Christmas Crafts & Freebies!

Woo hoo...officially on vacation!! I know some of you still have another week to go, so here are some fun things we did this past week that you might want to check out.

We made this Elf Craftivity that turned out pretty cute. Click to download my Elf Craftivity FREEBIE! 

 You might remember these from last year, but I just had to do them again! By the way, we used acrylic craft paint and NOT tempera. It works so much better!

We made these super simple Christmas trees using strips of green paper. I got this idea from Mrs. Lee. It's also a great activity for practicing ordering lengths.

 

I brought in a big red bag of items representing needs and wants and we sorted "Santa's Sack" into two hula hoops (needs or wants). Then we did this Needs & Wants Stocking Sort.

We wrote letters to Santa! This template is included in my Christmas Math & Literacy Centers. We put them all in a big envelope with some stamps so we could mail them to the North Pole!

We also made these reindeer hats again! They're just too cute!

 

We made our yearly calendars for our parent gifts. This is a template I got from my colleagues. Maybe next year I will make my own and put it up as a freebie ;)

 

Parent gifts all wrapped up and ready to go! We made these quick gift bags for our ornaments and wrapped our calendars in tissue paper.

 HERE ARE YOUR FREEBIES!!!!!!!!

To keep the kiddies busy while I finished my report card assessments, I made up this fun Christmas Add & Color game. Click the image to download your FREEBIE!

Click this image to download the Elf Craftivity FREEBIE!
 
 
Here is the Needs & Wants FREEBIE!

We also had lots of fun with our Christmas Centers. Sorry I didn't have time to take any pics!

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a happy and healthy holiday season!

Silence for Sandy Hook

My heart is broken for those beautiful innocent little children and their teachers. May they rest peacefully. My love and thoughts go out to all those who have been affected by this terrible tragedy ;(

Christmas Centers Pack + FREEBIE!

I'm really starting to get into the Christmas spirit! The Christmas tree is up, cookies are baking in the oven...I love the smells of Christmas! And after a few delays, I've finally got my Christmas centers up! I was feeling so sick last weekend that I couldn't do anything. I literally spent the whole weekend sleeping! So I got most of the pack done during the week, and it was all ready to go up on Friday...when suddenly half of the word documents somehow got corrupted! And none of it was backed up yet! I was soooooo upset! Anyway, I spent this whole weekend re-doing the entire pack and now it's even better than before! Check out the pics below to see some of what's included. Click on the first image to go to my store. Then click PREVIEW to download your Write the Room FREEBIE!!!! Merry Christmas!

Yummy Fractions! {Freebie}

Wow, it's been a while. Sorry I've been so horrible with posting lately! I have been trying to work on my Christmas Centers pack, but I just have not had time to sit down and finish it. Not to worry, it will be finished this weekend!

In the meantime, check out some of the fun fraction activities we've been doing in math...

I've probably said it before, but I LOVE Stuart Murphy's MathStart series! We read yet another of his books this week called "Give Me Half," which went along perfectly with our unit on fractions. After reading, I brought out some cookies (Chewy Chips Ahoy, since they are easy to cut) and demonstrated different ways to cut a cookie into two pieces. The kids had to decide whether or not it was cut in two equal pieces or "halves." They had fun telling me when my piece was too big and "That's not fair!" Then I passed out a cookie and plastic knife to each student and they had to cut them in half to share with their partner (I didn't have my camera that day). Later, we made a craft to display what we did.

We learned about "fourths" by dividing and sharing pizzas! During math centers, I worked with small groups to discuss how we could share our pizza equally among four friends. They helped me cut the pizza into fourths and each got to taste a bite! These were actually Lunchables Pizzas. Yes, I know they're skimpy, but I spend wayyyy too much money on my classroom as it is. I'm sure you know what I mean! Anyway, they loved it! And they were all able to explain that they made four equal parts and divided the pizza into fourths! Yay! Later, we made a craft to display what we learned.

We also read "The Doorbell Rang." I handed out paper "cookies" and students worked in pairs to figure out how to cut it for two friends to share equally. Then I had students form groups of four and they had to figure out how to cut and share it equally among four friends. Since it was Thanksgiving, I brought in a pumpkin pie and students helped me decide how to divide it in half and in fourths. Finally, we all got to try a little piece! Yummy!

Here are some games I put together for my kids to practice fractions. Click here to download your free Cookie Fractions Games. Enjoy!

Spin & Share - Students make cookies out of play dough. Then they spin the spinner to determine how to cut their cookie and record the fraction on the recording sheet. There are two spinners - one with fractions and another that shows how many children will share the cookie (in case you haven't taught them to read fractions).

Build a Cookie - For two players. Students roll a fraction die and add that fraction of a cookie to their page. First to make 5 cookies wins! You could also use the fraction spinner from above.

P.S. Many of these ideas were inspired by Krazy for Kindergarten! Check out her page, she has some great stuff!

Thanksgiving Math & Literacy Centers + FREEBIE

It's getting pretty late over here in Hawaii, but I promised myself I'd get this up tonight, so here it is! It's my biggest and best pack yet (in my opinion)! I've included 16 math and 12 literacy activities. Just click the image to go to my store, then click "DOWNLOAD PREVIEW" to download your freebie. The preview also includes a detailed table of contents. I promise I'll post some more slides for you tomorrow so you can see what's included! And now I need to get some sleep!! Good night!

Election Day {Freebie}

Here's what we did for election day. Sorry I'm late on this one! Maybe you can use it next time!

We read "Duck for President" and "Grace for President" and learned about voting. Then we held our own class election. Our class voted for Obama, 16 to 7! The kids were so excited as we counted up the ballots! Another idea is to read both stories, then have students vote for Grace or Duck for president. Grab your Duck & Grace Ballot and Voter Registration Cards below...

Click the image for your freebie!

Solid Shapes Geometry Unit & FREEBIE

I've just posted a new unit to my TPT store! My Solid Shapes Geometry Unit includes over 20 activities and printables and about 90 pages of fun! See the pictures below for just a few of the activities included. Click the first slide to check out the unit! Read on for your freebie!

My kids love this music video from Harry Kindergarten!

Do your kids love Annie & Moby like mine do? We LOVE Brainpop!

Click below to download my Solid Shapes Powerpoint FREEBIE!

Click below to download my Solid Shape Picture Cards if you don't already have them!

I'm still working on my November Centers Pack, so check back in the next couple days! Have a great week everyone!!!

Pumpkins Unit FREEBIE & Halloween Centers

Happy Halloween!!!! We've been busy this past couple of weeks learning about ALL things pumpkin! I have a student who cannot participate in Halloween activities, so I have kept my unit related mostly to pumpkin "science." We've still have lots of fun with it! Click the first slide to download my FREE Pumpkins Mini-Unit! What a SWEET Halloween treat! Hehe :)

Here are some of the things we've been working on during centers this past couple of weeks. I've finally got all my centers up and running and the kids are doing so well! I will go into detail about how I initially introduced centers in a later post.

These are all part of my October Centers Pack on TPT. Click HERE to check it out!