Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Adventures for the New Year

I'm so excited about this new blog I've gotten involved in. Erika from The Honey Bunch has started a new blog called The Best Endings (You can check out the button on my sidebar.). This blog is all about books which are some of favorite things. I love to read and am always looking for new books to read. Anyway, check out my post over at The Best Endings and all my other blogging friends who are contributors.

TheBestEnding
Speaking of reading books, I'm reading The Daily 5 on my kindle. I've read almost the whole book. I still have 2 chapters left. I can't wait to start this new adventure in my classroom. I've taken copious notes and I've been working it out in my head. I have a few questions for those that use Daily 5.
  •  Are there other Kindergarten teachers out there who use Daily 5? (Any of you live in Tennessee so I can come observe.)
  • Do you do any other literacy centers or do you just use Daily 5?
  • Where does your basal fit into Daily 5 or do you abandon it all together?
  • How much time do you spend on Daily 5 each day?
  • Do you do other writing workshop time?
  • How did you set up their book boxes the first time?
  • If you do this in kindergarten, what kids of materials do you use? It isn't always easy to find on level reading material.
Right now I'm just going to work on introducing Read to Self. Once that gets going I'm really wanting to introduce Read to someone. I'm not sure about the other components yet. I will have my students again next year in first grade and I think I can definitely get it all up and running then.
This is the idea of how I want this to be structured:
1. Mini-lesson on Comprehension skill with a read aloud
    A session of Daily 5
2. Mini - lesson on Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
    A session of Daily 5
3. Mini lesson on Writing and Grammar
    A session of Daily 5
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to fit in some fluency practice. I attended this great workshop about fluency and I'm super excited to try some of his ideas. I hope to post something about these ideas in the future. I'm thinking that Read to Someone and Read to Self might be the best ways to fit in fluency practice. This would also tie into the kinds of things kids have in their book boxes.  I would appreciate any advice, suggestions, or tips that you have. I would love to have someone to bounce ideas off of so if anyone is interested in that, please let me know. Leave me a comment or email me kheinrich9@gmail.com

Friday, December 30, 2011

100 followers Giveaway

I'm so excited that I've reached 100 followers and right before the new year. I've only had my blog for about 6 months and it has changed so much about the way I teach. I have really come to love this community that I've become a part of. There is so much support and so many great ideas out there. I'm excited to continue this journey into the new year. So to get the new year started off right I'm having a giveaway.
You can win a lanyard and lotion all hand made by a friend of mine who has a craft shop here in Gatlinburg. The name of her shop is Rocky Flats Pottery and she makes awesome stuff. She's willing to make a lanyard with whatever colors you want. I have a purple one and love it. Although my id is broken in half so I haven't been wearing it as much.

You can also win my Cupcake Math pack from my teacher's notebook store.


Here's how to enter.
1. First entry is to just follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me you follow it.
2. Another entry can be earned by following my Teacher's Notebook store.Leave me a comment tell me you made it a favorite.

3. A third entry can be earned by liking my friend Alison's store Rocky Flats Pottery on Facebook. Click here to like and then tell me that you did so by leaving a comment.

The contest will be over on Saturday January 7th. Happy New Year and Happy blogging!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

11 in 11 linky party


I'm super excited to get to participate in this linky party finally. After going to church last night, I'm finally able to share my exciting news. 
11. Favorite movie you watched
I have no idea what my favorite movie watched is. I haven't seen The Help yet and I feel like the only person out there who hasn't. It's on my netflix list. Chris and I watch a lot of super hero movies. I really liked Captain America.

10. Favorite TV Series
I love Burn Notice, Closer, NCIS, Madmen, Criminal Minds. Are you sensing a pattern here? I love crime shows and spy shows. My fiance (did you catch that change in how I'm referring to him?) banned me from all murder shows during the holidays. At least when he was around. I've still watched a lot of these shows when he's not around. I'm like Mrs. Coe at Little Miss Kindergarten and really like Jerseylicious too. 


9. Favorite Restraunt
Mellow Mushroom is probably my favorite. Or Little Tokyo. They know Chris and I at Little Tokyo because we frequent it so much. 


8. Favorite New thing you tried
Part of me wants to say blogging but it's not really a new thing. I've been blogging for a while but this is the first time I've been really successful at it. Well, I think it's successful. I'm only one follower away from 100. But I think creating materials for my class and sharing them with others is my favorite thing I've tried. I really enjoy creating new materials and using clip art. I wish I was artistic enough for creating my own clip art. I haven't been that successful selling anything but I hope that people have used my freebies and it's helped them in their classroom.


7. Favorite Gift I received

On the Friday before Christmas, my boyfriend took me up to where we first went on a hike and proposed to me. It was the best Christmas present ever. He picked out the ring all himself and it was perfect. We had a very busy Christmas of telling his family and my family. We don't have any dates set yet. His parents are leaving in a couple of weeks to be missionaries in Africa. I don't think I can wait for them to come back. I'm ready to get married to the love of my life.

