March Birchbox

This crazy month has left me a little behind on my Birchbox post, but better late than never! At least its still March :). 
The theme of this month's box was creativity and I love my box design! I chose, " I feel most creative when I plan a fun lesson." 

Your ten dollars each month guarantees you 5 sample products. But let me just say that most months I have been pleasantly surprised with an extra sample. They also have thrown in extra samples whenever I have placed a regular order, so I really believe I am getting my money's worth.

Here are the samples that I got this month. My favorites were definitely the amika blowout spray and the Mirenesse lip crayon!

amika Bombshell Blowout Spray

This spray has a great smell and was perfect for my fine flat hair. It gave my hair more volume without leaving a weird texture. I will be buying this product in the future! 

Mirenesse Glossy Kiss in Perfect Kiss 

I recently discovered lip crayons at ULTA and I am a total convert. This lip crayon was a great color, left my lips feeling hydrated, and it was long-lasting. Lip crayons are probably my new favorite lip products. 

Number 4 Reconstructing Mask  

I used this reconstructing mask on my hair after completing the Color Me Rad 5K. My hair was covered in powder and color gel and I wasn't sure what kind of effects that would have. However, after using the mask my hair came out smooth, moisturized, and untangled!

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo 

This shampoo is pretty pricey, but it can be also double as a body wash. I loved the smell but thought it was a little thick for my hair. I wish the shampoo had a better lather. 

Elite Therapeutics Rosemary Eucalyptus Body Creme

This body creme felt good on my skin and is made of 70% organic ingredients. It was effective, but the scent was not my favorite and was a little strong.

Mereadesso Tinted All-In-One Moisturizer  

I'll be sticking to my favorite Dr. Jart moisturizer. The tint in this one was too dark for my skin tone and did not blend in well. I ended up washing it off and not wearing it. This might work better for someone with darker skin. 

As always, if you are interested in trying Birchbox, you can use my referral link:

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

Enjoy your last day of March! Here's to a great spring!

 

March Madness Addition

This week we finished up our March Madness themed lessons. They were so much fun!
One of our math centers focused on addition stories. The students got five chances to shoot an easter egg into the basketball basket I got at the Dollar Tree. 

After shooting, the students had to work with their teammate to fill out the addition story and write an equation showing how many points they made.

This center was so easy to set up and kept all of the students engaged! They wanted to see which teams could get the most points.

 

We also incorporated several other basketball activities into our lessons this week. You can see the students using the number line cards below. Click on the links below for more basketball ideas that we used. Oh, and go CATS!

Math Facts Game

Basketball Syllables by Live Laugh I Love Kindergarten

Real Word/Nonsense Word Sort by Nicki Thigpen

Madness in March Core Training by Primary Graffiti

St. Patrick's Week

Another crazy week! Between meetings and my KTIP unit, I am definitely ready for spring break. Only one more week to go!

This week was packed with St. Patrick's day activities. Leading up to the big day we had talked about leprechauns. The students were doing some intense thinking about whether they thought leprechauns were real or not. After reading The Night Before St. Patrick's Day, they were all ready to set traps for the leprechauns.

The students found leprechaun hand prints all around the room when they came in the next morning! He even left them some gold. But, as the kiddos say, "He is tricky!" Turns out the gold was really just chocolate ;)

We searched for sight words hidden in a leprechaun picture with our magnifying glasses.
This was a huge hit! I'll be looking for more of these pages to use.

Of course we had to sort Lucky Charms during math centers.

Here are some other activities we did throughout the week.

The students were able to cut the pieces out for this puzzle and take it home to practice counting by tens. 

One of my favorite things was reading how my students were going to catch a leprechaun. They had some pretty creative ideas. 

Even with all the craziness we still had a fun green-filled week!

 I was especially happy that all of these activities were free :) See them below and save or pin them for next year! 

I Spy CVC Words by The Teachable Teacher

Worth More Than Gold by The Teacher Wife

Lucky Charms Graph by Fran Kramer

I Caught A Leprechaun! by Lisa Lilienthal

March Madness Math

I am so excited for March Madness this year! I haven't completed my bracket yet, but you can bet the Kentucky Wildcats are going to be my champions.

