The Wheels On The Bus

I am so excited to share with you my new

Wheels On The Bus Homework Enrichment S.T.E.M. Activity!

I just finished it yesterday and had to post 

it free for the next 24 hours

for all of our blogging buddies!
Very cool!

 

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It is very similar to my Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater STEM

that I posted free (for a short time) last year.

My favorite part is that my kiddos who need enrichment

will definitely get that, and all I have to do is:

                       1.  Print

                       2.  Choose a date for our classroom's Bus Race

                       3.  Wait for fabulous buses to show up!

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

My parents who are always looking

for enrichment activities for their children

 LOVED my Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater STEM last year.
I'm sure they did!

I taught 3 rotating classes of first graders.

Each class of 18 students,

brought in an average of  6 pumpkin houses.

 Keeping that in mind,

our Bus Race Day will be

comprised of small teams.

Whoever brings in a bus

will have a group of classmates

on his/her team.

The students will see if the bus has

wheels that "go round and round,

wipers that "go swish, swish, swish"

and a door that "opens and shuts".

Then they'll see whose

bus can roll the furthest.

They'll measure the distance,

and compare numbers

using inches, paper clips, or unifix cubes.

Fab, fab, fabulous math day!

You're like the STEM guru.
And I know you.
Just saying...

The teachers going to school say,

"Yay, yay, yay!

Yay,yay, yay!

Yay, yay, yay!"

The teachers going to school say,

"Yay, yay, yay!

I'm making plans for a fabulous day!"

Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing!

And then...

Update: 9/22/15

Holy Toledo Batman!
I have GOT to share these pics
with all of you!
Seriously?!  Is there a little comic book
loving little boy trapped in your head?
You have GOT to be the only one I 
hear use that phrase!  LOL
I sent this Homework Enrichment STEM
home with my first grade students.
They came back
with the cutest buses....
with wheels that went
"round and round",
wipers that went "swish, swish, swish",
and doors that went "open and shut".
This was an optional homework activity,
and the majority of the kids (and their families)
decided to participate!  Woo-hoo!
Awesomesauce!!!

The buses that look like they don't have
wheels....do...they actually DO roll...
the wheels are just underneath.

See the smiley face bus?
It's my favorite! One of my 6 year old students
made it with his 14 year old sister.
Notice the wipers?
Two striped paper clips did the trick!
So super cute...and 100% kid made!

 I hope your students and families
enjoy doing this activity as much as mine did!
Happy STEMming!
:) Regina

Alphabet Letters & Sight Words

I'm so excited about

making some new 

language arts materials!
That's right.  You math
teacher you!

I just have to share some

sprinkles with our blog followers!

Here are some pages from my

Alphabet Handwriting Practice in Print:
Super cute!

How about I give you the letter Q page for Queen?
Thanks for sharing!

 and the letter C page for Chaos.

Here are some

Gray Scale Line sheets.
Angela these are for you!

Here's a letter A page for Attagirl....
Thank you my friend.

  and a letter F page for Funnies.

The last style is Modern Manuscript.

The first 2 schools I taught at ages ago

in Texas required this type of print:

I'm giving you a letter R page for Regina....
When I first started teaching,
I seriously struggled with writing this way!
I'm such a block printer that I was
so NOT used to these fancy tails!  LOL

  and finally a letter D page for Davis.

I feel like a cheerleader!

Give me a Q!

Give me a C!

Give me an A!

Give me an F!

Give me an R!

Give me a D!

What does that spell?
Q C A F R D

Which could mean:

Quick! Call a friend!
-or-
Quick! Catch a fast ride! 
-or-
Quick! A frog is there!

-or-

Quack! A friend rode a duck!

Don't you love reading your kids sentences
at the beginning of the year and seeing how much
they grow by the end of the year?
Teaching Kindergarten at the beginning
of the year is a lot like childbirth.
It's unpredictable and can be pretty painful.
Your brain allows you to forget this pain so
that you'll do it again another year.

But yes, it is very rewarding to see how much
progress your kids make from the start
of Kindergarten to that last day.
In that regard, our jobs are pretty awesome.
Just saying...

If you liked these pages,
check out the entire alphabet
available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

A+ Alphabet Handwriting Practice...A to Z Letter Sounds

THEN....let's see...

I have a new
100 Sight Word Sentence Builder.
Here are three sample sheets that
you may want to try out!
I LOVE doing cut up sentences
with my kids!

BTW: I feel like the little, old lady at 
Sam's Club with my cart of cheese samples!
"Here my dear....you'll just love one of these!"
"Why thank you little cheese lady!"