6. Favorite thing you've pinned
I pinned a lot of different things that I loved. I enjoyed making some of the things I've pinned for Christmas presents. I also enjoy trying different recipes I've found. This is my favorite recipe I've pinned and made. 
They were delicious. This is a pin of my favorite craft project I made. I didn't quite follow the directions on it but I was making bracelets instead. I made several of them for Christmas presents and they were a big hit.




5. Favorite Blog Post 
I really don't know what blog post is my favorite that I wrote. I just write about what is going on in my classroom in hopes that someone can benefit from it.

4. Favorite Accomplishment
I think my favorite accomplishment is just being willing to try to new things in my classroom. I've been working really hard on being positive this year and trying to be a positive influence at my school. I started a prayer group at school and I'm pretty proud of that. I think it's helping to create a more supportive environment amid all the changes and difficulties we're faced with as teachers.

3. Favorite Picture
This is the other love of my life my sweet niece Sophie. She's 16 months old and is the funniest, sweetest child I've met. I love her to pieces. She's a lot like me. It cracks me up. She loves books, paper, and is fiercely independent. We have had a ton of fun playing together this Christmas. 

2. Favorite Memory
My engagement is going to be one of my favorite memories of my life and this year. I'm also just loving this past year that I've spent with Chris. We've camped, hiked, eaten and just spent a lot of time together. He's the best thing that has happened to me. He believes in me and supports me through all the new things I'm trying. My brain is always going 90 to nothing about school stuff or church stuff. Chris does a pretty good job trying to keep up with all my random thoughts.

1. Goals for 2010 
I've already posted my New Year's resolutions. I hope to get more organized this year, try Daily 5 and run more.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Goals for the New Semester!

There are several linky parties I'm wanting to partcipate in. I can't wait to do Kristin and Hadar's 11 in 11 party. But my answer to some of the questions I still can't share in the cyber world yet. (I know I'm being really mysterious and I don't want to be. I'm busting at the seems to share my great news with my blogging friends.)
So I've been wanting to post about my goals for school for the upcoming semester and I thought I'd join the party at A Teacher's Treasure and include my resolutions in general.

My personal  resolutions are:
1. To start running again and get healthy. My mom and I are joining Weight Watchers in January and I miss running a lot. So I'm not setting a weight loss goal but just trying to get healthy. My stomach has hated me the past few weeks with all the junk I've been eating.
2. To get organized and clean. I have pinned a ton of things on pinterest about cleaning schedules and being organized and I really need to get on it. I've lived by myself for the past 8 years and now that my boyfriend spends a lot of time at my house I need to do a better job of keeping things clean.
3. To have quiet time in the mornings - I was doing really well with reading my Bible and praying every morning before school until the last week of school. I just need to get back in the habit. It's the best way for me to start my day.
My professional resolutions are:
1. I want to start Daily 5 this semester. I downloaded the book on my brand new kindle on Christmas day and I'm almost half way through it. I plan on introducing a little at a time in hopes of having the structures in place when I have my kids in first grade next year. 
2. Working on writing workshop type of structure in my class as well. I have been slowly adding in more writing in my class and I hope that this will tie in with Daily 5 as well. 
3. Tailoring lessons and groups more to my students' needs rather than trying to do what is always expected of me. I want to really use the common core to guide my instruction and where my students are at.
My blogging resolutions:
1. To blog 3 or 4 times a week.
2. To offer a freebie once a week
3. To create a unit for Teacher's notebook every 6 weeks ( I have not been successful with Teacher's notebook so far but I need to finance my addiction to buying stuff.)
I'm only 5 followers away from 100. Once I reach 100 followers I plan on having a giveaway. So if you're just checking me out and not a follower yet, please consider following me or at lease leaving me a comment. I love getting comments.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Top 3 Blog post of 2011 and Holly Bloggy Linky Party

I'm joining the linky party over at Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas about my top 3 blog posts of the year. (Really it's 6 months. I've only had my blog since July.)

My top three posts are all from other linky parties.
1.Color Week Activities  _ There are a variety of activities to use when teaching colors with some freebies included.
2. Recipe Linky Party from Growing Kinders. - This was my first linky party I participated in. Aww. This is still one of my favorite quick recipes. So check it out if you are looking for something easy to make for dinner when school starts back.
3. What's in my School Bag linky party - This was one of my favorite linky parties from The Inspired Apple. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone had in their teacher bags.

I'm trying to post a little more often and I still have some exciting news but I can't share it yet. I had the best Christmas as an adult this year. I loved what I got from my Holly Bloggy Christmas partner. It was Hadar over at Miss Kindergarten. I can't find the pictures of what I made my blogging partner, Stacie Guerra. I made her a sign, some binder clips, book marks, and a Christmas ornament. I hope she loved it. I don't think she has a blog. I really enjoyed participating in this fun. I especially loved winning the new blog makeover. I love it!
 Check out Kindergarten Korner to see what everyone got.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas to All!

I have some exciting news I'll be sharing after Christmas is over. So be sure to check back after you enjoy your time with your family and friends.

The border is one From the Ponds and the clipart is from scrappin doodles.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Recipe Linky Party

It is obvious I'm on Christmas break since I'm participating in linky parties two days in a row. Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade is having a holiday recipe party. She made a cute recipe card to use. So I'm including my recipe for a cheese ball. This is something I kind of made up using a friend's recipe. Hope you enjoy. It's easy and yummy.



