Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey Kinder Friends,

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day! I think this year could have been my favorite Valentine's Day of all. It seemed like it was the easiest by far. I have to say our Valentine bags were my favorite. I swore I would never make anything with those accordion legs...ever. Somehow, someone changed my mind. The kids loved the bags and in the end I did too. I might even make them again next year.

The kids had a lot of fun working on Valentine projects throughout the week to give to their loved ones. Just simple paint and paper and everyone was excited to have these projects to look forward to as they finished their work.

I was sure glad to have this little reader on hand because it gave us a chance to review some sight words that we had been previously working on. If you need a copy of this freebie just click here.

We have enjoyed reading new favorite Valentine books and even enjoyed reading the old favorites. We were even lucky enough to find a Splat book in the library this week.

My class even got a little festive when working in their math notebooks. Considering this is a totally independent task that I use to check for understanding of the focus lesson, I was surprised at how creative they each were. As they were walking by my small group table they were holding them up for me to notice them as they walked by. I swear I tried hard to keep working even though I really wanted to look!

We have been working our way through our Math Fables book and talking a lot about different ways to solve problems and tools that can help us. It was nice this week to see some reluctant friends give it a try and explain their thinking.

We even had time to squeeze in one more gift to send home. You know no holiday would be complete without a painted hand print keepsake!

We even had time to make crowns to wear for the special day.

And envelopes to send everything home! All in all, it was a great Valentine week and we were able to accomplish our goals and keep busy with a lot of fast finisher projects. I can't wait until next year!

SPLAT! How About That?



Happy Valentine's Day Kinder Friends,

We are on a roll and don't want to stop! I think we all needed this holiday to remind us about caring, sharing and friendship. We all seem a little more willing to help out and even do our part. We were so busy making lists and editing our writing today that we forgot to make our valentine bags. I even learned a new lesson in Kindergarten today.

Apparently my kids love Splat the Cat. I really had no idea how much they loved Spat. But each week they have been searching for Splat books in the library. And each week they were disappointed if they were all checked out. And I was informed today that someone hid a cool Splat book in my room and I had no idea all this was going on since...November. I read my first Splat book this year in November. And my kids fell for Splat. I kind of did too. So, the following week I checked out the only Splat book I could find. And the kids hid it from me from then until now. Magically, it appears front and center on my library shelf today...perfect! Especially since it was a Valentine's book. The minute I sat down to share the news with my class, I get an email...from the librarian. She is checking on the SPLAT book that I have had since NOVEMBER because apparently there is some secret group of Splat loving kids that have been waiting on this book...since NOVEMBER! Honestly, I wanted to hide it too for the fear of never seeing Splat again. He is so cute and fuzzy and I am kind of smitten with that white girl kitten too. And don't think I haven't been on Amazon to find my special Splat book...the ones the kids wanted were on...back order. WHAT? No Splat, forget about that! I turned the book in and wanted to ask...how long is that class going to keep dear old Splat! So, just when I thought Splat was over...my kids asked me if we could MAKE a valentine Splat just like the book with a big heart and all. WHAT? I now have to create Splat for Valentine's day? All of the sudden Splat is all sorts of controversial. To make it worse, kids next door were visiting and they chimed in on the Splat talk too!

Better make sure I have this book on hand before the field trip!

 For information on the prints (not Splat) at the top click on the image above!  



Love Is In The Air!



Happy Valentine's Day Kinder Friends,

Well, love is in the air and it was a good day! We got busy right away and it seemed like time was flying by before we knew it. We talked about friendship and love today and got right down to some writing pretty early this morning. As we worked in small groups there was a valentine express in the back corner like no other. The kids were almost silent as they were working on parent gifts. You know you can never go wrong with watercolors. It's like safe art exploration. No matter what you do it always somehow looks good. I have to say the kids did surprise me with these. I had a few minutes and we were able to evaluate their work and talk about their choice of colors. The kids also talked a lot about space or white space specifically.



It didn't take long for our paintings to dry and it sure kept us motivated to get our work finished to be ready for the next step. I am amazed at how much I loved the second part of this project...torn paper. I have really never done much of torn paper projects but I will tell you the kids loved this part. They were the ones that picked the colors that went with their paintings. Considering I am colorblind, that is the way we do it. They looked at what colors of paper we had a made their choices. I could hear them helping each other and giving suggestions. The conversations were very focused and descriptive.

You can see how different they look. I think they did a great job independently working on this. I am thankful for the extra time I had helping with writing while they were busy. We are hoping to get them laminated tomorrow. The lamination makes these colors come alive!