The Kindergarten Smorgasboard

I love when my "friends" get to make an appearance in my classroom. I love that the 'staches get all excited when I tell them that friend is visiting to help them learn. Last week, our friend THE KING OF ING made a visit and hung out with us for the week.

On Monday I told the 'staches I wanted them to meet my friend. They got all excited. I flipped the page of our writing chart to reveal our BLANK anchor chart! There he was. The King Of Ing.

We learned that -ing says "ing" and that when we see ing in a word, we read "ing." I gave them one ing word and wrote the word on our anchor chart. Then we started brainstorming other -ing words. We continued to add to this chart all week.

Later in the week we learned that our poor friend The King Of Ing got lost on his way to the castle. Luckily for us, we had a map. Mr. Greg had drawn the map on yellow paper. Our -ing words were posted around the room. Everyone WALKED and found a word. We sat down on the carpet. We read our word and put the word on our map. Finally, the King found Castle ING!

We also made a portrait of the King Of Ing.

The students made their kings. Then they wrote -ing words on the king.

And of course, we had to make a hat. And of course, it's a crown so it required glitter!

We had so much fun with the King Of Ing. We were engaged and now everywhere we look we find -ing words! That makes this week of activities a success....it sticks with them.

Click this picture to see my creation!

AND I finished my Bugging You To Learn math and literacy center creation! Who wants to win a copy????

Leave a comment with a favorite bug activity and I'll choose a winner tomorrow!

And now... I have some super exciting, insider information.....are you ready????

I am very honored to be a Creative Teaching Press Exclusive Blogger. That means I get the scoop on new products and other fun stuff. So, CTP contacted me and asked me to share a sneak peek of a new product. When I saw the product I was all over it. I mean, it was made for me. Any guesses???

Are ya ready???

Yep. They are coming out with more and more mustache goodies. SERIOUSLY!!! Mustache overload. Including a photo booth. Word on the street is that Mr. Greg and that photo booth have a date this summer. Stay tuned!

Hop on over to my friend Heather at Swinging Through Second to see even more exclusive goodies!

Happy Tuesday. I hope it was a great day.

This week we are learning about -ar words (star, car, fart, etc) using Babbling Abby's Pirate Mark Unit! It's AMAZE-BALLS! You really should get it and use it. Click the link...for real...or walk the plank.

Since Pirate Mark is running amuck in our classroom, I thought I'd bring some pirate fun to math time too. We already have pirates helping us subtract so how about some pirate graphing? Ahoy, matey, it's a freebie!

First off, these cubes. I.am.obsessed. If you don't have some, go to Amazon right now and order a set, or two or six. Seriously...the uses for these things are endless.

Click the picture to go to amazon and order a few sets.

OK, my love affair with these cubes is over...onto the graphing pirates!

It's such a simple and QUIET activity! Roll the cube. Graph. When one column reaches the top, make tally marks and count how many! Did I mention quiet and pirates?! Ahoy, Common Core!

Snag your freebie below. (If you don't have cubes, just print the pictures and put them in a bag and they grab one out, graph it, return the picture to the bag and repeat!)

Happy Hump Day! Today we had another kindergarten teacher visit our classroom! Ms. Starla spent the morning with us! We sure hope she good one or two good ideas!

It's time for Wednesday centers! Here's what we've been up to in our math and literacy centers!

Click on the picture to get your free differentiated ninja addition center!

Click on the picture to see more about our pool noodle place value and get your freebie!

If you're interested in any of our centers, check them out below!

My Down The Stretch creation is on sale for just $3! Happy Derby Week!

I grew up in southern Indiana, just outside of Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is the home of The Kentucky Derby so I grew up surrounded by the excitement, the glamour, and the fun of the Derby. I love the Derby and I loved Derby time in Louisville. It was so much fun. And the horses are incredible. I also grew up on a farm with horses (yeah...shocker, I'm a corn fed farm boy!) so I love the horses. And here I am in Music City and I want to bring that Derby fun to my 'staches. And no we're not betting the ponies....

Today we watched a replay of last year's Derby. People, they cheered those horses. They were on their feet having a blast. It was more excitement than I expected. Then we watched a video of the Derby hats. And this I did not expect: anytime a big, bright, flashy hat came on the video, they yelled: "THAT'S MR. GREG'S HAT!" True story. Do they know me well or what?!?!

