Cooking Pizza with Chef Ad J. Tive

When we did this lesson last year, my kiddos were crazy about it. I knew Chef Ad J. Tive would have to make a visit again. =)

When we came back from lunch on Friday, we had a letter waiting for us.

We also had 4 bags with mystery ingredients inside.

Chef Ad J. Tive told us to listen for the adjectives in each riddle because they would help us infer the ingredients we would be using.

We recorded the adjectives using interactive writing on a chart. Please keep in mind that I am NOT at all creative when it comes to making crafts. My chef hat is quite sad looking but my kiddos did not care. =)

This is the recording sheet my kiddos recorded the adjectives on.

After we inferred that we would be using strawberries, kiwi, blueberries, and a cookie, it was time for my little chefs to start cooking. They LOVED investigating the kiwi and got a kick out of this hairy fruit. We also got in some discussions about fractions and part-part-whole math.

Here are 2 of our adjective pizza creations.

Now, it was time for a craftivity. After seeing Cara's amazing and cutie patootie Compound Word Cooks, we turned them into Adjective Chefs.

They designed the pizza to look like the adjective pizza they made. They then wrote adjectives about the pizza around the plate. Here is a closer look. =)

Hop over to my TPT store to grab this fun *freebie*. =)

I would LOVE for you to leave me a heart note and let me know what you think. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

Groundhog Love

I am obsessed with Punxsutawney Phil! I love this groundhog!

If I had a bucket list, meeting him would be on it! =)

So, I am totally bummed this year that Groundhog's Day is on a Saturday. We are also having Art Day on our campus this Friday. I am not sure when I am going to squeeze in all of our Groundhog's Day Fun but I WILL!!!!!!

Last year, Phil sent us a package that we had to open on February 1st. We read this non-fiction book about groundhogs.

Check out this book here.

I was able to grab this book several years ago for $5. =)

In the package, we also had groundhog riddle puzzles, materials for our prediction craftivity, goodies for a groundhog snack, and many, many more things.

Here are some songs and videos we will be checking out this week. =)

Here is a prediction chart we will make.

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a cute poem and craft

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Here are some groundhog math *freebies* from me. =)

If you already grabbed this, download it again. There was a boo boo! =)

And nothing makes learning more fun than a snack! =)

source

Good Golly Groundhogs...I am so excited!!! =)

If you have time, I would love for you to leave me a heart note. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

Tally Dem Bat Bones

Wahoo for Friday! 9 weeks of school are officially completed and I am wondering how time flies by so quickly???!!!????

It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Texas. Several days this week it was in the upper 80's and tonight it will get down in the 30's! You have to love Texas weather. I know to leave the short sleeves in my closest still because on Thanksgiving it could be back in the 80's....because here in Texas we do our own thing! =)

Here is a quick and easy math center for next week that some of my kiddos practiced today. We have a pumpkin die-cut at school. I whipped out some pumpkins, pulled out the pumpkin seeds that are reeeaaalllllyyyy old and let my kiddos use the bottle glue...and that might have been THE best part of this activity!!! =)

Here is a peek at their pumpkin patches. =)

Click on the picture below to grab your pumpkin patch label. 

Isn't that font the cutest??!!!???

On Monday, we will have a delivery...BAT BONES. Shhhhh, they are really pretzel sticks I dipped in white chocolate!

We will use the bat bones to practice using tally marks. Here is a picture from last year. The kiddos LOVED this...and they of course believed they were REAL bat bones!!! =)

Sorry for the bad iphone picture. =(

We also learned this Bat Bones poem.

Click here to grab your copy.

Click here to get your bone tally activities.

I would love to hear what you think about these. When I shared them last year, I still had less than 100 followers....it is hard to believe I am still blogging! I still get nervous and scared sharing my thoughts and activities....but your sweet hearts notes always make my heart smile. =)

I hope you each have a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I am going to procrastinate grading a little bit longer. Grades are due by midnight on Monday but right now I am ready for some spiced tea, my book, and cuddling with my kitty and my bunny. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

A Visit from Chester

I feel as if I have been too tired to even think about blogging. I was afraid if I actually stopped that I would fall asleep right then. Going through the first week of Boot Camp building your School Family is draining on my mouth. By the end of the day I feel as if I have met my word limit for the day. =)

Squawkers has really been watching and keeping his parrot eyes on us last week.

He sent us another package with shaving cream to practice writing letters, color words and word wall words. In the package, he also sent marshmallows for a lesson on using our marshmallow toes and marshmallow voices. Squawkers also told us a new friend would be visiting. This friend LOVES to sleep during the day. We brainstormed a list of animals that are awake during the night.

