TPT New Years Sale!

Be sure to visit my TPT Store and many others for a great New Years Sale!

Everything in my store is 15% off- perfect time to get ready for back to school!!!

Author Study Poster...FREEBIE!

To say good-bye to 2013, I have created an author study chart FREEBIE!!!

With the adopting of the Common Core ELA standards, author studies have become more regular in my classroom. I love when my students make connections between stories and can find patterns that repeat in stories! It gives so much power to reading!!!

To create, all you need is a poster board, the printout and some colored tape (or markers and a ruler!) Visit my TPT store and download the FREEBIE! Click here.

 

The final product:

 

And a recording sheet:

 

Have a happy New Year and ENJOY!!!

 

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

Now that the hustle and bustle of Christmas is over, I am gearing up my classroom for winter, penguins, and snowmen! Our first week back from Christmas break is a short one, so I have created a mini-thematic unit on winter, snowmen, and hot chocolate- all in 1 unit!!!

This 78 page unit includes the following:
Words to describe Winter Graphic Organizer
KWL Chart Winter
Winter Can-Has-Is Graphic Organizer
Winter Organizers
Winter writing
Snow Flakes Can-have-are Graphic Organizer
How to catch a snow flake writing
Hot Chocolate organizers
Hot Chocolate Looks-Tastes-Smells
How to make a cup of hot chocolate writing
Do you like hot chocolate? Graph
Snow Flake Poem
Snow Flake Pocket Chart Poem
“Winter” reader
Winter Tens Frames
Winter Counting Mats
Winter Puzzles

This is a great unit to transition back from your Christmas break and back into the everyday routine. Sit back, talk about snow flakes and weather, and sip on hot chocolate! This unit contains colored pages, adorable clipart, and black line masters for all graphic organizers. If you would like to purchase this unit, click here. Enjoy!

 

Penguins Thematic Unit

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Christmas break! I have spent my break pinning excellent activities and working on a Penguin Unit for when I get back to school!!!

This unit is so adorable! First of all, I LOVE penguins! Students love learning about penguins and I love teaching about them!

 

There is also a great live penguin web cam http://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/. My students love to watch the penguins.

 

Here is a preview of some of the super cute activities and organizers included in the unit.  

This 114 page unit includes:

How to describe Penguin
Penguins Bubble Map
Penguin Vocabulary Cards
Penguin KWL Chart
Penguin Facts and Fact Organizers
Penguin Can-Have-Are chart
Penguin craft
Penguin writing pages
Blubber Glove Experiment with organizer
Penguin Labeling- Anchor chart and student copy
“I’m a little Penguin” Poem, book, and individual poem for journal
Upper/ lowercase letter match
Penguin Tens frame
Penguin counting mats
Penguin Memory
Penguin Number Puzzles

It has activities and organizers in color and black and white!!! 

To purchase this unit, click here.  I hope you enjoy!!!

Run, Run as fast as you can....It's Gingerbread Time!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE when it's getting close to Christmas and I can do my favorite unit of the year....GINGERBREAD MAN!!!! I have 10 or so books and variations of the Gingerbread Man. My classes always love the books and have such a great time working in the unit. We even decorate our class Christmas tree with Gingerbread ornaments and a gingerbread man tree skirt!!!  Did I mention I LOVE the gingerbread man?! 

With all of this love, I have FINALLY made a Gingerbread Thematic Unit. It took some time and some hard work but I absolutely love how it turned out! It's one of my favorite units yet!!!! You can purchase this unit from my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking on the picture or clicking here.

 Here is a preview of all of the fantastic organizers, activities, and graphs in the unit:

 This is my cute graph that I did for my classroom! I am so excited about filling it up with all of our learning!  This week we are studying comparing books with similar texts so I know this will help!!!

Do you have a special thematic unit that is your favorite?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I hope everyone has a very wonderful Thanksgiving! I don't know about you, but I have SO much to be thankful for!!!  Enjoy your day with your family and friends and I will see you on Friday with a special preview of my Gingerbread Unit!!!!!

