Five for Friday {Giraffe}

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. This week we have enjoyed fun in the snow (see last post) and we have learned about the letter G for giraffe!
{one} 
We made a fun giraffe craft with Cheerio's. I love how it turned out!
{two}
We worked on fine motor activities. 
{three}
We played with beans and Play-Dough.

{four}
We made the letter G with pattern blocks and read giraffe books.


{five}
Tomorrow we are picking up Maggie and Molly, our miniature schnauzers! We are super excited!

What We Have Learned This Week

I am sure you have all heard about the Great Snowpocalypse of Atlanta! People stuck on the interstate for hours upon hours, kids spending the nights at school, stranded people staying in places like Home Depot for shelter. It's been bad. Like every good Southerner, I got my "milk and bread" the day the snow began. No, really, I had to get groceries anyway and ran some errands on Monday so it worked out well. Since then, me and E have been staying put!


Growing up in Tennessee, we had a couple of snow's each winter - some little and some decent. In South Carolina, it snowed one good time while we lived there. I've heard that Atlanta doesn't get a lot of snow, so we are enjoying it while it's here!
Here's what we are learning about this week... (halfway kidding, we've been doing lots of giraffe stuff - check back tomorrow for that).
We've learned about how snow can form into snowballs and how you can throw them and hit people! :) We also learned that E's gloves were way too big and he couldn't do anything in them so I put him in my chevron socks! Whatever works - HA!
We've learned that soccer is even more fun in the snow!
And my favorite....we've learned how to make snow angels!! E begged me to do it with him so we both made lots of snow angels in the front yard!


Check back tomorrow for our giraffe fun!

Dollar Tree Goodies

I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the teaching goodies I have found lately! This first post will highlight some of the goodies that I have purchased at the Dollar Tree.  This is not a sponsored post and I am not getting paid for it. I'm just a teacher who loves to find deals!

This first picture highlights LOTS of items! When I started staying at home with my 3 1/2 year old, I stocked up on school supplies for us to do a little bit of "school" each day. 
  • Beans, scoops, measuring cups (playing with beans)
  • Books
  • Ice trays (to use with pom poms and tweezers)
  • Clothespins (to write letters on)
  • Pom poms (ice tray activity)
  • Containers to hold items
  • Alphabet letters
  • Wooden masks
  • Glue
  • Seasonal items (some Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, & Easter)

I know it's a little early for Easter. But, I couldn't pass these few items up! We'll use the foam shapes for crafts. I'm not sure what we'll do with the Easter eggs just yet, but I could see them being fun in a center in a classroom.
Here is an up close photo of the books I purchased (for upcoming animal studies!) and wooden masks for crafts.
I picked up these cut-out's yesterday. I'm not quite sure how I'll use them. I've made others with uppercase and lowercase letters to match them. I've also put numbers on one and dots on the others to match. I haven't quite figured out what I'll do with these, but I am sure it'll be something cute!
I saw these pink baskets and had to get a few! Us teachers with our baskets, right?! I'll save them for when I go back into the classroom.
I bought these word strips to use when we do our clothespin fine motor skill activity. They should be a little more sturdier than the paper I've been using. I also bought the shoe cut-outs for future use as well - maybe for a bulletin board?
I also thought these tactile letters were really neat! 
We all use dice (or number cubes, I've heard them called!) in our classrooms for multiple uses. I needed to pick some up for an alphabet game we play. Not a bad deal - 10 pack for $1.
I also thought these magnifying readers may be neat to use in a small guided reading group! 
I'll share some other goodies I've gotten at different places soon! I know I always get ideas when I see what other people buy and how they use them! 

It's right around the corner!

It's almost time for Valentine's Day! I admit, in the past Valentine's Day wasn't a big holiday for my upper elementary students, but as I have began planning a week full of Valentine's Day activities for my son, I see how it can be so much FUN!  

Some of the things we'll be doing the week of Valentine's Day:
  • Sending Zoo Valentine's to our family and friends
  • Sorting candy hearts
  • Graphing candy hearts (maybe?!)
  • Matching uppercase and lowercase hearts
  • Putting the letters of the alphabet in order
  • Counting hearts
  • Patterns with hearts
  • Sorting hearts by colors
  • Sorting hearts by size
  • Valentine's crafts
I can hardly wait! We will have a special family member visiting us on Valentine's Day so we are super excited!  

I have found lots of resources online for Valentine's Day and have made a few on my own resources to use with E.  

For today *only*, my Valentine's Day packets on Teachers Pay Teachers will be free! Click HERE to visit my store to find the two items below! 

All I ask is that you leave me some love (feedback!) and don't mention it was a freebie, as it will go back to being a paid item! 