After the video we did a graphing activity to predict who would win this year's Derby. I looked at the 20 horses running in the Derby and chose the 6 most kinder friendly names. And the one who was my favorite. We studied their names and their colors and made an informed decision.

We made our pics for Derby 2014!

And then we graphed our data and we analyzed our data. Of course, we left the winner box empty because we won't know until Saturday who the winner is.

What I love about this is that I get to bring some Kentucky Derby into my classroom while meeting Common Core standards and the activity can be extended to the home. The 'staches can sit down and watch the Derby with their families just like I used to do on the first Saturday of every May!

Click the picture to snag your free Kentucky Derby Graphing activity for your class!

Hello May! While I am excited that you're here and summer is near...I'm a little depressed about all the things I won't get to do with my class...space, dinosaurs, and more....But it's almost summer!

I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her fabulous Currently party!

Currently...this about sums it up for me...

This is my routine each day.... I come home and play with Butters, our CEO and hug him and squeeze him and we rub noses...because he's ADORBS! Then I sit down and write my blog. It's my down time...my stress reducer. I actually get home a little before the mister so the house is quiet except for the tapping of keys and clicking of a mouse. When the mister arrives, we chat and he cooks dinner while I create and blog....seriously, how lucky am I?!?!

Seriously, this weather is great. It's just right. It's warm but not hot...a little breeze and some sun. Next week will probably be too humid to stand...it is the south...

I think I should get my fluffy hair cut before the Teacher Of The Year banquet on Monday. Yeah...on Cinco De Mayo...no partying for us. But seriously, if I go more than 2-3 weeks without a haircut it get's fluffy. And one side of my hair grows STRAIGHT out so it looks pointy...es no bueno. I really want the new shaved around the bottom and long on top style...but the fluffy hair says no.

I got my Mac and the giant monitor...next on the list is a color laser printer. And then a nice DSLR with HD video. I figure if I'm going to keep making classroom videos I should get a camera that makes me sparkle! (PS Any video requests for the last few weeks of school?)

People, seriously...I love my life. I have the best hubby ever. We have the world's best doggy. We have a beautiful home. We have amazing friends. We're healthy. I have a job that I absolutely adore. We have our families. I am surrounded by all of YOU each day. It really is an amazing life.

And SUPRISE! My buddy Stacy at Simpson's Superstars is AMAZE-BALLS. We finally got to meet back in December when she came to Nashville for the Nashville blogger meet up. You know you're kindred spirits when you concoct a need for Golden Girls clip art while sitting in Nashville traffic in a rainstorm...I adore her. You must stop by and tell her I said hello!

Happy weekend! I hope everyone had a great week teaching young minds! I'm sure everyone is just as busy as we are....and tired. Hello exhaustion. Like falling asleep with the iPad in my hands every night tired... I hope everyone rests and relaxes this weekend! And for your relaxation enjoyment, here's what we did this week!

This week we met our friend Pirate Mark! Pirate Mark helps us read -ar- words because pirates say "AAARRRGGH!" We had a blast reading ar words with our pirate voices, thinking of ar words for our Pirate Mark anchor chart (notice Target....just sayin... and helping Pirate Mark find his treasure by reading ar words. We ended our Pirate adventure with a fun pirate craftivity and writing activity! Thanks to Abby at The Inspired Apple for a brilliant idea and totally awesome unit!

We also spent time this week working on subtraction word problems. We made up our own story problems using animal crackers. We had a blast with this activity. Each child got to make up a problem and everyone solved it on their paper. And we ate animal crackers. Yummy math, people!

This week we got to make things explode for Mad Science Friday! It just so happened that it was letter S day for our alphabet countdown so we did soda science. We predicted what would happen when we added Mentos candy to sodas. Then we went outside and made soda science go boom! OMG! We had the best time. I want to do this lesson every day. The 'staches screamed and cheered and oooohhs and aaahhhs were everywhere! Seriously....awesome stuff. We then recorded our results by coloring the soda bottles on our recording sheet. This helped us determine which explosion was bigger! The winner: diet coke! (Click on the picture of the recording sheet to get your free copy!)

