Moooooving and Grooving

Sorry for the corny title, but I had to come up with something that made it seem like this Farm unit we're muddling through is ROCKIN' our world. But to be honest...it's slow-going. We're dealing with some schedule conflicts and a full moon. Can I get an amen?! We've got two more assemblies on the docket for tomorrow. Eeesh.

     Anymoo, I just HAD to share our little directed drawings we did today because these WERE rockin'! It was our first directed drawing this school year and I was more than a little nervous about trying one already. I don't think I've ever done a cow before either so there's that too. BUT directed drawings never disappoint. I don't know why I doubted the process. The end products always SCREAM uniqueness and personality. Don't you wanna squeeze all these sweet little cows!?

I fancied them up a bit with a little "mat" action.

I think these sweet drawings were just the motivation I needed to keep exposing these Kinders to directed drawings! Even on day 25 of Kindergarten...they did a fantastic job. Kinders never cease to amaze me. I can't wait to see their little Mo Willems pigeons and Dr. Seuss Cats. What are your favorite directed drawings? I'd love to hear how YOU use directed drawings in your classroom. 

Hope you had a great HUMP day!

Five for Friday- ON FRIDAY!

I'm actually linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching on a FRIDAY! *And I've blogged 2 days in a row.* Someone pinch me! Haha! It was a busy week in Kindergarten, however, I'm kind of wondering what we accomplished?! The first couple of months always means assemblies, school pictures, and other special "extras" which make the days and weeks that much busier!

Excuse my messy desk...but I LOVE ripping off old calendar pages and letting the NEW month show off its stuff. Can I get an amen?! Speaking of stuff...do you see all of that STUFF?! Yikes! October is a busy month! Here's hoping I can keep my desk a LITTLE neater.

Since we started after Labor Day this year...we're finally getting into the swing of things and mastering routines. One of our longest routines to learn and build upon is our morning calendar. We use the Smartboard and eventually work in our calendar folders with markers. The kiddos were SO excited to see a morning message on October 1st! They love being letter detectives each morning.

Math Workshop and 2-D shapes were SO MUCH fun this week! We worked on describing shapes throughout the week as we talked about number of sides, number of points/corners, straight sides vs. curved sides, etc. The kiddos loved building shapes with coffee stirrers. We also used geo-boards and rubber bands to build some of our straight-edged shapes! We love the hands-on exploration!

We celebrated our first classroom birthday today! This cutie was SO POLITE when I gave him his birthday loot. We also had the chance to try out my first TPT freebie! The class made this birthday boy a special book. He got to decorate the cover of the book and each of his classmates drew him a picture. He was so excited to take his birthday book home at the end of the day. 

We had a BUSY week in the Murray household. Can you tell?! I think we're all ready for some REST this weekend.

Have a great and restful weekend, friends!

October Currently!

I have to say...I have really enjoyed getting back into this whole blogging thing. The "Currently" series is SO fun to look forward to each month. *Ok so I'm only on my second month...but it's fun, ok!?*

Check out the other great bloggers and what they're currently up to over at...

Oh Boy Fourth Grade!

Here's my October Currently...and I'll be honest...it's a boring one. I apologize. It's just been a funky week of trying to get back in the swing of things. I was in New Mexico last weekend and missed a couple days of school. Check out my last post for some pictures of our trip!

Listening: To the rain. It is raining cats and dogs here and there have been some earth-shattering booms from the thunder. I have a little 3 year old cutie standing in his doorway telling me he's scared of the storm. I caved and let him snuggle with me in bed for a bit. Daddy is working late so I figured why not!?

Loving: That tomorrow is Friday! I wasn't even at school on Monday since we were flying back from New Mexico, but it has been one of those weeks! I've just felt a little behind in life! I began a new position on Tuesday night for one of our school programs. I started a new bible study on Wednesday about adoption, and then cooked dinner tonight for one of our church families who welcomed a new baby. I think I might have resembled a chicken with its head cut off this week...yikes!

