St Patrick's Day Fun & a FREEBIE For AFTER ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

You Can Even Do These AFTER St. Patrick's Day!

Comparing Potatoes on Monday Morning:

Everyone brought in a potato!

After St. Patrick's Day, have your little ones each bring in 1 potato.

In a small group setting, measure them, weight them, compare them, and have your students line up in "potato size" order!

We used "non-standard" units to measure our potatoes. 

You can also use them to create potato prints. 

Leaving Tracks:

You might not have caught that leprechaun, but on Monday morning, you might find his footprints! 

These Sit Spot footprints stick all by themselves!

I have always made these green footprints out of green construction paper, but now I get my re-usable green footprints from Sit Spots. 

They have so many different shapes and colors of Velcro Sit Spots!

You can even write on them and use them to play games. I got rid of my rainbow rug and I used them on the carpet for students to sit on. Sit Spots will send you one for FREE so you can see if they stick to your carpet. 

CLICK HERE

to see all of the Sit Spots that are available. 

And, What Will They Find At The End Of The Trail of Green Footprints?  Leprechaun Pudding' and a RAINBOW FREEBIE!

Make Leprechaun Puddin':

First, check for allergies:
If you have students allergic to milk or lactose, use a milk alternative.
If you have students allergic to ANY NUTS, use vanilla instant pudding 
and a few drops of green food coloring.

Leprechaun Puddin':

 a gallon of milk

 at least 3 large boxes of Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding,
(Only Jell-o brand turns green when the milk is mixed in.)

a clear glass bowl

a large spoon

small paper cups (3-5 oz size)

plastic spoons

a measuring cup.

  

(Off brands don't work as well.  I recommend buying Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding because it starts out white and turns green when the milk is stirred in.)  

DO NOT DO THIS ACTIVITY IF YOU HAVE ANY NUT ALLERGIES IN YOUR CLASS.  There are real pistachios in the pudding.  You can replace the milk with soy milk if you have any dairy allergies.  

While the students are out at recess, open the packages of Jell-o instant pistachio pudding and empty them into a large, clear, glass bowl.  I usually leave green footprints leading to the bowl where we find a note that says "You didn't catch me, but I left you some Leprechaun Puddin'."  

You can find green footprints from Sitspots.com that are made of Velcro so they will stick to most carpets. 

Click Here for the link to the "right footsteps" and 

Click Here for the link to the "left footsteps". 

Just add milk and stir and you will see the magic!"  

As I pour the milk (follow package directions for amount) into the bowl the children will gasp as the white powder turns green!

Stir until it's nice and thick and then spoon some into the cups for the children to enjoy.

Make a Leprechaun Rainbow With This FREEBIE:

Easy, breezy and quick to prep:  You can download it for FREE by clicking Here.

Here is my sample.

Just added this picture of the kids' work.

Click the image to grab the FREE download.  

For each child, you will need:

 1piece of white construction paper (9" X 12") 

 1 piece of each of the following colors cut to 1 1/2" X 9":  

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Give each child 1 of each of the pieces above and have them cut the white piece into the shape of a cloud.  Then, they glue the colored strips, in order beginning with red, to the bottom of the cloud.  

I had each child trace the color word below and glue it to the end of the matching colored strip.  They also wrote their name on the line in the oval, traced the dotted letters, and glued them to the cloud.  They look so cute in our classroom.  

These look great and can stay up throughout spring and for Open House.  :)

Here is the FREE Download for your color words and cloud label.  Have FUN.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Get Lucky in March & Find Your Superhero!

A FREEBIE, A Discount, & A Mystery Prize...

Are you ready to feel lucky? Well, I have just the thing that can change your life! 

This was me:

I needed a Super Hero!

I started using ESGI in my kindergarten classroom in 2008 and I immediately gained:

1.  Instant data on EVERY student's skill level.

2.  User-friendly reports for parents & admins.

3.  Students who begged to be tested! Really! :)

CLICK HERE 

to get started!

And, if you sign up for a FREE trial (no credit card required), your 60 day trial will be extended to run through August 31st! That's 5 1/2 months!

And, did I mention that if you use the code KFUN when signing up for your FREE trial you will automatically qualify for $40 off of your 1st year?

And, best of all, you will also automatically be entered in the "Pot of Gold" mystery grand prize drawing! 

This is win-win-win!

So, let's get started:

CLICK HERE

and sign up for your FREE trial.

Remember to enter the code KFUN.

Then, enter the names of your students, 

their gender, & home language. 

What, You Aren't Using ESGI Yet?

You will love all of the built-in tests available on ESGI's website...

...but if you need to use specific assessments, just reproduce them using ESGI's built-in test builder. You can create your own unique tests! They even have built-in fonts and graphics to help you. Visit their site and check out their video tutorials and see how easy it is!

