I am Thankful...

THANK YOU!!

HOORAY!

Literacy and Laughter was awarded a 

Top 25 Teacher Mom Blog Award!

Click here to read my interview. 

Thank you so much to everyone who voted!!
 I truly appreciate your support! 

Thanksgiving Celebration

Parents,

Thank you for sharing your amazing children with me. They inspire me often. I am thankful for all of their hard work, laughter, and passion for learning! 

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Mrs. Rider

Enjoy this Smilebox of our

 Thanksgiving Celebration:

Make your own free scrapbooking design

THANKFUL

We made this using wordle. 

Technology Tools for Teachers

I presented to a class of Xavier University graduate students this week. It was such an awesome opportunity to share my passion for using technology in the classroom!

Most of the students are special education majors, so I tried to include several special ed. tech resources for them. 

Check out my Technology Tools for Teachers glog

Also, here are some other GREAT tech ideas
 I have pinned:

Blogging Buddies- I hope you can use some of these resources in your classroom! 

Community Unit

We just finished up a great unit on Community.

Here are some of the fun activities that we enjoyed during this unit:

 Our list of places and people/workers in our town, Madeira.

The children paired up and one drew the place and the other drew the worker- they LOVED this!

 Our Community Map inspired by our friends next door in 

Mrs. Bell's class. 

I just *love* their little drawings!

The children also enjoyed talking about the jobs they hope to have when they grow up...

(11 of my 20 students said that they want to be a teacher!)

Websites for Word Work

Here are some GREAT websites for word work practice:

(to practice beginning/ending sounds, vowels, & word families)

 (memory: match short vowel CVC word with picture)

(to practice beginning sounds)

(building CVC words)

(missing vowel game)

(beginning sound bingo)

(letter matching/spelling)

Beautiful Faces...

Oh how I love these beautiful faces!

Kindergarten Friends,

I love your self-portraits! 

They are beautiful, creative, and unique... just like each one of you!

I can't wait to continue growing, learning, and laughing with you!

Love,

Mrs. Rider

This free slideshow made with Smilebox Blogging Buddies- This idea came from Ann Marie Corgill's book: (we drew lightly with pencil, then with oil pastels, and filled the white space with watercolor paint) I love, love, love, this book and feel SO LUCKY that I had a chance to hear Ann Marie present. The book celebrates two things I love- Writer's Workshop and children!! It is a MUST READ for primary teachers.

Diwali

I was thrilled when Sofia's mom volunteered to come in and teach the children about Diwali! 

Sofia's dad is from India and her grandparents live there now. 

During Missy's visit she and Sofia shared many great facts about their special celebration of lights. 

We loved the book about Diwali traditions!

We sampled a sweet treat called jalebi.

The children also enjoyed making rangoli - a special decorative art made with colored sand. 

Missy and Sofia, thank you so much for sharing your traditions with us!

             

Spider Experts

My kindergarten friends are spider experts!

We spent the last week or so researching spiders...
 and here are some of the things we discovered:

Parents: ask your child about this!

We learned about different types of spiders and the unique webs that they make. 

We used Google images to look at different orb webs

click on web to see more cool orbs!

We decided to draw our own webs, make spiders, and write spider facts. 

Check them out:

spider art during free choice :)

At the end of our spider study we made this graph:

*spider cards and clip art from Kindergarten Hoppenings

During our spider unit guess what we found creeping through the classroom????

This little guy!

We caught it to make observations... then let him go.

Great work Scientists!!!