Fun at the Beach! Literacy Centers!

The last few weeks of school are simply CRAZY!  Constant interruptions, assessments, organizing, special events and so on! I try to keep the day as consistent as possible for the kiddos.

They loved our literacy centers this week.  Here is a peek of what we did!

We used our Lakeshore fishing rods (love these!) to go fishing for sight words.

 

Had a little beach ball fun by rolling the ball to each other and writing the sight word that was closest to our hands when we caught the ball.

Played some CVC UNO.

and unscrambled our sentences.

I am so happy that the children love our centers – they stay engaged the whole time, and I am able to pull kids for assessments, for small groups, or for one on one work. 

These centers are all from my Fun at the Beach unit if you’re interested!  I’ll post pictures of math centers tomorrow!

Wild and Crazy Insta Review…

If you’re not following me on Instagram – find me @growingkinders – I try to post something everyday! You can get a little peek into my daily goings on in my classroom! Stop on by, I would love to have you!

These last few weeks have been wild and crazy in my house!

First…it was recital week.  If you are a dance mom, you know that these are crazy times! My 11 year old danced in 9 dances this spring.  Phew.  That meant 9 dress rehearsals. Add in the 6 year old and you have 2 more dances.  Dance week is CRAZY in my house!  But, we LOVE it. I LOVE seeing my girls on stage doing what they love!

We also had our exquisite wedding of q and u! This is one of my favorite days of the whole school year, and the children just LOVE it.  We chicken danced, bunny hopped, and macarena’d the afternoon away! And of course, we had wedding cake!

We had so much fun doing our animal research projects! We gathered data from book and from websites – compiled our info sheet, wrote our books, and then published using eduCreations.  SO fun!

We went on a little lion hunt…

and made our kiss boxes for mom!

I know this time of year is a bit crazy for everyone!  I hope you’re having fun with your kiddos and enjoying the last days and weeks of the school year!

I’ll be back soon with a peek at our ocean centers!

I appreciate you :)

It’s that time of year again! The time we fill up our shopping cards with items to help us make it through the rest of this school year and the beginning of next year!

Thanks Hope for the cute graphic!!

I will be discounting the items in my shop 20% and TpT will kick in an extra 10% if you use the code TAD13.

If you’re looking for a few things from my shop to finish out the year, here is what I use….

Just had our wedding on Friday – this is always a blast for the kids!

We are also finishing up our farm centers:

and Fix-It Up sentences are always a great time filler:

and reviewing those tricky teens!

We will also be starting our end of the year beach/ocean unit

and playing some more Flip Five! (my kiddos LOVE this game!)

and now is a great time to grab my calendar set.  I’m testing out another version that I’ll be adding to this set – so grab it now and you’ll get the updates before the price increases!

Here’s some goodies for next year too…

   

and if you need a couple of last minute Mother’s Day ideas – grab these below!

 

and here is what I start out the year with…

See you there! My cart is loaded and ready to shop for fantastic goodies for the end of the year and the beginning of next year!

…and just a little shout out to my girl who turned 11 today! So proud of this girl! Happy Birthday, K!!

Instagram!

Do you love Instagram?  Did you know that Growing Kinders has an Instagram account?  I post things on my Insta that might not necessarily make it on the blog or my facebook page!  It’s super easy to follow!

You can follow me online or download the FREE Instagram app at the iTunes store or Google Play store.  My user name is:

growingkinders

Or you can just click {here} to follow online

Here’s another fun thing! Every Tuesday, teachers will be posting something on their Insta using the hashtag (#) #teachertalktuesday

When you use hashtags, your content is grouped together with others that have also used that hashtag.  You’ll be able to find lots of new people to follow and see lots of fun ideas!

Why don’t you come and join in on the fun!?

On a side note…. Farm Frenzy is ready!

Ten Frame Game..another one!

Here is another super fun, super easy 10 frame game that you can play with your kiddos TOMORROW! I prepped it in about 5 minutes!

You need some ten frames (1 for each student)

Some wooden cubes

some counters

and some sticky dots

Label 6 sticky dots

and stick them to the cubes.  You’ll need enough cubes for each pair of students.

The object of the game is to fill the ten frame.  The children will roll the dice and either add or take away that many counters.  The first to make it to 10 is the winner!  When they fill the frame, simply clear it and start all over again!  Super easy, and the kids LOVE to play it over and over again!

      

I hope you’ll try this game out with your kiddos! It’s an oldie, but a goodie, and sometimes you just don’t need anything fancy or cute to get the job done! 

