Blog - Pencils to Pigtails

5 Little Pumpkins – STEM, ELA, Crafts, Math, & More!

October 25, 2017

Do you remember the 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate song or poem? I’m sharing the crafts, activities, STEM challenges, and more that we use for this beloved song with you today on the blog!

Who doesn’t love the 5 Little Pumpkins poem? We’ve been reciting this poem for years in my classroom. My students always love it. This year I heard that it was one of my students favorite songs so I had to create a resource just for him. You can grab one in my TPT store by clicking on the product cover above.

If you want to see a video where I explain all of this with more detail, go here:
The 5 Little Pumpkins – FREE Video Explanation

I start by introducing the word wall cards found in my resource on TPT. This is the perfect time to discuss ordinal numbers with your students. Although most students are familiar with them from lining up or winning a game, there is often still some confusion there.

I then read 2 different books, one was an old copy of the poem in a book and the other was a Pete the Cat version. Finally, I held up the poem that I printed out of the resource and we practiced saying it again while using hand motions. (I describe this more in the video posted above.)

We are working on retelling the major events of a story and this poem lends itself perfectly to that standard.

I showed them a colored sample of my expectations and then asked students to color their gate and cut and glue their pumpkins in the correct order with the correct speech bubbles.

I wasn’t picky about what colors they used as long as they were able to place them in the correct order with the correct speech bubbles.

They worked really hard on these!

They turned out so cute!

If you have some students who need a little extra support or take FOREVER to finish a project like this, I have included some differentiated sheets with the speech bubbles or pumpkins already on the sheet.

The next day we revisited the poem. This time I brought out my retelling glove. The kids went wild for it! The pieces that you will need are included in the resource. I just hot-glued them to an old black glove I had laying around.

(See the video to learn more.)

I had the rest of the students sit down and handed out 5 masks. Those students stood up and we talked about the importance of being in the correct order. I was the narrator and each pumpkin recited their lines perfectly. Every child was able to have a chance to act out the poem and it only took a few minutes of our time.

Tomorrow the kids will get the black & white versions of these. We will color them and cut them out and then I will staple them to a sentence strip to make the cutest headbands!

For our STEM activity, I grabbed a bag of pumpkin candies at Walmart. (They were $1.98 at mine.) I paired the students and gave each group a planning sheet so they could design a fence to hold their pumpkins using clothespins and craft sticks.

Don’t you just love seeing the kindergarten kids attempt writing?!? I think this one says, “We are going to make our fence long.” I apologize for not getting more pictures.

I was so impressed with the fences they came up with! They are so much better than the one I had built as a practice!

This is the one I came up with….

Here are some pictures of the ones my students came up with….

I just love seeing their little brains at work! They loved this activity and especially the end when they were able to eat the pumpkins. 🙂

We also completed a writing activity. Students had to predict what the pumpkins did after they rolled away.

I loved this one. He was doing his best and using his resources, such as the word wall cards on the board!

I spy a soon-to-be writer! This sweet child was writing “The pumpkins rolled to the pond.” Remember that this is the beginning of our kindergarten year so this excites me!

Tomorrow we will make our paper towel roll craft. I LOVE this and I know my students will too.

The students will use this to retell the story. I love that they can roll different parts of it down to describe the events. You can watch the video if it isn’t making sense to you!

I printed this color version as a sample but my students will color a black & white version to create theirs.

We’ve been completing the math printables for morning work. My students are really starting to build a strong understanding of the numbers 1-5.

You can click on any of these product thumbnails to grab a copy of your resource. So much fun! I love that I can pull this out every year. It has so many great things to keep your students engaged during that crazy week leading up to Halloween.

Happy Teaching & Mommy-ing this week!

Easy Jack-O’-Lantern Candle Holders

October 20, 2017

Today on the blog I’m sharing one of my favorite Halloween crafts or projects perfect for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students! These DIY candle holders make an adorable gift for parents and the students are so proud of them!

Hi sweet friends,

I wanted to share an easy craft with you today. I’ve been doing it for years with my students and they absolutely love it. I have a very chatty class this year (I’m probably kidding myself… who doesn’t???) but when we are working on this project they get pretty quiet.