Check out the other recipes at Rowdy in First Grade.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Currently

Today is my first day of Christmas break! And of course I still woke up at 7 am. It takes me about the whole break to be able to sleep in. We had a wonderful party and day yesterday. My four moms that came and helped did a wonderful job with the food and the games. One mom made these awesome cake pops and I might have overdosed on them and other sugar. I had quite the sugar hangover by the end of the day. I decided to try to participate in Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade currently linky party.
Check out Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. She's a brand new teacher and has great ideas. 
Also check out the other currently posts at Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Awards!

I'm still dreaming of Christmas break. Only one more day left, thank goodness. I plan over the break to post all about this awesome and incredible workshop I went to yesterday. I got so many new ideas my head is spinning a bit. Once I get it all processed, I'll be sure to share.
But I wanted to post about the awards that I recently got. Lauryn at Paste and Pearls awarded me the Sunshine Award. I've already followed all the rules for that one but I wanted to say a big thank you to Lauryn. It really makes my day to get these awards. I love this world that blogging has opened up to me and my teaching is definitely improving everyday.
Wild about K awarded me the Liebester award. Thanks so much for the award. Here are the rules:
  • copy and paste the award on your blog 
  • ♥ thank the giver and link back to them
  •  reveal YOUR top five picks and leave a comment letting them know
  • hope your followers will share the love with them :)
Here are my five newbie picks. Enjoy!!
So check out these great new blogs. I've already starred lots of their post to refer to later. I think I can make it one more day! I guess I'm going to have to. I really feel for all of you that have to go til Friday. Wednesday is a reach for me. 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Dreaming of Christmas break

I'm super jealous of all those that are already out for Christmas break. I still have 3 days next week. Friday I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. The kids just got more and more wild as the day went on. We spent the morning doing some crafts. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend's stepmom coming and help. We decorated gingerbread cookies, decorated the foam gingerbread men I found at Target, with assorted dried beans, made Christmas cards and ornaments for their parents. It was a busy busy morning. Luckily I had some extra hands helping me. The best part of the day was where our Elf set up shop. Rainbow had set up a tent and was drinking hot chocolate and reading a Christmas book. (It was my wonderful boyfriend's idea and he came in and set it up.) The kids were so excited and they did so good not touching the tent. One of my teaching neighbors came in to check out our elf and the kids freaked out because they were afraid she would touch him. This has to be one of my new favorite Christmas activities. I can't wait to have kids and do it with them. I have to go to an inservice day on Monday about phonics and fluency instruction. I'm not thrilled about leaving my kids the week of break but I am required to go. I feel for my sub on Monday.
I am spending today doing some Christmas gift crafting. I've been working on ornaments mod podged with scrap book paper, paper clip book marks with bows, binder clips for organization, jewelry, a way to display my Christmas cards, and a sign for my boyfriend's father. I'm covered in mod podge and my house is a wreck. Eventually, I need to wrap everything and clean up but I needed blogging break. Here are some pictures of our crafts yesterday and some of my crafts from today.
This is the Christmas card holder I made. Just ribbon and scrapbook paper and clothes pins.

Our elf after climbing the rope to the flagpole.

Rainbow camping.




Bookmarks

Scrapbook paper, mod podge and ornaments

Present for one of my teaching friends

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A grinch or just a pragmatic!

Every year the local Rotary club has a Christmas party for the more needy kids in the school. They leave during lunch time and come back with a clear, plastic bag of toys. Anyone guess where I'm going with this? Today was  that party. I had 3 kids go. No big deal . The other kids didn't really say much about it. The kids were sent back to my room while we were at recess and they wandered around the school looking for us. Luckily my first grade teacher neighbor grabbed them and kept them with her. I told them to put their toys by their backpacks and not to talk too much about it with the other kids. We didn't want to make them feel bad for not getting to go. Things went pretty well until there was about 20 minutes left of the day. They kids were all packed up and sitting on the carpet ready to play a game when it all went awry. One of my little boys freaked out over the other kids having presents. He didn't understand why they had presents and he didn't. He didn't understand why they got to go to a party and the whole class didn't get to go. He yelled "That's not fair." And part of me completely agreed with him. I really wasn't sure what to say. This is my fifth year going through this so you'd think I'd have something to say by now. But this is the first year, I've had a kid get so upset about it. I finally pulled him outside the room and told him that these kids didn't have a lot and one of them didn't even have a Christmas tree (That's another story.) He seemed to understand but now I think he felt bad. So to make up for it, I let all the kids that didn't get to go to the party go to the treasure box in my room. That seemed to help smooth some things over. During bus duty, I had a parent ask me if the kids carrying the white plastic bags were undreprivildege because he knew for a fact one of the kids with the bag was not. I didn't really know what to say. All I said was I had no control over who gets to go to the party and I don't. I don't even get a say in who goes from my class. So this whole experience brought up a ton of thoughts and questions for me. I couldn't help but think of confidetiality of these kids who are considered needy. Then what about the kids who don't get to go. I think what the Rotary does is wonderful. They are trying to fill a need. It is just difficult when it happens during the school day. Do you schools have any events like this? How would you  have explained it to the upset kid yelling It's not fair? I couldn't help but agree with him a little. And then feel a little Grinchy for being annoyed by the whole thing.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