Let's Get To Testing:

Your students will beg you to test them so they can watch their data circles fill up and turn green! 

You can test on a desktop, a laptop, or even an iPad. 

My in-coming students LOVED testing with ESGI.

The teacher asks the question seen on the screen and then clicks "yes" or "no" based on the student's answer. Easy, breezy, lemon squeezy!

And Then There Is The Data:

Incredible data on each and every skill tested.

This is why I LOVE the bar graphs:
If you click on the grey part you see the names of the students who did not get that question correct! Can you spell RTI??? There it is for you!

ESGI also tracks each individual student's progress. The grey circles turn green as each student masters the skills on each test. Your students LOVE to see their circles turn green, so they will often beg you to test them! 

Click the chart for more info. 

Then, There Are The Flashcards:

Individualized flashcards for each student!

I called them "skill cards" because I stored each child's cards in a sandwich-sized ziplock bag to use as a reference as to which skills each child needed to work on. 

And Then, There Are The Parent Letters:

These are so much better than any report card, so I just stapled the parent letter to the front of the report card because it was easier to understand. 

And there is so much more!

Sign up by April 10 and get in on the FUN!
You will get:

An extended FREE trial

A $40 DISCOUNT with code KFUN

A chance to win the GRAND PRIZE

CLICK HERE to get started!

Click the green shamrock heart!

ESGI saved me so much time, I was able to actually go home and take a break!

It's Time For Leprechaun FUN, Leprechaun Puddin', & a Leprechaun Rainbow FREEBIE!

It's Time To Prep Your Leprechaun's Gold Shop:

Now that Mardi Gras is over and everything is on sale...

Grab Some Mardi Gras Beads: 

They should be on close-out now that Mardi Gras is over.  

Use them to stock your Leprechaun Gold Shop and keep it up for a few weeks.  

Stock your shop with plastic jewelry.  My friend made cute store uniforms for the shop clerks to wear.  :)

We just used our puppet stage, but you can also use a small desk.

Since we didn't catch the leprechaun, we set up a Gold Shop where students can "buy" plastic jewelry with plastic gold coins.

You can use real coins for plastic leprechaun gold.

Students take turns being the clerk and the customer.

Integrate counting, sorting, community helpers, and
IMAGINATION!

  When they are done playing, they return the jewelry to the shop so others may play too.

Make Leprechaun Puddin':

First, check for allergies:
If you have students allergic to milk or lactose, use a milk alternative.
If you have students allergic to ANY NUTS, use vanilla instant pudding 
and a few drops of green food coloring.

Leprechaun Puddin':

 a gallon of milk

 at least 3 large boxes of Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding,
(Only Jell-o brand turns green when the milk is mixed in.)

a clear glass bowl

a large spoon

small paper cups (3-5 oz size)

plastic spoons

a measuring cup.

  

(Off brands don't work as well.  I recommend buying Jell-o brand instant pistachio pudding because it starts out white and turns green when the milk is stirred in.)  

DO NOT DO THIS ACTIVITY IF YOU HAVE ANY NUT ALLERGIES IN YOUR CLASS.  There are real pistachios in the pudding.  You can replace the milk with soy milk if you have any dairy allergies.  

While the students are out at recess, open the packages of Jell-o instant pistachio pudding and empty them into a large, clear, glass bowl.  I usually leave green footprints leading to the bowl where we find a note that says "You didn't catch me, but I left you some Leprechaun Puddin'."  

You can find green footprints from Sitspots.com that are made of Velcro so they will stick to most carpets. 

Click Here for the link to the "right footsteps" and 

Click Here for the link to the "left footsteps". 

Just add milk and stir and you will see the magic!"  

As I pour the milk (follow package directions for amount) into the bowl the children will gasp as the white powder turns green!

Stir until it's nice and thick and then spoon some into the cups for the children to enjoy.

Make a Leprechaun Rainbow:

Easy, breezy and quick to prep:  You can download it for FREE by clicking Here.

Here is my sample.

Just added this picture of the kids' work.

Click the image to grab the FREE download.  

For each child, you will need:

 1piece of white construction paper (9" X 12") 

 1 piece of each of the following colors cut to 1 1/2" X 9":  

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Give each child 1 of each of the pieces above and have them cut the white piece into the shape of a cloud.  Then, they glue the colored strips, in order beginning with red, to the bottom of the cloud.  

I had each child trace the color word below and glue it to the end of the matching colored strip.  They also wrote their name on the line in the oval, traced the dotted letters, and glued them to the cloud.  They look so cute in our classroom.  

These look great and can stay up throughout spring and for Open House.  :)

Here is the FREE Download for your color words and cloud label.  Have FUN.

Saint Patrick's Day.