Enter to WIN 3 GREAT PRIZES & Find Out How We Celebrated The Color YELLOW!

We celebrated "Yellow Day"!

But, first, let me tell you about my latest give-away! 

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The Rafflecopters are at the end of the blogpost about my most recent Webinar.

Now, Let Me Tell You About "Yellow Day":

We all wore yellow, we made individual cups of lemonade, and we made a book about yellow things!

Preparation:

First, I requested organic lemons from our parents by placing a Post-it on our "Giving Tree".  You can grab our Giving Tree FREE here.
I also requested cups, organic sugar, and filtered water.  My great parents had everything we needed at school by 8:00 A.M.  :)

Wow, this has been
downloaded
over 1800 times!

Here it is mounted on construction
paper and laminated.
You can use any type of Post-its.
 The apple ones are so cute! 

Then, I brought in my juicer and a small knife to cut the lemons.  Now, this juicer is older than me, and I'm pretty old!  You can use any juicer, even a fork inserted into a half of a lemon works well.  Just juice over a strainer to remove the seeds.

It's hard work!

They loved working hard to make their own
lemonade!

You can usually find a juicer like this one for about $10 at a swap meet or flea market.  My son bought one, power sanded it with steel wool, repainted the base red, and gave it as a gift.  It looked so amazingly retro!

Problem solving when the juicer started to move.

I like the way his yellow crown covered his eyes.
I didn't have to smudge out too much of his face!

He loved squeezing his own organic lemon!

How we Made Lemonade:

OK, after each child in my small group of 4 juiced 1/2 of a lemon, we poured 1/2 cup of water into a plastic cup.  

Spills are OK.  That's why we worked on
yellow construction paper.  :)

It was interesting to see who knew how to
1st: hold the white cup so it didn't tip, and
B: pour quickly enough so as not to spill.
(Do you like that 1st, then B thing?)

Then we added 2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed, organic lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of organic sugar.

Measuring wet and dry ingredients.  

When they stirred, they got to hear the sugar scraping the bottom of the cup as organic sugar tends to come in larger granules than highly processed sugar.  

Five Senses Link:

So, we saw the yellow lemons, smelled them as we squeezed them, listened to the sugar scraping the bottom of the cup, tasted the lemonade, and felt the bump lemons and the wet, cool lemonade.

Linking Our Color Days To Our Calendar:

For the first 11 Fridays, we celebrate our Color Days.  I use these Color Day Notes

and Color Days Calendar Cards to remind students to wear a particular color on a particular day.

The notes are
in both English
& Spanish.

You get 2 on
a page so they
are easier tocopy.

Color Day
Calendar Cards

You can find these items by clicking on the images.
Then, we made a Color Day Class Book for the color we were celebrating that week!  This download also includes an individual page where your students can write about something that is a particular color. 

Our Color Days
Class Books.  

This download also includes an individual student book.  We used this as we integrated Writers Workshop into our day.  :)

REMEMBER TO ENTER MY 2 RAFFLECOPTERS BY CLICKING HERE. 

You can win a Show & Tell Apron or Ond Year of ESGI.

Where Does Lemonade Come From?

We celebrated "Yellow Day" in TK!

We all wore yellow, we made individual cups of lemonade, and we made a book about yellow things!

Preparation:

First, I requested organic lemons from our parents by placing a Post-it on our "Giving Tree".  You can grab our Giving Tree FREE here.
I also requested cups, organic sugar, and filtered water.  My great parents had everything we needed at school by 8:00 A.M.  :)

Wow, this has been
downloaded
over 460 times!

Here it is mounted on construction
paper and laminated.
You can use any type of Post-its.
 The apple ones are so cute! 

Then, I brought in my juicer and a small knife to cut the lemons.  Now, this juicer is older than me, and I'm pretty old!  Yep, it's about 60 years old and it still works great!  You can use any juicer, even a fork inserted into a half of a lemon works well.  Just juice over a strainer to remove the seeds.

It's hard work!

They loved working hard to make their own
lemonade!

You can usually find a juicer like this one for about $10 at a swap meet or flea market.  My son bought one, power sanded it with steel wool, repainted the base red, and gave it as a gift.  It looked so amazingly retro!

Problem solving when the juicer started to move.

I like the way his yellow crown covered his eyes.
I didn't have to smudge out too much of his face!

He loved squeezing his own organic lemon!

How we Made Lemonade:

OK, after each child in my small group of 4 juiced 1/2 of a lemon, we poured 1/2 cup of water into a plastic cup.  

Spills are OK.  That's why we worked on
yellow construction paper.  :)

It was interesting to see who knew how to
1st: hold the white cup so it didn't tip, and
B: pour quickly enough so as not to spill.
(Do you like that 1st, then B thing?)

Then we added 2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed, organic lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of organic sugar.

Measuring wet and dry ingredients.  

When they stirred, they got to hear the sugar scraping the bottom of the cup as organic sugar tends to come in larger granules than highly processed sugar.  

Five Senses Link:

So, we saw the yellow lemons, smelled them as we squeezed them, listened to the sugar scraping the bottom of the cup, tasted the lemonade, and felt the bump lemons and the wet, cool lemonade.

Linking Our Color Days To Our Calendar:

For the first 11 Fridays, we celebrate our Color Days.  I use these Color Day Notes

and Color Days Calendar Cards to remind students to wear a particular color on a particular day.

The notes are
in both English
& Spanish.

You get 2 on
a page so they
are easier tocopy.

Color Day
Calendar Cards

You can find these items by clicking on the images.
Then, we make a Color Day Class Book for the color we are celebrating that week!  This download also includes an individual

Our Color Days
Class Books.  