We are starting to infuse March Madness into our math lessons. Today we practiced measuring with a yard stick. The two paw prints at the top are the 7 foot players, Dakari Johnson and Willie Cauley-Stein. The middle paw-print is my height and the bottom ones are the kiddos.

We took the students' pictures in front of the wall to show the height difference. Of course, they wanted to use the camera to take my picture too! (This was the least blurry one lol)

They couldn't believe the players are that tall in real life! Not many of the students knew their names right off the bat, but they knew they played for the Wildcats. One of my students was even wearing a Cauley-Stein jersey today! He was very excited.

After we had everyone measured, we discussed which students were the tallest and shortest. The students were naturally making comparisons to see who was the same height as themselves. 

Your state might not be as crazy about basketball, but this lesson could easily be adapted to any basketball team for March Madness. 

This classroom is busy cheering on the CATS!

Poetry Friday

Wow, it's been a crazy week! Between meetings, planning, my second job, and birthdays I have definitely been behind on blogging. We did have a great Friday though!

Normally, I do a "morning message" with my students each day. However, on Fridays we have started having Poetry Friday. I introduce a new poem every other week. This week we started I'm a Little Leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day.

 

After echo reading the poem, the students come up and circle the sight words that they see. They then take turns being the "pointer" and pointing to the words as we practice reading the poem.

 

Each student has their own poetry folder to keep their poems in. They go back to their seats, circle their own sight words, and practice reading the poem for fluency. Then, they are also able to go back and read the other poems that we have practiced.

We practice the poem again the next week. Sometimes we add motions to go with the words. The kiddos love trying to recite the poem without looking at it!

This has become one of our favorite parts of Friday. I didn't start this practice until January this year, but it is something I will be starting early next year.

Basic Peanut Butter Smoothie

Last summer I started making different smoothie recipes to sip by the pool. Being stuck at home with the weather, I decided to mix one up today and channel warmer weather.

The peanut butter smoothie is my favorite!

What I really love about smoothies is that they are so versatile and easy to make. You can really mix in anything you want. I generally try to stay on the healthy side though. Also, you don't have to be too specific on measuring out ingredients. It is up to you and your taste preference.

This recipe is for one serving.

Put the following ingredients in a blender. Blend until you reach your desired smoothness.

1 cup almond milk

1 banana

1 large spoon of peanut butter

1 small spoon of chocolate chips

4 ice cubes

Like I said, you don't have to be too precise. I just eye the amount of peanut butter and chocolate chips I want. You can also substitute the chocolate chips for chocolate syrup.

After you are done blending, pour it into a cup and enjoy! This was my lunch today.

 

Spring Link Up

Well, I don't have many pictures from the classroom this week since we've had a crazy week!
Of course we had lots of Dr. Seuss Activities planned, but our week was cut short due to snow storm Thor. The picture above is from silly sock day.

The bright side of the snow day is that I have been able to finish up two new products and a freebie available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

My Spring Weather Journal Freebie is part of a giant spring link up sponsored by The Primary Pack.
Be sure to hop over there for tons of awesome products and some FREEBIES!

Also, check out the other products I finished up today.

This Spring Writing Prompts pack includes the following prompts:

 

In the Spring...
My favorite thing to do in the Spring is...
Spring see, hear, and feel
Spring acrostic poem
My Nature Walk
My mom is special because...
(Insert name) is special because...
One blank journal page  

Highlight a Sight Word

This set includes 33 different sight words for students to practice sight word identification.

 

You can purchase both products through the links above.

 

I hope you enjoy the Spring link up! I know it's getting me in the mood for warmer weather!

 

Hello March!

Wow! I can't believe it is already March! I was up at the school yesterday getting our March Madness door ready. I had to go with a Wildcats theme. The white paper says, "We're WILD about Kindergarten!"

Go Cats! Can't wait for all of our basketball themed lessons later in the month.

This week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday. Each day will be a different theme (crazy hair, crazy socks, etc.)

Check out my March and April Pinterest page to get a sneak peak of what my kiddos will be working on this month.