Growing Little Minds

Easter Egg FUN!

This week is our last week before Spring Break, and we're going to have so much fun! I wanted to share a few of the things we'll be doing this week in hopes that some of you can have some fun with your kiddos as well. I have included a few freebies too!

Lots of the activities we're doing involve Easter Eggs! I stocked up on fun Easter eggs at the Dollar Tree this week, much to the dismay of my wallet! But they were so cute, and I can use them again, so I don't feel THAT bad about it.

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs.

But they are so CUTE!

It's a good thing I have this amazing bag to hold them all in!

I have a TON of Easter egg games planned for math. We are working on addition and subtraction, so our math games are all centered around decomposing and composing numbers, adding, subtracting, etc... We also have a little bit of graphing thrown in there as well! I'm sharing a few of them with you now, and I'll be back at the end of the week to share the rest.

You can find this graphing freebie in my TPT store. My kids LOVE graphing, especially when it involves candy! There are 3 different versions of the graph, including a blank one, just in case your jellybean colors don't match up with what I have! There is also a sheet full of questions that your students can answer about their data. It's perfect for firsties! My students totally rocked it last year when we used it.

You can find this awesome freebie here!

I also found these adorable erasers from Target that I just couldn't wait to use!

I created these Spring Number Story Mats so that my students can practice addition and subtraction stories and use the erasers I bought. There is also a mat that uses jellybeans as well.

I also have some paper manipulatives that can be printed on colored cardstock or construction paper for those of you who don't have a Target near you. (Sad times) Or maybe you're just not crazy like me and think you need to go out and buy 6 packs of erasers.

It also comes with several spinners so that you can choose the best way to use them with your students. I know my students will love these adorable bunny spinners.

I put the erasers in these adorable eggs from the Dollar Tree. The bunny erasers are in the bunny, the chicks are in the chick, etc... Then they can grab the correct set of manipulatives to go with their story mat.

The best part about these is that they are spring, not Easter themed, so they can be used all season! You can find them in my TPT store as well.

I am also adapting one of my favorite games for Easter. It's called "Hidden Partners." Usually this game is played with cubes and the students hide the hidden partner behind their back, but I thought it would be fun to play with Easter eggs and jellybeans. I also decided that I didn't want to buy a ton of jellybeans for them to get sticky, so I spray painted some lima beans instead to be my "jellybeans" because I'm weird like that.

There are 10 "jellybeans" in each egg. The student covers up some of the jellybeans, and their partner has to figure out how many jellybeans are underneath the egg (or behind their back) by using the number of jellybeans that are left.

If the student gets the answer right, their partner lifts up the egg to show them the answer! I love that this game is easy to prep and practices some excellent number skills. You can use any number besides 10 as well, so it's easily adaptable.

We've been working with the number 10, so we're going to play a fun game with Easter eggs and a ten frame made out of an egg carton. I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so I've been saving up my egg cartons. I made a little recording sheet for this game. The students will roll a 6-dot dice and put the eggs in the egg carton. Then they will figure out how many more eggs they need to make 10 and add those eggs in a different color. On the recording sheet, they will color in the eggs and write an equation.

If you want to play this fun game with your students, you can get this recording sheet as a freebie. Just click on the image to get it! Sorry, egg cartons and eggs are not included.

We've also been working on our word families a lot the past few weeks. We're working on the -an word family this week. We also review other word families that we've already done so that we don't forget those sounds! It's so important to continue to practice these sounds and allow the students to continue to work with them. Since we love to get our kids up and moving, I created a fun Write Around the Room game to help practice the sounds we've been working on. The kids will find the eggs "hidden" (in plain sight!) around the room. Then they will say the word and figure out which sound they hear. They will write the word on the recording sheet in the correct basket.

You can find the Short- a word family version here in my TPT store. I also created a version that practices L-blends and S-blends for my first grade friends. They are also available in my TPT store.

Winter Fun!

