Our Mayor Loves Kindergarten!

Each year our school throws a huge community wide event called the Fine Arts Festival.  Kids and adults were rocking through the decades with different decade themed activities.  We had an 80's Magnum P.I Mustache station, 70's Disco Karaoke, Tie-Dyeing, 60's Hippie Hair Bands, 50's Food Diner, and more!  One of the favorite events for adults was the silent auction.  Lucky for me, one of my class parents bid on and won a lunch visit from the Mayor!!!  Since this family has two daughters in our school, the Mayor generously came to visit both classrooms.  Mayor Tommy Battle came to visit our classroom on April 4, 2014.  He sat on the carpet and chatted with us.

We learned about our wonderful city and he answered any questions we had about him and his job.  He even read his favorite book, "Green Eggs and Ham," and let the students give him an extra BIG group hug!  It was a fantastic learning experience for me and all of my little kinders!

Learn more about my amazing school at The Academy for Academics and Arts website.

Snow Days = FREEBIES

After 3 days of SNOW DAYS in Alabama (which is very rare), I've been able to get caught up on the things I've been too busy to accomplish during my usual week.  My house is clean, laundry is done, I opened my TpT store, and updated my blog!  Now it's time to finish catching up on some school plans and I'll feel super accomplished.  One of the most time time consuming tasks I took on this week was creating my first Math Pack on TpT.  I've uploaded a freebie to give you a 9 page sample of the pack.  You can grab here: St. Patrick's Day Math Freebie!

Here's the EXTRA FREEBIE deal-- Extra, Extra Freebie!  Follow these 2 steps to get the entire 28 page pack for FREE!  

1. Download the March Math Freebie  AND leave a comment or feedback in my TpT store.

2. Like Mrs. Scrivner's Kinder "Gardening" on facebook and message me your email address. 

3.  I will then send you my St. Patrick's Day March Math Pack for FREE! 

Here's a description of the 28 pages you will get for FREE:

My St. Patrick's Day March Kindergarten Math Pack focuses on Composing Numbers to 10, Adding Numbers to 10, Number Recognition 1-20, Comparing Numbers, and Subitizing 1-20. This can also coordinate with Pearson EnVision Math Topics 9-10. It covers K ELA Reading Foundations, K Math Counting & Cardinality Standards, and Operations & Algebraic Thinking.

CCSS Paid Pack Correlations: Math-K.CC.A.1, K.CC.A.3, K.CC.B.4b, K.CC.B.5, K.CC.C.6, K.OA.A.1, k.OA.A.2, K.OA.A.3, K.OA.A.4 ELA-RF.K.3c

FREEBIE PACK Includes 9 Pages:

Overview, Instructions, CCSS Correlations

#1-10 Number Words Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Ten Frame Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Tally mark Shamrock Cards

ORIGINAL PAID PACK ($3.00 in teacher store)

Includes 28 Pages:

Overview, Instructions, CCSS Correlations

#1-10 Numeral Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Number Words Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Ten Frame Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Tally mark Shamrock Cards

#1-10 Dot Shamrock Cards 

#11-20 Numeral Shamrock Cards

#11-20 Ten Frame Shamrock Cards

#11-20 St. Patrick's Day Object Counting Cards

#11-20 Base Ten Block Picture Cards

Composing & Adding Numbers 0-10 Rainbow Work Mat

Counting Coins

2 Recording Sheets 

I hope you enjoy my #FREEBIES.  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!  Enjoy!

--Kinder Gardening by A. Scrivner

Kinder Gardening's TpT Store Grand Opening!

Happy 2014! It's a new year with new goals and new experiences to come! I'm excited to announce the opening of my TpT store Mrs. Scrivner's Kinder Gardening TpT Store.  I've just posted my first couple of items.  It's February, so it's only suiting that the products are Valentine themed.  My first product is completely FREE!  Click here to snag the February Write-the-Room FREEBIE!

Freebie Write-the-Room Sneak Peak

The next item I have created is my "Family Heart Project".  I've done this every year, in every grade since I've been teaching.  I believe this project can be modified and completed in any grade level Pk-12.  I've had some amazingly creative and beautiful submissions over the years.  You can get it on Valentine's special for $1.00 (usually $2.00) for a short time only!  Check it out by click here Family Heart Project! 

Here are a couple of my students' projects from this year:             

New Digs After Pics

I feel like I've been planning, cutting, copying, coloring, printing, laminating, sorting, stacking, logging-in, logging-out, checking, smiling, laughing, crying, and learning for 20 hours a day 12 days a week since this journey began around the 2nd week in July! I absolutely LOVE every minute and wouldn't trade it for anything...except maybe sleep occasionally.  But my little ones are sweet, smart, and creative and I couldn't possibly ask for anything more! I just wanted to give an update on my classroom since my first or second entry was a meet-the-classroom blog. So....drum roll please....TADA:

The bright and black stripes made me crazy so I covered them up as much as possible.

Here's what I came up with for the in-class bathroom:

Bathroom Procedures Visual Guide

There was an Old Lady Who...

