We are Pumpkin Detectives

Today my students became Pumpkin Detectives as we investigated our pumpkins.

We weighed our pumpkins, measured the circumference, measured the height with cubes, and predicted the number of seeds and then found the actual number.  We also wrote adjectives about the inside and the outside of our pumpkins.

We recorded all of this information on our recording sheets.

You can head on over to my blog to read all about our day and download this FREEBIE!

Free Scholastic Book Order Graphics for Parent Communication

My classroom parents always want advice on where they can buy SUPER easy-to-read books for their kindergarten students. They try to shop at their local book store, but you know how hard it can be to find Level A, B or C books at the store. That's why I always encourage classroom parents to purchase books from Scholastic. Over 90% of my own classroom library has been stocked with books from the Book Order. It's a great bargain and the best source of texts for emergent readers.

The problem is, not every book in the Kindergarten flyer is intended for children to read independently. Many of the titles are picture books that are of interest to kindergarten students, but are intended for parents and teachers to read aloud to young children.

Scholastic posts book level information in many of their book descriptions, but the print is tiny and easy for parents to overlook. I find that parents need a little guidance to help them purchase the most effective books for their children's reading level so I created some simple graphics for communicating with parents about the book order.

You can share the image above with parents, or hop over to the Kinder Craze blog and grab two separate images for catalog and online ordering information.

Just save the graphics to your computer and upload them to your class webpage or add them to your printed classroom newsletter. It will make your parents happy (and hopefully bring in a few extra Scholastic bonus points for YOU!)

Trick & Treat Blog Hop

Fall is upon us and that means it's time for some Teaching Trick & Treating!

That's right - it's a Trick & Treat Blog Hop with your favorite Freebielicious friends! We have gathered some amazing teaching tricks and some free classroom treats for you!

To begin the hop, follow the link to A Differentiated Kindergarten!  

Yuck Soup Class Snack Activity

Have you ever read Yuck Soup by Joy Cowley?

Makes a great "non-Halloween" activity for those who are "not allowed" to celebrate AND a great activity tied to a book if you are!



Students all contribute a snack, mix it up, and eat!

Activity comes with a class book, graph activity, and parent letter!

Also makes a great activity for Thanksgiving because it's all about coming together as a community to meet a need!

Stop by Simply Kinder for all the details!

Hocus Pocus....a little Halloween Dramatic Play Center FREEBIE!

With Halloween just around the corner, my students thought it would be fun to turn our Dramatic Play Center into something "spook-tacular"!

The students loved pretending to make magic and cast spells so I created this fun and ready-to-print freebie, complete with labels, decorations and Halloween words.

 

 

To see more pictures of how we turned our Dramatic Play Center into a Witches' Brew, and to get your FREEBIE, click on the picture below.

 

Bippity Boppity Boo!

Happy Halloween to you!

 



Pumpkin Book Report Family Project

October is a great time to do Pumpkin Character Reports!

Students read their favorite book at home with their family, create a fun pumpkin, and then bring them to share with their peers!  It makes a great day for the Halloween without getting too Halloween-ish!

Be sure top by Simply Kinder to see all of last years pumpkins!

 Now is the time to be sending this free project home!  

Happy fall everyone!  

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat Freebie

Hi friends! This is

 from Sharing Kindergarten

 I have a great freebie you are going to want to snag asap...

How about a sequencing sheet from the book, 

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat?

I am giving you guys BOTH the black and white version 

AND the colored version for free. 

Go to my blog post, 

read all about the unit, 

then hit this image on my blog post, 

 and click PREVIEW to download your freebie!

Classroom Faces Custom T-Shirt Mega Giveaway

Hello freebie friends! We know how much you love great freebies, but we also know that you love to win great prizes for your classroom. Today we have an AMAZING giveaway to share with you, courtesy of ClassromFaces.com. You could could win AN ENTIRE CLASS SET of custom t-shirts featuring your students drawings. We will choose 3 winners that will EACH receive a class set of t-shirts (up to 24 shirts each). Each prize is worth over $250 dollars, so make sure you read all the way to the bottom of this post for your chance to win.

Since the Freebielicious girls are such good friends, we designed our very own set of Classroom Faces t-shirts. We enlisted the help of our talented friend (and fellow Freebie gal) Nikki from Melonheadz to create custom drawings of each of our faces. The finished t-shirts were absolutely ADORABLE! 

Check out some of your favorite Freebielicious girls showing off their adorable new Classroom Faces t-shirts! 

About Classroom Faces

Creating a class set of t-shirts featuring your students drawings is easy. Each child just needs to create a simple drawing. To create t-shirts with one-color ink on a solid colored t-shirt (like ours) each child needs to draw their picture using a fine point black marker. The ClassroomFaces website has downloadable templates that you can use to guide your students. Full-color illustrations on a plain white t-shirt are also possible. Look how cute these t-shirts are! 

Extra Savings for Freebielicious Fans

Freebielicious fans that order a class set of tshirts can save $1 on each tshirt and receive 1 free teacher tshirt with their order using promo code FREEBIE14. Orders must include 15 or more paid shirts to qualify and must be postmarked by December 31, 2014. This offer is valid on new orders only.

Enter to WIN a Class Set of Custom Classroom Faces T-Shirts

Now that you have seen how ADORABLE these t-shirts are, it's your chance to try and win a set for your classroom. The wonderful people at ClassroomFaces are graciously giving away a class set of custom t-shirts (up to 24 shirts) to 3 lucky Freebielicious fans! Each set of custom t-shirts is valued at over $250. Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win! 

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

A quick note about the giveaway

Up to 24 tshirts will be included in each prize pack. Winner can choose to order a class set of traditional single-color tshirts or tshirts will full-color illustrations. Additional t-shirts can be purchased for $11 or $13 (depending on t-shirt size and style). Shipping is free for winners that live in the US. If a winner requires shipping outside of the US, the winner is responsible for shipping costs. (Shipping to Canada costs between $5-$20 depending on weight and location). 

Pumpkin Craft/Writing Activity

Need a fun pumpkin craft/writing activity? 

Head on over to my blog to check this out!

Apple Number Writing Book

It may be October, but apple freebies are still in season! For the past few weeks my kindergarten students have been working to write their numbers in proper formation. This can be a very daunting task (especially for the tricky numerals like 5 and 8).

I created a simple apple-themed book to give my students an opportunity to practice writing numerals 0-10. The book also doubles as an emergent reader to foster early reading skills.

Each page of the book features two rows of handwriting line to provide ample handwriting practice. The first three numbers in each row are provided as dashed numbers for students to trace and build muscle memory.

Stop by the Kinder Craze blog to download a FREE copy of the Apple Number Writing Book. While you're there, be sure to click around and check out my new blog design. I've added lots of features to help you quickly find more great freebies and resources.

Wishing you a wonderful fall day! 

Parent Teacher Conference Forms

I cannot believe how fast this school year has gone so far.  We started scheduling Parent Teacher Conferences and I wanted to try some Student Self Evaluation this year. I created this FREEBIE packet of must have Parent Teacher Conference forms.

 

You can find editable versions of forms that are perfect for Parent Teacher conferences.

 

Head on over to my blog to download this FREEBIE.