This week in Ms. Kerri's Room

I'm having a much better week this week. I think an attitude adjustment on my part has helped. Last week I was so cranky and the kids were awful. This week (I know it's only been 2 days) has been a lot better. I think it helps that we're doing a review week in reading. We started our Gingerbread Unit this week. This is the first time I'm doing this unit with my kindergartners. I only had the standard gingerbread books, then Stinky Cheese Man and the Runaway Tortilla. But last week I placed a Scholastic order and added to my collection. These are the books we're reading this week: The Gingerbread Man (Jan Brett), The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Stinky Cheese Man, The Runaway Tortilla, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Pirates. We have to go to school 3 days next week so we're going to continue reading them. My kids have been so excited about it. When I told them Monday what books we were reading, one of my more enthusiastic students exclaimed, "Oh Man! This is going to be Awesome!" We're then making a chart to compare the stories. Currently the chart is just a table on my promethean board. But after seeing some really cool anchor charts out there, I might have to spruce mine up a bit.  Friday the kids are going to decorate a real cookie and we're making a bean gingerbread man. I took the foam gingerbread men from the dollar section at target and a bunch of beans I've had for a variety of things and turned into this week's art center. Here's my example:
Elf on a shelf update. Monday Rainbow returned from the North Pole. The kids were worried he wasn't going to come back after they had a rough day on Friday. I had my best inspiration for a place for him yesterday. He was ziplining on a ribbon from the light to the flag pole. The kids went crazy over it when they came in. But during center time he fell. It was awful. The kids were freaking out hoping he was ok. Luckily while they were taking a bathroom break he climbed back up on the flag pole. It was a close one. Tomorrow, my boyfriend thinks Rainbow should be camping in a tent. We will see. He wants to set up his big tent. I think maybe we should just make a small tent for him. We've been writing in our Elf journals everyday and it's a great opportunity to work on some writing skills. I'm trying to train them to be more independent writers and sound words out. It's working out ok. But I can see I need to work more on some writing instruction after Christmas. Does anyone else have a list of things to implement after the break? (I'm thinking that's a whole post in itself.)
Anyway, I leave you with a picture of our Elf Rainbow. How's your week going? We have five more days of school before the holidays and I can't wait.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mischeivious Elf and other random things

Oh my. It has been quite a week. I started out cranky and it has just gone down hill from there. As much as I'm loving the fun holiday activities, I'm ready for a break and then a regular schedule. My kids have been wild as can be. There are have been a ton of teachers out this week at my school for various reasons. Some were at a workshop that every math teacher in the county has to attend and then one of my fellow kindergarten teachers was sick. There were not enough subs so it's been pretty chaotic. Our Elf on the Shelf made his appearance on Tuesday. It cracked me up how taken in all the kids were with him. We are using the journals from Kreative in Kinder's Elf on a Shelf pack and the kids are begging to use them. I plan on doing a post that shows all the places our Elf, Rainbow, was found. But currently my sister has my camera. My mom, sis, niece and I decorated cookies yesterday and my sis needed to get some pictures off my camera for Christmas presents. That was a lot of rambling. I think this post will be full of rambling. Especially since I started in Friday and am just sitting down to try to finish it. So here's a rundown.
  • I made some marshmallow reindeer pops for my kids yesterday. They were a pinterest find. They turned out pretty cute. I really struggled trying to attach the pretzels so some of them look like derranged bunnies. But luckily I teach Kindergarten and they will love them anyway. Our Elf is going to leave them for them one day this week. (Don't have a picture but hopefully will add one later when I get my camera back.)
  • Friday we read this book about the Snowbelly family's Christmas that I had gotten from Hallmark once upon a time. We then drew our own snowman families. They turned out pretty cute. It was good labeling practice.
  • I fell in love with some cardinal scrappin doodles clipart. It's christmasy but some of it is just wintery. So I took some of the wintery and made calendar pieces for January. This is my first attempt at this. If you can use it, click here. Be sure to leave me some comment love.
  • I still have this week and three days the next week. So we're tackling different versions of the gingerbread man. Check back later this week and hopefully I'll have some more freebies for you.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Help Needed!

I have recently tried my hand at creating some units and have a ton of ideas for other units I want to do and have some units in the process. I have  Teacher's Notebook store but I have no business. Hadar at Miss Kindergarten gave me the tip to show a few more picture of what I have in the unit. I thought that was a good suggestion and made sense. I was wondering if anyone else out there had some tips like that for starting successful Teacher's Notebook store or TPT stores. So I have a few questions that I could use some answers to. If you have some tips or answers, please comment and then I'll turn this into some kind of guide for others. I love the teaching blogging community and how helpful and encouraging everyone is.
  • What is your favorite program to create units on?
  • How do you turn multiple pages into a jpg?
  • How do you decide what to charge for your units?
  • What kinds of activities seem to sell the best?
I love to create things to use in my class and love to share them. The only reason I'm considering selling my stuff is to pay for my habit of buying more stuff. I love to have new units and ideas to use in my class. But spending $10-20 each week is getting a little out of my budget. If you can offer any wisdom or answers to these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. I hope to compile any tips or hints into a blog post to help others.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

New Blog Design!

