photo 3am_home_1_zpsd47b2810.png photo 3am_MJ_1_zpsdb43188f.png photo 3am_TS_1_zps32b65946.png photo 3am_NL_1_zps4f84c04a.png

100th Day and Freebie certificates!!

Welcome to the 100th day of school! My kids arrived to our door all decked out to begin our special "celebration" day! You could literally see their faces light up. I just LOVE the 100th day of school!


Look at this next doorway!! I'd love to claim that it was my idea....but a couple of my teammates' doors meet together and they put this adorable doorway together. The top banner is from a rock start theme our school did a couple years ago. The kids walked through like they were Super Stars! It really stood out!


 And another teammate's door (I love her 100 sign:0)



And as they entered the classroom, this is what they saw. You should have seen their faces.... My favorite 100th day activity is the 100 balloon pop - it's a great activity because:
*It's fun
*It's also a great way for kids to see exactly how many 100 is.


And the party ensued! :0)











After the balloon pop, we did our calendar and "discovered" that we were at the 100th day of school! (Of course the kids knew, but they wanted to make sure I knew :0) Zero the Hero left a note that told us we had a surprise waiting for us in 100 steps from our classroom door so.....of course we had to go check it out! We all took turns in laying down the paper feet so we could measure exactly 100 feet.


Wow! And this isn' t the whole 100 feet....Pretty amazing!
I got so excited I forgot to take a picture of our surprise. It was Zero the Hero and Zerona in a basket with our 100th day certificates, bookmarks, and stickers! Dog-gone my forgetful brain! I wished I had a picture to share :0( The certificates are the same ones as the FREEBIE at the bottom of this post!


 What's the 100th day without a 100th day crown?! I got these last year at Target in the dollar section...super easy and the kids thought they were in heaven using markers to color them (we aren't allowed to do that often :0) To me it was TONS easier than doing the "silly groups of 10 hats" we've done in the past. Plus, we did lots of other "groups of 10 counting".


 Next came the fruit loop necklaces - another 100th day staple! Kids string groups of 10 fruit loops to make a necklace that has 100 fruit loops. Counting groups of 10 is WAY easier to keep up with than trying to remember what number you are on. They did super well! Some made their necklaces with color patterns - and some did it willy nilly :0) Note to self: DO NOT use yarn....ugghhh!! !Why do I always forget that? It frays and never winds up working well. Luckily I had some fishing line that worked perfectly!


The finished product! The kids were so cute....They went to writer's workshop as soon as they were finished with their necklaces. I'd look over at kids writing all over the place with their necklaces hanging out of their mouths munching. :0) So sweet!.....Ok kind of icky, but totally cute!



Here is the trail mix that we made. We had 10 different snacks to make our trail mix:
*Cherrios
*Fruit Loops (yep more fruit loops :0)
*Coco Puffs
*M&M's
*mini Hershey's
*marshmallows
*Goldfish crackers
*gummy bears
*animal crackers
*pretzel sticks
*Skittles

Kids got to count out 10 of each snack - for a total of 100! They had such a ball you would never have guessed they were doing math work! :0)



Oh, and we also made the 100th day flags from my Hooray for 100 Days pack. If you are looking for a 100th day pack - I'd love for you to take a look at mine! It is packed with ideas, templates, certificates, badges, and letters....so much!

Grab this 100th Day pack HERE!


Oh and here's a little freebie for ya! It's my 100th day certificates:
Click HERE to grab this freebie!


Early Finishers Skill Tubs

Hi!  This is Linda from Kinder Doodles, and I'm so happy to have the opportunity to share my Skill Tubs with you here on Kindergarten Lifestyle!  Several years ago I realized that I had so many great resources - centers and activities from The Mailbox, Scholastic, Teachers Pay Teachers, and other wonderful companies, plus things that I'd made, that just never saw the light of day.  I wanted a way to get these learning tools into my Kinders' hands, and needed a way to do so.  But, I wanted them to be used in a "controlled" way so that I'd continue to have them.  After lots of thought on how to present them, I came up with the idea of Skill Tubs.

Simply put, my Skill Tubs are dish tubs (Walmart) filled with an assortment of learning activities that are housed on a wire shelving unit (Target).

My corporation caps kindergarten at eighteen students so my nine Skill Tubs are perfect for partner work.  Classrooms with more students can have three to four students work out of a tub. 
I label each tub with a number and where to work - both spelled out and a photo of the work area.  I have tried to spread the work areas around the room so the Kinders can work with their partners and not disturb others.  They really do a great job staying on task!
Some samples of what might be in a tub, clockwise from upper left: an activity from an issue of The mailbox, decodable readers from our reading series, seasonal shaped cards with sight words (laminate & write words with Sharpie - rubbing alcohol removes it so you can reuse the shapes again & again!), word family activity from a Mailbox thematic unit, a Carson Delosa file folder activity.  I often include activities that students have done in our Learning Stations small groups for extra practice.  The pictures below show some of the activities in use. 


I use this pocket chart to move students through a rotation of all nine tubs.  The names on the left side move down, and those on the right move up, so that the Kinders have a different partner every day.  I can keep students who don't work together well in one column so that they never get each other as a partner.  I do, however, occasionally swap out some students from left to right to keep the pairs fresh & friendly.  (The photos on the far right are pictures of Skill Spots - other work areas around the room.)



I have created a Cupcake CVC Word Game Freebie for you to put in your own Literacy Skill Tub.  Visit my blog to for a Cupcake Ten Frame freebie for your Math Skill Tub.  While you are there, feel free to look around - I have lots of other freebies!  Thanks for reading!

Linda