It is a beautiful Saturday here in Music City! I am very excited that I get to go pick up my Vespa, “Loose-Wheel Ball,” from the shop. They’ve had it for MONTHS! It went in to get a new tire and they found this quarter sized ring that was cracked so it needed replaced. Well, that part shipped from New York and with SuperStorm Sandy it still hasn’t arrived. So, I am going to take advantage of this beautiful day to get Ms. Ball. And in case you didn’t see the pictures of my reaction to seeing my Vespa (wedding present) for the first time, here ya go!
And now, here is what you really want to see! It’s the kindergarten smorgasboard of ideas, activities, lessons and chaos from another week at Monsters Inc!
This week we kicked off our holiday (Christmas) extravaganza and we did not celebrate the letter “th” People, this was a difficult sound for my monsters. I even discovered that one of my monsters has a strange forked tongue going on. WEIRDO! But he fits in with Mr. Greg since I love being a weirdo.
We of course had to make a hat to go with our TH sound. so Mr. Greg made Thunderstorm hats! And this is my thunderstorm hats. These hats are also going to be recycled when we do “br” for BRAINSTORMING! You can click the picture to get your own template for a thunderstorm hat!
This week we also started exploring subtraction! I was very impressed with how well my monsters did with this difficult concept! We spent all week building a strong foundation for “taking away” and “breaking apart” as subtraction. Of course, we had a lot of fun doing this! My favorite activity this week is the “SS Subtraction!” I made a ship on the floor with tape. A certain number of students would “board” the ship. Then we would count the number and write it on the board. After everyone is on board, the ship ‘wrecks” and people fall off. We count the number of people left on the ship and we have our answer! The monsters loved this!!! I think they will forever have a great grasp of the subtraction of falling off the boat!
We also fed the subtraction monster! I wrote an equation on the board and students counted the correct number of Legos into the box. Then we fed the monster a number of Legos and counted to get the answer! You can click on the picture to get the monster subtraction mat for free!
Our holiday (Christmas) celebrations kicked off with one of my favorite books! Moosletoe! If you haven’t read this book , you must! It’s hilarious. It’s also full of great vocabulary and it’s a great book for problem/solution and sequencing.
Of course, no book in Mr. Greg’s class is complete without a craftivity! We did this cute Moosletoe project to go with out story! If you want the template for this project (hand drawn by me!) just click on the picture!
For our Foodie Friday snack, we incorporated our moose friend! We had MooseCrunch and Moose Trax ice cream. During our snack, someone came into our room and asked what we were eating and one of my monsters said, “Mooslecrunch”! I love this name better than moose crunch! If you want the recipe, just click on the picture of the mooslecrunch!
As you can see, it was good stuff!
We made these fun,glittery poinsettias to decorate our hallway! These are so much fun to make and they look so good hanging up! Very festive! You can get the pattern in my Holly Jolly Christmas unit!
We also made these super adorable peppermint candies! These are also hanging in our festive hallway! Anytime we can paint and get messy is a great day! The hand prints and pictures make these perfect for decorating for the holidays! These are also in my Christmas unit!
We counted, tallied and graphed! The kids LOVED this activity! And every monster got everyone right! So proud of them! Where is this great activity from?? You guessed it! My Christmas unit!
We are working hard on our numbers 11-20! We played “Find The Present!” You place number cards 11-20 in a pocket chart. You hide a picture of a present behind a number (or two or three presents). Students point to a number, read the number and if they get the right number they remove the card to see if they found the present. You should hear the giggles and laughs when they find the present! Very motivating and engaging! Guess where this is? Yep. Holly Jolly Christmas.
Christmas writing the room. My monsters are becoming addicted to writing the room. They’re even asking to do it during math! I love seeing them with their clipboards and searching for words, reading words and writing! If they love it and keeps them engaged, then I am going to keep find ways to implement this into our day!
I found these super cute erasers at Wal-Mart of $1 so I bought a ton of them. And then I was inspired to create a counting activity for them! The monsters have loved using these to count to 20. It’s been great practice for my monsters who need extra practice! The counting activity will be FREE in my newsletter today! If you haven’t signed up, just go over here ——-> and sign up! You’ll get this newsletter exclusive freebie later today!
And here is TOP SECRET PROJECT GINGERBREAD! PHASE 1.
And I am linking with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for my December Currently!
