The Kindergarten Smorgasboard

Well, if you were hoping for Schedulin Sunday, I hate to share this news: I'm on fall break. A whole week off. True story. We've flown through 9 weeks of kindergarten already and are enjoying a much earned break! I'll be busy this week creating, planning, working on sessions for the upcoming Tennessee Kindergarten Conference and sleeping. A lot!

Since there's no Schedulin Sunday, I thought I'd share some of our pumpkin madness from last week! It's a pumpkin explosion! Get ready!

We finger-painted pumpkins! We talked about how mixing colors makes new colors and we mixed red and yellow to make orange. Cue the amazement!

I love the 50 cent shower curtains from Wal-Mart that I've had for 3 years. We put these down when we paint and it makes clean up a snap. It's perfect for our no desks/no tables classroom!

We also made pasta pumpkins! This is one of my favorites! I dye the pasta wheels orange. I give the 'staches a pumpkin outline and the 'staches glue the pasta onto the pumpkins!

We measured ourselves using pumpkins! We talked about estimating and how we were making a SMART guess and then we estimated how many pumpkins tall we might be. Each 'stache got measured using our pumpkins. We recorded our guess and actual measurement on our paper. Mr. Greg took a picture of each 'stache and we will make it into a class book!

We learned the parts of a pumpkin and made brace maps!

We learned the life cycle of a pumpkin and of course, made silly hats! Duh, it's my class, of course there is a silly hat involved!

We learned about sink and float. We predicted if our big heavy pumpkin would float or sink. Then we conducted our experiment and BAM! That crazy pumpkin floated. Cue the amazement. Cue the excitement. Cue the 'staches in awe. We then discussed how the pumpkins are empty inside so they float!

We ended our week of pumpkin partying with a can have are chart! (We also did a KWL chart this week...but um...some cute kindergarten teacher was too excited for fall break that he forgot to take a picture....hmmmmm, wonder who that dork is?!)

And of course, there was some food involved! Our Foodie Fun Friday for pumpkin week was: making pumpkin pies!

Here's the recipe:

1 cup of Vanilla pudding (1 pudding cup)

3 spoonfuls of pumpkin pie filling (or however many the kids wanna scoop in!)

mini pie crusts (I got my graham cracker crusts at Wal-Mart)

Mix pudding and pumpkin pie filling. Scoop into the crusts.

You can bake them or not. We have a toaster oven so we baked ours at 375 for 10 minutes.

EAT! One 'stache said: "This is the best pumpkin pie I've ever had!"

And how about one more simple and fun math pumpkin idea?

I saw this on Pinterest and now I can't find it...so if it's your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit!

I put this together in 10 minutes today and spent $4. Orange plates ($1 Wal-Mart, White dot stickers $2, and clothes pins $1).

I put 1-20 stickers on the plates. I chose white because of the contrast and it looks like....wait for it...pumpkin seeds! BAM! Each clothespin is numbered 1-20. The clothespins are the...wait for it...PUMPKIN STEMS!!!!!! I know right...how fun...how cheap....how simple...how much will the 'staches love this?! (It's so awesome, that Butters, The CEO of The Kindergarten Smorgasboard came to the office and gave it a PAW of approval. That means you're all required to make this! AND GO!)!

Our pumpkin week activities came from my Great Pumpkin creation!

We've been in school for 9 weeks. Hence the week long fall break I am enjoying right now! Yeah...a week off! Our district has 4 9 week sessions and we use pacing guides to tell us what to teach each nine weeks. They tell us what to teach during those 9 weeks but we are free to teach those skills however we like. The pacing guides are set up so that there is a lot of spiral review and most skills are addressed each 9 weeks. When these pacing guides came out a couple of years ago, Mr. Greg's head nearly exploded when I saw addition in the first 9 weeks. ADDITION????? That early on??? I was so against it...but I did it. And to my surprise it actually went well. We keep it fairly simple at the beginning. We focus on the idea that addition means put together! We do a lot of simple activities where we take objects and literally put them together! Since we do addition each 9 weeks, this is a great introduction!

