Warm Up

A new display is up in the hallway and I think it turned out super cute!  I talked with my little friends about how they were going to be recommending a book to others.  We thought about some of our favorite books and then turned and talked to our partners about what book we would recommending warming up with and why.  Students were then dismissed to their seats and given the writing paper. It worked out better for my friends to do the writing before the craft.  Once finished writing about the book they recommend, they assembled their mugs with hot chocolate and marshmallows. I printed everything on colored copy paper.  I had everything precut for them to make it go smoother.  Once finished they glued their writing onto their mugs.  

Click the picture to get the FREEBIE file BUT be warned that things are all over the place in it!  Hopefully it's not too confusing!  

Welcome 2016!

Well hello friends and Happy New Year to you all! Now that the tree and decorations are put away and I have a lot of extra time on my hands (more to come on why in a moment), I realized that I have not connected with my blogging buddies in quite some time and I've missed you all!

Gosh, it has been way too long since my last post. Life gets so busy and crazy...and I don't know about you, but sometimes it's just about all I can do to keep my head above the water! It is easy to get overwhelmed trying to be everything to everyone. Nothing makes me happier than being a wife, mom, teacher, friend, sister, TP-er, blogger, etc. but sometimes it is necessary to take a step back to regroup, refocus, and recharge!

This winter break I learned that lesson even now more than ever! You will NOT believe what it took to force me to finally slow down. Let's just say it literally took my feet from being knocked right slap under me to give this gal a wake-up call! Can you keep a little secret if I fill you in on my latest shenanigan?! You see, sometimes I forget my age and get caught up in the fun around me and get a tad impulsive....well actually, a LOT impulsive!!! My friends and coworkers can vouch for me that I really am still a kid at heart! After all, you're only as old as you want to be...right?!? Enough procrastinating already...I'll go ahead and spill the beans! As fate had it, I took a VERY short spin on this season's hottest toy....the HOVERBOARD...and you guessed it...I had a very nasty #hoverboardfail! In fact, that very painful fall left me with a very painful broken wrist! :(

This past Wednesday I had quite an extensive surgery to repair my "destroyed" left wrist. It required some metal hardware: a plate, some screws, and pins. But the good news is that I'm put back together and now on the road to recovery. I'm not even going to sugar-coat it...a broken wrist and wrist surgery is quite painful yall! Needless to say, I have done quite a lot of lying around, catching up on my favorite shows I had on DVR, checking out my favorite bloggers, and enjoying some amazing meals that has been delivered to our home by my sweet family and friends. In the midst of it all, we've been blessed!

With that being said, I'm so excited about 2016!!! It  is going to be a year of balance, focus, new creations, and success-both at home and school! I can just feel it! I've spent the last week brainstorming and making major to-do lists! I'm pumped up about being the best me that I can possibly be. Slowing down has forced me to examine areas in my life that I must work on. I don't want to set unrealistic goals for this new year, because I know me. If things don't end up as planned, I really beat myself up about it. So I've settled on three areas I can commit to focusing on this year: working on my health with cleaner eating and exercise, blogging and reconnecting with my amazingly talented teacher friends, and creating some new effective products that I can use and share with you guys too!

Happy New Year, friends and pray for a speedy recovery!!! :)

Talk to Me Sweetheart!!! Conversation Heart Activities

 Every Valentine's, without fail, those little candy conversation hearts show up in the boocoodles! I don't really like to eat them.  They remind me too much of cough medicine.   I have found lots of fun ways to use them in the classroom though!

Spread "Sum" Love

Students use the addition workmat to solve the addition sentence and record on the recording sheet.

Students count out the number of hearts shown on each ten frame card and fill in the ten frame with that number.

Students count how many letters are on each heart and graph the hearts in the column with that number.

Students use these cut out hearts as counting mats and place the correct number of candy hearts on each one.

Students use candy hearts to measure how each paper heart and record the number of hearts it takes on the recording sheet. 

Students can sort the conversation hearts by color onto the sorting mat.  There is also one with a white heart instead of blue.  It will depend on which brand of hearts you get as to which one you need.