It’s kind of been a running joke in the building about Mrs. Statum’s Modge Podge. We are right in the middle of a long stretch of time when you could have a pop-in observation so I’m just imagining having this spread out everywhere when an administrator walks in. I’ve been assured that if I have this mess out they will come back at another time! 🙂

For this project, you will need:

Orange Tissue Paper

Black Tissue Paper

Mode Podge (or a mixture of drop glue & water)

Smooth-sided glass jars (Mason jars or pickle jars work great!)

Newspapers

Paintbrushes

The mess really isn’t that bad. First, spread newspapers or old butcher paper out on the tables. My sweet assistant precut strips of orange tissue paper out for me. If you have a couple of shades of orange it turns out really cute. (See photo above.)

At some point in my life I must have went on an orange tissue paper shopping spree and have tons of it. I think it could take me the next 20 years or so to use it all with this project. It’s a little hard to find unless it’s Halloween so I assume that’s why I bought so many? Anyways, you will probably be fine with a couple packs. In the first picture on this page, I let my students cut out their own faces using the black tissue paper. You can do that or go ahead and do it for them. One of my fabulous assistants decided to precut some adorable shapes for the students to choose from this year.

I put a little Modge Podge into 4 cups (it doesn’t take much), give everyone a paint brush (the cheaper ones the better!) and demonstrate what to do. First, put a little of the glue on the jar, wrap your tissue paper around it and “paint” it on.

I tell students not to add their faces until they are completely finished. I also encourage them to have all of their pieces painted down. You will have a few students with pieces sticking up everywhere. Thankfully I had some wonderful assistants with me this year who went around sticking the pieces down that were sticking up for the students who needed a little extra help.

We start with the jars upside down and when they are ready to add their faces we turn them right side up.

The mustache! I just love it!

The little bug eyes are so cute!

My students are so proud of them. While they were working I was constantly hearing, “This is really fun, right?” or “I love doing this so much Mrs. Statum!”

I’m so glad that we were able to take a break for a minute from all of the pressures of testing requirements and enjoy a fun craft. You can grab a bag of battery-operated tea lights from the dollar tree to really make a cute hallway display until you are ready to send them home.

This craft would be perfect for a homeschool group or to do with your own children.

If you try it, please let me know how it goes!

If you are looking for more fun classroom ideas and haven’t read my last post with an introduction to our Johnny Appleseed week, go here:

Johnny Appleseed Craft, Fingerprint Apples, & More on Pencils to Pigtails’ blog

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing this week!

Johnny Appleseed No-Cook Apple Pie Play Dough

September 29, 2017

This no mess and no heat homemade play dough recipe will have your classroom smelling delicious and is perfect to use when studying Johnny Appleseed. We have loved this unit packed with crafts, experiments, ELA practice, math skills, and more!

We are finishing up our Johnny Appleseed week and have really enjoyed it! This has been the first time that I’ve truly enjoyed studying about apples and Johnny Appleseed. I really learned a lot myself while putting together my resource on TPT and I was especially glad that there were plenty of activities to keep my students engaged ALL WEEK. (Did I mention it is the week before fall break? Now you really know what a miracle that is! 🙂 )

If you haven’t done so yet, you can grab my resource on TPT by clicking on the product cover below. You will find the recipe along with mats and a ton of really fun activities inside!

It took me a little while to get around to having the play dough mats laminated but it is definitely a must-do. We mixed up the ingredients together in about …. uh… 3 minutes? Seriously, its super simple. Then the kids were ready to get busy. This is the perfect center activity but we did it as a whole class just because we didn’t have enough time to get through our rotations.

You can see that once you get all of the items mixed together it is the perfect consistency – not sticky at all!

The kids had so much fun practicing letter formation and building the little pictures that went along with that letter. While they were working my assistant and I went around asking them which letter they were working on and to produce the sound.

The best part was how it made the classroom smell – just like a delicious pie!

During our indoor recess time I let students get out all of the pie mats and we mixed up some different colors so they could make various types of pie. They LOVED this!

What do you do to celebrate Johnny Appleseed? Let me know in the comments.

If you haven’t read through my blog post about the erupting apple volcano, apple sauce, and tin foil hat crafts, click on the picture below!

You can also click on this picture to read about our fingerprint apples, nonfiction class book, and more!

If you haven’t done so yet, you can click on any of the product covers below to grab your copy!

