Target's Spooky Snack Sort and Graph FREEBIE

Target currently has these on sale for $6.00, each box contains 48 snacks. So what did I do? I called my kinder partner asking her if she wanted to join me in some Halloween Math Fun..of course she said yes! (Then I texted my other 6 kinder teachers to ask if they wanted to join in on the fun..so off to Target to buy 3 more boxes)! I quickly threw these 2 worksheets together. You can get them here or click on the picture below. If you download, I would appreciate feedback/comments or if you can follow my blog..it's nice knowing Im not 'typing' to myself.

What's Brewing in Science? The Science of Halloween

My school decided to have a Halloween Alcove contest. Each teacher or team was to create anything they wanted around the theme of Halloween using project-based learning techniques. My room partner and I chose Halloween Science and the kids had a BLAST! We made slimy glow worms and atomic slime! We investigated the properties of dry ice and created apple soda with dry ice. (Winning class gets a  pizza party and the teacher gets $30 to any place I want..opps, I mean the winning teacher wants. :) I'll post ideas from the other classes too, my school has amazing creative (competitive teachers)!

Panoramic View of Alcove:

There are 5 cauldrons, each labeled with the 5 sense and the 'bubbles' are adjective the students came up with. The 6th cauldron was for fun Halloween words. 

Count Dracula

"Scientist use the 5 sense: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing. Count all the Halloween vocabulary words we know! 1, 2, 3, 4, ah, ah, ah! 5, 6, 7, ah, ah ah! Underneath him are dead science theories: Earth was once flat, Pluto as a planet...

Haunted House with pictures of our science adventures. The small buttons are Talk Points. When pushed, you would hear the students talk about what they observed (think Staples' "That was easy" kind of a button). 

Hook: A question that gets students excited about they they will learn about. Gets them to discuss ideas.  Guided Questions: What we refer back to as we conduct out science investigations. 

Currently In October

I'm linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade to bring you my Currently....October!

Tomorrow Breakfast in the Classroom is starting at my school. The kindergarten students (all 28 of them - yup, got another new one today), will be eating breakfast in the classroom. I will prepare by wearing jeans and tennis shoes and bringing lots of paper towels for spilled milk.  This is what the once cleared hallway now looks like (scared to smell the hallway tomorrow): That first big trash container is right in front of my room.  Instagram Party Task #8 is completed #ABCsofTeaching #hallway

*SIGH* Not a happy post....

The district Im in decided to reorganize ALL the students according to their EL Level (English Language) due to some law suit(which I don't know much about - but has a profound affect for ALL the students in my district). I get how it may help students who are in the upper grades learning Science or English and needs to be leveled, but it just seems like another form of tracking. My classroom is filled with lovely students who knows the routine, who knows me, who knows what to do during centers, and most of all who knows each other. Then after 2 WHOLE MONTHS of school....I must say goodbye to a few of my favorite students (they make me laugh and smile). I rather keep my full class of 26, then lose my EO (English only) students. My other students speak English too, but their parents wrote that they speak another language at home and so had to take a test in Kindergarten to determine their English proficiency level (which by the way, is hard for ANY child-regardless of language) in Kinder. It just feels discriminatory. I like a mix level classes where other students serve as models for each other or the simple diversity in a classroom.

On another note: three years ago, I was bumped to Kindergarten from fifth grade, so that was a major adjustment. The 2nd year I was in kindergarten, I changed schools and came in October (2 months later), and had 1 day to set up my classroom. Then a few weeks later I moved into another classroom with my students (I had no time to set that class up). I thought my 3rd year in Kindergarten would be a normal one. I WAS WRONG! This is my 3rd year in Kindergarten and I started out with 30 students (eventually another classroom opened up and I lost 4 student), ending up with a nice 26 students. I truly like them and love being their teacher, now Im losing students and will probably end up with other students that I don't know in my class. I feel awful for the ones leaving. I know they're resilient, but I selfishly wanted to be their teacher.

 On a happy note (sort of): Ill be posting pictures of my classroom and will be participating in a Teacher Instagram Party hosted by Miss Kindergarten. Come join me!

Currently in September

This is the first time Im participating in Currently, so here it goes!

Despite having 30 kinders (and let's face it, they can drive my nutty), they are a group of great kids. 

Getting Ready for Kindergarten!

I came back into my cleaned classroom....aaahh! I love it when I get to set up. The floors were sparkling and it smelled fresh. Then I saw the line of ants leading to the dead roaches, after I cleaned that up..it was back to the fresh and clean classroom. I'm pretty blessed to have a large classroom with student bathrooms and plenty of storage. I manage to rearrange some furniture and I decided to get rid of my teacher table. Ill post more of my classroom  when I finish the set up. The video above is the before. For most of the day, I manage to simply sit and stare at tables, pondering where they should go. I wish I was able to visualize my classroom and it's set up, but instead I would physically move the giant kidney table (YES ALL BY MYSELF - have bruises to show for it), just to see what it would look like if I place it there or there, no wait..maybe there...

How I Line Up my Kinders + FREEBIE

Okay, once again, I've been a bad blogger, but to make it up for you I've place a new Freebie on TPT (for a limited time).

I've always assign my students a number based on my class roster. My students are required to line up alphabetically for lunch, and lets face it...it's a nightmare for the first few weeks in Kindergarten. To curb this problem, I created Ten Frame Number Cards, laminated and taped them to the floor. Each student also has a name tag with their name and corresponding number. They learn that that is their spot and there ins't any arguments for who is first. (I'll take pictures later.) It's also great for emergencies if students must immediately evacuate the classroom without chaos. We practice getting into our line spots the fastest and safest way before leaving the classroom. Within a few weeks, most of my students are able to tell me all of their friends numbers and place them in order. This year, I decided to make them into ten frames based on suggestions from colleagues. They will be listed as FREE on TPT for a week (until August 9). I'd appreciate it if you follow my TPT or blog and leave any feedback. Click on the picture below to be sent TPT.