Today I want to share some of the addition activities we did the past two weeks to introduce addition! These are great for introducing addition and for practicing adding all year long! I was impressed with my 'staches and how well we caught on to adding! In fact, 11/12 of the 'staches scored 95% or higher on our addition assessment! GO STACHES!

We started off the week meeting our friend Adding Adam! Adding Adam reminds us that adding means put together. Over the 2 weeks we worked on addition we added to the anchor chart. And yes, Adam is glittery because he's in our class and we love all things glitter!

We also used Harry Kindergarten's Add With A Pirate Song on YouTube! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SONG! It really gave us a great start with adding! And it taught us what a SUM was!

Our first addition activity was adding dice. Each 'stache rolled the dice. I wrote the number and drew the dots on our chart. They counted ALL the dots as we talked about putting together. Then we wrote the answer!

Then we worked with our friends to add dots! We used bingo dabbers to solve equations. Each 'stache had a different color dobber and each time the green went first. We made the number of dots and then counted and wrote the answer!

We also practiced reading and solving addition equations. We learned to draw circles to help us add. We copied equations from our Promothean board and then drew pictures to solve the equation!

And then, it was time for some PUNKIN CHUNKIN! True story. This idea came from my TBFF (she's brilliant!) I made a number line with pumpkins numbered 1-10. Each stache had a whiteboard and dry erase marker. I wrote an equation on my board and they copied it. The Punkin Chunker had to find the pumpkin that matched the first number in the equation and then they had to CHUNK their their punkin the same amount as the second number. In the picture below, they would start on 2 and chunk (jump) 3 pumpkins. The answer is 5!

We had a BLAST! I plan to use this game a lot this year when working with adding!

And in small groups, we worked on part-part whole and putting together and counting to find the answer to addition problems! I found these princess plates (and ninja turtles for the boys) so we used those in small groups to help us practice adding!

It's October and we all know what that means....it's the holiday teachers love to hate. You know the one where our little darlings get all dressed up in fun costumes and bang on doors demanding candy. They end up with double their body weight in candy. Which they eat all night. Then they show up at school. And we love them and their days long sugar high. And the tummy aches. And the discussions about why we can't take candy to lunch as our lunch. Oh, Halloween how I love thee! BUT HALLOWEEN IS ON A FRIDAY! If you could see me know, I am smiling and doing my happy dance!

But seriously...who doesn't love Halloween?! Even as an adult...it means we get to dress up and play pretend! We will be in NYC for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade this year (and to see Carol Burnett) so we need ideas....wrestler? football player? I dunno....ideas?!

I love Halloween in the classroom too. It means pumpkins and monsters. And super fun centers and activities. I mean...ghosts and goblins and skeletons and witches! OH MY! All of the festivities might make our darlings a little bonkers (which makes us all mega bonkers) but it's also easy to find engaging (creepy...crawly...spooky...) activities and tools during October!

Just like these ice cube trays and ping pong eye balls from The Dollar Tree! HAVE YOU SEEN THESE??? GET IN OUR CAR NOW! Road rage all the way to the nearest dollar tree and load up. I've bought out 2 Dollar Trees in 2 states! So yeah, um...go now. I'll wait.

(Cue the Jeopardy Music!)

So I decided to create some math centers will all of these spooky purchases....and that means FREEBIES FOR YOU! YOU GET A FREEBIE! YOU GET A FREEBIE! EVERYBODY GETS A FREEBIE!

The orange pumpkin ice trays have...wait for it...10 spots. IT'S A TEN FRAME! Thank you Dollar Tree! So I bought the trays and the eyeballs. I made number cards to 20. And a recoridng sheet. The 'staches will choose a number card and build that number with their eyeballs and trays. Then they write the number and make the ten frame on their paper. BAM! What 5 year old won't love math with eyeballs?!

And it can be differentiated...just one cards 1-10 and one tray! BAM!

And it could be an assessment. Just collect the recording sheets. BAM!

AND they eyeball number cards can be a number order center! BAM!

