Seattle AND Vancouver for Spring Break! I am, in fact, 50% Canadian, thanks to my dad, so I cannot wait to see the city that he grew up in! 

I am also here to share with you my newest creation...Alphabet Mystery Puzzles-Sight Word Edition! For some reason, the word MYSTERY makes my kids get all excited, and they LOOOVVE these! These are perfect for your kidlets to extra sight word practice, while honing their beginning sound skills, and alphabetic knowledge...

This common core aligned pack included 64 sight word puzzles-2 sets each for the Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, and Second Grade DOLCH sight words. 

After making my Alphabet Mystery Puzzles Pack-phonics edition...

I decided to make a Color Words Edition FREEBIE which has had over 25,000 downloads!! HOLY SCHNIKEYS! (Click on picture to download for yourself!)...

And then I had LOTS of requests for more, so the Sight Word edition was born! Here is a closer look at the words that are included...

Hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think! :)


Happy Sunday, friends!!
XOXO Kerri B

Five for Friday (plus a FREEBIE and Rafflecopter Winner too)!!

Happy Friday, Peeps! Kerri here...

I am happy, happy, happy! Cause it is Friday night and I am sitting in my Friday night uniform (hoodie and PJ pants) watching Duck Dynasty. Couldn't be ANY better!!

I am linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky.

First up....wipey boards! Can I just tell you how much I love my wipey boards?? If I were stranded on a desert island with my class (can you imagine? GAH!!) I would most definitely want my wipey boards with me! I use those things for EVERYTHING! When in doubt, get out the wipey board and do some learning. Spelling words, making words, all kinds of math practice. THEY. ARE. THE. BEST.

Number 2...Domino math!
I was teaching the fact family lesson for Envision math and OF COURSE the independent practice they provided was RIDONKULOUS, so I used that time to teach my kids how we do it OLD SCHOOL! Folding a paper into 8 squares, drawing our own dominoes and using real dominoes to make fact families. My mom was helping in the class that day, and she said, "This is how we used to do it in the olden days!" HA!!

Number 3...BUTTERFLY WEEK!
We learned all about butterflies this week. SO MUCH FUN! Our story in HM was The Butterfly so it was perfect timing! Here is the butterfly life cycle sequence my kids did this week... (click on the picture to download your own copy)

We also drew a butterfly and wrote about it for our WOWZVILLE writing wall...

Frist...REALLY?? Sigh...

We also made butterfly art from my Rainforest Art and Writing Pack...

Aren't they pretty??

Number 4...Spring Center Madness! We are smack dab in the middle of all things Spring, including my Springy Things Math and Literacy Centers!

Hoppy Inflections Words Sort

Spring-ified Word Sort

Flowery Subtraction

Jellybean Greater Than/Less Than

Egg-citing Addition

Finally...Our Seeds of Happiness Giveaway Winner!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Jenni! I will be emailing you to get your info!!

Okay, well I gotta go get my Duck Dynasty on! I LOVE those rednecks!!
XOXO Kerri B

It's a Rainforest EXTRAVAGANZA!!

Happy Hump Day, friends!! Kerri here...

You ever have one of those days where you fell like your class has been taken over by a bunch of aliens?? Well, that was my day today. Sigh...Spring Fever has hit with a VENGEANCE in Room 4!!

As I was looking over my plans for April from last year, I had a slight panic attack when I realized that it is time to start planning my big ole Rainforest EXTRAVAGANZA! This beast of a unit takes us 8 weeks to complete, so I start the first week in April. 

At my school, we culminate the year with our Open House 2 weeks before school lets out for the summer, but I start planning and prepping for the big event WAAAYYY early, because Open House is my most favoritest thing ever! I love transforming my room into a place that literally makes my kids say "ooohh, aaahhh" when they see it, and I also love the satisfaction that comes from engaging my kids in an 8 week long thematic unit that includes language arts, math, science, writing, and (of course) most importantly, ART!

Last year I developed my Rainforest Fun! Art and Writing Unit, after years of teaching my kids about the rainforest and turning my room into a rainforest every year for Open House. 

Here are some pictures of last year's Rainforest transformation...

(Disclaimer: I am not a patterned art type of gal. All of the art projects my kiddies do are the "I do, you do" step cut method, which makes their art sooo much more original and unique, I think!)

Yup!! The rainforest literally threw up in my room! I love it!!
My kids EAT. IT. UP. every year, and they learn so so much about the rainforest. I am getting excited just thinking about teaching it again this year!!

If you are interested in transforming your classroom into a living rainforest, then you can check this out...

In addition to directions for all of the 10 art projects you see above you, this unit includes all sorts of writing activities for lots of different rainforest animals, which you can save and make into a rainforest book for your kiddos!

I also have my companion Rainforest Fun! Math Literacy Centers available as a companion to my Art and Writing Unit, to extend the rainforest fun just a little bit further! :)

Thanks for checking out my rainforest ideas! I hope you all have a wonderful Open House this year, whatever theme you choose to do! It's a such a memorable experience for our students, isn't it?? :)

Kerri B

P.S. And I hope the aliens haven't abducted your children like they have mine. Hopefully, they'll be back to themselves tomorrow!!