The Day the Crayons Quit

I have been busy this summer working on my math and literacy units for my favorite classroom books. "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt is such an amazing book to use in your classroom... and if you are like me, you will use it several times throughout the school year.

I absolutely LOVE this book, and I find a way to use this book 3-4 times during the year. This 70 page math and literacy unit is a great way to fill your centers with fun learning activities, leave out for morning work, or to have set aside for your students that complete their assignments early. You can use different parts of this unit all year long.

Here are a few pages from this unit...

Writing Interactive Journals

I have finally started taking some of my ideas for interactive journals and creating the journal entries. I decided to work on writing first... and I have to say, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. :)

These letter form handwriting guides and practice sheets are perfect for your classroom writing interactive journals, literacy centers, morning work, or handwriting/penmanship standards instruction. Each page focuses on both uppercase and lowercase letter forms. With 26 pages (one for each letter of the alphabet), you will have enough weekly interactive journal entries for three quarters!

I have also included writing interactive journal covers in two colors and designs (girl/boy) to use with your composition or spiral notebooks.

Click here to purchase this activity from my TpT store

Here is how these letter form handwriting guides and practice sheets can be used with your interactive journals...

That Darn Tricky Y!

WANTED: That sly tricky Y for stealing the sounds of "e" and "i"

Two things I must always remember

To keep the letter Y from tricking me...

In one syllable words he sounds like “i”

In two syllable words he sounds like “e”.

This is a fun little activity to help your students learn about that darn tricky Y. There is a mini anchor chart that can be printed and displayed in your literacy center, on your word wall, or with your reading and writing strategy bulletin boards.

I have also included two tricky Y activities...

- A worksheet to circle the number of syllables in each word and write which sound they hear... "e" or "i"

- A tricky Y word find

Click here to visit my TpT to download this Tricky Y activity 

Enjoy!

What happened to my snowman?

What happened to my Snowman?

We had so much fun using our imagination in the classroom this week to think of creative ways that our snowman could have melted, and then writing all about it...

- He sat too close to the campfire while making s'mores.

- He went on a safari to Africa and melted in the desert.

- He went to Mexico to eat tacos.

- He went to the beach to collect seashells.

- He went hiking up a hill that was really a volcano!

- He was cold and drank some hot cocoa.

- He was sick and ate some chicken noodle soup.

The creative writing that came from my first graders was simply amazing! I loved their writing so much that I just had to showcase all their wonderful stories on our bulletin board!

I have included a picture of our bulletin board in this *free* download so that you can see the melted snowman that the students made to go with their writing.

I hope your students have as much fun with this activity as we did... ENJOY!

Click here to visit my TpT store and download this *free* activity

Valentine's Day Cards

Happy Valentine's Day!!

These Valentine’s Day cards are a great way to ensure that *all* your students get to participate in giving and receiving valentines. You can print cards for each of your students to take home, color, address to their classmates on the back, and bring back to exchange. I have even included cards for your students to color for their teacher(s).

Valentine's BINGO

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This is a fun Valentine’s Day BINGO game for you to enjoy in the classroom.

I have included…

100 Kindergarten Sight Words

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This is an alligator themed list of Fry's first 100 sight words for kindergarten. You can use this to create flash cards, keyring words, use in literacy centers, use as a guided reading/RTI tool, or for your word wall. This list can also be used for teachers to use when selecting the classroom *Word of the Day*.

BINGO!

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This is a fun Winter BINGO game for you to enjoy in the classroom.

I have included…

Five Playful Penguins!

Five Playful Penguins...

Five playful penguins

Having fun in the snow

One runs off

Where did he go?

This is a story I wrote as a cute addition to our winter themed library collection. Similar to “Five Silly Monkeys”, this story counts down the number of penguins from five to one as they run off… but where do they go? You will have to read the story to find out!

Let's Make a Snowman!

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This 36 page snowman and winter themed unit has a little bit of everything… math, literacy, science, and crafts. It includes fun worksheets, activities, and center games to compliment your winter lesson plans.

Activities included…

Math

- All About the Number 9 Worksheet

- Roll It, Write It, and Add 6 More Worksheet

- Write 1 less and 1 More Worksheet

- Count How Many Worksheet

- Let's Make 10 Worksheet

- Roll It, Write It, Tally It, Show It Worksheet

Literacy

- Match the Beginning Sounds Worksheet

- Letter “S” Cut and Paste Worksheet

- Rhyming, Labeling & Letter Writing Worksheet

- Match the Compound Words

- Write the Compound Words

- Snowman Writing Word Bank

- "How To" Writing Worksheet

- Opinion Writing Worksheet

- "If I was a snowman in spring I would..." Writing Worksheet

- Snowball Poem

Math Centers

- Winter themed dice for center games

- "Connect 4" Worksheet

- Snowman Game Board

- Snowman Game Pieces / Math counters / Manipulatives

Science

- Fun Facts About Snow and Snowflakes

- Snowflakes “Can-Have-Are” Worksheet

- Make a Snowflake Science Experiment "how to" and materials list

- “What’s Happening?” Follow-up Sheet for the science experiment

- Make a Snowman Craftivity with patterns for your students to make their own snowman

These worksheets and activities can also be used as morning work or in your Math & Literacy Centers.

Enjoy!

OH, NO... Turkey Trouble!!

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Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it looks like there might be some "Turkey Trouble"! I just finished creating my unit lesson plans and activities for my Turkey Trouble theme.

This Turkey Trouble Unit includes all of the worksheets, activities, and center games listed separately in my Teachers Pay Teachers store…

Honoring Our Veterans

My little kindergarteners worked so hard on their Veteran's Day project to honor all those who serve and protect our great country and many freedoms. I am so, so, so proud of all the wonderful thank you cards our class made to show their gratitude and support for all our nation's heroes. 

Crown Point Elementary will be taking all the thank you notes, cards, and projects made by each of the grade levels, and mailing them to our active duty military pen pals. What a wonderful way to let our dedicated soldiers know how much their service to our country means to all of us.

I purchased this Veteran's Day activity from Miss Kindergarten Love on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Click here to visit her store and view this product.

The Science of Origami

We had an amazingly fun time learning all about the art of origami. As part of our science unit on the properties of matter (SC.K.P.9.1), we transformed the shape of our paper into..... PUPPIES (she said in her best Cruella De Vil voice)!!

At the beginning of the lesson, my little kinder-scientists were saying, "But, Mrs. Kearson, we don't know how to do origami"... however, once all was said and done, they were so proud of their origami creations -- and I was too!!

Look at my kinder-scientists' origami creations...

Some of the other activities I have planned for this science unit are coffee filter flowers and coffee filter snowflakes. After completing the two coffee filter activities, we will compare and contrast the different ways that we changed the shape of our coffee filters... one by crumpling and one by folding and cutting. FUN!

"P" is for Pumpkin

We had SO much fun exploring and investigating... P U M P K I N S! For our literacy centers we listened to "Scaredy-Cat Splat!" by Rob Scotton at the listening station, we colored and read our "Pumpkin Happy" book, we wrote our pumpkin poem in our poetry journals, and we made the most adorable "My Pumpkin" hanging paper pumpkins! FUN!

Our adorable "My Pumpkin" hanging paper pumpkins...

Next, we got down & dirty... and totally slimy in science!! We had such a blast exploring and investigating the ooey-gooey inside pulpy guts of a pumpkin. I absolutely la-la-loved listening to my little kindergartners screaming "EEWWW!" and "That is so slimy!"... and not to mention all the laugh, laugh, laughing out loud!! It is quite possible that I had more fun then the students did!!