 Here are the answer sheets so that you can
get a good idea of what the expectations are.
Students will count the number of
vowels and consonants
in a word...add them up for the
total number of letters in the word.
They'll trace the word repeatedly with rainbow colors,
they'll cut and glue the words to create a sentence.
They'll write the sentence,
and check their work with
an easy to use checklist. 
 

If you like these sight word sentence builders,
check out the entire set of 100 words on
Teachers Pay Teachers!

A+ 100 Sight Word Sentence Puzzles...Building Sentences, Handwriting + Addition

I'm also working on a set of alphabet books,
but these are seriously going to take me a
while to complete....I don't know...maybe years.
I.kid.you.not.
Girrrrl, you have WAY more energy than I!
There is a reason that I have shied away
from committing to alphabet books....
I just keep adding and adding and adding.
I must have some kind of disorder that prevents
me from keeping it S-I-M-P-L-E.
It's called over-achiever!
But....here's  small sample from my letter Aa book.

There are actually 27 different words
that can be found in the download
on Teachers Pay Teachers.
This set also has all of these words in
black and white, small books,
in a word wall, syllable counting,
with word finds and word puzzles.
SHEESH!!!  Did you not sleep or what?!
Whew!  See why this is going to take me a while?!
So far I have the Letter Aa Book:

A+ Alphabet Book: Aa ...Word Wall, Syllable Count, Word Search, Word Puzzles

 
The Letter Bb Book (Set 1)

A+ Alphabet Book Bb Set 1: Word Wall, Syllable Count, Word Search, Word Puzzles

The Letter Bb Book (Set 2)

A+ Alphabet Book Bb Set 2: Word Wall, Syllable Count, Word Search, Word Puzzles

 
The Letter Bb Book (Set 3)

A+ Alphabet Book Bb Set 3: Word Wall, Syllable Count, Word Search, Word Puzzles

The Letter Cc Book
A+ Alphabet Book Cc: Word Wall, Syllable Count, Word Search, Word Puzzles


Did you happen to notice that
there are THREE letter Bb books?
What is wrong with me?
Maybe there's a pill I can take.
Now do you understand why the complete
alphabet  may take me years to complete?
I have issues.

I hope you enjoy your little taste samples.
As always, thanks for being so generous!

Enjoy!

 

100th day STEM

 Today, I've been going through my 

STEM activities that

I did last year with my students.

There are actually over 20 activities that

we did that I never posted on
Teachers Pay Teachers.
Over-achiever much?!

I was just so swamped with

this little thing called LIFE.
So now, I'm starting

to back track and post some of my

STEM activities from last school year.

In the middle of my 100th Day STEM

 I found this little blurb I wrote

on the side about vaccinations.  

Where did it come from,

and why did I write it?

Who knows.
Good golly girl!
Your brain NEVER shuts off!

I'm like a mad professor

who just grabs whatever and starts

leaving notes to self.

Beware: if you're ever

in the car with me, I'll make

you my personal scribe.

Quick! Grab a pen and the

back of a receipt and start

writing my lists for me.

Pretty please.

Oh.

And

Thank you.

Now I can

concentrate on the road.
LOL!
Your kids must be pretty good
at that by now. 

Vaccines

I like vaccines.

Being around kids all day,

I think that they're a good thing.

There are enough germs and diseases

to go around that we can't do anything about.

Why allow the ones to stay 

that we can protect against?

Right or wrong, I like them. A lot.

Vaccinate!

Just Do It!

....and always carry Clorox wipes.

...and hand sanitizer.

...and don't share hats.

After all....

Lice.Are.Bad.

Very bad.

I know it's not life threatening,

but I sure wish that

they'd make a vaccine

against lice.

A shot in the arm

would be worth a lifetime

free of lice! 

Sign me up!

Hmmmm.....

I must be a teacher.
Ya think?!

My last little one is going to

go to Kindergarten this year.
Moment of silence for the 
tear that is about to fall down your cheek.
(sigh)

It's actually bitter sweet.

I never thought that I'd be

upset about writing the last

check to her pre-school.
After all....I'll finally be bringing
home more than $500.00 a month!
That is so wrong on so many levels!
And yes....the zeroes
and decimal point
are all in the right spots!
Again...wrong!

Surprisingly, I was actually a little sad

when I wrote out the last

amount a few weeks ago.

The Darling Diva has been there

since she was four months old,

and they have done a wonderful

job with helping us raise our last little gift.
I can relate!  Our babysitter and her husband
were like grandparents to our kids.
They will forever hold a special place in our hearts!
#cherished

Of course when she plays Mommy,

she hugs and kisses her baby doll,

cooing to it, and cradling it gently for

all of 30 seconds.  Then she

promptly drops it off with me or

King Common Sense, and gives us

our orders of how best to tend her

baby since she's "off to work."