I know I've already posted today but I have to post again. I won one of the Holly Bloggy Giveaways for a new blog design. And it's up. Alicia from Dreamlike Magic got it all installed today. I love love love it! I am obsessed with butterflies and it is all butterflies now. So if you're looking for a new blog design check Alicia out here. I'm so excited about it and I could just stare it all day. Lame I know but it's the little things in life. Back to getting my work done so I can leave school and go to the store and blah blah blah.

One of those days

Yesterday I started a post on how cranky I was and how I didn't want to do anything. No idea what made me so cranky but it didn't help that my kids were not on their best behavior. My sweet boyfriend took me to dinner since I was cranky. Although he says he didn't want me to cook because he was afraid I would poison him. Maybe I should rethink that sweet comment.
We started Elf on the Shelf today and my kids have been so cute. While I was reading the book, one student was waving at the Elf the whole time. I let them vote on the name and they chose Rainbow.  I just purchased Krystal at Kreative in Kinder's unit Elf on the Shelf and have printed out some activities to use. I love love her units. She has some journal pages in it that I'm making into a book for each students. I have a few other ideas of what the elf can do. Hopefully this will help improve their behavior for the next 12 days of school. I'm not sure I can take it if it doesn't. My crankiness will just reappear. And I'm not sure my boyfriend can take that.
I'm really enjoying all this Scrappin Doodles clip art I've been purchasing. I think I might be obsessed with clip art. Now that I have a license to share some freebies on my blog I've got a couple of things to share with you. One is writing sheet. We're using it with a Christmas Word List I found over at Busy Bees. They make the words using magnetic letters and then use the words to write sentences and draw a picture. There are 2 different versions. Click here if you're interested. Please leave me a little love if you can use it.
I really don't know how all you wonderful bloggers out there do it. I can't seem to finish one unit that I have ideas for. I have all kinds of ideas in my head but I can't seem to get them produced. Oh well. I'm still working on a letter detective pack. Maybe I'll finish over Christmas break. I'll be offering a freebie of it sometime this week so check back with me.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Holly Bloggy Christmas!

I am definitely in the Christmas spirit. I finished my decorating on Thursday and then started crafting on Friday. I also put up my Christmas tree at school and plan to start Elf on the Shelf on Monday. My students were terrible on Friday. I found myself saying things like "I hope Santa's not watching because some of you might be getting coal in your stocking." I about made myself laugh. I was determined to find the Elf on the Shelf this weekend when my boyfriend and I went shopping. But my wonderful assistant principal came to my rescue. She offered up her daughter's old Elf. So my class will be receiving a package from the North Pole on Monday. I hope it helps or I might not make it.
Here are some of the things I've been crafting this weekend:
I decorated some glass ball ornaments for some of my fellow teachers.

This one is my favorite. I put paint inside the ball and then let it drip down. It took a while but it looks cool. One of the first grade teacher got married on Nov. 11th so I put her new name and the date on their.

An up close of the ornaments. I just need to add the ribbon to them. 
I made one of these for my Holly Bloggy partner. Not sure if I'm suppose to tell that or not. But oh well.
The next project I worked on was pinterest inspired. The paperclip bookmarks. I found some large silver paperclips at Target so I painted them with craft paint and added some ribbon. I'm not quite done with all of them

Another pinterest inspired gift, were some binder clips. I mod podged a few labels on them. I want some of these for myself.

I also painted a class sign for my Holly Bloggy partner but you'll have to wait til after Christmas to see it.
Saturday, I spent some time at Target and Hobby Lobby  getting some crafts for my students and I to do. I truly have the best boyfriend and he puts up with all the craft store trips. He even helps me pick things out for the kids. I found an ornament to make with their pictures and got the materials for making reindeer bell necklaces. I plan to have our Elf on the Shelf bring the material for the necklaces on Friday. I still have quite a few pinterest inspired crafts to make before Christmas.
What are you crafting this holiday season?
 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sight words, crafts, and new blog design excitement!

More randomness brought to you by Ms. Kerri. I have completely forgotten to share the fact that I won last weeks Holly Bloggy Giveaway of a new blog design. I can't make up my mind on which blog design I want yet. But I'm super excited to be getting a new design. I've been wanting one for a while but I'm too cheap to buy one. So be on the look for a whole new look and button.
I have a couple of favorite holiday crafts. The first is a reindeer made out of the kids hands and feet. You trace one foot with brown paper and then their hands with either red or green. The kids cut them out and then add googly eyes and a pom pom for the nose. It makes a cute craft. I don't have any pictures because it's been a while since I've done this one. But I plan on the kids doing it next week in the art center.
The second favorite is a present for the parents. You need glass ornaments. I usually buy mine  after Christmas at 75% off for the next year. You paint their hands white and they hold the ornament. It makes five little snowmen. Once the ornament dries, they can use sharpies to decorate them. (They think that's really cool.) I usually add their name and the year on it.