This week was also our zoo trip! The zoo trip is the kickoff to our big Growing Grassmere! PBL Project! (Grassmere is the name of our zoo...). We're going to be "invited" by the zoo to pick a new animal and design the exhibit. Stay tuned.

We had a blast at the zoo. The weather was perfect. The animals were very active. The 'staches were beyond amazing. I love how excited they get to see every animal. The elephants gave us a great lesson on how animals use their brains and solve problems. There was a piece of a tree trunk in with the elephants and they kept picking it up with their foot and trunk and slamming it down to the ground. At first we thought they were playing but no. Finally a piece of the tree broke off and the elephant ate it!!!! How smart! The 'staches were so amazed! The coolest exhibit of all has to be the new kangaroo walk about. You walk into the exhibit and the kangaroos are roaming free everywhere!!!!!!! Seriously...I wanna go back just to be in that exhibit again. If they come up to you, you're allowed to pet them! It could not have been a better day!

Since we are all about zoo animals for a while, we made an animals on parade snack. Celery, cream cheese and animal crackers! Yummy!

And then, because Mr. Greg is the best teacher ever, I surprised the 'staches with cake batter dip for their animal crackers! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!! This stuff is beyond amazingly delicious! People, it was so good, they were licking their plates. TRUE STORY! Yeah, we rock like that!

And finally, we had some fun with our alphabet countdown this week! (CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR COUNTDOW!)

W for western day! We even had a real cowboy come sing to us! How cute is my little cowboy twin???

And S for sunglasses! Mr. Greg bought us all mustache sunglasses!!!!! I. LOVE. THESE. GUYS. OMG!

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you as you go full steam ahead through the end of the year! How many more weeks do you have left? We have 4 weeks left. And there's a lot to do in that 4 weeks! YIKES! But, I plan on keeping my 'staches as busy as possible to keep them (and me) from going insane! So here's what's on tap for this busy busy busy week!

As always, you can download a copy of my weekly plans by clicking on the picture!

This week in reading we will be reading non-fiction texts about the animal we decide to research for our PBL project. We kick off this project Monday by voting on the animal for our project. After that, it's all research all the time on that animal! Stay tuned...

We're also reading Cinco de Mouse O and doing a flow map to sequence the story. We're also reading....brace yourselves...yes, this is happening. Yes he reads that book.....Everyone Poops. I read it every year when we're wrapping up our oo words week. People, it's hilarious and a fun way to cement that learning!

Click on the pictures to check these books out at Amazon!

We will be working on reading "oo" words this week. We will wrap up the week of "oo" with fruity loopy words!

We will use smelly markers to write our oo words and then we use fruit loops to make the two letter Os. And we eat the fruit loops!

In math, we're hitting some areas that needs a refresher and some practice! Skip counting, measurement and greater than less than!

We will be measuring Cinco de Mayo on Monday!

We will be practicing greater than less than on Thursday with our hands and cubes. How many cubes can your hands grab?

I made these mats using my hands (the 'staches LOVE these!). They grab a handful of cubes and place it on one hand. Repeat for the other hand. Then they count, write and decide greater than and less than on their recording sheet.

Click the picture to get your free recording sheet from the freebies page!

Here are some more fun ideas for greater than and less than! We will pull these into small groups and centers!

For skip counting, we're going to count by 5 and 10 using animals! True story. It's a simple cut and paste activity to show our knowledge!

click the picture to get your free counting by 5 and 10 numbers!

We also have to celebrate Cinco De Mayo on Monday! We will make sombreros and ponchos and eat tacos!

Click on the sombrero picture to go to my post to see how me made our sombreros. I got the bags from Publix for free! I just cut the sides out and cut a hole at the top for the poncho!

We will also celebrate the wedding of Q and U on Tuesday as part of our alphabet countdown!

We all dress up in our finest clothes. We make bow ties for the boys and veils for the girls. We walk down the aisle and celebrate the wedding of Q and U with cake and juice!

See, I told you it was a busy week. Plus I'm out on Wednesday for a team planning day. All of the kindergarten teachers are taking the day off to plan for next year! WOOHOO!

Since our dinosaur unit got bumped from the plans...we're going to read a dinosaur poem this week. Be sure to download your copy!