Then I went to Target (DANGER MR. GREG! DANGER Mr. GREG! PUT DOWN THE MASTERCARD!) and found these cute eyeball buckets and eye erasers. The buckets are $1 and the erasers were $3. Well, I bought the purple skeleton ice cube trays at Dollar Tree too...so why not use eyeball erasers and skeleton trays?!

This center uses a spinner (but I also made skeleton cards for 1-20! I know right?!) The 'staches spin the spinner and build the number using their eyeball erasers. They record their number and make the ten frame on the recording sheet.

And it can be differentiated...just one cards 1-10 and one tray! BAM!

And it could be an assessment. Just collect the recording sheets. BAM!

Here is your freebie! It includes eyeball number cards 1-20, skeleton number cards 1-20, eyeball spinner, and 2 recording sheets. Even if you didn't buy the stuff I used, you can totally use the freebies to make some fun math centers and activities! BAM!

Now, where's my candy?!

click to download your freebies!

Check out my newest creation!

CLICK ME!

It's all black line so it's totally ink friendly! (I run mine on the school copier!) BAM!

And it has some seriously cute activities. The witch boots rhyming game...OMG! NUFF SAID!

And if you're in the market for 430 pages of Halloween math and literacy centers, ten frame cards, measurement and more....check out my Halloween bundle! 6 creations at a 25% discount!

It's time for another high definition classroom video from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard!

Today's video shows our morning meeting with a sight word greeting. I simply write sight words on address labels and stick them on each of my 'staches shirt. When we greet each other, we greet by our sight word and not our names. It's a fun, simple way to get some movement in our morning meeting and practice our sight words!

PS Mr. Greg bought a fancy new Canon Rebel t3i camera and it keeps cutting off my videos. GRRR. I'm working on figuring it out slowly...and ignore my outfit. My TBFF and I decided it was tracksuit day since it was the last day before fall break and we were racing to fall break! We're cute and clever...and fun!

You can view the video here or on my YouTube Channel!

And now some freebies. Yesterday I shared my EYE CAN COUNT Halloween freebies and someone asked if I could make something to use those amazing Halloween erasers at the Target dollar spot. Ask and you shall receive. How about some fun ten frame cards to use the erasers on.

And I bought some spider rings and bat rings at the dollar spot....what do with those?!?! Um, how about sorting and graphing?! TRUE STORY! It's a perfect center. It's cheap. And easy to set up!

All you need is some spider rings and bat rings...

It's FRIDAY! The last day of my fall break. Get THIS! I took....wait for it....ZERO naps this week. Isn't that crazy?!?! But at least it was a productive week!!!

So over the summer I made a lightbox for my classroom. It was super simple and super cheap. You can find the directions HERE! We use our light box during centers so I wanted to extend our learning into CVC words. Well, over the summer, I also did a post about melting plastic cups into flat circles. You can see that post HERE! The melted cups are perfect for the light box and perfect for what I wanted to do with our CVC word building. Are ya ready?!?!

I simply printed cvc word pictures on clear address labels. I then typed the letters for each word on the same clear address labels.

Print.

Stick.

BAM!

The 'staches pick a picture and use their sounds to build the word! BAM! They can even write the word on paper if they want!

These are going to be awesome sauce on the light box!!!!!

Sadly, I designed the labels using the Avery design program so the files save as an Avery file. If you want the files, let me know. You can install the Avery design software for free!

And today I told the stylist I wanted something "cool and different" and told her about my blog and how many selfies I take....so here's what she did to me!

Love it? Hate it?

Well, fall break is over. It's back to work for me. BUT the week starts off with a BANG! The one and only...the amazing...the brilliant...Jen Jones from Hello Literacy is presenting at my school tomorrow. AND we're having dinner. AND she's staying the night at my house. AND she's gonna ride in Smorgie1! AND I am so excited I probably won't sleep tonight. AND JEN JONES IS COMING! JEN JONES IS COMING!

If you've never checked out her amazing resources, do it now!

And now onto our regularly scheduled post.

As always, here are my lesson plans for the week. I am excited becuase these are the first set of plans created using Pages on my Mac. I am moving away from Microsoft Office. Slowly but surely. Can I just say it's an adjustment, but not using Office means I don't see the rainbow spinny wheel and that makes Mr. Greg a happy boy!