FYI: Be prepared for learning interesting information about what some of your babies see and hear during the night.

When we returned from lunch on Friday. the book of The Kissing Hand was on the rug. At the end of the book Chester left a note sending us on a Scavenger Hunt around the school. As we traveled around the school, we practiced using directions to tell us which way to go next. The last Scavenger Hunt clue led us back to the classroom where Chester had left us a package. We even spotted HIM!!!!!

In the package was a recipe. We had to follow the recipe telling us to add a certain amount of what was inside each bag (I am sorry for no pictures of the bag and the recipe). After following the recipe, Our School Family realized we had made Chester! =)

Aren't those so stinkin' adorable??!!????

the ingredients are:

*a rice cake

*icing

*apricots for the ears

*prunes for the mask

*purple grapes for the eyes and nose

*a banana slice for the mouth

Chester also left brain workout activities to help the Smarties in Our School Family exercise their brains. Here is one of the activities.

I would love for you to take a few minutes and leave me a heart note. Each one brings a smile to my heart.

From My Heart to Yours,

Pop 'Til You Drop

Are you already enjoying your summer or are you still counting down the days as your kiddos' eyes spin in different directions as they hop down the hallway or twirl in circles on the rug?????

Way to go if you made it to the end....will you pray the rest of us do too???

Will you come take us out of the straight jacket on our last day???

What's your phone number because you might be the 1 phone call we are able to make to bail us out of jail because all of our teaching buddies are in the cell with us! =)

My kiddos actually have not lost their minds yet
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................that was me on my knees praying. =)

To survive this week, we have been having some popping fun.....I almost typed pooping and that is true too because some kiddo (not one of mine) seems to be missing the potty......or a large dog visited the bathroom. I won't share with you the conversations this brought about and of course the potty stories! =P

Okay, that was a squirrel moment!!!!!

Since my buddy Carla and I are the Queens of Brain Pops, this was very fitting!

Here is a quickie of what we have been up to:

*popsicles- you could  make your own as a science lesson but my brain didn't think of that until after I bought some

*popping bingo- the kiddos made their own compound word bingo boards that we are using popcorn for the markers.

*bubble party- different bubble wands and gadgets....each kiddo also has a thing of ice cream or soda bubbles to take home as part of their gift from me

*pop go the numbers- 100's chart clues and number hunt with bubblegum covering the numbers. When the number riddle is solved you get to chew the gum and pop some bubbles

*word pop hop- a race to pop the word wall bubbles (balloons)....kind of like musical chairs and this is a brain pop in the making....I will probably end up adding shaving cream so we can clean our tables as we practice spelling and taking the word wall words off the word wall.

Today, we did the Vowel Pop. I am sorry I have no pictures.

This was so much fun and hysterical!

We had bubbles (balloons) with the vowels written on them. Big blue bubbles (balloons) because I could not find clear balloons at 2 different party stores and the ones they did have were 4 balloons for $1....ummmm, no thank you.

The kiddos came and found a card and after sorting it they had to find the vowel bubble that popped out of the word. They then had to "pop" the bubble. Hilarious doesn't even begin to describe this. I guess since these were helium balloons they were extra thick...especially since I didn't blow them up all of the way so they would be more round like bubbles.

The kiddos were slamming their little booties onto the balloons and bouncing right off of them. Many bubbles had to be popped with scissors. =)

I couldn't even pop one! This was pretty funny too when I bounced off the bubble balloon! =)

You can grab your copy of the Vowel Pop and have tons of fun too!

If you have any questions about this post or game, please leave a comment or email me because my brain is thinking of the 1,000,000 things I need to be doing to wrap up the year and I am sure this post might make sense only to me. =)

Here is another *freebie* that I would love for you to go grab from my TpT store. If you grab it, please consider following my store.

It might be time for me to pop into a bubble bath now! =)

Blessings to you on this Hump Day!

Even though they might be acting like HUGE stinkers, remember that you might be the only one to love that kiddo for the day and many are about to be sent home to no structure and very little love.