I think that about covers it. We will be doing Quiz Quiz Trade during morning meeting to review all of what we've learned this year! We will be doing all sorts of buggy animal pirate centers all week. At some point, Mr. Greg might have a small breakdown with all that's going on this week...AND be sure to appreciate a fellow educator this week! TEACHERS ROCK!

We will be using these creations in our class this week:

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY! I hope everyone got tons of love and appreciation today. I just have to say this: I have to be one of the luckiest guys around. This journey is not about followers, or status or money. This journey is about helping teachers reach every child in their care. This journey is about connecting to teachers who inspire me and motivate me and push me to better everyday. This journey is about teaching our students to the very best of our ability so that they can succeed at life. This journey is about truly impacting the future. One child and one classroom at a time. I am privileged and honored to be surrounded and connected to so many amazing, hard working, talented, caring, genuine, INSPIRING teachers. I feel like every person who comments or emails or leaves a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is truly my friend. I am so thankful for each of you and all of the seen and unseen things you do to make your children feel loved, cared for, and safe and for the education you provide them every day. Our world is better because of each and everyone of you. And I am better because of you. TEACHERS ROCK!

(Let's post and share this picture EVERYWHERE and let people know that we ROCK! No really...save it, copy it. Pin it. Tweet it. Facebook it. Instagram it. Let's have this picture show up everywhere for the rest of the week. Let's see how far it can spread. AND GO!)

And now another installment of Smorgie T.V!

(Graphics: Meloheadz, Graphics From The Pond, Hello Literacy)

Today's video is a great greeting for your morning meeting. This is a greeting that will make everyone feel awesome as we start the day. I also love that there is a lot of movement happening so the greeting also is the activity portion of morning meeting.

It works like this:

You gather in your morning meeting circle. The chant goes like this:

"We are here. We are here. It's an AWESOME day because (insert child's name) is here!"

The child then goes around the circle and gives everyone a high five! When they return to their spot, you start the chant over again with the next child. Continue until everyone is greeted, including the teacher.

Seriously, who doesn't want to start their day be having all of their friends chant that you're awesome?!?!

A couple of tips: remind them about easy high fives, remind them to keep their hand down low enough that everyone can reach it. And...as some of my 'staches experienced: It's not a smart choice to put your hand in front of your face when people are giving you a high five. OUCH!

Let me know if you have questions or comments about the greeting!

You can watch the video here or over on the smorgie YouTube channel!

And my shirt in the video? It says: The mustache is mightier than the sword. Truer words have never been spoken!

And in case you didn't know, there's a big Teachers Pay Teachers HEARTS Teachers sale happening today and tomorrow! I have been filling my cart with great new clip art because my mind is exploding with ideas for creations (If you have requests, tell me. I am here to serve!) and some great resources! Use the code TPTXO at checkout and you'll save 28% of my creations! And don't forget that leaving feedback earns your credits which is FREE MONEY!!!!! Just make sure it's quality feedback and not just a period. No really...a period.....just sayin! Have fun shopping!

CLICK ME!

Hello weekend!!! Did this week seem like two weeks to anyone else?! Yowza! But it's the weekend!

First things first, if you are/were my friend on Facebook, I converted my page to a PAGE so it's no longer a profile. If you were my friend or follower, you should still be able to see my updates and stuff. Sadly my pictures went away....but don't worry I'll still be blowing your FB up! And just in case you want to make sure you like my page and follow me, click on the link!

https://www.facebook.com/kindergarten.smorgasboard.7

Yep. We bought a rugged manly new car. It's the mister's car primarily. It's so not like him either. He's not into all the fun colors like me! I'm so proud of him for branching out!

Monday night was the Teacher Of The Year banquet. It was actually a nice evening. I got to meet lots of fellow Nashville teachers and hang out with the mister and my principal! And I got to wear my new shirt with my new suit!! Priorities!

I hope ya'll got appreciated good this week. While I didn't get any gifts from my 'staches , I did get this sweet surprise from the mister! The card said whenever I have a bad day or get a glue gun burn to eat a kit lat and think of him! AWWWWW!

And finally.... My friend Kim celebrated F for Future Day with her class. Everyone dressed up like what they wanted to be when they grow up. Can you guess what Kim dressed as??????

ME!!! Isn't that glitterfic and Greg-tastic! I mean for serious!!!! Too cool. Even better...she said her kids figured it out immediately!