This week is all about bats! So here are some bat ideas we will be using this week!

Cats vs. bats spin and graph!

Bats KWL!

Batty AT words!

Cylinder bats! Always a favorite! Simply roll black paper into a cylinder and staple. Cut out wings. Staple on. Add googly eyes and fangs. Purple and black streamer on the bottom! BAM!

Do you like bats?

Handprint bats!

Parts of a bat!

Paper plate bats!

For math, it's all about comparing numbers! I whipped up this little gem to help us with greater than less than!

We will be comparing students...real objects...dice...and more!

And here are some freebies for you!

Click to download!

Many of our resources this week come from these creations:

430 pages! All 6 of my Halloween creations in one bundle!

We returned back to school after our week long (go ahead...throw things...hehe) fall break. Can I just say how excited I was to get back to see my 'staches?! Seriously they've all grown a few inches and were seriously smarter! LOVE THEM!

So I have one sweet 'stache, who we will call "Little" (he looks like Chicken Little....seriously too cute for words!). He is struggling to learn letters. So I wanted something fun and engaging to help him work on his letters! But what??!?! Well, I found these bags at Target....and an idea was born!

Say hello to my little friend: Monster Mash Letter Recognition!

Print the cards and recording sheet.

Place the cards in the monster bag (or any fun Halloween container).

Student chooses a card, names the letter. Finds the letter. Names the letter again. Color.

Even better?? Use Scentos smelly markers!

Here's your freebie!

Click to get your freebie from my TPT store!

You can see how I made this center by clicking the picture!

You can get this monster mash letter recognition freebie by clicking the picture!

These word jars are a huge hit! Click the picture to learn how to make them and use them!

You can find out more about these centers by clicking on the pictures below!

My Frolicking Into Fall creation is on sale for $3.50!

Happy Schedulin Sunday! I am actually Schedulin for a 4 day sub this week. YIKES!

My school is participating in the TIME Collaborative. It's a process to find ways to make your school run more efficiently so you maximize your instructional time. It's all about working smarter not harder. So...they are sending our team to Boston to visit schools who have been through the process. So I am off to Boston for four days!!!

But I wanted to share some Halloween ideas that you might use in your classroom!

Read Go Away Big Green Monster. Give students a white piece of construction paper. Squirt paint in the middle. Squick. Add eyes, nose and a mouth. Students can write about their monster!

Paint 2 paper plates black. Cut one plate in half to make wings. Glue or staple on the wings. Add eyes.

Give each student a pumpkin. Allow them to clean out the pumpkin. Fill with potting soil. Add a flower!

Q-TIp Skeletons!

Feet painting! Candy Corn and ghosts!

Some super fun science experiments!

Click here for your directions and recoding sheets!

Make predictions about what will happen when you put the egg in vinegar. Place egg in vinegar on day one. On day 2 examine the egg and place in food coloring. Remove. MONSTER EYES!

Click here for a fun math freebie!

And by request, here is another Smashing Pumpkins creation! This one is for numbers and counting to 20! Skills included: tally marks, ten frames, counting and number recognition!

And he's BAAAACK! Have you missed me?! I spent last week in Boston visiting some amazing schools that are part of the TIME Collaborative which advocates longer school days which are structured differently to maximize learning. My school is already an extended day so we are looking for ways to restructure our day. I'm working on a blog post about the experience! Boston was great (from what tiny bit I saw!) and the nor'easter almost blew me away. No for real. I was getting in our Uber car (first time ever using UBER!!!) and the wind blew so hard I almost went down!

And now I'm back. Ready to rock the 'staches minds for Halloween week!

As always, here are my downloadable lesson plans:

This week our morning meeting greeting is: greet your friend in a scary voice!!!!!! So excited!

Here are the books we're reading this week:

We will read The Hallo-Weiner and do a flow map to re-tell and sequence the story.

We will read Go Away Big Green Monster and make a list of describing words. We will do a predictable chart about monsters. I see a _______ monster.

