Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Groundhog Activity Freebie

Groundhog Activity Freebie
My picture
Today my class made a groundhog writing activity.  Part of the activity the students complete before Groundhog Day and the other part they complete the day of Groundhog Day.  For the writing activity, I first read a story about Groundhog Day so the students would be familiar with the day.  Then I asked the students if they thought the groundhog would see his shadow.  They had to write, yes or no.  Then I explained how the sentence should answer the question using a complete sentence.  So I explained that if they said yes, they should then write the groundhog will see his shadow and if they chose no, they should write the groundhog will not see his shadow.  Then once Groundhog Day comes, we will complete the bottom question which asks if the groundhog saw his shadow.


(cut out the shapes and make a tracer)

Groundhog Writing- please leave a comment, follow my blog and leave your email and I will send you the link for it. :-)

A student's picture.





Monday, January 30, 2012

Ranch Chicken

Ranch Chicken Parmesan

Serves 8
 Ingredients:
2 pounds chicken breast
1 bottle of ranch dressing
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 pinch of salt
A few shakes of garlic powder
1 pinch of pepper

Directions:
Marinate chicken in ranch dressing overnight. 

Combine bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese and seasonings.  Mix together.  Once the chicken has marinated, drip of the extra dressing off the chicken.  Dip the chicken in the bread crumbs. 

Place chicken in 8x8 pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 1 45-1 hour, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.




Ta-da!!!!Delicious!   Or as my son would say, delightful!


Lesson Plans, Mystery Reader, Student Info Card, ABC's of Kindergarten, Snoopy Book


Lesson Plan Template, Mystery Reader, Student Info Card, ABC's of Kindergarten, Snoopy Book

Last year I created my lesson plan format.  I like being able to have one whole day on one sheet of paper.  I also try to add as much information as I can for if I would have to call in a sub on a limb.  This way I don't have to scramble to get everything in order when I am sick or my son is sick.  Check it out and see what you think.   Feel free to use it if you like it.





 The year before last, I started having Skype Mystery Readers in my classroom.  I saw this idea on another teacher's website (sorry, I can't remember who) and thought I would try it.  Well, needless to say, I LOVE it!  I arrange ahead of time for someone to Skype me.  The person shows the book and after they read the book we guess who the person is that read to us.  After we decide the person reveals themselves.  The kiddos think this is so neat that their grandparent or anyone far away or close by can call our classroom on Skype and read to us.  



Snoopy Book
At Open House I have the students Snoopy Book all prepared for them to take home so they can start from day one remembering to bring it back and forth from school.  
 





At the beginning of the year when we have Open House, I have the students take home their Snoopy Book.  In their Snoopy Book, there is a form for their parents to fill out that they have to bring back the first day of school.  I have attached the form I use for student information.  What I love about this form is it has all the information on it I need about the student.


Another item I have in each students Snoopy Book for Open House is my ABC's of Kindergarten paper.  This is a helpful tool for parents to look at to understand my classroom better. 




Please leave a comment if you are able to use any of the freebies.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Technology Conference, Crayon Wreath Tutorial

Technology Conference and Crayon Wreath Tutorial

Every holiday my kindergarten team exchanges names and gives little gifts to their secret person the week of the holiday.  This adds a little more excitement to the week.  For Valentine's Day, my secret person wrote that they wanted decorations.  So, with the help of Pinterest, I have been busy.  I decided to make a crayon wreath for my person for one of the days.  Here is what I started with.  

 Micheal's had the felt peace sign for $2 so I thought I could use it as the bottom of my wreath.

 I cut out the middle of the peace sign.

Next I started gluing the crayons around the wreath.  I figured out that the top end of the crayon (flat side) has to be touching the crayon beside it.  The crayons do have a little space in between each crayon closer to the pointed end.  If you do not allow this space, the crayons won't make a circle.
 
Here is how the crayon wreath looks after gluing the crayons all the way around the wreath.
 Next, I added the name of the teacher getting the wreath and a ribbon so she can hang it up. 




FETC
(Florida Education Technology Conference)

Last week I attended the FETC in Orlando.  I love going to this conference and seeing what new technology is out there for me to use in my classroom.  I found out about this new website.  It is called Qtopia.


