Pillow covers from bath towels

Hopping from blog to blog, I see so many adorable ideas! I love this great idea for making pillow covers made from bath towels. Since I am implementing the Daily 5 in Kinderworld, I need lots of fun and cozy places to sit and read. These would add to my book nook areas. I am hoping to find some western looking towels for my room.
I originally saw this idea on Chalk Talk, but it is from Deedee's blog. 

 Click here to find out how to make your own.

Cuteness Tricks

Here are some of my "Cuteness Tricks" I use in Kinderworld!

Thanks Pinterest for the great ideas!

Brain Sprinkles!

Sprinkle some brain booster on the kids while they take a 

spelling test, work on the Daily 5 or a PBL project.

I got the container at Ross and the pom-poms at Michaels.

Quite Critters

These critters are in a lock tight container.

They are VERY shy and only come out when it is extremely quiet.

They like to sit with students who are working quietly at their seats.

I got the container at the Dollar Store

Quiet Spray

Spray a little quietness on students before a read aloud or mini lesson.

I got the spray bottle at the Dollar Store.

Fairy Dust!

I tell the kids I put a magic potion on them and they have to freeze and be very still, 

like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. They think this is a VERY fun game and it works wonders!

Thanks  Zeek's Zoo for the ideas from Pinterest! 

Tech for Learning

I love Tech for Learning!!!

 

I use PIXIE, FRAMES, IMAGE BLENDER, SHARE and WIXIE in my kindergarten classroom.

It is possible!!!


PIXIE is exciting creativity software students can use to share ideas, imagination, and understanding through a combination of text, original artwork, voice narration, and images.

Click here to view a Pixie introduction video

 These are some of the movies my kindergarten class has made using PIXIE!

 

 

Animal Similes using Cool Word on PIXIE

 

 

A Wocket in My Pocket (adadpted from the Dr. Seuss book)

We made this during Dr. Seuss week and it was  agreat way to practice rhyming.

 

 

Math Patterns

 

Pumpkin Fun!

We created a class movie of our field trip to the pumpkin patch.

 

Community Helpers Movie

 

Neighborhood Video

 

 

Our Kinder"garden" plant videos above and below

 

 

Parts of a Plant Video

 

 

 

I integrate this into my classroom in a variety of ways:

 

1. Whole class

2. One-on-One with a parent or teacher

3. 4/5 Tech Buddies (we work with older buddies to create these prjects)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books

I found this on Pinterest. This is a great resource to give to parents.

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Brain Boosters

BRAIN BOOSTERS

In Kinderworld, the kiddos definitely need time to MOVE! 

 ACTIVITY STICKS

I got this idea from Keep Calm and Teach. Basically, when the kids are starting to drift  say "activity time!", set the timer for one minute and draw an activity. Do the activity until you finish or the timer goes off.

Thank you to Keep Calm and Teach for these FREE template labels.    
Go to her blog to download the labels.                                                 

Pirates

AHOY MATEY!!!

Besides Gingerbread Man Week, PIRATE WEEK is a kindergarten FAVORITE for sure!!!!!!

If I didn't have a western theme, this would be my next pick!

We spent a week on this unit because there is so many FUN activities!

We had PIRATE DAY and all the kids dressed up as pirates.

We even turned our covered wagon into a pirate ship!

Click here to get FREEBIES

Purchase at TPT

Purchase at TPT

Love these ideas from The Inspired Apple

                            KWL Chart                                         Why do pirates wear an eye patch?

Deanna Jump has a ton of really cute ideas.

This is a picture from my memory book.

                           We practiced reading our sight words with pirate themed sentences:

Source: Ketchen's Kindergarten

                   For Writer's Workshop, we took some time to respond to these pirate prompts:

:

                                                        We wrote AR an OR words.

                                                               We sorted ch and sh words:

Source: Ketchen's Kindergarten

 

 

 

Other cute ideas:

We played a lot of learning games on Jake and the Neverland Pirates site.

We read Pirate books on our tag readers.

Source

On the last day, Jack Sparrow came and stole our treasure chest!!!!

He left us a treasure map and clues so we could go on a treasure hunt.

Watch this adorable video of my amazing student teacher reading the clues! 

This is a map of our school. We had 4 clues.

We made telescopes with paper towel rolls and foil.

Source

 Clue 1: We had to read a Big Book together to get the first clue.

 Clue 2: We had to solve addition and subtraction problems.

Clue 3: We had to put the days of the week and months of the year in order on the magnetic shed.

Clue 4: We had to read -ar words we learned from that week (-aarrgh words...cute hah!)

 Clue 5: We found the giant red X! The kids had to search the playground for the treasure!

We finally found it. jack Sparrow can't fool us!

Our treasure chest was full of goodies: gold da bloom, pirate pencils and coloring books and

 pirate booty popcorn. 

We made pirate hats and had a pirate party.

Pirate Hat Printable 

FOOD IDEAS::

Yummy pirate cupcakes!  ARGH!

Pinterest Ideas

                                           

                                                                    Cannon Balls & Jolly Pirate Fish

................

                                                                    

                                                                    

Eat PIRATE SAND!

How to make sand pudding interactive writing

Source

Three step how to writing

Below are the pirate YOUTUBE videos we watch during the week.

Pirate Math

Hiedi's -ar Pirate Song

 Silly Pirate Song (Jack Hartmann)

Portside Pirate

Roll Up the Map - Disney Junior - Jake & the Neverland Pirates

Talk Like a Pirate - Disney Junior - Jake & the Neverland Pirates

No David

NO DAVID!

I LOVE reading this story the first week of school! 

It is a great way to talk about class rules and expectations.

 Throughout the year, I ask the students, "Is that something David would do?".

I am excited to do this new art and writing project.

Download the freebies david-learns-school-rules freebie packet. The packet includes art templates, and paper that says School Rules as well.

Thank you Fall into first for this FREEBIE!

These are our DAVID PORTRAITS BELOW!!!!

We also made an anchor chart: Peacebuilder or Peacebreaker

I bought these Peace-maker/Peace-breaker Cards at TPT. Click to buy them.