Phew! It’s time to enjoy fall break! I always spend quite a bit of time working on resources for TPT during our time away from school and I’m excited to get several Halloween resources posted. The best part of my fall break will be hanging with my girls though. Aniston goes back to the eye doctor so we will see if the patching is working. Say a little prayer for us if you get a chance.

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing this week friends!

Erupting Apple Volcano, Yummy Crockpot Applesauce, Aluminum Foil Hats, & More!

September 26, 2017

Your students will love creating an apple volcano with this no mess recipe! You’ll find all kinds of ideas for incorporating Science into your ELA & Math instructional blocks today on the blog!

We have had so much fun today. I can now say that I truly love teaching kids about Johnny Appleseed. In the past I’ve done a few activities to celebrate Johnny Appleseed but never enough. I just didn’t really enjoy teaching about apples. Well… all of that has now changed. 🙂

I compiled everything I could possibly think of that the students would love doing this week into one really fun and inexpensive resource. Teachers, you can grab one by clicking on the product cover below. (This would be perfect for homeschool groups!)

When the kids entered the room, they got right to work coloring their baskets and placing the apples in the correct order across the top. I had a sample ready for students to reference as needed.

We started this morning by reviewing our nonfiction book about Johnny Appleseed. Corinne from Chirp Graphics is such a talented clip artist. I just love her illustrations and how they really add to everything we do in my classroom. You can find her store here: Chirp Graphics on TPT .

(You will have everything you need to put together your own class book in color or black & white if you purchase my resource on TPT.)

The students were told to go back to their seats and draw what they had learned about Johnny Appleseed.

I just love kindergarten drawings. Aren’t they adorable? 🙂 I went around asking students what they learned and they were able to give me several facts about Johnny Appleseed, such as his real name (John Chapman) and that he was featured on a United States postage stamp.

Later we got out the craft that we started yesterday and added an aluminum foil pot to his head using the included hat template.

They turned out so cute!

While the kids were working this morning, my assistant and I were busy peeling apples and getting everything ready for our applesauce. It was a huge hit. 🙂

The recipe included in the resource is the best one I’ve tried. The apples didn’t get so dark and it wasn’t too cinnamon-y.

I usually have several kids say they don’t like it, but this time they all seemed to think it was good.

I like using these little plastic cups. You really don’t even need to mess with spoons. A tablespoon works nicely for divying it out evenly among your students. Each child received a cupful which was a few tablespoons each. We had enough for more than 20 cups.

The kids followed along and colored in the picture to show how they felt about our crockpot applesauce. I also had them respond to the question of whether or not they liked the applesauce by writing “yes” or “no”.

While our applesauce was cooking we prepared for our “Erupting Apple Volcano”. Students filled out one of the printables in the resource with the ingredients needed and later filled out what happened to the apple. This was by far the simplest “experiment” I’ve ever done with a class and it was greeted with plenty of “oohs!” & “ahhhhhs!”.

The kids were begging for me to do it again and again. I was able to use the same apple again with my writing group during our extension time. (Just in case you are in a similar situation.)

Tomorrow we will be making homemade apple pie play dough and working on our individual “I Can Count” readers. The resource comes with the cutest fall themed alphabet mats. I KNOW my students will love practicing letter formation with it!

I’ll be back again this week with an update of how the play dough turned out.

If you haven’t read my last post with an introduction to our Johnny Appleseed week, go here:

Johnny Appleseed Craft, Fingerprint Apples, & More on Pencils to Pigtails’ blog

If you want to grab the resource, click on any of the product covers below.

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing until tomorrow!

Johnny Appleseed Fun – Craft, Fingerprint Apples, & More!

September 25, 2017

This Johnny Appleseed unit is packed with ways to celebrate this amazing man while keeping your students engaged! Your kids will love the apple volcano, easy crafts, math activities, and more that are perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students.

We started our unit on Johnny Appleseed today. I’m thrilled that all of the activities included in my TPT store will be more than enough to keep us busy for this entire week in both reading and math. (A little science experiment is thrown in there too!) You can grab your copy by clicking on the cover below.

I started by asking my students what they knew about Johnny Appleseed. They were really trying but all they could come up with were sentences like, “He liked apples.” or “He picked the seeds out of apples.”

I told them that by the time I read them the nonfiction book included they would know so much more about this important man.