Students estimate how many candy hearts they think it will take to fill up the heart on the paper.  They write their estimate and then use the hearts to see how many it actually takes.

All of these activities and more can be found in my newest packet:  Talk to Me Sweetheart!  Conversation Heart Activities. 

Sight Word Help

Here's a quick and easy intervention to help those little friends that need extra help mastering those sight words.  This definitely works best with a small group of students... 3 or 4 at the most.

Choose 3 words that they have not mastered.   Write those words on a poster board or large sheet of paper.  Tell students that they will learn 3 new words.  Begin with the 1st word at the top of the board - and.  Say "this is and" while pointing to the word and.  Then say "say and" and have students repeat it back to you.  Continue for the other 2 words.  On the first day with this intervention tell students to find a word.  Continue until all words have been found and covered.  This will help students recognize the words.  The next day you will begin working on having students identify the words.  Point to a word on the board and ask a student what the word is.  If the student can read the word, they can cover it with a "duck tape coverer thingy."  Whatever color they choose the first time is what they use the rest of the time.  I like to use these because they don't tear or crumple and instead of writing on the board and having to throw the board away you can keep it to use over and over again.  If they can't read it go to the next friend. When all the words on the board are completely covered you can count and see who read the most words.

Here's a close up of the duck tape thingys.  I just cut the duck tape and fold in half.

If you need some other sight word activities to use in class, then you'll want to check out this Write the Room Sight Word Bundle for January, February and March.  It includes the 12 Write the Room themes you can see in the picture below.  You'll save BIG purchasing this bundle and right now it's on sale for even more...$7.20.

Science Project Labels

It's that time of year again!  SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT Time!  As a kid I loved doing science projects.  As a parent.... not so much.  My hope is the following product makes it super, duper easy to create a great science project display.

Here's a peek at a completed project using the labels included in this product. 

 

And here is an upclose look at the labels.  The design for these features a bright pink chevron background with blue cloud header and multicolored text.

 

Did I mention that the title cards are editable?  That means you can type your title and print and keep the uniform look for the display.  

This is available for $1.00 and can be found here.  I'm working on other color designs now and will be uploading them to my TPT store soon. 

It's That Time Again! B2S Sale 2013

 Sign Credit:  Dragonflies in First

It's that time again sweet friends .... Back to School Sale time!  Use code BTS13 to get 28% off at my store today and tomorrow.  Happy Shopping!

Boho BIrd Classroom Decor

This year I decided to decorate my classroom with the Boho Birds by Carson-Dellosa.  I loved how there were alot of primary and bright colors that I thought would be great for my kindergarten classroom and I love how it has turned out so far!  Here's a little peek inside my classroom.

 

 I have 2 bulletin boards on either side of my big white board/promethean board at the front of my room.  I decorated them both the same.  One will serve as my calendar board and this one will most likely be used to display anchor charts.

 

I bought the Boho Birds Birthday Set and used it to decorate one of our bathroom doors.  Thank goodness they fit perfectly.

 

 

Coming up with a behavior system to keep with the theme was more challenging.  I ended up using pieces from the Boho Birds Bulletin Board Set  , Boho Birds and Birdhouses Bulletin Board Set , and these bird cutouts.  I attached each little birdie to velcro.  I'll write everyone's name on a bird and each day they will start at the green birdhouse and move down to the next branch if needed.   And YES there are 27 little birdies because that's how many little friends I'll have next year.  That is if no more show up to register:)

 

Here's the outside of my classroom door that you see when you enter the room.

I reused my trees from last year and replaced the apples from last year with birds.  
 

 

On my back wall I have my word wall.  It's hard to see in this pic but each piece of colored paper has a letter above it.

I'll use these in my cubbies.  I made the name plates and added the bird stickers to each one.  
 

Here's a view above the board at the front of my room.  A letter set, number line and classroom helper cards are displayed.  Students' names will be added under the job cards using magnetic tape.  It's an editable file so you can insert your students' names if you want to check it out here or by clicking the product pic below.