Math Freebies

I called this the week of the math freebies. I finally downloaded/printed/laminated all of the awesome freebies that I've found on Pinterest. I have no idea how teachers did it before Pinterest. 

Here are some of the freebies in action during centers this week.

 Arctic Addition: Choose a card with an addition problem, solve the problem, and cover the answer. A great color version is also available.

Snowflake Tally Marks: A simple cut and glue sheet. Great practice for this new skill.

Hot Chocolate Subtraction/Addition: This is technically Christmas themed, but the kids didn't really notice. We had been practicing addition and subtraction with marshmallows anyway, so it fit right into our unit.

Here is a compiled list of where you can get the freebies I used this week. Kuddos to these creative teachers!

Arctic Addition by Rowdy in Room 300

Snowflake Tally Marks by The Printable Princess

Hot Chocolate Addition/Subtraction by Khrys Bosland

Oh and one more! I don't have pictures of it, but we use these cute penguin mats to practice addition stories today. The kiddos used goldfish crackers to tell their stories. It was during one of my observations and worked great!

Penguin Mats by Kroger's Kindergarten 

I spend way too much time on Pinterest, so follow me on there for ideas by season/theme and subject.

https://www.pinterest.com/casey_harlan/

Morning Work

I haven't been up for blogging much this week since I've been fighting off stomach problems, but I'm finally feeling better. When my kinders came back to school after Christmas Break I started them with a new system for their supplies and morning work. It took a lot of set up work at first, but I am very happy with how it is going now. Maybe these suggestions will help another first year teacher.

When I first set up my classroom I had table baskets of supplies simply because that's what I saw most of the other teachers had. I also printed out morning work for my students to work on each day after they were dropped off. This resulted in a lot of fighting over supplies, a lot of time searching for work, and an overwhelming amount of morning work papers stuffed in seat pockets. 

Now each student has their own supplies pouch and morning work journal.

  

Each supply pouch has crayons, a pencil, and an eraser. The students no longer fight over supplies and they have to take responsibility for their supplies. If they break their crayons or tear the eraser off their pencil then they are the ones that have to deal with it. 

I don't have to take planning time to find morning work or sort through papers each day. Students automatically come in and get their morning work journal. They know that they have to write the date, draw a picture, and write about it. This makes the morning work differentiated to students' ability levels as well.  

Before, my students would finish the morning work I had picked out in two minutes. Now they can work the entire time they are in the classroom before the bell rings. This is really important for our school because we have some students thirty minutes before the school day begins. If students do finish their work, they are allowed to read a book. 

These simple strategies have worked really well for our class! A little change can make a big difference in your classroom's environment and productivity. 

January Birchbox

I was so excited to get my January Birchbox because it had 7 samples!! I had the normal 5 samples, plus an extra shampoo and conditioner. You can see that this month's theme was 2015- Let's Do This!

I love that the samples are a good size and allow for multiple uses. Here is a closer look at what was in my box this month. Please remember that Birchbox sends samples based on your personal beauty profile, so not everyone receives the same items.

Dr. Jart+ Premium Beauty Balm 

I knew I would love this sample before I even tried it! If you read my Best of Birchbox 2014, you know that I love Dr. Jart+ and currently use the Black Label Detox version of their beauty balm. The premium version is just as great and is jam packed with benefits: primer, moisturizer, SPF, and treatment serum. 

Davines Oil Absolute Beautifying Potion

This was my first time using a hair oil and I like that it tamed my frizz and fly away baby hairs. You can use this on damp or dry hair. It also improves hair shine. So far I've been happy with this product.

Davines Shampoo and Conditioner

These were my least favorite samples. I felt like they were heavy for my fine hair and left my hair with a weird texture. I didn't really like the smell either. It just smelled like soap to me.

Harvey Prince Sincerely 

I was pleasantly surprised with this sample. Typically, I'm not crazy about perfumes but this one has a very unique smell. It is a blend of Indonesian clove bud, Indian tuberose, and Japanese orange flower. I like that it has a sweet scent without being overwhelming. I would consider wearing this fragrance in the future. 

Naobay Body Radiance Lotion

I've been using this lotion for two days on the backs of my arms (one of my skin trouble spots). My arms feel hydrated and the skin feels soft. I feel good about using the lotion because it is made almost entirely of natural ingredients and comes in a packages made of sustainable cardboard.

theBalm Stainiac

I was a little nervous to try this lip stain because it looks very red before you put it on. However, it didn't go on as dark and you can add layers of the color. You can see the color in the picture below. I wore a little lip gloss over it. I would like to try the additional colors that it is available in. 

After using my Birchbox products!!

If you are interested, feel free to use my referrall link:

 https://www.birchbox.com/invite/growandenjoy

January in Kindergarten

We have been enjoying lots of winter activities this week in kindergarten. Our hot chocolate subtraction mugs and The Snowy Day art are currently on display.

We had used marshmallows for a Christmas project, and of course I bought way too many! This hot chocolate project was great for using some of those marshmallows. I gave each of the students 6 marshmallows to start with. They then had to roll a die to see how many they got to eat. We used those numbers to create a subtraction number sentence.

