All About Faces- Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop we are working on drawing, adding details to our pictures, and filling up the white space.

We read All About Faces by La Zoo to learn more about face shapes, parts, details, and how illustrators can do certain things to show how the person is feeling. 

We LOVE this book! 

*click on the image above to buy the book through Amazon.*

I love when mentor texts have such an impact on my growing artists and writers!!

Check out some of the faces we've been drawing:

    *click on faces to view in full page view 

Cooking in Kindergarten: Purple Cow Smoothies

I love teaching All Day Kindergarten. 

Our afternoons are always a lot fun with the Daily 5, special art projects, literacy and math games, songs, a read aloud, and free choice. 

We also have the opportunity to cook each week! 

The students just L-O-V-E cooking. 

I am going to post our special cooking activity and the  printable recipe for you to use with your students/children. 

This week we read

in Writer's Workshop we drew with purple crayons

and then made delicious Purple Cow Smoothies

Mrs. Raymore, the All Day K aide, is the queen of cooking! I am so thankful for all of her help! : )

They were a HUGE hit!

Here's the printable recipe:

Enjoy!

Purple Cow Smoothie

First Week Fun

My kindergarten friends and I had a GREAT 1st week together!

Some of our favorite activities included:

learning about the Smartboard

Playing with new friends during free choice

 Practicing Read to Self

 Making pennants

Creating crayon resist/watercolor pictures


and

Drawing self-portraits

Check out some of the other fun things that we did here:

Create your own slideshow

Looking forward to a great year together! 

New Blog Design & Features

I couldn't be happier with my new blog design! I highly recommend The Posh Box.

A few new features on the top navigation bar include:

Books We Love

 I have a huge passion for finding and sharing outstanding children's literature. I will use this section to post about books that my kindergarten students and I love.

Parents Page

This section will feature useful links and resources for parents. Early Childhood articles, community events, and important classroom links and information will be featured here.

Teacher Talk

I am super excited about this section! There are so many inspiring teachers out there with great information and resources to share. 

 I will be asking many outstanding teachers to do a guest post in this section. I am BEYOND excited about the author of the first post  that will be featured on this page.... check back soon to see who it is! 

(If you have a educator or topic that you would like to see featured, please let me know!!)

Kindergarten Corner

This section is designed especially for my kindergarten friends. I am working on a page that has links to fun educational games and websites. Coming Soon!! 

I am looking forward to using and sharing all of these new resources! 

Having a Hoot with my Owl Theme!!

UPDATE!!!
AUGUST 11th, 2013
You can read PART 2 of these post here:

and my new owl accents here:



From August, 2011...

Check out some of the fun things I am doing with an owl theme in my classroom this year. 


Look Whoooooooo's in Mrs. Rider's Room. 

Each child's picture or self portrait will go here. I downloaded the adorable owls for free here. 

Daily 5 book boxes

students will decorate the sides 

Leveled book bins

For lunch choices/student grouping

Whooooooo's the Wise Owl today?
Each day we will have a Wise Owl. That student will be in charge of ALL classroom jobs: line leader, teacher helper, weather reporter, etc. 

We will use this chart to keep track who gets this very special role each day.

The Wise Owl gets to sit in this SUPER COMFY chair during Group and Read to Self time. 

They also get to chose one of these owls to sit on their desk so everyone knows they are the Wise Owl of the day. 

My son, Scott, and I made these together:

We will add a class picture to this one and hang it by our door.

I am giving each child an owl welcome card.

A peek at the inside:

Check out her Fun with Owls post here. 

There are a TON of great owl art activities on Pinterest that I plan on using. 
Check out my "Owl Love" board by clicking on this adorable little hoot:

I am planning on making this for my end of the year gift for students:

I bet you'll never guess what my new blog design will include! :)

HOOT! HOOT! 

What is your theme this year?

UPDATE!!! August 11, 2013
Check out my NEW Owl Accents by clicking 
here!

WOW! Awesome Online Story Time

While browsing Pinterest this afternoon I came across this awesome reading resource:

(click the picture to check it out!)

Barnes and Noble offers online story time- featuring a GREAT COLLECTION of favorite books read by authors & celebrities. (Green Eggs and Ham read by Rachael Ray, anyone?)


Each month a new book will be featured. 
This month they are featuring The Kissing Hand, read by Audrey Penn. 

Some of my other favorites featured include:

I can't wait to share Pinkalicious and Olivia with my daughter Madilynn! This resource will be GREAT for Daily 5 and Literacy Workstations. 


Thanks to Mrs. McKown @ Little Literacy Learners for sharing this resource and to Darcy  for pinning this idea so others could find it! 


 Click HERE to see some of the other great ideas I have pinned on my Pinterest boards.