It's 57 degrees here today, so I'm not sure if naming this post "Winter Fun" is appropriate, but that's just too bad. We've been doing some winter-themed stuff in my classroom the past few weeks, and my students have had a lot of fun! I just wanted to fill you in on a few of the fun activities we've been doing!

We've been working on consonant digraphs, ending sounds, and medial vowel sounds. We've been doing a whole lot of blending sounds together and segmenting sounds to write. We've also been doing lots of sorting too. These are a few of the sorts we've been doing. We also sorted the "th" digraph and several other ending sounds.

The kids loved helping me sort these pictures. These are all available in my Winter Bundle.

We've been working really hard on our word wall (sight) words. Our word work center one week required our students to practice their sight words. They loved finding the letters to make the words they were trying to spell. Each snowman head had a sight word we've been practicing written on its hat. They had to pull the letters out of the cotton ball snow and build the word with the correct letters. The kids LOVED this center!

They built the words...

There is a recording sheet as well, so they can write down the words they practiced.

Both the Primer and Pre-Primer versions of this game are available in my store.

We also read some Jan Brett books, including The Mitten, The Hat, and The Three Snow Bears. The kids really enjoyed reading her books! We did some fun activities with these books, including writing and math! I wish I had pictures of all of them!

This was one of our math centers. The kids had to see how many animals would fit in a mitten. I just bought some animal crackers from Kroger and we used those. First, they had to estimate how many animals would fit in a mitten, and then they had to put the animals in the mitten to see if their estimate was correct.

We also did a little hot chocolate math with marshmallows! They rolled a die for the first number and a die for the second number. Then they had to write an addition problem and show their work. These look really cute hanging up in the hallway! We finished up this day by making hot chocolate and eating some animal crackers!

We also did a cute little Polar Bear positional words book. The book came from The Mailbox magazine. The kids added the finished book to their book boxes to read when they have free time!

So there's one week of winter fun! What fun winter activities did you do with your students? I'm hoping the winter fun isn't over yet- I want to make snow!

Have a great week, everybody!

Centers, Kindergarten style

We've finally gotten into the "swing" of centers in Kindergarten. It's definitely much different teaching Kindergarteners how to do centers than it is first graders! First graders definitely have some experience with centers, while Kindergarteners do not! I also gave my firsties a lot more freedom when it came to centers than I do my Kinders, not that it's a bad thing!

So I thought I'd share how I'm running my centers now that I'm back to teaching Kindergarten.

In first grade, I was basically forced to use homogeneous grouping (something I did NOT like), but in Kindergarten, we use heterogeneous grouping. I arranged my center groups so that I have a high, medium, and struggling student in pretty much every group. There are 3 kids per each center group, and there are 8 groups of students.

Our center rotation chart tells the students where they are going. I dismiss them to their centers, and then I call one of my reading groups to my table to work on reading. This means that they do miss one of their center activities, but I feel it's more important that students are learning how to read with me than completing some work that they may complete incorrectly anyway.

In word work, we have been doing a lot of different activities with books and our sight words. We have made alphabet books, and now we're moving on to different sight word activities, such as sight word books, read/make/write boards, and Roll a Sight Word activities! The kids love learning these new words and then finding them in the books we read.

Read/Write Around the Room is another activity the kids love! So far, we've been doing different Write Around the Room themes, such as fall words, Thanksgiving words, etc... The kids have to write the word and draw a small picture next to it. If they finish, they can write a sentence on the back of their paper using one of the words. Soon, we're going to alternate these vocabulary building Read Around the Room activities with sight words around the room. :-)

In Phonics, we've done a ton of sorting activities. We've sorted beginning sounds, rhyming words, syllables, even ending sounds. We've differentiated some of the activities for different students, so some students may be working on rhyming words while others may be working on beginning sounds.

These two alphabet sorts are from my Alphabet Printable Sorting Sheets available in my TPT store.