This download also includes an individual student book.  This also integrated writing into our day.  :)

Enjoy keeping the FUN in the FUNdamentals!
See you all tomorrow!
Palma :)

It's Almost August! Time to Get ORGANIZED:

Celebrate a different color every Friday: 

Add caption

Organize your calendar to celebrate one color each week. Here are some great calendar cards for your calendar pocket chart.

Click the image above.

Use these calendar cards to mark your special "Color Celebration Days" on your class calendar.

Click the image above.

Copy them on white card stock, laminate them, and they will last for years.

Celebrate a color each week:

We celebrate a different color every Friday for 11 weeks. This is what we do:

Red Week: Wear red, taste strawberries, make a Clifford paper bag puppet.

Blue Week: Wear blue, taste blueberries, Listen to the story Blue On Blue, by Dianne White.

Click the book cover.

Yellow Week: Wear yellow, make lemonade with real lemons, make yellow crowns to wear home.

Each child got to squeeze 1/2 of a lemon, + water & a bit of sugar.

Green Week: Wear green, taste green grapes, make green paint with blue & yellow in a zipper bag, 

                      (Read Little Blue, Little Yellow.)

Squirt a bit of yellow & blue in the 2 bottom corners & seal. Let the kids do the mixing.

Orange Week: Wear orange, make orange juice from real oranges, paint 5 orange pumpkins on a  

                        fence.

Each child got to squeeze one orange and drink their own juice.

We sliced a pool noodle, dipped it in orange paint, & stamped 5 pumpkins on a fence.
When they dried, we added faces made from black construction paper scraps.

Purple week: Wear purple, make purple slime, make the mini book "The Tale of the Purple Mouse".

Click the image.

Click the image

Click the image.

Brown Week: Wear brown, make bear biscuits, bring your bear to school for a Teddy Bear Picnic.

Click the image to get the download for the directions to make these Cinnamon Bears.

Black Week: Wear black (we always look so elegant on that day), taste raisins, draw with charcoal 

                       chalk.

White Week: Wear white, taste jicama, make white ghosts.

Pink Week: Wear something pink (even if it has just a dot of pink in it), taste pink watermelon, write our names with hot pink markers on all of our work on that day!

Here is a Freebie to culminate our unit:

Click the image to grab you FREEBIE.

So, What do you do when teaching about colors?

Let us know in the comments.

Now get back to the linky by clicking this image:

Click the image to get back to the linky.

What In The World Is T.K. ?

What In The World Is T.K. ?

Just to keep this blog post from getting too boring, I have placed a few photos of my classroom here and there.  They have nothing to do with the blog post.  Just thought you would like them.  After all, what is a post without pix?  :oD

Here is your 1st picture:  Slappin' Sight Words!

What is T.K.?

Here in California, we are easing into a new age requirement for starting kindergarten.  Like 48 of the other 50 states, children will have to be 5 years old by Sept. 2 to begin kindergarten.  In the past, students could begin kindergarten at 4 years old if they turned 5 by Dec. 1.

Here is a photo of our home center; just to add a little color to this post.

So...  students who would have started kindergarten under the old regulations may attend Transitional Kindergarten and that is what I'm teaching this year :)

So, What's The Problem?

So, here is the problem...  one you are probably having if you taught kindergarten last year and are teaching transitional kindergarten this year:  EVERYTHING has to be DIFFERENT!!!

Class books.  Each child contributes one page.  
I numbereach page with their student number and 
add a class list inside the front cover as a Table of Contents.  

What's the Solution?

So, I have been busy searching TPT for new and different activities and projects to teach letter names and sounds, number recognition, etc.  And, I have been busy making some new things that can work in pre-K, TK, or K!

Here are two of my newest creations:

Color Books

Our "Color Books" pack includes 11 class books to make with your entire class; each child creating one page for each class book.  It also includes an individual book for each child to make that is completely different from the other books and provides lots of opportunities to practice name writing.

You can find my Color Books by clicking here or on the image.  

Once you get to my TPT store, download the "preview" so you can really see the pages. 

The individual book is based on the story Mary Wore Her Red Dress and I adapted it to work for either gender.  (I took out the dress and made a few other changes.)  It covers all of the colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown, white, gray, black, and pink and describes clothing of each color, except for pink.  On that page, the text reads, "_________ drank pink lemonade all day long.  :)

Click the image.

I think you'll like this pack of Color Books. 

My next new product is "I'm Ready For TK" and it is loosely based on Mrs. Bindergarten...

In the directions, you will find an activity to complete on each page.

For example, on the page that says, "I'm ready to cut with scissors" students cut strips of colored construction paper and glue them to the frame on this page.  There are 7 pages to go with 7 activities. 

Click the image.

I like to have my students complete 1 or 2 pages each day.  Then, I place the completed books into their cubbies for Back-To-School-Night for their parents to take home.

I'll be making more products for TK, but if you don't have a TK at your school, most of the products can be used in pre-school or a regular kindergarten classroom, especially with your remedial students.

My TK Classroom, well half of it.  :)

And...  EVERYTHING in my TPT store is on sale for 20% off, plus use code BTS14 to receive and additional 10% off bringing your savings to 28% off.  The sale runs through Tuesday, Aug. 5.

So... let me know if you are teaching T.K. this year.

Have FUN shopping and keeping the FUN in the FUNdamentals!  :)

Check out my:

FaCeBoOk:  Click Here to see my Facebook. (Tons of FREE ideas.)

PiNtErEsT:  Click Here to see my Pinterest Boards.  (Oh, the ideas on these boards!)

TeAcHeRs PaY tEaChErS:  Click Here to see my TPT Store (Did you say, "15 freebies?!")

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)