We will read Skeleton Hiccups and discuss cause and effect.

And T-rex Trick or Treats is just for fun.

As we read these books we will be using a new vocabulary strategy that Jen Jones at Hello Literacy shared with us when she did PD at my school. More to come!

This week is also the week that the 'staches get to be independent with their word study. I am so excited to get this rolling!!!!

In math, we are working on comparing numbers. We will spend Monday using our Greater Than/Less Than signs to show if a group of real life objects is greater than or less than. We will grab cubes, count the cubes and determine greater than and less than. We will roll dice and write the number and determine greater/less than!

We will also be doing measurement this week. We will be doing HAUNTED MEASUREMENT!

Grab and count mats. Students grab a handful of cubes and place them on each hand. Then they write the number on their sheet and show < > =!

Click the picture for your freebie!

For science, we are doing one of my favorites!

Anytime you can mix stuff up and make it erupt, I'm all in! FOR REAL!

A little baking soda, vinegar and food coloring makes a huge mess and a lasting memory. Last year when we did this the kids went bonkers. They were just amazed! I highly recommend it!

(Click the picture to get your freebie!)

We will paint our big colorful monster!

Here is another fun and simple art project for Halloween....seriously, we did this last week and OMG I love this so much I might have them make more this week!

Wednesday is our annual field trip to the pumpkin patch! When we return from the farm, we get to clean out our pumpkins and plant a flower inside!

How about some freebies?!?!

This is a graphing freebie designed to be used with the differentiation cubes (CLICK HERE). If you don't have these cubes in your class, you can put the monsters in a bag and students can grab one and graph!

Many of our activities this week come from these creations:

I put Franken-Core on sale for $3! Happy Halloween!

Going-Batty is also on sale for $3! Trick or treat!

And check out my latest research project creation!

Be sure to head to my Facebook page for a chance to win a copy!

FACEBOOK ME!

Hello Monday. Mr. Greg is in need of some MAJOR glitter. Monday definitely kicked my hiney today. OMG! The 'staches were bonkers. Cutting clothes...rolling on the floor...tomorrow will be better...tomorrow will be better....but seriously, WHERE IS THE GLITTER?!?! Anyone else??

OK...I've had my dramatic moment...we can move on.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jen Jones (she's my friend because she stayed at my house and rode in my big green Jeep!) visited my school and did a day long PD session. People....one word: GLITTERRIFIC! And if you know me, that is the highest praise Smorgie can bestow on something. But seriously...she was amazing.

Her PD was what all PD sessions should be: USEFUL and RELEVANT. And the best part: we walked away with ideas that can be used TODAY! And those ideas require little if any work on our part. SERIOUSLY.

So there were several take aways for me...like using pictures for close reading in kindergarten. Zooming in on the pictures to discuss WHAT YOU SEE and WHAT YOU THINK YOU SEE! HELLO!!!! Brilliant! (This will be a later blog post!)

But two things Jen discussed are in use in my classroom and I wanted to share those with you.

Think about this: a child gives an opinion or answers a question and what do I say? "WHY?" Well, as Mrs. Jen Jones pointed out, that word has a negative feeling and when you say "WHY?" a child (and adults...hello super sensitive Mr. Greg....I'm very fragile...) almost immediatley THINKS they're wrong. So how about a simple fix! You ready....mind blowing stuff....seriously, mind blown....

There ya go. Instead of asking WHY, use the word because.

Not only does it take away the negative...but it immediately moves our little scholars into higher level thinking.

Here's how I've implemented this word:

I made a because poster and put it on the stage as a reminder for the 'staches and myself. (Jen Jones said make a poster. Almost 100% of the classrooms in our school now have a because poster. If she says it, you make it.)

When discussing a story and someone gives an answer, I say "BECAUSE?" and they have to justify their answer. CRITICAL THINKING! And it's so easy because it's just a word.

BECAUSE!

I've noticed a huge shift in just a couple of weeks of using the word. The 'staches are more talkative when discussing books and are much more willing to justify their answers and give evidence!