We also have two reading centers, since reading is so important! We have "Read to Self" and "Buddy Reading" in our center rotation. One important thing we need for these centers are our book boxes! I buy the magazine holders from IKEA and allow my students to decorate them however they like.

Inside their book boxes, they get to keep the books they borrow from me, as well as the books they've made in the classroom, and then any books I give them to keep in their book boxes. We have these little bags to keep our "just right books" in. These are the books they've made in the classroom and can pretty much read on their own.

We do Read to Self in our book nook. I like to have lots of different places for the kids to sit down and read.

We do Buddy Reading on the carpet. Sometimes we have 2 students in a group, but usually we have 3, so it's usually "group reading" instead of buddy reading. It usually works out.

We also have a poetry center! We put a new poem in our notebook every week! The poems are all songs or poems we've sang or read in our classroom. For example, this apple tree poem is something we did as a choral reading activity. The kids glued it into their notebooks and drew a tree to match each part of the poem. Then they practice reading their poems to an adult.

The other centers that we do are writing and computers. Computers are pretty self-explanatory- the students get on Successmaker and complete that program. For writing, we usually do a response to a book that we read, such as writing about our favorite character or telling what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

I have not added Listen to Reading (mostly because I'm lazy!), but someday, I plan on adding it as well. I just really need to take the time to get all my CDs uploaded to iTunes and then have them synced to the iPods. We may add that one after Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my classroom!

Christmas Questionnaire Linky Party 2014

I decided to link up with Fabulous in First for her Christmas Questionnaire Linky Party!

1. When do you decorate?
I usually decorate the week after Thanksgiving. I usually refuse to decorate before Thanksgiving. I broke my own rule this year and put up one of my trees before Thanksgiving because I knew I was having surgery in December and wanted to be sure I had enough time to get it all done!

This is my "big" Christmas tree and some ornaments I've made for it.

My mantel, front door, and side table in the living room.

Lots and lots of trees! I love trees!

Decorations in the Dining Room.

I tried putting lights on the tree outside. Short people shouldn't put lights on trees. :-)

2. Elf or no elf?
I don't have any children, and the dog doesn't care, so I just have an elf in my classroom. Her name is Twinkle Snowflake, and I wrote about our adventures with her last year here and here.

This year was eventful for poor Twinkle! One of my students decided to beat the pulp out of poor Twinkle Snowflake and she was pretty battered!

3. Christmas Cookies or no baking for you?
My mom does tons of Christmas baking, so I usually don't do much. In the past, I have made Peppermint Bark and Chocolate Covered Pretzels. This year, I didn't do anything since I had surgery this month.

4. Favorite Holiday Tradition?
Staying home! When I was a kid, we used to get up, eat breakfast, open gifts, and pack up and leave to sit in the car for 4 hours to go to my Grandparents. It was horrible. While I don't wake up in my own house, at least I don't have to sit in the car for 4 hours anymore!

I also like to make something for my home each year. New ornaments, a decoration, something pretty and festive! These are some things I've made in the last few years.

5. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I guess that would have to be The Grinch Who Stole Christmas! :-) We also have to watch Scrooged every year, because my dad loves it.

6. Snow or no snow?
I hate snow, so I'll go with no snow!

7. Favorite Christmas song?
I am so not a fan of Christmas music. I am one of those people who hates hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving! I will only listen to it willingly if I am at work making Christmas crafts with the kids! We do listen to The Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD on Christmas, and I don't mind that. I'm just a bit of a Grinch when it comes to Christmas music!

8. Favorite Gifts to Give and Get?
I like to give handmade gifts or gifts purchased from local shops or artists. I got a few gifts that I'm giving to family this way! I also like to find great gifts for people. Sometimes I do a great job, and sometimes I don't! I am making a wreath for my mom (once my wrist heals!), and I found a cute handmade hat for my sister. Shhhhh!!!!

These are some gifts I made for my coworkers this year. I filled the mugs with homemade hot chocolate. Some are regular, and some are peppermint. Yum!