Our Classroom has an Elf!!

Happy December (almost!) It is Molly from Miss K's Little Rays!!

There is no better time of year than the HOLIDAY SEASON!! I am a lover of Christmas and all that it entails, so obviously going the extra mile at school was a must ;)

Last year, I read my students Georgie the Gingerbread Fairy and had a gingerbread fairy that visited our room daily. She watched for students who had awesome behavior and displayed our school's core values!

To add to the mix, this year our class got an elf! And like any elf, he was delivered STRAIGHT from the North Pole! I had my teaching bestie (Beginnings with Baer) deliver the wrapped package this afternoon. We spent quite some time guessing what could be in it. I had a lot of students guessing it was a rock (not sure why we would get a rock!!) but the look on their face when they saw the elf on the shelf was PRICELESS! Unfortunately I was not thinking and didn't capture that exact moment! I read them the letter he had written and we read the classic book to go with it. We went over how we CANNOT touch the elf or he could lose his magic! I even explained to them that some of my teacher friends had elves that needed to go to the doctor after they had been touched by a student! That got their eyes big and bold!

We then gathered on the carpet and did a partner talk about possible names. We then came together as a class and discussed what we liked best! It came down to Ben, Twinkles, and Candy Cane. And the winner was....

We left for the day wondering of ALL the possible places Candy Cane could be when we return tomorrow. As long as he doesn't mess with my caffeine, I will be a happy teacher ;) Before leaving, I did have one student look at the Elf and say, "Hey, could you let Santa know that I am really a happy kid?"

Tomorrow we will begin our Elf Journal where we will document each day where we found Candy Cane and what he was doing!

Stay tuned to hear more about the Elf in Room 103!

What do you do for holiday fun in your room??

Growing Roots in our Students

Hey y'all!! Emily here, from Carnes' Corner. I found this quote on Pinterest over the weekend, and it was too beautiful not to share:

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I love the fall colors, for one, and the words are just beautiful! I'm sure it could be read in many different ways, but I just love looking at it from a teachers point of view. 

As teachers, we are a HUGE part of our students lives (especially in kindergarten!)  It is super important that we stay in constant communication with our parents, so that all of us are on the same page.  I can only imagine the "roots" our students would grow if parents/teachers ALL worked together well!

This year, I'm not only sending out a weekly newsletter (via email) with important dates coming up, sight word lists, specials rotation schedule, etc., but I'm also using Shutterfly for my classroom website. It's been such a great tool!  I'm using it to share files (newsletters, homework calendar, etc.) as well as class photos.  My classroom parents can also share photos with each other of fun events.  I've absolutely loved it!

What are some ways that you are connecting with parents? Do you feel that you have a good relationship with your classroom parents?

Our Feature Friday Post: Stacey Brednich from Giggles and Glue Sticks

Happy Feature Friday! 

It's the day of the week that we feature one of our amazing Kinder Tribe members who will share some wonderful Kinder Wisdom with us!

Today, we are featuring Stacey Brednich who wrote a fabulous post all about apple activities. Perfect for September, right? She has integrated so many subjects into her apple theme and she has included the perfect FREEBIE at the end just for you! 

Tis the season for.... Apples!!

Hello, I am Stacey from Giggles and Glue Sticks and I am so excited it is September! Time to bring out all of our apple math and literacy centers and have some apple fun! I am going to share with you some of the activities we do in September all centered around apples! 

  I created this pack to have a quick and easy go-to for a review of muliple early literacy skills. For this month the theme is APPLES, of course!!! For each of the 6 pocket activities, there is a little song to go with it. Some days we have time for the songs, some days, we just go down the pockets and it gives me a quick assessment of what to work on more. But the skills covered are (1) letter identification (where is the worm hiding), (2) word counting/sight words, (3) beginning/medial/ending sounds,  (4) syllables, (5) rhyming words, (6) segmenting and blending. It has worked beautifully for a fun little practice and review!

 Another great apple activity is reading about Johnny Appleseed! And we love QR Code listening centers...such a great way for students to listen to a story multiple times to improve comprehension, vocabulary, and reading fluency!

We also do lots of reading and writing fun with apples! We read poetry about the life cycle of an apple, we write and tell stories with our apple cubes, and we practice letter fluency by reading our apple strips! If you do Daily Five in your classroom, this is a great set to implement apple science into those centers.

I really LOVE math for little ones. There are so many fun, engaging, and hands on ways to teach number concepts to young children! And apple themed games are the best! 

This set has so many fun games to practice early math concepts! Great for centers, small groups, guided math groups....

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We LOVE our Roll and Race games! It is one of our favorite go to centers and it practices couting, graphing, more and less!! I had one commenter mention that she used these games for morning work! Brilliant. Such a fun way to start the day!

And last but not least....another favorite....and FREEBIE!! Our number line mysteries are great mental math games that help students practice counting and number order! You can get this freebie or any of the other activities mentioned by clicking on the pictures! 

I hope this has given you some apple inspiration for this new month! Happy September! 

Stacey