My First Manic Monday Freebie of 2013

Happy Monday!

If you read my previous post, you know that I started back to school last Thursday.  Today was our first "real" day back, where we followed a normal schedule.  The kids seemed to be in shock at first, but they were soon back to normal.  I needed something for my measurement center this week.  So I made a center with some of my winter clip art.  I decided that it would be perfect to share with you for Manic Monday.

Click {here} to get to my Winter Measurement Center.

Tomorrow is my student teacher's first day.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that it goes well.  this is my 2nd time to have a student teacher.  My 1st one was wonderful.  I am hoping this time goes as well.  I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  Have a great week!

Returning to School on January 3rd

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Holiday!  I was very blessed this Christmas.  Besides spending quality time with my family, my husband surprised me with a new laptop for Christmas.  So,  I am typing this blog post on my new laptop.  My old laptop was at least 5 years old and "died" in October.  Since then,  I have been using my teenagers' laptops.  But sometimes they need their laptops for homework, so I'm not always able to get to use a computer.  I love my new laptop but it is taking me a little bit to get used to Windows 8.  You see, I'm not always good with change.  But, I'm making an effort (and trying not to bug my 18 year old with too many questions).

Like many of you, I return to school on January 3rd.  So I have had to plan for a day and a half of school with my kinders.  (At my school, the students only attend school until noon on Fridays.  Because we teach our own specials during the week, we use Friday afternoons for planning and professional development.)

Since it will be a very short week, I have planned some fun New Year's activities for the students to do.  I thought I would share some of the freebies that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers with all of you, in hopes that you can use them also.

First, I found a New Year's banner for my students to make on the Teaching with Love and Laughter blog.



Click here to see the blog post with the activity.
I am also going to have my students make New Year's necklaces by stringing noodles that have been dyed different colors on yarn and using the "favors" from this "Happy New Year Poem and Printables" freebie by Shelley Rolston.  Click here to find the freebie in her store.
Our New Year's fun won't be complete without hats.  I found this freebie to make headband hats with paper strips in Marta Almiron's Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Click here to get to her free download.
Besides making hats and necklaces, I am going to have a "New Year's Eve" party in the afternoon.  We are going to countdown from 10 to 1 and then jump on bubble wrap.  I think my little ones will love it.  Then we are going to have a small snack, popcorn and juice and play Bingo.
I hope these ideas will help you to make returning to school at the end of a week a little bit easier.
Happy New Year! to all of my friends and followers.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Happy December Everyone!

I love the month of December in my kindergarten classroom.  My own kids are teenagers and even though they are excited about Christmas, it just doesn't compare to the excitement of young children.  I feel very blessed to share in my 5 year olds' spirit of Christmas each year.

This year I decided to have an "Elf on the Shelf" in my classroom.  (I received a free one from the company.)  I have a very well-behaved class.  So I figured that they could handle the craziness of finding the elf in a different place each morning.

They love finding the elf each morning.  I love seeing their smiles when they find him.  They also love to share his escapades with the teachers across the hall.

Here are some pictures of our elf from last week:

Our elf, Red, played in the magnetic letters on Tuesday night.....

 

and he left the students a message.

On Thursday, he brought the class a special treat from the North Pole, to celebrate 

the last day our student from the local college was with the class.  (He began eating

one before the class came in.)

Thank you for stopping by to visit and see the Adventures of Red The Elf,

My First Freebielicious Freebie

Happy December!

Good Saturday morning everyone!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I know mine is, I love creating freebies to share instead of cleaning my house.  This past week, I had a Gingerbread theme.  So I made this Memory Game for my students to play during Math centers.  I hope that your students like it also.

Click here to get my Gingerbread Memory Game.

I also linked up with Freebielicious Freebies on the First.  Visit them to get more freebies.

 

Thank you for taking time out of your busy weekend to visit me.

A Late Thanksgiving Idea and a Freebie

Happy Friday After Thanksgiving!

So what did you do today?  Eat leftovers, go shopping, put up Christmas decorations?  It is very cold and blustery here in southern Michigan.  And even though I don't want to admit it, I think I see some snow flurries outside.  Brrrrrr.....

I wanted to share something I did during my small group time with my students last week.  I didn't have my pictures downloaded until now to be able to share.

