Friday, January 31, 2014

Fill Your Heart With Freebies Blog Hop

Day 4 of no school. Cabin fever has set in. Roads are clearing, ice is melting and it's supposed to be 63 degrees for Sunday (then drop 20 the next day). Roll call---Who else is ready for spring/summer???

Well February is here. This month is one of my most favorite months to teach, but also the busiest!! With Valentine's Day, President's Day, Groundhog day, Black History Month, Dental Health Month, the 100th day.......how in the world do we fit it all in???

So in order to help you out--a great bunch of gals got together (& they included me! :) for a little freebie blog hop with an awesome prize at the end!!


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I hope that you can find some awesome freebies to use this month and follow our blogs along the way in order to win an item from our stores.


I'm offering up a Winter CVC Hide & Find. I love using these with the kiddos. It's a great review (especially to see who can/can't read these words with the strategies we've posted), but it's also a great time-filler as well.



I have a pocket chart hanging on my easel at school and I fold it or unfold it depending on my needs. I place these cards in there. Here is a picture of my Apple Hide and Find from September.
The students had to read the word in order to check behind the card to see if Johnny was hiding. If so, play again. If he is not, then turn the card over (as seen in picture) and continue.






So I'm offering up a Winter CVC Hide & Find for you!  Click on the picture to take you to the freebie.


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-CVC-Hide-Find-1089649



You'll find the next stop on the hop at Brittany's blog--Lovely Literacy and More

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a Rafflecopter giveaway


Oh, and if you visit Teacher's Notebook---make sure you check out their HUGE sale this weekend!! 10% off anything you buy--NO PROMO CODE needed. Many sellers are offering their entire store on sale along with the extra 10% that you'll get from TN.

I'm having a HUGE sale over there----40% off of everything + the 10% that Teacher's Notebook is offering. 

It starts tomorrow and runs through Monday!! (PS--they are also having HUGE gift card giveaways too....)





I just uploaded a new Beginning Sounds Bundle Pack.....what a labor of love this has been this week. It'll be on sale as well! Over 90 pages of beginning sound fun!


http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/nickit/beginning-sounds-bundle 

And my best seller is on sale as well (or grab the bundle for extra savings).

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/nickit/sight-word-find-and-practice

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/nickit/sight-word-find-amp-practice-bundled-pack-sets-1-amp-2
 

Teacher's Notebook site will be down tonight starting at 9 pm in order to gear up for this HUGE sale!!! But head over now and wishlist some stuff. You can't beat the savings!!




Thursday, January 30, 2014

Snow/Ice--Over it! Huge Sale Today ONLY & Arctic animals

I have seriously been a horrible blogger lately. Sorry about that friends! As we all know, the weather has been crazy, insane, and up and down everywhere the past couple of weeks. So because of that, it's been crazy busy here! :)

*All hands raised if you feel crazy too!!** LOL

In between two-hour delays due to freezing temps to getting out two hours early and it's 60 degrees (b/c it might snow that night) to now sitting here snowed/iced in since Tuesday-----this gal is OVER IT!  and thank goodness that my DIBELS testing was finished last week. A lot of friends of mine haven't finished their testing because of all of the craziness.

I haven't taken a lot of pictures b/c well...we haven't been at school long enough to take anything new! :)

I have/had all of those awesome plans to do this week with Arctic animals but oh well.....so I'll share some awesome videos and websites with you that maybe YOU can use in your classroom if you are working on Arctic/Polar animals as well!

San Diego Zoo is almost always my go to when I'm teaching about various animals in the classroom. These photos are from San Diego Zoo. Link is below.
                                               Arctic Fox
                            


                              http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals/mammals/arctic-fox


Also, the Creature Features section over at National Geographic for Kids is amazing!

 
Here's the link for Walruses.

Here's the link for Harp Seals. 
  

Here are a few videos I saved to my school playlist to use as well! (We are able to FINALLY access YouTube at school and it's great for stuff like that!)

This has to be my favorite!!!










Oh and TODAY ONLY!!!!!

                                                                   GO HERE


And if you are a fan of my FB page and you like and share my status that shows this sale, you can be entered to win my NEW pack that I'll have finished and up tonight!!



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

MLK Writing Activity

Today started off with NO internet at school---which means NO benchmark assessments could be done...ugh.
Then due to the threat of inclement weather, we dismissed 2 hours early. It finally started snowing at 8 pm!

And it's still snowing. We have a two-hour delay tomorrow, we shall see if that will change or stay. Crazy North Carolina weather (it was 59 degrees at 1:00 pm today!!!) and now it's snowing.

But while we were at school we did get to do a MLK directed drawing from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business. 


                                  FREE Martin Luther King Directed Drawing


We did these last year too but only did the pictures. This year we added sentences. Turned out so cute.

 A princess....she finally finished after the picture was taken.





 a police officer



 doctor
 
 







Sunday, January 19, 2014

Martin Luther King freebie

For those of you that will teach about MLK, Jr. on Tuesday (if you are off tomorrow) and need a quick activity, I created one today that is easy--just print and go.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Whats-Your-Dream-A-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Quick-Activity-1067407


Of course, while we are learning about MLK, Jr., we talk a lot about what his dream was. I talk to the kiddos I work with and explain that I wouldn't be able to be their teacher wayyy back when or even now if things had not changed because of leaders like MLK, Jr. (They are shocked about this...)