Those are my favorite crafts to make with the kids.
Now on to the sight word sheet I promised yesterday. My students got to use markers yesterday to practice writing their sight words. They thought they were pretty lucky. We of course had to discuss the rules of using markers and how you have to close them and hear the click. It was good practice and it kept them engaged. It is getting harder and harder to keep them focused with December and Christmas right around the corner. So click here to get the freebie. If you have some other words you would like, just leave me a comment and I'll try to make some more. It was pretty easy.

I'm considering one of these Elf on the Shelf activities to get me through the next few weeks. Not sure I can get it together in such short notice but tomorrow being December 1st we'll be starting our Christmas book unwrapping activity. I'm feeling a little crazy about it but I'm thinking of putting our tree up on Friday. Not sure if I can handle it or not. We will see. When do you usually put your tree up?

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

cupcakes, christmas, and sight words, Oh My!

I have so many things to post about that I couldn't think of a clever title. My cupcake unit is finally posted to Teacher's notebook. So if you enjoyed the I have, who has cupcake edition, check out my unit. You can get there by clicking here. It's only $5.00. I haven't sold anything so I would be ecstatic if I did. Anyway, enough of my shameless self promotion. I have been using the activities in my own class this week and I've learned a few things. So if you do purchase my unit let me know. I have some pointers.
I'm so excited about Christmas. My boyfriend and I put my tree up yesterday and it is beautiful. I've always had an artificial tree but this year we got a real one. I've never been able to handle a real one on my own. I think I'm going to bring my old one into my class and set up. I saw this idea on pinterest about wrapping up books for everyday in December. I loved it and decided to adapt to meet my class needs. I took all my Christmas books home yesterday and plan to wrap one for each child. We have 16 days in December that we're in school but I have 18 kids. So a couple of days, we'll do two books. I might have to cheat a bit and pick out the one I wan them to unwrap on certain days. So to join in the Linky party on TBA (only a day late), here are some of my favorite Christmas books.




My favorites since childhood are The Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Sweet Smell of Christmas. I can remember my aunt reading these stories to me as a kid. When teaching Christmas Around the world, I love the Tomie DePaola books. We usually read the legend of the Poinsetta and then make our own to go with it. Olive the Other Reindeer is a new classic. I stumbled on in a Scholastic book order one year. Olive looks a lot like my parent's dog, Ellie Mae. So it has become a new family favorite.
I'm linking up with TBA. Check others favorite Christmas books. 
The sight word part of this post is going to have to wait until tomorrow. I created a rainbow writing sight word sheet with a little Christmas clipart. Check back tomorrow to get your freebie.

Christmas Week

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Cupcake Math Unit

I know that Christmas is just around the corner but I'm not quite ready to jump into a Christmas unit yet. In our reading series, we're doing the letter C. I plan to read the book If you give a Cat a Cupcake. That book along with some cute cupcake clipart from Scrappin Doodles inspired me to create my first real unit. I started it Wednesday and finished it today and have been trying to upload it to Teacher's Notebook. Not sure why it's not cooperating. But here's a freebie from the packet. I've finally gotten a license from Scrappin Doodles to offer some freebies on my blog.
Cupcake I have, Who has numbers 1-20 
 Leave me some comment love is you download it. I will hopefully have the whole unit up sometime this weekend. Still recovering from my stomach bug, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Hope to have some more freebies from some other units I'm working on this week.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanksgiving and the stomach virus

My Thanksgiving break started a little bit earlier than planned. We had school Monday, Tuesday, and then a half day today. I woke up at 4 yesterday with an awful stomach virus and was out yesterday and today. So I feel like a total failure in the teaching about Thanksgiving department. We were going to make turkeys yesterday and bracelets to go with Dr. Jean's Thanksgiving poem. I have no idea if any of this was done. Then today we were having a feast and I was suppose to make pilgrim hats for the kids. The ones that Tamera made with her kids out of fudge stripes and marshmallows. But alas, no luck. There was no way I could make anything with food. My fever broke at about 1 am today and I'm feeling a little better. I'm still pretty dehydrated and haven't eaten a bite. Hopefully I'll feel better by Turkey time tomorrow.
I have big plans to work on some activities over my break. Luckily, I have the best boyfriend in the world and he went by the school to pick up my laptop and reading teacher edition so I can do my lesson plans. So I've started a cupcake unit that I hope to have finished and posted to my teacher's notebook store and maybe some freebies before Monday. I've already got a few activities under my belt. My problem seems to be I have too many ideas and can't focus long enough on one to finish. So Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope no one else out there has the awful stomach virus I'm getting over. I'm so thankful for all of you!

