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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Nocturnal Animals Theme Book

Learn about nocturnal animals by making this fun theme book! Not only will your students practice cutting squares & rectangles into circles, ovals & triangles they will also practice writing and reading the sight word "comes" while creating a beautiful keepsake book. Students make the following animals: bat, owl, raccoon, skunk and possum.





Some great read-alouds to go along with your Nocturnal Animals Theme:









Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Tech Time: iPads & Common Core

Have you visited our Blogs page yet? We organized the blogs we follow into 3 categories: Kinder Blogs, Art Blogs & Technology Blogs. Digital Kindergarten is one of the technology blogs we follow with ideas on how to incorporate technology into the classroom.


One of their posts focuses on Meeting the Common Core State Standards using the iPad through apps in Language Arts in the area of "key ideas and details". One of the apps they recommend is Toontastic. "FREE, allows children to create their own story and even publish to YouTube (not required).  It includes learning about elements of stories- including the effect music has.  Children pick from or make their own settings and characters.  Absolutely terrific for RL.K.3!" We are planning on introducing this to the kids this week. The kids are going to love it!


Monday, November 26, 2012

Dr. Seuss Theme Book

Dr. Seuss is on the Loose!
Here is our new I Can Rhyme With Dr. Seuss Theme Book!
We cannot wait to make this with the kids when we celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Read Across America Day in March. The book pages are hidden behind the Cat in the Hat's hat. How cute is that?  Each book page features the prominent rhyme and characters in one of Dr. Seuss books. We tried to pick books that most kids would be familiar with:  

The Cat in the Hat
One Fish, Two Fish
Green Eggs and Ham
Fox in Socks
and

Finished book

Fox In Socks
Hop On Pop









Sunday, November 25, 2012

Leopard and Denim


Have you added a little bit of leopard to your wardrobe?  It dresses up an outfit and goes with almost anything.   Just by adding an animal print accessory you can look fashionable on any budget.  It really is a must!
 



Details:
Shirt, Rugby
Skinny Jeans, H&M (similar)
Flats, Target
Belt, Target
Tortoise Shell Necklace, Hello Fab




Details:
Shirt, Target (similar)
Cords, Loft
Flats, Target 
Scarf, Calvin Klein via Ross (similar)


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

We Are Thankful

This is part of our Writing Prompt Journal.

 Today we worked on a Writing Prompt for Thanksgiving.  We asked the students to write what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We brainstormed a few ideas together as a class.  Before the students went to the tables to write, they shared their idea with a partner.  Once they were done writing their sentence and illustration, we took pictures of their papers and recorded their voices using the StoryKit app. If you click HERE you can view our class story. In order to hear the student's voices, you need to click on the yellow speaker  icon on each page.  This app is a great way to share student work with parents.  We hope you enjoy!

 

 


 

Sunday, November 18, 2012

It's All About The Blue Skinny Jeans


We have been having some crazy fall weather here in So Cal.  Some days it feels like fall has arrived and others it is back to summer with temperatures reaching 80°.   As a result, we have had to mix and match some of our new favorites with the old.  One trend we are really loving is color.  This fall it seems the brighter the better.  That is why we are both sporting some cobalt blue pants.  A great way to complete your look is to add polka-dots or animal print.  Are you loving bright color pants this fall?




Details:
Sweater, Forever 21 (similar)
Cords, Blank Jeans via TJ Maxx
Ankle Boots, Chinese Laundry via TJ Maxx (similar)
Mini Bubble Necklace, Group Dealz (similar)


Details:
Blouse- old, Forever 21
Cardigan, Forever 21
Pants, Gap Outlet (similar)
Flats, Target
Belt, Target
Earrings, American Eagle Outfitters (similar)
Ring, Hello Fab

Thanksgiving Assessment

We are getting ready to finish our Thanksgiving unit.  We spent over 2 weeks discussing who the Pilgrims are, why they came to America, how they came to America, who they met when they arrived, how they lived in America and how the past is different from the present.  Now that we are coming to the end of the unit, the question is....

How do you assess if your students are meeting the History Social Science Standards you are teaching?    This can be a very tricky and daunting task.  Sure you can call on them one by one and ask them oral questions, but with 24 students how is that even possible?  It isn't.  We need assessments that will give us accurate results for each student as well as a way to communicate those results to the parents.  Here is what we came up with. 




The students are cutting the title and the pictures out.  They glue the title and the pictures in the correct sequence on a separate piece of construction paper.


This rubric gets stapled to the assessment and sent home.
The students are cutting out the Past & Present Sorting pictures and gluing them under the correct word.



Click here or here for this FREE assessment & rubric.


We also came up with an assessment using the Smart Board and Smart Board Responders or Turning Point Clickers.

Here are some sample pages of our Notebook assessment.
The Thanksgiving Notebook Assessment is available FREE at TPT








Saturday, November 17, 2012

Snowball Theme Book to Make

Winter is just around the corner! 
Here is a fun new seasonal book we just created!  Student will sequence the building of a snowman while making this fun winter theme book! We love the front cover . . . it is a snow globe that students can actually shake to see the snow move around!

Here are a few pages from the book.









Thursday, November 15, 2012

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Here is one of our favorite bulletin boards of the year.  Each student takes home a feather to decorate and we put them all together to make our class turkey.  The feathers are all so unique just like each one of our students.

Happy Thanksgiving!



This is part of our FALL PACK.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

How to Draw a Turkey

Art Projects for Kids has a great step by step tutorial that shows you how to draw a realistic turkey!
When we do step by step drawings with students, we do them while the students are sitting on the rug using our Smart Board. It's a good idea to practice on dry erase boards first, and then pass out drawing paper. Students use a pencil while on the rug watching the teacher model the drawing. When the sketches are finished, they take their drawings to the tables, go over the lines they want to keep with a black sharpie and color.

Example from Art Projects for Kids