Qtopia
Qtopia offers thousands of activities, homework, games, and customizable learning.  I haven't had a chance to check out the sight completely, but when I saw a presentation with this, it seemed like students would love playing it.  Go check it out.

Learning A-Z
I have used Learning A-Z in the past and I LOVE it!  Learning A-Z has leveled books and worksheets with the books.  They also added RAZ-Kids which is online reading leveled books that keep track of students progress and new this year is their Science A-Z.  If you need more books to help your students learn to read, this is the website for you!


I also got to see Smartboards in action and Clickers.  My school already uses Smartboards and Clickers so I am very familiar with them.  Another thing that was new this year was the use of iPads in the classroom.  Lots of companies are making books for the iPads.  I absolutely love attending this conference.  It makes me want to go back to class and add even more technology into my classroom.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Fun way to teach Shapes

Shapes

My class is learning about shapes during math class.  Today for math I decided to have some fun with learning about shapes.  After we did our math worksheet, I put all the boys together and all the girls together on a team.  I put both teams in a spot around the room.  I told them I was going to say a shape and they would have to make that shape out of their bodies.  The other day I introduced a trapezoid and a hexagon by having students lay down on the carpet making the shape.  So today the students had the background of how I put the students in different spots to make some of the shapes.  I explained to the groups that they had to work together to create the shape.  The shape may involve everyone or it doesn't have to.  My boys were really good at this!  They were able to make the shapes very quickly.  In order for the students to make the shapes they have to know how many sides and vertices each shape has.  Here are some pictures of our shapes.  They did so great!

Triangle

Circle

Circle

Triangle

Hexagon

Trapezoid
 

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Spice Clutter, Lasagna


Spice Clutter and Lasagna

I am slowly starting to organize my house.  I just feel when the weekend finally comes that gives me enough time to organize, it just goes way too fast and I accomplish nothing.  Well, this weekend I did accomplish organizing my tiny spice cabinet.  I purchased two spice stair cases from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Before
After
I started to organize the cabinet by removing everything from the cabinet.  I put all the like spices together.  Then I simply started to put the spices back in the cabinet on the new spice stairs.  I put the spices I use most often in front so they were easily seen and accessible.  The cabinet now looks so much better.  Now, just to find time to organize my whole house. :)  


Lasagna
Dinner tonight is Lasagna.  Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Hamburger
1 package of Lasagna Noodles
1 big jar of Tomato Sauce
3 cups of Mozzarella Cheese (use 2 cups for mixture)
1 cup of Parmesan Cheese
2 cups of Ricotta Cheese 
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Cook hamburger and drain.
3. Mix together in a big bowl: Ricotta Cheese, Mozzeralla Cheese, and 2 eggs. 
4.  Place cooked hamburger in bowl and mix it with Tomato Sauce.
5.  Place hamburger and sauce mixture in the bottom of 13" by 9" pan. Just enough to cover the bottom.
6.  Place noodles to cover the hamburger mixture.
7.  Spread cheese mixture over the noodles.  Then add sauce/meat mixture to cover the top.
8.  Again place noodles on top.  Continue to place noodles, cheese mixture, and meat/sauce mixture until the noodles are all gone. 
9.  Cover with aluminum  foil.
10.  Cook in preheated oven for 60 minutes.
11.  Take out of oven and sprinkle 1 cups of Mozzerella Cheese on the top.  
12. Bake 5 more minutes.
13.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!


Saturday, January 21, 2012

100th Day of School Activities

100th Day Activities

This past week my class celebrated the 100th Day of School.  Here are some of the activities that filled our fun filled day!



Our classroom door!
I decorated our classroom door so the students would walk into the room excited about the 100th day of school.

Bead necklace 
Bead Necklace

Bead Necklace

I gave each student a long line of yarn.  One end I taped to the student's desk and on the other end I wrapped tape around it so the students could easily string the beads on.  Then I passed out a plate to each student.  I have three tables with six students at each.  I put a bag of beads at each table.  The students counted ten beads and placed them on their plate.  Then they put them on the yarn.  When I saw a table was finished putting the beads on the yarn, I switched the beads at each table.  We continued this until the students had ten sets of ten.  Once they were finished I tied the yarn and they put on their 100 bead necklace.  The kiddos LOVED these.





