Happy New Year + Another Freebie!

Happy New Year everyone!  Here's to a safe and happy one!  Let's kick it off with 2 winter freebies! :)

Jan Brett Unit with Freebie!!

While relaxing and enjoying the first days of break, I've been working on a little Jan Brett literacy unit! Head over to my TPT store to check it out, and download the preview for a

write-the-room freebie! :)

Also, I saw a cute linky party over at Live, Laugh, I Love Kindergarten!

 

The perfect gift from . . .

1. My students - Gift cards to my favorite place!!


2. Kiddies - Don't have any yet!

3. Hubby - My husband and I have a tradition of opening our presents a week before Christmas because of all the traveling/family visits we do.  This year he bought me a new MacBook Air since I'm starting grad school in a month!! Best. Husband. Ever. :)



4. Parents/family - Quality time with them!  We live pretty far apart, so I'm just looking forward to spending time with my family.

5. BFF's - Maybe a girl's night out? ;)



6. Santa - A down payment for a house!  I'm tired of renting!

Gingerbread Part 2!

We finished our gingerbread traps this week and loaded them up with bait!  Imagine the surprise when the kids came in this morning and saw that they had caught not one, but 6 gingerbread men!

Before building the traps, we drew blueprints on big paper.

Then we got to building!

And finally, we caught our gingerbread men!

It's Gingerbread Time!!

It's Gingerbread Time!!  Each year we send home a paper cut out of the gingerbread man, and ask families to decorate it at home and then send it back.  I like to make a big display on one of my bulletin boards, complete with a construction paper gingerbread house.  Some of the students get really creative with this!

We've been reading several different versions of the gingerbread story, and comparing and contrasting.  In "The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School" by Laura Murray, students create a gingerbread man in their classroom, but then leave to go to recess.  The gingerbread man runs through the school trying to find his class.  While looking for them, he sees "missing" posters hanging on the walls.  He realizes his class his been looking for him as well.  We paused at this point in the story to make our own "missing" posters!

While reading another version, we decided that maybe we should help the gingerbread man hide from the old man and the old woman!

Our classes have also been working on a STEM challenge this week, designing and building a trap to catch the gingerbread man.  We brainstormed ideas, drew our designs, and then voted to pick the top four class designs.  Next week we will be working in teams to draw blueprints and then build our traps!  I wonder what we will catch...?  Stay tuned for pictures!

Spilt Milk

This week marks the start of our holiday and gingerbread units!  But before I got started this year, I wanted to have some fun with "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" by Charles G. Shaw.  If you aren't familiar with this story, each page shows a different white shape (bird, cake, squirrel, tree, etc.)  There is a repeating phrase on each page, "Sometimes it looked like a bird, but it wasn't a bird!"  At the story's end, you find out each of the shapes was a cloud in the sky.  After reading this with my students, we decided to make some of our own cloud shapes.

 

I gave each child a piece of white paper to draw and cut out their cloud design.  We then wrote our own story pages, modeled after the pages in "Spilt Milk".  The kids had a lot of fun with this one!

^ This one might be my favorite!  I love the clown drawing!! ^

Such creativity! =) 

Liebster Award!

I'm so excited, I have been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!  I want to say thank you to "What's Working This Year in Kindergarten", "Fun In PreK-1", and "Pink Polka Dots & Pre-K" for the nominations!

What is it?

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs.

 

The Rules:

- You must post 11 random things about yourself.

- Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

- Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

- Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

- No tag back (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you)!

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11 Things About Me:

 1. I live in Maryland with my husband, but we are both from Ohio.  I am from the Columbus area, and a HUGE Buckeye fan!

2. This year I used a jungle/animal print theme for my classroom.  It has led to a small obsession with anything animal print ;)

3. I have a yearly Black Friday tradition of standing in line at the Coach Outlet store with my husband and mother-in-law.  I love their purses and they have such good deals!

4. I love cooking and baking.  I spend a lot of time on Pinterest searching for new recipes.

5. I have two cats named Mocha and Java.  Can you tell I love coffee? :) We adopted them both from the humane society.

6. I also have a severe Starbucks addiction.  Grande iced vanilla chai latte, light ice.  Or grande iced doubleshot if I'm in need of some serious caffeine!

