Blog Award--What a surprise!

The other day I noticed that two awesome bloggers had nominated my blog for an award! I just haven't had time to sit down and write about it as well as nominate someone as well. Thank you to Sara over at http://kinderaffe2ndgraders.blogspot.com/  and Cindy at http://kindergartenlovesme.blogspot.com/ for nominating my blog for this award. 

Apparently this award is for up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers. So I thought I'd spread some of the love. 

Check out  http://first-grade-friends.blogspot.com/ who has some awesome ideas.
More great ideas over at this blog  http://transitionalkinder.blogspot.com/


Thanks for this award ladies!!

I'm back!

Wow--it feels like it's been forever since I've been on here. I had a blast on the mission trip. Here I am at Kingdom Come State Park. 

But now that the trip is over, it really is time to start thinking more about the start of school. I'm going to finish my crate seats this week so I'll post pics soon. I finished my second semester of Grad school tonight--so I'm free until August--WOOHOO! :), so now I'll have a little more time to post some freebies and such.

Friday Freebie!

     

Since I'm leaving at the crack of dawn early tomorrow morning for our mission trip (that I haven't even packed for yet) I thought I'd pass a little freebie along. You know how when you take your class to a special area class and then all of a sudden 5 people come to your room wanting to know where your class is? Or you had to step out to a meeting and the class is somewhere else and NO ONE knows where you are...but that's when everyone needs you? Well problem solved. 

I downloaded these fab frames from the3amteacher and was wondering what to do with them. I'm going to use these on my door to hang to let people know where my class is. (Of course..I may not be able to use the door b/c of the fire marshall, but I can use the wall beside it).  I think I'll just attach it to a command hook since those hold up pretty well and change it each time we are going somewhere. Hmmm...this may be another job assignment for a student once we establish those routines. 

I've included as many places as I could think of that most people may go to during the week. In fact as I'm writing this, I have two other places in my head that our school participates in that I need to make to work for me. 

Click on one of the pics to take you to my TPT store and download it from there. BTW--while you are there, become a follower. :)

Have a great weekend!! And happy blogging!

Luggage tags and Beanie Babies--together?

Ok, upon looking at the title of this post you are probably thinking---huh? The girl has lost it. Nah not really---just two posts in one I guess?! 


I'm leaving Saturday for a week to go on a mission trip to Kentucky with a team from church. So I needed some cute luggage tags so my suitcase(s) don't get lost in the shuffle. Well--it won't get lost--ok ok I just made them because they are cute! Thought I'd share.

Cute right? :)

Alrighty--now that that is out of the way---on to the beanie babies. A friend of a friend had these little guys stashed and didn't know what to do with them, so I thought well I'll take them! :) I"m going to use these little guys for my retelling station. I've never been that great with keeping up my retelling station--mainly b/c life takes over and it gets busy and I forget to keep that one little station up to date (or sometimes a few of them--ssshh!)

One problem--not enough space in the room, but I have tons of canvas bags and I'll be using those to store the retelling stuff in. I'll be making crate seats when I come back from KY (I jumped on that bandwagon--post pics when I get back) and I'll be using those seats to house the retelling bags. So the storage part has now been taken care of! :) 

But with the Common Core standards really big on characters, retelling, and the like---I definitely want to make sure I stay on top of it this year. And because the students really enjoy it. 

I have used websites such as makinglearningfun.com (which btw--has almost any kind of printable possible!) and kizclub.com as well for popular books. But I guess I've always wanted some other things that aren't always something that I have to print out. So I'll be using these little guys as well as those printables! :)

 

Here is what I was given---sorry about the shot--it's as close as I could get to get them all in the picture. In no particular order---three cats (one kind of looks like Skippy Jon!!!, a puppy, black dog, gorilla, an aardvark, platypus, elephant, eagle, goose, an otter, an owl, weasel/ferret, raccoon, and a hedgehog).

I do believe the cat that looks like Skippy Jon will be named appropriately as such! :) and the raccoon looks like Chester from The Kissing Hand so he will be used for that book. The hedgehog of course is Hedgie from The Hat. 

I think I may use the gorilla for Good Night Gorilla. Not sure about that one yet. 

Any ideas about the others??? Here are two close up shots.   

