IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!! And the BIG SURPRISE is....

Daisy Days for Learning

That's RIGHT! You can now find my products on Educents! And it's not just the deals either. ;) Educents has opened up its very own marketplace for teachers, parents, and homeschoolers! You can find all of my best products for the primary grades in my BRAND-NEW EDUCENTS Storefront. {Click HERE to take a look around.}

Can you tell I'm a little excited??!!! I'm SO EXCITED, in fact, that I am offering a FREEBIE that is EXCLUSIVELY for Educents. This freebie is a sample of my newest FROG Close Read. 

Grab it {HERE}

It includes an informational passage and activity that is PERFECT for the primary grades. I am still adding to the entire pack so you are able to grab this FREEBIE before you can even buy the pack! Pretty cool, huh? And all because you visited my Educents Store. :) Happy Day to YOU!

I have also teamed up with some AMAZING blogger/teacher friends who are also launching their Educents Stores. All you have to do is enter the giveaway below by showing some LOVE to each of the wonderful stores! Easy Peasy!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #5 - Kindergarten Stores

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

This week was all about snowmen. We began the week by introducing this poem from Tara West.

My kinders loved acting out this poem. It really helped to get the wiggles out during carpet time. 

We read the book Snowmen At Night {click here to purchase} and worked on a story map for the story.

We talked about the different story elements and worked together to complete the story map together during whole group.

My kinders then completed their own story maps, which we displayed on the bulletin board in the entryway of our classroom.

Don't you just love my snowman displaying the story elements?

I just love how Creative Clips can add to any bulletin board display!

After we read the book and I saw how much my kinders enjoyed talking about the snowmen, I decided that I wanted a fun way to conclude our "Snowman Week". After seeing several fellow teachers blogging about making snow in their classroom, I decided to give it a try! I got on Pinterest and found this recipe for homemade snow.

The recipe called for 2 cups of baking soda and 1/2 cup of conditioner. I doubled the recipe for each of my groups and it was more than enough for each student to have enough snow to build a snowman.

I ended up using six boxes of baking soda and one large bottle of conditioner for my 15 students.

I wanted to surprise my kinders with the "snow", so I didn't tell them about it until right before we made it. I did, however, give them a small hint. Our question of the day was "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Would you believe that I had one say "no"? 

He changed his mind though when I brought out the snow. :)

They LOVED playing with the snow! I was very pleased with how well it stuck together and how easy it was to clean up! A little sweeping and wiping down with wet wipes and Viola! a clean room again. 

After we played in the snow, we did a writing activity (had to keep it educational!) that you can snag for free by clicking here. 

So....

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Wordless Wednesday: Today's Math Lesson

It's time for...

Today is my first time to link up with this party and I am SUPER excited!

Today I want to share what we did for our math lesson today.  Check it out below!

 My question for you is:

How do your students record their sorting? 

You can grab the mat that I used today {here}.

Mother's Day FREEBIE, Blog Hop/Giveaway, and TPT SALE!

Have you heard? I have teamed up with some awesome bloggers for a HUGE giveaway and blog hop. You can win a bundle of 55 classroom resources just for being an awesome teacher! Great, right? All you have to do is enter with the link below! Also, you might want to follow the hop for some great ideas and freebies. ;)

Click HERE to enter the giveaway.

I am also having 20% SALE in my TPT store that starts TODAY! Click on the link below to go check it out and don't forget to use the PROMO CODE TPTXO at check out to save even more!

Daisy Days for Learning TPT Store

and now for your FREEBIE!

With Mother's Day on Sunday (and me being home on maternity leave), I wanted to share with you an activity that I did last year with my kinders. You can check out the post I did about it last year here and grab a copy here. 

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week! 

Preparations, Updates, and Giveaways! Oh my!

