Colorful Kindergarten Days

Hi, y'all! Second and third week of Kindergarten are in the books! Whew! I have sweet, sweet babies, and they are catching on so quickly! What a great Bunch I have this year!

I blogged about the first week of Kindergarten {here}. 

For the second and third weeks of Kindergarten, we had color days! 

I dabbled in color days last year after my move down from first grade, but I wanted to hit the color fun full force this year! My kiddos loved it and so did I! It provided just enough structure and fun for the second and third weeks of Kindergarten!

{Wake Up Work}
We did color word tracing, writing, and coloring for our morning work. These pages are included in my new Colorful Kindergarten unit!

{Morning Meeting}
We kicked off every morning meeting these two weeks with the Color Train song and book by Dr. Jean! Love this tune!!! After we listed to the whole song, I would teach them the verse for the color of the day. 

Then, we would head over to Storybots to watch the video for our color of the day! OBSESSED with Storybots! 

{Read Aloud}
During our Social Studies time, we would read the read aloud for the color of the day! 

{Snack}
The kiddos LOVED the color snacks each day! I did a Sign Up Genius for the snacks and my sweet parents took care of me!
Most of the snacks were quick and easy! 
Our last color day, White day, we read Mouse Paint and mixed colors with food coloring on white frosting! YUMMO!

The Colorful Kindergarten unit includes:

*EDITABLE dates on Color Days note for parents - You must have 

Power Point to be able to edit the dates on the Color Day letters


{2 options}

Colorful Kindergarten Days {color and black/white}

Color Days -to be used for other grade levels {color and 

black/white}

*Color Word printables {tracing and writing color words, color 

pictures}

{3 options}

Color word printable option 1: trace, write, color pictures

Color word printable option 2: color pictures only

Color word printable option 3: trace, write, create picture

*Full page color posters {8 1/2 x 11} 


{2 options}


Color poster option 1: polka dot border 


Color poster option 2: plain :)

For the first 48 hours, this unit will be 50% off! Grab it for only $2.00 Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29. 

TGI-almost-F, friends! 

First Week of Kindergarten FAVORITES

Hi, friends! I am 10 days into Kindergarten and am LOVING my new Bunch!

While it is still fresh in mind, I wanted to recap some of favorite activities, resources, and ideas that I used to survive the craziness that is the first week of Kinder!

It makes me DIE when they say hilarious things like, "What is a book bag?", "What is a binder?" or "What does have a seat mean?" HAHAHA! Such sweet babies!

{POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT}

Skittles, people! Get you some! One big bag is great - I started weaning by the end of the week. But for the first few days -- they push their chair in and come to the carpet nicely, they get a Skittle! They put their paper in the basket and come to the carpet, they get a Skittle! They walk nicely to line up at the door, they get a Skittle! I was only giving about 4 - 5 a day the first few days, but they work like a charm! By Friday, I was down to one Skittle a day and started the second week Skittle free! 

{WAKE UP WORK}

7:30 - 8:00

SIMPLE coloring pages so you can be free to help them unpack, dry tears, give hugs, and chat with parents!

I used some of these from TpT!

{MORNING MEETING}

8:00 - 8:30

Pass a stuffed animal around and share their name and something about them!

"Hi, my name is Kelli and my favorite color is pink"

We shared the favorite color, animal, sport, food, and holiday the first week of school. 

We sang and danced too!

We sang The Mack Chicken Dance, Rise and Shine by Dr. Jean, Welcome to School by Stephen Fite, Tooty Ta by Dr. Jean, to name a few!

Read Aloud: We did a fun read aloud for our first week of morning meetings! We did Pete the Cat Rockin in My School Shoes, Five Little Monkeys, etc. Something they could listen to and look at with the story! 

{BATHROOM BREAK}

8:30 - 8:45

The first of many! :)

{MATH}

8:45 - 9:15

We did our wall calendar and the Starfall calendar during this time. Next week, calendar gets shifted to the morning meeting time, but for the first week, learning our calendar routine is our math lesson!

{LUNCHROOM PRACTICE}

9:15 - 9:30

We went down to the lunchroom and practiced walking in the lunch line, holding our tray, and putting our number in at the end of the line. It really helped for them to practice while it was quiet and not crowded! :)

{BATHROOM BREAK}

9:30 - 9:45

Again!

{PHONICS}

9:45 - 10:15

We played the Can You Guess My Letter? game from Babbling Abby!

