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!!!!