THE GINGERBREAD DISASTER! OH MY...

It started out just like any other Friday the 13th.  Everything was great!  Show and Tell was awesome and the kiddies were excited to bake Gingerbread Cookies!  We were getting things ready.  We wrote this recipe....

 

and set out our ingredients.....



and mixed up our dough.  I always tell my kiddies, "Remember that everyone gets a turn to do something, but not everyone gets to do everything."  So we measured and mixed and stirred and folded, taking turns until we got this delicious dough ready to become the gingerbread cookies we had waited all week for!  (Yes, that's my old school, hand-me-down mixer!  It's probably 30 years old!  I burned up the brand new one that I bought to use at school this year! )

 

 

So now comes the tricky part.  We have to shape the dough into the ginger-kids that we want to make.  Here's where the disaster part comes into play.

 

After careful instruction and several teacher demonstrations,

Cookie Shaping 101 just went downhill.

Look at these sad little, uhmm, "cookies?"

I'm beginning to get a little worried.

 





 

And then..........

 





Wow.  Disaster.  Gingerbread Disaster!  LOL!

 

We've played with Play-doh.  We've created geometric 3-D shapes with Play-doh. 

We've cooked and baked other things this year in my classroom. 

 

I think we need a little more practice on sculpting skills!

We couldn't bake those "cookies."  Those little crumbs would burn immediately!

 

So, they ate the part they wanted to eat and tossed the rest!

 

Do over.

 

 

 

 

 

I quickly made another batch of cookie dough during my lunch.

For the sake of time, I made round cookies with 2 eyes and a mouth
and put them in the oven to bake.

Sweet and happy ending to a Gingerbread Disaster! 

We will try again another day.  We'll work on our fine motor, artistic sculpting skills. 
We have to.  We don't want another disaster like today!
LOL!

I just love Kindergarten!  It's always an adventure!

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the season!
 

Kimmie!

 

PS - That's not a real recipe in the picture above.  It's the one that my kiddies created to make the cookies!  We used a real recipe that is Vegan so that they could sample the dough without the risk of raw eggs.  Don't try to make that one at home!  Hahaha!

Just In Time For The Holidays! Reindeer Science And A Freebie!

I wanted to get this out before you were all on Holiday Break after next week!  This Science activity is available at my TpT store!  There's also a FREEBIE!  The activity is aligned to the Common Core for Kindergarten Science!  Reindeer Science is all about looking for the sun, moon and stars at different times of the day as well as different seasons.  Your boys and girls will also love learning a little bit about shadows!

 

Here's the link to my store for the Reindeer Science Unit, as well as the Reindeer Science Freebie!

Please consider leaving me some kind feedback!  I really appreciate that!

I hope your boys and girls enjoy this Science activity as much as mine will next week!

 

This is the "I Can" Statement Freebie!

 

This is the Reindeer Science Activity!

 

 

Have a great week!  Stay warm and enjoy!

Kimmie

The Christmas Questionnaire Link Up! So Fun!



Hey, Hey and Ho, Ho, Ho!!



 

I'm linking up with my friend Michelle of Fabulous in First

to answer some holiday questions! 

I love, love the idea of meeting some new friends, learning about what others are up to during the season and getting some great ideas for Christmas!

 

Thank you Michelle for inviting me to play!

 

 

http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/

So without further delay, here are the answers to the holiday questions! 

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog?
Neither.  Unless the Hot Chocolate is made with Almond Milk and Vegan Dark Chocolate!  Can't get that at the drive-up window! 

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree?
When I was a little girl, my parents didn't wrap presents.  They waited until we went to sleep, got everything out and arranged things in piles, one for each kiddo.  Then as soon as mom and dad passed out from exhaustion, we were up, running around and screaming like crazy birds, about all the wonderful things that Santa brought! Sweet chaos!

I wrap all the gifts for my girls.  I always make sure that they have the same number of gifts so that when they take turns opening, neither is left without a gift turn.  Sometimes I save silly boxes and put their gifts inside!  I've wrapped jewelry in empty Wheat Thins boxes or gift cards in Mike and Ike candy boxes!  Hilarious!

Colored lights or white? 
White lights are best!  I like to decorate my tree with different colored ornaments each year.  I have mostly red ornaments on my tree this year.  Next year I might use white on white!



When do you decorate?
Whenever I can wrestle my girls into helping me!  Usually it's the week after Thanksgiving because I'm exhausted from cooking for 2 days to get ready for the holiday!