Thanks for making me feel awesome, Kim!

And now for an awesome give away!

My friend Chandra (we're friends because we both live in Nashville....Nashville peeps stick together!) has an amazing company called C. Jayne Teach. She has the most incredible teacher products. Her new line just unveiled today and is all about customization! Check out what she customized for me!

I am seriously obsessed with the folder. In fact, I will be ordering more of those!!!! And yes, there are mustaches! Of course!

Be sure to visit C. Jayne Teach and check out the new stuff!!! AND be sure to enter to win ONE PERSONALIZED PRODUCT of your choice!!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

First and foremost: Happy Mother's Day to my amazing momma. I couldn't ask for a more supportive, loving, butt whooping mommy! I love my mommy. And happy mother's day to all of the mommies out there! I hope you've had a great day!

Well, 3 more Schedulin Sundays and it's getting harder and harder to motivate myself! But here we go. Sorry, I don't have any plans for you to download this week. We are supposed to have field day on Wednesday but it looks like rain so field day will be moved to Thursday...but Thursday looks like rain. SO...who knows. So I am not planning anything for any day of the week. We're going to have some stuff planned and we will be prepared for anything!

This week our main focus will be on our zoo PBL project. We're off to a slow start due to events and teacher absences...but we're going to hit it hard this week. Lots of research to do. We're going to start working on our exhibit design. And hopefully by Thursday we can start assembling our display board!

BTW we chose the cheetah as our animal to research! WOOHOO!

This week we will be working on -or words. We will read them, write them, build them and more! Fork words, people! We're gonna fork those -or words!

In math, it's more adding and subtracting. Today in the car on the drive home from the family compound in Indiana, I scoured the Pinterest for some ideas and found two that we're going to do this week.

This first activity is something I've seen many times on Pinterest, but I love how this is set up. Totally going to make two of these for small group instruction and then it can be a math center!

This is from Sweet Sounds Of Kinder on Instagram....sadly the picture doesn't like to a blog or anything. But thanks for the FAB idea Sweet Sounds Of Kinder (if you see this, hit me up so I can give you proper credit and throw some glitter your way!)

To go along with this, I whipped up a fun freebie! Included is a recording sheet and some number cards. My 'staches will choose 2 number cards and that is how many balls they will put in the machine!

Click the pictures to download your freebie. And don't worry, there is number 9 and 10 on the second page of the download! Trust me, it's there!

And then I found this pin for subtracting on the sidewalk and I thought, OOOOO this would make a great whole group math activity OUTSIDE!

I am going to draw a box with 11 squares and write numbers 0-10. Students will have a recording sheet and clipboard. One student will throw two bean bags. We will write the equation and solve! This will be great practice for putting the bigger number first! (I also made a sheet for addition so we can do that one day this week too!!!)

This idea came from Education.com

Click to download your recording sheet!

We will also be working our way through our alphabet countdown!

Monday-M for mustache! We're going to have a mustache-palooza!

Tuesday-L for Luau

Wednesday-K for kites and kings

Thursday-j for jump rope

Friday-i for ice cream sundaes!

And since this week is Field Day I wrote a super fun sight word based emergent reader for us to read during our morning literacy routine!

Just click to download your freebie! Included is a color teacher version and black and white student copy!

So that's our week of field day madness and cheetahs!

I do have something else to share. Last week we worked on -oo words as in boot, loop, etc. On Friday, I read the book Everyone Poops (we laughed hysterically!) and we used fruit loops to build our -oo words! Here is the recording sheet for the word building activity!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great day! BTW, in case you haven't noticed, Facebook switched me to a page instead of a profile. I am working on getting it switched back. I feel so disconnected from you all! If I can't get it switched back, I plan to create a new profile using my name and then we can all be friends again!

Over on Instagram, there is a Photo A Day Challenge going on for teachers. Last week one of the assignments was anchor charts. I snapped our anchor charts and Instagrammed it. I got a bazillion (yeah...really...that man!) questions about how I display my anchor charts. And thus was born this blog post!

I don't have a lot of wall space because my room is wonky. If you've visited, you can vouch for this. If you want to visit, come on! So I need a way to display anchor charts and keep them available for the 'staches without taking up valuable wall space (that's reserved for art and write the room stuffs!) .

Enter the rope and Ikea. True story.

