There Was An Old Lady…

*****UPDATE: WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN! THANKS!!*****
That was EXHAUSTED! Well I’m not quite the old lady, but I am quite tired this week.  All I will say is that God always leads you right where you need to be! Sometimes you are rerouted, but it all works out in the end.
But, there was an old lady who swallowed a bunch of stuff…like shells, chicks, books, bells, snow, a clover, leaves, a bat… the list goes on and on. Lucky for you, I’ve created some fun and simple sequencing activities for all of these fun books by Lucille Colandro and I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson.
In my store, I have added all the sequencing activities for the individual books {including the newest…There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books!!} Click on each to head to the page!

Also, for a math connection….I created some roll & cover games to reinforce number recognition and addition to go along with the books:

For convenience, I also bundled all of the sequencing and the roll & cover together.  You save $7.50 by buying the bundle!!!

And by request…I bundled ONLY the sequencing together.  You save $6.00 by buying this bundle!!!

And, as usual!! I’ll do a flash giveaway of the bundle pack of your preference!  Just leave a comment stating:
-Which pack you would like and why…
-Email address *VERY IMPORTANT!*
I’ll choose a random winner tomorrow night {Thursday} around 9pm CST.
Enjoy!

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Anyone else LOVE LOVE this sweet story for the first day of school?? It is a favorite of mine!  So, I created a few things for you to use with it!

This pack includes 2 literacy and 2 math activities that are great for the beginning of the year!  Letter recognition and writing, picture-word match, number-representation match, and patterning activities! Click HERE or the picture above to head on over! {It’s on sale until midnight tonight!}

I love to talk about how the students felt on the first day of school.  An anchor chart like this one I found on Pinterest would be great to do:

From Once Upon a First Grade Adventure

Then today, I created this cutie:

This cute little craftivity is great for kiddos to compare how they felt on the first day of school and how Chester felt in the book! 

Click the image below to head on over and check out!  It’s on sale until midnight too!!

Then I found this ADORABLE pin on Pinterest!!  How sweet would this be as a first day treat?!

From Handprint and Footprint Art

And as always, here’s a video version!!

Enjoy!

I {LOVE} Picture Books!

So when I saw this linky party at The Teacher Wife, I just HAD to join in! I am in LOVE with any and all picture books! 

In no particular order:

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds: I love this book for the beginning of the year for kinders.  Before focusing on writing, I always focus on drawing with details.  This book is great for those kiddos whose pictures HAVE to be perfect!  It sweetly portrays that every drawing is beautiful, even if it is an “ish” drawing.

Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell:I am a firm believer that kinder friends don’t need to use “baby” words.  They are so very capable of knowing big words and using them too! So many kinders are a little afraid of big words and one of my goals has always been to make them comfortable with big words.  This book is a fun, rhyming way to show them that big words are fun to learn!

The Mine-O-Saur by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen: I know I’m not the only teacher who has experienced a few “mine-o-saurs” in the classroom!  This book is a great and fun illustration of what happens when kiddos are “mine-o-saurs.”  It’s always a MUST read at the beginning of the year for me!  The first half (or so) of the book is where he acts like a “mine-o-saur.”  After reading this I stop and discuss how he is feeling (lonely & like he has no friends).  We discuss why he feels this way and why no one wants to be his friend.  Then I have the kiddos brainstorm how he can make friends.  After reading the rest of the book we see the ways he does make friends!  It’s something my kiddos would refer to all year long!

Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus:This is a sweet, sweet story about a “late bloomer.”  He can’t do many of the things that his friends can and gets discouraged.  But by the end of the book he realizes he can do it, it just took him a little longer!  LOVE the lesson in this story.

Those are just a FEW of my favorites.  I am guilty of having a very LARGE children’s book collection! :)

Enjoy!  And check out the other links in this linky party…some incredible books! I’d love to hear what your favorites are too! Leave a comment and share :)

DON’T FORGET: 500 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY ENDS TONIGHT {click on the image below to enter!}

Chicka Chicka…

BOOM BOOM!

This is one of my VERY favorite books to read at the beginning of the school year when the focus is on letters and letter sounds!  You can hit on so many different letter concepts with this: ABC order, beginning sounds, upper/lower matching, letter characteristics (tall, short, etc.).  So naturally, I created a little activity or two to go with it.  Lucky for you…it’s a FREEBIE! {Click the picture below to download!}

Clipart from DJ Inkers.

This little freebie pack has: 2.5x2.5 upper, lower and picture cards.  These are great for pocket charts or centers!  Then I made up a few recording sheets as well.  There are three upper/lower matching recording sheets.  I love differentiating this kind of stuff!  One sheet gives uppercase and students write lowercase, one gives lowercase and students write uppercase, and one is a mixture of upper & lower give and students write what is missing.  There are also 2 beginning sounds matching recording sheets.  One has the pictures in ABC order and one has the pictures in random order.  For those kiddos that already know ABC order by heart the random order sheet is a better gauge of whether they understand the beginning sounds concept.

Another FAVORITE thing of mine to do with this book is to show the video from YouTube!  They LOVE…I mean L-O-V-E the song!

And now for a little something I found on PINTEREST! {Click the picture to head to the pin!}How stinkin’ adorable is that!!  You could also have kiddos spell their names on the tree part! So fun!

Enjoy the freebie!  If you download, leave a comment and let me know how you liked it!

Also….don’t forget my HUGE, MASSIVE 500 follower giveaway ends TOMORROW night at midnight EST!  Head on over to enter by clicking the picture below:

Laura Numeroff & the Jellybeans Series

Last night I had the privilege of going to the Dallas Museum of Art to hear Laura Numeroff speak.  It was such a neat experience!  She spent a lot of time talking about how she got into writing children’s books, her creative process, and working with the illustrators & publishers.  Most all of us know her for her books like…

But she has a newer series! I know! I didn’t know about it either!  But let me tell you, it is a sweet series. 

These books are about four friends: Bitsy {who loves to paint}, Emily {who loves to dance}, Anna {who loves to read}, and Nicole {who loves to play soccer}.  These four books reinforce that although all four are different {just like jellybeans} they are the best of friends.  The message of friendship is strong and prominent in all four.

My favorite of the series is The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza.  In this book, Anna {who loves to read} gets to share her love of reading with her three best friends.  They go to the library and find a book that is just right for each.  They are working on a book report for school.  When back at school, the students present their book reports.  Anna is extremely nervous to share and her friends stand by her and encourage her to share her report.  There are two things I love about this book.  The first is that it shows that there is a book out there for everyone!  And it reinforces the value of the librarian…a treasure in my opinion.  The second is that it shows a strong and encouraging friendship.  It’s such an example for young students.

Kiddos will be able to relate to these books so easily!  The charming characters and the applicable life situations will grab their attention and capture their hearts.

I’m going to try to put together a fun little pack to go with The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza – think simplified book report.   It may take me a little while, but I’ll try!