Update: If you are interested in the costume I used.. It was the quickest costume ever! I “muddied” my face with some brown eyeshadow, rubbed it all over one of my husband’s shirt, tore holes in it, ripped it up some, and threw a pot on my head! The bag was made from some leftover burlap I had and I painted the word “Seeds” on it. I LOVE going barefoot so I took my shoes off for some of the pictures! 🙂

We read through the book that is included in the resource and paused to discuss each page. The illustrations in the resource are clip art images from Corinne with Chirp Graphics. She is so talented! They are absolutely precious.

The students could now tell me so much more about Johnny Appleseed. They were especially intrigued by the idea that Johnny Appleseed was a vegetarian and so is Mrs. Statum! 🙂

After we finished the book, I had them go to their seat and instructed them to draw a picture with lots of detail in the space provided. Meanwhile, my assistant and I made our way around the room asking students the questions on one of the differentiated writing pages included and writing down their answers.

I had them use a skinny marker to trace the words that we wrote. (Remember- this is only our 2nd month of kindergarten.) There are some easier and more difficult writing pages included but I just wanted to use this fill-in-the-blank one.

There is an adorable craft included and we finished the first part today. Tomorrow we will add aluminum foil pots to the heads. I’ll share a post tomorrow after school so you can see how much cuter they are. For now, this is how Johnny Appleseed looks.

We glued them to long construction paper. I laid out fall colors as I thought that would make a pretty display in our hallway.

I think they already look adorable and can’t wait to see them when the pot on their heads is transformed into an even more eye-catching one with aluminum foil.

Later I divided the kids up into 2 groups. One group worked on these fingerprint apples and the other worked on the headbands (This was mainly because I only had a few sets of ink for the stamps.) As they finished they moved on to the other activity.

We will wear our “pots” to lunch tomorrow in honor of Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. I printed the pot on regular paper but later wished I would have used cardstock so that the handle stood a little bit straighter. Oh well, you live and you learn!

I set morning work out for tomorrow on each child’s table. I went ahead and created a sample for some of my lower students to reference as needed.

This unit has so many fun activities for you to practice number order and number recognition. It’s so much fun that your kids won’t even realize how much they are learning!

~~I will post again tomorrow with an update of what else we were able to finish~~. (You can now click the link at the bottom to see the next post! So much to do this week with this resource… easy crockpot applesauce, apple picking games, erupting volcano apple, apple pie play dough, & more! It’s going to be a fun week for me and my students. I know they are going to love those play dough mats. They turned out really cute.

Click on any of the covers below to grab your copy of the resource. Activities for the entire week for just a few dollars??? Yes, please!

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing today! ~~See you back here tomorrow!~~

You can now click here to see my next post!

Erupting Apple Volcano, Easy Crockpot Applesauce, Aluminum Foil Pots & More on TPT

Hurricane STEM Activities, Experiments, Demonstrations, the Red Cross & More!

September 15, 2017

My students really enjoyed learning all about hurricanes using experiments, demonstrations, writing prompts, and more. The projects I’m writing about today provide such a great way to introduce science concepts and focus to a weather unit.

Phew! This has been a week. You have no idea how many times I forgot what day it was. It has been that crazy. I’m a mentor teacher at my school so I’m juggling evaluating other teachers, being observed myself, 16 kindergarten kids at the beginning of the year, and coming home to a 1 and a 3 year old. Oh yeah, I have a blog and TPT store to keep up with too. Do you ever wish there were just a few more hours in the day? I could use them to catch up on some sleep and spend a little more time with my baby girls!

Enough rambling.. on to a super fun and RELEVANT resource! I just posted a new “All About Hurricanes” unit and a new “All About the Red Cross” resource. The best way to purchase them is as a bundle! You can grab it by clicking the cover below:

We had SO MUCH FUN with this unit. I had a parent come in this week and tell me that her son was telling her all about “hurnicanes” after we studied them. 🙂 I’m happy that the students are so excited about our activities that they are talking about them at home. I feel like that’s a good sign!

With Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hitting Texas and Florida recently, I started to wonder if my students were nervous or frightened from hearing it discussed among adults or on the news. So I decided to create a nonfiction class book to describe these potentially catastrophic storms. I truly believe that knowledge is empowering for students.

