Two birds, ONE stone!

This week, I will chalk up to a teacher WIN! Earth Day and Mothers Day...CHECK! 
While shopping for my annual Earth day "dirt" cups, I stumbled upon the absolute sweetest tiny terracotta pots for my class at Walmart..and wait for it-they were ONLY 34 cents each! I knew I had to use them for something fabulous. That's when it hit me, paint the sweet little pots for mothers day...and then have students plant flowers in each for Earth Day! Needless to say, my class was pumped, and they turned out absolutely ADORABLE. We used acrylic pastel paints and painted our moms favorite designs. 

We will water the little seeds in our class, then take them home to moms on Mothers Day...just putting a smile on their face, made our world a better place on this lovely Earth Day :) 
Happy weekend, 

Disney!

Ok, so this is a personal post, but y'all...I just can't get enough of this Disney cuteness! 

So my kiddos just turned 5 & 1. We surprised them by telling them about the trip for their birthdays. (And really, who am I kidding? By "they", I mean my 5 year old!)

I made clue cards leading to different gift bags. Here is what was in some of them:

Star Wars gear for Hollywood Studios!

My son loves the Jungle Book for Animal Kingdom!

The Disney dresses on Etsy are out.of.control.!

My parents are going along and my mom insisted on these matching custom shirts. Yes, we all have one!

Lanyards for pin trading. I honestly have no idea what this is. Clearly it was not a thing in the 80s and 90s!

Magic Band bling!

So my son chased these clues 

around the house until he got to the last one, which I handed him. He was super disappointed and confused that it didn't mean we were going right that second, but he has a countdown chain to help him keep track! 

Because it's Monday....FREEBIE!

Addition and Subtraction FREEBIE! 

Is it just me or do Mondays feel like extra long days... especially after Super Bowl Sunday?! Today I wanted to give my kinders something that they can work on independently during my math station time. I created this FREEBIE so that my kiddos could use any strategy they liked (other than ask the teacher haha)  to solve the problems!  Some used cubes, some drew with dry erase markers on the ten frame, others used their fingers.  It was all about choice today and differentiation! Some children were working on addition and subtraction within 5 while others were working on it within 10 and none of them knew any different! 

 I hope this freebie can help you and your students today! #chalkpaperscissors

Get Your Cupcake On!

My kinders literally ate up this activity from our Valentine's Day Literacy pack! They loved reading the sentences aloud when they had finished. This is just one of many engaging (and might I add adorable) activities in the pack :) And remember: Keep calm, there is nothing a cupcake can't solve!
Check it out on our TPT store! 

Measure Me Valentine!

The past two weeks we have been measuring maniacs in Kindergarten! After what felt like a million snow days (three), I needed a quick check to review...and of course we had to use CANDY, because let's be honest-students can only use so many cubes, erasers, paper clips, etc. Unfortunately my great idea to use candy hearts to measure Valentine pictures was a flop because of the amount of strange allergies in my class. So instead, we used the next best thing-skittles! After measuring, students had to answer questions about height, and they were completely engaged! Hope this activity provides a touch of fun on this never-ending Monday :) 

Check out this freebie at our TPT store!

Far Out

As a resource teacher, I pull 2nd grade guided reading groups. I needed to spice things up after the winter break, so I decided to have all my students read varying levels of books about space. With our books, we will be using context clues, determining the main idea, and identifying text features. Then, I am going to pull the groups together to compare and contrast their texts. This week, my kiddos needed their engagement upped a little. So we built "constellations" out of marshmallows and toothpicks!

Then I used a graphic organizer to guide them in writing "how to" build the constellion.

Then kids loved it and you can find that freebie in our TPT store!

Kristen