Real or Fake Tree?
Fake now.  We used to have a real tree.  I love the smell of a real tree.  We would go to the Tree Farm in the town where we used to live and trudge around in the frozen mud to find the perfect one.  We'd cut it down, drag it to the car, load it up and then feel guilty for cutting down such a precious and beautiful tree.  One year when the girls were little, we had a Blue Spruce in our yard that was growing sideways and needed to be cut down.  We waited until Christmas so that we could use that sweet little tree in the house.  After that year, I bought a fake tree!


What Tops Your Tree?
A star.  It's kind of folksy.  It looks good!

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?
Cookies, cookies, cookies. We always baked thousands of cookies, cakes, pies and candies!  My mother was a baker at heart!  We made such wonderful treats, some to keep but most to share.  I'm sure that's how I came to love baking so much! 

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child?
I remember I always got a doll, every year.  I do remember one year getting a cool, light blue, manual typewriter!  It came in its own case!  I know!  I thought it was the greatest!  Here's a funny connection!  In high school, I won a medal for typing! LOL!

Do prefer giving or receiving? 
Giving!  I love to give to others!  It's something that brings me so much joy!

What is your favorite Christmas song?
!I have so many!  Hands down, #1 Charlie Brown Christmas CD, The Linus and Lucy Song! 
 #2, Baby, It's Cold Outside and #3 almost all of the Christmas music performed by Dave Coz!
Followed by, Disco Santa and James Taylor singing, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum?
Yummy!  I also like Peppermint Coffee!  And toothpaste!  And Cookies!

Favorite Christmas Movie?

Charlie Brown Christmas

Do you shop online or at stores?

Both!  I love to shop!  I love to shop with my friends and we often meet at different stores just to shop and talk and drink a fountain soft drink together!

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 

I usually send a store bought card, but I love to get photo cards! 

 

Wow!  That's a lot of information!  And it was pretty fun!

 

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season! 

 

Thanks for taking time to read this holiday question post!

Kimmie

 

 

 

    

Five For Friday Linky Party! Yeah!

I haven't participated in a Linky Party in a while so I'm so excited to join in and link up!  We've been so busy this past week it just seems like a Gingerbread Blurrrrrrr!

Doodle Bugs Teaching

I didn't get this on my page until today!  That's okay to be posted on Saturday.  I'll just pretend that it's last night! 



I've been working on this Gingerbread Science activity for a few days.  It's finally posted on my TpT page!  Check it out!  The Gingerbread Man falls into the water and the kiddies can do an experiment to see what happens when he does! 

 

 

We've been reading lots of versions of the Gingerbread Man.  Here are a couple of the ones we've read so far.  We're going to read the Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Pirates and Get Cookie next week!

 

 Books On Amazon

 

 

 

We also read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears!  We did a compare and contrast with this story and the Gingerbread Man!  I was so proud and impressed that my boys and girls discovered so many similarities and differences as well! 

 

 Books On Amazon

 

 

Our poem this week was a fun one!  It is the Gingerbread Man Poem, of course!  I make it as interactive as I can by changing the names, and some of the words as we learn them. For example, I use the names of the boys and girls on the blank line, or use the principal or other teachers' names.  Instead of "stop" I switch it to, "run" or "jump" or, "hop."

Here's my Poem of the Week!

 

 

 

 

 

Just like some of our other friends, we had a SNOW DAY!  Friday the weather was terrible!

There was a huge winter storm and school was cancelled!  Hopefully we'll be back on Monday!

I want to read the rest of our Gingerbread Boy and Girl stories!

 

Books On Amazon

 

This is one of my all time favorite stories! 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post! 

I hope you have a great week! 

 

Thanks to Doodle Bugs for setting up:

 

Doodle Bugs

 

Enjoy your week!

Kimmie!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Hi Friends! 

It's that time of year!  It's time for a little bit of wintery weather!  The local forecast calls for a sampling of all kinds of cold December weather!  We're going to get rain, sleet, snow and cold, cold temperatures!

Did you do the Snow Dance today?  Did you turn around 3 times, clap your hands and stomp your feet?  What kind of Snow Dance do you do?

If you're in the path of the upcoming snowy blizzard, I hope you get a SNOW DAY!!

Have a great week!
Kimmie

Shop! Shop! Shop 'Til We Drop! Or Until Our Fingers Go "Plop!"

It's exciting!  It's inviting!  It's the Cyber Sale at TpT!  Yeah!! 