I tried MANY demonstrations, experiments, and activities and have compiled the best ones in this resource – along with any “hiccup” tips from things that went a little wrong the first time. I wanted to be sure that every item needed is something inexpensive and found in your kitchen!

You can actually head over here to see a FREE video demonstration of one of the ideas you can use with your kids!

Hurricane Ideas for the Classroom by Pencils to Pigtails

In the resource you will find detailed instructions, more classroom photos, planning sheets, reflection sheets, writing prompts, a map where students will make the connection about why the states that border an ocean are the ones most often impacted by hurricanes, and a sheet for students to generate ideas on how they can help victims of a hurricane. Of course that beautifully photographed nonfiction class book and some word wall cards are included which will help you lead a really good discussion with your group.

Here are some sneak peeks of what we did in class!

Students had a blast seeing if they could build structures to withstand the mighty winds of a hurricane (aka Mrs. Statum’s hairdryer! 🙂 )

Don’t forget, you can head to my TPT store to see a free video of our “Hurricane in a Bowl” by clicking the picture below! (You will need to be on the “desktop view” to see the entire video!)

After I finished the unit, I decided to create a unit about how the Red Cross helps victims of disaster.

I bundled them together to create the perfect resource for this time of year!

I hope your students enjoy this fun unit as much as mined did!

Click on any of the covers below to find it in my store!

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing this week!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – Costume, Coconut Tastings, & Center Activities

September 8, 2017

I dressed up as a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree for an afternoon my students would never forget! This is the best book to use with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students to incorporate STEM activities that keep my students engaged while working on their names, recognizing the alphabet, fun crafts, comprehension skills, and more!

If you are interested in dressing up like a coconut tree, please visit my facebook or instagram page to see videos as I read the book. So much fun! The headband was made out of construction paper by my sweet assistant and the letters were made out of sticky felt using a Cricut. (You can find out more on my IG or FB page!)

The overalls can be found by clicking on my affiliate link below!

We have had SO MUCH FUN with this unit. We decided to finish off the unit with a coconut tasting activity and some center activities. (These will be pulled out as needed throughout the school year.)

If you haven’t had a chance to grab the resource yet for your students or children, click on the cover below. You will use it year after year and it includes all of the activities you will find here and in my last blog post!

I was pleased with how EASY the recipe was. (NO BAKING so we were able to make them in my room!) In my resource on TPT, you will find the recipe and printables that the students can use to follow along while you mix the ingredients. They will also color in a smiley face if they like coconut or a frown if they don’t like the taste of it.

The kids were thrilled that they were able to form the ball themselves which worked out nicely and cut out a lot of work for me!

Earlier in the week I had given each student one sheet of the puzzle piece letters to color. I had those laminated and cut apart. The kids were amazed that their works of art were now one of our center activities. They have pulled them out to work on again and again. I loved how they took ownership of them!

Another group worked on counting the correct number of coconuts for these adorable coconut trees. (These are also available in printer-friendly black and white so you could have the students color these and save on ink!)

My 3rd group worked on matching lowercase letters to their uppercase counterpart.

The rest of the class was in a small-group setting with me. How do centers work in your classroom? I’d love to hear your ideas!

If you haven’t read through my other post about Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, head over here!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Fun in Pencils to Pigtails’ Classroom!

You can click on any of the photos below to grab this jam-packed resource for your children or students!

Happy Teaching and Mommying this week!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – STEM Activities, Craftivity, and a Super Fun Resource!

September 7, 2017

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is the perfect book to use with preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students during the back to school season! I’m sharing the STEM activities that keep my students engaged while working on their names, recognizing the alphabet, fun crafts, comprehension skills, and more!

Okay, so the truth is that I had absolutely no plans of creating a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom resource. Once, we got started on this book study though I just couldn’t help it! This book is so much fun. I kind of giggle thinking about how the first time I read this book I didn’t really get it. If that’s you – head straight to over to youtube and watch the Scholastic video. I started getting into a rhythm when I read the book and my kindergarten students went wild for it!

I couldn’t find what I wanted on TPT so piece by piece I added more and more activities to my resource on TPT until it ended up being a huge 160+ page product. You can click on the cover below to pick one up.

