Kindergarten Sensory Play for Halloween

So, HI!!! This is my first blog post in SIX long years! Quite a lot has changed for me in that time. I’ve had two beautiful baby girls and moved houses and schools!

My kiddos are 3.5 years and 3 months old. My 3 year old has been absolutely loving sensory play, so while I’ve been home on maternity leave, I’ve been trying to come up with fun sensory tubs for her. I made our witch’s brew sensory bin into a TPT product. It has super fun recipes for spooky potions and creepy, crawly mixtures. My kiddo loves counting out each ingredient needed for the potion and mixing it all up in a cauldron I purchased from Dollar Tree the other day. In fact, mostly everything pictured in our sensory tub is from Dollar Tree!

The download from TPT also includes colorful graphics for each item mentioned on the recipe cards in case you don’t want to run out to Dollar Tree or Target.

We dyed the pasta with food coloring and vinegar for most of the colors and actually  used paint for the black.

By far the best part of this activity is that children are so engaged that they view it as play. It is play of course, but it has the opportunity to mix in a ton of learning!

Check out this download on TPT by clicking here.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Witchs-Brew-Halloween-Sensory-Play-4916861

Back with a Happy Halloween Freebie!

I've been so busy with a great class this year, and would love to be able to post about all the fun things we've been doing lately.  Problem is, all of those fun things take time and energy and of course I haven't had a lot left in the tank for blogging. I also have a class blog this year for my parents which is taking up lots of time.

So, to my loyal followers, thanks for hanging in with me!  I have a color-by-number freebie for you to hopefully make your Halloween party easier at school.  I like to have some super easy worksheets on hand that day or even Nov. 1st because you just never know what will pop up, run over time/under time, and how bad the students' sugar high will be!

Click the pic to get the goods on TPT.  And have a great night!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Color-By-Number-FREEBIE-949510

My Lesson Plans for the Week

I'm linking up again with Deedee Wills' Peek at my Week Linky to show you my lesson plans for this coming week!

This week, my students will finally get their own book bins! Up to this point, each table has had a book bin to choose from for read-to-self time, like the Reader's Workshop framework suggests doing.

I was going to order book bins from Steps to Literacy or Really Good Stuff, but then I procrastinated and ending up rushing around today to find something. Luckily, I was able to find these ice cube bins from Walmart for only $1.88 each. Score! The link for these bins is also in my visual plans file.

We will start talking about finding good fit books and how to use our classroom library. This seems late in the month to do this, but I decided to take baby steps this year after attending the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Training from Columbia University this summer.

We are also finishing up our apple unit and are excited to have an artist parent come in and lead a fall tree project with the class! Perfect time because conferences are coming up very soon and I need something cool to hang up in the classroom. I am also getting a pre-student teacher (junior year, first field experience) from a local college. Yay for more help!

Anywho, here are my plans for the week. Click any picture to download the file as a PDF from my Google Drive. When you do this, all of the hyperlinks and pictures will become clickable.

I am working on an emergent reader for fire safety week. Look for it soon. Have a great week!

Everything's a DOLLAR!

You made it to the end of the week! Let's celebrate! This sale is on till midnight only so shop fast!

Everything is on sale at my TpT store for one dollar including my brand-new apple unit!


 Here are some other popular products you might be interested in...

Learnin' Letters BOOM BOOM pack

Visual Plans for the Week

I have been so inspired by Deedee Wills' visual plans so this week I am linking up with her to share mine. This is only my second attempt trying to make them.  They pale in comparison to hers, but I tried my best! I hope they give you some inspiration for your own classroom. Click the picture of the plans to go to Google Drive, which will allow all of the hyperlinks to work.  All of the pictures of unit covers are also clickable links.  There is one freebie that I found and included for the play-doh shape mats.

I promise that I will get more detailed with my math and science instruction as I get faster at making these visual plans. Go link up yourself at Mrs. Wills' blog

Have a great week!  Hope it's getting easier for you as the little ones learn the routines! :)

Let's Explore Apples!

