October Close Reading Packet

It has been a busy and quick start to school! My favorite time of year is here....Cool breezes, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and football....FALL!!!!!  There is just a little something extra is the air this time of year! 

With the popularity of my September Close Reading Packet, I have finally finished one for the month of October. 

October Close Reading Packet

There are 4 passages- Pumpkins, Firefighters, Bats, and Spiders. 

•4 Close Reading Passages

•Weekly Lesson plans

•Vocabulary Cards and Black line masters

•Partner Work activities

•Weekly Questions

•Anchor charts for each close read

•Class Book Activities

•Weekly writing activity

This packet includes everything you need for a weekly close reading lesson that ties in with science and social studies! I hope you enjoy! 

Back to School Sale

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to save 28% August 4th-5th!

Enjoy!!!

n

It's about that time again...

Summer...what summer?!!!

I cannot believe it's already time for school to start!!!  Summer flew by!!! We have Meet the Teacher tomorrow and I am so excited to meet my new babies!!!!  Everything is ready...including these adorable Play-Doh treats for my students!!!  Credit where credit is due: The idea and labels can be found here PlayDoh Labels by Peace, Love, Learning. PlayDoh purchased at the Dollar Tree (4 for $1)!!!  Awesome and they look soooo cute!

Also, painted this adorable Author's Chair for my classroom...I can't wait to have my sweet kinders reading their own published writing in it!!!

How cute is this chair in my writing center?!!!!

Pink Chevron Center Signs in my TPT store here.

 

More pictures of my Sweet Treat Classroom under the classroom tab!  I love looking at other teacher's classrooms so I hope you enjoy looking at mine!!

Insects, Dinosaurs, and Bears....Research Writing Report Units....Oh my!

One of the biggest new challenges of ELA Common Core this year has been the rigorous amount of writing. Don't get me wrong...I love teaching writing and I truly value writing! However, I have found myself trying to find new and exciting ways to incorporate daily writing with my students. One of my students favorite activities this year has been working on "research" reports. I have sent them home as homework, used them as part of my writing process, and used them  as a whole group demonstration on how to do research.

Here are some of the research reports that I have developed! Click on the picture to get to the link at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!!! 

 

Each report unit contains:

- Report Cover Page (colored and black and white)

- KWL Graphic Organizer

- Can-Has-Is organizer

- Research Report

- Label and draw it

- Opinion Writing organizer

- Writing template

[ELA Common Core standards: W.K.1, W.K.2, W.K.3, W.K.6, W.1.1, W.1.6, W.1.8, W.2.1, W.2.6]

* The insect report and writing is one of my best selling units!  *

 

 

I hope you find these helpful! Enjoy!

Getting ready to visit the Dairy Farm and Cows!!!

This Friday we will be taking a field trip to Middleton Farms- a real dairy farm!!!  My babies are SO excited! It's one of my favorite field trips! The students get see a cow being milked, bottle feed a baby calf, and learn how milk goes from the cow to their lunchroom!  In honor of our field trip, we will spend the week talking about cows and dairy farms!

To prepare, I created a mini-thematic unit on cows! The unit has 2 cow crafts, a poem for a pocket chart, a reader, math counting mats and some great graphic organizers!!! There is even a recipe for ice cream in a Ziploc bag! Yummmmm!

 

A final product of the cow crafts! How cute are these?!!

 

 

I'm so excited to do these fun activities with my students this week!!!

What are some of your favorite field trips?

 

Here comes.....Sneaky E!!!!

I am SO excited about this week! For the first time EVER in my teaching career, I am going to teach the Sneaky E. With the new common core standards, the CVCe pattern was moved from first grade to the kindergarten standards. At first, I was very nervous! But after plenty of research, Pinterest-ing (is that even a word), and phone calls to first grade teacher besties, I think I am FINALLY ready!!

Here is my Sneaky E poster!  I thought it turned out cute!!!

 

I also found a cute paper bag puppet Sneaky E that we are going to work on tomorrow!

I can't wait!!!!!

100th Day of School!

I know that I am a little late on this post!!!!  But, I still wanted to share some of the adorable things we did that day!!!  We began our morning with a 100th day of school parade! All kindergarten students came to school dressed up like old people! It was absolutely adorable!!!! 

My students were welcomed with a "We are 100 Days Smarter" banner!

We made a 100 snack with a Mini Twix and 2 powdered donuts!

 

We made a 100 snack mix!

 

We made portraits of what the students would look like at 100, jumped for 100 seconds, listed 100 reasons why we love our school, counted to 100 by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s, and so much more! 

 

For more 100th day fun, visit my 100th day of school Pinterest Board here!