So we begin to discuss what his dream was and how things have changed and what else could change. I always ask the kiddos what their dreams might be because even in kindergarten they have one!

I thought about how some of my kiddos who struggle with writing could show their dream and of course that's to draw a picture. I created this little freebie for you that will allow for each student to depict their thoughts and dreams in writing or drawing. 

Click on the picture above to grab it up for free!


And don't forget that tomorrow is the LAST day for the Snowball Fight Facebook Hop!!! If you haven't logged onto FB this weekend you need to because there are TONS of freebies for free from some amazing bloggers!!



You can't access this hop through the Ipad!!




http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=2189108233&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=3915778&link=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRwcm94eS5nb29nbGUuY29tL35yL0NsYXNzcm9vbUZyZWViaWVzL34zL2RDTE81eG9VcjY4L01hbmljLU1vbmRheS0xLTEyLmh0bWw&frame=1&click=0&user=0

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Snowball Fight Facebook Hop---Freebies Galore!!

Don't miss the BIGGEST Snowball Fight of the Year!!
22 of your favorite bloggers have teamed up to bring you a...

Our forts are built...
the snowballs are packed & stacked...
and we're about to BLAST you with FREEBIES!!

So lace up your boots, pull on your mittens,
and get ready to load up on 'SNOW' much good stuff!!

Hop on over to to the Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten facebook page to pick up my freebie!

Look for this tab on every facebook page to find the next FREEBIE.
(The picture on my FB page will not look like this because of technical difficulties---it says FREEBIE HOP and looks like a gear)
 
Note: You will not be able to access the freebies from an iPad.  


Click the image below to download a copy of the clickable map to find your way to all the 'snow forts'!

The Snowball Fight begins at 10 am CST on Saturday, January 18th.  
But don't delay because the snowballs melt at 10 pm CST on Monday, January 20th!!

We hope you have fun on the hop and find lots of fun freebies that you and your kiddos will love!
Make sure to follow our blogs too so you'll never miss a FREEBIE!  
Thanks for joining our Snowball Fight!!

Thanks Amy over at Happy Teacher Heaven for setting all of this up!!!

Friday, January 17, 2014

A Short Week's Review & Freebie FB Hop!

January is a very busy month with assessments, workdays, and a holiday. Add to that two two-hour delay days because of the cold---whew....how do we get it done? 

This week was a 3 day work week because two of those days were workdays and with Monday being a holiday, we've had to cram a lot in this week. 

I've been busy testing their TRC levels on DIBELS (lots of growth!! woohoo!!!) but in between testing we've been reviewing CVC words using the Mimio.

Here we used Mrs. Leeby's CVC review. The kiddos practiced beginning, middle, and ending sounds. I love these three sheets because I can call on students based on their needs so that they can feel successful when completing their turn.

In this picture, he is practicing beginning sounds. After we completed about 5-6 of these, we moved onto ending sounds and middle sounds. 



 CVC Review

We also had fun creating torn penguins (no scissors here!!) using the idea from Dragonflies in First!



 Sorry they are so blurry!! Ipad pics!


One of our math benchmarks is for students build and draw shapes, including cubes. So of course we brought out the marshmallows and toothpicks and had a blast! (One student asked, "What's a toothpick?") 



 Success!!!



Who's ready for a good snowball fight? Amy over at Happy Teacher Heaven has organized a Snowball Fight Facebook Freebie Hop (say that 3 times fast!)

It starts tomorrow (Saturday) 10 am central time and runs through Monday, 10 pm central time!!!

Be sure to like all of our pages to grab up some awesome freebies from some amazing bloggers!!!


Displaying Snowball Fight Countdown - GO.jpg 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Five for Saturday

Mid-year math assessments began this week and with two TWO-hour delays due to the bitter cold (which we are NOT comfortable with here in good 'ole NC) it's made for a busy week. I finished all of the math and the DIBELS window opens up next week. With next week being a three day workweek (two are workdays) and the next week a four day week.....it's crunch time!

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/

But we've had some fun in between assessments. 

 

Sticker stories!!! This was the first time we created sticker stories this year. The kiddos LOVED them. 






The pencil drawing on the right side of the picture is the satellite that the astronauts work on in space!!!
(He looked at me like..."don't you know this??")


 

Snowflake Bingo with marshmallows!
 

 

 Word family sort. 
 



 

With the frigid temps, we thought it would be fun to freeze water outside and then see how fast it takes to melt the cubes. Well....the water didn't freeze outside. (And it was no higher than 20 on Tuesday and Wednesday). So when all else fails stick the trays in the cafeteria freezer!!







 
We started out Penguin Unit this week and had fun trying to walk like penguins with "eggs" on our feet. 




We also loved watching the Penguin Cam at Sea World (you can change the camera angle too!!) and Monterey Bay Aquarium (twice a day you can watch the penguins get fed).
I also found one at the Columbus Zoo



I am also thisclose to having 300 likes on Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten FB page.
I would love to some flash freebies this weekend if I can get some more likes. I offer up quite a few on FB and I don't announce it here on the blog. So head on over to FB and like my page to stay up to date and possibly catch some freebies!!!