I wanted to review every fun activity included so you will know what you are getting. Although this unit can be used any time of the year – (and if you haven’t studied this book – do so now!) I like to teach it sometime between August and October. The major focus is the alphabet, letter recognition, matching uppercase/lowercase letters, and name recognition.

I usually spend a week covering the book. We start by just reading to the part when x,y,z go up the coconut tree. Students talk with a partner about a prediction of what will happen next in the story.

I like to tell students that if they didn’t get it right, they weren’t “wrong” – the author just surprised them. We talk about using all of the clues to come up with a viable prediction! 🙂

One fun activity are these magnet mats. I laminated mine and will use them year after year by just placing them on top of a cookie sheet and setting out a box of magnet letters.

(The EDITABLE black and white labels that you see on my tub from the Dollar Tree pictured above are available in my TPT store. You can click the photo below.)

My students loved these magnet mats. In the past, I had always used cookie sheets and magnet letters but giving them a focus with a mat took things to a new level. Students were much more engaged at that center.

I had my supplies laid out for my craft and STEM activity. Let’s start with the craft. I just love how different all of these turned out. In the resource, you will find templates for both a smaller and large coconut tree. I had originally planned on letting my students make very large trees until I realized how much construction paper this would use. I decided to make one large and spell out the word “Kindergarten”. (The colorful grade level letters are included in the resource.)

It’s a little hard to tell how large this actually is so here is another for reference.

I cut out the leaves, coconuts, and trunk pieces using the templates in the resource. I wanted my students to make their coconut trees as long or as short as they wanted to. Here is what they came up with:

Aren’t they adorable? I had an old version of the book that was missing a few pages so I decided to actually take the time to cut out the letters in the book for my students. It took forever. I actually had to make letters out of other letters because I was missing one here or there. I’ve made it much easier for you by including colorful alphabet letters in the resource.

I’m planning on letting my students practice writing numbers on the tree trunks tomorrow. They will start with a 1 on the bottom piece and continue writing each number as they continue up the tree. (I will pre-write the numbers for my lower students and let them trace over mine.)

The STEM activity was so much fun! In the resource you will find a letter to parents asking for supplies, detailed explanations, classroom photos, and printables for students to plan and execute their designs. Here is a sneak peek of some of my students’ work!

This truly was one of my favorite activities I’ve ever done with kindergarten students!

My students loved making the coconut name bracelets. It was so much fun that they didn’t even realize they were working on identifying the letters in their names, making sure the first letter was capital and the others were lowercase and arranging the letters in the correct order. The girls and BOYS all loved their bracelets and were so proud to wear them. In the resource you will find the letters and “charms” along with a more detailed explanation.

There are lots of other printables and activities included – too many for me to list here.

***Look for an upcoming blog post with some of the center activities included and find out how the coconut treat recipe in the resource worked out!

Click on any of the photos below to grab your copy!

You can read my next post about some of our center activities and our coconut tasting activity by clicking here!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom -Coconut Treat Tasting and Center Activities

If you like this resource, head over here to read about all of the fun activities to go along with my favorite book – The Gruffalo!

The Gruffalo Actives, Puppets, Recipes, Measurement, & so much more!

Happy Teaching and Mommying this week!

Create Fun Solar Eclipse Masks, Jet Packs, Free Name Tags, & More!

August 18, 2017

I’m sharing my top ideas for celebrating a Solar Eclipse in style from party planning tips to what the children should wear! This blog post will keep your students or children safe and they will love helping you create these fun activities, crafts, and more!

This is an older post that I wrote right before the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017. Enjoy!

I can’t take how cute this little one is in her Solar Eclipse wear!

I’ve been looking forward to the Great American Solar Eclipse for months and I can’t believe it’s actually here.

I have a terrible blister under my left thumbnail from making 17 jet-packs, protective eye-wear, and astronaut name-tags, but it was totally worth it. I wanted to share some of my ideas and a FREEBIE with you!

If you haven’t already, head over to TPT and grab my Solar Eclipse resource. It is jam-packed with crafts, activities, differentiated writing prompts for BEFORE & AFTER the eclipse, party ideas, costume ideas, warning signs about the danger of looking at the eclipse, nonfiction books, templates to make your own class books, word wall cards to help you lead discussions, & so much more!

You can click on the picture to grab it.