Monday, November 21, 2011

What I'm thankful for

I'm joining the linky party at What the Teacher Wants. I have so much to be thankful for I'm not even sure where to start.
1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?
  • for all my students. They make me laugh and smile everyday with their excitement about learning.
  • For the supportive community I live in. I'm so lucky to be a part of a school where the community is so supportive. 
  • My coworkers and adminstration
  • My promethean board and document camera. I don't know what I'd do with out these.
2. What person are you most thankful for?
  • I can't pick just one person. I'm so thankful for my parents. They are super supportive of everything I do and my class.
  • My sister who is my best friend who is always willing to help me and my students out
  • My boyfriend, Chris. I'm so thankful I finally found my other half. It took a long time to find him but it was worth the wait. He listens to me ramble on and on about school and blogging and lets me drag him around to different places so I can recreate what I saw on someone's blog. He's my number one supporter. 
  • My niece Sophie who amazes me with all she has learned and how smart she is.
See I said I couldn't pick just one.
3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
  • Rowdy in First Grade - Jennifer helped me so much by answering questions I had about all kinds of blogging related stuff.
  • Can Do Kinders - Pam has been so supportive and encouraging with my adventure in blogging.
  • Kinder Kraziness - She happened to list me as one of the blogs she's grateful for but I'm truly grateful for Laura. She's been such a help and encouragement.
Picking only three was very hard, but I tried to stick to it.

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
  • Pinterest - I can get sucked in for a long time on that site but I enjoy every second of it.
5. What are you most thankful for?
That I'm able to worship God in any way I want to and God loved me enough to send his son to die on the cross.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Sunshine Award


I was feeling stressed and tired when I woke up this morning. I didn't want to get out of bed. This week has been exhausting. Trying to finish report card assessments, report cards, a training day, parent conferences, a middle school basketball game, church. Just a lot going on and this time of year it just keeps getting busier. So what finally got me out of bed this morning was Lori from Cacheymama's email telling me she had awarded me the sunshine award. It was needed. I love doing this whole blogging thing. I feel more creative and more into teaching than I have in a long time. But I'm also running myself to death trying to do new things and constantly readjusting my thinking and teaching. So it feels nice to have some think my little blog is worthy of an award.
Here are the rules for accepting this award:
1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.
2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them.

My answers to the questions:

  • Favorite color? Purple
  • Favorite animal? Butterfly Usually by the end of the 2 years with me, my girls in my class are obsessed with purple and butterflies. Their parents are driven crazy by it.
  • Favorite number? 9
  • Favorite drink? Diet Coke, coffee, Chai tea, peppermint mochas from Starbucks (I can't just pick one. I drink all day long something.) 
  • Facebook or Twitter? Both. I like Facebook for keeping up with what's going on in the life of those I love and care about. I like Twitter for amusement.
  • Your passion? Sharing Christ with others and helping youth to develop and grown in their relationship with God. Reading and teaching students to read. I love to learn and I want so much for my students to love to learn as well. I also love my family and friends. I would do anything for those that I love.
  • Giving or getting presents? I love getting the perfect present for someone.
  • Favorite day? Sundays - I love spending time with my church family and my boyfriend Chris and I usually get some quality time in on Sunday.
Now on to nominate other blogs. This is the hard part.
I tried to pick different blogs for this one than I did for the Blogs on Fire Award. There are so many wonderful  blogs out there by such wonderful teachers. These are ones that I've used a lot of ideas from or have been super helpful as I'm trying to explore this blogging world. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Problem Solving strategies

I should be working on report cards right now but I'm choosing to blog instead. I'm sure I'll pay for it later. There is so much going on right now. Report cards go out on Monday and I have conferences on Thursday and today I was out at a math training. I was not looking forward to going to the training because I have so much to get done and I had heard from a 4th grade teacher it wasn't great. But I'm so glad I went. It was really good. Susan O'Connell was the presenter. I didn't know anything about her but she has a book called Introduction to Problem Solving that we got a copy of. She offered a lot of strategies and practical ideas that I can take back to the classroom and use. That's my favorite kind of workshop. The biggest thing I took from her presentation was a method for teaching math. You pose a problem. Have the students think and talk with a partner then bring it back to the group. As you discuss the problem the key is in your questioning. These are good teaching strategies that I know. It helps to hear it again and see it in action.
She used some good literature to give context to the problems that you have the students explore. One of the suggestions was using the book If you give a Mouse a Cookie and have the students explore chocolate chips in a cookie. She posed a problem, then we explored some, came back together and created a chart, then offered some games to play to practice fluency. I loved this idea of tying in problem solving with literature. The wheels in my head are turning on how I can use this in the classroom with books that we're reading in class.
I'm still processing all that I learned but it has me questioning some things about my teaching. We adopted a new math textbook this year and there are lot of people complaining about it. We have so many new things going on: common core, new teacher evaluation and then this textbook. I try not to get tied up in a textbook. I try to use it as general guide and then go from there. Now that I've got these new problem solving ideas and strategies to think about, I think I'm going to find myself moving further from the textbook. I've already been thinking of tweaking things I have been doing with reading. I would like to incorporate some daily 5 but the only way to do that is to cut something out. My time is so limited in the class. I don't know much about daily 5 but I'm hoping to explore some over Christmas break. It will probably mean changing the literacy centers I've been working on. I try to be fluid and change what needs to be changed depending on my student's needs. The literacy centers are wearing me out a bit. I'll think that my kids are getting into a routine and we're making improvements and then they seem to forget everything they know. Maybe I just need to simplfy things and the Daily 5 seems to lend itself to that. Of course all I know of daily 5 is seeing other bloggers.
I have some questions for my blogging friends:
Do you deviate from your prescribed textbook or do you stick to it?
What's the best resource on Daily 5?
How do you balance it all? I would love to seem people's schedules if you're willing to share. I want my classroom to be a place where kids are exploring as they are learning. I want learning to be fun and meaningful.

