Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Long lost blogger!

Wow! It sure has been a long time since I last posted! SO sorry.. I got all caught up with the end of the school year and the start of summer and to be honest, I just downright neglected this blog. I have big plans for this little page though, so I promise to do better! 

Now onto what I've been working on this summer...

I've been basically consumed playing around with PowerPoint and have become a self-declared pro at creating items for Teachers Pay Teachers. I get so excited with myself when I create a cute little center activity or a fancy flashcard... small victories here people! Make sure that you check out my most recent products:

I Mustache You About 3D Shapes
I Mustache You About 3D Shapes

Chalkboard Theme Whole Brain Teaching Cues
Chalkboard Theme Whole Brain Teaching Cues

Kindergarten CVC Write the Room Cards
Kindergarten CVC Write the Room Cards

Apple Themed Math and Literacy Centers (perfect for the beginning of the year!)
Kindergarten Apple Themed Math and Literacy Activities

Comprehension Posters for Young Readers and Writers
Comprehension Posters for Young Readers and Writers

Click on any of the pictures above to check them out!

I have also create a page on Facebook for people to follow and get the latest updates from my TPT store. Log onto your facebook and follow me "Fun in Room 203," so you can get the freebies I post!  

With love,
Kelcey

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Caterpillar, Chrysalis, Butterfly…oh my!

Wow! Room 203 has been such a busy, fun place to be lately! We have started our living and non-living unit and the students are so eager to learn about the butterfly life cycle. Observing our caterpillars during our afternoon centers is by far the best part of our day! I just love seeing how genuinely excited the students are to observe with their magnifying glasses and write in their science journals.
            Our afternoon centers typically last for 30 minutes each day. The students can complete the assignments at their desks or in a quiet spot around our room. This week, we worked on the following activities:
1.      Butterfly Addition Roll and Write: The students must roll a dice and place counters on the butterfly work mat. Then, they must create a matching addition equation on the corresponding activity sheet.
 
2.      Butterfly Addition Craft: The students were tasked to decorate a butterfly template and add stickers to each wing. After decorating, they used the number of stickers to write an equation.
 
3.      Butterfly Observation Journals: The students act as scientists and observe our caterpillars with magnifying glasses. This center is definitely a class favorite!
 
 
4.      Living and Non-Living Sort: The students must use their new knowledge of living and non-living things to sort a variety of pictures. The tree is always the trickiest picture to sort. We are still working on understanding that although plants do not eat the same food as people, they still have their own food.

For a fun and informative butterfly game, check out: http://www.turtlediary.com/kindergarten-games/science-games/butterfly-life-cycle.html. The students do not even realize they’re learning!
 
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from room 203!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

To add or not to add…that is the question!

Addition is definitely my favorite math concept to teach in kindergarten! We really have so much fun! As with most of my math lessons, I love to introduce this unit through simple picture books. The books allow the students to make real-world connections and begin to grasp this new concept.

Over the past week, we have jumped head first into all things addition! We began our first lesson by reading “Animals on Board” by Stuart Murphy. As we read, we briefly discussed our new vocabulary: plus, equals, sum. After reading, the students enjoyed acting out our own addition problems. “There were 2 brown frogs and 3 green frogs sitting on a log. How many frogs were there in all?” As our friends were busy hopping around the classroom and acting out the problems, we worked hard to create an addition sentence on the white board. This activity is by far a class favorite! There’s just something about being silly AND solving math problems that makes for an afternoon of serious fun!

We also make a new friend during this math unit. Meet “Andy Addition,” our math pal who helps us remember our new vocabulary!



As we continue our unit on addition, the students will learn many different ways to answer a problem. From using their fingers to counting with manipulatives to writing an equation… we will be busy!

Next up on room 203’s agenda includes reading “One Fish, Two Fish” and using gold fish crackers to model our addition sentences. There’s so much learning on the horizon, I can barely stand it! J

Stay tuned for more of our exciting kindergarten adventures! In the meantime, check out this wonderful website for some exciting kindergarten math games: http://www.abcya.com/kindergarten_computers.htm

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

My first post.

Hey friends - I am so excited to begin this new blogging venture. I am a regular follower of many teaching blogs and have wanted to start my own for a long time. I'm home from school for the day (snow day!) and have finally felt inspired enough to get this little ditty started! I plan to post about the things my students are learning, the lessons I'm teaching, and the fun we're having in Room 203. So let's jump right in!

I am so proud of all that my students have accomplished so far this year! I feel like we came back from Christmas break and BAM! their brains were bigger! Just kidding...but really! It feels like things are finally clicking - my students are reading, we're working hard on our writing, and our overall stamina is so. much. better!

In math, we have been working hard on measurement. This is one of my favorite units to teach because the students just love the opportunity to measure items around our classroom. Anything hands on is always a win in room 203! To create our math centers for the week, I used some freebie activities I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. I am always a fan of anything free! You can see my students working hard on a couple of the centers in the pictures below. The first picture shows an activity that required the students to measure some laminated school supply pictures with unifix cubes. Let me tell you - the students were so engaged and dare I say it...having fun! I loved hearing their kind words, as they shared the pictures with their classmates. The next center activity was a mini assessment to determine their understanding of length. I'll use those assessments to create my math centers for next week!

 

 
I know that's not much - but for a first blog post, I think it will do! Hopefully I'll be back again soon to share some more of our classroom happenings. Until then, check out my brand new teachers pay teachers store: My Store
 
Love and Laughter! -Kelcey