Before the 100th Day, get 100 chocolate kisses and number them 1-100.  Hid them throughout the classroom before the students come in.  Throughout the day, the students searched the classroom for chocolate kisses.  When they would find one, they would look at the number written on the bottom of it and place it on the same number on the 100 chart.  I quickly learned that I needed to set up rules for doing this because my students were running around the room in excitement grabbing handfuls of kisses.  I quickly laid down the law with telling the students they could only search for kisses in between the activities we were doing or after they finished their activity.  I also told them they could only have one kiss at a time.  This helps SO much!  All the students were very excited to do this and they couldn't wait to collect them all so they could eat some. 

100's Chart
Students filled out a 100 chart.

Students stayed silent for 100 seconds. 

Students counted to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's.

Students did 100 exercises.

Students drew themselves today and then drew what they would look like in 100 years. 

100th Day Hat

100th Day Hat
We made Happy 100th Day Hats!  Before the 100th day, I had my assistant cut and staple ten stripes of construction paper to a sentence strip.  Then on the 100th Day, the students used different things to make one hundred on their hat.  This year I did,
10 dots of blue paint
10 dots of white paint
10 dots of purple paint
10 foam big circles
10 stickers
10 foam small circles
10 stickers
10 butterfly hole punches
10 cloud hole punches
10 flower hole punches

We started the dots with the paint in the morning and then ended up finishing up the hats in the afternoon.  Once the hats had all the ten pieces of paper covered with ten things, I measured each child's head with the sentence strip and stapled it together.  The construction paper flapped over and made the hats looks wild.  These hats are so much FUN!
Happy 100th Day!- Label for hat 

Counting by 10's caterpillar.
 I passed out two sheets of paper with circles.  The students colored these circles however they chose to.  Then they cut them out and glued them in order counting by 10's.  


Zero and Zerona the Hero

The students enjoying Zero and Zerona the Hero.
 Every ten days Zero the Hero or Zerona the Hero showed up in our classroom.  They got the students excited about being another ten days smarter.  Who ever showed up would say a poem to the class and they would count by tens with the students help.  (some years I have them bring a zero snack, but recently I always forget so they just show up).  On the 100th Day, both the Hero's show up since there are two zeros in 100.  Again a poem is read.  I also have a pink cape (Zerona the Hero) and a red cape (Zero the Hero) that I choose a student to wear on the tenth day.  On the 100th Day I have two students wear the cape. 


100th Day Snack Mix
 For our snack on the 100th Day, I set ten snacks around a table.  I call each student up to the table and give them a zip lock baggie.  The students count 10 of each item for their snack.
Dollar
 Students get a big piece of green construction paper.  I passed out four number ones to each student to cut out.  The students glued the ones to each corner of the green paper.  Then I passed out a picture of George Washington for the students to cut and glue to their green paper.  Next I pass out pennies to the students.  They have to put 100 pennies on the their dollar.


100 designs
I gave each student a blank piece of paper and a one and two zeros cut out in black paper.  I told the students to create a picture with the numbers.  It could be anything they wanted to make it.  Then they glued the numbers on and created their creation.  

Our 100th Day went by SOOOOO fast!  

I'm 100 years old for the 100th day!
Every year I usually wear my 100th Days Smarter shirt from Really Good Stuff, however this year was different.  I wanted to be different.  I decided to dress like I was 100 years old.  It was so much fun!  I loved seeing everyone's reaction to me.  Most people didn't know who I was, which I guess is a good thing, right?  My kiddos thought it was so funny that I was dressed up.  They were really concerned about my hair not going back to normal.  Every time I would talk like a grammy, they just thought it was the funniest thing.  I am so glad the students enjoyed it.  I am hoping this day will be a day that the students remember.

100th Day Contract- Students receive this contract to complete for homework on the 100th Day.

Thanks for reading my blog post about our 100th Day of School.  I hope your got a new idea you can use with your class.