Five for Friday {Letter L}

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for Teaching for her Five for Friday linky! This has been a busy week! We've gotten a lot done and have enjoyed time at home, too. We found an awesome playground near our house that we can play at when the weather cooperates. One day this week it was mid 60's (compared to the low 20's today), so we had a great time playing! When we left, E said, "That was the best play area I've ever been to!" 
{one}
Since I am dedicating a week to a certain animal (based on what my son loves!) this week was "lion week". We read this book and even found a new lion book at Kroger this week. You just never know where you'll find a new book.
Easton first told me what he knew about lions. Pretty accurate!
{two}
We worked on the letter "L" in various ways. We did a Do-a-Dot activity (resource: Confessions of a Homeschooler), made the letter "L" with beans worked with stamps, and practiced writing it. As E writes it, he says to himself "Straight line down, line at the bottom" - whatever works for him, right?

{three}
This week I've been pinning several fine motor skill activities, as I see that is an area I want to work on with E. This week we did this quick fine motor skill activity with clothespins. 
{four}
We also worked on colors and numbers 0-9. E knows all of his colors, but I figured it doesn't hurt to practice them. We played this color puzzle game 
(resource: Confessions of a Homeschooler).
I placed numbers 0-9 out in random order and let him put them in the correct order. The first day he wasn't sure where to put 0 and it dawned on me that I've never focused on the number 0. I've always started with 1. #momfail We did this activity a second time on another day and he put the 0 first that time! It amazes me how quickly things soak in.
I ordered this jungle animal counting game from Zulily so we played it today! E loved it, of course, as he LOVES anything animal related. 

{five}
We worked on a couple of lion crafts. The first one is a paper plate craft. E loved it! First, we painted the paper plate and let it dry overnight. Then, we added the mane and facial features. Clearly, I am not an art teacher! Haha! I really tried to just let him go with the flow and tried not to dictate where I thought things should go, etc. Leon the Lion is definitely interesting!
Our next craft came from the Dollar Tree. Can't beat a cute wooden lion craft for $1.00!
And a BIG accomplishment for me this week....I finished all of my paperwork to get my Georgia teaching license!! It's packaged and ready to be mailed! WOOOHOOO! 

L is for Lion

This week we are working on the letter L and are learning about lions! First, I had E tell me everything he could about lions. This chart reflects what he told me, word for word.
We bought a new book from Amazon! It's a great text for his age.
E loves these Do-a-Dot activities! 
E knows all of his colors, but it doesn't hurt to continue working with them. Yesterday, I gave him a stack of these color puzzles (resource: Confessions of a Homeschooler) and let him match them up. He did a great job and loved them!
We also worked on number order 0-9. I let him put them in number order and he got to the end and still had the number 0 and was not sure where to put it. It dawned on me that I've never told him about the number 0. Oops! I'm curious to see how he does tomorrow when we do this activity again.

Five for Friday {January 17}

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday linky party! I love this linky because it's the perfect way to share all about our week.
{one}
We had Mommy PE class this week!  I actually got this idea from my previous teaching partner. She used to have "Sabrina's PE class" with her girls when they were younger. E was so funny when I was telling him we were going to do something new called "Mommy's PE class". We bundled up, went outside, and played games. First, we threw the ball back and forth. Then, we kicked the ball back and forth. While doing this, I asked Easton what sport we were playing (thinking he would say "kickball") and he said, "I think it's P-O-E" meaning PE! Too cute! We also tried throwing balls into a laundry basket (hey - whatever works, right?) and of course, we stopped for water breaks! We also walked a mile! He was exhausted by the end of it.
{two}
We had lots of creative play this week. We used this castle to make a home for animals and made a farm.
I found this little wooden barn at Target. I don't think it's actually a barn, but we thought it would be a good barn! Notice we didn't have a pond so we printed a picture of one, laminated it, and now we have a pond! E said, "We can waminate (laminate) i!" He is such a teacher's kid.
{three}
We also used this animal t-chart (freebie in my TPT store) to categorize animals. E is all about Africa. LOVES Africa! He asks all the time if we can go to Africa to see animals when he's bigger. One day, buddy. 
{four}
Mommy spent some time organizing school materials after cutting out LOTS of lamination!
{five}
We made an exciting decision this week! We are getting PUPPIES! Puppies, as in plural, as in TWO. Call me crazy now. We are going to be getting two miniature schnauzers! Actually, it isn't final or anything yet but we have found a breeder and talked with him a lot yesterday. He and his wife will be sending us pictures of two females (we want two females) that they have and hopefully we will put a deposit down today. Last night we took E to Petsmart and let him pick out 2 toys. Of course, he picked out an ELEPHANT and a monkey!
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