Freebie Number 3

Freebie Number 3
All of the Pre-primer and primer Sight Word cards that fit into most pocket charts. 

Don't forget... Monday- WINNER! Tuesday- LINKY PARTY!

Go over and click on the button on the right for SOOO many freebies in the ULTIMATE FREEBIE COLLECTION

Freebie Number 2

Freebie Number 2! 

Don't forget... Monday a winner is chosen from my giveaway and Tuesday will be the first day of my linky party!

Freebie Number 1

Hello!
It's my last official day of Spring Break (well there's still the weekend) and I'm celebrating with a mini-trip to Temecula and 3 freebies!
I'm posting them in 3 different posts because I want to include them all on the TBA Ultimate Freebie Collection!
Here is freebie number 1... My Teacher Posters. All of these are framed and posted in my classroom for all to see...

Also, on Monday I will announce the winner for my giveaway and on Tuesday I will start my linky party! Stay tuned!

Insects Continued and another Freebie!

Hello again friends!
I wanted to share the rest of my insect stuff with you all but first... What do you all think about a mid-year classroom photos linky party?? thumbs up? thumbs down?
So, I was going to go to work today, take some photos of the activities I wanted to blog about and get ahead with some prep stuff BUT I spent the entire day at the stinkin' DMV! UGH! I spent 3 hours waiting and 3 minutes completing my transaction. AND my phone had just 30% battery so I couldn't sit and tweet, pin or read on my nook app. So, I'll have to put the pictures up next week. Sorry.

Anyway, this year we spent our time teaching just 4 insects: ants, ladybugs, bees and butterflies. We started the unit with a KWL chart which the students LOVED because I typed their responses right in front of them. They were so excited to see their words on the interactive whiteboard as I typed it. I always include the name of the person who helped fill out our chart so at the end of each sentence I typed you'd hear the whole class say that student's name. It goes a little like this:
"Boy bees are called drones"
"Great idea Andy! Let me type that, Boy bees are called dron..."
"ANDY!"
"Oh, Andy said that? Thanks friends"

I love it! Carrying on...
We also label the parts of the insects we learn about. I set up a whole Insects bulletin board/station for the students to come back to and for us to add to. Here is a snapshot of it...

At this point, we had not gotten to our L part of the KWL but the K and W are up. After we learn about each insect (we spent about a week on each one), we type up what we know about that particular insect. You can see under each one of the insects is a sheet of facts that the students have helped me create. I use that same type during the lesson approach and it is quite engaging and meaningful. I also like that the students remember who said what fact when we create charts. In the picture, you can also see my Insect Lifecycles which you can download for free here. We also fill in a sheet to describe each of the insects. We give a big talk about being Entomologists during our insect unit and the kids guzzle it up! Does anyone use Kaplan's Icons of Depth and Complexity? We do so you'll see the little glasses icon on the sheets but there is a set without them too.

When we get to bees, we make our own little bee with bee facts on it but you can use this template for any of the insects. I'm so bummed that there are no pictures to go with the activities but I will get them to you asap. Promise.

Here is the activity we do (your freebie!): 

Get it for free at my TpT store here. 

Lastly, my favorite part of the Insect unit... INSECT JEOPARDY! We play teachers versus students and they get so fired up! You can see just how competitive they are when we play! lol. One of the questions asks, 

"What is another word for a butterfly's wings that means the same on both sides?" 

As the teachers, my co-teacher and I thought out loud by saying things like, "hmmm, I wonder what it could be? Maybe equal? no... I just can't remember because it is a long word... hmmmm... I think it starts with a /S? sound..." 

One of the students yells out, "CHICKEN POX!" 

Chicken pox? I couldn't resist laughing. He was really trying to throw me off my game. lol. You can grab Insect Jeopardy at my TpT store here. 

BUT if you are one of the first 3 people to comment, you can get it for free!!! Let me know what you think about starting a Mid-Year Classroom Photos Linky Party... and it's yours !

