That week....

I call it the limbo week. It is the week between Thanksgiving and the first full week of December. I am planning to do a quick theme on hibernation. We've had some frosty mornings here in St. Louis but no snow yet. With the leaves almost all off the trees it is easier to see the wildlife so calling attention to what the animals do in winter will be perfect.

I love the book, "Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson. It came with our Treasures series which also included a set of sequencing cards. I like to show it on the smart board to grab the student's attention. Being able to see the pictures and hear the story on the large white board seems to engage the students a little better than trying to focus on the book in my hand. I will revisit the book later when I want to recall specific details. 
A good Youtube version of this story can be found here: Bear Snores On

Leslie Hope has a really cute "Bear Snores On" Literacy and Math Activities Set on TpT that I use to extend this book in the classroom.

For my fluency practice at school and at home I created an emergent reader "Go To Sleep, Little Friend". It is found in my Emergent Readers for December and Winter bundle.  This emergent reader shows five animals sleeping in their natural habitat. It targets the following high frequency words: a, can, go, I, is, it, little, see, the, to. The vocabulary Words that are introduced in the reader include: bat, bear, frog, snake, squirrel, sleep, friend.

           

Emergent Readers for December and Winter

Another fun book to read is "Hibernation Station" by Michelle Meadows.  It has an adorable rhyming text that introduces children to different types of hibernating animals. I absolutely love the pictures of the animals in their pajamas!

I think a fun way to end our week of studying animals that hibernate would be to have Pajama Day! We could pull out the Finger Lights and read our books about animals that sleep in the winter with the lights off!  

You can find 40 Finger Lights on Amazon for $8.29. Let me tell you, the kids love them!

I hope this post will help you through the limbo week!

Magical Wizards Behavior Clip Chart

A colleague of mine mentioned that her class was called the Wizards. I thought that theme would look pretty cool in the Behavior Clip Charts especially when I found some vibrant  Watercolor Star Papers on TpT from Creative Clips! If your classroom mascot is a wizard this may be the clip chart for you!

Foreign Exchange Student Fun in St. Louis

In my previous blog I shared some insights about hosting a foreign exchange student. We were amazed to see how many cool things there are to do in St. Louis. We live about 20 minutes from downtown and every time we traveled that direction our motto became "You can't go to downtown St. Louis without stopping at Ted Drewes for frozen custard!" Our German daughter, Isabell, said she always had room for ice cream! Enjoy our pics from in and around St. Louis:

Yummy Chocolate!

Backstage Tour

The girls at the Old Courthouse.

Heading up in the Arch

Tom Sawyer Riverboat Cruise

Strike a pose!

St. Louis Ball Park Village

Isabell's First Baseball Game!

It was a great game!

View from the Arch at night - Fireworks were a bonus

as a result of the grand re-opening of the Riverfront!

The Blue Owl in Kimmswick

Billikens Basketball Game 

St. Louis Union Station

Elephant Rock

Baby chicks from my classroom

High School Prom at The Falls

One of our MANY trips to Ted Drewes!

A New Experience for Our Family

In January we volunteered to host a foreign exchange student who was displaced by a local flood. Her former host family had to move in with their relatives and there wasn't room for Isabell. We had the room and our daughter already knew Isabell from school. We found out a lot of things with this experience. 1) two teenage girls make more noise than one! 2) you never really know someone until they come to live with you! 3)we don't eat enough vegetables! 4) St. Louis has sooo many cool places we had never been to and 4) we really enjoy showing off our great country!
    Not too many things make you a prouder American then when you have the opportunity to show off our city, state and country. We flew out to Vegas after school was out because Isabell wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Here are a few wonderful things we were able to experience with our German daughter (she's the tall one) on that trip:

I would be remiss if I didn't share some of our fun times in St. Louis too! I will share some of those activities in my next blog post!

New Themes for Behavior Clip Charts

Happy Summer to all of my early childhood friends!

My creative juices are flowing now that I have a little bit of time to relax and think. Kindergarten keeps me hopping and this year we hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany. I would highly recommend doing this! We found that this experience encouraged us to get out and see our city and surrounding areas through the eyes of our German daughter. We also learned quite a bit about her country as well. Nature, Gnomes, Fairies and Forest Animals are seen a lot in their children's art. That gave me an idea that was also supported by a lot of fairy gardens and forest-themed classrooms popping up on Pinterest. I just uploaded a new behavior clip chart in my TpT store! The Woodland Animals turned out so cute! If you are looking for Woodland Animals to add to your Forest/Camping theme then be sure to check out the behavior clip chart: Click on this link to visit my store: Woodland Animals Behavior Clip Chart

Valentine's Day emergent reader

Just in time for Valentine's! This sweet emergent reader shows the many ways to show someone you care. Using four high frequency words and a variety of Valentine vocabulary words, this repetitive text and adorable clip art will get your little ones excited about Valentine's Day! 

Check out this sweet emergent reader on TpT!

Polar Animal Research Packet

Brrr....It's cold outside and we had a snow day last week! Perfect weather for this Polar Animal Packet. It is designed so students can research and write about 22+ different polar animals. 

Depending on your grade and student abilities, the research can be done in whole groups, small groups or individual.  Students can record what they learn on class charts, single pages, or in their research journals! Use the fact-filled slide show and anchor chart headings to make learning fun and concrete. You can choose how many or few animals you want to research.

Also included in the packets are label pages for the students to complete and color. Students can use the cut and glue labels or write the words.

Polar animal picture and vocabulary cards are included for your writing center.

Polar Animal Research Packet