I even made a video that explains a lot of the activities included and gives you a close up idea of everything you will find in the product – you can go here if you would rather watch a video than read through blah, blah, blah! 🙂

Solar Eclipse Activities Video by Pencils to Pigtails

Due to requests from my followers, I added a resource for 3rd – 6th grade which you can find by clicking the picture below! Some of the activities/crafts that I talk about in the video are included, as well as a research guide and opinion writing prompts!

We actually just had our first full day of kindergarten today and I jumped right in by talking about the eclipse. I started by asking if students had any background knowledge about the eclipse and then we went over the word wall cards from my resource.

Many of the kids pointed out that the moon will be “on top of” the sun and that it was not safe to look at it or you will “burn your eye up”. 🙂

I loved having a sample of the craft ready which is included in my product to demonstrate how the solar eclipse actually occurs. We also spent a long time talking about how dangerous it is to look at the sun without certified protective eye wear.

I read them the simplified class book today and then students created their own. Tomorrow I will read the nonfiction book and we will discuss the event in more detail. I am also planning to do the craft with them.

I started collecting 2-liters from the sweetest man about a month or so ago. He actually saved all 32 for me. Last week I got started spraying the 2-liters with a metallic spray paint I grabbed at Home Depot.

Of course, my daughter had to jump in and pose! 🙂

I rotated them after they dried and sprayed them one more time. I had precut the “plate masks” and this time I sprayed them as well. They just needed one quick coat.

Our school purchased special glasses for the event and I’m so glad they haven’t been recalled. It took a little time to make the first mask, but once you had your template, the next ones weren’t bad at all. I made sure that the glasses were nowhere near the scissors as I didn’t want to accidentally cut the lenses. When I arrived at school and tried them on my students, I realized that we definitely needed to add a rubber band in the back. The glasses we have are not sized for young children!

Here is a shot of the back for reference! You are basically cutting a small line on the sides of each plate, a triangle out for the nose, and small ovals/rectangles out for the eyes. Don’t try to put your glasses in until you are finished cutting! I hot-glued a rubber band we cut in half to the back and stapled it to make sure it stayed put. I also added tape to be sure there were no gaps or holes for sunlight to creep in.

I think this would be the safest way for young children to watch the eclipse. I am planning on having my daughter Aniston wear hers like this as well.

Hours later… ta-da!!!

Okay, back to the jet-packs. I happened to inherit some silver cardboard and hot-glued the 2-liters upside down to each sheet. I added some red tissue paper and orange felt to look like flames. (I would have rather used tissue paper for both colors but wasn’t able to find orange at my store.)

I used wide ribbon that I had laying around as the straps. I hot glued these on. Our fabulous interpreter happened to be walking by and popped in to help me. She went around and stapled the ribbons to be sure the ribbons wouldn’t easily be pulled off. After I tried them on my students I had to go back and make the straps much larger than I had originally thought. I think it would be a good idea to grab a child’s backpack to help you estimate how large you should make the straps.

As a final touch, I created these editable astronaut name tags which are available FREE in my TPT store! You can print them out and write your students’ names on them or I’ve included easy-to-follow instructions to type in your own names.

I used that same silver colored cardboard on the back of these. (Don’t judge my uneven cutting skills. I was in a mad rush to get these finished!)

Click on the photo to grab this FREEBIE for your classroom!

Sometime after 3 today it occurred to me that I had not sat down once at my desk. I guess that’s a typical first day of kindergarten for you!

I was so excited to have them all finished and ready to go!

How excited are my kids going to be when they come in and see their tables like this tomorrow?!?!?

I hope you have the BEST POSSIBLE eclipse experience with your students, family, or however you choose to spend it (whether it is watching a live-streaming event from indoors or SAFELY viewing it outdoors).

Happy teaching & mommying this week!

The 3 Little Words that Changed Everything for Me

August 7, 2017

I’m sharing the 3 words that changed everything for me. These words had a major impact on my daily life, changed the way I think, motivated me, put everything into perspective, and help me appreciate every moment!

Background Information

So… now that you are wondering what those three words are, I need to give you a bit of background information.