Do you love that crazy old lady like I do?  You know the one--she's going gray, really hungry, and probably a little bit senile--but that doesn't make her any less lovable!  "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is a classic tale that has always been a favorite of mine.  I began my old lady book collection with Simms Taback's brilliantly illustrated version.  Along the years I've collected quite a few of Lucille Colandro's books including "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed...  ...some books, ...some leaves, ...a bat, ...a clover, and ...an egg".  These stories are great for reinforcing lots of skills including repetition, rhyme, sequencing, and retelling...not to mention the kids absolutely LOVE them!  This year I decided to create a new "old lady" for my classroom.  I had an idea in mind so I googled it. (Find my google images search results here.) I took some mental notes and headed shopping.  
These were my materials: 

With the help of my reliable hot glue gun, the birth of my little old lady was ready to begin.

1. I began by hot gluing the decorative felt to my mini garbage can (this would become her dress). 

2. Next I cut and glued a lace trim, collar, and buttons for her dress.

3.  I then tied and glued yarn for hair, eyes, as well as a tiny hat to match her dress.  The hat was a last minute idea I created from the lace trim's plastic container.

4.  Here is the finished product.  I still may add more to her mouth (any ideas on materials to use for lips and teeth are appreciated).  I also added a tongue and uvula on the back of the mouth for extra fun.

 

So that's it!  My new old lady is ready for hours of gobbling and storytelling.  I also found some more great  lesson and activity ideas to use with these stories.  I've included descriptions with the links below.

Here is a great idea using an old lady pattern and ziploc bags from Mrs. Vento's Blog (just scroll past the TLC farm activities).

One of my favorites is this small group and bulletin board idea from Doodle Bugs Teaching .

I love these Old Lady Printables! They can be used for individual student activities or as patterns for making your own old lady kits using felt, cardstock, magnets, etc.

The Big Idea's for Little People Blog posted about a student-made puppet storytelling set.  Students use a paper bag and popsicle sticks to make story puppets.

The author of I am Momma, Hear Me Roar's Blog posted about a fun fabric storytelling kit.

I hope these are helpful for you and I'd love for you to share your favorite "There was an Old Lady..." ideas and activities in the comments section! Thanks!

Orientation and Donors Choose

Today is the third day of New Teacher Orientation for my new district.  I have been listening, learning, and absorbing all kinds of new knowledge.  While I've been trying to focus on all of the information, my brain has occasionally slipped off to my classroom and lesson plans for next year (which is only 3 & 1/2 weeks away!).  I have a notebook partially full of doodles, notes, and ideas on everything ranging from literacy and math stations to room arrangement and supply needs...and new teacher orientation information, of course!  While coming up with ideas for my kindergartners  I thought of a need we have in our classroom and a fantastic resource that has helped meet my students' needs before.  I LOVE DONORS CHOOSE! 

Have you heard of it?!  If you are a teacher, it will become one of your favorite resources for helping your classroom.  I created a Donors Choose profile a few years ago and have decided to post a new project for my kindergarten kid-o's!  If you are interested in helping out our classroom, know someone who might be, or are just curious about why I'm so excited, click my project link here: Ms. Scrivner's Donors Choose Project .  For the next 6 days (until July 30) the donors choose team will match every donation given to our project $1 for $1--that's a double donation!!!  Just enter the word INSPIRE at checkout to have your donation doubled.  Thank you for your help.  Please spread the word and I'll do the same for you when you try it! 

Summer Yard Sale Excitement

Does anyone else get excited for summer yard and garage sales?  I have been up before 8:00 am for two Saturdays in a row looking for the best bargains.  My idea of a bargain???----classroom supplies, of course!  I've been looking for summer deals and freebies to stock up my new kindergarten classroom and digging through other people's "junk" to find creative and decorative treasures is just the thrill I need on an early Saturday. ;)  Here is a picture my collection from the past two Saturdays:

Here's the list of goods:

4' x 6' City Roads Carpet 

2   Boggle Jr Games

1   Candy Land Board Game

71 Piece Leg Set

6   Unit Themed Hats

1   Storytelling Felt Board, Glove, and Characters with Book

1   Glittery Hand Pointer

1   Humane Insect Observations Bug Vac

1   Table top dry erase, chalk, and magnetic board easel

12 Piece Grilling Toys

10 Number Magnets

20 Animal Magnets

2   Chapter Books

10 Picture Books

4  Book Box Set of The Ramona Collection  

ALL items were less than $5 a piece except for the Lego's splurge of $12 (the same set is on Amazon for $45!!!)...Coming to a grand total of....bargain hunter drum roll please....$35.00! Amazing, right?!  Well, I was excited at least.  In order to celebrate my success, I'm having my own yard sale next weekend.  It's actually a moving sale and not teaching related at all, but I thought I would mention it anyway.  In case this gives you the itch to get out there and dig for bargains, here is a link with some tips on finding the best deals around: Thrifting, Yard, and Garage Sale-ing Tips by ThriftyFun.  Happy hunting!