Do I Smell Tacos?!?! Five for Friday & Friday Flashback

It is Friday, which means that my momma arrives today! Yay! :) She will be here in just a bit, so I wanted to share my week with you...take a peek!

1. After we read Jack & the Beanstalk we planted our own beanstalks. Our seeds had been in our greenhouses so we could observe them starting to come out of the seed coat and sprout. On Wednesday we took the seed and placed it in a clear cup with soil. Then we recreated the setting of Jack & the Beanstalk by placing a castle and clouds on a skewer. The castle says "___________ & the Beanstalk". The kids went BANANAS for this activity. Fe Fi Fo Fum. I found this idea from this great blogpost by Lessons from a Teacher. The plan is for the beanstalk to grow up the skewer. When it does, I will add the kids picture "climbing" up the beanstalk!

2. Not that I am counting...but... :)

29 was on Thursday when I took that picture, so really only 28 more days! I am running out of energy, I don't know about you!

3. If you know me at all, then you know that I LOVE me some tacos! Seriously folks!!! I get excited every year when May starts to roll around...yup...Cinco de Mayo!! It's the little things in life, right?!?! Well in honor of the great taco holiday my class always does some fun Cinco de Mayo activities. I get my class a piñata and we do piñata predictions. We make tacos, eat some spicy food and of course we wear some fabulous sombreros! It is a blast. The kids think it is so much fun to "speak" spanish (we learn a few words throughout the week). I love seeing my students excited about diversity. Cinco de Mayo is also a fun way to tie in a social studies lesson about geography and our continent of North America! 

I just finished up this unit and posted it to TPT. If you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo this coming week, check it out! HERE

4. So if you read my blog post last Friday, then you know that last week my little friends were not so kind and in rare form last week. This week I was on a mission to put a stop to that, because I wouldn't be able to survive 28 more days with craziness...no sir-ee! So this week I implemented "I Got My Eye On You". Here is how it works...

I had this little treasure box, and I put all my kids' numbers inside (each student has their own number- I do this for ease on my behalf for filing and bookkeeping but also for the students to have privacy for goal setting and behavior, etc) So before centers, walking in line, or anytime really- I pull out a number. The students don't know what number I have. I tell them that I will be watching the person whose number that I pulled very closely and if that person was appropriate and made good choices for the specific activity he/she earns a treat. Sometimes the treat is a skittle and sometimes it is a sticker. Other times I let them choose from things like sitting at my desk for the day, lunch with me outside at the picnic tables, no homework passes etc. All that really matters folks is that--- AHHHH! Life is so much better this week! 

5. This week I took time to relax and enjoy "the moment". I stopped by the beach this week to unwind and enjoy God's beautiful creation! It was beautiful. I have so much to be thankful for! 

If you made it all the way to the end of this long post, then I will give my Cinco de Mayo Unit away to one person. Just leave a comment below and I will choose a winner some time this weekend!

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Go link up with Doodle Bugs and *Teaching Maddeness*!

 

Fairy Tale Fun!

The past few weeks we have been enjoying our fairy tale unit. My kids especially love The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. We have read many different versions of each story, and the kids never get tired of hearing the stories! They are so cute too because during centers they act out the story, they even change their voice for each character. It is amazing! Over the past week we have made some of our favorite characters, and used them in the retelling of the stories. We also did some writing activities to go along with our little crafts. Check them out!

We did Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The students chose one character from the story, created the character and then wrote a letter to them. On this day I was thrilled because one of my students who is reluctant to do any writing or crafts, was so excited about this activity and was motivated the WHOLE time! Yay!!

We worked on Little Red Riding Hood on Friday, the Big Bad Wolves finished but the Little Red Riding Hoods still have to add a bit more on Monday.

We also did the 3 Little Pigs earlier in the week...I forgot to take a picture. The kids wrote an opinion piece about who they really believed the Pigs' story or the Big Bad Wolf. 

Here is a picture of all the writing pieces together, it is a little messy for my taste, but the kids INSISTED I hang them up! :)

Here are some of my favorite writing pieces...

Top piece says, "Dear Goldilocks, I hope you don't go in strangers houses because they can get you." 

Bottom piece says, "Dear Big Bad Wolf, Next time stay up and get the hunter too. Then you will not die. He can be desert."

If you would like to get your own copy check out my TPT store!

Huff & Puff {Writing Craftivities for the Three Little Pigs}

Over the River & Through the Woods {Little Red Riding Hood Craftivities}

Someone's Been Sleeping In My Bed {Writing Craftivities for the 3 Bears}

 Have a great rest of your weekend!

Five For Friday!

It is my favorite day of the week...IT IS FRIDAY! :) Yay! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five For Friday!

1. We had so much fun with this activity by Rachelle at Life Is Sweet...In Kindergarten! If you haven't checked her out you should...she is SUPER creative and talented. Last week she posted this FREEBIE which was perfect for our learning about 3-D shapes. My kids went crazy for this lesson! Thanks for sharing Rachelle!

2. We finished learning about living and nonliving things. I swear every day the kids are pointing out living and nonliving things to me. Some of the things they come up with are hysterical!

3. As we finished learning about living and nonliving things, we started learning about plants. The kids are so interested in plants. We created our "I wonder" chart and they have so many amazing questions! On Monday we took a "Plant Walk" and made plant observations. The kids took this assignment very serious! Love it! :)

We started creating a model of a flower today, but didn't get to finish...we will have to finish on Monday!

4. These little guys have missed me for FAR too long...every day they give me the "evil eye" telling me   to put them on and go for a jog. For the past few months I have ignored them...BUT I am happy to say the past 2 weeks we have been back in business baby! Yay! 

And since I been trying to exercise, I thought I should be eating a little healthier too. I have been loving greek yogurt. I have found so many ways to use it to replace other not so nutritious but oh so delicious foods!

5. My kids are absolutely in LOVE with fairy tales. We are right in the middle of our fairy tale unit and I wish I could video tape them...no seriously! They are too much. They reenact every fairy tale to PERFECTION! Even my little friends that are usually shy and quiet volunteer to be characters in the fairy tale. Today when we had indoor recess due to the weather I had kids fighting over who was going to the "Fairy Tale" center to act out the fairy tales. So since they are so into the fairy tales I have been working on some craftivities to go along with different characters. I hope to have them finished and posted to TPT by tomorrow!

If you are looking for activities, centers and craftivities for Earth Day, stop on over to TPT and check out my unit!

Well I am off to have dinner with my handsome man...I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday!

I know I know...it has been FOREVER! My practicum student pointed out today that I am way behind on blogging...OOPS! So I am linking up with Kacey again for Five for Friday to give you a peek at what is happening in my room! 

Here are five random things about my week: 

 On Monday we are going to use marshmallows and toothpicks to make cubes! Yummy math...oh yeah!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to this week! Remember to head on over to Doodle Bugs and link up!

I hope to be back tomorrow with a plant unit!! Happy Weekend! :)