I need your help...quickly!!!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED ME *WIN* THIS CONTEST!
YES, I WON!  YIPEEE!!!

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY MORE VOTES.  CONTEST IS CLOSED.  I APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S HELP!

Hi friends!

I need your help...

I entered a contest on Facebook to win a gift certificate for a fantastic store called You Name It Baby in Toronto. 

They embroider lots of amazing things and I would love to win some things for my classroom.

Here's where you all come in to the picture...

please, please, please "like" my comment on the You Name It Baby page

(click on the picture to get there).

I have about 85+ likes so please click the comment under my name (Alessia Albanese) on the right hand side of their wall page.

The person with the most "likes" wins!

Contest closes tonight so we have to act fast!

Oh, and as a thank you to everyone who "likes" my comment, you can choose one Write the Room activity and I will e-mail it you for FREE!

***Please leave me a message below this post telling me you "liked" my comment on Facebook, your e-mail and which Write the Room packet you would like.***

If you refer a friend to "like" my comment, let me know and I'll send you another Write the Room packet!

Sorry that I am using my blog to advertise this but I really need the votes to win tonight! Contest ends at 11 pm EDT!

I appreciate all of your help!

Going Buggy and a {FREEBIE!}

I have truly been enjoying this weekend!  Hope you are all too!

While I was out on my usual shopping escapades yesterday, with my three year old, I came across these adorable multi-coloured pom-poms.  Let me tell you that my three year old, although young, is quite the shopper!  She can pick up anything and tell you exactly why you should purchase it.  Needless to say, I left Walmart and then the Dollar store with a few more things then anticipated - including Disney princess floatation wings, 3 swim goggles and an outdoor paddle play set!!!

Here's what I created with the pom-poms for my kiddies this week.
I've included this game *for free!* in my Mini Unit Going Buggy!  Keep reading to get your free copy.

We wrapped up our Frog Unit and since we talked about insects (which frogs eat), I thought it would be fun to create this mini-unit of insect literacy and math games (like the one in the picture above).

You can click on the picture for your FREE copy!

My students just LOVE to Write the Room.  It is a staple centre during Literacy Centre time.  But they are always wanting to go there!  I'm going to be putting out my Going Buggy Write the Room for the next 2 weeks.

I have had several requests to create a Rainforest Write the Room.  These requests were actually from last month so I apologize for finishing it now but here it is!

I'll give this new Write the Room away to the first 3 people to comment below and tell me what they did this weekend!

Up next...drumroll.....our school-wide Spring into Art Show.  Yes, it's in just over a week so you can imagine how crazy this week will be for us.  We are almost finished our projects, just podging everything and putting the finishing touches on it.  I'll post more pics this week.

Enjoy this beautiful Sunday!

Frog Fun!

My students are so "hoppy" to be learning about frogs!

(Sorry for the lame joke - I couldn't resist!).

This is my first time doing a frog unit and it's so much fun!

I've actually learned a lot too!

Here's what we've done so far...

This is the anchor chart that we have been referring to.  I am so amazed at the knowledge my students have been building just by reviewing and adding to this chart!

Here is our journal entry that we wrote this morning.  After brainstorming and recording our answers on a Venn diagram (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that!) students wrote one fact in each area.

I love this craft!  I've had some large paper plates sitting in my cupboards for some time now so I decided to create a cute frog craft.  If you look closely you will see that there is a frog fact written inside each mouth.  Adorable!

(I displayed these around the lifecycle of the frog chart on my bulletin board)

Here's a closer look at the frog craft.

I made this frog number activity for my students to work on this week.  It goes nicely with our theme and the book we are reading, Jump, Frog, Jump!

(Have you read this book?  It's really fun and the students love chiming in "Jump, Frog, Jump!" on every other page.)

You can click on the picture for your free download!

Enjoy the rest of your week!  Ribbit! Ribbit!

Fun and easy Sight Word games

Alright, so let me start by saying that, yes, it's true, I haven't been on to "blogland", oh, in a couple of days.

What happened to Blogger????

I'm still trying to figure out the new layout (so let's hope this post really does go through!).  Bear with me....

I had some e-mails this week in regards to what kinds of activities/games I use to teach sight words.  I have to say, I think playing games is so much fun and my kiddoes love them!  I've created the following games which are not only easy to make but fun to play!

This game is called "Roll, Say, Keep".  Place a sight word card on each number and have students roll the die.  If they can read the word, they keep it.  I usually divide the class in 2 teams...and I give hints if the kids don't know the word :)

To make this "Step on the Sight Word" game trace a child's foot (shoe on! LOL!).  This idea came from my teaching partner, Mrs. Parisi.  Have 2 students face off against each other.  Call out a sight word and see who can step on it first.

I have had these plastic lids (you know, the ones from margarine containers) lying around for a few years now.  So that's when I created this sight word game.  Using a permanent marker, write a sight word on each lid.  Have students throw a chip (I used a double-sided counter) into the lids and read the words.

