Peek at my Week (6)

Hello Sunday!  Is another week already ending and the next one starting?  I tell you it seems as if each week goes by faster and faster.  Here's a Peek at my Week 6!

Click on the Picture to Link up with Deedee from Mrs.Wills' Kindergarten

Like many of you, my theme for week 6 is APPLES!  Teaching about apples can be all kinds of fun and there are a number of great activities out there.  While typing up these plans I realized I needed a few more apple activities so I whipped some up and added them to my Apple Themed Activities set (you can check it out below).  

Also around this time it is my hope that everything is finally running smoothly, with the occasional re-teaching of the routines and expectations.  But during this time I make it a goal to begin pulling all small groups for guided reading and math.  Ahhhh!  This is a big step and it probably won't run perfect these first few weeks but it must begin!  I'm just curious, when do you all start pulling small groups for guided reading and math?  

Here's the links to items in my plans!  Happy Apple Week!

Apple Themed Activities Set

Writing Folder Resources

Fun with Johnny Appleseed by Peace, Love, & Learning

LetterLand Alphabet Pack by Live, Love, Laugh Kindergarten

And the pictures not in my plans but I'd pull some math centers from this pack: 

Centers to the Core - Counting & Cardinality

Five for Friday

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  Today I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle bugs teaching for Five for Friday!

Check out my little blog.  It got a fantastic make-over thanks to Theresa over at Always in Bluhm. I am in so in love with the clean look and bright colors.  Very my style.  Plus Theresa is amazing!  She quickly sent me everything needed to install and answered all my questions!  I definitely recommend checking out her Etsy shop here and also here's her blog: http://bluhm-escape.blogspot.com  

Look how adorable she is!  She is pregnant and due any day now. :) Thank you Theresa for your great design and help!  I love my blog!

Next week my plans will focus on APPLES!  I love apple week and always have so much fun doing apple activities with kids.  A few weeks ago I created an Apple mini-pack with a few items that I'd use for apple week (you can find that here).   One thing that I know many teachers do is an apple adjectives chart so I decided I'd create an Apple Freebie to go along with it.  Here's an apple adjectives syllable counting activity.  It'd be perfect to do whole group using a pocket chart.

  Click the picture to grab it.  

(P.S. I made it editable so you can change it to the adjectives your class came up with)

Currently I'm working on my 2nd "Centers to the Core" pack.  This set will focus on the domain measurement and data.  I hope to have it finished and in my TpT store by Monday. 

Last night the hubs and I ate a new restaurant!  The place is called Bella Italia!  We both had pizza and it was delicious, which is awesome because in the little town we live there aren't many great restaurant choices.  Did I mention the reason why we went out?  Well, yesterday I was planning to make homemade chicken flautas and to do this I  get the chicken ready by cooking it in the crockpot first.  For whatever reason at lunch, I turned off the crockpot and so the chicken sat in the there uncooked for about 6 hours.  Needless to say we both agreed that eating out would be better.  Hey at least we found a new yummy place.

Today I get to go to IKEA and ASDA!  I don't think you realize how excited I am!  One thing I miss from back home is shopping  at our large stores.  Over here in England most of the shops are pretty small and don't have the variety that we have back in the states.  Now don't get me wrong you can find what you need but it's likely you'll have to go to about 5 stores to do it or drive over an hour.  But today I'm driving my husband to the airport and nearby are a few larger stores.  An Asda is like a Super Walmart and with no Targets (AH!)  this is the closest I'll get.  And Ikea, well we all know Ikea and I just have fun walking around there.  

So I'm off to do a little shopping... Who knows maybe I'll find my next teacher idea or hey maybe something cute for the house!  Have a great weekend!

Apples, Apples, Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

Mmmmmm.... I am enjoying one of my favorite holiday drinks: PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES :)  I know, that they are all the rave around this time of year but I really do absolutely love them and am not ashamed to say so.  Plus, last year the Starbucks here in England NEVER carried pumpkin spice flavoring.  It was so sad.  So you have to imagine my excitement when I was walking down the high street and spotted the "pumpkin spice" sign in their window today.  I about started screaming with joy right there.  Can you imagine what they would have thought - "hmmm look at that crazy American girl, what is she doing?" haha.  Really though, that taste and smell just gets me all excited for fall!  And seeing as its felt like fall here for the last month this drink was much needed.

Around this time of year I always get excited because like many teachers fall calls for fun themes like pumpkins, bats, spiders, and more.  But before we get to all that, September calls for APPLES.  Yes, that's right it's apple harvest time and this month also calls for remembering the folk hero Johnny Appleseed.  I always enjoy teaching about apples and thought I'd share a few activities I'd be using in the upcoming weeks if I were in the classroom.

One fun activity that I like to do is have an apple taste test.  It's such a simple activity that students just love.  Just pick up some red apples, green apples, and yellow apples.  Slice them up and have a taste off.  Once everyone has had a taste use a class graph to record your results.  While creating this class graph I'd have students filling in their own too. Then we'd hold a discussion about the graph to see what the results showed. 

Another activity that is a must is teaching about the life cycle of an apple.  I'd read the story How do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro and then together as a class we would draw out and sequence the life cycle.  Then for independent work or in a center I created this activity that students can create.  They cut out the steps, color, and then glue them in order.

There are so many great apple activities out there!  What do you do?  The above two activities and a few more come from my Apple themed mini set.  Click the picture below to check it out in my TPT store.

Now time to get back to this latte.  Have a wonderful Thursday!