100 Balloons & Reading Shirts

We're way behind on the blogging business. We apologize. We thought we'd start with a few things we've posted on our Instagram lately!

For our 100th day of school we released 100 balloons! We tied these little notes to the balloons so that if anyone found one they would know where it came from! And we love the idea of finding a pen pal! 

We have received letters from Missouri and Kansas this year. One year a teacher friend received one all the way from New York! How fun is that?!

Every Wednesday we celebrate "Whatcha Readin Wednesdays." We'll make a full post about how this works school wide soon. But teachers get to promote a love of reading by wearing a reading shirt and jeans! Woo hoo! Two great things all in one! 

We're always on the lookout for cute shirts that represent books-Dr. Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, etc. So we enlisted the help of our mom to make us a simple new shirt to get the message across!

We love this simple and comfy tee and the great thing is she makes them in all kinds of color/pattern choices! If you want one you can check out Mae's by Hand on Facebook. {Our kids call her Mae Mae, hence the name!}

And because we love our readers we have one of these shirts in a medium (sorry it's what she had extra, we'll do another size soon) to giveaway to one lucky reader! All you have to do is "Like" our Facebook page Kinder Sisters and comment on this post that you did! Winner will be announced tomorrow night!

Alright it's bedtime, Spring Break is over and Monday morning will be here FAST! Night!

A Birthday Giveaway

We are helping celebrate a birthday today!!! We are very thankful for new blogger friends, even if we haven't met in real life. And Britney has been SO kind to us since we've started this endeavor! We are so honored to be able to participate in her birthday giveaway! And you can too! And by participate we mean enter to win! Read below to see all of the amazing things the birthday girl is giving away! 

Britney we hope you have a year happy, fun and memorable birthday and year! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Check Inspired Owl's Corner TPT store here

Check The Kinder Sister's TPT store out here

Check The Unique Classroom TPT store here

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Calendar Time

Calendar time is so important in our classrooms, there are SO SO SO many skills we are practicing in this one little time in our classroom. We have a SMARTboard calendar that we've gotten from SMART Exchange and we've just worked it until it's perfect for our classrooms. Then as the year goes on those little babies practically have the thing memorized and we could lead it with our eyes closed. At that point it's time to make it a little more challenging for our kiddos. 

We looked and looked and reworked it until it works best for our kiddos and our SMARTboard calendar time. It's probably not perfect, nothing ever is, but it really works for us. So here is exactly what it looks like!

We write the date and "dash the date" (not shown). 

We work on our days! Yesterday, today and tomorrow....

Any other kinder teachers ever amazed that some kiddos struggle with what comes next even though we talk about it EVERY day?! 

We count the days in school! 

And keep counting the days in school....

We practice making 10!

CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.4 For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record the answer with a drawing or equation.  

We also graph the weather! This leads to great conversations about greater/less than and "how many" questions! 

AND because we love all our new Facebook followers we're giving you a free copy! 

Just click here to download it! We hope you love it and use it. We also hope you'll leave us a comment and "Like" our Facebook letting us know you've downloaded!

Olaf Valentine's Freebies

Have you seen Frozen? It's all the rage around here! And we especially love that cute snowman Olaf. So when we saw these Valentine cards all over Pinterest we had to jump all over it!

So we made our own! That worked just for us! And this Valentine is fun because it's food and you can build the cute little snow guy ;) 

Here's what you need (per Valentine):

-one snack size baggie

-three large marshmallows

-two mini marshmallows

-two chocolate chips

-two pretzel sticks

-one orange M&M (You could also use candy corn or get creative with something else! We already had M&Ms on hand!)

-one cute tag

Open the tags in PowerPoint, add a text box to sign your name, print & cut out, assemble! Easy peasy lemon squeeze-y!  

Click here to download the tag, because we think you're worth melting for ;).

The Mitten

So I (Amber) have had this mitten pattern for years. We always cut two and glue or staple them together and put the characters aside. And honestlybit was driving me nuts! They always got torn, or put too much glue for their animals to fit, and I just really didn't like the project.

So this year I changed it up. I decided a paper bag would be the perfect way to have an opening for sequencing the story. I just cut about half of the bag off so that it would be the same size as the mitten tracer I already had. Just turn the bag on it's side and it's perfect!

Then I gave each of the students a set of animals to color and we were ready for retell!

Erin's class printed the mittens on white card stock and colored them! Below is a fun follow up activity and you can find the mitten and animals there too! Just click the picture to download it!

What fun things to do you like to do with Jan Brett's story?

A Day Our Way Linky

We're so excited to link up with Amelia and other great bloggers to learn all about classroom schedules. It's so crazy to see how many different ways you can arrange a school day. Each teacher just has a specific spot where each lesson fits. So here is ours!

