We Snow Love to Read and Write

I am loving the Snow set from Kari Bolt. Here is the picture of the set from her Facebook page. Aren't they adorable?

I started to make some mini-readers with writing pages and it "snowballed". I couldn't decide how to break it up or when to stop. : ) It is going to be listed on TPT for $4 but is just $2 for today Nov 29th! (The rest of my store is 20% off today.) Here is a preview of some things included.

It includes Writing Centers: Sentences for the students to sequence and copy (each sentence has a different picture); Individual cards to create their own sentences with picture cards (can also be used for a Write the Room) &  Variety of worksheets to sequence the sentence, write their own and illustrate (match the readers, too); Pocket Chart center with sentences to match pictures to. Follow-up includes making lift-the-flap writing.
Mini-readers include: We Make It From Snow; Do We Have a Snowman? & The Snowball Fight
Perhaps my favorite is for a Writing lesson. There are a variety of formats for students to make a foldable with their own story about a snowball fight or use it to cut and paste in a story.

Hope you are excited about it as I am!

As a little freebie - 2 Calendar Pieces Sets - Santa and Elves and International Christmas. Both sets use graphics from Kari Bolt as well. : )

I printed and put the International Christmas pieces in my pocket chart at school before the Thanksgiving Day break just to see and it looks great. It goes with our international mindedness as well. I'm excited to see the kids reactions.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Jenn

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Wishing you a peaceful day full of family and friends!

I am blessed to spend mine with my wonderful 3 children and husband and to have other family to visit.

 

In TPT news, I added a new Holidays themed set with tons of pieces for use with short vowels. It is mostly first grade review but works with extending kindergarten skills. I am almost finished activities for Snow Reading and Writing. I have to decide how much and how many variations to include but I am loving the unit and its graphics by Kari Bolt (just like the ones above). My TPT store is on sale for Black Friday 20% off and then it will be 20% on Dec 2 & 3 for Cyber Monday sale. You get 28% off when you combine the 20% off with the TPT code: cyber.

 

Enjoy,

Jenn

Five for Friday Turkey & Education Week

I am sadly missing pictures but here is an update on our week.

1. We researched Turkeys! We used multiple sources to gather information on wild turkeys. PebbleGo the database (I love that our school has a subscription) & Scholastic Let's Find Out were our main sources. When we were working on recording the sources on our class tree map, one of my students pointed out that we should write videos because both the magazine online and the database had videos of wild turkeys. What was the big question they wanted answered...Do turkeys climb or fly to get in the trees to sleep? So our research went on...

This book was in our library center this month and what does the turkey tell us but that yes he can fly. So I offered the students another source (we hadn't talked about)...interview. They interviewed me. Yes, I have seen wild turkeys and was able to add more information. This class kept adding branches to their tree map - Turkeys...can, are, have, live, eat - as we learned more and more.

It was a great tie into comparing bats and birds last month as we read Stellaluna.

 

2. Turkeys continued as a focus when we read A Turkey for Thanksgiving

We sequenced the animals from the story onto a turkey hat...imagine the picture of the great hat here. Turkey's head in the front and tail feathers around the back of each child's head with the story sequenced on it. They loved retelling this story.

 

3. Speaking of sequencing, we read Our Special Sweet Potato Pie

from our reading series - which is a fun fantasy tale. We also predicted and discussed family meals.

 

4. A little Math update in the middle of all this literature....

One of our warm-ups this week: draw me at least 2 shapes that together have 7 vertices. A challenging question that the students took on as a challenge. They worked to find all kinds of combinations (triangle and...square, rhombus, trapezoid, rectangle). They ruled out using the hexagon because there aren't 1 sided shapes. It became a great lesson.

5. We had guest readers this week. In honor of American Education Week, our kindergarten invited members of our Board of Ed to come read to our classes. We have 6 classes so they read to 3 classes at a time. : ) We have a very large school district and thought most people would be booked already. What a nice surprise to find 5 that wanted to read to us! We also had guest reading from our principal, financial secretary, and the college age niece of one of our teachers. My team picked great books and some of our guests brought their own. Our guest reader books tied into our PYP attitudes and attributes and our transportation theme including: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, Oh the Places You'll Go 
Daredevil   Rosie Revere Engineer   Balloons Over Braodway

Busy, Busy...Freebie Reader

It is me! I am stopping in to say hi and drop off a freebie reader. I Have, I Can Stamp It! Reader.

 

I have been making mini readers for my class recently and they love marking up their readers and coloring them in. Right now, they are just for my class and mostly Fall themed. Hopefully, I will get them finalized and TPT ready to share with you all. For now, I have a different kind of reader for you!
One of my favorite rotations for Stamp Center is Stamp It books. I change my centers out every 6 days and alternate the types of activities. I needed one for HAVE and Kari Bolt's Action ClipArt set met that need. You pick the pages you like and print 2 per page. The students stamp the letters for the word have. Differentiate by having students look for other focus words, initial sounds of the picture words, answer the question, or use other materials (ie smelly markers). A writing extension (which I seem to have at every center) includes creating their own page.

Enjoy!

Jenn

KinderMyles

Linking up with Freebie sites.

and
 

Currently November & Facebook Freebie on the First

Linking up with Farley's Currently for November.
And a new November Facebook Freebie - Calendar Cards in ABB (then and now) and ABC Pilgrim and Native American Friends. Just hop on over to my facebook page to snag it. Here's a peek.

CURRENTLY
Listening
Last weekend, in the midst of our anniversary and my son's birthday, our outdoor cat (who was left with us when friends moved out of state long ago) wanted to come inside and not go out. After she passed, my husband took her to animal control while I was at work. He and the 2 year old came home with a kitten. Of course, the kitten had a brother in the same cage so now we have 2 who we are keeping indoors. Our dog Fred (a Chihuahua/Maltese mix) was super excited for play mates and the one cat thinks he can wrestle with the dog already. They look to be an interesting mix.

Loving
My 2yr old for trying to brush the kittens teeth with a spare toothbrush, my son for not wanting the dog to feel the kittens are more important, my daughter for wanting to trick or treat as her brother's twin Iron Man. Here is where I wish I could sew and had the time. My son picked out a hand-me-down Iron Man costume (not that he knows who he is) but the mask was broken and it was a little tight. So we searched and found one on sale from the 3rd movie that fit a little better. My daughter, who wore a cheerleader outfit to school, decided to wear the hand-me-down to be her brother's twin.

Sweet Pin
Shhhhh! I am just not a pinterest gal. I admit it. Right now, I spend so much spare time on the computer doing school work that my spare computer time is reading blogs. Another secret...baking in my house almost never happens - we are lucky to have dinner.  However, for Currently, I went on and looked up Pumpkin. I found these. Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. Two of my favorite things. I am going to have to try the recipe on Thanksgiving Break. Link is in the picture.



 *****Did you see the giveaway for Sara's 1 year Blogiversary at Polka Dot Kinders?
Four 4 Great Giveaways to enter!