But, if you’re looking for something fancy and cute to finish out your school year.  How about a little number review?  Fun with Numbers Part 2 and Fun with Numbers Part 1 are both available at my TpT store.  I’ve been working on Part 3 for a while now, just haven’t been able to get it done!  If you’re interested, just click below!

Practicing Coin ID with QR Codes

I’ve been playing around a bit with QR codes in the classroom over the last few weeks.  It’s really been a trial and error type thing! 

The children really enjoy using the iPads to scan the QR codes and see what pops up!

As is typical (it seems) for me this year, I don’t have many pictures!! So sorry!

My plan was to use the QR codes in my favorite foam dice, but the children were having trouble scanning the shiny surface, so we ended up just taking the cards out and laying them upside down on the table.  They would choose one, scan it, and then write the value. 

Yes, there are 6 cards and only 4 coins!  Two of the cards are links to quick you tube coin songs.  I also included the coin songs at the top of the paper so they can scan the QR codes at home.

If you would like to try this math activity at home you can download the file below! Let me know how it works for you!

Oh, one more thing – I added a couple of Mother’s Day activities to TpT if you’re interested!

Oh How I LOVE Mrs. Wishy Washy

Oh, yes I do! We are gearing up for our big farm unit next week and Mrs. Wishy Washy is at the top of our reading list!  I love that the text is simple and fun, and the children LOVE to read it over and over again!

Hameray Publishing recently sent me two of their brand new emergent readers in a NEW Wishy Washy series! SO EXCITED.  (They have not compensated me in any way for my opinions – just the awesome books for me to take a peek at and give my honest opinions!)

Listen to Joy Cowley herself talk about it…

Oh my! I think I’ll have to read Mrs. Wishy Washy with a British accent from now on! LOVE! Isn’t she the cutest!!??

Back to the books…

The illustrations are GORGEOUS and the text is in a great easy to read font!  The books are available in a big book format and as small readers for independent use.  I MUST get my hands on some of the big books – the kids LOVE reading this as a whole group! 

and just LOOK at these adorable finger puppets!! How great are these for retelling?!

If you LOVE Mrs. Wishy Washy as much as I do, you’ll have to enter this AMAZING contest! You could win a whole classroom set of Wishy Washy books!! Just click on the image below to enter.  (I TOTALLY want to win!)

You can find the lovely washer woman and Hameray publishing in these places:

Pinterest

Facebook

and their website!

This keeps getting better…. want to get your hands on some Wishy Washy books?!

Use the discount code ZJCC13 to get 20% off anything on their website! Yay!

But, wait…there’s more (now I sound like an infomercial…)

Do you want to WIN your very OWN Wishy Washy big book? Hameray is giving one away to one lucky Growing Kinders reader.

Just enter in the rafflecopter below and follow me on Facebook!  Quick! The giveaway ends on April 26!

 

 

  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fix it up AGAIN! Finally Ready!

I’ve been working on this one since before Christmas! Finally finished it off this weekend!  Click {here} if you’re interested in taking a peek!

I’m off to see The Croods with my girls while the husband is working on a paper for grad school.  I’ll be back later tonight with a little give away!  Hint: It’s wishy washy fun!

Music Monday–Brain Breaks!

My daughter's teacher shared this awesome group with me. My kiddos LOVE them! Check them out and try them in your classroom when spring fever kicks in! (or when the snow just won’t melt and are tired of winter)

And my kids can't get enough of the gummy bear song! We LOVE these dance along songs! 

(I think I sing it in my sleep!) What are your favorite brain break songs in the classroom?

Plant Centers are FINALLY done!

We started our plant unit last week, and the kids have been trying out a new organizational format with our math and literacy centers and so far it’s been a hit!

I’ve been working really hard on these activities to make sure they align with the common core and are fun!

Love this sweet little craftivity by Cara!

We are expecting a bit of a blizzard tonight here in the upper midwest (boo), so it’s hard to wrap my mind around the idea of planting our flowers next week. This is the worst spring (winter) we’ve had in a LONG time!

Anyways, if you’re interested, here is a peek at my Math and Literacy Centers for Little Sprouts! I’ve created 3 separate bundles: one with both math and literacy and separated math and literacy.  I hope you like it!

 

 

The first five people to guess my favorite flower (I have 2!) will win a copy of this pack! Go!!

**Update!** That was fast!  My favorites are tulips and daisies! Daisies were my wedding flower, but if I would have gotten married earlier it would have certainly been tulips!

Congrats to:  Alexa (Bilingual Scrapbook), Shelley, Kristi, Mr. Naparalla and Gwen!

**Alexa, Ms. Naparalla, and Gwen send me your e-mail! growingkinders@gmail.com**