Tried-It Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday!!  Tomorrow is Wednesday, which for me means tomorrow is Early Day!!  <the student leave at 2:00, we stay until 3:45>  Early Day is awesome! Do you have anything like that in your school?

Today I wanted to share with you something I have tried out in my classroom.  This is an activity one of my teamies <my shorthand for team mates> found on Pinterest.  Our main focus in science is an in-depth study of the tree.  We spend all year with this as our main focus, and this means that we get to really dig into all things tree-related.  One of the best parts about getting to focus on trees all year long is that we get to observe the trees as they change throughout the seasons.  In my part of the U.S., we get to experience all four seasons as well as how they change from one to the next.  Gotta love that temperate climate!!  Right now we are focusing on how trees change from summer to the fall, as well as the reasons behind the changes.  While we were planning on different ways to help our kinders understand the main parts of the tree (roots, trunk, branches, leaves), my teamie found this activity on Pinterest. <click on the picture to head over the my Pinterest board where I have this pinned!  Follow me while you're there!!>

As a team we decided to give this activity a try.  I pre-cut the strips into the bags, and I think I may have cut my strips too long.  One of my teamies cut hers shorter and her kiddos had a much easier time getting the trees created. 

 I had this graphic up on the SMART Board while they were working, and I also walked them through the process step-by-step while modeling with another bag.  

Here's what my sample looked like.

I don't have as much of a trunk as the one in the diagram, and I'm thinking the reason is because I cut the strips down too far.  Next year I won't make that mistake again!!  My teamie also made some labels for them to add to their trees once they were finished with the leaves.

I gave each student a square of red, orange, and yellow construction paper.  They were to tear their leaves from those pieces, and glue the leaves to the branches of their tree.  Some of my Dragons glued their entire square to a branch...so much for diagrams!!  :-)  Still, I think they had fun making it!!

My kinders worked hard on this activity and they were SUPER excited to get to take them home and share them with their families.  My kiddos get SO EXCITED whenever they get to take something home that they worked on in school.  Do your littles get excited to take things home?  

Markdown Monday!

I am excited to link up with Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations for their Markdown Monday linky party!  I just LOVE that they have this awesome linky every single week!!  If you have never heard of this linky, here's a quick run-down.  If you create activities and sell them online through sites like TPT and Teachers Notebook, you can choose whichever product or products you wish to mark down in price.  You also choose how much you mark them down for.  They will stay at this markdown price for the entire week, and it's a great way to stock up on your favorite sellers' activities!!  Make sure to click on the Markdown Monday picture at the end of this post to take you over to see who else has linked up this week!!

For my Markdown Monday this week, I am going to mark down EVERY SINGLE ONE of my Halloween-related activities!!  Each one is going to get marked down by $1.00, AND I am currently throwing a SALE!!!! Perfect reason to stock up on activities you can use for the last few weeks of this month, and stock up with activities you can use during the Halloween season next year!!

All you have to do is click on the picture below to hop on over to my TPT store.  Once there, use the Quick Find search box and type in 'Halloween'.  All of my Halloween-related activities will pop up, and you can check out their discounted prices.  Also, any activities I'm able to finish this week will be marked down too!!

I hope that you are able to find something you are able to use!!  Don't forget that my 100th product, that I posted yesterday, is a pretty sweet Write the Room FREEBIE that will fit perfectly into your room this time of year!!

What is your FAVORITE part about this season?  I LOVE the Fall, especially watching the leaves turn such beautifully gorgeous colors!!

Don't forget to go back over to Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations to see who else has linked up with their Markdown Monday linky party!!

Extreme Blog Makeover!

Welcome to my BRAND NEW blog!!!  I was lucky enough to have my blog completely redone by Designs by Kassie!!  Did she not do an AMAZING job!?!  I am totally in love with my blog's new look, and I just LOVE how it fits my theme!!  Have you seen the 'Pin Me' button she created??  It's a DRAGON!!!  :-)  It was an investment well spent!!

I am also celebrating a personal milestone!  Back in June, I set a goal for myself.  This morning, that goal was FINALLY achieved!!  

My original idea was to have 100 items posted in my TPT store by the end of the summer.  At the time, I had 75 items in my store.  I thought it'd be easy-peasy to get 25 items done over the summer months.  Wellll.........life happened and most of my summer was spent exactly as it should be, with family and friends!  :-)  So by the time school started up again, I had only been able to raise my total activities posted to 90.  Not too shabby, but still not the original goal. I wasn't able to meet my original deadline, but I have finally gotten 100 products listed in my TPT store!  I thought it fitting that the 100th product should be a FREEBIE for all of you wonderful folks who have inspired me to keep creating!!

This little freebie is a Write the Room activity created around smiley spiders.  This activity focuses on the numerals 1-10, the number words 1-10, and the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, and gray.

Each poster has a different number represented by a set of same-colored spiders.  The matching number words are also on the posters, done up with spider-web letters.

There are two different types of recording sheets.  The first type focuses on the numbers 1-10 and matching those numerals to a set.  

Students must identify the number and find the spider set that matches.  They then write the number word on the line next to the numeral, and color the numeral to match the color of the spiders.  There are two sheets, one for the numerals 1-5 and another for the numerals 6-10.  You could either use these to differentiate for students in your room, or copy them back to back and have the students work on all of the numbers. 

The next recording sheet has students reading the given color word and then finding the set of spiders that matches that color.

When students find the matching poster, they are to draw the amount of spiders in the set.  Since the black spider poster has ten spiders on it, students would draw ten black spiders in the box labeled with the black crayon.  You could also have them write the matching numeral inside the box, if you wish.

I hope that you enjoy this freebie, and that you help my celebrate this milestone!!  I am going to be throwing a SALE in my TPT store, where every single product will be listed at 10% OFF!!  Stock up on all your favorites!!  Check back tomorrow to see which products I mark down EVEN FURTHER!!!