(A panorama shot was also requested on Instagram...so here is an aerial panorama shot!) You really need to click on the picture to get the full majesty of the aerial panorama shot!

I went to Wal-Mart (I really should invest....) and bought a yellow rope from the hardware section for about $3. I think it was 100-150 feet long.

I also bought a package of these clips. There is a loop on the end for the rope and the little clasp to clip to something. I tied the rope to one clip. Then I stretched the rope to where I wanted and added a few extra inches and cut. Then I tied the second clasp on the rope.

Next, I pushed up a ceiling tile and clipped the rope to the rail in the ceiling.

Stretch the rope across the room. Depending on how tight you pull it will affect the amoung of sag. I pull mine fairy tight.

Now you have an anchor chart rope ready for charts. But Mr. Greg, how do you attach the charts.

Well my friends, I found a little device that makes it SIMPLE!

Enter the amazing glorious heavenly place known as IKEA!

They sale this photo display kit with a wire and some hooks and these clips. Well, I bought several packages of the clips. (Around $5-10 for the clips!) Their loops fit perfectly on our rope.

Here's the amazing part.....THEY SLIDE!! I KNOW RIGHT??!?! You give them a shove and they zip right along!

I just clip our anchor charts onto the clips and BAM! Anchor charts on a rope!

The clips allow the charts to move on the rope if I need space and the clips make it easy to change out the charts.

The best part: The charts are always on display and out of the way. They can be seen by the 'staches and get used A LOT!!!!

And that is how I display my anchor charts! Questions?!

Now...I have a major announcement! Tomorrow we are taking the wraps off of a HOT new feature for the Kindergarten Smorgasboard. I know you're going to love it. I am super excited about it and CANNOT wait to get started......it involves me and you. That's all I'm saying. Check back tomorrow!

Howdy. People, I am super uber excited about this. Yesterday's blog teased a big announcement. Well, this it. It's new. It's fun. It's engaging. Are you ready?

Watch the video to see exactly what this hoopla is all about.

You can click on the image below to access the form. This image and link will ALWAYS be on the right side of the blog. Anytime you wanna ask me something, just click on that picture and submit for Smorgie!

Happy Hump Day! It's time for a quick peek into the kindergarten smorgasboard world of centers!

This adding machine was built by ME over the weekend. It's a HUGE hit! Stay tuned for a blog post on how I did it!

And don't forget to submit any questions to Submissions For Smorgie! I will be answering my first question tomorrow! Click on the Submissions For Smorgie button on the right side of the blog to submit your question!

Hello FREEZING Thursday. People, we had field day today and it was 50 degrees, cloudy, windy and WET! We were frozen....and I mean teeth chattering frozen but we had a blast AND we are kindergarten tug of war champions!!!!

Well, it's time. It's happening. Here it comes. I am posting the very first Submission For Smorgie video!!! I am super excited about this. Ya'll have been amazing in your response already! I have 50 questions already! I am so excited for this new Greg-venture! Keep em coming!

Today's question comes all the way from Singapore! I KNOW, RIGHT?! How cool that my first question is from all the way around the world! Zahra's question is how I introduce new centers to my class and how I keep up with the laminating and cutting! Well Zahra, here is the answer and I hope it helps!

You can watch the video below or click the picture to go to my YouTube channel!

And just for watching, how about a glittery math freebie?! I mentioned making some glittery dominos for math centers a while back and we all got really excited....well, I finally did it! This will be a super fun center for the end of the year!

Hello Friday and the end of the longest week EVER. It seemed like this week was going to go on forever and ever. I could crawl into bed and sleep...but my plan to take over the world doesn't allow for that...so onward I go!

I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five For Friday!

This week our 2-4 grade did their Disney Spectacular. I got to play the part of the big bad wolf! Here's your Fire Drill story of the week: When the show was performed for the students, FD was terrified of the big bad wolf (never mind that my class was all shouting "MR. GREG!"). And then when I dove behind the third house to pretend I was going down the chimney she was even more horrified that I really went down the chimney. After the song was over, I popped up and pulled off my mask. She threw her arms up in shock that it was me. The video is nothing but priceless. That one is one of a kind!

