Well, that three week break from lesson planning sure was nice while it lasted!! It’s Schedulin Sunday here at The Kindergarten Smorgasboard World Headquarters. But… at least I get an easy week to transition back into things! Tomorrow was supposed to be our workday but it got moved to Tuesday and Tuesday was supposed to be the first day with kids, but it’s now Wednesday. We get a “cold day” tomorrow because the single digit temps and below zero wind-chills are too much for the southerners. Don’t worry. The World Headquarters is prepared. We crawled under the house today and the pipes are nicely insulated, the vents are closed. The cabinets are open and the water is dripping. Should we lose power we have a gas fire place! We stocked up on food and other adult essentials. Wink Wink. And if it should snow, will make the trek to Pie In The Sky Pizza for our traditional snow night dinner where we watch people attempt to drive in the snow!!
So I have to plan for 3 days! Of course, I crammed a lot in those 3 days…On top of our learning, we will be practicing routines and procedures and getting back to the swing of kindergarten!
So let’s get started with our “Bouncing Into A New Year!” week!
As always, click the picture to download my lesson plans!
Monday-COLD DAY!
Tuesday-Teacher Work Day
Wednesday
We return to school with a focus on the new year and new goals for ourselves! We will read Squirrel’s New Year Resolution and discuss resolutions as goals. We will ten brainstorm ideas for resolutions for home, school and play.
We will jump back into our blending and segmenting skills as we prepare for DIBELS bench-marking. We will use our new ends like posters to review ending sounds.
For writing we do a super fun community building activity. I used to do it on my smart board but tragically I don’t have one anymore. No bother,we will do this activity on the whiteboard.
Student sits or stands in front of the board and classmates use adjectives to describe all of the things they like about the ‘stache. As they share, I write them on the board and then snap a picture. We display the pictures in the classroom!
In math, we will do a few simple activities to get our brains back to numbers. We will put number cards in order to 20 as a whole group activity. Then we will do a cut and paste activity where students put the numbers in order. Finally, we will practice number writing.
We will celebrate the new year with a fun and simple craftivity!
Thursday
We keep right on bouncing into the new year with the story The Night Before New Year’s. We will discuss what we did to celebrate new year’s.
We will work on our ending sounds, our blending and segmenting skills and even work on blending words with the pesky magic e at the end!
We will finish our adjective activity for the friends we didn’t finish on Wednesday.
Math will be more numbers but today we will be counting down to zero! We will practice whole group starting with 10. Then 15 and finally 20. After whole group practice, we will do a cut and paste activity to get some independent practice counting backwards! Followed by number writing practice and math centers!
We will celebrate our new year with a fun party hat collage! Each student gets a party hat and access to art supplies to make their own hat! That means one thing: GLITTER! Glitter means messy and ya know my motto: MESSY-SUCCESS!
And finally Friday!
We end our “bouncing into a new year” week with some ending sounds practice, blending and segmenting and writing. Notice I don’t have a story today….well ever new year book I tried to order from Amazon was sold out. SUGGESTIONS!?
For writing we will publish our new year’s resolutions. These will be displayed long with our new year’s craftivity from Monday.
Friday means Mad Science Friday and Foodie Fun Friday!
For Mad Science Friday we will be making our own bouncy balls. WHOA! The excitment and amazement!!! True story.
When we did this last year, I got the directions reversed and we had to start over! Nothing like the teacher making a big mistake to show the ‘staches that mistakes are cool!
Click the picture for your free directions!
And for Foodie Fun Friday, how about a Time’s Square Ball Drop snack?!
This is a simple and fun snack! You need cupcakes (I used the mini cupcakes), coffee stirrer, doughnut hole and sugar. The fun is that the ‘staches lick the doughnut hole and then role it in the sugar. Ya know, the sugar gives the ball some sparkle! Then carefully insert the straw into the doughnut hole. TIP! USE REGULAR DOUGHNUT HOLES! Last year I had to use the cake doughnut holes and it was not so good! Then insert the straw into the cupcake and BAM!
And that my friends, is our 3 day Bouncing Into The New Year Week!
