Monday Made-Its.... and currently working on

I really need to learn how to link up and get more into this blogging thang.  Anyways, one of the latest blogging trends I have noticed is having a linky party for Monday Made-Its which totally inspired me.  So here are my two Monday Made-Its and an in-progress made it.

Monday Made It # 1:  

This was cool because I am getting a little earthy crunchy plus I am also a bit of a hoarder so anything I can reuse, I love.  So, I found the directions to create this new project here but I did my own thing after going through the directions.

This is the final product.  I store pencils, pens, crayons, and even my scissors in it.  

Materials needed:
1. Crayola crayons or a brand of your choice (I shop in Walmart so it's cheaper)
2. Hot glue gun
3. You must be wondering what can I used. I chose one of the tomato past cans as I was making lasagna.
4. Beautiful ribbons (Michaels sometimes sells ribbons for a dollar, I think I got these from the dollar tree).
 

As you can see from these two images instead actually gluing the crayons first.  I used the hot glue gun to place my ribbons at the bottom.  I just wrapped it around the can first and glue it down.  Then I cut another strip of the ribbon and that is what i use to make the bows and basically I maneuver, fold , and glue.

Lastly, I glue on the crayons.  I like having the writing show so I glued the crayola on the outside.  There wasn't really a pattern. 

It is such an awesome decorative piece on my black bookshelf. 

Monday Made-it #2 

I was inspired by those new student work bulletin board using scrap booking paper that are all over pinterest.  However, I wanted to hot glue gun clothespin, making it easier to change out my students work.   So, this project is all about beautifying those clothespin.  It's those fine details that matter.  I found directions to this project over at The Daily Alphabet and she has excellent directions as well as Greg Smedley offers a youtube video to make the glitter clothespins.  Get ready to break out the modpodge and paintbrush and start glamorizing those clothespin!!!! I use my scrap booking paper scraps that I was saving. 

Check out the amazingnesssssssssss

I am currently storing them in a old nail polish set box. 

After brushing on the modpodge and applying the glitter.  You have to let it dry for about 10-15 mins. then  you paint the modpodge over the glitter because you don't want to be a fairy covered in glitter dust...

Common Core chatter everywhere.  As a K1 or Pre-K teacher technically there is no common core for that grade level however my state has adaptation that is built off the common core so I am currently working on creating a beautiful Pre K standard to display in my room as well as I love the idea of essential questions so students can know the main takeaway.

 I can't wait to hang these on ribbons.  I am currently re-writing the statements into "I can..." I will post the standard we are working on daily on the correct header using the putty that we use to stick things on our wall.

PS Is anyone super excited for B2S but also feel super nervous??? *hands raised*

St. Patrick's Day!

I love doing fun craft ideas with my students especially for various holidays.  I think it's important that students learn about special days.  We explained a little about St. Patrick's Day early in the month since the calendar helper usually gets to dress up in various items that are based around the month.   I was really excited for my student to learn more about St. Patrick's day because I constantly want to expose them and build their oral vocabulary.   So, on Friday March 15th we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with lots of fun crafts, graphing,  and writing.  We read the book The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever! by Teddy Slater and discussed the various symbols of St. Patrick's Day!

I used A Cupcake for the Teacher Leapin Leprechaun activity found here in her TPT store to make fun Leprechauns with my students.  They were gorgeous....and my students listened and followed directions well. Funny story, I had no skin color paper so, being the resourceful teacher that I am :) I use manilla folders and it worked really well. Manilla  folders will now be my skin color substitute.

Most of my students seem to only remember that Leprechaun's favorite color is green, they are sneaky, and they find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

hahahaha!!! I would go to someone's house and steal their food.

I will drink green juice and eat green broccoli ( I like this one!) 

Yesterday was my birthday and I'm 16 again!!!! or 18!!! or 100!!!!  Mr. J, the sweetheart that he is, sent me two cakes. He had them delivered to the office???? Can you believe that? He knows how to make a girl happy :)

                                                   

Have a slice!My kids enjoyed the chocolate cake.  They were both delicious. 

 

Oh and me !!!

Onomatopoeia: Robert Munsch Author Study feat. Michael Martchenko

This author study was my brain child as a way to maneuver our curriculum.  This week's theme in my curriculum was I Can Move.  Now, we already did a theme in the beginning of the year according to the theme called My body as well as one called Healthy Habits therefore doing this theme would be a repeat of the idea.  My team and I talked it over and we decided to use an author that use sounds to describe various movements aka onomatopoeia and who else would be more fitting than the one the only Robert Munsch.  In addition, it is a Pre-K standard for students to be able to identify their favorite author or types of books but many of our students will not know these authors unless they are read a series of their books.

