Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day...a day late!  Better late than never, I always say. ha ha  :)  I've been busy though...I started my Spring Break a LITTLE early and flew out Wednesday for Park City, Utah.  I know, I am crazy....possibly the only person going towards colder weather rather than somewhere tropical.  But, we always have a blast out here.  We landed in Salt Lake and drove to Park City...had a difficult time getting to our rental home because it was snowing so HARD!  The fresh powder made for a great day skiing yesterday. And we certainly couldn't hit the slopes without a little green on...here is me with the girls!!

By the time we enrolled the kiddos in ski school, all of us adults had gotten our gear on and lift tickets purchased, we had time for about 3 runs plus lunch.  Check out one of my views before I skied down the mountain. 

Breathtaking!  

Anyways....off to ice skate and tube today! :)  Happy Spring Break!!

Are you feeling lucky??

Holy container happiness!!  You MUST head over to What the Teacher Wants and enter their amazing give away.  Because of the incredible response they've gotten on their blog, they are wanting to say thank you to one of their lucky followers.  If you are anything like me.....you <3 containers!  

Can you see the ridiculous amount of containers/baskets I have in my classroom library?  I think I have over 50 of the shoebox style rubbermaid and currently need to buy MORE to contain additional books I've purchased.  I can not get my hands on enough of them.  I use little storage containers all over my classroom - in every nook and cranny.  If you are the winner, you will receive a $100 gift card to The Container Store.  This can be spent online or at the store, in person.  To enter you must become a follower of their blog, make a facebook or blog link telling your friends about this give away, or visit the Container Store's website and come back to their site and write about how you would spend your moola.  Entries MUST be received by 12 a.m. on March 17th.  So...what are you waiting for?!? 

MORE Dr. Seuss???

That's right people....we are STILL doing Dr. Seuss!  ;-)  There is just a TON to do and with us traveling to see Seussical in theatre on Thursday, the Kindergarten team thought it would be wise to stretch out our unit.  Soooo, yesterday, we read Yertle the Turtle. 

My students helped me fill in the chart below and we discussed the main idea and moral of the story.

I asked students to bring "turtle" items to share with the class.  I was more than happy with the turnout.  We even had TWO real turtle shells come in and this led to a lengthy discussion! My students were fascinated with the different objects.  ha ;-)

After our share time, we made our own Yertle the Turtle...blue shell and all!

Today, we read...

My class was instructed to wear their favorite vacation spot T shirt.  I had several that did!  Here are a pic of two....one is from Disney's Animal Kingdom and the other, Clearwater Beach, FL.  I know I certainly wish I was in either of those places at the moment.  T minus 8 school days to SPRING BREAK! ;-)  Can I get an Amen??

We brainstormed places we would go and IF we traveled...how we would get there.  Students discussed forms of transportation on land, water, and air. 

Afterwards, we made our own hot air balloons! 

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

Love, Miss E

Accessory Swap!

Look what just arrived!!!  *SQUEAL*

Thanks to my great new blogger friend, Melissa, at F is for First Grade for sending me this precious package in the mail!  It certainly made my ending to a crazy week much, much better!  :)  This woman certainly knows the way to a teacher's heart.  I love how Melissa coordinated everything and pulled out lots of pinks.  I am a pretty muted person, but like to add splashes of color here and there!

One can never have TOO much paper...and I am a notepad/notecard freak. ha ;-) Can't wait to doodle little notes on these!

I love this cute basket.  It was filled with lots of goodies.  (all wrapped and tied with cute bows, of course)  She sent me hot pink earrings, a hot pink bracelet, two great pairs of silver earrings, and a big blingy ring. Confession: the flower earrings in the middle are my FAV!  I cannot wait to wear them with a great outfit.  They are super chunky, but yet, dainty - I love them! :)

What's not to love about flip flops?!  Even though I have an entire BASKET full, you can never have enough.  These will be great to wear this summer with a sun dress or tank top!  Won't be using them anytime soon though, it is snowing here.  Thanks to Melissa for all my fun goodies and a BIG thank you to Elisabeth at The Adverntures of Miss Elisabeth for organizing such a great accessory swap!