Everyone meet Alex. You've seen him with a glittery mustache over his face for the entire school year! Now I get to reveal the face behind the glitter. Alex is my personal assistant. If I need help he's on it. Empty water bottle? Never happens. The instant the bottle is empty, Alex grabs it and fills it up. I am going to have to hire him after he moves up to first grade. Love. this. kid.

I mean, how freakin' awesome is this?! A great lesson on adjectives and if you're having a bad day you'll feel really good about yourself when your kids describe you. I mean who doesn't want to be wobbly sparkly and hairy?!

Check out my awesome mustached glittered personalized cup from my friend Mrs. Hoffer. She makes awesome personalized cups....mine has my 3 favorite things? Glitter. Mustaches. And ME! Head over to her blog to check out her cups and get yourself a few!

And tell her Greg sent ya!

And finally, who doesn't love GoNoodle. If you don't use it in your class, go sign up right now. GoNoodle is a free (paid upgrade is an option too!) brain break website. The 5 minute brain breaks are amazing. My 'staches beg to GoNoodle all day long. It really has helped our behavior and learning....and the cool part is that GoNoodle is our neighbor in Nashville so I have been hanging out with Taylor from GoNoodle. And they hook us up with sweet swag! It's ok to be jealous of our GoNoodle sweatbands. AND I get to hang out at the GoNoodle headquarters next week!!! Serioulsy...I am so lucky!

www.gonoodle.com

And now a fantastic freebie....Last week I spent the day with my new Kindergarten team planning for next year. People, we planned our entire year. And by popular demand, I am sharing our year long plan with you! Yeah...whole. year. planned.

Click to download!

Happy Saturday! Can you believe there will only be 2 more Saturday Kindergarten Posts for this school year?!?! HOLY COW! 9.5 more days for us!

Here is a peek into our classroom this week. It was a crazy busy week. Field day, alphabet countdown, practice for our kindergarten program, a program by our 2-4 graders...assessments...wowza!

Friday was I for ice cream as part of our big end of the year alphabet countdown! We got to make ice cream sundaes with chocolate, sprinkles and gummy worms. Mr. Greg even bought us waffle bowls! MMMM ice cream!

Tuesday was L for our alphabet countdown. We celebrated with a luau. We learned the hula dance. We listened to Hawaiian music and we made this super fun luau beach snack! We used vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers and a fun umbrella to make a beach scene. YUM!

I try to keep our schedule as close to normal as possible right up until the end. The structure helps us contain our excitement for summer. This week we headed outside for playground subtraction. We threw a bean bag onto numbers and subtracted! SUPER FUN! I'll be doing a detailed post about this later! If you want the recording sheet, just click the picture!

This week we had to complete our science fair project. We had a blast with this one. We identified our problem (we are too slow on the slide) and we came up with some items that might make us go faster. We tested our hypothesis and found out we were partly right. Seriously...epic stuff. I'm not giving away all the details...I have a post planned for next week with details of this super fun science project!

We also celebrated K for King day! We were all crowned the KINGS OF KINDERGARTEN! And Mr. Greg was proclaimed THE KING OF ALL THINGS KINDERGARTEN! We had a coronation ceremony and everything. We played the royal fanfare music. Each 'stache got to ascend the throne (our stage) and be crowned. When each 'stache was crowned the king, we cheered: "ALL HAIL KING ALEX!" Of course we changed the names for each child! Not only did we review K but we now know what it means to have a coronation! Fun and learning....

And finally, we had field day this week. Our original day got postponed due to rain. And let me tell you, the second day should have been postponed. WE WERE FROZEN! It was about48 degrees, windy and misty. We were miserable. By the end (and we came in early...) the little 'staches had chattering teeth. Miserable, people. But we made the most of it. We hit the events. We bounced in the bounce house. AND WE ARE THE TUG OF WAR CHAMPIONS OF KINDERGARTEN!!!!!!!!!!! It was an epic battle that went on and on. Both sides were even. The rope would move a little their way. And then a little our way. And finally (probably due to my screaming PULL! PULL!PULL!....allegedly....) we gave a final tug and pulled that other team down! CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

I mean, all in all, it was a great week. We are the kings of kindergarten and tug of war champions. What more could you ask for?

And I finally my finished my newest Common Core creation!

100 pages of math and literacy centers (13 different centers with options to use the centers in a variety of ways=lots of choices and lots of learning for the last weeks of school!)