Whew, it's been awhile! What a busy start to the school year! I know you all are in the same boat. I so admire the bloggers who have consistently found time to post during these first few weeks of school.  I do a blog for my parents, too, which has been taking up a lot of my computer time lately. I am hoping to get back to Kindergarten Kel soon to do a post about my math tubs, some color word ideas, and some letter recognition ideas.

Today, though, I just wanted to let you know about my brand new apple unit. Let's Explore Apples is a science unit (not apple themed literacy or math centers).  It features ten experiments/activities/resources for your students.  They are hands-on and inquiry based. I know that in my district, science is becoming more of a priority and STEM is a big deal.  I hope this unit will help you tie apples into your science unit and fulfill some of your science goals/standards!  I am personally tying this unit in with the FOSS Tree Science Kit (it needs some livening up!).

Here's a look at the unit contents:

Unit Contents
1. Apple Attribute Sort- Students sort apples by color, shape, and size
2. Apple Sample Comparison and Graphing Activities- students compare three different apples by their color, size, and taste, and graph their favorite apple.
3. Apple Exploration pages- Students observe and explore the inside and outside of an apple.
4. A Bad Apple? Experiment- This experiment focuses on what happens when an apple browns after it's been cut open and what different substances stop that chemical reaction. Recording sheets are included.

6. A Bad Apple? Blindfolded Taste-Test-Does an apple really go "bad" when it is cut open and browns?  Would you be able to tell if you couldn't use all of your senses? This experiment forces students to find out! Recording sheet is included.

5. Parts of an Apple-Diagram- There is a student sheet and elements to make a large poster display.
7. One Fresh Apple! Experiment and Observation Journal- Experiment to see what apple stays freshest over the course of two weeks.  Includes hypothesis, observation, results, and analysis sheets.
8. Apple tree life cycle book-Student book about the life cycle of an apple tree.
9. Applesauce Recipe- Includes parent letter.

10. Apple Vocabulary Cards-Includes scientific terms as well.

This unit is on sale through 10 PM tonight, Sunday, Sept. 22nd, 2013 for 50% off, so {CLICK HERE}to hurry to TpT to check it out! And, have a relaxing Sunday!

Kindergarten Classroom Set-Up...Making Progress!!

Hi Everyone,
If you're a fellow TpT seller, I hope the sale went well for you!  Last week, I posted pictures of my classroom set-up and, after about 2/3 of a day of set-up work, it was still looking extremely unfinished.  I decided to move almost every single thing in my classroom this summer, plus categorize my trade books and finishing leveling my library, so that's why it's taken so long for me to set up (and I do like to chat with other teachers!).

Here are some updated pictures after I've worked today and yesterday in my classroom!

 My library is almost all set! I just need to get my book bin labels on!  Can you see where I was SHORT ONE stinkin' book bin! Ugh back to IKEA...

Here is the other side of the library. I am going to spray paint the red bench lime green to match my room.

 I keep all the books I have multiple copies of in my partner reading book bins.  They are leveled by a range (A-C, D-F, G-I, J-L, M+).  I still need to get labels on the totes.

 This leveled shelf is double-sided. The rest of my leveled books are on the back of the shelf. I used Scholastic Book Wizard to level most of the books.

 My choice time bins house wooden blocks, plastic animals, felt boards, magnet play sets, a marble run, and a pretend vet clinic. I try to have choice time every day at the end of the day. It ends up being 3-4 times per week usually!

 My puzzle cupboard needs some help still!

 A big thanks to my sister for hanging my word wall today!

 Click here to see my Frog Theme Classroom Pack.

 I almost forgot to include the picture of the cute frog my sister made for the top of my whiteboard. I am going to add our class rules around the frog.

We are having the students and their parents in for assessment conferences prior to school starting-tomorrow and Thursday. I have info folders ready along with my Meet Your Teacher book, a parent questionnaire, and some project samples for the year.

 Click Here to see my Meet Your Teacher EDITABLE Book on TpT!

I am hoping that my assessment conferences run smoothly and am excited to meet all of my new kiddos!