Spring Garden Ideas…

Yay!  I’m on Spring Break and just a tad excited about that!  It has been a really busy time at school, there are only 33 days of school left!  We have been having lots of fun the last month learning about Plants and Gardens, Bunnies and Eggs.  Here are some pictures of a few  fun plant activities we completed in the last couple of weeks:

We completed this fun activity when we were learning about the parts of a plant.

You can download the words for a part of a plant here:  Parts of a Flower Words.

We also painted paper, cut them out and made a flower, this was project will be part of our Science journals that we have been making.  Here is a picture:

You can download the Spring Flower page here: Flower Science Journal Page

We also had a blast learning and singing this Dr. Jean song posted on You Tube:

We also sang this song from Harry’s Kindergarten:

If you are looking for a TON of great ideas for your Spring Garden theme, then you must check out Mrs. Lee’s Spring Garden Post here.

I have gotten a lot of ideas from Mrs. Lee’s kindergarten, which is definitely one of my all time favorite blogs!  If you would like to purchase the clip art that Mrs. Lee used to make her worksheets, they are from DJ Inker’s May Doodler Download.  It is available to purchase and download for $4.99 from their website :).

Kindergarten Crayons also has a lot of Garden Themed printables available.  You will have to view her posts from the last month or so to find them, but they are well worth the search :).  Click here be taken to this great teaching blog.

Have fun with your little ones while you learn about plants and flowers!

~Barb

A Few Fun Learning Activities to do with Your Winter Themes…

Who doesn’t love the book, Snowmen at Night?  Well Kim Deliva shows us how to sign the word snowmen and gives some great tips for when you read the story aloud here:

I thought that this would be cute to sing in class if you had a Smartboard:

Here is another cute Snowflake poem:

I hope that you enjoy these!  I’ll try to post some more pictures and ideas of projects that we have been completing in class related to our Winter Themes.

~Barbara

My Favorite Teaching Blogs Part 2

A few days ago  I posted about some of my new favorite teaching blogs.  Well–today I’m going to post about some more of my favorite teaching blogs!

Well, I have to tell you, I’m saving the best for last!  Here they are:

1.  Heidi Songs Resource

This is the blog for Heidi Songs, and I have to tell you it is FANTASTIC!  It is full of great ideas and free printables and well just good information!  Here are some things that you will see on her blog:

Heidi has been posting tons of WONDERFUL lesson ideas on her blog the last couple of months like the one here.

She also has been posting a ton of great teaching video’s for the games that she has featured lately.  Here is just one of the great videos:

2.  Kindergarten Kindergarten

This blog is another fantastic blog that is chocked full of wonderful resources.  I am really loving all of the wonderful Math ideas that she has been posting about.  Here are a few:

There are lots of great ideas for math journals.

There are tons of pictures for great ideas for learning centers, like this playdough activity mat.

Lots of great printables and file folder games like this one right here.

3.  Teaching Heart’s Blog

This is the blog for the website Teaching Heart, which is full of great thematic resources and printables.  This blog is also equally fantastic and posts many wonderful teaching ideas and resources.  Here are some pictures from her blog:

Teaching Heart's Blog always has great ideas for using literature, like this picture here for the story, "Spookley the Square Pumpkin"

 

There are lots of great printables, like the picture here.

She has teaching videos on her blog too!

4.  Mrs. Jump’s Class Blog

Deanna Jump’s classroom blog is new, but has quickly become one of my favorites.  I love all of the pictures that she has been posting of things that are happening within her classroom.  It’s inspiring!  Check out some of her wonderful ideas:

 

There are some really cute ideas here for writing and comprehension. Here is an example.

There are lots of creative ideas for projects with your students, like this one here.

 

Well, that’s all for now, but I’m still not finished!  I’ll keep posting about my favorite teaching blogs next week.  Happy blogging and internet surfing everyone!

 

~Barbara

Great New Teaching Blogs On the Web…

Well these blogs are new to me!  I wanted to share some of them with all of you.  Here are some of my new favorites:

1. Chalk Talk:  A Kindergarten Blog

 

Mrs. Larremore's blog always has a ton of great posts and tips for making class books.

 

She also features many posts about great lesson ideas and bulletin boards:

2. Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten

Mrs. Lee’s blog also has a TON of great pictures!  I love how she always posts such great pictures of her classroom projects.  Here are just a few:

 

 

Here is a great idea for graphing!

 

 

 

Lots of pictures for step by step classroom activities

 

 

 

This activity is just too cute!

 

3.  First Grader…at Last

Mrs. Cooley truly is a creative and imaginative teacher and we are all so blessed that she shares her talents with all of us!  Here are some pictures of things you can find on her blog:

 

 

Great Literacy Center Ideas

 

 

Cute anchor chart ideas

 

 

Great math ideas! I wish that I would of thought of keeping empty playdough containers! What a good idea!

 

That’s all that I will be posting for now, but later I will be posting my favorite things from other classroom blogs too.  I’d love to hear about your favorites!  Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite classroom/teaching blogs are.

~Barbara

Smart Board Resources

So I’m a little behind in my postings, but one awesome thing that I have in my classroom that I’m SUPER excited about is a Smart Board.  I can’t wait to use it with my little kiddos next year!

As you can imagine, there are a ton of wonderful resources available on the internet for this type of technology.  I just wanted to share a few resource links with all of you that I have found.  Feel free to share any of your favorite Smart Board resource links too!

• Here is a link to a discussion board about calendar resources to use with your Smart Board:  Smart Board Calendar Resources
• Learning Differently has a page FULL of wonderful links to games, etc to use with your board.  You can access this page here.
• Reading Matters has a wonderful page for Smart Board resources to use with Harcourt’s Storytown Reading Curriculum.  I don’t use this curriculum, but there are lots of useful links to use within any kindergarten or first grade classroom:  Storytown Resources for Kindergarten
• Paraportal.com has a great page full of links to use with a Smart Board for students in preschool through first grade:  Prek-1 Smartboard Fun Links
• ABC Teach also has a page with lots of links to Smart Board resources.  You can access this page here.