It's Almost Here!!!

ESGI's Twelve Days of Christmas Mega Give-Away:

Enter the Rafflecoptor on Dec. 3rd to win
a $25 gift certificate to my TPT Store!

Beginning Dec. 1...

Come back here and you will be able to enter EVERY DAY from Dec. 1 - Dec. 12.  Each day, ESGI will give away one $25 gift certificate to one of twelve bloggers' stores PLUS a FREE year of ESGI.  Day 3 is the day to win a $25 gift certificate to my TPT Store, so check out my store and make your wish list now.

CLICK HERE for the link to my TPT Store.

And That's Not All...

No, that's not all.  On Day 12, you can not only win a $25 gift certificate to Dr. Jean's store, but you can win a FREE year of ESGI for up to TEN TEACHERS!  Yes, I said TEN!

It all begins on Monday, Dec. 1...

So come on back here on Dec. 1 - 12 to enter via the Rafflecoptor.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

Yes, I Confess.... I Teach Shopping.

But You Can Learn Sooo Much From Shopping!

In our class, we "shop 'til we drop" every month with a new store.

Those of you who have been to our workshops know that we LOVE to set up classroom stores where students can pretend to buy things with plastic coins.  Our newest store is the Garden Shop where students may "buy" seed packets, potted flowers, or even a palm tree!

Buying flowers.

Getting Started:

The Dollar Tree (and other dollar stores) have little potted silk plants, seed packets, and even little one-foot squares of pretend grass.  I even found the bulletin board trim there to decorate our shop.  

The plants came potted, but I potted the flowers with foam & moss.

The Lilies were not part of the store.  They were real. 

The watering can was donated by a parent.

Loved the little patches of grass.

The Kids Helped Too:

I put out scraps of colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and pictures of plants.  They got busy making props for our store.  It was a wonderful cooperative center where kids exchanged ideas and developed oral language skills.

Getting creative and talking about it too at our Creation Station.

Making signs and props for our garden shop.

Putting It All Together:

We set out the patch of grass, seed packets, and plants.  We decided on prices too.  I added the palm tree that I picked up at a garage sale.  I'll use it for our beach-themed graduation and again at the beginning of the year when I introduce the story Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom.

We priced the plants.

This little guy wanted to measure our palm tree.

We Also Planted An Outdoor Garden & Indoor Plants:

Planting corn.

Our outdoor garden was started a few years ago from a $1000 grant I received from The Southern CA Kindergarten Conference.  You can apply for next year's grant by CLICKING HERE for the application.  Our garden is organic and we plant edible plants every year.

Planting strawberries.

Inside, we will be planting beans in our FLOWER POTS after listening to the story of Jack & The Beanstalk.  We will place 5 beans into the zip-lock bag and the staples will keep the beans from falling to the very bottom where they might get soggy and moldy.  You can find the FLOWER POT template by CLICKING HERE.

Click the image

The download includes complete directions.

Attach the bag on the back with tape.

Spray the paper towel with clean water before the kids drop their 5 beans in.
Make sure the kids wash their hands before touching the beans and
soak the beans overnight before the kids drop them into the bag.  

We will also plant seeds in our eggshells.  These will all look great for Open House.

Saw these on Pinterest and pinned it to one of my boards.
Our eggs are filled with potting soil & are ready for planting.
Check out all of my Pinterest boards by clicking the image above. 

You can check out all of my Pinterest Boards HERE.

Stop by our Facebook Page this week and enter our drawing for our

Beginning of the Year Bundle.

Click the image to see our FB page.

Look for the blue tab at the top of our Facebook page, click it, and 

follow the directions in the Rafflecoptor.

Find this blue tab on our FB page, click on it, & enter the drawing.

This is the bundle you can win:

You get all 5 products in this bundle.  Click the image to read more about it.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)

When Is 2 + 2 A Boat? AND...................... Time For A Give-Away!

When You Are Doing Pattern Block Addition:

"2 is a boat.  1 + 1 = 2."

What a GREAT way to get kids to think about all of the ways you can add to any particular number.

"2 is a bird.  2 + 0 = 2."

How It Works:

Today we were working on the #2.  Students got to pick ONLY 2 SHAPES or ONLY 2 COLORS.

That was the hard part, limiting it to only 2 shapes or 2 colors.  Talk about higher level thinking skills.  This was awesome for getting kids to THINK and then EXPLAIN their answer.  This also encouraged oral language development through structured discussion and the use of math vocabulary.

"2 is a pair of blue glasses.  2 + 0 = 2."