For more great retelling bag ideas---check out KindergartenWorks for some retelling ideas. 

Do you have any good ideas for a retelling station? 

11 Followers! (plus a freebie)

It's funny---when I first started this blog (last week) I never thought I'd get past 5 followers (with 1 being one of my best friends!). But I'm at 11 now!! WOOHOO! :)  Oh, it's the little things in life. 


In honor of having followers in the double digits--I whipped up a quick Alphabet Match-Up activity and added it to my TPT store. . Students just have to match upper and lower case letters (we all know how with some students that can be difficult--so here's a little extra practice!) 


 It comes with a zebra print border as shown below and star borders with blue letters. 

The first THREE people to comment on this post will receive it for free. Just make sure to leave your email in the comment box and I'll shoot it right over. Happy commenting!

Must Have Picture Books

We all love picture books---I think sometimes I love them more than the students do! :) So I'm linking up with The Teacher Wife to share some of my favorite books. 


                                                   

1. Of course--Pete the Cat!!! Who doesn't love the little blue guy!?
                                                      
My students LOVED singing the song---to anyone that would listen! Get your copy here. (ooohh---and there are more Pete the Cat books!!)


2. Don't Need Friends
                                            
I love this book because it talks about how the rat doesn't want any friends, doesn't need any, and out of junkyard generosity---finds a wonderful friend out of someone who he least expects. Grab it here.

3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom


                                

A classic--my copy has the cd with Ray Charles reading the book and comes also with a little rap version sung by children. My students love it! Grab it here. 


4. Knuffle Bunny
                      

Great pictures! And of course it's a Mo Willems book. (I LOVE the pigeon books!!) So that makes it even better!
Grab it here.




Hope you can find some great picture books to use for your classroom!!

Guided Math

I'm so excited! I came home from the beach today and waiting for me was this....

I've been wanting this book for awhile...especially since my Grad School project is on Guided Math in Kindergarten. While doing some looking for this book, I ran across a Guided Math Book Study being held by Primary Inspired. 

      

Now that I have my own book, I'll be digging into her book study and following the other blogs who are hosting the different chapters. Click on her blog to learn more about her book study on Guided Math! 

I really think using this type of approach to teach math, especially in lower elementary grades, will build that foundation that our students need. It will allow for more differentiation, hands-on learning, and help with those Common Core standards that we are all facing. I can't wait to learn more about it and begin implementing in my classroom this year (and to be finished with Grad School! :) 

Dollar Spot Finds

Target Dollar Spot Goodies

OK, we all know how awesome dollar finds can be. I was meeting some of the girls from my team yesterday at Target and wouldn't you know---they had just stocked the dollar spot with teacher stuff! :) Oh, happy day!

I wanted to show you some of the stuff I bought and my plans on using each item. 

So here are the goodies!

These are dry erase pockets--oh the possibilities, small group work, independent work, etc. Easy to use, easy to change the activity. I'm going to want more than 5 I think. :/  And of course mini dry erase markers! They had erasers too but I have plenty of those at school. 

These wipe and clean practice pads are going to be great also for those students who struggle with handwriting. 

Mini erasers to use for math manipulatives

I take pictures of my students each year and add them to stars or some other die cut. We then use the stars for star of the day, picking students to be helpers, etc. etc. I'll use the birthday cut outs to add to my birthday wall instead of writing their names on balloons this year.

You've got to love border---not sure where I'll use it yet b/c of lack of bulletin board space but I'll figure something out. The key chains will be used for hall passes possibly.

No we don't use grades in K but I love using the grade books to keep track of attendance, field trip permission forms/money, and how many paws each child earn for the day (paws is part of our school wide behavior plan--more on that later). 

Oops sorry everything is sideways---learning how to upload from my phone :)

All of these items were $1 at Target. Hope you can go and find some goodies too!

Addition Game Freebie

Since I'm new to the blogging world, I thought I'd offer up a freebie from my TPT store. I'm new to being a teachers pay teachers seller as well, so be kind :).  I hope that you can find this addition game helpful in some way in your classroom. 

                               

Blogging Newbie

Well I've been following blogs for so long, I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon and attempt one for myself. It's definitely been a wandering road I've been on with trying to learn all the blogging terms and the what's and how's to it all. But I think I've figured it out?!

Here goes nothing....