Gobble, Gobble...Y'all!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, my classroom has been busy with talk of turkeys, pilgrims, and Native Americans!

If you are in need of a great Thanksgiving Unit, stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers shop and take a look at mine! This unit contains:

* Graphic Organizers- Turkeys, Pilgrims, Native Americans
* Math Mats
* Play-Doh Mats
* Vocabulary Cards
* Pattern Pages
* Writing Pages
* Graphing Pages
* Pumpkin Pie in a Bag Recipe and Writing Activity
* Turkey Poems
* Thankful Class Book
* Thanksgiving Grocery List and Dinner Template
* Thanksgiving retelling bracelet activity
* Thanksgiving Memory Game
* Thanksgiving Tens Frames

Click here to visit my shop!

Enjoy!

I'm having a SALE!

In honor of my birthday tomorrow, I am throwing a sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  Shop, shop, shop for 10% off!!!! 

Click here to shop!

ENJOY!!!

Halloween fun!

I don't know about your class, but if Halloween falls on a Monday- Friday, I know that the day is a wash!!  I have to figure out some really creative teaching ways to keep them engaged throughout the day!  We are not allowed to have a "party" so instead, I do Halloween Centers. We have 4 centers set up in the class (more centers can be added for a bigger class or if you like your groups smaller!)

At the first center, the students could make a yummy Monster Mix! Our Monster Mix area had Goblin teeth (candy corn), Ghost Poop (marshmallows), Chocolate Chips (Witch Warts), and Monster Scabs (Cinnamon Toast Crunch).  The students picked a baggy and then got 10 of each item- You could do more if you wanted too! All you need for this center is Halloween bags, candy corn, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

At the second center, the students could make a Witch Hand. They LOVED it! I bought my air pop popcorn maker to pop the popcorn and my students were so amazed with it!!  It was so cute!!! All you need for this center is popcorn, candy corn, spider rings, and plastic gloves!

 

The third center was my favorite! My students could make Ghost and Vampire Pops. For the Ghost Pop, the students took a Blow Pop (or Tootsie Roll Pop), wrapped it in white tissue paper, and tie it with black yarn or string.  Add some google eyes and your ghost pop is ready!!!  For the Vampire Pop, take a Blow Pop and wrap it with red tissue paper. Using black tissue paper, wrap it halfway around and tie with a string! Add google eyes and draw on some fangs!

 

For the last center, I pulled out all of my pumpkin and Halloween books. The students were able to  read my "Special" teacher Halloween books! They loved it!!!

Luckily, I had some FABULOUS parent volunteers that helped out with the centers!!  Everything turned out great and my students had the best time!!!! 

 

50th Day of School fun!

A few days late, but we had the best 50th day of school fun!!  Some of our fabulous teachers dressed in adorable 50s attire- poodle skirts, oxfords, glasses, and ribbons! My students LOVED all of the cute costumes!

 Some of my fabulous grade level!!!

 

We spent the morning making Coke Floats! We listed the steps it took to make a Coke Float, glued the steps in order, and graphed if we liked the floats!!!

 

After all of our Coke Float fun, we had a bubble gum blowing contest. My babies loved trying to blow a bubble!!!  Out of 16 students, I had 1 that could blow a bubble! He was so proud!!! We sang Dr. Jean's Bubble Gum song, too!! (Of course it was stuck in my head all day long!!!!)

 

We made a list of 50 reasons why we love our school! Here is the before picture (I forgot to take an after picture!) All 50 reasons made my heart smile! My babies truly LOVE school!!!

 

No 50's day is complete without learning the Hand Jive! Glee makes a great video that I have pinned on my 50th day of school board!

http://www.pinterest.com/NicoleBaranov/50th-day-of-school

(Be sure to follow me on Pinterest while you are there!!!!)

 

If you have not celebrated the 50th day of school with your class, I HIGHLY recommend it! We had so much fun!!!!

 

 



Easy (and cheap) Math Center Idea!