We did 5 letters a day {6 on Friday} and it was SO much fun! 

It was also a great informal assessment to see who could identify beginning sounds!

The first week we focus on all the letters in the alphabet as we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Monday: Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Tuesday: Listen to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Wednesday: Watch Chicka Chicka Boom Boom DVD

Thursday: Read Chicka Chicka 123

Fun Friday: We made a coconut tree craft with their names and made a coconut tree snack! 

I got the Cinnamon SchoolBook Alphabet and Number cookies from Trader Joe's! The kids LOVED them!!!

{BRAIN BREAK}

10:15 - 10:30

Go Noodle for the win!

We started with the Koo Koo Kanga Roo channel! 

Wiggle It, I Get Loose, and Ninja Training for our first week faves!

{LUNCH AND BATHROOM}

10:30 - 11:15

{SOCIAL STUDIES}

11:15 - 11:45

Cool to be at School

We used the David series to talk about good and not so good manners at school!

{SPECIALS}

11:45 - 12:30

Whoo! Take a breather!

Mark behavior, pack up and pass out binders!

{PACK UP, SNACK AND BATHROOM}

12:30 - 1:00

{KINDERGARTEN STORYTIME}

1:00 - 1:30

We have a para pro who does a phenomenal story time with all our Kindergarten classes! 

She does a great hitting the response to literature CCSS and aligns the stories with our Social Studies and Science themes each week! We also do Zero the Hero during this time! 

{RECESS}

1:35 - 1:55

{DISMISSAL}

2:10

I will be back with the second week of Kindergarten ideas soon! 

Have a RESTFUL weekend! 

Blending Boxes GIVEAWAY

Hey, y'all! I am up late tonight since we are having our second snow day tomorrow! Snow in the South is never taken lightly and I am ready for a comfy day in...Pinterest recipes ready to try and a list of TpT updates to make in my shop! 

I just posted my newest unit, Blending Boxes {Short Vowels}! I love Blending Boxes and used them every single week in my small groups in first grade! 

I use the Blending Boxes to introduce the sound in small groups on Mondays and then use the boxes to set the purpose of our small groups throughout the week. It only takes about a minute to have the children blend the words, but it is a great way for little readers to build their confidence. 

Blending Boxes {Short Vowels} includes 20 color pages and 20 black and white pages! There are four pages for each vowel - three pages have cvc words and one page has ccvc words. 

Now that I am in Kinder land, I am working on blending boxes for each letter of the alphabet. I still use the short vowel boxes and will use the blend and digraph boxes this spring with my Kinders!

Head over to Facebook to enter the giveaway for this unit!

Be sure to check out TpT's Teachers are Heroes sale TOMORROW, FEBRUARY 25!! You can save 28% with the promo code HEROES. I can't wait to load my cart UP!

Enjoy your snow day, southern friends!! 

Launch into Space au, aw Word Work unit

Happy Sunday, friends! It is gloomy and rainy here in Bama and I am loving it!! Perfect day to nap and post a TpT unit, of course! 

One of my goals this school year was to make a word work unit to go along with our phonics skills with our new reading series.

I am thrilled that I am finally finishing up the last few units!! I will be posting these soon and will also bundle them together for a year long first grade phonics word work unit pack! 

The latest word work unit is posted in my shop and I would love to give it away to 2 peeps! 

Comment with your email address for a chance to get a little happy in your email inbox this week! :)

Have a great week! 
Countdown is on - 4 weeks to go!

Roll and Write {January} Giveaway!

Happy 2014, friends! Hope you had fun ringing in the new year {if you stayed awake ;)}! 

I just LOVE the new year!! The fresh new start, the goal setting, the organizing!!! I am SO like Monica on friends! Organizing makes me HAPPY! I even have a 'Monica closet' in my house! Did you see the episode of Friends where Monica has a locked closet and they all try to get in to it…only to find that is stuffed FULL of stuff! My house is neat…but be careful opening the Monica closet under my stairs…things may fall on you! :)

I am SO excited that is fiiiinally Juanuary! Can't wait for this new season! 

And in other news, I just started watching Revenge on Netflix and I am OBSESSED. Where have I been???????????

With the new year comes new products! One of my all time favorite items in my classroom is DICE! You may have caught on to this with my Roll and Read and Roll and Graph units! :) 

Next in the line up is Roll and Write! 

