New Collaborative Blog Post

I recently mentioned that I am part of a new collaborative blog called Who's Who and Who's New!  Well, today I published my first post over there!

Head over and learn about The Power of Graphic Organizers!

Five for Friday {1-17-14}

I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching!  It's Friday and that means it's time for Kacey's weekly linky!

Here is a little peek into my classroom this week!

We have had some HOT days here in Southern California this week.  Here is what our weather chart looked like all week!  We have been in the 80's for the whole week!  HOT and SUNNY!

I'm hoping for a cool down!  I mean it IS January!

Finally found a solution for my Bucket Filling wall.  This wall changes temperature like the weather outside.  I started the year using Stikki Clips, which I love.  But they were not strong enough to hold the metal buckets. When the wall got too warm or too cold, the buckets started popping off and spilling pompoms all over the floor!

After trying a few other options, that did not work, I found out that I could use my staple gun on the wall.  So I stapled some felt to the wall and attached the buckets to the felt with safety pins!  Fingers crossed that this will last the rest of the year.  My kiddos love to fill buckets!

I let my kiddos pick their table names.  I give them some time to discuss choices with their table mates and they all have to agree!  This is what they came up with this time around!

I try to create a story map with most of the stories that I read in class.  This story map covers standard RL.K.3 - with prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

This is a story map from the latest book we read, Mole and the Baby Bird.

We made fun little hats today after learning about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Looking forward to a 3-day weekend!!!

Chinese New Year Lantern {FREEBIE}!

I'm linking up with Teaching With Nancy's weekly linky TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Free!

We will be celebrating Chinese New Year this year on my birthday, January 31!  I made a fun freebie for you to use with your students.

This freebie includes two different versions of a lantern.

One version is a simple one where students record the current year and animal from the Chinese zodiac.

The other version has students fill in their year of birth, the animal from the Chinese zodiac, and two characteristics that they have.

I have also included Chinese zodiac cards for your older students to use to complete the more advanced lantern.

Head over to my TpT store to pick up the FREEBIE!