We are making our helpful heart bracelets tomorrow and doing a bucket filler activity....my heart is already smiling about this and the sweet, sweet things we will share with each other. This is kind of my way to send off with my kiddos a reminder that they will always be part of a School Family where someone loves them...they just need to look at their bracelet to remember that. =)

Cooking with Chef Ad J. Tive

Bonjour Friends! I survived our day of Fun in the Sun- water slides, wet and muddy kiddos, Firsties changing clothes....and the uncontrollable giggles when I had to say "underwear" numerous times in the past few days. =)

As we count down the final few days, we are having lots of fun reviewing all we have learned. One of the best ways to review adjectives is with food! =)

On Wednesday, we came back from lunch and we noticed we had a visitor. We found this note:

Yes, Chef Ad J. Tive looks Italian and speaks French! =)

Chef Ad J. Tive left us 4 mystery bags with some riddles. I am sorry for no picture but I left the memory card for my camera in my computer at home. These were just 4 brown lunch sacks numbered 1-4. Inside each bag was an ingredient we needed to make adjective pizza.(The ingredients are strawberries, kiwi, blueberries, and cookies)

We read the first riddle and listened for the adjectives describing the secret ingredient. We inferred what we thought was inside the bag. As we found the adjectives in the riddles, we recorded them on this Chef Ad J. Tive chart using interactive writing.....I am blessed that my district strongly believes in interactive writing so I don't have to worry about having pretty handwriting on charts! =)

The kiddos each had a recording sheet to record the adjectives for each mystery bag.

After solving all of the riddles we checked our inferences. =)

Now, it was time to make our own chefs. Cara's chef was my inspiration....please remember I am not crafty like Cara, Abby, Hadar, or Teri!

After each kiddo made his or her chef, it was time to make adjective pizza! =)

We had a cream cheese pizza "sauce".

Several kiddos kept calling the kiwi seaweed!

After the pizza, we wrote adjectives describing the pizza on the paper plate each chef holds. They loved writing with markers and in a circle. I love how a Firstie is so easy to please. =)

Finally, they made a paper version of the pizza. I think they ALL turned out adorable!!!

I love this one. =)

You can hop over to my TpT store to grab this *freebie* here. While you are there, I would love for you to follow my store. I am going to start sharing my *freebies* there so I can see how many people download the activity....I am just curious and worry at times if anyone does download the *freebies* I share.

My kiddos loved this and I would love to hear from you about what you think...especially if you use it with your kiddos. =)

Here is my Blog Helper watching me as I work.

I hope you have a weekend that is relaxing and full of blessings.

From My Heart to Your's,

Crabs, Blenders, and Smiles

Meet Cranky Crab and Flora Flamingo.

Part 1:

Aren't they cute??!!!??? Before Christmas, they came to visit us and brought us the Blend Friends Song. We learned how a blend is made of two consonant friends that are seen and heard together. After seeing this blender on Pinterest, I knew Flora and Cranky would need to bring us a real blender!

Click here to check it out!

One day when we returned from lunch we had a package at the door.....inside was a blender and we started talking about What is this thing? Remember, I teach children of poverty so only 4 had EVER seen a blender! One kiddo did say, "My mom makes margaritas with that, giggles a lot, and then falls asleep on the couch! Ha! Yeppers, I said "Thank you for sharing that." and we moved on. I asked them what else could we make in the blender and 1 friend guessed a smoothie...yes, only 1 of my sweet darlings had ever drank a smoothie. That is also why I love the kiddos I teach because EVERYTHING is new and wonderful to them! =)

We talked about what we could put in a smoothie that would taste yummy Cranky and Flora had left us some blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, and pomegranates. We used frozen water (ice) and white stuff from cows (milk). They LOVED it!

Part 2:



On Friday, we made blenders to help us remember all we have learned and worked on the past few weeks. Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrating helped me out by making me an ADORABLE blender. I made a template based on her cute blender and the kiddos were all smiles as they made one of their own (This was a big deal because I have 2 that always cry when we do art!)

Here is a glimpse of what we did!

After this, we wrote all of the blend beginnings inside the blender...no close-up of that....sorry!

I made a blend sort using Nikki's super duper cute blender. We wrote some of those blend words on the recording sheet and colored the blends with a crayon.

Here they are! They make me smile too!

I am sorry the pictures are not real clear....I am using my phone. =(



Later in the day we got another package (and letter) from Flora and Cranky (Flora and Cranky are in our room too...watching for friends being helpful!). First, we read the letter and highlighted all of the blends we found. Next, we opened the package. Inside were the ingredients to make a Cranky Crab snack: pretzels, bread, strawberries, whipping cream, twizzlers, craisins, and blueberries...all blend foods of course! =)

Here is our Cranky Crab snack! He is too cute!

As always, I would LOVE a heart note! I truly treasure each of you and am blessed by each visit you make...you make my heart smile!

Question of the day:

What is the funniest thing a child has ever told you their mom or dad does?

It is those stories that make some of the things we go through more bearable AND help us understand our kiddos so much more...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?!!??? =)

Check back soon to learn about Our Heart Buddies. =)

From My Heart to Yours,