Sunday, May 26, 2013

Manic Monday & Shout Out Linky!

Happy Memorial Day! Let us all remember why we celebrate this holiday!

I had a great time at the beach (seriously chilly outside!!) but it was still very relaxing which is what hubs and I needed. I actually read a whole book on the Nook this weekend....so no, math folders were not finished, but ya know sometimes..ya just gotta do 'nuffin! :)

 Photo: Ahhh
 So I did 'nuffin with this view!

It's Monday so that means Manic Monday freebie! Make sure you hop over to Classroom Freebies to check out everyone's posts!  :) 
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday 

This little freebie is in honor of Memorial day. Hope you enjoy. Click on the picture to grab it!
 




Lisa from Growing Firsties and Katie from Teacher to the Core are hosting their monthly Shout Out Linky! This linky is a great way to give shout outs to other bloggers and let people know why they are so awesome!!

 


My first shout out goes to Sara over at Polka Dot Kinders. Sara has a few less followers than me and has been blogging since October! She has amazing ideas and activities going on in her classroom. She has some awesome freebies over at her TPT store and wanna do some calendar lessons with your kiddos? She's got it all for you! 



My next shout out goes to Nicole over at Rowdy in Room 300.  I've been following Nicole's blog for awhile and she has like a bajillion followers. For good reason too, she's got great ideas!! Check out her post about Worms here! I also use a lot of her fonts in many of my products!! (She has a few of them for free too so make sure you check out her blog and follow her!)
 

Rowdy in Room 300






Only 8 1/2 days left!? But who's counting??





Friday, May 24, 2013

Five For Friday

It's time for Five for Friday....I don't have a lot going on right now...and my pics are loading right...grr...but here goes! :)

 fiveforfriday 

1. My kiddos worked together to create an underwater ocean scene. Some of the finished products won't load up...so here are a couple of them starting their pictures.



 
2. We watched the Open Sea Cam on Monterey Bay Aquarium's website (hence the idea for the above partner project) but of course the awesome pic I took of the sea turtle and hammerhead shark swimming by the camera will not open....but here's a screen shot!

Aghh...I found a way to share it!! Hope it opens and works! :)





Broadcasting live with Ustream 

3. Headed here in a just a few hours!


4. I donated items to the Moore, OK relief fund for Teacher's Notebook. 



5. And just remembering why we have Memorial Day weekend. I have a lot of family members who have served or are currently serving in various branches of the armed services. Thank you.










Photo


Enjoy your weekend !

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Summer Bucket List & Moore, OK Bundle Pack

Teacher's Notebook has a huge resource bundle that is available for purchase. 100% of the proceeds go to help Moore, OK to aid in the disaster relief fund. Please check it out. It's for a wonderful cause and my thoughts and prayers continue to be with them.

 


 Summer---my favorite time of the year!!


 

I still have until June 7th with the kiddos (my last day is the 14th!) but how could I pass up this awesome linky by three awesome bloggers, Teri from A Cupcake for the Teacher, April from A Modern Teacher, and Hadar from Miss Kindergarten!


Organization---Home & School
 
http://pinterest.com/pin/98164466849647397/ 

This is just one idea for construction paper....I'm sooo bad about keeping that "little stuff" organized. But I am going to work my hardest during the workdays to get it together for next year.

 
http://pinterest.com/pin/98164466850561299/

And Puzzles!! Ugh...they are so annoying to keep together..but this is great!! 

Oh, how I so need to do this...anyone else have a shoe problem?
  
http://pinterest.com/pin/98164466850434363/



DIY Stuff
I wanna make one of these!
 
http://pinterest.com/pin/98164466850672433/

 Head back here as much as possible...this weekend is the start of it! :)
Love! 


GRADUATION!!! Need I say more!!!

Woohoo!!! 




And READ!! Oh, how I've missed a good book!!

Any NOOK people out there?? Would love to share some books if you have one!



I also have a mission trip I'll be going on, creating and editing products, and hopefully sleeping and just chillin'!! :)


 


 

Monday, May 20, 2013

Manic Monday Freebie!

Haven't had a Manic Monday Freebie in awhile!



Time for the end of the year celebrations. So here are 4 certificates that you might need.

They are editable. Two of them, you can delete the text box and print and hand write the info in. The other two, type what you need in the text box and just print.

Hope you like! Leave some love if you do! Thanks! You can grab it by clicking on the picture. Make sure to download the PPT file to use the text boxes.


 

Happy Manic Monday blog hoppin!!

 




Sunday, May 19, 2013

Let's Get Aquainted!!! Meet the Bloggers!

It's hard to believe it's already Sunday again, so you know what that means!
Let's Get Aquainted again! :)

I love these b/c it's fun to learn about different bloggers each week. This week LaToya's linky is all about other bloggers! What a great way to meet newbies and learn about those we are already stalking  following! :)



 



Topic: Meet 2 of my Bloggy Friends
 

Here are my two!

1. Amanda from Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten



Mrs Pauleys Kindergarten 

Amanda has been an awesome bloggy friend. We email each other (b/c I ask silly questions! :) but she's an awesome help! She has great resources and awesome ideas.