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

WOW!  What a busy week!!!  I spent the entire week last week getting my students ready for our Seussville Musical that we had on Friday! It was fabulous!!  I love Dr. Seuss Reading Day and I look forward to it every year!!!  My sweet babies had so much fun getting our classroom and our hallway ready for Whoville! My class helped me decide the theme of our bulletin board...Green eggs and Ham!!!! 

 

 We listed many, varied, and unusual things (A Talents Unlimited Activity) that are green and illustrated our favorite one!  

 

 I find it hard to fit everything on a bulletin board so I gladly take up the entire wall outside of my classroom!

 

To begin our green eggs and ham theme, we had to make green eggs and ham to taste!!!  I brought in an electric skillet and had the students help me make them!  My students thought that they would hate the eggs but guess what....they LOVED them!!!

 

And don't forget to graph it!!

 

 

There are so many amazing things to do for Dr. Seuss that you could spend months on his stories!!!!  I picked a few of my favorites for the week:

 

The Cat in the Hat

 

The Lorax

 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

 

We ended the week with a Seussical Snack!!!  We had Truffula Tree Tops (colored marshmallows), Green Eggs (mint M&Ms), Barbaloots (Chocolate teddy grahams), Zoo Animals (animal crackers), Cat in the Hat Stripes (gummy savers), and One Fish, Two Fish (colored gold fish)!!! 

 

 

 

No Dr. Seuss Reading Day would be complete without special treats for my babies!!!  Target's Dollar Spot has some great Dr. Seuss goodies for $1!!!!

 

SOOOO to conclude this awesome week, the entire school came to school dressed as Whoville children and characters! They were greeted at the door by our principal dressed as The Grinch! It was awesome!!! To keep with my theme, I was Sam-I-Am!

 

and of course my teaching bestie!

 

So Reading Day has come and gone!!!!  What are some fun activities you do for Reading Day with Dr. Seuss???

 

Chicka, Chicka, BOOM, BOOM!

One of my favorite books is Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! I love it because I normally read it at the beginning of the school year! It feels like newness!!! It always brings back the best back to school memories!!!

I created my CCBB theme unit a while back but after sitting home for 3 snow days, I decided to spruce it up a bit!!!!  If you have already purchased this unit, PLEASE download it again to get all of the wonderful updates!!!  Click here to see more of this great unit!!!

 

 Here is a preview of some of the great activities to use at the beginning of the year with this book!

Story Map {FREEBIE}

A few years ago, I made a story map poster for my classroom to use during our book studies. I have used it many ways- filling it in with a marker, students illustrating on post-its, or having the students fill it in! It has been such a great go-to poster that I thought I would spruce it up and give it away as a FREEBIE! Please visit my TPT store to download the Story Map! Click here.

ENJOY!

Warming up for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite school holidays! I love how excited the students are to exchange cards and candy! It's such a great time for writing and crafts in class!

I created this adorable Valentine's Day thematic unit to help enhance your thematic unit!

 

Here is a quick preview of some of the cute worksheets, graphic organizers, crafts, and more!!!

 

It also has a cute poem, parts for a pocket chart, a book, and copy for a poetry journal!

 

The cutest BINGO game mat!!!

A ton of great graphic organizers for writing!

 

To purchase this unit, visit my store by clicking here.

ENJOY!!!

It's SNOWING!!!

IT IS SNOWING IN MOBILE, ALABAMA!!!! I cannot believe it!!!  The whole city is shut down for 2 days!!!  It is the best ever! Sipping hot chocolate and taco soup simmering in the crockpot...does life get any better than this?!!!

OMG! icicles!!!! I hope everyone is staying warm!!!

 

I can't wait to continue my winter unit when we go back to school on Thursday! It will be so much fun, especially since some of my students are experiencing snow for the first time ever!!!!

 

I can't wait to discuss icicles and talk about how they built their first snowman!

Enjoy!!!!

Penguins!

We are easing back into the second half of the school year with penguins! Penguins are such interesting animals to learn about! My students love learning about penguins!

I have created a "can-have-are" chart to use to begin our unit! I absolutely love "can-have-are" charts because it gives students 3 sentences that they can write with success!!! 

 

Isn't he adorable?!!!

My Penguin Unit contains an adorable craft to make to go along with this chart!!!

 

 

Also, be sure to check out my Penguin Unit on my TPT store or my Teachers Notebook store!

 

New Year...New Resolution!

With the new year, I have had a few days to think about my resolutions for the year.

So this is what I came up with:

 

1. Be patient. In every aspect of my life. Be patient with my husband, my family, my students, my friends and above all, more patient with God and his promises.

 

 

2. Acceptance. More accepting of myself, the ones around me, those that I disagree with, and loving the life I have. I want to accept life when it throws curveballs and to keep on going...with a smile on my face!

 

 

I absolutely CANNOT wait to see what 2014 holds for me and my sweet family! Stay tuned!!