This is my favourite game to play during those 5-10 minute transition times.  I divide my class in half and play this sight word game like a matching game.  Don't know if you can see, but there are index cards in each pocket with a word on it.  You can modify this and write rhyming words to match too!

I would love to hear (or see pics) of what you do in your class! 

Oh, I almost forgot...LOOK WHAT CAME FOR ME YESTERDAY IN THE MAIL!

I was chosen to take part in the Really Good Stuff Canadian panel this year and as a thank you I got this huge box!  I swear I was like a kid in a candy shop!  Don't know if you can see everything, but my favourites are the colourful classroom baskets, goal setting pocket chart and hands for the clock.

LOVE!

You have to check out Really Good Stuff for amazing teaching things!



Guess who came to visit??? ... and a SALE!

I love living in Toronto, Canada.  It's a beautiful city, lots to do, but the weather...well...it's a little funny.

And did I mention that I have not met ONE SINGLE teacher blogger who lives here! (There are a few that live in other places in Ontario but a little too far for a Sunday drive).

How jealous I am of all of you who meet up and can chit chat over coffee!

Well...guess who came to visit Toronto this week and met up with me for breakfast?

Kim Adsit!

Yes, her!  I was thrilled to meet her and her husband yesterday.  She came to Toronto for a SDE conference.

What a sweet, funny and friendly person! 

Did I mention funny?

Really, we hit it off so well.  Felt like I knew her for years.

It was her birthday yesterday so be sure to visit her blog, Kindergals, and give her some birthday love.

Can't wait to meet up with her again this July in Las Vegas!

Hope y'all are going too!

(Okay, so that was Kim's southern accent rubbing off on me - LOVE it!)

One more thing...I'm having a sale in my TpT store for today only.  Be sure to come by and stock up on some great things for the end of the year!

Thank you Rachelle for this adorable picture!

We will be starting our How Does Your Garden Grow? Unit this week.  It's jam-packed with lots to do!  Hope we will be able to fit it all in!

We are also hard at work making beautiful crafts for our school-based Art Show, Spring into Art, which happens next month. 

The Kindergarten classes are doing an Under the Sea theme. 

I recently found a fantastic teacher-blogger, Kim Jordano, also known as KinderbyKim.  She is awesome!

I needed her book, Oceans of Fun, for some ideas for the Art Show and can I tell you how amazing this lady is!

Shipping was too much to Canada so she scanned the whole book and sent it to me within a day!  Plus she gave me a whole bunch of ideas and she was ever so helpful. 
Feels like I know her too!

You MUST check out her TpT store and website.

I'll be back this week with lots of pics!

Happy shopping and happy Sunday!



A whole lot of requests!

This has been one VERY busy Easter weekend!

Luckily the stores were closed yesterday (have I ever mentioned how much I *LOVE* shopping...even if it's just a trip to Walmart!) so that I could get a lot of new units done!

I have been getting a whole bunch of e-mails recently asking me to create certain Write the Room Literacy Centers based on different themes.  Well, I'm trying to keep up with all of the requests!  I'm getting there!

 

So here are a few of the newest Write the Room centers I just finished and posted to TpT.  By the looks of it, everyone is ready for Summertime!  I have had so many people ask for Summer-themed centers!  I'm ready for summer too!

Since it's Easter, and it's a long weekend, why not share?
(Keep reading for the good stuff....)

I have to admit, this Literacy Center is still, by far, the most favourite of them all by my kinders.  I change my theme (and the words) every 2 weeks or so.  They cannot get enough!  My favourite is when it's "free time" or "choice" in my class and everyone wants to Write the Room!  I'm so proud of my kiddies!

I'm still working on more Write the Room centers including Rainforest and Sight Words All Year Long.

If there are any requests, please let me know!

I'll give away these Write the Room centers to the first 3 people to comment below and answer this:

What are you doing this Easter weekend?

...hmmm....yes, I'll give away all 3 of them! Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

3-D Shapes

Yippee!

It's Easter Weekend....that means it's time to relax, rest and reflect on the meaning of Easter with family and friends...

oh, and I'll probably be working on some school stuff!

This past week I was out of my classroom for 3 of the 4 days working on EDI (Early Development Instrument).

Every 3 years all Senior Kindergarten teachers across the country participate by completing an online survey (of what feels like 1000+ questions per student).  The data is used to measure developmental trends in population.

Anyone else do this?

That being said, I didn't get to see my students in action working on our Easter activities.  In the next couple of weeks we will be starting our Planting unit.  This unit is so much fun to teach, I can't wait!

We did start learning about 3-Dimensional shapes.

I created this fun sorting activity that I plan on using when we go back next Tuesday.  I'm going to have the students sort the pictures as a large group and then leave it out at my pocket chart for centre time.

You can get your *free* copy by clicking on the picture.

We are also having a 3-D Treasure Day next week.  Each student has a job this weekend...they must find some 3-D shapes around their house and bring those items in to school.  They will be explaining what kind of 3-D shape it is, describing it (i.e. it rolls) and then we will sort and graph to see what everyone brought in.  Fun!

Here is the letter that I sent home.

Enjoy the long weekend, blogger-friends!  

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter!