Farm Fun - Part 1

I have read so many blog posts lately about ending your school year THIS WEEK!

WHAT?!?!?!

 

We actually don't end until the end of June...yes, the very LAST day of June!

But that's okay because I am still full of energy and have lots planned with my little ones!

(Ask me how I feel in a few weeks!)

 

We have been learning all about the farm during the month of May.

Today we worked on this cute activity from Julie Lee's Faces of the Farm activity.

They came out so cute!

I love how the groups decided on a sentence to describe each animal and wrote it underneath.

 

 

We also got started with these math centres:

 

Counting the animals in the barn and circling the number that is more.

 

We are learning to tell time to the hour and half hour so we got some practice reading clocks with this activity.

 

Counting the dots on Kitty.

 

Ordering the numbers.  This was a little difficult at first, but the kinders sure got the hang of it quickly!

 

Here are a couple of literacy centres we worked on:

 

Opening up a packet of "seeds" and unscrambling the letter tiles to form sight words (I like to have a chart of all the words available for those little ones who need a little extra help)

 

Working on CVC words -> the students had to read the word and change the middle vowel so that the word made sense.

 

We ended off our day by reading a story I wrote called Down on Grandpa's Farm.  The kids loved the animals that were in the story - and can't wait to see them at the farm this week!

 

 

You can find these activities and my story in my Down on the Farm unit on TpT.

I added (and nearly DOUBLED!) this unit back in March.  If you own it and haven't downloaded the revised version, you can for free by going to My Purchases and clicking on this unit.

 

 

We are off to Round the Bend farm this Thursday and Friday.

I just hope that the rain holds off!

Lots more farm to come....

Catching up....and a GIVEAWAY!

I can't believe that it's been nearly a week since I've last posted!  Sorry!

I just don't know where the time is going!

I was planning to post yesterday all about what we did in class for Mother's Day, I was caught up in Game 6 of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins.

Actually, I have to make this a quick post too as GAME 7 (yikes!) starts shortly!

 

We made these adorable coasters for Mother's Day. The kids drew a picture of their mom and we glued and podged it down to the granite tile.

 

 

Here it is all wrapped up!

 

I also wanted to let you know that, as per many requests, I *finally* finished my newest

Write the Room - Frog theme!

 

 

I've added this one and the Gingerbread theme to my Write the Room Complete Set so please go to My Purchases and re-download this if you bought it so you can get these new ones!

I'm going to be increasing the price of this set by the weekend so grab it now!

It has all 32 Write the Room activities....and growing!

If you buy it now, you can continue to get all the new activities I add to it throughout the year by going back to your purchases and re-downloading it.

 

And I'm so excited to announce.....

 

I've started a project on MYCLASSNEEDS.CA - which is the Canadian version of Donors Choose.

I am in desperate need of a Guided Reading table.  I love doing things in small groups...reading, writing, even math, and this table will definitely allow me to do that!

 

Click HERE to see and donate to my project.

 

To thank you for donating to my project (remember, all donations come with a tax receipt!), I'm throwing a little giveaway.

 

If you decide to donate to my project, please enter your information below and one lucky winner will win $100 to shop in my TpT store!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you in advance for all your generosity from both myself and my students.

I am really hoping that this project is a success!

Cha-Ching! Teaching money....and a SALE!

We are learning about money in my class.....a topic I just love to teach!

Maybe because I spend way too much of it! HA!

 

 

It all started last week when I pulled out a plastic cash register and pretend coins and the students went CrAzY!

They absolutely loved it!

I made price tags and my students placed fruits and veggies around the table to purchase.

We talked about coin names and values and students sorted the plastic coins so they could get familiar with the characteristics of each one.

 

 

I wanted students to be comfortable identifying coins so we played this little game.

Roll the die and bingo dab the matching coin.

I have both a US and Canadian version in my newly posted Con"GRAD"ulations unit.

 

Here the students are "buying bugs" - they choose a bug and look at the coin.  Then they have to write the value under the matching bug on the worksheet.

