I don't know if I told y'all this already, but we're currently visiting family in Indiana. It's shaping up to be quite the whirlwind trip. We always drive. Every year. And I love it. I do. I LOVE road trips. SO much to see! And y'all...'Merica is beautiful. Anyway, our road trip driving up lasts 2 days. It's a total of 18-19 hours for us to get here and we have to break it up into two days because, well, that's just a long time to be in the car...especially for my VERY busy little boys. We'll be here for a few more days before heading to Michigan. While we're here in Indiana, … [Read more...] about Ready, Aim, FIRE!
hands-on activity
Vocabulary Craftivity with a Holiday Twist
I was reading a book to my sweeties earlier in the week that had the word “overlapped” in it. One of my littles stopped to ask me what that word meant {I always love it when they stop to ask stuff like that!!!} Anyway, I tried to explain it as best as I could and then continued reading. That little momentary pause for explanation got me thinking about making my vocabulary instruction more hands-on. Now, that wasn’t necessarily a vocabulary word I was trying to teach, but since we discussed it, I figured ‘why not’?! I’m always trying to find meaningful ways to make instruction more hands-on. That night, I took … [Read more...] about Vocabulary Craftivity with a Holiday Twist
Fractions, Editing, Compound Words, & Freebies
Since this is a post of a bunch of random things, I’m calling it my “potpourri”. {Does anyone dislike that word as much as I do?!?! Mark it under one of my most not-favorite things to say} Is anyone else BARELY getting to fractions?! We started our fraction unit this week and started by discussing equal & unequal parts. I folded a bunch pieces of construction paper {even & uneven} and passed them out to the kids after a little fraction introduction on the SmartBoard. The kids had to go back to their desks and cut the construction paper on the creases and then determine whether or not they had equal or unequal parts. Then we … [Read more...] about Fractions, Editing, Compound Words, & Freebies
What’s The Weather?!
We’ve been studying the weather the last few weeks in Science and it’s been FUN to say the least! I love hearing the kids talk about the clouds when we’re outside… “Look Mrs. Carroll! That’s a stratus cloud!!” They’ve become such awesome little weather watchers, SO very interested in anything and everything weather!! Here are a few little things we did for this fun little unit! We watched a really neat video about the different types of weather and read some pretty cool non-fiction books, too! We made a little word web to show what we learned… We added weather poems to our poetry journals {no pics, but you can download them below.} We … [Read more...] about What’s The Weather?!
Skip Counting
My kids are really getting the hang of skip counting! At least, I think they are ;) Here are just a few little activities/ideas that I’ve incorporated to help reinforce this concept! I requested that the parents send in {labeled} socks with the kids. I hung these on a clothesline to reinforce skip counting by 2’s. The week that we introduced skip counting, we had the kids help us create these skip counting “anchor charts” to hang in the room as a visual. I guess I missed the 10’s chart! Ooops! The 10’s chart used pairs of feet for counting by 10’s. I created this little … [Read more...] about Skip Counting
Chrysanthemum…Not Just A “Name” Book
When I taught Kindergarten, we usually used Chrysanthemum to introduce names. Of course, it’s a great book to discuss what it means to be unique and special, too. There are SO many different ways you can use this book! During the first week of school, we used Chrysanthemum to discuss the impact unkind words have on our hearts. I cut out a giant heart using red butcher paper. Before I started reading the story, I handed the heart to one of my kids and gave them instructions to crumple the heart every time they heard something unkind, and then pass it to the next person. By the time I had finished the book, … [Read more...] about Chrysanthemum…Not Just A “Name” Book
