Makeover Time- Class Reveal

I took some time off from my blog (a whole year, yikes!) and therefore I thought it would only be appropriate to start fresh with a new blog design. Woo hoo! 

Here are some things I had worked on over the summer:

Yep a little fun with reading nursery rhymes, jokes, and poems! I'm so excited to use this. 

I also wanted to try brag tags this year so I started creating my own and have 30 made so far for academics and behavior. 

I Mod Podged some clipboards to hang student work on. 

And painted a few cool canvases! 

Here's the before:

Here's the after with my Superhero theme. I'm in love!

Love my reading area!

As you can see I have no tables and chair. 😁 I'm doing without them this year and in place have clipboards with other seating. 

Today was our first day of school and so far so good! We do a phase in this first week so Monday-Wednesday we take 1/3 of the class each day and then Thursday and Friday 1/2 class each day. 

Can't wait to see my group of kiddos tomorrow!!!

First Blog in 2014- Penguins

How many of you were suppose to start back to school today? Yep, me too. Here in Tennessee it is so cold that we have today and tomorrow off. I know all you up north are laughing that 6 degrees is nothing compared to what you have, but to us.... IT'S COLD!!

Today is also a special day, my oldest turned 10 today. OMG.. where has the time gone.

 

He was complaining (like any typical 10 year old boy) that he wanted to stay home for his birthday and why wouldn't I take the day off so he could. Ha, he got his wish.

 

Anyways, we had a teacher day last Friday so I had a chance to get things ready for our Penguin theme when we go back to school. Here are a few things we will be doing.

Dramatic Play center- In the black bins are supplies for
"How to make Hot Chocolate" &
"How to make soup"

Here is the sign... Click on the picture

The how to make soup is still in the works today ;)

a little compare and contrast with the Fairy Penguin and Emperor Penguin



Have you ever made "Fake" Snow!! OMG it is the coolest thing. I found it here



My daughter and I had to try it out

This will go into my Science/Social Studies center with some magnifying glasses to look at the penguins. By the way, I got the penguins at Hobby Lobby in a Penguin Toob. Use a 40% off coupon and you pay a little over $5. My daughter had to look up each penguin also.

I made this to go along with the station so they could copy down the recipe incase they wanted to try it at home and of course what better way to get them reading at the station.

 

I have some more exciting things going on at my centers this week, but of course I forgot to take pictures. I cant promise you, but I'll really try to get those so you can see some other ideas.

 

Hope you all are staying warm today!!

 

PENGUINS freebie

I have been so busy this last month and neglected my blog. So I will be giving you a freebie below.

Like me, many of you may be teaching about Penguins in January. I love this website from National Geographic Kids.

 

I also try to get my kiddos reading EVERY day in small group, but I couldn't find anything that covered compare and contrast on a kindergarten level. So I created an emergent reader about Emperor Penguins and Little Blue Penguins (also called Fairy Penguins).  Click here

 

 

 

 

Please leave me some kind words as to what you think :)

Where does the time go?!

I really can not believe it has been over a month since my last post. Do you ever feel like your running circles and getting nowhere? Ooh... I got that feeling. I have really tried to incorporate our new reading series, but I gotta tell ya, I LOVE thematic teaching and I can not figure out how to get the two to flow together. (sigh) anyone felling me? So here I am going out on a limb and putting the reading series aside and teaching the way I get excited about teaching. My kiddos learn so much more.

Wait I gotta back up first, this all came about because on the way to school I was talking to my kids about The First Thanksgiving and my 9 yr old son says "why do I need to know about that, I'm not talking a test over it?" That about killed me, knowing that's the way he thinks and that's what our schools are coming to, due to ALL THE TESTING we are required to do. So anyways let me get back on track (you know us teachers loose our train of thought, every once in a while)... I decided I was going to teach the way I love to and hope my kiddos go home excited and tell their parents all about what they learned.

We jumped right in, exploring the Mayflower. I wanted them to see how big the Mayflower was and what better way than seeing it measured out. They all predicted they would be longer because kindergarteners are SO BIG 😉.

They also were given play dough, a fork toothpick, and paper. The only directions I gave them were to create a ship that would float. Ships are being created....

 

And the ship has sank.....

 

If you would like the recording page click below

 

We graphed and analyzed our results.

 

 

  I didn't do very well taking pictures of all the other activities but my kiddos sure learned a lot about the first thanksgiving.

 

A little HALLOWEEN Freebie

Is anyone else feeling the pressure this year? Some weeks I feel like I have it together and other weeks I think I'm loosing my mind. ( That happens to teachers-right?!) I often wonder how everyone else keeps it all straight. This year I have completely relied on my smart phone to remind me of everything going on, from meetings to reminders to tell my co-workers. Please tell me some of you do the same thing :).

I needed a little shopping time this weekend and ended up at the Dollar Tree TWICE today. My daughter went with me and when I came back with all kinds of goodies, my son wanted to go. So being the good mommy I am, I took him. Here are some things I found to use in my classroom.

I saw these cute trick or treat bags and knew I needed to do something with them. So I thought to make it into a cute eyeball toss game. The kiddos can toss the plastic eyeballs into the bag and count by 10's as they do so. I also got the eyeballs and plastic web bowl at the Dollar Tree.

 

Puppets for $1... I had to have them!!

My daughter modeling each puppet- she loves to create her own stories with them.

 

 

I made a weekly dinner menu using a picture frame, which you all have probably seen on Pinterest, and my daughter loves to write on it because it writes so smooth and erases easily. So I picked up some more frames for $1 and made these trace and write Halloween words for Writing Station. 

 

 

Click above for the writing pages.

 

 

Let me know what your kiddos think if you use them. Thanks!!

 

Worst blogger ever ;)

Seriously, I feel like the worst blogger ever. I have been so swamped with school, meetings, master courses and family that I have neglected my blog. I have learned so much from the blogging world and feel like a better teacher because of you all. My hopes are to inspire and help other teachers along this journey.

On to the good stuff. We have been on Fall Break this week- Woo Hoo!! Please don't be jealous, but I am so thrilled to have this time off. Well, not really time off since I have been working on school stuff, but our family did get to have a little getaway. Hubby and I took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH.

Who do you think is having more fun playing MagiQuest- hubby or son? ;)

 

On the way home we stopped to tour the Distillery. I know some of you may be cringing that we took our kids, but they really enjoyed seeing the whole process. Me on the other hand, Jim Beam and I do not get along. (Yuck!!)

 

What you all have been waiting for.... I have created a Math Mats packet that you can use in stations or small group. Click the first picture to purchase from my TPT store.

 

Click on the web above for your FREEBIE

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 







New Family Product

It has been soooo very long since my last post :(  I am having a hard time getting into a grove this year. Anyone else feeling the same way? We started a new reading series (Journeys) and I hope I can figure out how to use it, where it doesn't seem so choppy. Any tips would help!

Anyways, due to this much needed long weekend, I made some things to supplement with the first week of Journeys- Family theme. Three day weeks are the best!!! You can click below to purchase this product from TPT. 

 

 

 

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!