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

   

Insects and a Freebie

Hello friends!
Maybe some of you have noticed but I have made some (not many) adjustments to my blog... what do you think?? Mainly I added a Pinterest and Twitter icon that I made all by myself! AND I got the images to link to the right places AND I got those images to be next to each other! lol. Oh the small achievements that make me happy! Follow me on Pinterest and Twitter with a simple little click now! (I hope) Also, I realized today that my Classroom Pictures link is broken (wonder how long that has been) and I wanted to put up new pictures of my classroom anyway SOO I was thinking about making a linky party about it, what do you think?? I figure that most are like me and have made many changes to our classrooms since the beginning of the year AND it would be pretty cool to see others' bulletin boards with actual work on them, right? I'll do it if someone gives me a thumbs up! =)

Ok, on to Insects! I love Spring because insects are all around us and the students get so excited. We have many caterpillars making their way around our campus and under the breezeways. I popped in to work last Thursday and I saw 4 chrysalises (?) hanging... I hope they are still there on Monday!

We are all done with our insect unit so I wanted to share a few things today and a few more tomorrow...
We start each and every insect unit with Dr. Jean's Insect Song. Do you know it? It goes like this:
(to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes)
Head, Thorax, Abdomen, Abdomen,
Head, Thorax, Abdomen, Abdomen,
Eyes, and mouth, antennas, two!
Six legs, and that's an insect for you!

It's the best! I love it, the students love it, anyone who walks in while we are singing loves it! AND, the best part of it all, the parts of an insect are taught with a little tune! hehe.

After we sing the song a million times, we make a generic insect and label it with all of the parts we have just learned. We only put 3 legs on it because we are looking at the insect from the side, of course! We just used pom-poms, pipe cleaners and LOTS of glue. It's hard to stick on those pom poms and it's the only time that I regret teaching my students, "just a dot, not a lot," because I find pom-poms all over the floor and head-less insects on papers! hahaha. Also, the labels are just paper. If you'd like a copy of the labels, just leave a comment below with your email and I'll get them to you.

Next, we teach different kinds of Insects butterflies, ladybugs, ants and bees: (more on that tomorrow). We also teach about the lifecyles of each. Grab a copy of my Lifecycles interactive bulletin board:

Included in the freebie are the lifecycles for ants, bees, butterflies, ladybugs, crickets and dragonflies.

Here you can see the bee lifecycle (the only one in clip art). I printed the pages, glued the blank ones onto a blank poster and laminated everything. Then I placed velcro on everything, taught the different lifecycle stages and put the poster up. The students come over to the board and manipulate the board all on their own! It is super cute to see them acting like teachers while I watch and think, "Do I really sound like that?"

Grab your freebie at my TpT store...

If you download it, please let me know!
Ok, friends, don't forget to enter my giveaway AND come back tomorrow for some more on INSECTS!

ULTIMATE FREEBIE COLLECTION

 

I am so excited to be a part of Teaching Blog Addict's ULTIMATE FREEBIE COLLECTION!

Here are your freebies! If you take a freebie and use it in your classroom, will you PLEASE snap some pictures and send them my way?? I'll be posting some more freebies throughout next week, so stay tuned!

Here is the one I promised from yesterday RHYME GUY! To find out more about Rhyme Guy and how I use it in my classroom, visit yesterday's post Click on the picture to get your own

I have also posted BUILD math centers as a freebie on TpT 

Remember BUILD? They are choice based math centers that you can find all over Pinterest and my blog =) Click on the picture to snag your copy.

Lastly, I wanted to invite you all to a new blog that belongs to my friend, fellow kindergarten teacher and the one I swap many ideas with... Special Education meets General Education


 Adie is an amazing teacher with amazing ideas. At our school she is a super SPED teacher but she holds a SPED credential and General Education credential making her twice as good as me! Visit her blog and tell her I sent ya!