Dr. Seuss Literacy Work Stations

Writing/Word work: Students are "Reading the Room" for words that start with letters in Dr. Seuss's name.  They were even allowed to use JUMBO pens to write with.  It made this station quite popular! ;-)  The pens were purchased at the Dollar Tree. 

Library:  Students are reading Dr. Seuss books in the tent and writing down words they know/recognize on a Dr. Seuss hat! (The tent was a garage sale find for $5!  Can you believe it?!?!)

Tongue Twisters: Students are working on the J alliteration this week.  I have two students whose names begin with J.  Students must say the twister, copy it, illustrate it, and highlight the Js.  The twister reads - Julia and Jeremiah joyfully jump Jupiter.

Poetry: This week, students are reciting an excerpt from Green Eggs and Ham.  Students are to cut and glue the poem in their journal, highlight words they know, and illustrate it!

Listening: Students are listening to Hop on Pop and completing a book report.  This week, students must record the title, illustrate what happened in sequence (beginning, middle, and end) and write a sentence telling whether they liked the book or not. 

Some of these great Dr. Seuss printables can be found at Chalk Talk.  Enjoy!

Dr. Seuss Week - Part 2

Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?

After we read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, we made a prediction.  Will we like green eggs and ham?

Many that thought they wouldn't like it - did!!  This student gave it TWO thumbs up! :)

Afterwards, we graphed our findings.  Did we like it? Did we even try them?  We compared our results to our prediction and discussed our findings.  I was surprised at how many did NOT even want to get near them.  ha ha What ever happened to the good ole 2 bite rule??

Once we compared our results, we sat down to journal and put together a class book.  Students filled out this page using the word bank and illustrated their results.  I love the chandelier above! ;-)  So MUCH detail.  I tell them that this is most certainly showing 1st grade readiness. And the little fork in the picture below makes me smile.  ha ha LOVE it!

I do so like green eggs and ham!  Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am! 

One fish two fish

red fish blue fish

I just love this book and my students did, too!  They had a great time wearing their fishing gear/beach wear.  I wish I would have taken a picture of MY shirt.  A teacher friend of mine found a One fish, Two fish shirt at Wal-mart and I borrowed it to wear.  My students LOVED it and it went perfectly with our theme.  We started off the morning by making and labeling fish patterns.  It certainly was a nice review.  Next year, I'll be sure to utilize this activity with the Pepperidge Farm multi colored goldfish that students can eat after they make their patterns.  Yummy! :)

Later, we painted a fish bowl (using watercolor) and once dry, we added Ellison di cut fish to make addition sentences. 

And now, Good night.
It is time to sleep
So we will sleep with our pet Zeep.
Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day, from here to there.
funny things are everywhere.

Dr. Seuss Week-Part 1

This has to be one of my favorite weeks...the students get so excited and really participate with the daily "themes".  Here is a glimpse into what we've been doing...

Monday - Cat in the Hat (Dress in red and white)

Tuesday - The Sleep Book (Wear your jammies)

 Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday (Wear your wackiest outfit)

 Wacky Students

 Wacky Hair

and wacky feet!

We made a class book and drew our wacky friends in Room #110! (Please note that this is a drawing of my little Isaac two pictures up on the left.  ha ha I think Karlee was pretty accurate on his spikey/wacky hair! ha ha)

We even had guest readers from Daniel Boone High School.  They read us 3 Dr. Seuss books and brought us surprises!

Can you guess what tomorrow is?!!?  That's right, GREEN EGGS AND HAM!  My students will be dressing in green and sampling real green eggs and ham.  Several have already made their mind up that they WILL not like them and are "allergic!"  ha How cool is it that one of my students has a chicken coop and her hens lay actual green eggs?  Some of them have a more brown tint to them and others are speckled.  That is ONE plus to teaching in the country - an unlimited supply to fresh eggs!  Last year, it was molasses! ;-) I'm super stoked about frying these puppies up in the morning.  Stay tuned for a more in depth Dr. Seuss study tomorrow...

Until then...do YOU like Green Eggs and Ham?