Poetry

Here is a really cute idea for a poem/song I want to put in my classroom this year. I love it!

It came from Pinterest. It says its from a blog called "kindergarten corral". I wanted to make a link directly there, but I cannot find it on that blog.

It is the words to Dr Jean's song, "Good-bye" written as a poem.

Here is a Link to a site that has a reader to go along with this poem/song. Even if you do not want to use it as a reader, you can print it with several book pages on each page. That way the pictures will print smaller and you can cut them out for illustrations for the poem.

Sprinkles to Kindergarten

Check out this great giveaway!

As I have said before, I LOVE the blog Sprinkles to Kindergarten. Check out her fabulous back to school give away, but hurry it ends soon. While you are there, check out her great ideas for Daily 5 and other ideas.
Click here for a link to her blog/give away

Retelling

Here are the retelling pieces to Dr Jean Feldman's song "Today is Sunday" from her CD Sing, Dance and Learn .

Another fun retell for young kiddos goes with Jan Brett's story the mitten.  I use this set together with the friends in my class. We use this whole class or in groups with an

Adult help. Below is a retelling that each child can make and use.

I got these great  Iron on transfers from Jan Brett's website. You can print them from your computer printer onto transfer paper. They can be ironed onto fabric and stitched around to make small pillows for each animal. I made the mitten out of felt large enough to comfortably hold all of the animals. The 

Mitten from Jan Brett's site can be enlarged to create this mitten. I sewed the seam to separate the thumb but did not cut down next to the thumb. (I think it adds stability to the whole mitten that way.)

For the individual retelling pieces the kids use independently, I used mittens cut from the Ellison. Two of these mittens are glued together with a white lunch bag between them. 

The animals come from Jan Brett's site as well.

Garage sale find

I am excited to use this cool, glow in the dark tepee in my classroom this year. I found it for a steal at a local garage sale. It will make a great Reading Spot. Since we are going to Daily 5 this year, it will be a perfect place to read. My niece Elliot tried it out this weekend with her brother and my children. If their response is any indication, it will be a hit at school!

Sprinkles to Kindergarten  is a super blog that is helping me to gear up for beginning daily 5 this fall. Follow this link to a fabulous blog. It also has many other fabulous ideas for a kindergarten classroom.

Fair week

This is the much anticipated fair week. We celebrated as our smallest pig made weight. We survived our first open class rabbit show. My son Kaiden got a first place ribbon for his open class art exhibit entry. My older two also placed in their creative arts open class entries. Photography is one of my passions. I often enter some of my shots in the open class photography judging at our fair. My number of entries keeps growing each year. This year I entered 11. I was very happy with the results of this judging as well. So, all in all, our first two days of fair have Been great. (and to think it has only just begun for us.) Our whole family is looking forward to many judgings and a fun filled week. I will return to blogging as soon as I can. Enjoy this beautiful summer weather.

Pete the Cat

I love when my mailman toots her horn because I have a package and the package is for me.
Today I got the new Pete the Cat book that was released this week.

Pete the Cat The Wheels on the Bus

Click on the title above to get to a video of the book on you tube.

Great websites

Some of you in attendance at my sessions at Creative Cornerstones asked for me to post information about the websites I recommended. For now I will post the sites. My email at home is VERY slow.  I cannot post a link to them yet. When I get to a place with faster Internet soon, I will update the posts with links.

My favorites on Teachers Pay Teachers are Julie Lee and Deanna Jump. Everything they produce is quality!

Kellyskindergarten has great games that you can program with your own words and skills. This is a fabulous website with tons of ideas.

Kidscount1234 is a fabulous site. Both of Shari Sloane's CDs are wonderful! On her site she has the ready to go enlarged text and some pictures making it easy to make big books of her songs.  I LOVE her song Bingo Bango Bongo (my kiddos did too).

I recently learned about a really great math site it is k-5mathteachingresources.com .  It is a great resource for common core math standard ideas for all elementary grades.