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!

Wants and Needs

This past week in my Kindergarten class, we learned all about Wants and Needs.  Boy, did they catch on fast!!   I thought it was going to take a hot minute for the difference between the two to hit home, but I must have misjudged my kinderbabies.  They are such a smart group!  They even came up with some really good questions!  For instance, would chocolate milk be a want or a need?  This question divided up the class, and I really wanted them to determine the outcome by themselves.  One half of the class decided that since chocolate milk was made out of actual milk and was served in the cafeteria, then it MUST be a 'need'.  The other side of the class decided that anything with chocolate could only be a 'want'.  We finally came to the conclusion that milk, by itself, is probably the 'need', but when we stick something sweet and sugary in it like chocolate, we make the milk a 'want'.  Wow!  What a great discussion in a Kindergarten class!!

To close our week, each of the students were to bring home pictures cut out of magazines to create a Wants and Needs bulletin board.  We all sat on the mat in the front of the room and shared our pictures.  There were so many!  (I think the parents had fun with this one too!)  While sharing the pictures, the kindergarteners were soooo quiet!  haha 

Here is our bulletin board.  I saw this idea on another blog while I was blog hopping for ideas last year.  I can't remember which one is was now.  But if I find it again, I will have to post it!  When making the board, I was hoping for more pictures.  But some of the students glued their pictures to paper.  I will have to remember next year to include a note about leaving the pictures loose.  However, the glued pictures look good too!  Here are a couple of them below.

For more Wants and Needs activities and ideas, please check out my store at the link below.

Wants and Neeeds Mini Unit

All in all, it was a successful week!  We have many more activities that we will be doing in class for the next three weeks before Christmas Break.  We will be decoration ginger bread houses, having a pajama party/Polar Express movie day, and 'traveling' to several different countries to learn about their holiday celebrations!  These next weeks are going to FLY by!  Enojy!