Activities Like....

We're linking up with Blog Hoppin' for a linky party!

So Activities Like this are good for our kiddos and practin' skills too!

There is just nothing better than engaging centers to practice all of the great skills we've learned!

Here is a quick little activity to practice greater/less! Below is also the work mat so students can have a colorful, hands on version ;)

Centers are HUGE in our classrooms. They are one of the biggest parts of our day. It's how we individualize instruction, do informal assessments to see what skills our students are mastering or not, and it's our time to work one on one. And what makes it even more fun is when it all works together with our theme and is meaningful too!

If you like this activity then check out our Thanksgiving center unit! Just click the picture to see it in our TPT store!

Thanks for visiting the blog! We'd love if you'd comment and follow and download the greater/less activity by clicking HERE!

Helpful Hints

We are linking up with Blog Hoppin' this week! We are SO thankful for our careers and are using this blog to share it with you!

Some of these could fall under time savers or helpful hints! But here are some of our favorites!

1. Door slings

Do you have to keep your door locked? With new safety procedures we need to have our doors locked at a moments notice. This sling allows up to keep our door locked and in a situation (which we pray NO ONE ever experiences) we can take the sling off and close the door. This is a lot faster than having to fumble with keys and locking and all of that. It's also perfect when students leave the classroom they do not have to knock to get back in just from going to the bathroom, Library, office, etc.

Of course we have a sign that asks guests to knock, but our own students know they can just come back in. 

2. Procedures! 

Have a procedure for EVERYTHING even how they will tell you they need to go visit the Library. Our kids have a clip with their name on it. One says "I am reading my book" the other says "I need to visit the Library." It stays on the reading ribbon until they move it to the Library ribbon. This is totally regulated by the kids and we don't have to worry about it. And the kids know not to keep saying "Can I go to the Library?" because when it's time we choose kids who have moved their clips over.

3. The BOX

This is the BEST thing I (Amber) have ever seen parents do at a school for their teachers.  The BOX is where we put all of our things that need copying, laminating, etc. We put it on the "To Do" shelf and come back later and it's done! Our parents volunteer in the workroom once a week to help us prepare materials! It's incredible! It's like magic. You can't really believe it until you see it work! But they are SO wonderful and they even decorate our cute boxes ;)

Helpful Hint-ASK PARENTS TO HELP! I'm sure that you have some who would be more than happy to! Use them! They are a great resource! And for once I don't worry about standing in front of the copy machine waiting for a weeks worth of activities! Even if you don't have parents that sprinkle magic fairy dust and make your work complete make yourself a cutsie box to put all of your things in that need to be copied, laminated, cut, etc. It makes hauling things around the school so much easier when it's all in one place. (These are the tops to the boxes our copy paper comes in. Our moms collect & decorate them for us. We might just have the BEST moms in our school EVA!)

What are your helpful hints that make your teaching life simpler?

Time Savers {Hallway Displays}

We're linking up with Blog Hoppin' for a week of Thankfulness!

This is one of the BIGGEST time savers! Hallway displays!

During the summer the Kindergarten teachers get together and choose a theme, aka shop Mardel to see what's cute! We all do the same theme so we are consistent. Then we pick and laminate scrapbook paper and use clothespin to hang the students' work.

This saves us LOADS of time! All we have to do is pull down their work and clip something new in. No more staples, sticky tack, hot glue, etc. We love to display our students work and this is the BEST way to do it without it being time consuming! Each star has a student's name and you can also put their picture by their clips!

What do you do to save time? Because we ALL know that teachers NEVER have enough time in the day!

At Bats, Can You Rhyme That?

We are doing our nocturnal animal study this week! We think it's a fun week! 

This activity is NOT new by any means or created by us! But we made our own version and thought we'd share it with you! (We used labels for the -at rime, then laminated them for durability)

This accountability sheet is perfect for the kids to form the words on! And of course read and reread over and over! To download, just click on the picture above!

Alright, it's BEDTIME! Exhausted already?! Not good!

Goodnight y'all!

Fireman Fun {FREEBIES}

Ok, well there is really nothing fun about fire. Unless you're talking about a bonfire or a fireplace fire. But nevertheless it's SO important to teach our kiddos about it! October is fire safety month so it was the perfect time to talk about it!

We had the firetruck visit and did some fire centers before fall break!AND because it was only a short three day week it was a very SMALL unit! But lucky for you, we're giving it away!

Just click the picture to download! In return we just ask that you follow our little blog!

Here is a quick peak at one of the math activities! (sorry it's small and blurry, we're having some trouble with it!)

If you want a GREAT whole group directed drawing activity watch this cute book and visit Mrs. Miner's blog for the cutest directed drawing. I've done this activity several times now and I'm never disappointed! The kids love it and their drawing are so cute. OH.MY.WORD. You'll be amazed at what they can do!

And get this fire FREEBIE on TPT! Thanks Jane for sharing! It's flippin' adorable and the kids' advice...well, it's just great!

NO PLAYING WITH FIRE!

FIRE! RUN!
{at least that's our interpretation!}

Hope you enjoy these fire FREEBIES!!

Apples & Farm Freebie

Fall is here and that means some of our favorite units!! We had apple week last week! SO fun!

Here are a few pictures of some things we did! 

We labeled and cut open an apple to learn it's parts! 

Everyone brought an apple and we made a pie graph to show what colors we brought!

We used this with Julie Lee's Apple Investigation which you can get for here on her TPT!!

This week we are doing lots of farm fun! I'm working on a unit and will get it posted ASAP! But in the mean time enjoy the freebie color word practice!  I'm writing these on sentence strips for a pocket chart center this week. And would you please follow our blog and leave a comment if you download the freebie. We'd love to meet more teacher friends! Enjoy!

Magic Triad

Our school has implemented Great Expectations school wide. If you don't know about Great Expectations read about it here :) The Magic Triad is one of the big components or practices.

The Magic Triad represents a caring environment. It builds a climate of mutual respect. {These are their words not ours, but we totally agree!} The parts of the triad are a smile, kind words and soft touches. We spent a day on each part of the triad and did a little activity with each. When we were finished I put all of it together to make our classroom triad and each student is represented. 

We also made a chart to help us remember what kind words sounded like and what soft touches looked like. 

The kids made Popsicle stick triads to take home and share with their families. If you teach older ones you could have them write words on them. 

We made a few activity sheets to help your kids think more about the triad. There are several to choose from-some with writing components and some without. You can choose what works best for the needs of your kiddos. Just click the picture to download :)

And a little thank you to Great Expectations. It's wonderful being in a school with building wide implementation. If you don't know about Great Expectations or want to do some more reading on it, visit their website! It's a wealth of information!