EXAMPLE: today a little girl told me she liked my sweater...BECAUSE it was pink and pink is her favorite. It's becoming natural to them.

And if it's natural in speaking...it will become natural in writing.

We also take one morning meeting share time a week and ask a question where they have to use BECAUSE to justify their response.

For example: would you rather eat apples or carrots all day?

They answer in complete sentences and use because.

Isn't that mind blowing? It definitely blew my little glittery brain.

If you want the because sign, click HERE for your freebie!

Then she talked about vocabulary. For my 'staches, this is a huge issue. Our vocabulary is lacking

How about this simple fix:

How simple yet effective. We did this after reading The Halloweiner and pulled out four vocabulary words. I heard them using the words all day long. Especially unusual.

We read the word, define it in kid friendly terms and draw a picture. Eventually they can have their own word journal! But for now it's a class chart. When full we will laminate and post the chart in the room for reference!

Now you need to go visit Hello Literacy (Jen's blog) because she is brilliant. BRILLIANT!

She also has amazing fonts and borders!!!!! In fact, it's her font and borders that I used to create my because sign!

And TRICK OR TREAT! All of my Halloween creations are 20% off this week! Including my Halloween bundle!

Click here to start saving!

It's Halloween week! Today we went to the pumpkin patch and picked the perfect pumpkins! The straw maze through us for a loop. It was highly entertaining watching 5 year olds try to navigate their way through the maze! Field trips are a blast but I'm BEAT!

Who wants/needs a fun, simple Halloween writing activity???? This is a perfect writing activity

for Halloween week and also works great as a time filler! I could also see this as a great center or station for your Halloween party!

It's simple. What will my teacher be for Halloween?

I had a teammate snap a closeup picture of my face. Printed copies for each of the 'staches. We discussed what Mr. Greg might be for Halloween....and off they went.

A princess....these 'staches have me all figured out!

A chicken....

The Flash...

Frankenstein. Interestingly I got several Frankensteins....do see the me as some big green monster?! HMMM

We had a blast with this super fun and simple writing activity. Your class will love getting to dress you up for Halloween!!!!

HELLLLLLLLO! Did you miss me?! I've been gone a lot lately...I know you're used to reading my ramblings daily...so I'll work on getting back on schedule!

We just got home from a trip to NYC! People, it was epic! We saw Avenue Q....and the mister got to do his number one bucket list item: see Carol Burnett in person. He did not get a picture with her, but he did get to ask her a question! She even said "Hi Jason!" AMAZING experience!!!

And I got to go visit the Teachers Pay Teachers offices. Which is located in...the building from Will And Grace where Grace has her office. It was like two of my favorites colliding in sensory overload...seriously...mind blowing. Will and Grace and TPT?!?!

So, if you didn't know November is MOVEMEBER! It's really where the mustache craze started (secretly, we all know it's because of my love of all things mustache...lol). Movember is an effort to bring attention to men's health issues and raise money to help find cures and treatments.

My friends at Creative Teaching Press asked me if I would like to do a Movember themed blog post and give away to promote being healthy. Um...DUH. Would I? So I asked the 'staches about being healthy....and this is what we came up with....

Get ready to be motivated...these are some hardcore adorable trainers...check out our healthy tips...and get moving for a healthier lifestyle!

Don't you feel motivated?!?!

Now you can enter to win some mustache goodies from CTP!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And two hour plane rides mean new creations!

Happy Tuesday! Did you vote? If not, go vote! I'll wait......

So what's been going on in our classroom? Just a little greater gator comparing numbers!!

We've been hard at work on numbers and counting so it was great to move that number sense to the next level! And I am super stoked to see that 100% of the 'staches got a 100% on the post assessment! WOOHOO!

We created this anchor chart to help us remember all about greater gator. We know that greater gator always eats the number that is BIGGER! I mean, when you're hungry, you wanna eat, right?!?! I mean...more cookies!!!

This was a favorite! We used real objects to compare numbers!!!

Another fun activity! The 'staches grab handfuls of cubes and place them on the handprints. They write the number on their sheet and then compare the numbers!