Here are some great new year’s freebies for you!
click the pictures to go the blog post with your freebies!
These go well with my Happy New Year 2014 Creation (which is where our activities and writing come from this week!).
Now, how about a give away?!
I just updated this fun math creation with new activities, glittery new clip art and some changes to other activities! It’s now 70 pages of hot fun! And it’s on sale for $2.50 today only!
To enter, just leave me a comment about anything you want (ideas: how cute I am, how fabulous I am, where to send gifts,etc, etc!) and I’ll choose a winner tomorrow!
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18 comments
Loving the glitters in your updated pack!
Stay warm!
cheriemae@gmail.com
I love the squirrels new years resolution book! Reading that one as well! I bought your hat template last year so we'll be working on those as well! What math centers will you be working on?
Kristinvandro@gmail.com
Awwww I bought the old hot chocolate pack a couple of weeks ago! Let me tell you I bought tons of your awesome stuff (including the old hot chocolate pack) and printed and laminated it all over the break and had my daughters cut…wait for it…. over a hundred feet of lamination..yep 100 hundred feet! It was a sweat shop over here on winter break!
I enjoy reading your blog. You have such fun ideas!
Coley
cfcoley@gmail.com
You are simply glitterific, Greg! Love reading your blog. 🙂
-Andrea
alwayskindergarten@gmail.com
I see all of these pins for other creations on Pinterest and sure, I pin them, but when I really check them out they don't hold a candle to yours. Your packs come with SO many different ideas, cover such a wide variety of topics, and make differentiation during centers easier than ever. Just got a ton of ink as a Christmas present for printing things for school in color…..with a cold day tomorrow, let the printing begin!!!
vwitherell@gmail.com
Thanks for your mad science freebies. Science is one subject I just don't get excited teaching about. Your experiments make it fun for the kids & I.
Loving the snack idea for this week…so cute!
YOU are someone I have found to greatly admire!!!! I only wish after my 20 years of teaching I could have to energy and enthusiasm you have!!! How lucky your children are!!! I want to be you when I grow up! Ha! *Christy*
This pack looks great! Thanks for the chance to win it! We have the next two days off for snow/cold in Michigan too – I think I will create something snow-inspired tomorrow! Love the snack idea – my kiddos would love this!
teachingtomorrowsleaders.blogspot.com
You are a cutie patootie, for sure!!! vhair61215@gmail.com
I was going to just go ahead and buy the hot chocolate math, since 2.50 is an awesome price, but TpT has a 3.00 minimum! Poo! Oh well, maybe I'll win it! mrsgfowler@gmail.com
Your comment about watching people attempt to drive in the snow cracked me up! I love your adjective lesson idea- especially how you take a picture and hang it up- what a great idea- totally going to do that!
Aylin 🙂
Learning to the Core
You are fabulous, funny, frivilous, fiberous (beginning tomorrow)!, and fantabulous! I love your blog–and I'm feeling for you, as the hubs and I are beginning the 24 day challenge on Tuesday (one last day of freedom cheering on my alma mater FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES!). thanks for your ingenuity and enthusiasm.
i love all your stuff…just purchased a few packs today and am working on printing and laminating on my next 2 days off!!! this would be a great addition! 🙂 angelacip2@gmail.com
so….I am sitting here with freshly fallen snow and temperatures in the single digits. Do we get a “snow” day?….nope. We'll probably have inside recess instead. We don't even get a work day…the little ones come tomorrow! I may need hot chocolate by the end of it if we all (kids and teachers) survive!
Michele
mswetherbie@msn.com
I read books about Chinese New Year right along with our New Year stories. It lets the kids see different cultures and how different people celebrate the same holiday. If you can find it, Sesame Street has a great video with Elmo visiting children all over the world to see the different ways other cultures bring in the New Year. Oh, yeah, and you are cute and fabulous!
TonyaLambert13@yahoo.com
Greg,
Last year I found an online video of Squirrel's New Year. Your should google it. My kids loved watching it on the big screen! Happy New Year-We are having a “cold day” in South Dakota too. Wind chills are forecasted to be -50 (brutal). Stay warm.
lparce@hotmail.com