We read Mortimer as a part of our music theme the Friday before this unit which was a great segue way into a whole week on Robert Munsch.  I made an anchor chart to assist my students in the sequencing.  I asked the students what happened first and so on and I wrote and drew the pictures as they described it to me.  

Mortimer anchor chart. 

Onomatopoeia anchor chart based on BOO! and Mmm Cookies

We read Mmm cookies and made our own person and their colored cookies and decorated it with various paper scraps.  They were adorable.

We also read Aaron's Hair which is a personal favorite of mine.  It's a fun, silly story about a boy who hates his hair so much that the hair runs away.    I was inspired to do the craft by Step in to Second Grade and  it can be found on her TPT store or through the link on her blog.  Unfortunately, I did not have any skin colored paper or my new manilla folder alternative so we did them on white paper.   In addition, I created my own sequencing sheet where my students drew the beginning, middle and end of the story and then write a sentence about it.  Those also came out really great.  Here is the link to that sequencing  worksheet that I made.

This student is a great illustrator and her handwriting is even better,.

   

This student decided to show the outcome with his hair on his face.

GroundHog's Day & Artist Week

I really enjoy this teacher thing.  Just a glimpse of some cool groundhog's prediction pictures and display.
The book we read was :  You can click on the picture to learn more about the book.  I love this book.  It was fantastic and when the camel saw its shadow it saw a sandstorm so you could have students predict what the animal may cause.    My students did a writing on what they recalled after each animal saw their shadows.

Check out Growing Kinders Groundhog Day book.  It's free on TeachersPayTeachers yall

     

Our curriculum had a theme about building and creating.  Through this theme we introduced creating meaningful art.  We talked about different stories and artists.  We then marble painted and painted on canvasses.  Check out some of our beautiful work.
They turned out so awesome that I layered it on black paper and laminated it.

This student is the best artist in my classroom. 

100th Day Madness- Links and pictures galore

Today was absolutely hands down one of my favorite days of school and being a teacher!!!! Now, one of the best parts about being a Kindergarten teacher is that I can re-live some of those childhood years (I live vivaciously through my students). Anyways, I was not raised in America, and in Jamaica the preschool I attended never did anything for 100th day so of course I did my much needed research on Pinterest to learn about this school tradition. The night before I had a surprise plan for my co-workers and students. I made my own 100 day smarter shirt * I have my shirt plan for next year* I got the original print from this pin.
Our 100th day was on January 31st and we did a all school celebration in the first of February.

The back of my shirt with my students name on it.
It was a great undertaking.
                         

My students were able to count to 100 using our adorable counting mats which were made by my co-teacher and we created 100 years old art inspired by many Pinterest (check out the first pinterest link I posted, it has everything) posts and of course Mrs. Deanna's Jump's 100 post. My students also wrote about "If they had a 100 dollars". Unfortunately I did not take picture of that writing but the 100 dollar bill had their picture in the middle, pretty cool. You can find examples of this on Pinterest (plenty online if you search, just an example) also. Lastly, we did an oral language activity where students state that "I want 100_____ but I would not want 100 ______________." This could also be used for a writing project as well.

100 DAY COUNTING MATS. sorry it's upside down ;)

The original can be found here

The girls had cute little bejewels that they tried
to match to make earrimgs. 

My favorite 100 year old person.
This student wanted to show the
bald spot in the middle of his head.
HILARIOUS!!!

The finished wall display. Aren't they adorable 
at 100?!?!?! I hope I look this good when I am 100 :)

                           
To make these adorable people I created my own body template and it from our 12*12 scrap booking paper. We use cotton balls that I taught students to fluff and stretch to make the hair. Of course, don't forget to mention that they rub the glue on the spot the spot they want to go and not on the cotton ball (sometimes I take it for granted that my students are only four years old and have to be explicitly taught). We used the big googly eyes and then red colored pencil for their smile. Also, something I had to teach when I realized that my boys were obsessed with making vampire teeth. I love teaching K1 <3

Some great 100 day books that I own and read were:
        

At the end of the day I made a cool 100th day frame out of construction paper and scrap booking scraps. It came out super cute.

And a cute random pic: My staff picture finally came in. Since, I am a natural hair girly, I love to adorn my tresses with four year old head bands (provides an awesome conversation starter for my students and I. We are always talking about our headbands ;)