Central Illinois Tornado Victim Fundraiser

As I was sweeping up glass from a table which was shattered last Sunday in the storm I just kept thinking this is such small potatoes in comparison to what my neighboring communities are cleaning up.  It also confirmed how important it is to reach out and help these communities.  Usually tornadoes are spring and summer events, not fall.  So many lost their homes and everything they own and with winter fast approaching offering very little time to recover.  

I felt an overwhelming need to help in some way and decided to contact TPT to see if there was any way they would help sponsor or support a fundraiser for these victims.  They have been wonderful helping me get everything set up and along the way I met two wonderful ladies who had the same thought as I did.  We have teamed up together and beginning December 1st will be offering to you a fantastic opportunity to help as well.  There will be several different bundles of products offered to you for a cost, but in return you will receive some wonderful products donated by many teachers and clipart artists on TPT.  Later this week I will post on my Facebook page, as well as here the store address.  I hope you will come check out our TPT store where these fabulous bundles will be offered for the month of December. 

A special thanks Amanda Pauley, Cindy Feeney who have worked with me on gathering donations and getting the fundraiser organized.  And, I can't thank all of you who have donated enough!!  Your generosity has touched me deeply and I know the victims of the tornadoes of Central Illinois will be thankful for any help we can offer. 

More news to come soon!!

This adorable little graphic was designed just for us by Nikki of Melonheadz!!

Yippee! I'm a little ahead of schedule with this week's newsletter. Well, not really. But, it felt good saying I was ahead for once. Hopefully, I will remember to print it off in the morning and get it into your little cowpoke's binder. Thank you all so much for taking time to visit with me during Parent/Teacher conferences!! I am so proud of your little ones! Also, here are 2 Math Talk pictures for the weekend. I just couldn't choose! Have fun talking math together!

"Frankie"  

 Found this super cute little Frankenstein on Pinterest to go along with our "Frank" Literacy and Math Unit. It was originally posted here.  So glad I found this post.  Don't you think they turned out adorable!?? My little cowpokes painted the tissue paper on wax paper last week during Centers and then we finished them up today! Tell me what you think!!

"Writing the Room"

My little cowpokes this year love writing the room.  They are so sweet going right outside our doorway to write "my" name or one of their little friends names off our spooky jack-o-lanterns.  I found these super cute little "bat" and "skeleton" glasses at Dollar Tree a couple of weeks ago.  Check out these fabulous little writers!!

Positional Words!!

What an absolutely great day we had today!! We began by working on positional words today while looking at our Math Talk picture about an apple orchard. It was a little hard, but they did amazing!!

One of our Common Core Standards is for the little cowpokes to look at a picture and be able to describe where things are in relationship to other items. For example: the tree is behind the house, the sun is over the trees, or the flowers are next to the house. I will try to post a picture every week for you and your child to talk about together. Here's your first picture!! Have fun!

 

Cowpokes 2013

I wanted to share our adorable little cowpokes with you.  Our classroom theme this year is "cowboys".  Not, Dallas Cowboys (sorry y'all), but the ride 'em cowboy kind.  These little guys took us 3 days in little spurts to make, but I'm so glad we took the time.  Check 'em out!!

Baby Chicks!!

 

Okay, so the little people wanted to see all of their pictures!  :0)
So, I've added them all except for the 2 little sweeties who were absent the day the pictures were taken.  
Our little chicks hatched and our wonderful 1st grade teacher took pictures of all of the little ones with the babies! How cute are these?? This is just a sneak peek of a few of my little people! Love them!

Hug the Earth!

This past weekend I was searching for a cute little idea to use with my little people to teach about Earth Day.  I came across this adorable bulletin board by Katie over at the "Teacher to the Core" and decided my kinders could do this amazing little project.  So, I broke out the Silhouette to cut my letters and attempted to draw the pattern pieces to recreate Katie's creation!

Next, I wanted to add a touch of writing.  So, I hopped our to "The First Grade Parade" and like always Cara Carroll came to my rescue with an Earth Day Promise.  So, I combined the two and my kinders came up with our "Hug the Earth" craftivity!  

 I promise to never litter.  I promise to pick up trash!

 I promise to grow trees and plant flowers.

 I promise to pick up garbage because it is bad for the Earth.

Thank you Cara and Katie for your wonderful ideas!!

Goodwill Donation Time!!

OK it's time to start donating all of your goodies you no longer want! Starting tomorrow you can turn in items to the Canton Good Will through the 23rd. Each of your children brought home about 15 coupons right before Spring Break. The coupons MUST be turned in with your items in order to count for our class. Please try to spread out your bags of items or find lots of friends who will actually take items to donate! The class with the most items turned in will get a pizza party and $150 to spend in their classroom! You only have to donate one item to count for our class! Spring cleaning! Woo!  Hoo!

Splat the Cat Where is the Easter Bunny?

 Oh, we had so much fun today making our Splats and doing the little writing activity. This is from a pack by Christie over at First Grade Fever. It reinforced our study of characters, setting, fiction, nonfiction and retelling all in one little craftivity!! 

Who could ask for more! Thanks Christie!

Happy Easter Splat!!  A look at our wall!

 

A couple closeups of the writing portion.  Our eggs were just a bit too big, so our legs are just peeking out!

First 2 bunnies are by Kole and Konnor.

Kole - Splat the Cat was trying to find the Easter Bunny.  He looked everywhere.

Konnor - Splat the Cat was looking for the Easter Bunny.

 Next 2 bunnies are by Nat and Olivia.

Nat - He left him a giant egg.  He looked in his toy car.  He looked in the bathroom. He looked in the shed.
Olivia - He could not find the Easter Bunny.  He was on his head silly cat.

Little Popcorn Scientists!!

So, today the little people were popcorn scientists! It was a quite "yummy" experiment.

Our popcorn experiment results!

The first step of our experiment was to "smell" our popcorn.  The little people came up with all kinds of adjectives to describe their popcorn by smell.  Some of their choices were:  good and buttery.  They all agreed that when it pops it sounds "poppy".

Next, the little people checked out how the popcorn felt.  They thought the it felt bumpy, squishy and soft.  When looking at their popcorn the decided it looked white, yellow, bumpy, light and like little clouds.

Tasting was our favorite part of the experiment!!  It was yummy, delicious, crunchy, salty and some even thought it tasted sweet!  What a fun way to experiment using our 5 senses!

Little Bunnies Writing the Room!!

Oh my goodness, these guys were so dang cute! I found these adorable little bunny masks at the Dollar Tree.  So, I just had to have them for our Writing the Room Center.  The kids were as excited about them as I was.  They were even hopping as they went from one place to another writing their words!!  I was laughing and enjoying just watching them. Everyone wants to be in the Bunny Writing Center this week!!

 Such a cute little bunny!

 Oh my!  Isn't he something? Here, look what I wrote!

 Here, look what I wrote!

 Check out the 3 little bunnies in the back right hand corner working together!