Thinking: About this weekend. Having just said I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday...I've been trying to think of something we can do together as a family this weekend. The start of the school year is always busy for our family and I'd like to spend some intentional time with our kids. I'm leaning towards carving pumpkins...the kiddos always enjoy that...and with the forecast, it might be best. We have a pumpkin patch and corn maize near us that's a lot of fun and a fruit farm where the kiddos can pick their own apples...but rain might delay those adventures!

Wanting: Some Biggby coffee! This. is. a. weakness. As in a "I was running SUPER late to school today and still stopped to get a coffee" weakness. It was a FREE one though so I had to go...and luckily the line was short. I'm a grande Teddy Bear kind of girl. Hot. No extra shot. And right now...I'm in bed, underneath covers, wanting something warm and toasty!

Needing: Some motivation. I sense a theme in this Currently...I've got a lot on my To-Do list and I'd really like to knock some things off of it. Not only are there school-related items, but there are some other life-related items. We're in the middle of selling our house, remodeling our master bathroom, and fixing up our rental house to sell, just to name a few. I'll be looking for some superhero powers to conquer all the To-Do items!

Trick! I'd love to do a treat, but I'm just a beginner in the whole process of TPT selling. The only items I have are free so there'd be no treat in that! I'll share a trick I use that my kiddos really enjoy in the morning. It's quite simple and the kids loved starting it this week. *We started after Labor Day so we're moving slower than normal. I don't add this step until we get a routine down.*

Anywho, in the picture below are 5 circles on the Smartboard. There is a red circle, a blue circle, an orange circle, a green circle, and purple circle (in the shadow). Those circles represent my 5 tables where students sit. Each table has colored chairs (i.e. purple table has purple chairs) and this is how I call students to the carpet, to line up, etc. Every morning we begin calendar time by completing the following sentences. Students drag the correct day or month on the line.

Yesterday was ________.

Today is _________.

Tomorrow will be ___________.

The month is __________. 

Each morning, I simply turn one of those circles into a Smiley Face and that determines which table of friends gets to finish the sentences. These students also read the sentences aloud while using a special pointer. (I have a bucket of pointers that students can choose from each day.) Great practice for one-to-one correspondence and speaking skills!

Such a SIMPLE trick...but the kiddos squeal with excitement (and disappointment) when their circle is (or isn't) turned into a Smiley Face.

Thanks for reading my October Currently! I hope your month of October is a GREAT one!

Five for Friday- LATE as usual

I'd like to think I have a very good reason for not linking up on Friday. I was in NEW MEXICO for a family wedding and didn't bring my laptop. Looking back though...I'm sure savvy bloggers bring their devices everywhere so they can blog anywhere. Ooops! I guess I'm not quite that savvy yet. Ha! Either way...here's my Five for Friday (on a Monday) because we just got into town at 4AM. Obviously, I took a personal day today and stayed home to catch up on sleep! *And I got to take my sweeties to their afternoon Preschool class. BONUS! 

 

I LOVED this center this week...we worked on names, names, names. I have a large oil drip pan for our magnet center...this comes in super handy because it's portable. This week, we laid the pan on the carpet and four friends could set around the rectangle shape. The laminated templates (pictured above) are from Julie Lee's September Intervention pack found here. She also includes one with handwriting lines that we'll use with dry erase markers. Students built their name with magnets, then covered up the letters in their name with small erasers. Once finished, they could grab a classmate's name and bring it to their center to do the same. *I attach my student name plates with Velcro so I can easily change and move them throughout the year. The Velcro allowed the students to grab a name quickly and return it when they were finished.

 

  

This is our writing center, thanks to the talented DeeDee Wills. Find these wonderful monthly resources here! This was only our third week of school, and this was our FIRST time at this center. I controlled it a bit and gave them the paper they were to complete. DeeDee offers a variety of writing pieces for students to work on each month. It's a great way to differentiate and keep this center FUN for all of the students. We started simple and completed a labeling page. Normally, I'll provide all of the writing pages for students to choose from when they're at this center.