Now let's break it down!

Arrival & Centers-Students have a 20 minute window where they are arriving before the bell rings. This is our free choice center time. The kids unpack, put their lunch box and green folders away and then they get to play. Announcements come on right at the end of the time and then we clean up.

Morning Meeting/Calendar-We all gather on the carpet and have calendar time on the SMARTboard. We are working on a calendar notebook to go along with this. We have a helper who puts up the date, days of the week, tally marks, number of days in school, weather, teeth, etc. Then we read the message, fill in missing words or letters, pair share, and circle sight words. Then we all sit in a circle and say good morning to each other.

Literacy Block-Just like it sounds. We teach anything and everything to build literacy skills. We work on beginning & ending sounds, letter/sound correspondence, rhyming, syllables, CVC words, long & short vowels, and on the list goes. Once we are finished with our lesson the students work in Literacy Centers. There are 5 groups and they have a different center activity each day.

Literacy Block ends before we know it and it's time to get ready for lunch aka BRUNCH! It's the earliest stinkin' lunch in the history of the world (okay, we're exaggerating a little), but seriously sometimes we are still full from breakfast and don't want to eat. The kids get 20 minutes to eat and 25 minutes to play.

Read Aloud-After lunch we have some down time with read aloud and read to self. It's a nice quiet time to settle back in from recess. This also allows us to finish up leftover items from Literacy Block, assess students, work one on one, etc.

Specials-Our kids rotate between Gym, Music, and Computers. Each day they come in and look to see where the special is for the day. It's still as exciting on day 88 as it was on day 1.

Math-During math we start with a whole group lesson, practice the skills on the SMARTboard, with a game, or with manipulatives. Then the students go to their math centers, again 5 groups and 5 jobs.

Snack & Recess-because we eat breakfast lunch so early we find it absolutely necessary to have a snack to make it through the day. And a little more exercise is so important for wiggly five and six year olds.

Theme Time-This time is for whatever goes with our theme! This week it was our Jan Brett author study. We read the stories, did crafts, worked on some of the story elements, etc. Next week we will study a Polar animal each day. It varies depending on what our theme is for the week!

Pack & Play-Once we are finished with our final activities for the day the kids pack up. Once their mailbox is empty and their things are packed up they get a free choice center. This allows them to play while we help finalize loose ends, write notes, etc. Then we can dismiss as needed.

So that's a quick glance at our day! How is yours? We'd love to read about, please go visit Amelia and link up! 

Just Me January Linky

Hello friends! We're hosting a linky and we're SO excited! We are pretty new in the blogging world and want to get to know others. And we want you to get to know us! So we'd be so honored if you would link up with us so we can all get to know each other more!

Let's start with the most important-your name!

We are Erin & Amber. Erin is the older sister, but we're just 12 months apart!

What is your hometown/state?

Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain! Oh sorry! We've lived here since high school, moved away for college (same state, different cities) and then came back!

Are you a morning or night person?

Erin: I love to stay up late! I am one that doesn't require much sleep so somehow I survive.

Amber: NOT a morning person. I loathe mornings. I'm not nice in the mornings. Sorry, just truth. I don't stay up real late either, just love me some sleep.

Are you a collector of anything?

Erin: I have a small obsession with scarves and have to remind myself that I do NOT need any more.

Amber: Um I have a weird obsession with baskets, buckets, etc. I like to be organized so I guess I need a basket for everything? I don't know.

What is the most used app on your smart phone?

Erin: Instagram/Facebook-They are linked of course.

Amber: Instagram-I love me some photos!

What is your favorite cereal?

Erin: Frosted Mini Wheats

Amber: Frosted Mini Wheats

What is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?

Erin: Oh my...OLD! I have shoes from high school in my closet. They are cute though.

Amber: 5 years. A pair of running shoes I bought with one of my favorite fifth grade teacher friends. I obviously don't use them much ever since I still have them.

What is your favorite snack?

Erin: Popcorn

Amber: I like salty things. Potato chips, cheese and crackers, etc.

City or country?

Erin: City with access to the country. I love the convenience of city life but love the freedom of country.

Amber: Um. City? I love the city, but not too big. I like a little bit of country close by!

What is your favorite thing about teaching?

Erin: My favorite thing about teaching is the AHA moments. I love to see their eyes light up when something clicks. The genuine love the kids express for their teacher is nice too;)

Amber: Gosh. So much. Mostly the kiddos. I love seeing how they grow every year. I'm always amazed how they start by learning the alphabet and leave reading and writing. SO COOL!

Alright that's us! We hope you link up so we can read about you too!