Skunk Freebies Giveaway!!

Last week, we were learning about animals that live in the woods, as well as some nocturnal animals. Every year, I typically spend time teaching squirrels, bats, and owls. This year I wanted to do something with skunks. I didn't tell my students we were going to learn about them. Instead, I had them help me make a list of stinky items on a trash can. They enjoyed saying some words and kept laughing. Then they figured out we were going to learn about another nocturnal animal- skunks. I found these great books on Amazon:

Sweet book! Sassafrass is a little skunk who is feeling sensitive about her stink.

A boy finds a skunk on his bunk, and learns to keep an open mind.

A nonfiction book giving information about skunks.

 

 

Here are some close ups of the Little Stinkers:

"I was copying my sister." Love all his speech bubbles and details!!

I forgot exactly what his print means, but I do remember the story. He took his mom's purse. So she chased him, and she called him a little stinker. I love the expressions he made on the faces!

"I was playing and not eating my food."

I am busy working on my nocturnal animals unit. It will be a little while before I will be ready to post it on TPT. Fall is a busy season for me, as it is filled with holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays. To share my love of fall, I would like to share with you, my followers, my "stinkin cute" skunk samples from my upcoming nocturnal unit. This will include:

• What Stinks?- Brainstorm a list of stinky things.
• Skunk in the Bunk Rhymes- Brainstorm a list of -unk words. Students write and draw a picture of each -unk word.
• Rhyming in the Woods- use cooperative groups to work with rhyming words
• Skunk Tree Map
• Little Stinker writing and skunk template
• Partner Picking Cards- cooperative learning strategy for Making 5 or Making 10

All you have to do is:

1. be a follower,
2. leave a comment to this post about your favorite nocturnal animal
3. and your email address.

You will have until the next time I post to be able to participate in this giveaway, which will likely be this upcoming weekend. Thank you for your sweet comments and helping me to be a better teacher!

2

50th Day of School

Here are the links to the resources I used:
First Grade Fever's Fab-u-lous 50th Day Fun!- I wanted to make a powerpoint to compare the 50s to now, but I just didn't have the time. So this packet had a book to compare the 50s to now. I also printed out the "sticker" of I'm 50 days smarter to make necklaces for my students. There are other great resources, but I didn't use them.
Growing Kinder's Rock Around the Clock! Math & Literacy for the 50th Day of School- This is the one I used for our math rotations. My parent used a game called "Find the Cherry". I learned from this packet that root beer floats are called brown cows.
Cara Carroll's 50th Day Mini Unit- This is where I got my venn diagram and root beer float activity from.



Here is a cute freebie I found after planning my 50th day activities:
Latoya Reed's 50th Day of School Activities Freebies

Tomorrow is my husband's and my 2nd anniversary! We will be celebrating with cotton and china! I hope to share something with you tomorrow! I'm working away! Have a great pumpkin week!

1

Fall is Coming...

Fall is coming to FL. It is definately cooler... in the 70s with a cool breeze. Yeah! It has been a fun-filled busy weekend. Friday, my beautiful friend got married. Saturday, I dressed in my poodle skirt for a Halloween party. This coming week, I will be celebrating the 50th day of school with my kindergarteners! I am looking forward to celebrating with them. Today, we (my hubs and I) went and picked out pumpkins from the orchard. The past couple of weeks I have drank so much pumpkin lattes and ate so many pumpkin pie bagels, and hoping for cooler weather... finally, fall has arrived!

This past week at school, we had 4 days of school. We spent 3 days learning about apples and on Thursday, we went on our first field trip to see a play about Toad and Frog.

This coming week, my class and I will be learning about camping in the woods and nocturnal animals. We will also celebrate the 50th day of school!

Sheree from Peterson's Pad is having a 400 follower giveaway. She is giving away some great things: $10 Amazon gift certificate, $10 Teachers Pay Teachers certificate, etc. She shares lots of great ideas on her site. Check it out!

 



Have a wonderful Sunday!

 

 

0

Mossy Tour 2012... with Jan Brett!

At my elementary school, the primary grades have used Jan Brett's books with different thematic units. In kindergarten, we have already seen her Gingerbread Baby and The Three Snow Bears. I used Gingerbread Baby with my Gingerbread unit and The Three Snow Bears with my fairy tale unit.

Her newest book is one of my favorites. It is about a turtle named Mossy. Click the above picture to read more from Jan Brett. Jan Brett has a video online to help children draw Mossy. With our Common Core standards focusing more on author and illustrator techniques, I thought it would be a fun learning experience for my kindergartners to draw Mossy. Here's the link to her tutorial: How to Draw Mossy.

During the winter, we read Jan Brett's books and I have my students draw Hedgie. I didn't realize Jan Brett had more videos on her site: Jan Brett Videos link. I will definately be sharing some more video tutorials with my students.

Congratulations to Kelly B. for winning my Alphabet Vacation packet! I emailed you the packet. I hope you like it!

In case you were wondering what the Anthropologie Kozo heels looked like, see below. They looked great on tiny little Jan Brett! I bought mine on sale last month, and they are no longer on sale at their site.

Have a wonderful weekend!

1

Magical Product Swap #2... Well #1 for Me! (& Rafflecopter)

Thank you Jessica Stanford for such a creative and fun way to interact with other bloggers in the educational field. I will be signing up again!

This past week has been an unusual week for me. In all my years of teaching, I had not ever left my classroom in the middle of the day for being sick. I was out for a couple of days. It really made me feel disoriented. Well, lucky for me, I was matched up with Kristen over at "I Do, We Do, You Do!" for the Magical Product Swap. I had already planned to use her Sight Words packet with my students to help them review some sight words. I made 5 copies of 5 different pages. I did this because I like to differentiate work in my classroom in various ways. The assignment is the same; the words are different. Click on the picture to see more information about her packet at her TPT store.

 

 

In this swap, I gave my Alphabet Vacation packet to Kristen. She reviewed one of the activities in my packet, the main event: Alphabet Vacation. Click on her button to see how she used it in her classroom.

 



Click on the below picture to get more information about my Alphabet Vacation at my TPT store. It is on sale (50% off) until 7PM tonight.

 

 

I am in the mood to give this Alphabet Vacation packet away to another follower. Please sign up if you would like the opportunity to win it! Good luck! (This is my first time using the Rafflecopter widget!)

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



2

Currently, October

I cannot believe it is October already! It sure does not feel like my favorite season around here with the 90 Degrees F weather. Lots of fun coming up this month with my friend's wedding, my 2nd anniversary, and Halloween. I haven't started teaching my fall unit, as I am in the middle of a fairy tale unit. However, I am definately thinking about and starting to plan all the fun activities!

If you want to check out the other October Currently's, click on this site:

6