We also read The Snowy Day this week to introduce personal narrative writing. Then we drew our favorite parts of the story. You can see that we are working hard on labeling our illustrations!

On Friday, we took a break from our personal narrative writing to learn about Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If you haven't discussed it yet, here are some great free resources!

The King and His Dream Video

This was just the right length and amount of info for my kinders. We watched the video and then made a graphic organizer about what we learned.

As we were reviewing sentence structure, we did a shared writing piece about what we could do to fulfill MLK Jr.'s dream.

Download this FREE writing paper from Kathy Romano and Christina Murphy.

We also colored a picture of MLK Jr. for our hallway display. You can download several FREE coloring pictures from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas.

I can't believe January is almost over! It will be time for Valentine's Day ideas soon. Enjoy the long weekend!

Dollar Tree Center

I am always searching for easy center ideas that will keep my kinders engaged. I have seen several games on Pinterest where students "feed" some kind of animal made from recycled detergent containers, tupperware, etc. When I found this little trash can at the Dollar Tree, I knew he would be perfect! I added some googly eyes, wrote some sight words on index cards, and instantly had a new center.

  

We call it "Feed the Monster".  I had the little monster sitting out and the students were immediately interested when they entered the classroom. The students take turns drawing a card and reading the sight word on it. If they read they word correctly, they get to feed the card to the monster. We will add more sight words to the pile as the year progresses.

Not only do I like this center because it reinforces sight words, the kinders really got a kick out of feeding the monster. I love hearing, "Ms. Harlan, I like this game!" when we are learning. 

Frozen Friday

So I meant to post this on Friday. Then we had a water pipe bust and chaos ensued. Friday was Frozen Day at our school. It was originally planned for before Christmas Break; however, we ended up being closed due to sickness. These holiday party ideas are a little late for this year, but you can keep them in mind for next year.

All of the kiddos and staff wore pajamas and watched Frozen. Then we made these cute gingerbread houses from paper bags. It was the ending to our gingerbread man unit.

  

We spelled out sight words in shaving cream. This activity was a lot messier than I predicted. Most of the kids enjoyed it, but of course I had a couple that got the shaving cream EVERYWHERE!

We also played some Frozen games. The first picture is our snowball toss. Super easy! We just used Styrofoam cups and cotton balls. 

 

This game was "Do you wanna build a snowman?". The kiddos worked in teams to wrap their snowman up in toilet paper as quickly as they could. I think I had just as much fun watching this one as they did playing.

 

Finally, we were able to enjoy a snack and watch the Curious George Christmas movie (they have been begging me for a month!) Overall, I think it was a fun day but it left this teacher pretty tired. I'm using this weekend to rest from that first week back. 

Winter Decorating

School started back this week so I have been busy getting my kinders back into the routine. However, during the break I had some extra time for crafting. My mom had been wanting me to make something with these empty wine bottles and I love how they turned out! 

To clean them, I peeled the labels off and soaked the bottles in warm water for a couple of minutes. The sticky residue then came off easily. I just peeled it off and wiped the bottles down with a towel.

The letters and snowflakes are cut from white vinyl using my amazing Silhouette Portrait. Look for a tutorial on that in the near future! 

I added some $3 glittery branches from Walmart and set the bottles out as a table centerpiece. Overall, the whole project only took about 30 minutes. Plus, they would work for Christmas or Winter decorations. 

The snowflakes are definitely appropriate for our 12 degree high today! You can use this easy project to beat cabin fever and being a little glitter into your house this winter. 

4 Ingredient Dessert

I would like to start sharing at least one recipe each month that I have tried. Mainly because I have a board on Pinterest titled "When I Learn to Cook" and there's no time like the present right?  Maybe the problem is that I'm a picky eater. And when I see a recipe that has 10 ingredients I'm immediately looking for something simpler. 

I'm actually a pretty good baker so I decided to start with a super simple recipe that I got from my Mom. I needed a dessert for a New Year's get together and this one only has 4 ingredients! All of which we already had in the pantry. Yet, I still managed to mess something up. Opps...learn from my mistakes.

Wasp Nest Cake 

You will need:

1 3oz. Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding

2 cups milk

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 package of butterscotch morsels

Preheat your oven to 350.

 

Step One:

Mix the milk and pudding mix. Bring it to a boil. Be sure to do this slowly and remember to stir or you will end up with a scorched pot like me. 

 

Step Two:

Remove from the heat and stir in the dry cake mix. 

 

Step Three: 

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle the butterscotch morsels evenly over the top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and you are done!

This is what it will look like when you take it out of the oven. It is supposed to resemble a wasp's nest, hence the name. Let it cool and enjoy!

2015 Resolutions

Ok, typical new year blog post right? But I've never been more excited for my resolutions before. I debated about making any resolutions this year since I am the average person that gives up in February. However, I think I might actually be able to keep up with these.

Instead of choosing things I thought I needed to improve on, I chose things to make me happy. 2014 was pretty stressful so I'm focusing on treating myself right, relaxing, and being thankful for the good things in my life. 

As you are making resolutions and setting goals for the new year, I encourage you to think about simple things that make you happy.

Here's to what I hope is a peaceful and positive year! Welcome 2015!