Read Across America Week

I love being a kindergarten teacher.  One of my favorite things is taking a break from the curriculum and doing an Author's study. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday and always lines up with Read Across America Day.  I love that this day is such a simple reminder of how important reading is.   During Read Across America Week I always pick a Dr. Seuss book for each day and then we do a dress up according to the book and do an activity to go with each book. This week I am reading the following books.

I change it up every year.  Last year I read the stories One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Sleep Book.  When we read The Sleep Book we wear our pajamas and spend some time reading around the room.  

When we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish we wear red or blue to school and we do activities with fish.  One activity we do during math is make a goldfish counting book.  There are two options to this book.  You can either count and color the fish on each page or count and place a goldfish on each page on the book.

During Reading Centers I put out this sensory bin.  The students match the uppercase letter fish to the lowercase letter fish bowl.  You can place them in a sensory bin or have the students simply make matches. 

You can find these 2 products here in my TPT store.

Teacher Survival Kit

On my desk at school I have some of my favorite things.  I have this super cute mug I got at Target that holds my pens and pencils, I have a ceramic apple a student gave me and a picture from my wedding day.  But some of the most valuable things are inside my desk, my teacher survival kit.  It contains:

1.  Band Aids
At the beginning of each year I got a bag of band aids from the nurse to keep in my desk.  It cuts down on the trips to the nurses office.

2. Deodorant
I can't tell you how many times I would get to school and realize I had forgotten to put some on that morning.  Much needed life savor.

3. Water Bottle
I always have a spare in my room because at some point during the year I forget mine at home...usually it's filled and ready to go on the kitchen counter.

4. Hair Bands
For those days where it is hot or windy and you have to go to recess duty.

5. Chap Stick
You know why.

6. Nail Kit
Why do my nails always seem to break at work?

7. Mints
For coffee breath, meetings with the principal or for after lunch.  Children are honest and will tell you if your breath stinks.

8. Lotion
I live in the Midwest and dry skin is a very real thing here in the winter.

9. Hand Sanitizer
For all the germs.  Why do they always sneeze and cough on me?

10.  Disinfectant Spray
For flu season

11.  Headache Medicine
You never know when you or a colleague will need some.

What do you keep in your kit?

Valentine's Day Crafts

When I switched to teach Kindergarten a fellow Kindergarten teacher gave me advice to do crafts and art projects that don't require a lot of prep.  So with Valentine's this week I wanted to fill my room with some art work and I did 3 art projects that involved easy prep work on my part.

For the first art project I cut out some different size hearts our of card stock and I grabbed some black paper and some pastels.  I then let the kids trace the hearts and smudge the lines with a Q tip to add a cool effect.  The kids loved using the pastels for the first time and I loved that each one was different.

The second craft we did was heart people.  I made some heart patterns for each table group on card stock and I had the kids trace the heart onto red or pink paper.  I then cut one inch strips of paper and I taught the kids how to accordion fold the arms and legs.  Most got it pretty quickly and I only had to help 2 of my students fold the arms and legs.  I then gave them googly eyes and let them put it all together.  The hands and feet are from left over punched out hearts for Valentine's Day boxes. 

Our last art project was the easiest.  This week in Bible we have been learning how Jesus loves children so this was perfect.  I took the lyrics from Jesus loves me and typed them up in word and printed them.  The students then used heart stamps, heart stickers and paper hearts to decorate.  Easy and adorable.

So there you have it.  Simple and easy Valentine's Day crafts.  What do you do in your classroom?

100th Day Book Recommendation and Writing Prompt

Last week was our 100th day of school.  One of the activities we did was read this book100 Wacky Wishes.  Each page had 100 different things that you could count and they were grouped in groups of 10 which makes it easy to count by 10's to save time and practice counting by 10.  The last page allows the kids to practice counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.

Here is a writing activity that pairs nicely with this book.  The kids can write about what they wish they had 100 of.  You can download this for free here.