Leaping Leprechauns

I know yesterday was Valentine's Day, but St. Patty's Day is right around the corner and I have been thinking about all things green. St. Patty's Day is such a fun unit to do with my kinders. I enjoy this unit as much as they do so I created a unit to go along with the theme. I hope you will enjoy this unit as much as I have enjoyed creating it. The Leaping Leprechauns unit includes literacy and math activities. Click on the picture below to view the unit in my TpT store.

Leaping Leprechauns Unit

Literacy activities in this unit:

• Syllable Sort Center Game & Recording Sheet
• I Have Who Has Sight Words Game
• Real or Silly CVC Words Center Game & Recording Sheet
• Pots of Gold CVC Match Center Game
• St. Patty's Day CVC Words Activity Sheet
• Roll, Read & Color Sight Words Activity Sheet
• The Leprechaun Writing Paper

Math activities in this unit:

• I Have Who Has Numbers Game
• St. Patty's Day Ordering By Size Activity Sheet
• Roll, Add, & Color Gameboard
• Roll, Add, & Cover Gameboard
• Roll & Add Gameboard
• Pot of Gold Addition Mat & Counters
• Race to 100 Gameboard

The unit is priced at $5.00 in my TpT store so hop on over if you would like to purchase it. I would love your feedback if you purchase this unit about what I can change/add to make it better.

My TpT Store

Dolch Word Worms for Kindergarten & First Grade

Last year, I told you about making a set of "word worms" for the 2012 Journeys reading series to have my students practice recognizing their sight words. These word worms have made learning the sight words fun for my students. They enjoy playing the game but in order to play it well they must be able to quickly recognize their sight words.

I have had some requests to make the same game for the Pre-Primer, Primer, and 1st Grade Dolch word lists. So for those of you that do those lists instead of a reading series list, here are the word worm sets for you. Each set is $2.00 or you can get the combination set for $4.50 which will save you $1.50.

Dolch Pre-Primer Word Worm - $2.00

 

Dolch Primer Word Worm - $2.00

Dolch 1st Grade Word Worm - $2.00

 

Dolch Word Worms Combo Pack - $4.50

Miss M Moments - crawling and talking?!

Last week, we had 3 ice days here in SC so we were out of school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Miss M and I loved spending time together. My hubby works for the power company so he had to be at work in case something happened to the power so unfortunately he wasn't able to spend as much time with us as he would have liked. M loved having "Mommy and Me" days at home. We played and read books which she loved.  



I can't believe I am saying this, but my sweet M is now officially mobile! She has begun crawling forward and has figured out how to get where she wants to go now either by crawling, scooting, or rolling. She is loving being able to pull up on the couch and coffee table and of course she is bothering things she has no business getting into, but she just smiles at you and it is hard to scold her!

She has also begun to talk! Her first word was "Ma-Ma" which of course just thrilled me! She has since started saying "Da-Da" too but not nearly as often as "Ma-Ma"! I love hearing her talk to me and she just smiles while she is talking.

Playing with her baby doll and talking with Mommy

Enjoying a pretty winter day on Sunday in her swing

Our Snowmen Writing

Here in SC we seldom see snow but I always enjoy teaching about winter with my kinders. They love the snowman books and pretending what they would do if we had snow. The last time we had a snowfall here was 3 years ago so they don't really remember it.

Last week we made these adorable snowmen from Funky Fresh Firsties. Each snowman turned out differently but my kinders loved doing this craft. Then we wrote about our snowmen. I thought they did a great job and they really put some thought into their writing. I usually try to do writing where my kinders do it themselves but I have a group this year that needs some prodding so I helped them with the sentences.

 

 

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations Angela! She is the winner of my Lots of Love unit! I hope everyone has a great Monday!

If you didn't win this time, you can purchase this unit from my TpT store by clicking on the picture below.

Lots of Love Unit

 

In other news, I was a winner myself. I won a fabulous planner from Farrah Shipley at http://www.mrsshipleywholebrainteaching.blogspot.com. Her planner is great and I think it will really help me be a better blogger and TpT creator. This planner was given away on the Melonheadz blog. I am so excited to be a winner!

Winter Days...Boy Am I Tired of Them!

I don't know about where you are, but here in SC our weather has been wacky to say the least. The week that we came back from the Christmas break, we had 2 delayed start days for students because of the below freezing temperatures. Staff had to report to school as normal so I still had to get Miss Macy ready even though it was FREEZING outside. Then last week was pretty nice with sunny days and pretty normal temperatures.