Happy Friday!
Vanessa

200 Followers and a Freebie!

I can't believe I have 200 followers! It took some time but now we are here! Time to celebrate... anyone want in on a giveaway??
Side story- We had a Chinese New Year parade today... anyone else do that? We don't have a big Chinese population and we don't have parade for any other events (besides Halloween) so I'm not sure I like it too much! Luckily, today was a nice, cool day so we weren't sweating as we were wearing our dragon hats. =)
Anyway, since I'm in such a great mood because I'm at 200 followers... here's a freebie! We've been working on our best estimation skills and I have to say, they are pretty good at it! There are some, of course, who don't realize the difference between 100 and 40 but besides that, we are all good. Here are some shots of my kiddos in action...We used the Sunflower Estimation sheet where we estimated how many seeds would fit in the middle of the flower. The other is the Marshmallow Mouth... how many marshmallows will fit in the mouth? You may notice that in one of the shots there are circles drawn in the center of the flower. In my classroom, everyone gets what they need and not all students are quite ready for estimation so their job is to glue the seeds in the circles and count them. The same goes for the marshmallow mouth except there is no picture. 

Want the Estimation Sheets?? You can snag them on TpT by clicking the picture OR leave a comment with your email letting me know that you'd like a free copy... today only! =)

If you're interested in being a part of my 200 follower giveaway, please let me know also... leave me a comment or shoot me an email: vanessa.escobar17@gmail.com

Thanks friends!

It's almost 2013!

Hi everyone!
I talked yesterday about my favorite site Starfall and today, as promised, I have pictures! =)

We are making calendars as we teach calendar parts and our goal is to make them as cute as can be because we will send them home all wrapped up as gifts for the students' family.

First, you'll have to pick up my newest TPT product: Calendars! The one we used in class in not as cute as what I made for my product, you all lucked out!
We had the students start making their pictures for the months and then we'll glue them all on for them. Today, we glued in the missing months. It was so awesome to hear the students singing as they were gluing. "january, february, march and april..." Ah! So cute! We had a tour group (I teach at a popular school!) come through as some of the kids were gluing and they were so impressed!
The pictures below is my sample with a discolored paper...

Now on to the cute stuff:
The students have been working hard on these things!

We haven't gotten August, November & December done yet but we will tomorrow. I can't wait to see all of their finished products! Well, yes I can because I have a lot of gluing ahead of me!
Here is my new product, if you'd like a copy for FREE then comment below and don't forget to leave your email.

I am off to make some sugar cookies... a practice batch before I make them as gifts next week... fingers crossed!

Hasta manana!

Friday Freebies??

Hi everyone!
Well... I kinda sorta have freebies... I have some new products up on TPT today and I want to give some away! So... FREEBIES!!! Freebies for those who would like to comment today =)
Here it is...
We just finished our Body unit and we talk all about the different things going on in our bodies and the things to do to keep us healthy and strong. I put together this little workbook to make it more fun & meaningful for our kiddos. I also made it so that those who are reading and writing already can use it too! Something for everyone (I hope). If you would like a copy comment below and say "My Amazing Body Rocks!" hehe.

 Here are a few shots of the students actually using it...

Next, I have one of my favorites to teach numbers 1-20... A TREASURE HUNT! We give students a paper towel tube and use it as their "telescope" then we post the ships all around the classroom and the kids have to use their telescope, count the ships on each page and mark it on their maps. It is so much fun! The kids LOVE it! If you'd like a copy leave a comment below and say: "TREASURE HUNT HERE I COME"

 I'm giving away 3 of each, you can get 1... which do you want?? Come on, they are free! lol.

That's all I got for you today... I've been in such a funk today that all I want to do is sleep and give away free stuff!

Get yours while you can!

HAPPY FRIDAY

Happy Tuesday!

Hi Everybody!
I feel so out of the loop, I've been missing from the bloggy world for soooo long! Well, just since Wednesday but it seems like forever!
I had an absolutely awful day yesterday but today was a new day AND guess what came in??? Yup! You guessed it, my interactive whiteboard!  See that big box?? It has all of my excitement just waiting inside for me! lol. Now, I need to get it up, get it on and start playing!
Oh, and look around my classroom, it may look a little different after the install! I'M SO GIDDY! I can't wait.

So that awful day? Oh my!! It... was... a... doozy!!!! I was such a mess that I left my desk looking like this...