If both pieces were exactly the same, their number sentence was 2 + 0 = 2:

"2 is a pair of blue glasses.  2 + 0 = 2"
I wrote the words this child needed to copy
on the lined dry-erase paper mounted on his placemat.

If both pieces were different, their number sentence was 1 + 1 = 2:

"2 is a lamp.  1 + 1 = 2."

What Else Can You Create With Only 2 Pattern Blocks?

The fun was getting to see what everyone else in our small group came up with.  Here are a few of the results:

Can you spot the volcano, the red bowl of mac & cheese,
the house, the ship, the sword & the bird?

You can win this product along with four other math products in our Give-Away bundle below or...
if you just can't wait, you can grab our Pattern Block Math (officially called My Addition Book) by

clicking HERE.

Now, For The Give-Away:

You can win this product along with all of these other math products by entering below:

You get My Addition Book (Pattern Block Math as seen above), Circle Math (addition to 10),
Math Memory (Counting & Cardinality), Domino Math (addition fun), &
The Kissing Hand (an addition story).  Click the image to read more about this bundle.

Enter the Rafflecopter here:

There are 3 easy ways to enter:

5 entries for liking our Facebook Page:  {Our Facebook Page}

5 entries for leaving a comment here on this post.

10 entries for following this blog.

The winner will be announced at midnight on April 30.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Update:
The random winner was chosen by my Rafflecopter and it was...
Hardlyable Farm!
Congratulations!
I will email you your prize tonight.


See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

Oh, The Things You Can Do...

... With SitSpots:

I keep finding more great ways to organize my color-coded classroom.  Here is another way to use these great little SitSpots.

There are 5 tables in my classroom and each one has a color. 
So, at the Red Table everyTHING is red, the scissors, the marking pens, the laminated place mats, and the supply containers.

EveryTHING at the Orange Table is orange, the Green Table has green things, the Blue Table has blue things, and the Purple Table has purple things!

The Blue Table has blue laminated placemats, blue scissors, blue pens, & blue containers.

Today, the purple table group will go to Purple Centers 

because their color sign is purple:

These are the supplies from the Purple Table.
The small, rectangular purple box has blue background crayons in it (peeled, broken blue crayons) and the container on the far right has a cube-shaped sponge inside topped with a little water and white glue for gluing small pieces.

The purple table also gets a purple can filled with colored pencils.  
I didn't have enough purple marking pens, so I used black ones at this table.  
Can you spot the pair of scissors that does NOT belong at the purple table?  
Crayons are organized in popsicle containers.

Why color code table supplies?  
Well, if I find a pen or a pair of scissors on the carpet, 
I know exactly which table it came from!  
No more counting pens and scissors, right?

The Red Table has Red supplies & will visit Green Centers today.
The Orange Table has Orange supplies & will visit Blue Centers today.
I know it sounds complicated, but the kids get it on the first day!

And Here Is The BEST PART:

Students at these colored tables are grouped heterogeneously, so there is a mixture of high, average, low, E.O,  E.L.L., & genders at each table.  So, when I call my homogeneous groups up to meet with me at the horseshoe table, one students comes from each of the 5 colored tables.

So, if I'm meeting with my high group, I call up 1 student from the red table, 1 from the orange table, 1 from the green table, 1 from the blue table, and 1 from the purple table.  That group has a shape name, so all I have to say is, "Circle group meets with me now," and 1 student from each table comes to the horseshoe table.  (I named the lowest group The Rectangles because that is the hardest shape for my students to identify, so the lowest group gets to use that shape name more than the other students.)

Now, each student in the Circle group comes to the horseshoe table, but where do they sit?  Well, I have color-coded their spot at the horseshoe table with a Sit Spot Star below their chair and a matching colored placemat and colored cup of supplies.  Oh, and yes, those are two Easy Buttons on the table.  One in English and one in Spanish.  If the work was easy, you may press one of the Easy Buttons.  :)

Colored stars are under each child's chair.  They get a matching place mat and a matching cup filled with little dry erase
pens and an eraser so they can write on the lined dry erase paper on their placemat.

So, are you lovin' these SitSpot yet?

You can join in the FUN and 

win your own classroom set of SitSpots by

clicking HERE and entering our SitSpot contest.

Just leave a comment and/or follow our blog to enter.  

Then, hop on over to all 9 blogs to see more SitSpot ideas 

and more chances to WIN!

Can't wait?  Want a set right now?

How would you like a 25% off coupon code?

Just enter the code CALIGALS14 during check out. 

The code is good until March 31.  

 You Can Find SitSpots By Clicking HERE or on the image:

Just look at all of the cool shapes & colors these come in.

Thanks for dropping by.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)