Fall Has Arrived!

    Well, it is finally Fall out here in Northern California! It arrived right when they said it would... in November! This year is predicted to be an El Niño year and lots of rain is expected this winter. We shall see... I will take rain over snow any day! For now, I will enjoy my November, filled with chilly mornings and weather in the 60s and be grateful that I do not have to even think about dealing with snow!  =)

    Things have been busy on the school front, as usual, and time is going by just way too fast! Am I the only one that feels this way?? I feel like we are doing so much that I can't wrap my head around it, let alone try to keep up with writing blog posts about everything.

     Recently, we learned how to say the name and color of pumpkins in Spanish. 

We also learned all about the La Vida De La Calabaza and created a mini book!

They created their own calabazas (jack o' lanterns, really, but who cares?) They are cute! 

And the kids really love the independent art actvities that I put out for work time. 

There seems to always a line at the Art Table!

And I kept a few pumpkin themed math activities out on the shelves through last week:

Roll & Cover:

 Counting Pumpkins:

    With Thanksgiving right around the corner, things are likely to get crazy hectic. The past few weeks, I have found that I feel frazzled and can't seem to get organized with my afternoon literacy lessons and activities. I really need to get on that because the literacy activities that I have done with my small afternoon group have been a hit and they are ready to learn more and keep moving forward.     We have the week of Thanksgiving off and I intend to use that time to get organized and keep those munchkins focused during what is always the craziest time for teachers... Christmas! Anyone counting the days yet?  I sure am not... because at this rate, I know it will be here in the blink of an eye!

Waiting for Fall Weather....

   Even though the temperatures here in the Northern Bay area feel more like summer than autumn, we have been learning about the Fall Season in Spanish class!
   I am discovering that the munchkins are really enjoying learning new words in Spanish (despite the one comment about not singing enough, made by one of the older kids as she compared me to the previous teacher) Yea, someone said that... I wasn't offended though because there is so much more to learning Spanish than just being able to sing words in Spanish! While we do sing, I try to keep a focus on learning words and phrases in Spanish and have the children practice how to speak those words and phrases...hence "Learning Spanish"!
  Anyhow, sorry for the rant and enough on that. Back to learning about Fall...

Here are some of the words that are on our word wall:

We tied in colors when learning these words and my K group worked on color word sentences:

 

 

   (I am tweaking these printables, along with my Spanish Color Pack and they will be uploaded on TPT later this week!)

    I again took a look at my work shelves and thought about what activities were meaningless and basically unpopular with the kids. I went ahead and replaced those activities with other fall related activities to spark their learning interest and put some focus on some fun math activities.

So, as we wait for Fall to arrive, enjoy my Fall Literacy & Math Packs available on TPT:

Baking Fun...Fall Leaf Tortilla Chips!

   On Monday through Thursday I teach Spanish to my munchkins and then on Fridays, I take off my Spanish Teacher hat and put on my Chef hat!
   Every Friday, we engage the kids in some sort of cooking/baking project. Seeing that the summer-like temps (in autumn), in the North Bay area don't seem to be cooling off anytime soon, we needed something that was either a no bake snack or something that required little baking time.
   And so we made some Leaf Shaped Tortilla Chips!

 Our school has these cute baking mats for the kids to each have their own spot. 

All we needed was corn tortillas and leaf shaped cookie cutters:

Each child was given one corn tortilla and was able to cut out two different leaf shapes.

(We later found out that two tortillas chips were definitely not enough.

Most of the kids wanted more!)

After they had their two tortilla shapes cut out, we brushed on olive oil onto both sides of each one.

Then I sprinkled some salt onto them and popped them in the oven. I let them bake for 4 minutes and then turned them over and let them bake for another 4-5 minutes. 

They came out perfect!

(This batch was a little crispy and brown on the edges, but still yummy!)

\

Cute, simple and delicious!

Try making your own Tortilla Chips with kiddos! 

Below is the recipe:

Fall Leaf Tortilla Chips:

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas

Olive Oil

Salt

Cookie Cutters (any shape)

Pre-heat oven to 350. After chips are cutout, brush on small amounts of olive oil on each side. Bake 4-5 minutes on each side, for no more than a total of 9 minutes. Allow them to cool and enjoy!!

Falling in Love with Fall!

   I must admit that ever since we moved from Chicago to the suburbs of Buffalo, I have fallen in love with Fall... I had never really seen the beauty of Fall until we moved here. With tree lined streets and a huge backyard, the scenery is gorgeous. Fall has since become my favorite season, hands down!
   And I have come to look forward to planning and making Fall themed activities for my little munchkins. A few weeks ago, I stopped at Michaels and caught a great sale (and had a 25% off entire purchase coupon)! I picked up two of these fun craft foam party trays.  Once I walked out of the store, the ideas started coming!

    I feel like I haven't posted much about what my little munchkin has been working on these past few weeks. She is determined to master her sight words so that she can start reading and writing! Those are her two biggest interest areas right now. 

I made two different Sight Word Activities for her to review and practice writing & spelling sight words.

Read & Write the Sight Word

Spell the Sight Word:

And of course, I found ways to use these in the classroom, as the preschool munchkins are currently learning how to Make Sets and how to Match Number to Set:

 And I used this exact setup to teach the concepts of More and Less:

    There are so many other ways that I plan to use these throughout the month for math activities, such as making patterns and graphing and counting.

    The kids love to use them, they save on having to print anything and they can be used over and over, for so many fun kinds of learning activities!

    AND if you are reading this blog post, I have a little secret: Tonight I am hosting a Fall Giveaway and will be giving away my Fall Literacy Pack:

(Here are samples of what is included)

    There will be 2 lucky winners on my Teaching Munchkins Facebook Page... I will pick a winner tomorrow afternoon! So if you are not a fan, head over there now and become one... I will be posting within the hour!

Celebrating Fall with Fun Math & Literacy!

   Alright, fall is definitely in the air!
   It didn't exactly feel that way today with the humidity... but still....

   The little munchkin and I are very excited that fall is here! We spent some time outdoors today and collected pinecones and leaves for some future art projects. We can't wait until there are enough leaves in our backyard so we can rake them up and go crazy!

    And since I am know that in one day, there can be a swift change in temperature, I have been working on some Fall Math & Literacy units for those days it may be too rainy and cold to be outside. Nothing big... each unit has only three printable activities. 

Take a look and click on the pic to get your own copy at my TPT store:

I am sure your kiddos will enjoy them! 

\My little munchkin is enjoying the activity trays... even after a long school day!