This week our weather is wacky again. Monday and Tuesday were nice with highs in the 60's but yesterday the high was 39 and today the high is 49. Tomorrow is only supposed to a high of 36. I am not a fan of these extremely cold days. Cold days mean no recess and very busy kinders! I hope where you are is nicer than it is here.

In other news, I blogged about creating my Valentines Unit called Lots of Love. I have it posted in my TpT store if anyone is wanting to preplan for February. Since it is my newest unit and I haven't done anything special for my faithful followers in a while, I am going to give away one copy of this unit for FREE! All you have to do is enter through the Rafflecopter below. You can earn one entry for following my blog and another entry for following my TpT store. Best of luck to all of you! I will draw for a winner on Monday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Miss M Moments - 8 months old already?!

In case I haven't said it enough I am loving every minute of being a mommy to my sweet baby girl M. She truly makes the room light up with her sweet smile so I thought I would share her with you today. She is the reason I don't blog as much as before but I am grateful for each and every one of you who have stuck with me through my new adventures in mommyhood. I promise to keep dropping by my blog as often as I can.



Miss M is 8 months old now. Where does time go so quickly?! She is trying to pull up on things around the house and is scooting around on her little bottom. She isn't crawling yet but mostly scooting backwards. Her favorite foods are sweet potatoes and green beans, but what she really likes is getting a taste of things from our plates like bread. She thinks she is grown and gets upset if you walk by her without picking her up. We spend a lot of time playing and reading in the afternoons when I get home from school. These times are so precious to me.

Playing in her toy car

Trying to pull up on my leg

 

 

Such a happy baby!

M loved everything about Christmas. She was so excited over the Christmas decorations and lights. We even took her to see a light display about 45 minutes from us and she was fascinated. She loved looking at them as we were driving through. She loved the wrapping paper and bows as well. I think she liked them as well as any of the presents she got but she didn't pull any of the bows off under my tree this year. She would just look at them.

Our little family waiting to see Santa

Miss M loved seeing Santa!

Helping with the Christmas decorations

Lots of Love unit

I had a wonderful Christmas break and I hope you did too. I enjoyed spending lots of time with my sweet Macy and catching up on some things around my house. Macy loved everything about Christmas from the lights to the pretty paper and bows. I will post some pictures of her soon.

During the Christmas break, I also began working on my newest unit called Lots of Love. This is my Valentine's unit and it is full of fun activities and games for your kinders.

Here are the literacy activities included in this unit:

• Beautiful Beginning Sounds game
• Lovely Syllables game & recording sheet
• Real or Silly CVC word sort game & recording sheet
• Trace, write, glue sight words activity sheet
• Roll & Read CVC words
• Endearing Ending Sounds game

Here are the math activities included in this unit:

• Before & After game & recording sheet
• Adding Hearts game & recording sheet
• Roll & Race to 50 gameboard
• Roll & Add gameboard
• Nuts Over Numbers activity sheet
• Counting by 10's activity sheet
• Roll & Color gameboard
• Roll, Add, & Color gameboard

This unit is $5.00. You can purchase it in my TpT store.

TpT

 

If you purchase this unit, I would love to hear back from you about what worked and what I can add to make the unit better.

Happy New Year! (and a sale!)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break like I am.

In honor of the new year everything in my TpT store is 15% off. This sale lasts today and tomorrow so hurry on over if you would like to purchase some new goodies for the new year!

My TpT store

Gingerbread Family Projects

Last week, I sent home a project with my kinders for them to decorate a gingerbread boy or girl with their family. They had to bring them back and we decorated our hallway with them. They turned out to be absolutely adorable. You can tell they put a lot of thought and effort into their projects.

Of course I wanted to share them with you. Here are a few:

If you would like to do this project with your class, you can download the letter I sent home here. I also traced a large gingerbread stencil onto brown construction paper to send home with the letter.

Gingerbread Family Project Letter

Gingerbread Goodies

I love this time of year and I try to make it as fun as possible. This week, my kinders and I were knee-deep in our gingerbread unit. This is such a fun unit for me because we always read different versions of The Gingerbread Man/Boy story. This year, I read my kinders a different version each day and we compared the stories to see what was the same and what was different in each one. These are the perfect books to use with the Common Core standards too. My kinders loved hearing these stories and they were learning while having fun! Here are the ones we read:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like some more ideas to use for a gingerbread unit, please visit this post from last year.

Here Comes the Gingerbread Man!

 



Cyber Monday/Tuesday Sale

I am enjoying my Thanksgiving break with my family for the last day but I wanted to drop by to let you all know that I am throwing a Cyber Monday/Tuesday Sale in my TpT store. Everything in my store is 15% off! It will start tomorrow. Happy shopping everybody!

My TpT Store