7. My favorite food is sushi. Eel sushi, in particular.

8. I taught at a daycare for a year before moving to Maryland and getting my job teaching kindergarten.

9. Scrapbooking is my stress relief.

10. I recently started the "Couch to 5K" program to stay fit.  I'm not looking to lose any weight, I actually have never been able to hit 100 pounds! :(  Maybe someday!

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 11 Questions from

 What's Working This Year in Kindergarten

1.  What is your current favorite article of clothing? I have a blue and white striped sweater from Loft that I am currently in love with!
2.  What is your dream car (obviously, money is not an object)? Something by Lexus
3.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Birthday cake or coffee
4.  What is your most memorable teaching moment? My whole first year!!
5.  What is your favorite lesson or topic to teach? I really enjoy the Jan Brett unit that we do each year.
6.  Do you prefer to read books or magazines? Magazines
7.  What made you want to get into blogging? I love Pinterest and reading other teaching blogs to get ideas for my classroom.  That led to me sharing some of my own ideas as well.
8.  What was your most favorite vacation that you ever took? Hawaiian honeymoon!
9.  What is your favorite pizza topping? Pineapple
10.  Why did you decide to become an educator? It's something that I really enjoy and it's such an honor to be able to make a difference in the life of a child.
11.  What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

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11 Questions from Fun In PreK-1

1.  What is the funniest thing a student has ever said to you?  Do you even brush your teeth??
2.  What is your favorite color? Pink
3.  Favorite children's book? So many to choose from!
4.  Favorite places to get cute clip art/fonts? I usually google specific things or search Pinterest
5.  Cats or dogs? Definitely cats, I have two!
6.  What is your favorite subject and least favorite subject to teach? Social studies is probably my least favorite.  I really enjoy language arts.
7.  Favorite type of music? Little bit of everything, except for country!
8.  Favorite grown-up book?  Hunger Games is a good one.
9.  If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Back to Hawaii!  Or maybe a tour around Europe?
10.  Disneyworld or Disneyland? Unfortunately, I've never been to either one!
11.  Advice for a new teacher? Just take it all one day at a time! The first year is a little (or a lot) overwhelming!

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11 Questions from Pink Polka Dots & Pre-K

1. When did you start blogging? This past August

2. How many kiddo's are in your class? 18

3. What is your favorite theme to teach? I love our Jan Brett unit.

4. What is your favorite teaching blog to get inspiration from? Dr. Jean's blog!

5. Favorite color? Pink

6. Favorite holiday? Christmas

7. Do you look forward to summer vacation? Um...duh...?

8. If you could own any animal, what would it be? A giraffe!

9. If you had to choose another grade to teach, what would it be? First

10. What is your favorite children's author & book? Too hard to choose!

11. What is your favorite Disney character & movie? Probably Belle and Beauty and the Beast.  A classic. :)

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And now...

the blogs that I'm nominating:

Live, Laugh, I Love Kindergarten
Mrs. Bohaty's Kindergarten Kingdom
Kick Starting Kindergarten

The Convenient Teacher
The Connected Teacher
Peace, Love, and Pencils
Mrs. A's Room
Simply Inspired to Teach
Lights!  Camera!  Action! in Second Grade 
Follow Your Bliss
Play to Learn in Kindergarten 
 

 And my 11 questions...

1. What's your favorite teaching memory?

2. How long have you been teaching?

3. Favorite hobbies?

4. What's something on your bucket list?

5. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

6. When did you start blogging?

7. Favorite book, child or adult?

8.Favorite TV show?

9. Which holiday do you enjoy the most?

10. Favorite celebrity?  
11. Pinterest or Facebook? 

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Oh, and be sure to check out my Cyber Monday sale on TPT!

"Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert

One of my all time favorite fall books has to be "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert!  The illustrations are so vibrant and wonderful.  I really enjoy sharing this book with my students each year.  This year, I used our school's die-cut machine to cut out several leaves of various fall colors.  The students were able to make their own "leaf creatures" with the leaf cutouts!  We then named our leaf creatures and wrote about their likes and interests.  The students really enjoyed it, and now we have a wonderful fall display in our classroom!

Hope you have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!