It's summer! Alphabet, Rhyming and a Freebie!

Ahhhh!  This blog has been very neglected and I feel really bad!  My boys and I have been enjoying our summertime.  We have been relaxing, running errands and we're getting all our doctor appointments in.  The biggest thing I have enjoyed is that both my kids sleep in until at least noon if not later.  We have officially caught up on our sleep. :)  I am in denial that summer is half over but am really excited for the new year to start.  I will be in a brand new classroom teaching all day kindergarten, which is new in our district.  I will miss teaching first grade but am excited for the change.

I have been taking pics of the progress of our new rooms as we go.  I need an updated one of the outside with all the walls built.

In order to get more prepared for kindergarten, I have been stalking kindergarten teacher's blogs, looking for new ideas of things to use in my classroom.

I am excited to use these items in my classroom this year.

I may or may not have an obsession with Deanna Jump's products.  I was lucky to get to see her present in April.

I have created some units of my own to use in my classroom as well.

 There are word wall words in black and white and color for each letter of the alphabet.

 There is a mini book for each letter of the alphabet.  There are two books.  The top one can be used with kids who are able to trace and write the words.  The bottom book is for kids who may need more practice just tracing letters for right now.

 There are cut and paste worksheets.  Kids will look at the picture and glue the letters underneath.

There are worksheets to practice printing for each letter of the alphabet.  There are two levels for each letter.

I am including the letter A as a freebie so that you can see what you will get for each letter of the alphabet.
You can download the letter A set HERE.  If you enjoy that, you can purchase the pack HERE through TPT.

I also adding a rhyming pack.  Beware...there are lots of pictures!

 

You can find this pack HERE on TPT.

I hope that those of you that are in Vegas are enjoying your time there and are meeting lots of new friends.  I am super jealous.  

Sara

Five for Friday Linky Party ~April 11

Hi!  I feel like a horrible blogger lately!  It's been awhile since I last blogged.  We've had some pretty big stuff happening here.

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 things about my week!

1.  My BIGGEST news and current excitement in my life is that I am going to be teaching kindergarten next year!  I am sooooo excited about this!  I taught kindergarten 15 years ago when I was a brand new teacher. I then looped to first grade with my k class.  I went back to kindergarten to pilot all day kindergarten and then landed in first again!  That has been where I have been for the past 11 years.  Our district will be switching from 1/2 day kindergarten to all day kindergarten next year.  I was excited and put in my request to transfer down.  I will miss first grade so much!  There are so many things I love doing in first grade (chicks, gingerbread man, Author's Tea, teaching my kids to be readers and writers and seeing the huge growth).  I will miss my team the most but will be working with an amazing team next year too!  This week construction started on our school.  The new kindergarten rooms are being built!  Whoo hoo!!  

 This area is all fenced off and the 4 new kindergarten rooms will be here.

 It's crazy how these boards can make the inside of the school look so dark.  I can't wait to watch the progress of our new home away from home! ;)

I am also sooo excited that I get to attend the Wild About Kindergarten conference in two weeks. Info here. I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from Deanna Jump over at Mrs Jumps Class.  I am excited that I get to actually meet her and get more ideas from her.


2.  We started our chick unit this week.  We have done so many things in our class related to chicks.

 We set up our incubators and added the eggs on Thursday and Friday this week.

I have an old Styrofoam incubator that I couldn't throw away.  I use this to put extra eggs in in case one of the incubators fails...and we need to transfer eggs over.  You really can't see inside it...but it still works.  Our baby chicks are due on April 30th and May 1st!  I can't wait.  I LOVE this unit and will miss it next year.

 We have a scale to weigh the chicks after they are born.

 I have a nest with a "chicken" sitting on it.  The kids thought the eggs were real at first.  We talked about how a chicken has to sit on her eggs to keep them warm for 21 days.  They have to turn the eggs so they don't stick to the shells.

We made our own nests.

 I gave the kids a round, plastic container.  They cut paper to make their nest.

 We then added Styrofoam eggs from the The Dollar Tree.

 The kids took their eggs home.  They need to keep them safe for 21 days.  They have to turn their eggs every day.  On May 1st, they will bring their nests back.

 Hopefully, if they have taken care of them....and bring them back...chicks will "hatch" from their eggs.

 The kids love having these stuffed chicks sit at their desks with them while they are doing work.  They earn them sitting at their desks by being really quiet, hard workers.

 These eggs show what the chicks look like each day as they are growing.

 This chick will be used for Morning Meeting.  The person that is sharing will hold it.

I have tons of things in my Chick Life cycle unit.  You can find it HERE!

I have free word wall words HERE!

3.  We started our poetry writing this week.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having kids write poetry.  Every year we do "LOVEY" activity.  You can read about it in this post.

We made popcorn and used our five senses to write about making popcorn.  I used this fantastic product by Susan over at Thank God Its First Grade.

You can find it HERE.

4.  Our Student Council had a NEON day today.  Everyone wore neon clothes.  I had some sunglasses that I was going to use at the beginning of the year with my kids...but I never had a chance to do the project I was going to do.   So, today, I thought it was fitting that each kid got a pair of sunglasses.

They all looked so cute and BRIGHT in their neon clothes.  

I even wore tons of neon and painted my nails in glow-in-the-dark neon nail polish.  The kids thought it was so cool.

They also loved my bright socks!

5.  My husband and I finally moved our treadmill out of the garage and up the stairs.  It has felt so good to run on it again.  I have 2 5k's coming up soon and need to get training for them. 

That's about all for now!  I hope you had a wonderful week!

Sara