Back to School Giveaway!

I haven't posted in a few weeks.... been busy, busy, busy! I was on vacation, started working on back to school things and  trying to finish up my two grad school classes for the summer! Today while blog stalking I noticed that Mrs. Albanese's Kindergarten Class is having a Back to School Giveaway. Her giveaway includes items from her Back to School unit, Apple unit and Fall unit.

To enter the giveaway:

1. follow her blog

2. follow her TPT store

3. Post about her giveaway on your blog, if you have one! 

The giveaway ends on July 31st, so hop on over to her blog for your chance to win! 

Freebie Linky Party

Who doesn't love to download free printables for their classroom? Lauren at Just Add Clip Art  had the wonderful idea of having a FREEBIE Linky Party! Check out her blog to download many other freebies from some outstanding blogs!My freebie is an addition to the Star Marshmallow activities that I posted about a few weeks ago. This is a measurement activity using the star marshmallows.

 

Marshmallow Measurement 

I am still learning how to upload documents on my blog. I have tried Google Docs and now tried Scribd, so bear with me as I experiment! :)  

Kohl's Cares for Kids

Kohl's Cares for Kids currently has plush characters and hardcover books from Clifford. I just purchased Cleo, Clifford and T-Bone for only $5 each! All proceeds go to the Kohl's Cares for Kids charity!

Linky Party at Little Miss Kindergarten

Little Miss Kindergarten is having a Linky Party on transitions in the classroom. Join the conversation by heading over to her blog! As she is said, some transitions are hard to make in the classroom. How do you make enough time to transition when you look at the clock and realize you need to stop the activity and head to lunch? I admit, it's something I need to improve upon in my classroom instead of shouting, "Hurry and clean up! We're late for lunch!"

Transitions I Do Use:

-when transitioning to our specials we walk quietly in the hallway by playing "Follow the Leader" as we walk. I will make different hand/arm movements and the students are expected to follow along. 

-when transitioning from the carpet to their desk I sit in my chair at the carpet and have students whisper the answer to a question into my ear before they sit down at their table. Examples of questions:  What rhymes with ____? What starts with letter ____? How can we make the number 4 when we add? Or anything that has to do with our theme of the week. 

-during Literacy Centers, Playtime  and Math Tubs I will turn off the lights when it is time to clean up. This prompts the kids to start picking up immediately. 

I have 5 i-Pods to use this year, so I hope to download music and begin to use this as a transition activity. Little Miss Kindergarten has a great list of songs, any other ideas on songs to add to my i-Pod?

Another Giveaway!

Erica at Erica's Elementary Excitement is having a giveaway! Check out her blog for a chance to win a $50 Lakeshore Learning giftcard AND a $25 Target giftcard!

4th of July Star Marshmallow Sorting

I recently purchased 4th of July Star Marshmallows from Wal Mart to use for the beginning of the school year.  I thought this would be a great beginning of the year activity to practice counting, sorting, graphing and identifying color words. I will open up the PDF file on my Smart Board to show the students an example before they begin the activity on their own. As long as the package is unopened, the marshmallows will stay fresh until school starts. Click below for the activity sheets. Please leave a comment or start following my blog after you download the sheets! Thanks! Happy 4th of July!


Star Graphing
Star Sorting

P.S. I'm still working on how to post a Google Doc so that the photo appears. If you have any tips to offer in troubleshooting this, I would appreciate it! 

Free Miss Bindergarten Unit at Kinder Kraziness!

I always start my school year with the story Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. Now I'll  have a unit to go with Miss Bindergarten books thanks to Kinder Kraziness! Over at Kinder Kraziness you can grab a free unit on Miss Bindergarten and while you're over there check out the rest of her awesome blog! If you like my blog, start following!