I wonder if DeeDee needs brand reps. Haha! I kid, I kid. This is our Listening Center from DeeDee's TPT store. I was looking for a way to make our "center time" a little more manageable each week and stumbled upon her listening centers last year. She correlated the listening center packets with Scholastic's Kindergarten CD Library pack each month. GENIUS! Confession, I own them all. The kids LOVE this station...and so does this teacher! Such an easy go-to center week after week.

 

I have 5 iPods for my classroom and to be honest, this is an area where I struggle in my classroom. How to effectively integrate this type of technology into the classroom is always on my To-Do list. This is a personal goal for my school year so I decided to start simple and do scavenger hunts with our color words. Thursday was our "yellow" day...so students worked in groups of 4 to find and take pictures of something "yellow" in our room. Each student could snap their own picture. Ok...MOST of them know how to use these devices (not surprising). I WAS surprised at the amount of selfies I found when we looked back through our "yellow" finds. Wow. HAHA! After a few friendly reminders, I had to ban a couple of friends from our next scavenger hunt later in the day. (We did one with shapes during our math workshop.)

 

 

I wasn't in school on Friday because my husband's brother was getting married...in NEW MEXICO! We flew out Thursday night and got back in this morning at 4AM. It was a beautiful weekend full of amazing scenery and wonderful memories with family. And the kicker...my school cancelled on Friday due to fog! (Gotta love rural communities) I get my personal day back! Wahoo! 

Have a GREAT week, friends! October is coming!

Five for Friday- Selfie-Free Style!

As promised...this Five for Friday edition will be selfie-free. Sorry about that last week, folks! We had a GREAT week in Kindergarten reading the classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom books.

Stamping and spinning fun. This was only our second week of Kindergarten so these centers from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten and Peace, Love, and Learning were perfect for my "first-timer" cuties. I let kiddos use uppercase or lowercase stamps which was a great way to differentiate for every student. And who doesn't love their very own spinner?!

Slow and steady...we began DeeDee and Deanna's Writer's Workshop. In the past 2 weeks, we've only made it 2 days. YIKES! We're still working on time management with Mrs. Murray haha! But I'm so excited that when we haven't done it...the kiddos are asking for it! This sweetheart used our popcorn words for the week "I" and "am"...and stretched out dancing. I helped her with the -ing chunk. Swoon!

This was the PERFECT activity for our popcorn words "I" and "am"this week. Check out Julie Lee's Brown Bear Unit here. We read the familiar story first and then colored our pictures. Then the students highlighted the popcorn words in each sentence. *Highlighters are such a big deal in our classroom. Anyone else agree about the level of excitement they can bring?* I also passed out eye rings to each student and let the reading BEGIN! We made a big deal out of the fact that we could READ these sentences! Yay for you, KINDERS!

Potentially the most random picture for a Five for Friday?! Do you SEE the giant 4 in the sky though? (Hint: It's on its side.) I am loving my morning drives as of late. I haven't been in the habit of slowing down and enjoying the beauty that HE creates in each day. I'm usually rushing around, getting the kiddos ready for preschool, making sure they've eaten breakfast, and remembering their lunches for the day! The sunrise is such a perfect example and reminder to slow down and soak in His creation.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day was a success! We celebrated at school AND at home. My Kindergarten students could not WAIT to share their favorite pirate joke with anyone that even came near our classroom door. Who knew the famous line "What's a pirate's favorite letter?" could be so hilarious. We shared it with our principal and made her laugh until she cried. They couldn't. contain. themselves. Our church group had a giant pirate party, complete with a treasure hunt for the kids and an outdoor movie The Pirate Fairy. It was a BLAST! Here are just a few more pics of our Friday night fun.

 

Have a blessed weekend, friends!