I have been working like a crazy person this week trying to get everything ready for the remainder of the year and my maternity leave, which begins Monday! This is getting real! Ten days or less and my baby boy will be here. :) I can't wait! I will post pictures to share just as soon as he gets here and I am able. :)

 

We have been working on adding and subtracting this week, which has my wheels turning for a couple of addition and subtraction packs (with at least one with a cutesy craft that I can't wait to share!) that *hopefully* will make their appearance soon! I was so inspired by my kinders enthusiasm one night that I put together a quick Easter-themed freebie pack to use with my kinders and to share with you. :)

You can grab a copy for yourself in my TPT store by clicking here.

I have also been working to update my Frogs Pack and I finally finished it TODAY! Yay! It now has TWO craftivities, along with labeling activities, a Venn diagram, and so much more! Grab it this weekend for 20% off! To top it off, I will be giving away two copies this weekend too. All you have   to do is follow my TPT store and leave me a comment on this blog post saying that you did and I will pick TWO winners Sunday night. Easy Peasy, right? If you already own it, just go and redownload to all the extras. :)

 

Click here to grab a copy!

Oh and don't forget about my giveaway! Only two days left to enter to win your chance at a $10 TPT gift certificate and your choice of any item from my store. Click on the link below! :)
 

 CLICK HERE

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be back Sunday to pick winners for my Frogs Pack.

 

 

 

 

Printer Woes, Numbers Stories, and a FREEBIE too!

This week I have had trouble with my printer at school (as in IT WILL NOT PRINT!). I have turned it in to our technical maintenance team and am "patiently" waiting for them to fix the problem. :)  Meanwhile, it has put a kink in my lesson plans (especially math), so today I decided to try something a little different. Since I couldn't print the activity pages for my original lesson, I decide to give my kinders a little more practice with number stories (aka word problems). 

First, we did several practice stories on the SMART Board together. I would make up the stories, the kiddos would read the stories out loud (great reading practice, by the way), and then I would call volunteers to the board to help solve the number stories. The first thing that we would do after reading the story is illustrate what the story told us. In order to do this, students had to determine whether it was a "putting together" (addition) story or a "taking away" (subtraction) story. I was VERY proud of how well my kinders were able to do this, especially my EL students. After the picture had been drawn, another volunteer would come up and write the equation to match the picture and story. Like I said before, I am VERY proud of how well my kiddos were able to do this. :) 

After we did several examples like this , I decided to let them try and create their own number stories. 

Here is one example:

(I just love her cats, don't you?)

I was so inspired by my kiddos excitement over number stories that I came home and made an Easter-themed number stories pack to share with you! Just follow the link below to my TPT store to grab a copy! All I ask is that you follow my store if you don't already and leave me some feedback. :) 

Click HERE to grab your copy

Hope y'all have a FANTASTIC rest of the week! Only three more days until my maternity leave begins! WHOOP! WHOOP!

President's Day and a FREEBIE!

This past week we spent three exciting days talking about President's Day. George Washington was the focus for Day 1. Check out some of the activities that we did!

 

 

We made hats to look like George Washington!

 

 

We made and read Fran Kramer's "Our First President" book. (You can pick up a copy for yourself here.) Then, we did a guided art drawing of Mr. Washington. :) This is a picture of one of my kinders drawings.

 

We read books and talked about George Washington all day! At the end of the day, we made a facts chart of everything we learned about George Washington. I sat at the computer and typed up what the kids had to say and then printed the facts out and added them to our chart.

 

 

Day 2 was all about Abraham Lincoln. I had copier issues with running off the book on Abe for everyone, but we still read the one copy that I did have and did our guided art drawing on a separate page.

 

I thought that they turned out SUPER cute!

 

 

 

Of course, we HAD to make hats! ;)

 

Again, we read books all day and then made a facts chart at the end.

 

 

Day 3 was our big wrap-up!

