I AM SO EXCITED!

Last night I uploaded my very first product on TPT.  I pinned it to Pinterest and within an hour I had over 100 repins.  I couldn't believe it.  I checked the number of downloads on TPT and was just as excited.  Within 30 minutes I had 26 downloads.  I have been holding off the whole TPT thing.  I was worried that I would upload stuff and it wouldn't even be looked at.  Boy was I wrong!
I am adding a new freebie tonight.  It is called Spilled Seeds.  Click on this link to take you to my store.  Please check it out and leave me some feedback!

TEEN FREEBIE

This week we are making our last attempt at learning teen numbers.  After realizing that I had nothing to help review those mean numbers, I decided to make a center that connected with our plant unit. 

You can now find this on TPT.  Let me know how you like it!

EARTH DAY EXTRAVAGANZA

Last Thursday was our long awaited First Annual Earth Day Extravaganza.  We had been planning for this for months.  In October, my school applied for and was granted the LOWE'S $5000 school grant.  We are using the money to make three different learning gardens around our school.  We have had a lot of community support in helping to get the land ready and all of the mulch and stones to our school.  Thursday was the big day for the kids to do their part.  Below you will find some of the fun things that my kinders got to do on this special day.

Decorating grocery bags to be used at Food Lion on Earth Day.

We painted rocks to put in the mulch around the different gardens.

We got to make a really cool birdbath.

We met Smokey Bear!

We planted a tree.

We got to make flower pots out of newspapers.  As you can see, we made flower hats to help keep the sun out of our eyes.  :)

I've Been Tagged!

Chrissy over at Adventures In Second Grade tagged me! Here are the rules:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the 10 questions for the tagger who posted for you.
3. Create 10 questions of your own to ask the people you're tagging.
4. Tag 10 people and link the with your post. Don't forget to let them know they've been tagged!

So, here are Chrissy's questions (my answers are in blue):
1. What are you most proud of in your classroom?
I am most proud of my reading group plans.
2. What is your favorite unit to teach (any subject)?
I love teaching the life cycles of butterflies and frogs.
3. What inspired you to begin teacher blogging?
I was inspired by all of the other bloggers out in blog land.
4. Teacher's Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers?
Teachers Pay Teachers
5. What is the best field trip you've ever been on?
Richmond Metro Zoo with 4 and 5 year olds
6. What inspired you to become a teacher?
I can't remember not wanting to be a teacher.
7. What are you doing/did you do on your Spring Break?
Working on school plans and going to Ohio
8. What is your favorite book to use in the classroom?
Books with great pictures
9. Do you have a classroom pet? If so, what?
No
10. What frustrates you most about teaching?
Not having the materials that I need to teach a standard. 

Okay, so here are my 10 questions for those that I tagged:
1. How many years have you worked at your current school?
2. Do you sell units on Teachers Pay Teachers?
3. What is your favorite blog?
4. Do your friends and co-workers know that you blog ?
5. How many students do you have in your class?
6. Does your school have open classrooms?
7. Have you noticed a change in behavior over the past few years?
8. What is your favorite computer website/program that your students use?
9. Do you plan on being in the classroom until retirement?
10. What is your classroom management plan?





I'm tagging:
A Cupcake for the Teacher
Can Do Kinders 
Herding Kats in Kindergarten
Keen on Kindergarten 
Kreative in Kinder 
little warriors 
Mrs. Albanese's Kindergarten Class  
Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Kindergarten
Sharing Kindergarten 
Sprinkles to Kindergarten  



Okay, tag! You're it! :)
 

COOKIES TO SHARE

Today we started our math unit on fractions. I will tell you that my kinders think that fractions are all about cookies. You will see why as I post my pictures from today. I would like to give credit for this fun activity to Suzan at Krazy for Kindergarten.

I started our fun day with the book THE DOORBELL RANG by Pat Hutchins. A couple of years ago, I was given this great set of cookies and the pan that went with this book. It is great realia to use with this story. My kinders loved manipulating the cookies each time the doorbell rang.

After reading the story, I gave each table a set of 12 REAL cookies. The excitement hit. It was like they all just swallowed a pound of sugar and they hadn't even had a bite! They had to come up with a way to share their cookies at their table and everyone had to have the same amount. That was the hard part for some of them.

After they solved the problem, of how to fairly share the cookies, they got to eat them. The room was quiet for about 2 minutes as they all stuffed their faces.

We can't just stop the lesson with eating. However, their energy level was telling me that they were done. We finished up by making representations of ourselves with our cookies.

I can't wait for more fraction fun tomorrow!