Kindergarten math is in FULL swing! We are busy working with composing and decomposing numbers to 5. I believe this is one of the most important skills to build in math. All of their mathematical skills will build on building and breaking apart numbers. I like to model this by using the vocabulary "part-part-whole" to get them ready for addition!  I found awesome plates at Walmart (but I'm sure you can find them anywhere) that are perfect for teaching decomposing and composing numbers!!! Not only are these durable but they are also great for dry erase!

To add this activity in a math center, I gave each student a plate, 5 or 6 counters, and a dice (or number generator). The students rolled the dice and put that many cubes in the left small spot of their plate. They put the remaining cubes on the right side. Next, students put all cubes in the large part of their plate. They say " __ and __ make ___."

This is a great activity to do whole group as well as centers!  Hopefully this will help teaching this important skill to your students!!!  Enjoy!

 

The fabulous month of October!!!

I love all of the fun activities and teaching that occur in October. The school year is in full swing with Fall Festival, football, and cool crisp air!!!  I LOVE IT! It's time to pull out scarves, sweaters, and boots! The list could go on and on! 

I love everything that goes on in my classroom! I love teaching about spiders, bats, and pumpkins!!! I created a unit on Pumpkins about a year ago but as teaching and standards go on, it needed some updating!  I have updated some fun new organizers and uploaded some black line masters for students!!!  If you have bought it from Teachers Pay Teachers recently, please re-download it to get all of these goodies! My pumpkin unit can be purchased by clicking on the picture!

Here is a preview to my pumpkin unit:

 

Also, be sure to check out my Spider and Bats mini-units!!!!

 Here is a preview of my bat unit:

 

Also, here is my spider unit!

Here is a preview of my Spider unit:

What are some fun activities you do during Halloween time? The first comment will receive a FREE Pumpkin, Spider, AND Bat unit!!!!  Awesome!!!!

 

 

Spiders...just a little preview!!!

I am very busy working on a great mini-unit to use for Spiders!!!  We have been busy getting ready for Halloween!!!  We finished up our spider unit last week with this yummy craft!!! 

All you need are Oreos, pretzel sticks, and mini M&Ms!!  It was a great activity to also include math talk! We discussed "What does the spider have more of, legs or body parts? Prove it!" My sweet students loved counting with food!!! 

Bats! Oh My!

This has been the PERFECT week to work on our bat unit! To help out with my bat activities, I have created an awesome mini Bat unit! My students have loved all of the fun activities! Bats are very (gross) but interesting creatures!!! 

 

This awesome 64 page unit contains great informational graphic organizers, tens frames, counting mats, puzzles, a fun bat reader, a great poem for your poetry center (my favorite!), copies of the poem, labeling a bat, bat graphs, bat facts, and so much more!!! You can purchase this unit by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Happy Halloween!!!

Apples! A look back...

I love teaching a unit on apples. I spend 2 weeks on apples!!!  You can really dig deep and use apple themed activities to cover all subjects!! We labeled an apple, made homemade applesauce,  graphed our favorite apple, and read plenty of books!!! We ended our unit with a huge Apple Day! The students could taste apple pie, dried apples, apple slices, apple juice, apple butter, and apple candy. We graphed our favorite apple snack and used our 5 senses to describe everything! The students loved it- and I did too!!!

If you are looking for a great apple unit, you can purchase mine here from Teachers Pay Teachers.

It's a 115 page unit that has:

* Apple Poems
* Apple Charts (apples, apple pie, Johnny Appleseed)
* Apple descriptive words
* Apple Pattern Book
* Apple Pattern worksheet
* Apple Vocabulary Cards
* Apple Connecting Cubes cards
* Apple Play-doh Mats
* Apple KWL
* Apple Investigation
* Parts of Apple and Apple Tree Diagram
* Apple Pie, Apple Sauce, and Sink or Float Graphs
* Favorite apple graph
* Ten Apples Up on Top Craft
* Apple Memory Game
* Apple Puzzle
* Applesauce and apple pie writing activity
* Apple Counting cards
* Apple Tens Frames
* Apples Clothespin Math Matching Game
* "Apples" Pennant Banner
 

What are some fun activities you do during apple week? I just love this time of year!!!!

Community Helper Unit!!!!!

