Five for Friday: Life Cycles

How crazy is this? It's May and I have 4 "Five for Fridays" left until school is out! I don't know about you, but it's time! The weather is screaming "Go to the lake!"

Here is to the first of the "final four". Thanks as always for hosting Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

We've been learning about frog and butterfly life cycles this week.

I broke up the abundance of nonfiction texts we read with this adorable new book:

In a nutshell, this little frog doesn't want to be a frog. He wants to be a rabbit, owl - something else! But in the end, he learns that being a frog is a not so bad after all.

And what better week to introduce using a number line for solving addition problems? Mr. Ribbits taught us how to make one BIG jump for the first number and then little hops for adding on to find the sum.

This took some time... but so cute! On the cover is a butterfly's life cycle. And on the inside...

...we wrote about it!

We are Fluttering to First Grade! These will be the last pieces of art to adorn our wall before kindergarten graduation.

These were designed after looking at The Butterfly Alphabet. On each page of this alphabet book there is a photograph of a butterfly wing with a letter on it!

Here is a poster with some examples of the amazing photographs.

 

Perfect timing for our butterflies to make their grand entrance! My kids were enamored!

Aren't butterflies utterly amazing!?! What a wonderful creator!

We discussed how we are like butterflies... God's love and forgiveness transforms us! We are new creations in Christ!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

Today's journal page

Just as the top of my desk was starting to see the light of day... End of the year staff meeting happened.

Papers, forms, inventory records, supply request forms, evals.... more paper....

Anyone relate?

(Sorry desk! Better luck in June.)

It's easy to get overwhelmed with end of the year stuff, but don't forget to take a moment to stop and reflect over all the wonderful learning that has happened over the past 8 months! 

Celebrate with your students! Celebrate them! They are uniquely wonderful!

 I easily get stressed, but I'm making a conscious effort to choose joy this May! How about you?

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~ Romans 15:13

Five for Friday!

Thanks Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting the perfect linky party to end the school week!

 

This week was for the boys...the boys who know every name of every dinosaur. I'm always amazed at how much information they know about these creatures of long ago. It's like they have a special section of their brain set aside for all things dinosaur. To be honest... when I first started teaching, those kiddos intimidated me with their dino knowledge. I knew a little about the T-Rex, triceratops... uhhh....long necks.....Ducky?... (Yes, I watched Little Foot as a kid.)

Here is a unit where my littles get the chance to teach me.

I do get points for integrating reading and math with our dinosaur theme.

We created stegosaurus patterns and recorded the "core" pattern.

This was a favorite - making our own fossils with Model Magic!

 To see more dinosaur themed activities check out my Roar, Roar Dinosaur! post here.

I had big plans to make these ADORABLE Earth Day cookies...

That is until I came home from work exhausted and took a nap instead. Oh well! Kids need a well rested, happy teacher more than they need more sugar. Right? Savin' the idea for next year.

We read Help the Environment Reusing and Recycling. After we sorted pictures of things that are helpful and harmful to the environment.

One of my favorite songs to teach at the beginning of the year is He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. We did the age-old coffee filter + marker + water in a spray bottle Earth art.

When I individually helped them add their hands to their Earth, I let them create their own verse of the song to sing. "He's got _(student's name)'s_  family in His hands...." or "He's got _(school name)_ in His hands."

Math curriculum? Done.

Now we are reviewing, reviewing, reviewing!

I saw THE Shari Sloane present at a kindergarten conference last weekend and was AMAZED! If you haven't heard of her - check out her website here.

My favorite session of hers was on Math Games. I printed off several for my students to play as we revisit and cement the concepts we've learned so far. Her resources are free and ready to print with little to no prep involved! Click here to check them out. Your welcome!

Teacher Appreciation Week at Barnes and Nobel happened...

I couldn't help myself! 25% off!

Yes, I spent more money on these books than I did on gas this week.  I am not ashamed.   

I love it when an unplanned learning moment happens. This week, as my students did their usual caterpillar observation, one students said "One of them lost his tail!" This lead into a little spur of the moment research to discover that caterpillars shed their "skin" just like reptiles do as they grow. This is called "molting".

Our caterpillars are on their way to becoming beautiful butterflies! Now we watch and wait....

Happy Friday!

Five for Friday:Under the Sea

Hello friends! It's Friday... again! The weeks are flying by! I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Here are my five randoms from this week....

We "dove" into our ocean unit this week.
I used our literacy block to have my students work on mini ocean animal reports. Now that we are "practically first graders"... we were ready for a multiple step writing project.

I let them choose which animal they'd like to research. This year dolphins took the lead... surprising! It's usually sharks.

Each day we researched a topic: habitat, characteristics, diet, interesting facts...

I model how to use the contents page to search for specific information.

We are really working on starting our sentences with a capital letter and ending with a punctuation mark. If I catch them remembering these things without a prompt, I'll draw a doodle of their choice (shooting star, smiley face) on their hand with a colored marker. I guess it's like a little "Way to go!" tattoo.

During free choice time this week I had a variety of ocean animal coloring pages for everyone to color, cut, and add to our ocean habitat mural.

I was surprised at how many students wanted to spend their precious play time adding to it.
Maybe these bad boys were the real draw....

Mr. Sketch Markers!

I recently added them as a privilege students can earn - a box of Mr. Sketch Markers for the day. This week they were open to the public. (Families are probably wondering why their kiddos are coming home with a rainbow spotted noses?!? The cinnamon scent is my personal fave!)

Next, we will add labels to each ocean creature.

 Here was another one of their favorite centers this week - sea shells!

They sorted them and measured them... oh, and tried to look for pearls. Hehe! Since they couldn't find any, I added some plastic pearl beads for them to pretend with.

Our new favorite sight word activity..."Beach Ball Sight Words"!

We stand in a circle and toss the ball. Whoever catches it spells the sight word closest to their right hand. The other students raise their hands if they know it. The catcher calls on someone to say what word was spelled. If correct, they get to catch the ball and have the next turn. 

Our school had their annual Spring Banquet and Actions last week. One item up for bid was a 1/2 day off for your teacher of choice.... subbing services provided by none other than our principal.

Guess which lucky duck got it this year? Bam!

Two student families went in on bidding on it for me. I feel so special. I think it's cool that our principal is willing to come into our classrooms and teach for 1/2 a day. My kids think he's a rock star.

Looks like I'll have to plan a "Treat Yo Self" afternoon... I'm thinking lunch, shopping, and massage!

Each year we order painted lady butterfly caterpillars from Insect Lore. My students love watching them grow, molt, and eventually emerge from their chrysalises as beautiful butterflies! Our little caterpillars seem to change in size each day. They will be forming their chrysalises soon.

One student said with excitement "We should let them go free on the last day of school!" (Which is fast approaching. Can it really be May in 2 weeks!?!)

I plan my butterfly unit around the time the butterflies are predicted to hatch. I don't mind stopping our lesson to rally around the net to welcome each new butterfly into the world. Priceless moments.




Have a happy weekend!