You can find this activity in my Creepy Crawly (Insects) Literacy and Math Activities unit.

This activity went perfectly in our class as we are starting to learn about insects!

 

I made these coin posters that have a rhyme for remembering each coin and pictures on each.

The rhymes have been around for years and I wrote poems for the Canadian "Loonie" ($1) and "Toonie" ($2) coins since I couldn't find anything!!!

I have included both US and Canadian coin posters.

You can download these posters for FREE here or by clicking the picture below.

 

 

What perfect timing since we are talking about money.....

tomorrow the Teacher Appreciation sale starts over on TpT.

All of my things will be 20% off for both Tuesday and Wednesday and if you use coupon code TAD13 you will save a total of 28% all of my items!



Thank you to my sweet friend, Hadar (Miss Kindergarten) for creating this adorable button!

 

Here are a few of my newest creations that I collaborated on with my bloggie besties you might want to snag:

 

 

 

These are some of my best-selling things!  Best part is - they can be used YEAR ROUND!

 

 



 

And these are my units that I recently revamped....and DOUBLED THEIR SIZE!

 

I can't wait for this big sale and am loading my cart as I speak write! 

Wishing teachers everywhere a wonderful week - happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

 



Spring has Sprung {finally!}....and Instagram!

Phew!  The weather is FINALLY starting to feel more like spring.

I think I said that in my last post or two but then it was freezing *literally freezing* again!

We have actually had warmish weather for 4 days straight!

(*fingers crossed that it lasts this time!*)

 

So with spring starting to come around, we brought the signs of spring in our classroom.

Here's what we've been up to!

 

 

 

You can find all these activities (and LOTS more!) in my best-selling

Spring! Literacy and Math Activities.

 

 

Okay, don't laugh at me!  For those of you who know me (and have gotten to know me through my blog) you know that I am not the most tech-savvy person.....BUT I do love to learn and I learn quick.

Especially if it's something I love.

 

So yesterday I discovered Instagram.

I had heard of it before, some friends have been on it for months, but I thought it was way too hard and I just didn't have the time.

Well, let me tell you, it's super easy and SO.MUCH.FUN!

I am addicted!

 

 

Just in time, too, because today begins Teacher Talk Tuesday on Instagram.

You can search all the amazing picture other teachers (and now myself!) have posted by using:

#teachertalktuesday

 

And while you are there, be sure to come and follow me!

#mrsalbanesesclass

 

I just posted a few pictures of what we did today - fine motor skills activity, butterfly lifecycle, classroom pics....more to come on my blog this week!

Coin Posters FREEBIE!

Can you believe it's nearly May?

What?  Really?

Where did this school year go?!?!

 

We sat down this week to plan for next month and a big focus is on teaching coin names and values.

I created these coin posters to help my students remember them.

(I have included both US and Canadian coin posters in the download.)

The fabulous graphics are by Michelle from The 3AM Teacher.

 

Click on the picture to download your freebie!

 

The poems have been around FOREVER - I remember some of them from when I was in kindergarten!  They are by Anonymous as far as I know (my math teacher resource posted them that way but if there is an author please let me know!)

 

 

I wrote the two poems for the Canadian "Loonie" ($1) and "Toonie" ($2).

 

Hope you will find some use for these!

Winners, updates and happy Earth Day!!!

Thank you everyone who read and commented on Saturday's blog post,

The Magical Product Swap.  I'm so sorry that I didn't post the winner sooner (I was having a battle with my internet for most of yesterday).

 

As you know, I teamed up with Greg Smedley-Warren from Smedley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten and the winners will receive his Dyno-Mite Addition Packet and Spring Literacy and Math Centres, since we reviewed each others things for the product swap.

 

So....the winners are:

 

1. Christine

 

2. Stacey White

 

(Please check your inboxes for the prizes!)

 

And, of course, today was Earth Day! I just love this craft from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. We did it last year and we had to do it again!

This little sweetie wrote "Don't waste the water!"

 

Also, I've been working hard these past few weeks on some units.

I just posted this unit, Let's Go, to TpT the other day....it's perfect for your transportation theme.

 

 

To accompany this I made a new Transportation Write the Room activity.

***I also updated my Write the Room Complete Set to include this activity so if you have already purchased this please go back and re-download)***

 

 

And here's what's coming up....

 

 

My Community Helpers unit should be ready by next weekend....so far it's PACKED but I wanted to add some cute crafts to it so stay tuned.

 

I've teamed up once again with the fabulous Tanya Solano from Ms. Solano's Kindergarten to create....Creepy Crawlies, a unit all about insects! 

It will be posted by the end of the week!

 

 

Lots of stuff coming...I'll keep you posted!  Have a great week everyone!



The Magical Product Swap!

I am so happy to be a part of Jessica Stanford's Magical Product Swap!

(Love the graphic by Michelle - The 3am Teacher)

My fabulous partner is Greg Smedley-Warren....you probably already know him through his blog, Smedley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten...if you don't, get over there! 

I love Greg and his blog - he does so many wonderful things with his kinders and he's such a funny guy, too!

So we got to talking about what we are doing in our classes now.  We actually just wrapped up our Dinosaur unit (you can read about that here and here) and learned simple addition and subtraction skills. 

I HAD to have Greg's Dino Mite Addition: A Common Core Aligned Math Pack.  It covers all the skills we are learning (and more!).

This unit is PACKED with so much to do!  My students are so confident now in addition thanks to the fun and engaging activities found in this pack.

I love how there is a variety of worksheets, all differentiated, to suit your students' needs.

For instance, I have a JK/SK split with various needs and I found all the worksheets and activities I needed each group to work on ready-to-go!  There was something for every student in my class inside this pack.

My students just loved these addition circle maps.  They had to find all the ways numbers can add up to make the number in the middle!

Numbers 2-10 are included.  We worked on a different one each day.

  I have these small dinosaur counters and thought they would work perfectly with these placemats.  I love how there was room to "work" on solving the problem.  Students used the counters to visually see what they were doing.

Greg's pack comes with counter cards so don't worry if you don't have these plastic ones.  Those work great too!

These worksheets are actually in colour but I photocopied them in black and white so that each student could put it inside their math journal.

I also put several of these questions up on the SMART board (I didn't take a picture - trust me, you DO NOT want to see how I draw dinosaurs!) but it was the perfect activity for the students to be engaged in and made for a great lesson.

This pack comes with LOTS of these questions which you could use as a centre on your SMART board or for your math journals.

This was probably my favourite activity in the pack (although I loved them all!).

Here the students are putting together the puzzle pieces by solving the addition sentence.

These cards were a great way for students to practice making two groups and adding them together to get the sum. (I used my counters but, again, Greg provides dinosaur cards to use as counters).

After doing that activity, we worked on this worksheet to apply our knowledge and try to write an addition sentence.  Students really understood what they were doing because they coloured the dinos in and then added them all together.

And the best part, they could do this independently because of all the practice we had during the week from Greg's centres!

So now that it's (nearly) feeling like spring, we are going to be pulling a lot from this unit, Adding Unicorns!, from Greg next week.

It's just about the same format as this Dinosaur unit but perfect for spring.

Best part is, he bundled both of these great addition units together!

You can find the bundle here.

Here's what I plan on doing on Monday for Earth Day.

Since I am now totally loving Greg's stuff, we are going to do some activities from his Love the Earth unit.

If you are looking for really fun and engaging activities, you MUST check this product out!

Be sure to visit Greg over at Smedley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten to read all about his review and follow his blog.....and he has a surprise for you too!

I had so much fun (and so did my students!) with all these new activities.

Greg and I want 2 lucky people to win his fabulous Dino Mite Addition: A Common Core Aligned Math Packet and my Spring Literacy and Math Activities Pack.

Leave a comment below telling me your favourite dinosaur and I'll choose 2 winners tomorrow morning at 8 am EST.

Enjoy the weekend!