January Activities are Snow Much Fun!

I can't believe it is almost the end of January!  This year is going by so fast, I feel like we only just started school yesterday!  But here I am, spending most of my teacher work day today holding Middle Of the Year conferences.  I love talking the parents about how much their little ones have grown over the last few months.  They are such little smarties!!  They make me SO happy! 

In class last week, we finished up talking about winter weather.  We talked about how we dress in when it is cold outside compared to how we dress when it is warm.  Then we charted on construction paper that were hot and cold.  Lots of cutting and lots of glue!  We made these cute winter tree cut outs with construction paper and chalk.  I really like the way they turned out!  My kinders are so creative and unique.

Next week we will start our Penguin unit.  Penguins are so interesting.  I remember watching March of the Penguins a few years ago, and I was absolutely intrigued!  I couldn't take my eyes off the television.  I don't know if my kinders are quite ready for March of the Penguins....  But it did inspire me to look up some penguin facts!  For instance, did you know that penguins can 'tell time' by looking at th sun?  Or that they can sleep standing up?  Cool, right?  Since I really wanted to get this great information to my class, I made my own little penguin mini unit.  I even thought up of a dice game where my kindergarteners have to mimic the movements of a penguin! 

If you'd like have a closer look at the unit, you can visit my store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pretty-Penguins-Informational-Mini-Unit.
I am really excited about sharing this unit with my students!  My favorite part of the unit is a take home project of Percy Penguin.  Percy Penguin is tired of the cold weather, and he wants to take a vacation.  The students a picture of Percy home, find items around their house to dress him up as if he was going on vacation.  I am really looking forward to seeing what they come up with!  How would you dress YOUR penguin for vacation?

Thanks for reading!

Belated Christmas Post

Hello all!  Thanks to a fellow blogger and TpTer over at www.zoomzoomclassroom.blogspot.com, I am able to post pictures again!  Yay!!  Turns out that to add pictures, all you have to do is switch to HTML mode.  So simple yet it took me sooooooo long to figure out.  Thanks again, Zoom Zoom, for your amazing help!  And to teacher blog readers, you should totally check out the Zoom Zoom blog for some awesome teaching resources and ideas!

Now back to the post I've been trying to write FOREVER!

I took a little break over Christmas and New Year's but I am back!  I had such a lovely time staying at the house and spending time with my children.  I got some Xbox360 time in with my son and some coloring time with my daughter.  Time used wisely!  :)

However, I have some pictures of my classroom I took right before the break that I would LOVE to share!  (even though Christmas is over....  lol)

Gingerbread houses!  Of course we had to decorate houses!  It wouldn't have been Christmas without them!  Plus, we totally ate them when we were done!  haha

We love playing Christmas Tree Number Bingo with M&M's!  In fact, we always have success with manipulatives we can eat!

Christmas tree popsicle sticks with glittery confetti!  We can put sticks in length order and challange any designer with our decorative skills!

I saw this idea on Pinterest.  It's Grinch juice to drink while watching having a Grinch Day!  I forgot to bring straws, so every Kinder in the class had red sugary smiles!

The teacher in the classroom next door made this super cute snowman out of marsh mellows and other snacks.  He was just too cute NOT to post!

Last, but not least, is out little classroom Christmas Tree.  We made paper chains in class to decorate it ourselves.  Wish it was still up.  It really made the classroom so happy!

Now we are in the New Year, and we are starting to talk more about winter and the weather.  My Kinder friends and I are happily slipping back into our routines and working hard on our assessments.  I am starting a new weekly homework routine next week instead of daily homework.  I have really high hopes that it will work out!  I will keep you posted!

As much as I would love to continue this post,I am afraid I must leave.  My poor little thumb drive and died, and I need to work on information recovery!  Be back soon!

My poor picture uploads

So I had this AMAZING group of pictures I wanted to share of all the Christmas stuff we did in my Kindergarten class!  But, the blog site has changed and now I can't figure out how to post pictures!!  Agghhhh!!!  But no worries!  I am off to the TpT forum to see if anyone can help me.  And to the big wide world web - I haven't forgotten you!  I may even some day get those pictures posted!  Happy Weekend All!!