I am a kindergarten teacher at Westwood Elementary and we are officially an Energy Bus School. My principal is very big on creating a positive environment for staff and students. According to their website, “The Energy Bus for Schools Leadership Journey (EBSLJ) is a transformational, multiyear approach for schools to create and sustain a positive school culture and develop positive school leaders.” It was started by Jon Gordan. The principles are based off of his best-selling book, The Energy Bus. I usually have a positive attitude when it comes to school. It sounds cheesy, but I really do love my job and my students. However, there are always ways to improve your outlook and attitude.

(You can click on the picture below if you are interested in grabbing a copy of The Energy Bus. This is my Amazon affiliate link. If you use this link, it doesn’t cost you any more but I earn a small commission from your purchase.)

Last week Chief Energy Officer & Co-founder of The Energy Bus for Schools Leadership Journey, Niki Spears, led a day of inservice training for our district. She is a fabulous speaker. Sometimes I have a difficult time sitting still for hours (don’t we all?) but I didn’t feel that way listening to her.

The Ah-Ha Moment

One thing she had us do is take something we are not looking forward to and say “I get to…”

She picked several people from the audience and it was pretty hilarious hearing people scream with excitement, “I GET to potty-train my child this week!” or “I GET to teach math to 8th-graders!” Everyone laughed just hearing others be so enthusiastic about things they typically dread doing.

Changing Have to’s into Get to’s

It made me think of how I have been dreading between 7 and 9 PM…

Dustin has been working nights lately and I was gearing up for another 1-2 hour session of “Let’s try to get Baby Heidi to bed.”

Don’t let that sweet smile fool you!:)”

Sleep Issues

My sweet baby who used to lay down awake after a bottle and sleep from 7 to 7 abruptly decided at the beginning of the summer that she HATED sleep. Of course, bedtime is at the end of the day and both of us felt exhausted and frustrated. I had tried every possible method or suggestion. She wanted to be pushed in the stroller… until she didn’t. Then she wanted to be held… until she didn’t. We tried to let her cry it out and it was an awful experience for the both of us. Dread was setting in about putting her to sleep every night.

I am constantly busy with school and my kids. Then I work on TPT or my blog after I put them to bed or very early in the morning. It had become frustrating that I wasn’t able to get as much done as I wanted.

Then, you add in my 3 year old Aniston… she wanted Mommy to put her to sleep, but I just couldn’t do it all at one time. I had to call in back-ups like my mother-in-law or sister to tuck her in. We missed reading books and saying prayers together.

I’ve even been stuck in this predicament – my almost 40 pound toddler in the TULA asleep while I pushed Baby Heidi around the woods!”

I Get to…!

On the night of the training, I started to push Heidi around the woods behind our house. Giggling I said to myself, “I GET to put Heidi to sleep. I GET to put Heidi to sleep.” Although I was half-joking, the words started to really ring true -it’s not that I have to… I get to. Suddenly I realized how precious and fleeting these moments are. I started to tear up thinking about what a privilege it is to have the two daughters I always dreamed of. Before putting her in bed that night I just let her lay on my chest as I swayed back and forth beside her crib praying and thanking God for this precious life.

It truly changed the entire night. Suddenly everything else could wait because, “I GET to put Heidi to bed.”

Do you have those moments when you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing that day? I always try to stop and remind myself, “No. I was a good mom today and that’s what I needed to accomplish.” My favorite quote about parenthood is, “The days are long but the years are short.” How true it is. Some of those days – especially the ones with sleep issues feel SO LONG. But then I feel like I blinked and Aniston is 3 and 1/2. Heidi is 16 months. How did that happen???

Last week I started changing all of my “have to’s” into “get to’s”.

Counting my Blessings

These are the three little words that changed everything. For example, I used to think, “Oh no, I have to do early duty at work this week.” Now I said to myself, “I GET to do early duty at work.” It left me thinking about how thankful I was to have a job that I love.

When I went to pick up Dustin’s laundry thrown around the room, I stopped to remind myself. “I GET to pick up Dustin’s laundry.” It will have you laughing but it is so true and will change your whole thought process. Instead of “I have to…” I think of what a blessing it is to have a husband who leaves laundry on the floor. Okay, okay – stay with me. I GET to help him just like the way he searches for ways to help me. My husband drops everything when he comes in the door to help me with the kids. He also just surprised me with the concert tickets I’ve been dying for. My husband runs to get me dinner if I’m looking tired. He is the BEST possible Dad to our children. I GET to pick up his laundry.