Around this time of year, I feel like Work on Writing in Daily Five is getting a little stale!  My kiddos are very comfortable with the nonfiction can-have-are graphic organizers in my Write On! {Nonfiction} Graphic Organizers and Paper. They are comfortable with the Opinion graphic organizers and all of the writing papers used in our units of study in the fall. 

I like to introduce a lot of new materials to use in Work in Writing spring semester…but nothing too complicated or that requires a ton of directions! Roll and Write fits this bill! 

Spice up your writing time with Roll and Write! All you need is a die, a color or black and white copy of the Roll and Write January page, and a Roll and Write printable writing paper. 

Your kiddos will roll the die and write about what they rolled. 

This activity pack includes:

6 picture cards {3 black and white, 3 color}

6 sentence starter cards {3 black and white, 3 color}

7 writing pages {1 graphic organizer, 3 with handwriting lines, 3 with regular lines}

Comment below with your favorite soup and your email for a chance to win one of three copies of this unit! I am all about some soup these days! 

We are delayed two hours in the morning due to the 'Arctic Blast!' 

I am off to watch another episode of Revenge! :)

Short Vowel Word Work Units

Hey friends! Hope you are having a fun fall week!

This year, our faculty was encouraged to pick one word as a focus for our year. I picked BALANCE. It is the busy time of year where we need to balance school, home, and LIFE! Take time to grab a latte {preferably pumpkin!} and call a friend! Or read a magazine! Or organize a closet...oh wait, that is the Monica in me...you know, Monica from Friends?? I LOVE to organize...when something is organized, it makes me happy!!! But seriously, I am trying SUPER hard to balance everything! One way I am doing that is to close the laptop at 8:00 pm. I really try to have some down time before we head to bed! Being balanced and happy will make me a better teacher!! :) 

How do you keep the balance in your life? I would love to hear your tips! 

I have finished the word work units for all of the short vowels!

Short vowel u has two themes - Pumpkin Patch {if you study short vowel u in the fall in first grade} or Backyard Bugs {if you study short vowel u in the spring in Kindergarten!}

I have added another page to the units - Stretch the Sounds with pictures!  I had a sub last week and I needed an activity for them to work on after reading a Phonics Tales book. So there you have it - because sometimes you just need an activity sheet with out cards!  

You can also get the bundle of all five short vowel word work units for $14.00 {a 20% savings of $3.50 - like one unit for free!}

I will email the Short Vowel Word Work bundle to 2 friends this Friday - just comment below with your email address! 

Enjoy the rest of your week! 

Word Work units

Hey friends!

Happy fall y'all!! I have to wait until the first day of fall to get my Pumpkin Spice latte! I swung by Starbucks on my way to school this morning to pick one up! Made my morning so happy!

This year, one of main goals is creating word work units to go along with our new Wonders series. 

Many of the skills are skills I have previously taught with other series, but some are new! I am updating older units and creating a streamlined look!

All of the word work units will have:

Phonics display card - I put this on my focus board!

Word list - so you have a handy list to use throughout the week

Blending Boxes - these are new! I am going to use these to start each small group!

Stretch the Sounds - this a new explicit teaching activity that I do every Tuesday during our phonics time!

Word Sort - I put this in Word Work tubs some weeks ... sometimes it is another game or activity that I have!

Card game - I love to play this during small groups!

Scrambled Sentences - I put this in Word Work tubs some weeks ... sometimes it is another game or activity that I have!

Write the Room - Half of the class writes the room while I work with a group on the carpet and then we switch! We write the room every Wednesday!

Word Search - This is our Fun Friday morning work before our spelling test

I DO NOT do all of the activities in one week! I just like to have several activities to choose from! :) 

I realized I have posted some units but did not give away any for free! Shame on me!!! 

Comment below with your EMAIL ADDRESS for a chance to win  ALL 3 new units:
Crab Trap {short vowel a}, 

Fishy Fishy {short vowel i}, AND Play Date {beginning blends}! 

I will email all 3 units to 2 people on Wednesday!
 Happy Monday to you! Hope your week is off to a great start!

Five for Friday *Freebie*

TGIF,  friends! 

Hope you've had a great week! We just finished our third week and I am oh so glad that my firsties are beginning to get into our routine!

I am linking up with Kacey for another Five for Friday!

1. School Tube

I looove School Tube! We can not access You Tube at school, so School Tube is the next best thing!

One of my favorite channels is Have Fun Teaching. 