 

 

We filled in a Venn Diagram with facts about both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I wrote in the facts on a large anchor chart and my kinders had the facts that they had to glue into the correct spot on the diagram. The student version was part of Erica Bohrer's President's Day Printables Pack. I was happily surprised at the information that my kinders recalled. :)

 

 

We made our own Washingtons and Lincolns. I had my kinders tell me which president was their favorite BEFORE I told them what we were doing. Sometimes they tend to base their decisions on what their friends are doing and what the looks like. :)

 

"He was the first president."

 

 



 

"He stopped slavery."

The last thing that we did was write about why we the president we chose was our favorite. The kids really seemed to enjoy talking about the presidents and doing all our activities.

 

I made the Lincoln/Washington writing page a FREEBIE in my TPT store. You can pick you a copy to use next year here. All I ask is that you leave me some feedback and if you like what you see, please consider following my store. :)

 

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing what we did for President's Day! What are some of the things that you do in your classroom?

 

 

 

 



 

 



Math All Year! and Comment Freebie

 

After 2 weeks of math workshops and months of reflection on what my kinders need in terms of math, I have created a 30 week homework/extension pack for math. This pack is loaded with common core standards! I plan on sending this page home each week for students to work on skills with their parents. Students will be responsible for keeping up with their page and bringing it back on Friday (completed) for a special treat (most likely a sticker!) I hope that you will check it out in my TPT store by clicking on the link below.

 

 

Because I am so excited about this pack, I am going to give it away to the first two people to comment on my blog! All you have to do is follow me and tell me that you do. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Checking In and Freebies :)

Well, in exactly one week from today, I have to "officially" start back to work. :( Unfortunately, I had to "unofficially" start back this week because my room literally looked like my cabinets had thrown up their entire contents! (Sorry I left my camera at school....will post some pics tomorrow). I have been a busy bee working these past two days and feel like I have made a little progress. Anyone that looked in my room wouldn't be able to tell, but I know. :) Today I finished organizing my library and started organizing my stations. I created some labels for each using clip art from JW Illustrations. She is just awesome! If you haven't already, you need to check out her site. Anyways, I thought that I would share my labels that I made. You can access them by clicking the links below. If  you have any trouble or would like some labels personalized for you (same layout/content with different and/or more wording), you can e-mail me at jadawtolbert@gmail.com and I would be happy to fix some up for you! All I did with mine was print them off on cardstock, laminate, and cut out! I will post pictures tomorrow of mine in my classroom. :) Hope you enjoy!

 Library Labels

 Literacy Station Labels

Camera Dump, a few new things,a wonder, and a FREEBIE

Well, I finally remembered to grab my camera from school today. I realized once I got home that I still have some pictures on it from this past school year. Here they are:

Here we are flying our paper airplanes. They really got into making paper airplanes the last few days of school, so we had a competition to see whose plane flew the best.

Here are a few pics from our last Guided Art activity. I plan on trying to continue doing Guided Art with kindergarten, just a lot more basic.

 Don't you just love it when you get to put your stamp in a new book? Check out all the "new" books that I got the other day:

Love being thrifty!

And yes, I jumped on the Skippy John Jones band wagon at Kohls!

And, of course, since I have moved to kindergarten I had to get Pete the Cat!

One last picture....

my "Word Garden". I plan to put high frequency words and sight words on this board. You can find a copy of the high frequency word cards that I plan to use for FREE on my TPT store. Be aware that these high frequency cards go with Harcourt Storytown Kindergarten. :)

While I was working in my room today, I had a "wonder" that I was hoping to hear some feedback on from you guys.

How do you organize your bulletin board letters?

I have mine in a big accordion folder and it just doesn't seem to be working very well. I need a new way and I would love to hear what works for you!

 I hope to have more pictures of my classroom by the middle of next week. :)

Everyone have a great weekend!

**UPDATE**

Click HERE if you would like to purchase your own copies of Skippy! You can use this coupon code BLOGIT10 to receive 10% off your next purchase at Kohl's through August 23rd just for reading my blog. You can use it in addition to one other department specific code. :) Enjoy and happy shopping!