Handprint/Fingerprint Poem Calendars

I remember when I was teaching first grade and how I enjoyed doing the handprint calendars.  Yet I used these super cute calendars that I found at Michaels for a dollar...

I made labels with a poem for each month!  I couldn't just leave it with just a handprint.;)

All the calendars were laminated and put back together...it was a lot of work but they turned out very cute.

Well when I moved to kindergarten, I decided to step away from these adorable calendars and wanted to do something different.  I had a big group my first year of teaching kinder and it was really hard to find that many calendars for my class. 

I remember being at Michaels in search for the calendars, but had no luck finding the amount that I needed.  So I browsed through the other calendars that they had at the store and that's when I got an idea!

Why not make a CD fingerprint calendar!!??  And that is how I got started making fingerprint calendars in 2011. 

Till this day, I still make them, and this weekend I had to update my files to jazz it up a bit since I need to start making them this week. The CD case that I use is a calendar CD case which is made especially to display small calendars.  I purchase my CD calendar cases from amazon. All 12 monthly calendars fit perfectly inside the case and it is a great way to display on a table, book shelf, counter top, etc.

I changed it a tad bit, but not too much....

It's very simple to do and it doesn't take too much time, I pinky promise!  Every year I asked for 2-3 parent volunteers to help make them. Here are a few pictures of what the fingerprint calendar looked like...

I plan to take pictures of them when they are done this month...but the good news is that I have posted the files on my TpT store!  If you are thinking of a gift, why not try making fingerprint calendars, they are so simple to make.  

Not interested in getting calendar CD cases...hey that's okay!  These are so small it can be placed just about anywhere, it can be a fridge calendar or even put together with a cute ribbon to decorate it.  I made the cover page editable for you to type the student's name and your information on the cover.  I'd love to hear what you think!  

I will give these fingerprint calendars to the first '5' followers that leave a comment to this post.:) 

Turkey Poem Freebie

I've always enjoyed using poetry notebooks in my classroom.  This week we have been learning about turkeys.  This year I have a group of students who really enjoys singing.  Here is a poem that we have learned!

We glue the poem into our poetry notebooks and highlight the high frequency words.  I've made the poem small, so that it would give room for them to draw a picture on the page. 

Click here to download the big poem and click here to download the small turkey poem.  Make sure to print the big poem onto legal sized paper.  I made it big enough to fit on a poster.  Hope you enjoy the poem as much as my kiddos did.;)

Scarecrow Activities

We had so much fun learning about scarecrows, but first I wanted to share a picture of how big our pumpkin plants have grown!  The kids were very excited to finally take them home.

We listened to the story, 'The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.'

We used the pocket chart to help us with sequencing the events in order.  The kids really enjoyed listening to this story!

We really enjoyed reading this emergent reader that Ms. Kelly Findsen shared in here TpT store.  Click on the image to go directly to her TpT store to download the book.

The kids also enjoyed playing 'Roll n Color Scarecrow.'  Thanks to Tammy from Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten who made it!  Click on the image to go directly to her TpT store and download the game.

We read a variety of books about scarecrows and made a circle map.

Then we used the circle map to help us write a complete sentence.  My kindergarteners did such a great job with trying to write on their own.  I'll try to take a picture of their journals so that you can see how well they did!

We also made a tree map and they had such wonderful ideas that we were having a hard time fitting in everything that they wanted to share.

I made a scarecrow template and so far they turned out really cute!  We made our scarecrows and then wrote about our scarecrows in the writing center.

Tomorrow we will be making pumpkin pie!  The kids can't wait to help write the steps and help bake a pie in our classroom!:)

Scarecrow Freebie

This week we will be starting our Scarecrow themed unit!  I just wanted to share some of my favorite books that I will be using this week and also a few files that I made to go with my lessons.  

Click here if you'd like to download the files.  Enjoy and I hope you all had a great Monday!

Leaves and Freebie!

This week we learned about Autumn/Fall and leaves.  Here are a few pictures!

The students mixed red and yellow to make...surprise, surprise...the color orange.  They were so excited to finger paint and paint their paper plate.  After it dried we glued different leaves that we would see during Autumn.  

We also sang a 'Leaf Song' throughout the week and glued it onto our tree.

As part of one of our centers, the students used plastic leaves and corn to sort by color.  I found these on clearance last weekend for 80% off at Michaels!  Super great deal!

November Family Project - the students decorated a turkey!

I've included a copy of the poem we used to make our trees and some leaf clipart.

Click here if you'd like to download the file.

Pumpkin Time and Freebie!

For the last week of October we focused on Pumpkins.  My students had so much fun make observations, helping take out the seeds, and pulp.  Unfortunately...I didn't get to take pictures of all the action that was going on in our classroom.  Here are a few pictures of what we did for our pumpkin themed unit.

I just thought it was so cute that one of my students brought in a pumpkin for us, and decorated with a bow and a small label.

October Family Projects - they had so much fun sharing how they decorated their pumpkins.

We listened to a variety of pumpkin stories (fiction and non-fiction) and made a bubble map to describe what we learned about pumpkins.

 We also graphed how we wanted to carve our class pumpkin!  They were so excited to see that our pumpkin would be carved with triangle eyes, a triangle nose, and that it would have 2 teeth.  I'm such a forgetful person...didn't get to take a picture of the pumpkin we carved.

 We also made a pumpkin to wear when we sang the song 'Five Little Pumpkins.'  They looked so cute wearing them!

 The kids really enjoyed playing this pumpkin number game.  I bought it last year at Target when it was on clearance.  There are buckets labeled from 1-6 and they would aim and throw a plastic ball and see if it would land in one of the buckets.   

We decorated pumpkin cookies with orange frosting, candy corn, and M&M's to create our own Jack-O-Lanterns (Forgot to take the pictures of how they looked afterwards, sorry!)

We also planted some pumpkin seeds and watched them grow.

It's amazing how fast the seeds grew in less than a week.

I found these cute pumpkin trays in the dollar store and cute plastic pumpkins at the Target dollar sections.  To play the game, they would roll the dice and place that many pumpkins in their pumpkin ten frame.  The student who filled their ten frame won the game...then they would replay the game again.

The kids liked it so much that I made a simple pumpkin ten frame for them to take home and play with their family.

Click here if you'd like to download the game.