Happy Friday! Er, Monday? Well, originally I was going to post this on Friday but I had no time (big surprise, right?) so here it is on Monday! Here's a peek at our fun Families unit from last week, with a few freebies for my bloggy family! :) Art: George Washington Color by Number Many thanks to Maria at Kinder-Craze for this great freebie! On Tuesday we learned a little bit about what a President does and why we celebrate President's Day. Pick up Maria's great freebie at her blog by clicking here. Paper Bag Houses Love how these houses turned out! Family Trees Some of my kiddos were even able to write most of the names on their family tree! Magazine Family Hunt Are you ready for your first freebie? Click on the picture to grab your own copy of this fun family magazine picture hunt! The kiddos cut out pictures of people in magazines and placed them in the category they thought fit: mommies/daddies, grandmas/grandpas, brothers/sisters, and pets. Literacy: Families Have/Can/Are Anchor Chart (Shared Writing) Each day this week we added to our anchor chart for shared writing as we learned more about families. I am so amazed by how much better their letter formation is getting! I Love My Family Because... Class Book This book we made together was so sweet! And it was AMAZING how much I learned/re-affirmed my ideas about my kiddos' love languages. If you have never read The Five Love Languages for Children by Gary Chapman (I also highly recommend the adult version), you should do so! No, it's not the cornerstone of my classroom management like Conscious Discipline, Positive Discipline and Love/Logic, but it is good to open your eyes to different ways to reinforce children and show you love them (aka make deposits to their account!) Take a look below for great clues on different way my kiddos' feel loved! Gifts: Physical Affection: Quality Time/Acts of Service: What's the Rhyme? Sorting Houses This great game is from Lakeshore! It was great to get the kids up and moving while we've been cooped inside for so many days. They picked up a card from the pile and walked around the table trying to find which rhyming house the word went to. (After about two minutes I realized I needed to cover up the list of rhyming words on the back... thank goodness for sticky notes!) This game has got me feeling totally inspired for some sort of rhyming Easter basket/egg sort, so be prepared! Working on that idea AND finishing up my St. Patrick's Day Sensory table freebie, so expect to see them in the next two weeks! :) Dramatic Play: Kitchen & Babies This week it was back in the kitchen while we learned about families and homes! I also grabbed these baby bottles at Dollar Tree. We talked about how families take care of each other, and then I saw them acting out these skills in their dramatic play. (Except for one boy that kept carrying his baby around by its' ankle... yikes!) Here's a look at the great books we read/had available at Listening Center and Library this week. And let me just say that my kiddos LOVE Robert Munsch. Alligator Baby and Love You Forever were the definite favorites this week, and you can also download the mp3's for free at Bob's website by clicking here. Just click on the book you want, then click listen, and right click on the "Download File" button. Easy peasy! Amazon.com Widgets And yes, most of these books have animal families (but there's a reason for it... next week is Animal Homes!) If you're wondering where math/science is, I have a confession... there aren't any pictures because we didn't do that block this week! I have come to the realization that I am not superteacher. I cannot finish 13 page progress reports for my class, make a summer field trip calendar, prepare to present for a staff training, and prepare for an upcoming corporate visit on top of daily teacher dealios with no planning time and no school breaks. (Trust me, I tried. It made me very sleep-deprived and grumpy with my kids, so it wasn't worth it). SO I let my kiddos have a bit of a "breather" last week (which worked out well since we also had inside recess almost the entire week) and I made some headway. :) Are you ready for your last freebie? I posted this on the blog on Friday but in case if you missed it... Lucky Lacing Cards! My kiddos loved the Christmas and Valentine's Day cookie cards from Karen at PreKinders, so I thought I'd make my own for St. Patty's (and Easter, those will be upcoming!) Click on the picture to grab yours! Aaaaand don't forget to check out everyone else on this lovely Manic Monday! :) Till later my friends! Can't wait to catch up on all our upcoming fun Dr. Seuss celebrations!