Shining a Light on Kindness!

Happy Summer!

Light Box Slide Inserts {Bucket Filler}

I'm linking up today with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It!

These fun lightboxes from Heidi Swapp and American Crafts are all the teacher rage right now! Instagram Peer Pressure got to me and I headed down to Michaels to pick one up!

Then I spent most of the night and the next day playing around and creating fun displays for the light box!!!

I love to teach my Kindergarten students about Bucket Filling, and I know that these fun diplays for my light box will be a great addition to my classroom.

Students will see the display all lit up and be reminded and encouraged to act with kindness and positivity!

Here are some of the fun designs that I created.

 Here are all of the designs!

I have added them to my TpT store, and they are on sale {half price} unil Tuesday night - 6/28!!

Just click on the thumbnail below.

You may also like my latest set for your light box - Growth Mindset!

Teacher Gift Labels {FREEBIE}

I am almost at the end of the school year, and I am ahead of the game!  Well, the teacher gift game that is!!!

I made these fun labels that are perfect to add to a lemon hand soap pump. 

I am giving these to all of my teacher friends, who are soooooo ready to start summer vacation!

But you can add this label to any lemon themed item.  How about a bottle of lemonade?  Or a bag of lemon flavored candy?  Perhaps a container of powdered lemonade mix?  Or even a pitcher full of fresh lemons?

**I included 4 different versions of the label - summer, break, year, and day.  Pick the one that works best for your gift!**

Click {HERE} to pick up the labels for FREE!  NOW EDITABLE!  {You can type your own name at the bottom}

#hellosummer Dollar Deals

I still have 9 more school days, but the #hellosummer Dollar deals sale is going on at TpT this weekend and I am excited to participate!

I have marked down 2 of my product to just a dollar!

Make a Lei {Dolch words}

Make 10 with Little Sharkie

Click on the above images to see these products.

And be sure to search #hellosummer on Teachers Pay Teachers to find tons of dollar deals from more sellers!

Science Fair 2016

It's time for the Science Fair at our school!

What to do?  What to do?

Time to search Pinterest...

Time to rack my brain... or is it wrack my brain?

Time to ask the Google...

I finally decided on this project - creating trace fossils

Here is how we did it.

#1 Observation

Some areas of the world contain more fossils than others.

Is that due to the different types of soil found in the world?

#2 Question

What type of soil is the best for making a trace fossil?

We tested sand, sand mixed with moist topsoil, and moist topsoil.

#3 Hypothesis

We think that the type of soil will make a difference in the quality of the trace fossil.

Each student examined the different types of soil and them predicted which would make the best trace fossil.

#4 Predictions

#5 Experiment

We began by pressing a shell into each of the soils to create an imprint.

Then we poured plaster of paris into the imprint space.

After letting it dry overnight, we took each of the plaster of paris "fossils" out of the soil and brushed them off to remove as much soil as possible.

Then we compared each of the trace fossils to determine which one was the best - had the most ridges, had deeper ridges, had the best shape, etc.

We recorded our data by sketching scientific drawings of each of the plaster casts.

#6 Conclusion

We decided that the sand mixed with moist topsoil made the best fossil.

We also concluded that many of the areas of the world where fossils have been found must have a sand and moist topsoil mix.

The kids loved this projecct and it was a great addition to our dinosaur unit!

Want more science?  You can see the experiment that we did last year {HERE}

Fish Faces!

We read Fish Faces this week and I wanted to share a fun writing activity that we did.  Cute fish books!

We began by reading this great book!  Fish Faces contains wonderful photographs of all sorts of fish.  My students were fascinated {and even a little grossed out} by the photos!

We used a tree map to organize the information we learned from the book.  I organized the map so that it would be easier for my students to create sentences about fish.

I made the little fish books by stapling construction paper around 3 pieces of lined paper, and then traced and cut the fish shape.  I used 3 pieces of paper so that the kids could write one sentence from each column of the tree map, one sentence per page.

Here are some of the sentences.

I can't wait to hang these up around the room!

Even More Sunflowers!

Each year we read Sunflower House by Eve Bunting as part of our reading curriculum.

This year I supplemented the reading with a fun sunflower craft and writing.

We started the sunflowers by painting the outside portion of a paper plate yellow.

Then the inside area was painted brown.

After the paint dried (the next day) we cut straight lines into the yellow portion of the plate. 

With a brown or black crayon we drew a hashtag pattern in the middle of the sunflower.  And then glued on a few real sunflower seeds.

Every year we create a bubble map to describe a sunflower - using the vocabulary from the book. Here is an example from last year.

Then we created sentences descibing the sunflowers using the sentence frame "Sunflowers are..."

Here are some of the finished products.

The Measuring Inchworm

I just posted my latest interactive book, which is perfect for springtime in your classroom!

This book coordinates wonderfully with Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni.

My interactive books are such fun for students!  They LOVE moving the main character (inchworm) onto each page of the book as they retell the story.

You can find The Measuring Inchworm in my TpT store {HERE}

All of my interactive books are {HERE}

Here is a little flipgram that I made!  Enjoy!