Why oh why do I always forget how crazy the beginning of school is? I have had great intentions to blog for over a week now and life just seemed to get in the way! However, I am making a promise to myself (a pinky promise as one of my little cuties loves to do) to get back in the swing of blogging (especially since my sweet friend Angela reminded me this summer that I used to blog almost daily!!).
Last week, we did lots of name activities that are my yearly go-tos:

We rainbowed our names then practiced using glue and glitter {nothing like a big mess ;)}

We kept our names in our pocket chart and sang a little name song to help our friends who are still having a little trouble recognizing their names.

We sing this little song: "Everybody has a name, has a name, has a name. Some are different, some the same. Tell me what is yours."

After reading some alphabet name books, we talked about the first letter in our names and why they are important and made a page for a little class book.

We also read Chrysanthemum and talked about her character traits during different points in the story. Then, we talked about how many letters are in our name, made a graph, and another page for a class book. 

 We also learned all about the number 2 last week. Ever since we began CCSS two years ago, we teach a number a week and really dig into it rather than teach recognition, counting, and decomposing separately. I LOVE doing it this way!! By the time we get to 5, most all of my kids are using the terms equal, plus, minus, equation, etc. Now, do I expect mastery of decomposing right now? Of course not! It's all about exposure! For 2, we used Jack and Jill and acted it out numerous times to work on making 2.

 We also used these activity sheets...we glued a small Jack and Jill on the ten frame and rainbowed the big 2 and glued cheerios on it.

You can get the top two sheets here in my Numbers pack :)

Ok, I'm off to bed, but will hopefully be back tomorrow to share our literacy workshops. Hope your back to school is going well!

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Vickie

Tonight's post is a bit of a hodge podge catch up of what we did at the end of last week and what we're starting on this week. We just got back from our third (out of six) baby class, so I am wiped out! I will say that God has definitely blessed me with some sweeties this year that work really well with my somewhat strict/very routine/all about procedure teaching self and we are already into good habits with happy kids and a happy teacher. Here's what we've been up to:

Our 5 senses faces - this idea came from Little Giraffes {I love everything on that site!}

Wiggly eyes, jingle bell ears, sandpaper hands, gum tongue, and cotton ball spritzed with perfume nose

Chicka Chicka Name Trees...idea also from Little Giraffes

Today, we started reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We sequenced what Goldilocks did in the bears' house together first.

Then, the kids sequenced on their own

 The 3 bears activities are from my friend Deeanna's new pack that is so cute. Check it out here. We will be working on more 3 bears stuff this week from her pack as well as working on the number 3 and triangles. Hope everyone is having a great week!

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Vickie