Halloween!

Well this school year has made an interesting twist. I have been put on bed rest, at least for this week. I am 31 weeks along and I have been having contractions for a week. I was planning on getting started on all of my sub plans for while I am out, however now a match has been lit under me to do lessons from now until the end of my planned maternity leave. (My leave is scheduled to start mid Dec. and end in Feb.) Halloween is in a couple of weeks however my kids are learning about pumpkins this week. I made a group activity of matching shapes on pumpkins. I just made up some simple cards. I play this during group time and I give each child a card and tell them to find their partner with the matching card. Once everyone has found their partner/match I have each group tell me what shape they have. This helps to not put one child in the spotlight but they can work together.
Maybe in the next few days I will be putting up different activities. They maybe all sorts of different themes with the time frame I am writing for.

You can download the jpg here or go to my tpt store to get it for free :)

Its mail time!

I went to work with a kiddo in their home recently and the parents asked me to work on the skill of learning her address that day. I did some activities that day with what I had and then went home and made this for the next time that I went to their house. It is just an address packet with a place for their information and blank envelopes for them to use. One of the pages also has a list of addresses for the children to practice sending pretend letter to... however some of the addresses will get you a response. (Mickey's, Cinderella's, Kermit's Judy Blume's, and Sesame Street's) I laminated the address page and the envelopes and they are at the writing center for the children to practice with.

This packet is available on my tpt site for free.

Letter Center

So, the last week has been one of the most emotional weeks of my life. I had a student die from the classroom that I had student taught in since August and I started a new job. With all of that stress I ended up sick... But thats ok... I am a stronger person for making it through the last two weeks... any my house does not look awful ;) I started thinking tonight about my Saturday morning and decided to make something. This is just my own version of something that has been done many times (sorry, little creativity left this week) however this is free for you to print off. Just click on the pictures and save off of that. If you want the files email me and I would be happy to send them. I found the font at: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/lessonplans/ig/Free-Print---Cursive-Fonts/Print-Clearly-Dashed.htm. I think I will be using this font a lot from now on because it is a great kid font and what is a better price then free right?

Here is my partially done example

New Job and new printable!

Today is an exciting day! I was hired on at a great childcare center last night and I am so excited to start next week!

However today I am spending time preparing for a kiddo that I spend time with on Saturday morning. She is a sweet little girl and I am excited to use some new things I have created with her. Something I created today in preparation for tomorrow is a letter and number match. It is a dollar on tpt. Have fun with the matching. I know I will be having fun with them tomorrow!!!

~Amanda


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valintines-letters-and-numbers

http://www.scrappindoodles.com/index.php?main_page=conditions

Games

I love games. They are a great way to slip in learning in a fun way. However I sometimes have a habit of changing the way a game is played. Here are some games I like and how I play them. They are all available on Amazon however I love getting games at little shops and on clearance isle. Goodwill and places like it are also really good for games and books.

Big Fish Lil' fish- I use this game for comparing numbers.  It has two digit numbers so it can be played for a long time. I use it like a war style game game were all players put their card down at one time. The person with the largest card gets all of the cards. The goal is to get the most cards. Ater we play for a while I start to have the children verbally tell be why a number on a card is bigger then the others ie "54 is larger then 34 because there is a five and a three in the tens place and 5 is bigger then three." This adds another level of complexity and helps with verbal skills.
note: If the player guesses then I get all of the cards or they go into a center pot that no one gets. 

Zingo- This is one of my favorite games because the children are able to play a game of bingo by themselves. The regular game is good for kiddos that are working on matching skills. If you want to add another level make cards up that are rhyming words to the Zingo cards. I have made a set for myself and will email them to you if you would like. Here is an example of what the cards look like:

Brown and Pink letters

WOW! I love brown and pink. Our wedding was brown and pink, our house has a lot of brown and pink, and why not add some letters to my classroom that are brown and pink. They can be used during this time of sweet... or any day! These are great for matching and any other fun stuff you can think of with letter. I like to do an activity were I hide the lowercase letters around the room and I have the uppercase letters at circle time. I tell the kids that the grown up letters have lost their little letters and we need to be letter detective to find them. We then think of what the little letter looks like to help us find it in the room. Then a child goes on the hunt. If they are having troubles they can ask from clues. Clues include asking for a hit of what it is by, asking a friend to write it in the air, having the class make the letter's sound, or for it to be drawn on the board. I love to think out of the box of ways to bring in letters to the classroom. The number one goal is for kiddos to fall in love with letters and not to despise them because they are thrown at them all of the time.

I have the letters all made up for you at tpt. It is free because I made them on my own so I don't have to charge for them because I did not use any clip art. Hope you have fun with them. I would LOVE to hear how you used them in your classroom.

Cute little gingerbread men :)

There are so many things that can be done with these cute little guys :) This is an activity that incorporates numbers, ordering, positioning, writing, and drawing. This is a great Christmas time activity or anytime you want some cute little gingerbread to join your world. It is $1 on tpt. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gingergread-Men-Orders

clip art from: http://www.scrappindoodles.com