We are beginning our 2 week unit of study on Community Helpers! Kindergarten students LOVE to see all of the ways that Community Helpers help us out!!!  We also have our first field trip planned- to the fire station!  I am pretty sure that the students are more excited to RIDE THE BUS than to go on the field trip!!!  HA! We also have a great visit from Smokey the Bear scheduled! 

I have created an awesome Community Helper Thematic Unit to help my unit of study! It has anchor charts, labeling, poems, puzzles, tens frames, sight word books, KWL charts, and so much more!  The clip art is so cute and colorful!!!  I hope you find it as useful as I do!!!  You can purchase this awesome unit by clicking here.

 
We end our unit with a Community Helpers Parade! The students will come to school dressed as their favorite community helper and parade through the school! They LOVE it!  It's also great to see all of the creative outfits!

What are some fun things you do with your class for community helper unit?

Enjoy!

Week 1 and DONE!

I don't know about you, but the first week of school was an absolute fabulous blur!!!  It was the best and busiest week yet! Between finishing up my classroom, the TPT sale, and meeting my 16 sweet kinder-babies, I don't know where the time went! My classroom turned out absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to post some pictures (to be revealed soon, I promise!)!!!  The TPT sale was great! Thank you to everyone who shopped at my store! I even found a few goodies myself! I LOVE my class!  They remind me of why I teach kindergarten! It's so exciting to see their faces light up when they enter "big kid school!" I spent countless hours planning crafts, books, and activities to keep them busy but instill a LOVE for coming to school! I am working on a back to school unit (a little late I know, but hopefully it will help out next year- if you even want to think that far!)  I'm so excited for all of the fabulous things to come this year- I just know it will be the best one yet!!!!

In my back-to-school haze, I was inspired to design a cute Rainbow Colors Chevron Classroom Decoration Pack- perfect for a colorful classroom! I love my "Sweet Shoppe" but I am secretly jealous of some classrooms bright color scheme!!! To purchase this cute decoration pack, loaded with cute goodies, click here or visit my TPT store!!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous week back and wishing everyone a great year!

 

Back to School TPT Sale!

Wahoooo!!!  Stop by my shop Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to save 20%!!! Shop here.

Also, don't forget to follow my store and blog! Enjoy!!!

Math Tools and Manipulatives

With Common Core Math, it's all about the HANDS ON! I love it!  The students love it!!! The only problem is that sometimes it's hard to distribute materials and give the students a place to keep everything! In my classroom, each table has a box, our math "tool box." I teach my students to know that they are mathematicians and they need tools to do their job!

At the beginning of our math time, each table captain goes to get their tool box and takes it to their table. It has all the manipulatives they will need- bears, counters, dice, cubes, etc!

I store the tool boxes in my math corner with my manipulatives and math word wall!

 

How do you store and distribute your math tools?

Kindergarten...How SWEET it is?!!!!

Today was our Meet the Teacher/ Move In Day!!!  I met some of my sweet new kinder babies and I'm so excited to start!!!  I. CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!!! In honor of my Sweet Shop, each student received a cupcake with a cute little tag saying..."Kindergarten is Sweet!"

The students loved it and it was a great welcoming to their new classroom!!!

 

Crazy about Chevron!

I don't know about you, but I am OBSESSED with chevron!!!  I love it on my clothes, in my home, and of course, in my classroom!!!!! Cute light pink chevron is a perfect match for my sweet shop classroom theme!!! With my love for chevron, I had a hard time finding anything cute in light pink! So,  I made some cute stuff!!!  While I was at it, I made the same pack in red, blue, and green! It's seriously so cute!!!  You can get your pack at my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here.

 

 

 

This pack includes the following:
Behavior Clip Chart
Word Wall
Center Signs
Mini Signs for Center Rotation
Classroom Jobs
Mini Job Cards
Days of the Week
Months of the Year
Daily Schedule Cards
Math Manipulative Labels
Table Numbers
Student Nametags
“Welcome” Pennant Banner
Blank labels

I hope you enjoy it and are able to use it as much as I do in my classroom!!!!