MESSY!! I think my desk will look a little different after the whiteboard install also. It is a big jumbled mess!
I had a new para professional come in to my classroom yesterday to work with my students and, remember D? Yeah, he didn't think that having someone new was such a great idea so he decided not to come into the classroom. And he decided to take off his clothes, again. And he screamed for a long time. He has the strongest lungs ever! hehe. AND it was picture day which meant that our daily schedule was out of whack because we had be on standby for pictures all morning. To sum it all up, it was awful. BUT today was definitely a new day! Our new paraprofessional didn't get scared away and she did an absolutely wonderful job with all of the students today. I left school with so many successes!
We taught Left & Right today and, as you know, this is a tough concept for these little guys. I totally forgot to take pictures, I'm really needing to work on that. The whole class went on a scavenger hunt around the school to find all of the shapes on our list... We could only go on this hunt if we knew our Left and Right! (well, everyone went but I said this anyway to keep them on their toes!) We found one shape, stood in line in front of it and then found out how to get to the next shape.
Me: "Here is the pink rectangle! We need to find the green triangle next. To find the green triangle, we need to turn left!"
Class: "Left is this way!" (1/4 of them pointing to the right)
Me:"Ok everyone, point the the LEFT... no, LEFT... your other hand... YES! LEFT! Let's go!"
I carried my Left and Right signs with me and used them to help with the directions. You can find the signs in my Math Posters Set OR leave me a comment and I'll send you them for FREE! You can kinda see them in the first picture on this post but hey, if you don't like them, at least they are free! lol.
Next thing on the list? I have a new item on TPT! During our story times, or any time I pick up a book in front of my class, I ask the students about the front cover, back cover, spine, author and illustrator... Now I have some cute posters and cards to go with that! I plan to post the posters and use the cards to pull and ask students. I may call some kids up, choose a card and tell me about that part of the book... The set is just $2!

Do you like the font I used in this picture??? Rowdy in Room 300 has some adorable fonts available on her blog... check it out!

Dictionaries, Numbers and Freebies!

Hi Friends!
So if you read my post yesterday, you should know that today was a successful day with everyone keeping their clothes on!! Woo Hoo!! If you didn't read my post yesterday, you HAVE to read about my day.

Has anyone seen that new spot on TPT called New Product Requests? I find it on the My Sales page. Well I was looking at my TpT account the other day (because I track that thing like noone's business) and I started reading some of them. I was scrolling through and thinking, "Nope! Not an 8th grade teacher. Nope! Not a science teacher. Nope! I don't have any of my own clip art to sell. Nope! Can't do that. Hey! I can do that! That seems easy peesy!" So I emailed the person who requested it, told her my info, crossed my fingers that she didn't send me a virus and started creating for her! I asked her questions about specifics, she gave me an idea to go by and that was that. I created the Student Dictionaries for her and it was exactly what she needed! I was so excited that I could help her AND even more excited that I could sell it to her. She showed me what she was looking at purchasing and I saved her about $75 so we both scored. Thanks TpT!

Want one? I'll send the first 3 peeps to comment one for $ free.99. Just leave your name and email and tell me you want a dictionary... but wait! There's more...

I also wanted to show you all the number books we have been working on in class. 

These have been my favorite this year! We always work on numbers and number formation for a long time and these books have been wonderful! There is one for each number where they are counting, writing and saying the numbers 0-10 repeatedly. We broke the book up into pieces and started with 0-2 then moved on to 3-5 and now we are working on 6-10. It has been really great too because the students have the routine down on how to complete the task so I can really focus on the formation of the numbers. They love it and so do I! We use cute poems to go with the numbers and the Handwriting Without Tears formations. HWT is a great handwriting curriculum that really focuses on the fine motor movement of letters. Love it!
I have this on my TpT store as well.

 Want one of these? Be one of the first three to comment and this baby is all yours!

Ok one more time... Comment if you want a dictionary, comment if you want a number book or comment because you love me and my blog! lol. Let me know which you want!

You can also check out Sensational Seconds' giveaway... She's giving away a laminator!!! Head over a check it out...

Be back tomorrow friends!