Spring break recap and so happy for April!

Thought it was about time for a little update...this teacher was really happy to turn the calendar page last week and focus on a new month!  March started out with a severe stomach flu bug for me (I seriously cannot remember the last time I was that sick- I even missed my favorite day of the year...Dr. Seuss day!!  Two sick days off is a first ever in my six year teaching history) and the month ended with a bad sinus infection.  I'm pretty sure my little kinder kiddos have learned the art of sharing.  :) I guess since it is only my second year in kindergarten it is going to take some time to build up my immunity.  

The Wednesday night before Easter I was out driving around and happened to look up in the sky and see a bright beautiful full moon- and it explained a lot!

Enough said.  

But spring break was wonderful- I spent lots of time catching up with family and just relaxing.  The Tuesday after Easter my mom and I took my younger siblings on a field trip to Washington D.C.  It was a beautiful day but pretty crowded in the museums.  We walked over five miles and packed as much as we could into the day!

Back to the classroom last week...I decided our dramatic play and science centers needed a little revamping so we turned our dramatic play center into a flower shop!  I have a few more additions for this week but my kids loved the new additions on Friday! 

(If you want the recording sheet I used, I bought the flower shop dramatic play package HERE.  I have this seller's doctor set too and I love the picture cues that makes it easy for my non-readers and ELL's to use too!)

And the new additions to our science center- I have more plans but for now the kids are just sorting seeds and observing the seeds we planted on Friday.  We did sunflowers and radishes in upcycled milk gallon jugs (hello Earth Day connection!).  I opened the seed packets and glued one of each to the envelope so they can see which seeds go to which plants as they are sorting.

My little sister pulled the "Brown E's" (brownies) trick on me late April Fools night.  I really really wanted those brownies too! 

Ran an 8:39 minute mile in my 5K this weekend!  I'm pretty sure that's my fastest mile ever...so far, that is.  ;) 

Happy Sunday!

Valentine Math Fact Sensory Center

Need a last minute Valentine activity for the week?

I have a few kids that need to practice their fine motor skills this year, so lately I've been really interested in trying to incorporate more sensory activities into our day.  This sensory center cost me $4 to make and 30 minutes to put together!  I found all of the supplies at Dollar Tree. 

You need: 

1 egg carton

1 bag of Valentine table scatter

1 bag of Valentine Pompoms

1 bag of red basket filler ( a little goes a lonngg way!) 

1 bag of 100 foam hearts (mine were stickers. I separated the small and large ones, saved them for another craft, and just used the medium sized hearts. I stuck two together so the kids wouldn't peel the backs apart, but if you just had regular foam hearts it would save some time!)  

Mix the table scatter, Pompoms, and basket filler together. I mixed mine in a gallon bag so I could just pour it into a bin when I got to school. 

It ended up making a nice mix of soft, slippery, and scratchy textures.

Cut the top off the egg carton and number the cups 1-12 (or any other sums you need your kiddos to practice) 

Write facts on the plain foam hearts. Again, you can differentiate for the needs of your students! We are working on understanding the difference between plus and minus signs, as well as fluency in facts under 10, so that's what I focused on. You could also do all teen numbers, draw shapes and sort by the number of sides, or simply do a sort and count by color or size of the hearts. It really just depends. 

Mix the facts into your "base." 

Students pull out the hearts and put them in the cup that equals the fact.  I plan to have mine use tweezers to sort through the bin and find the fact hearts.

And that's it!  How else could you differentiate this idea in your class?