New WESTERN Book Nook box

I love our new 

WESTERN BOOK NOOK BOX.

My student teacher, Ms. Buck, put so much time into making it look so
creative and colorful.

The students will be able to choose this as one of their books nooks during
READ TO SELF.

The front is THE BEST WESTERN with adorable swinging doors.

The next side has a cowgirl on it.

This is an angular view of the front and side.

This is the back. It's a Western jail.

It has a Sheriff badge, wagon wheel and cactus on it.

The bars are wrapped in foil.

The other side has a cowboy.

This is an angular view of the back and side.

I LOVVVVVVEEEE IT!!!!!!!!!

Letter and Word Munchers

I made these cute little LETTER and WORD MUNCHERS from trash cans from the Dollar Store.

I am going to hot glue a mini clothespin on each of them and change what the "munch" on.

For example, when we are learning the "at" and "an" families, I will put the words out and kids will need to read them and determine if what MUNCHER will eat them.

AUTHOR STUDY:Kevin Henkes

Making Connections between all the books:

I made this Kevin Henkes Chart. I found the pictures on his website.

This is from Kevin Henkes website.

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Introduction:

Show all of Kevin Henkes stories and explain that the students we will be learning all about a special author. Explain what an author is.

Opener: Show Youtube video "Meet Kevin Henkes"

 Chrysanthemum

-Practice reading the pictures and the words

-Activity: Color their own names and count how many letters they have

*Optional homework: Name Study.  Send home a note and have parents tell their children why they chose their name; what it means; where it came from; and any other neat facts.

-Later, graph their names "How many letters are in your name?"

(compare and contrast names using math vocabulary: more, less, equal, most)

-Activity: Rip art names (write names with white chalk on black paper and have students put paper strips on their letters

Show Youtube Video of Chrysanthemum

While watching the video, do Crinkled Heart activity:

Display a large red heart and explain how it looks so crisp and beautiful.

Hand the heart to a student at the rug and give him/her instructions to crumple the heart every time they heard something unkind or mean in the story, and then pass it to the next person. By the time the story is over our heart is very tattered, ripped and sad looking. Ask 2-3 students to try and iron it out. We talked about how hard it is to make our hearts look and feel better after hearing such mean and unkind words. I wote the kids names on bandaides and asked them to come up and say a "heart" word or kind word to try and make it better. One by one, they put the Band-Aids all over the heart (and even repaired the rips and tears). This showed them that it is impossible to take away those unkind words, but we can always try to help and make things better. Then we followed up by talking about how we will always use kind words with others and brainstormed a list of kind things we can say. Now we have the heart hanging in our room to serve as a visual reminder to say kind, heartfelt words! 

Note: this is not my idea. I want to give credit where credit is due and I am having a hard time finding the original blog where I found this idea.

Owen

 Compare and Contrast the Owen and Chrysanthemum

Click here for OWEN

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse:
I dress up as Lilly and also dress a student up as Lilly.

I made my own purple purse from flannel and put plastic inside.

I created a booklet about 3D shapes (since it ties in with our math).

We learned about writing a friendly letter. We used Lilly's body to label the 5 parts of a friendly letter:
 date, header, body, closing, signature. 

Activity: We wrote a friendly letter as a class to our kindergarten friends in the room next to us. Then, the students chose someone to write a letter to and did this independently.
We will continue to look at Lilly when we start writing letters to our pen pals.

We also read: Sheila Rae, The Brave
Wemberly Worried

DIY Projects

I have always loved being crafty and creative, but ever since I discovered PINTEREST, it's taken over my life with projects (but I love every minute of it!).

These are some Pinterest inspired projects I have created.

PROJECT: TO DO LISTS in frames with homemade bows.

 

I made the to do list on power point with KPM Doodles.

Below are the steps I used for making a cute bow.

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Step 1: Drape the longest piece of ribbon over your hand, wrapping twice so that the ends of the ribbon face opposite directions.

Step 2: Place the folded ribbon on a flat surface.

Step 3: Gather and pinch the center of the ribbon to create a bow. 

Step 4: I pulled and messed with the ribbon while pinching it to make it look full and cute.

Step 5: Cut a long ribbon (about 7 inches)

Step 6: Wrap and tie the ribbon around the center of the bow.

Cut the extra ribbon.

Step 7: Use the extra ribbon and hot glue it to the back of the bow to add more flavor.

Step 8: Hot glue it to the top left side of the frame and cut the ribbon to your desired length.

Walah!!! 

These are some of the To Do List frames I made for my kinder-teacher friends down in KINDERWORLD.

Use a white board marker to write your to-do lists!!!

PROJECT: Reading Phones 

Step 1: Buy PVC Pipe from Home Depot

(I bought 2 bags above)

 

Step 2: Buy on a long PVC Pipe and cut 24 two inch pieces.

Step 3: Attach the PVC Pipe together so it looks like a phone.

Step 4: Spray paint them red (or the color of your choice)

Step 5: The next day, I put a second coat of spray paint on them.

Walhah!!! 

I now have a class set of reading phones that can be used during the Daily Five.

PROJECT: Adorable and Decorated Clothespins 

(I use them to hang up art projects) 

Step 1: I measured and cut paper to fit on a clothespin

and used Hodge Podge to glue it down.

I also put a top coat of it on the top of the paper.

Step 2: I hot glued buttons, rhinestones and raffia to the clothespins.

 Adorable!

Below are some clothespins I made for my bedroom:

  

 I got this cork board at Home Goods and added wire and scapbook paper for details.

I hang the clothespins on the wire and use it to display pictures, notes, reminders, etc.

PROJECT: Distressed Door for my bedroom

(I must admit, I found this door in the garage can at my daughter's preschool. The Pinterista in me, knew I could create something cute from it).

 Step 1: Clean it! It was filthy!

Step 2: Add distress marks on it with a hammer, drill, etc.

Step 3: Paint it white.

 

Step 4: The next day, put on a second coat (I used spray paint)

Step 5: Spray paint it the color of your choice.

I love turquoise so much right now!