WINTER FREEBIES

Hey ya'll! If you haven't noticed, I've taken a little hiatus from blogging. I honestly wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to, so I have been taking a break, while I'm finishing up grad school. I hope to return next school year (2014-15), but until then I'll try and post a few old freebies that I have had a few requests for!

Today I'm bringing back the hot chocolate ten frames that I made a year or two ago. I have uploaded it to my google drive for you to download for free.  Just click on any of the photos below and you will be directed to your free download! =)

This one I tweaked a little bit! I now have it so the kids write down the number words and color words (since those are the words my kids need extra practice with!) And now my kids only need to read number words to ten, but I still included the teen numbers for older grades or for students that may need enrichment. Again, click on the pictures below for the free download!

FIrst week back- stations and organization!

Hey all- just wanted to share some pictures of what I've been up to these past few days!!! 

I changed my station tub labels finally so they match each station label on the rotation chart! Now I don't have to run around the room looking for each activity and where the kids put it! (I was originally using these tubs to differentiate seatwork station- but that  will come later!)

New tub labels!

Here are my centers for our first week back....

Work work center: rhyming words

Big book center (FREE response page found HERE)

Writing center (I still need to print off the picture cards!) I'm going to have them make a list of things they need to build a snowman! (page from packet found HERE)

Our ABC station- stamping word family words

 These are their anchor tubs- activities to do for the early finishers!

Opposites game

Color word songs and matching colors to color word activiity

Puzzles

Fine motor skills

Classification puzzles

Pocket Chart Station

Recording sheet for pocket chart center
can be found in packet HERE (TPT)

Where we keep their library books and check-out folders! This helps me see who has library books to return throughout the day!

New mailbox system!!! =)

After a hard morning- I opened up my planner to discover this scripture I had written for the New Year a while back!.... talk about a God moment =)

Finally posted the dramatic play center words I bought this summer from Growing Kinders!

And funny story- as I was cleaning and putting all their dramatic play toys into bins, I noticed the baby dolls that have been in the room since i started 4  years ago and never realized how OLD they are! hahaha- I think it's about time to get some new ones... ;)

My room - all ready for my kiddos!

New week we are beginning our unit on shapes! I made this chart (inspired by the one found on Kindergarten, Kindergarten!) to fill out as we learn about each shape! 

Here are pictures of our math stations this week:

Trace each shape with stickers

pattern block puzzles

shape puzzles- i love how these have real life objects to match!

Kids will use playdoh to make shapes (We were going to use wiki-stix, but I'm out!)

And I washed the chair pockets my mom made over break and put new name tags in them! 

 Inside their chair pocket- they keep their writing folders, math journals, poetry journals and crayon pouch!

 And on their tables, the little caddy holds extra pencils, glue bottles, and glue sticks.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2013!!!!

Update on my niece!

Hey all! So quick update on my niece! I just got off the phone with my sister who had to come home last night after 3 nights in the hospital. She couldn't take her sweet girl home just yet b/c they still have her on a respirator and a lot of other cords. So sis just called to check in on her this morning and found out that baby Sonorah is completely off the nitric oxide now and they are going ot take her off the oxygen completely today. If all goes well after that, she will be put in an incubator until she shows that she is able to breath completely on her own for a few days with no surprises. I'm so relieved--- our whole family has shared tears these past few days b/c we just want to hold her so bad. But we can't even touch her b/c she's not to be stimulated. (If we wake her up... she could try to rip off all the cords/feeding tube/etc.) So it's been really hard. We haven't seen her smile/cry/etc. yet. We're so anxious to get to know her, hold her ... all that stuff you can take for granted. This baby is very loved and has so many people praying for her. I appreciate the prayers! They are working! Now I'm praying she can get through today.... and continue to show improvements so my sis can take her home soon. That's all I know for now. Here is a sweet video of Sonorah and her daddy... I cried my eyes out (I was in the room when this happened... it was so beautiful.)

Math Stations this week

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My kids LOVE math stations! They are so busy working that I have no problem working in small groups! We have some great stations from Lakeshore that have some wonderful manipulatives included! Here are the stations we did last week:

 I forgot to take a picture of it, but we have this station where the kids copy and extend the patterns. You could take it a step further and have them label the pattern.

One of their FAVORITES! They used the colored beads to create patterns onto pipe cleaners. It was also great for those fine motor skills =)

A Lakeshore station- they could sort the trains by: the size of the animals inside, colors of the train and the animals that were in the train. (Not pictured: They is also another set of cards for patterning!)

Lakeshore instant learning center: The kids used the foam shapes to finish the patterns. (They could also copy the pattern below.)

We just began our Numbers unit... so I just had them use the foam-dough to form the letters and quantity on the mats.

A puzzle where the kids can finish the pattern.

Next week we will have more centers to work on numbers 0-5! =)