She's having a birthday tomorrow! Stop by and wish her Happy Birthday and enter her birthday giveaway!!

  

2. Elizabeth from Kickin' It In Kindergarten




Kickin it in Kindergarten 

Elizabeth is another awesome bloggy friend that I "met" through this little adventure! She has awesome ideas and lots of cool stuff going on in her Kindergarten classroom. (Check out her Pete the Cat shoes here!)

She has a great end of the year Freebie she's offered up. Grab it here!


Hope you head over to check out their blogs and then head to Latoya's Blog to learn about more awesome bloggers!!





 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Five For Friday






It's finally the weekend..what a busy week this week. Finished up my end of the year math assessments and now trying to finish up my DIBELS. I have seen such great growth in my kiddos....I'm working on the TRC (running records) part now....whew it's time consuming but thankfully that's because they are reading! :)

And since it's the weekend it's time for Five For Friday.



fiveforfriday 


1. Who is ready for....
 
I am....I'm just ready for some time off....to do nothing....but what I want....which is to sleep in....and read a book.....

2. This is funny. This is how I've felt this week. 




(This just happened today....I'm reading about an octopus and...student raises hand "I have a dog named...."  Um ok...so the Giant Pacific Octopus....oh my word.....)

3. Octopuses (weird word....or is that just me?)

So proud of my girl here.....Octopuses can squirt ink. Octopuses lay eggs. Camouflage themselves. (The fact that she wrote all of this BY HERSELF is awesome!! It's like the light bulb switched on over night!)

Octopuses can swim. Octopuses have tentacles. Octopuses eat crabs.


Octopuses can swim. Octopuses are not mammals. My octopus is purple. I love octopuses. My mom do to. (LOL)

4. More Octopuses (ugh)

 These little guys have no eyes yet....kinda alien like huh?


 My favorite.

5.  Octopus Freebie....click here for more awesome Octopus ideas!





Sneak peek....hope to have it up and running by the end of the weekend/first of the week.

 

 
 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Guest Blogger!!! And a Freebie!


Hi everyone, my name is Amanda and I blog over at Mrs.Pauley’s Kindergarten.  I was delighted when Nicki asked me to guest post on her blog. 

It is winding down to the end of the year for most of us (we only have 9 more days of school left) which means that half of my brain is already starting to plan and prep for the beginning of next school year.  I always like to reflect at the end of the school year and think about two things:

1.  What tools or ideas did I use in my classroom this year that went well?

2.  What things do I want to change for next year?

I am sure we all have things we want to change for the next year.  I know I always do.  I like to change things up a bit from year to year, but I want to tell you about something I think went well in my room.

One thing I did this year that I loved was our new school wide behavior system.  I have posted about it a few times on my blog, but in case you are not a follower of my blog yet I will explain it.

We have six school wide rules and each rule is associated with a particular color.  For example, talking is yellow.  Therefore, if a student is talking in the hallway or talking while the teacher is instructing, the student will be asked to move a talking (yellow) stick.  We teach the students the colors and within a week my students knew which rules were which colors.  Here is a picture of my rule & stick area in my classroom.
  


Each day I would chart which sticks were pulled.  Throughout the building there are many
different ways that the teachers are collecting their data.  Here is how my data chart looks:



{This is a chart from September…..It was the only one without the students’ names}

What I like about the way I am charting is that it is colored coded just like the chart.  I am a visual person so it is easy for me to quickly glance at the chart and notice something like “Wow, I see a lot of purple on the chart for this week.” 

At the end of two weeks (because that is how many days fit on my chart), I tally how many sticks each student moved on the right hand side and then at the bottom I tally how many of each color were moved for the class.

We analyze this data for a couple of things.  First, to see which classroom rules we should
focus on with the entire class and we also use this data to place students in social skill groups with our school counselor. As you can see from my chart above, talking was a BIG issue at the beginning of the year.  105 talking sticks in a two-week time frame!! I can tell you that seeing that seeing that data right there in front of me was more powerful than just thinking “Man, my students have been really chatty lately.” 

As a result, we really focused on raising our hand, being quiet in the hallway, etc.  At the end of October, my students had only moved 67 talking sticks. 
That was a HUGE improvement. 

I can also tell you that my little kinder baby who pulled 34 sticks in that two-week time frame started going in a social skills group right away.  Her behavior has improved dramatically as well.  She rarely has to pull sticks now.  I think having the counselor look at her data and focus in on those areas she was struggling with was the key.

We look over our students’ academic data all the time….why not start doing the same with their behavior data?

I really encourage you to collect data on your students’ behavior.  I have always kept a record of their behavior in years past, but never before have I sat down and really, truly looked at the data.  I have to say that overall this has not only helped me as the teacher, but also my students.

Here is a freebie behavior graph for you so you can start charting your class behavior.



Thanks for stopping by to read my post on Nicki’s blog and thank you Nicki for having me!  If you are interested in my blog, please click on the button below to check it out.  I would love for you to “follow” my blog if you like what you see!