Prep, Play, and Punch!

Welcome to my smorgasboard of RANDOM.

This week has been one of those weeks.  Unruly parent, allergies, a little pink eye, arts and crafts galore, meetings, and whole lot of fun!

Grab a cup of joe, I've got a lot to show ya! :)

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Next week begins our state wide testing.  Our *fun* test is called the FCAT.  I have kids I taught in K who are now in 3rd and 4th grade and I get the pleasure of proctoring a huge group of my kiddos next week.  One of my dear teacher buddies got a little crafty this week to really pump the kids up. 

Here are the fun crafts her 3rd graders made:

F "cats"

Here they wrote all their test-taking strategies!

Their "I'm going to 'ace' this test" letters to themselves.

And the one I love most... "I'm gonna knock the FCAT out of the park"  Each baseball has a letter from parents, siblings, friends, and former teachers with words of encouragement to each student.  I just love this idea!!! So stinkin' cute!

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This week was our second week spent learning about the ocean.  My group of kinders absolutely LOVED learning about the ocean this year and were all into it!  We made the usual crafts for each animal we learned about, did a lot of hands-on exploration, and learned about the layers of the ocean.  

As a culminating activity, I had the kiddos create their own aquarium.  I originally saw this adorable craft on Pinterest and I absolutely love how they turned out.  Each hand print is a different sea creature; fish, octopus, jellyfish, and one even made his hand print into a shark {but I forgot to snag that picture}.

I also turned my housekeeping area into Yummy Pizzeria.  I set up most of it this past week and still have a few fun things to add {pizza boxes, Velcro pizza parts so they can "make" the pizza according to their "orders," etc..}  The kids are BEYOND excited about getting to play in this center next week.  I love changing the center every month or so.  

You can find all the fun things needed to incorporate this center here:

I'm still working on fine-tuning my doctors office and then I will begin working on my grocery store, bakery, and vet office packets! :)  

Now I'm off to sip on this delicious drink!

To bad I will also be carrying Sinex, Clariton, nasal spray, and allergy eye drops with me! Oh the joys of being allergic to the outside world during spring time {my favorite season nonetheless}.

Happy Saturday, friends! :)

Five for Friday {April 5th}

This is a sad Friday for me.  It was the last day of my intern teaching full-time. I must admit, it was quite nice being able to pull small groups and work with kiddos one-on-one {uninterrupted} for 6 weeks.  Not to mention not having to do my own lesson plans!  Oh, how I love my intern.  She was amazing!

Here's some fun things we did this week:

We started one of my favorite units....the ocean!  Yes, I realize it's spring and I should've saved the ocean theme for May, however, this is how it began to flow in my room and when the kiddos started talking about ocean animals it was time to rearrange.  All about flexibility over here! :)

This adorable seahorses were inspired from Pinterest {of course} and were made after we spent a lot of time learning lots of facts about the tiny creatures!

I love these sharks!  We made these guys yesterday and wrote facts about sharks this morning to go with our craft!  I think they turned out so stinking cute! :)  I will post again this weekend with craft templates and writing freebie!

I had to share.  In my classroom we do "share time" a little differently.  I created a 'take-home-bag' called the "Mystery Bag" that my kiddos take turns taking home.  It's a black drawstring bag {so nobody can peak}.  The kids take it home and are allowed to put ONE toy {or whatever they choose} inside.  But that's not all, they also have to write 3 clues for their item.  The next day they read one clue at a time and the rest of the kiddos take turns guessing what it could be.  We guess until we get it right and/or we're all just way off! :)  

This sweet friend brought in his camera and insisted on taking a picture of the class.  He was very 'professional' about it too!

Marvelous Monday folders.  These babies are the brainchild of THE Kim Adsit.  After attending her DI for the Little Guy conference last spring {read about it HERE} I knew I HAD to begin doing this in my class.

How is works:

Kiddos write in this journal every single Monday.  They are allowed to write about anything they want.  I keep all their papers in these binders.  These binders are great for showing growth to parents and to the kiddos.  My kinder babies love looking back at their first couple entries and comparing them to how they write now.  They are always so impressed with themselves.

The first picture shows a students "writing" the first day of school and the second shows her writing from this past Monday.  Thank you, Kim for the wonderful idea!!!

Wednesday, me and the rest of my kindergarten teammates enjoyed a delicious breakfast during our half-day planning day {we call them "wacky Wednesdays}.  I will admit...I ate every last bit of that deliciousness! YUMMO! Do you get half-day planning days?

Leave some love if you wish...it makes my day! :)

quick ocean post

Life has been so crazy these past couple weeks.  We have been busy learning all about the ocean.  Thanks to all the amazing teacher bloggers out there I was able to snag quite a few ideas!  Of course, I did not bring my camera for most of them :( 

One adorable activity that I created {completely last minute....my favorite kind} was an activity on the different zones of the ocean.  After reading several nonfiction stories about the ocean and inferring about the different types of animals and plants that can be found in different parts of the ocean we created these adorable zone illustrations.  I had the kids color animals that can be found in each zone with oil pastels then they painted over them with blue water color paint and finally, labeled each zone.  

They really turned out super cute!

Our favorite ocean activity was making 'oceans in a bottle'... an activity I found at Bishop's Blackboard.  Be sure to check it out!  So many cute science-based activities!