Take Me Back Tuesday

Although I haven't been blogging for that long, I wanted to link up with...

So, I decided to do a little before and after post.
Room 10 on the first day:       

Room 10 decked out for fall:

I want to wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for all of the bloggers that I have come across and the hard work that you put into sharing your gifts.

-Brenda

 

Five for Friday and Time for a Staycation Vacation

Phew!!! ... made it through the week, the month, report cards, and the first trimester.  Today was an especially fun day with beading, baking, creating, game playing, and eating!  I am so thankful for the five wonderful parent volunteers who devoted their time today so that we could do all of that!

 {1}  Today we put our macaroni beads to good use by making Native American necklaces and making patterns.  Click HERE for the tutorial on how to dye the macaroni.

{2}  Earlier in the week we discussed 2 dimensional patterning and did this oldie but goodie activity with our geoboards.

{3}  We practiced more 2 dimensional patterning by weaving Thanksgiving placemats.

{4}  We counted and graphed with this fun Thanksgiving activity by Fantastic First Grade Froggies.  You can find it HERE, and last but not least...

{5}  ... we enjoyed Deanna Jump's really cool Thanksgiving ordinal number/logic activity.  You can find it HERE.

I hope that you are on vacation now too:)

Thanksgiving Turkey 3D Craftivity {{FREEBIE}} !!!

       

                                      Materials

                                Free templates found HERE 
                                Construction paper

                                Glue

                                Scissors

                                Hole punchers

1)  Make a cylinder with the 6" X 18" brown construction paper.  Hold glue for a slow count of 20 or more.

2)  The seam becomes the back.  Glue five feathers along the seam, overlapping each.  Hold each feather for a slow count of 20 or more.

3)  Lay the body with the seam down to help further hold the feathers.  Optional: put an object inside the cylinder, like scissors or a glue bottle, to weight it even more.

 4)  "Fan fold" both legs and glue them to the bottom of the body.

5)   Hole punch the white circles to give your turkey "personality".  I used our dye cut machine for the white circles, but if you don't have one, eye templates are included with the others.

6)  Continue gluing on all of the other pieces as shown

One of my kinders decided that she wanted to turn her cylinder the other way to make a hat!  It's a tad small for that, but this just might be an inspiration for next year!

                          Gobble, Gobble!

                                                   

How NOT to Cook a Turkey

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' with a new idea.  

Every November we do an oldie.  I ask each of my kinders how to cook a turkey and I get fabulously humorous responses.  This year I found something new.  We paired the responses with these adorbs pattern block turkeys that I found from Teaching the Kinder Beasties.  Thank you!  They built their turkey feathers with real blocks first, then switched them out for the paper pattern blocks.  I told my kinders to start with a "hexagon" in the middle, thus introducing that new math vocab along the way too!

Stop Abusing Alcohol! (a tutorial)

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' with a helpful hint.  

So, I frequently hear (and read) about teachers painstakingly dyeing and drying macaroni with food coloring and alcohol.  I hear about pasta pieces sprawled out all over their kitchen to dry.  I hear about pasta sticking together. I hear about stained fingers. This is going to be not only a time saving hint, but a headache avoiding hint as well.  It is so unbelievably simple, I couldn't believe it worked until I tried it.  

Materials:  4 oz. (1/4 of the box) of salad macaroni, a squirt of food coloring, any paper or plastic bag

Simply put the macaroni in a bag, add just food coloring (I do a quick squirt across the top) and shake immediately.  The macaroni absorbs the color and dries almost instantaneously.

You can use the other 3/4 box for 3 other colors.  The box makes enough for 25 necklaces, which we will string as we learn about Native Americans.  I encourage patterns and have my kinders name their patterns with a-d. Some years I even have my kinders help shake.

Now, stop abusing alcohol and have fun shaking!

Time Saving/No Prep/ Student-made BINGO boards

Today I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for a time saver that I use in my classroom all of the time. 

It ain't pretty, but it's one of my favs!

This can be done over and over all year long with different skill levels. We do it as a whole class activity.  My kinders love it!  Demonstrate how to make 2 lines down and 2 across, like a tic-tac-toe, but all the way to the edges.  It doesn't really matter if the lines aren't perfectly, evenly spaced.  Just have students count their spaces to make sure they have nine.  They choose their words to write in the nine spaces referring to your word wall or other list.  We play blackout Bingo until one student "wins".  The winner's prize is the privilege of reading all of their words to the class!  You can also do the same thing with letters, sounds, CVC words and even numbers.   

Last, they use their paper again, this time at a station, to stamp the sight words.

Have a wonderful week!

Five for Friday/Fall Fun/Fundraiser

 {1} Fun Fall Dot Trees

I love how these turned out!

We made this a two day project in order to make the trees really full.  It took a bit of diligence, but I am so proud of my kinders for sticking with it. They were so excited with the results!

These three steps are what we did the first day. We started out by tracing a paper plate on 12"X18" paper.  Next, we painted the "Y" shape. Then, a "v" on each branch. We used different brush sizes, only because we had them, but it is not necessary. Using a Q-tip, we simply dipped into some brown tempera paint, made random dots within the circle and a few under the tree. On the second day, we added the red, orange and yellow dots.

{2} Gracias!

We read this charming story by Joy Cowley...

{3} ..then we just had to make our own               
                            3D versions of Gracias

Gobble on over for the tutorial and template freebie link here.

{4} Journal Writing/Star of the Week

Each week we write sentences about our Star of the Week, using the simple frame ______ likes ______.  We start with two sentences but will soon be making it three.

{5} Team Delaney Fundraiser

For my local friends, Sauced will be having a fundraiser on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 4pm-10pm.  You can find out more here.

                         Thank you Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting

I was born in Beantown, but I still agree.

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