I'm sure that your Wish List cart is full of helpful, cute, sweet and interesting downloads!   I hope that you've found just the right game or activity to help your boys and girls learn and make great gains this week in your classroom! 

Everything in my store is 20% off and if you use the TpT Code: CYBER you can get an additional discount! 

That's pretty groovy!

Please consider checking out the activities and games available in my TpT store!  I always appreciate your kind feedback! 

Thank you Jen Jones at helloliteracy.blogspot.com for this fun sale sign!

Turkey, Turkey!! A Fun Freebie for You!!!

I finally finished my Turkey, Turkey Packet activities!  I have posted them in my TpT Store!  There are some fun games to play with sight words.  There's a Flash Card Game, a Syllable Game and several more Color By The Code Activity Sheets!

Yahoo!  I have a FREEBIE for you!! 

 

You can print it out and guide your kiddies to complete it, or you  can let them work independently.  You can download it in my TpT store or copy here in this post.

 

 Turkey Color By The Code Freebie on Pinterest

Turkey Color By The Code Freebie on TpT

All the activities in the packet are aligned to the Common Core! 

Here's the link to the whole packet of fun Turkey Games!

I hope you enjoy this  just as much as my kiddies did! 

 

 

4 Turkey Turkey Games on TpT

I hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends!  Grab that Freebie to do with your little ones after you've eaten all the yummy Thanksgiving foods and desserts!

Thanks!
Kimmie

Fun Field Trip News!

I hope you're gearing up for the holidays ahead!  It's such a busy time of year!!  We took our Kindergarten boys and girls to the Children's Museum in Cincinnati this past Friday!  It was so much fun and everyone had a wonderful time!  I had lots of very helpful parents attend and it really made the event run smoothly!  We had a great trip!

     
Cincinnati Museum Center                                             The Energy Zone.
These are two of the many great photos from our trip!

Where do you go for your favorite field trip?              Leave a comment for me!
Thanks!  Have a great break!

Fall Is Here! It's the Perfect Time of Year!

It's Fall!  Yeah!! It's starting to cool off and the leaves are starting to turn red and yellow and gold!  It's time for a fun fall craft!  Here's a picture of the fall tree craftivity that we did in Room A-1!

Start with a plain piece of construction paper!



 

Tear a strip of green and add as grass.

 

Put on a cut out tree or draw one with a marker or colored chalk.

 

 Tear little pieces of colored construction paper and glue in place as leaves on the tree!



 

Getting started!

 

 Looking very fall-ish!

 

Making it with just the right amount of leaves!

The next step is our writing connection!  We're going to add one or more sentences to our trees to tell about them!  We're also going to hang them out in the Kindergarten hallway so that it will seem like a "Forest of Fall Trees!"

I hope you're having  a great week!
Take care!
Kimmie

It's Almost October! Can You BE-LEAF it?

This week in Room A-1 we're going to start our thematic unit on Leaves!  I know.  Can you BE-LEAF it?  We'll be reading lots of great fiction and non-fiction books about leaves.  Here's a little list of some the books I'm planning to use this week!

We're Going On A Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Why Do Leaves Change Color?  by Betsy Maestro

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro

I Am A Leaf by Jean Marzollo

We're going to do a fall tree craftivity on Friday!  That will be lots of leafy fun!  We'll be doing lots of leaf exploration, leaf rubbings, leaf science experiments and we'll create some beautiful leaf people!

Last week I did begin working on pulling small groups for guided reading!  I think my boys and girls are almost ready because the kiddies are almost able to work in Centers by themselves.  It's been a little tricky because they were getting used to the idea of working in Centers, getting to know the routine and the way the class functions within our structure.  I'm happy to report that they are doing much better since Day 1.

Lots of things to do this week!  I hope you have a fun Monday!
Kimmie

If You Give A Dog Something, Then He'll Want More!

As you know, we just did our Laura Numeroff study last week.  One of the things that I put together as a writing craftivity to go with her Doggie Donut story was this doggie-dog cut out and fill in sentence frame.  It's so cute! 

Every doggie is different and very special!  Then we wrote 2 words.  One was to tell what kind of drink this doggie would like and the other was to tell about what kind of snack the doggie would like to eat. 

 

Each person told me what they wanted to write on the blank lines and I helped them to achieve that goal!  

 

Every picture is unique!  They're all so stinkin' cute!  Loaded with personality! 

 

I hope you have a "dog-gone great" week! 

 

You deserve to have a little fun!

Kimmie

 (doggie frame:  http://www.thatdoggieinthewindow.org/DogBoneFrame.jpg)