Let's have a give away! Leave a comment with a favorite end of the year activity! I'll choose a winner tomorrow!

Well, here it is. The final Schedulin Sunday of the school year. It's crazy to thing that we are thisssss close to the end of the school year. YOWZA!

So, there are no lesson plans for the week. However, I do try to keep things as normal as possible. We wil have our regular schedule. We will have centers and word study. I just don't write plans becuase things get a bit wonky so we have to be flexible.

I always end our year with one of my most favorite books. It's a great story for debate and making valid points. I just love how excited and into the debate the 'staches get. I also love giving them a hard time and play devil's advocate.

If you don't have this book, click on the picture to get it. Seriously....you'll love this book.

Before we read, we make predictions about the story. We vote for cow or chicken.

After our debate, we write if we think it's a cow or chicken and give our reason why.

Seriously, this is a couple of fun days with this book. Trust me.

Here is a writing and graphing freebie for you!

This week we will be writing about our year in kindergarten. We write about our favorite part of kindergarten, the most important thing we learned and we write a tip about Mr. Greg for next year's 'staches!

I created some chart labels and writing paper. You can download it for free. And since you probably don't want your kids writing about Mr. Greg (although, if they want to, I would love to read it!....just sayin) I am including an editable version. You will need to download and install the KG Defying Gravity Bounce font (FREE for personal use) from TPT. You can find it HERE!

Click the picture for your download. This is all of the labels and writing pages. This does not include the editable version.

CLICK THIS PICTURE TO GET THE EDITABLE CHART LABEL AND WRITING PAGE.

In math, we will be doing lots of centers. Lots of addition and subtraction. We will go outside for plaground addition. See more about that by clicking on the picture.

We will also be doing this super amazing end of the year gift that my friend Katie at Little Warriors shared.

This week we also celebrate some more alphabet countdown fun.

C is for cookies and crazy hair!

F is for flyswatter painting. Yes, flyswatter painting.

This is a super fun messy art project! You get different colors of paint. Have each child choose a color of construction paper. They dip their flyswatters into paint and SMACK the paper. FOR REAL! It's epic fun. Epic mess. And you know my motto: messy=success!

We also get glitter bombed for the letter G! True story. I fill balloons with glitter and sequins. I hang them from the ceiling. They each get safety goggles and a push pin. We count to three and they pop their balloon! They have no idea what's inside...but we LOVE IT!

And we have our Kindergarten program Tuesday night....and I have to do Running Records....

And that is our final full week of school. Commence with the tears...

Ya'll have to checkout my second creation of the weekend. This one is something crazy different from my usual creation. I've been wanting to do it for a long time and I figured end of the year/summer would be perfect.

Are ya ready? It's my first ever all black line clip art creation. No color clip art. No color ink necessary. I designed this to be printed onto colored paper and colored card stock. Cheap, quick and easy! Over 80 pages of math and literacy center activities. 6 centers total.

Who wants to win a copy? Leave a comment with your email and your favorite color of card stock. I'll choose a winner later tonight!

Happy last Monday of the school year! But don't worry...I have to go back all next week. The last day with kids is a week from this Friday.

It's time for another Submission For Smorgie video! Today I answer April's question about reading centers. April teaches 1st grade in Texas! Here ya go, April! I hope this helps a bit. As always, feel free to leave comments and questions. And if you have a Submission For Smorgie. Click on the button on the right side of the blog and submit away!

For more information on how I run my centers, click on these links:

Center Questions Answered

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard King Of ING!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Pirate Graphing Freebie!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard of Wednesday Centers

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Kentucky Derby Graphing!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard May Currently

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Saturday Kindergarten Post

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Schedulin' Sunday!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Classroom Video: We Are Here Greeting!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Five For Friday!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Schedulin' Sunday!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard of Anchor Charts On A Rope!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Submissions For Smorgie!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard of Wednesday Centers!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard: Submission For Smorgie: Introducing Centers

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Five For Friday!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Saturday Kindergarten Post!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Schedulin Sunday

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard: Submission For Smorgie: How Do You Run Reading Centers?

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard 2 Year Blog-iversary SUPER CELEBRATION!

A Kindergarten Smorgasboard Saturday Kindergarten Post!