LOVE their Counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's videos! Check it out!

2. New Word Work unit on TpT

My goal is to make phonics units to go along with each week of our new reading series! These word work units will include a display page, word work game, card game, scrambled sentences, write the room, and word search!

Check out Fishy, Fishy, my new short vowel i Word Work unit! 

3. Facebook

Castles and Crayons is finally on FB!!! Come 'Like' us to stay informed of new units, sales, and teaching tips!

4. Quick Lunch Idea

My teammate has been eating these yummy looking salads lately! I asked her where she got the chicken on her salad and she said Chick-Fil-A! What a great idea! Stop by on Monday and grab a 12 piece chicken nugget - perfect for 2 salads for the week! :) How easy is that and WHY haven't I thought of that! 

5. Freebie on TpT

This week, we are studying geometry! Check out this freebie for a Shake a Shape four in a row plane shape game! 

Have a fun football weekend! GO GAMECOCKS!!! 

Schedule Spotlight Series #8 - Small Groups

Hey y'all! I am so sorry for the late post - is it me or does your Blogger scheduling post function not work??? I have tried this to no avail for a few years! Every time I schedule a post for a busy week {like this one} it DOES.NOT.POST. It seems easy - like ridiculously easy, so I am just not sure what I am missing!!! Has anyone else struggled with this?? I feel kind of dumb :)

This is the eighth post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}
10:35 - 10:55 - RECESS
11:00 - 11:30 - LUNCH
11:30 - 12:40 ~ The Daily Five Sessions 1 and 2 {Post #5 - July 8}
{Writing Mini Lesson - Post #6 - July 15}
12:40 - 1:10 ~ PE
1:15 - Restroom Break
1:15 - 1:45 ~ The Daily Five Session 3 
{Comprehension Mini Lesson - Post #7 - July 22}

Let's dig right into to this weeks topic - SMALL GROUPS!

I think small groups are one of the most important parts of our day! I pull two, sometimes three small groups a day! 

To begin every small group, we chant either the Alphabet Chart or Blend and Digraph chart. I start with the Alphabet chart with some groups and introduce the Blend and Digraph chart with all groups by Christmas! It only takes a minute or so, but I think it is a great daily review, and it signals to their sweet brains that we are about to start our group time! 

Both the Alphabet Chart and Blend and Digraph chart are free downloads in my TpT store!

After our chart chant, we move into a review of our phonics skill of the week. This part takes about 5 minutes and I use a variety of materials. Sometimes we do a Roll and Read, or maybe a quick card game from a phonics unit! Check out my newest unit for short vowel /a/, Crab Trap! 

After our chart chart and phonics review, we begin a little guided reading lesson. I read one book with each of my groups every week. One day is for prereading activities, such a picture walk through the book, sight word previews, and I Spy {I spy a word they might have difficulty with and they find the word and read it out loud}. 

The next day is for reading and re reading! Sometimes we partner read, read in different voices. I always try to give each reader a compliment on this day! "I love the way Brady read with expression today!"

The third day is for re-reading for fluency and a writing activity.

Link up below to tell us all about your favorite resource or routine for your small groups!

Join us next Monday, August 5 to hear about how social studies and science goes in my classroom!

Have a fun in the sun week! :)

Lollipops and Lemondrops :)

Hey y'all! Hope you've had a great week! :)

Tomorrow is our Dr. Seuss birthday party - complete with 
Seuss Juice {source: presh idea from Cara Carroll last year}, 
Thing 1 cupcakes {source: Pinterest} since we are 1st graders, and Truffella trees {source: Pinterest}. 

We are SO taking the Lorax stache pics { source: Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations} too - makes me laugh out loud!! :)

I have a new little Facebook venture: Lollipops and Lemondrops! I am making digital party printables for sweet soirees and heat press tees...you know Southerners are all about monograms and shirts with names all over it!! :) Head over to Facebook to check it out...only 1 like away from an Easter heat press shirt giveaway - and yes, I will ship to y'all outside of Bama if you win!!! :)

 I smile every time I get a like on FB - same as when I get a new follower here on Castles and Crayons! I am so, so, so very blessed by the support of L and L in such a short time - it is a dream come true! :)

Oh and speaking of giveaways -- Roll and Read Fluency Phrases {Beginning Blends} winners are below. The unit will be 20% on TpT tonight and tomorrow! :)

Happy TG-so very close-F!!! :)