Then she leaves us with the doll
and moves on to play something else.
Ouch.  In your defense
(and to all working Moms out there),
you've taught her how to both
love a child and financially support them.
More power to you sista!

Other than that little glitch....
Glitch?  More like a reality check.

her pre-school has been a God-send!

She's so excited about coming to

my school and being with me every day.

Golden Boy has tried to tell her that

she won't be so excited about it
after the first few weeks,
but she won't listen to him.
Ignorance is bliss at this age!

She thinks its' going to be the COOLEST thing!

Her big brother (whose going to be a freshman next year)
just shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
Typical brother who is "so over" it!

Around her birthday, she had all of her 
Kindergarten vaccinations and she was so brave.
She tried so hard not to cry.
Karate Ballerina (her 20 year old sister)

was there with us and The Darling Diva knew that her

older sister has never cried from getting a shot.
Really. Not Ever. 

When my oldest was a baby,
she would just give out a little grunt

(like she was completely disgusted)

whenever she got a shot.
That's hilarious!
What a little trooper!
Around the age of 4, she told me
that I had to tell her a long time
in advance when she was to get a shot
so that she could mentally prepare.
Wow!  She is wise beyond her years!
 That seemed to work wonders for her,
but not for my second child.
We had to ambush him 
or we'd never have been 
able to get him into the doctor's office.

Hollywood (my number 2) was a complete howler.

He'd get so mad, his face would turn red,

and he'd actually stop breathing from being so upset.
Ooh, I HATE when that happens.

I'd have to blow gently on his face to make him catch

a breath and return to his normal color.

The next two, Golden Boy and The Darling Diva

range(d) right in the middle of the two extremes.

Well this time, The Darling Diva decided
that she was going to be brave.
She tried so hard not to cry.

I hate when my kids get shots.

From a mommy's point of view....it's not fun.

Her little lip trembled, and she took a couple

of gasping breaths, her eyes teared up and

her little fists shook as she looked over

at her sister and said in a wobbly voice,
"I'm being brave,

I'm being brave,
I'm being brave!"

That is absolutely precious
and heartbreaking all at the same time.
Oh, to have a big sister to look up to like that!

Here's a picture of my kiddos...ranging from 5 to 20.
(I have to admit that the first time I really felt
my age is when I told someone that I have
a 20 year old daughter....being 40 didn't make me feel old,
or 45...but saying I have a 20 year old?  Yup. I'm old.)
And as a side note...
in case  you're wondering....
the answer is NO.
My boys don't cry

over shots anymore. 

The Darling Diva, Golden Boy, Hollywood, and Karate Ballerina 

OH MY GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY!
What a great pic!
Your boys are so handsome
and OMG! your girls are gorgeous!!!
Like does your husband have a shotgun
that he cleans when potential
boyfriends come over?!
Sheesh!
However, I'm absolutely SHOCKED that
their hair is so straight
considering you have such 
curly hair...like crazy curly!
He..He..He...when they were
little and I was a Stay-At-Home-Mom,
people used to always think I was the nanny.
Nope! They're all mine!
My husband just happens
to have very strong genes!
Plus my mom who has a lot of Native American
in her has EXTREMELY straight hair.
She had no idea what to do with my
curls when I was little.  Poor woman!
She'd brush and brush and brush
my hair, and I'd walk
around like a poof ball. 
Good times!
 
  It just makes me giggle
that I found that vaccination blurb
in my 100th Day STEM....
I mean....Really!
What a nuttter butter!
Girrrl, you cray-cray!
Here's something to make
YOU smile!
For the next 48 hours
my 100th Day STEM
can be downloaded here
for FREE!
Just a little Thank You gift
for all of our blog readers
that put up with my
ramblings and nuttiness!
My children thank you!
Writing this blog with Angela keeps
me from muttering to myself.
Which keeps the Darling Diva from having to say:
"Mom are you talking to yourself again?"
No. No I'm not.
I'm just writing a blog post!
Thanks for sharing!

100th Day Shape Art S.T.E.M.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

Here are some pics of my students'
100th Day projects.
Notice the paper plates....
they came in handy for
keeping all of the
cut out shapes from
getting lost.

There were snakes and robots,
but my personal favorite was
the artistic rendition of Abraham Lincoln.

We had houses, and flowers,
and even an extra large number 100. 

Students counted their shapes by 10
to make sure that they had
10 groups of 10 different shapes
10 x 10 = 100

Enjoy!

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