Last of Community Helpers...

I am finally around to posting our community helpers math centers.  We did a fun survey and asked our friends what they wanted to be when they grow up.  They loved this activity...I think they liked carrying around the class list and crossing the names out after asking the question, which by the way, helped a lot.  I've done surveys before but never gave them a list to carry with them...duh.  Oh, and Tally the toppings was another fave...so fun.  They got in the floor and counted their little hearts out.    

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These little guys were super easy, super fast, and fun to make.  This activity can be found in my store...it is a collaborative project between Jamie Mayas and I.  Aren't they cute!

My unit time is crunched this year so a 15-20 minute activity is perfect!  :)

I will try to post some freebies at some point...Sorry I've been slacking here lately on the freebies.  

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Oh, and I have a post coming up to answer lots of e-mail questions...if you have one ask me, and I'll do my best to answer if I get the same question a lot.

Mirrors and Literacy??

Long time no blog seems like...anywho; we finished up learning about penguins this week...such a fun unit to teach.  I totally forgot to snap a pic of our learning chart!  The kids loved learning about these little guys...check out the pics below!  

waddling like a penguin...tricky, but every "penguin" got to eat krill when they reached me!

sight word hunt...they always love to get movin' round the room!

Okay, so my kids were beyond excited about this little center!  How cool to use mirrors for learning!  They totally loved this center.  I know I will have to make another one of these!

we are doing so great reading words!

I got this fun idea from Deanna Jump...we practiced odd and even counting and numbers

we watched live penguins from the national aviary...sorry for the "not so good" picture, but we got to watch the penguins feed....you may can see the workers in there with them.  We watched them waddle up the rock hill and one fell in the water...poor thing!  But, oh my...so much fun!

We practiced sorting blends onto the correct cone

They asked to play it over and over

I gave this as a freebie last year, but I know some people have had problems downloading it...not sure what's up.  I can load it in my tpt store for free because it's DJ Inkers.

beginning and ending sounds

Cute little paper bag penguin from Kim Jordano over at kinderbykim

I've uploaded the penguin measuring and patterning activity from last week's earlier post...it's in my tpt store for FREE...I've had problems with scribd archiving my things, so I'm gonna do all of my freebies through tpt...that way it's always there and for free!

The rest of these penguin centers can be found in my penguin unit.

Penguin Math

We are studying penguins this week...one of my favorite units all year!  Here's our math centers and a fun little math "art-tivity".  You can find these centers (plus lots more) in my Playful Penguin Unit over at my tpt shop.

Literacy centers to come later this week!  

And, I just posted my Happy Hearts Valentines Unit on tpt if you want to check it out.  

Thanks, as always, for reading my blog.  I'll give my new Penguin Unit to one random person that comments on this post.  Be sure to leave your e-mail in your comment so you can grab your freebie!  

Good Luck!

*comments until 11:59 count*

Mitten Centers & a Giveaway!

First, go check out the FAB giveaway at Mrs. Bearden's Class...if you're the winner you will receive my new Playful Penguin Unit and Jamie Mayas' Patriotic Pack..head on over and leave your entries on HER BLOG.  Giveaway ends Sunday night!  


Our theme this week focused around the book The Mitten by Jan Brett.  So do our centers.  Here are some of our centers for the week.  You can find all of these in my Mitten Unit Here.  I have been really bad about taking "action shots" this year during centers, but hopefully you get an idea of what's going on in our classroom.  

A new spin on patterning...using a code

I goofed on this sheet...I will get this fixed...sorry friends! (if you bought the mitten unit)

Have you ever read Move Over Rover by Karen Beaumont?  It's the cutest little story about animals who want to squeeze in the dog's house to stay dry until along comes a skunk...you can probably guess what happens...

We retold The Mitten using our story props and story strip...and this cute little "paper bag mitten" that houses our props...you can find this in my mitten unit too!  :)

this was a fun twist on sight words...challenging

adorable symmetrical mittens...this was a partner activity...their design had to be symmetrical and they had to discuss their design together.

We compared The Mitten and The Hat by Jan Brett

Our 100 year old people...from Deanna Jump's 100th day Unit