To introduce comparing numbers, we talked about how the greater gator eats the bigger number. We then took turns "eating" the bigger number using our Promothean Board! Epic hit!!!

To make this skill a little higher order thinking, we did this true/false sort. We did a whole group sort where we had to decide if the statement was true or false. After we decided true or false, we had to use our word "BECAUSE" to explain why it was true/false.

And that folks, is our comparing numbers fun!!!

Howdy ya'll! I'm back with a new Submission For Smorgie video! Thanks to Yvetter for this great question about sensory bins in the classroom!

Check out the video below (or on my YouTube channel) and let me know if you have questions or comments or snide remarks!

If you have a question or questions you'd like me to answer, click the Submission For Smorgie button on the right side of the page!

Happy Saturday! I recently got the opportunity to participate in a fun product swap with Melissa from Jungle Learners.

She has this great Even and Odd unit that I just loved. It has great center activities, worksheets and even a class book!

We have been working on even and odd numbers so I decided to use the class book portion of this unit as our wrap up. People, my 'staches LOVED making this book!!

I love that the book uses the 'staches names as the basis for determining even and odd. Anytime you can use their name, I'm all over it!

Everyone did such an awesome job with this and they were ecstatic when I told them this would be in our class library for them to read!

Be sure to stop by Jungle Learners for more amazing ideas for your classroom!

Enter to win your copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello people!!! Guess who is actually getting to be in his classroom for a full week this week?!?! ME!!!! I am uber excited about this!!! And because I of this, I have some big plans for this week!!!!!

As always, you can download my weekly lesson plans by clicking on the picture!!

Are ya ready for some pilgrim goodies and ideas?! Let's get this Schedulin' Sunday rolling!

Here are the books we will be reading this week:

(Click any picture to see the book on Amazon!)

Reading/Literacy

This week we will be reading about Pilgrims and Veteran's! Each day we will read a pilgrim book and add information to our Pilgrims Did/Had/Wanted chart. On Friday, we will do a double bubble map to compare pilgrim children to ourselves!

On Tuesday we will read Hero Dad and discuss what a Veteran is. We will make a circle map about Veteran's and write a thank you note to Veteran's! We will make a HERO HAT and make a soldier!

The painting is done with marbles and red, white and blue paint! You put your paper in a box lid (I use the lid from copy paper boxes). Put paint in the four corners (1 color per corner). Put some marbles in the lid and students GENTLY roll the marble around spreading the paint!

Click below to get your FREE Hero HAT project!

This week in math we are working on subtraction! We introduced the concept last week so this week we will be doing more hands on work with the idea of taking away. (People, MINDS WERE BLOWN! Seriously....so this week we will just practice practice practice! And Mr. Greg promises not to pull his hair out...)

Monday we will review whole group. We will discuss what subtraction means and we will GET OFF THE BOAT to practice!

I use tape to make a boat on the floor. I will project a subtraction equation on the Promothean board. For example: 5-3. I will pick 5 students to get on the boat. Then we will discuss how many students need to get off the boat (take away). That number gets off the boat (they usually fall off....) and we have our answer!

Tuesday and Wednesday will be small group work with subtraction. We will be FEEDING THE MONSTER!

Each student has a monster work mat. I show an equation. They put that number of manipulatives in the box. Then the monster "eats" some of the manipulatives (take away) and we have an answer!

(CLICK THE PICTURE TO GET YOUR FREE MONSTER MAT!)

Thursday we will switch gears for a little Gobbling Up Measurement!

Our Foodie Fun Friday this week is graphing our favorite pie!

We taste peanut butter pie (homemade by THE MISTER!), apple pie and cherry pie. Then we vote for our favorite!

Click the picture to get your pie graphing freebie!

Of course, we will be doing some fun art projects as we learn about pilgrims. You have to have art to learn. It's a must. A requirement. A necessity.

Handprint Mayflower. Students paint the water (add glitter to the paint for dramatic effect. And cuz everything needs glitter.). Paint student's hands brown. Paint the Mayflower. Add red and white triangles for sails.

Paper plate pilgrims!

Cut the outer edge of the plate off. Paint the inner circle peach.