Who knew that students would love feathers so much?  I found the book, "When You Meet a Turkey" on Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshot page.  The book talks about tickling a turkey and on the last page the turkey runs away.  I made a book for each student (or more accurately, my wonderful teacher's aide did).

Then when it came time for me to meet with my small groups, I called one group over at a time. I allowed each student to pick out a feather from a large box of  feathers (I have no idea how the box got into my classroom).  Then I took a piece of yarn and taped one side to the feather and the other side to the inside of the book.  Next, the students and I read the book together and the students used their feathers to point to the words in the book and to "tickle" their turkey.  They loved using the feathers to track print.  Now, some of my students were able to read the book, others could read a few of the words and still others were able to read it because of the repetitive text.  But it was exciting to see all of my students enjoying reading the book.  (Many of my students said, "Mrs. Lattea, can I really take the feather home?"  I love it when I can tell my students, "Yes, you can." and make them smile.)

Here is a picture of one of my students using his feather:

I have also decided to link up with Teaching Blog Addict for their freebie Friday:

My Freebie is a game that my students love to play.  We call it our hidden picture game.  The students play it during center time.  They put 8 to 10 pictures up on the magnetic board or felt board.  Then one student takes down a picture while the other students hide their eyes.  The other students take turns guessing what picture is gone.  The students who guesses correctly gets to hide a picture the next time.
Here is a link to my freebie:

Click here to visit my TPT store and download this game for free.

Enjoy your weekend!

I'm Thankful for My Followers

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope all of you are going to find time to spend with your family and friends this 4 day weekend.  I am so thankful for all of my followers.  So I decided to post a freebie for you.

Next week, I am going to have gingerbread theme for my centers.  One of the centers will include a hidden picture game.  My students love to play this game.  It is one of those centers where you just have to teach them what to do one time and they know exactly what to do when you have them play it.

Here is a picture of my students playing the game with Thanksgiving pictures:

One of the student is hiding a picture and the other one is guessing what picture it is.

This freebie has the game with a gingerbread theme.  I hope you are able to use it in the next few weeks.

Click here to download the freebie from my TPT store.

Thank you for visiting today.

My First Presentation

Happy Sunday Eve!

Are you already for Monday?  I hope so.  Where does the weekend go?  I'm so sorry that I haven't posted recently.  My laptop decided to only turn on for 5 seconds and then shut off, no matter what I did or how nicely I talked to it.  It is still being looked at by my brother-in-law.  He says that it isn't looking very good.  He is still hoping to get my important things off of my hard drive.  (I also received a speech from my 18 year old about how I was supposed to "back up everything".  Seriously, who has that kind of time.)  

All of this happened as I was making a PowerPoint to use when another teacher friend and I presenedt at the MAPSA Conference in Detroit, Michigan.  Luckily, I had backed up the PowerPoint on my Dropbox.  So, we didn't lose anything.  Yay!  I have stolen  borrowed my son's laptop to work on now.

Anyways, we presented last Monday.  Can I just tell you how wonderful it was?  This was our first time presenting.  We shared about how we each do centers in our classrooms (I teach kindergarten, as you know, and she teaches 1st/2nd across the hall from me.)  The teachers who attended our presentation seemed to like what we shared with them.  I discovered that I love presenting.  I don't usually like talking in front of so many people.  But the other teachers were friendly and attentive and asked questions.  It was the BEST day ever!  (A PowerPoint, a projector and (this is the best) a wireless microphone makes you feel powerful.)

This is a picture of the board that had our session listed on it.

This is the room we presented in.  We checked it out in the morning before the presentation.
  I was a little overwhelmed by how huge the room was.

Many of the teachers who attended our presentation wanted a copy of the PowerPoint.  So, I thought other teachers might be interested in it also.  If you click here you can download it from Google Drive.  It is a very large file because there are over 80 slides in the PowerPoint.

We are also presenting at the Illinois ASCD Conference for Pre Kindergarten and Kindergarten teachers.  It is being held on March 7th and 8th in Schaumberg, Illinois.  I can't wait.  We get to present on both Thursday and Friday.  

Hopefully, I can continue "borrowing" my son's laptop and post more regularly.  

Thanks for stopping by,