Kindergarten Writing

    This is my first year teaching Kindergarten and the time is flying by. This last week we wrote about what we would do if Santa were stuck in our chimney after reading the book Santa's Stuck by: Rhonda Gowler Greene. I found the idea on Pinterest, there were a few different blogs that had similar Santa writing. I made the chimney using red card stock and cutting about 2 inches off the top and then using a ruler to draw the lines that made it look like bricks. I then sent it through the copier onto red card stock. I then cut the same 2 inches off of each of the copies and used them as Santa's legs by cutting it in half. We used black construction paper for the top of the chimney and feet. I then made a small journal page for what they would do if Santa were stuck. We added cotton balls to the top and glued our writing in the middle. To finish the bulletin board off I made a giant chimney using butcher paper and added the cotton balls along the top, as well as, drawing the lines on the chimney.  

The adventures of Jingle the Elf

   In my classroom we have an elf on the shelf whom my students named Jingle. I am using this as a writing activity for their December journals. They love coming in each morning and finding Jingle and deciding what it was that he was doing to get where he is. 

Here is the journal page we use each day for our journaling time.

 

This is where Jingle was the day I read the book and we decided on Jingles name.

This is where he was day 2, he was trying to get candy out of the treasure jar!

Day 3 my students were very excited because Jingle was wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses! 

Day 4 Jingle decided to write the boys and girls a message on the white board. He even added said Jingle, we are working on this in our class. 

Day 5 he was hanging with our mitten glyphs. 

Day 6 he was holding our sight words to add to the word wall that week!

Day 7 he tried to spell our sight words for the week but misspelled look by leaving off the other o. The kids caught his mistake and I was very excited! Also he stayed here day 8 because one of our friends touched him. So day 8 we wrote about why he didn't move and what we needed to do. 

Day 9 he was reading a book from our author of the month Jan Brett! 

We have 5 more days before Christmas break so hopefully I will have time to add where else Jingle ends up!! 

Here is the last of Jingle in our classroom! See below for what he was up to! 

Day 10 Jingle had knocked over the basket of glue on the shelf while he was trying to climb up there to sit. Later that morning Jingle had been knocked down to the ground twice so he wanted to sit on the shelf behind my desk so he was safe from some of the Kindergarteners who where not paying close attention to what they were doing that day. Also day 11 he was still behind my desk...I had forgotten to move him so when the students noticed he didn't move I  told them since he had fallen two times the day before he felt safest back there for that day. 

 Day 12 Jingle was sitting on the document camera cart with his ornament he made. We had made ornaments for our parents Christmas presents the day before using our handprint and white paint so Jingle wanted one also. He left it for us when he went away also. 

On Jingles last day with us he decided to use our sight words and leave us a note we could read. We were having our Christmas party this day and Jingle used sticky notes to write us a message. While he was leaving us the message he had a couple sticky notes stuck to him and he was stuck under the clear contact paper he used to keep the message up! 

Overall Jingle was a huge success in our classroom! They loved him and loved writing about what Jingle was doing while they were gone for the evening! Hope you have enjoyed our journey with Jingle the Elf!

DIY Camera Case

Today i went to the Salvation Army and found some great deals! This is one of them, it is an old cassette tape case. I bought this for $1.99 not knowing what I wanted to use it for. When I got home I decided it would be a great camera case considering I have had my camera for 3 years now and I still have no camera bag.

 

This is what the inside looked like before minus the blue in the back I started making it and decided to take pictures of the steps i took. So I pulled out the tray in the bottom of the case so I could re purpose it.

The first thing I used was an old file folder to recover the bottom of the case because it had old glue on it where the tray had been fastened.

After that I added in the felt to hold my lens for the camera. I used command wall hanging strips to attach the felt for this and the other pocket I created as seen in a few pictures down.

This picture is just showing the lens in the pocket and the camera in its place.

Here is the other picture with the pocket for my battery charger that goes with the camera.

Here it is again all three pieces in its place. I need to invest in some new lens's and when I do there is still plenty of room to add to this case!!

This is just the case one more time from the outside when I was finished!