Use the outer circle you removed for the girls hat. Use a second plate to make her hat and collar.

Use the outer part you removed for the boys collar. Use construction paper to make his hat.

How about a poem and emergent reader for Pilgrim week?

And that is our Pilgrim week!

Many of the resources for this week can be found in the following creations:

People, i'm back with another SUBMISSION FOR SMORGIE!!!!

You can watch me discuss some of your questions below or by visiting my YouTube channel!

It's time for another super fun classroom video from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard!

Who doesn't love a peek into the insanity that is my class!?

This video shows a fun whole group subtraction lesson that is kinesthetic with some technology built in. You can see that the 'staches are engaged (for the most part....ignore the one who crawls away and gets trash off the floor...hehe) and having fun!

The lesson is called "Get Off My Boat!" I made a simple boat using tape on the floor. We read subtraction equations and use the boat to help us solve the equations!

After the whole group lesson, you see me working with my guided math groups on subtraction. In this lesson, we are feeding the monster M&Ms to practice taking away!

You can watch the video below or on my YouTube Channel!

Here is a free Subtraction Sally anchor chat for you!

ENJOY!

Click for your freebie!

Greetings from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard World Headquarters! I'm sitting on the couch...in my sweats...with my massive big bed head...the CEO, Butters, is snoozing beside me. The mister is working on receipts from my massive spending sprees for my classroom. Life is good people. Life is good!

So this is the Thanksgiving edition of Schedulin Sunday! This week is all about Thanksgiving and Turkeys! And by this week I mean three days....because I am out Monday and Tuesday because I am a FEATURED presenter at the Tennessee Kindergarten conference! Anyone coming???? I am doing 8 glitteriffic sessions over two days! I AM SO EXCITED!

So...here are some super fun Thanksgiving ideas and activities! Ready? Set? GOBBLE!

The Thanksgiving place mats are always so much fun! And it's messy so you know I love it! Messy=successful!

Students glue a plate, fork, spoon and napkin on their paper. Then they use the sale paper from Publix and Kroger to plan their own Thanksgiving feast! We have so much fun talking about our feasts and sharing why we chose our foods!

Paper Plate Turkeys!

THESE. ARE. MY. MOST. FAVORITE. PROJECT. EVER.

Paper plate turkeys! Here's how we do it:

Paint 2 large paper plates brown.

Paint 1 plate orange. Cut in half.

Teacher hot glues the 2 brown plates onto a popsicle stick for the neck.

Cut the orange plate in half. Staple on for wings

Cut 2 strips of orange and fold for legs.

Cut out eyes and a beak.

Hang up.

Admire the adorableness.

We will read the Thankful Book by Todd Parr and discuss all of the things we are thankful for. We will write our own thankful book!

While we are celerbating what we are thankful for, we will celebrate the words we are thankful we can read. This is another one of those lessons that kind of takes on a life of it's own.

I assess each child on the sight words they can read. They get those feathers and color them. Then we make a turkey with the words we can read.

I love that this lesson teachers us to be thankful for OUR WORDS! These are the words that we can read and that help us be better readers. This is what we're thankful for!

We make these adorable turkeys that are free from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business!

We write about how to cook a turkey! People, never let a 5 year old cook your turkey. That is all!

Of course, we make a turkey hat. You can't celebrate in our classroom without a silly hat. That is all.

These are from my friend Tiffany at Time 4 Kindergarten!

We measure Thanksgiving!

We make a fun Thanksgiving snack. Squanto taught the Native Americans to bury fish in the ground for a bountiful harvest. So we plant fish in pudding to celebrate all that we have to be thankful for!

Oreos, Swedish fish and pudding!

And finally, we work together as a family to cook stone soup!

We read Stone Soup and talk about how working together creates beautiful things! We talk about all the things we've done together and all of what we've created and learned!

Each 'stache brings in a can of vegetables. I add chicken broth, salt, pepper, and a stone. Our soup cooks all day and smells so good! At the end of the day, we celebrate our thankfulness with soup. I always make sure that a deserving child gets that stone so we can celebrate that child!