Monday, November 14, 2011

After school tutoring?

So I had big plans to write this post on Sunday and a few more to get caught up for the week, but my sister called and told me my grandmother was visiting. So I spent the day in Knoxville with my grandmother, sister and adorable niece. I know I'm a little biased but my niece is definitely the cutest kid out there. She's 14 months old and I'm amazed at how much language she is acquiring. She's a little sponge. It also makes me see how those little ones I get in Kindergarten with no language really must never be talked to. Sophie is a lucky girl because my sister stays home with her and she has a kindergarten teacher aunt and a primary principal grammy. So she gets talked to and taught all the time. Anyway, back to my post (that I am writing at 7:23 in the morning instead of being at school because my car won't start and I'm waiting on my bf to come get me:( )
Friday for Veteran's day we had an inservice day. Those are really not my favorite. I would rather be teaching my kids. But my administration does try to provide us with professional development and time for collaboration. One of the things we were looking at Friday was our students who just missed being proficient on "the test" by a couple of questions and trying to target them to move them forward. This got me thinking of my kids that are on the cusp of getting it. They are almost reading but just need a little extra help that they don't seem to getting at home. Another topic of conversation for the day was our economically disadvantaged kids. (Such a great name right). These are the kids that seem to be struggling the most. Not that we needed a test to tell us that. I think most teachers know. It brought us to talking about language and how kids just don't seem to have the language they should. (which made me think of my brilliant niece :)) So all this talk got me thinking about doing some after school tutoring. I looked at my class and where they were and which ones could benefit from extra help. One group that stood out to me was my ELL kids. I have a few that are starting to put things together for reading and I think if they had a little extra help they might just get there. The other group that stood out were the ones that are so eager to learn but just need a little extra one on one time.
We don't have any kind of tutoring program at school. I was curious if anyone out there in my blogging friends did? I think eventually we're going to try to write grants for some funding for after school tutoring but until then I'd like to do some on my own. I would love to hear about any kind of programs others do. How do you help those kids that need just a little extra push?

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Ms. Kerri's Busy Kindergarten was sooo busy this week!

For a four day week, we packed a lot in. I'm not even sure how we had time to do all we did. In our reading series, we read the book Duck on a Bike by David Shannon. I love this book and so did my kids. We read it Monday and Tuesday and practice retelling. This was the first time we've done retelling with partners. I was really proud of how well they did. I modeled it using the document camera and one of the students helped me. We then wrote our own sentences about other vehicles duck could be on and the sentence I see duck on a __________.



Here are some of the student's work. (I remembered to take pictures this week.)

We continued with our David Shannon author study by reading No, David and David Goes to School. Then we talked about character and did a character map of David. Mostly my students came up with all the negative behaviors of David and decided that they didn't want to be like David at all. I had planned on having them draw their own pictures of David and writing a sentence to describe his character but we just ran out of time.
Here's our chart we made. My drawing skills are definitely improving. :)
Inspired by the mentors, Fran at Kindergarten Crayons is doing in her class, I talked to one of my friends in fourth grade. She and I decided to give it a try. So Wednesday was our first try at reading buddies. They came in to read to my kids and then my students picked a book that they wanted to read. It was really neat because several of the fourth graders were students from my first loop. It was so cool to see how far they've come with their reading. My first loop, I had a Hispanic girl who really didn't make a ton of progress but most of it was due to language issues. She's super sweet and she's always come back and told me how she was doing. Well I have a student this year who reminds me of this former student. They were paired up together and it was so neat to see my former student teaching. To me it was definitely worth the effort. I'm hoping that my fourth grade teacher friend thought the same thing. We haven't had a chance to talk about it and where we see it going.


I had originally planned on reading the book Alice the Fairy by David Shannon and comparing the characters but I decided at the last minute (Wednesday afternoon) to do some Veteran's Day activities. I bought Kim Adsit's pack and went to town planning some activities for Thursday since we had inservice on Friday. I couldn't find any books for such a short notice but I did find a video on United Streaming that did the job. We watched that and talked a little bit about the military and Veteran's day. Then we labeled a hero, did a brace map on the American Flag and made our own flag. I had planned to have the kids write thank you letters and to do a tree map about soldiers. But we had a program and ran out of time. I'm still going to have them write thank you notes and draw pictures. The teacher next door to me has 4 daughters and 2 are serving overseas and 1 just recently got out of the military. She plans to send a package to her daughter in Kuwait and we're going to send our letters with her. If you haven't checked out Kim Adsit's packet, you should. It was well worth the $4 or so that I spent. I still have a few activities I want to do this week with them. The ordinal numbers and spinner activity look good. We'll see if I can find time to do them. We're also starting our farm unit this week. It fits well with our reading series theme for the week about food and where it comes from. I bought DeAnna Jump's unit and I'm super excited about doing some of the activities.




We were very busy this week and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. I haven't even thought about what Thanksgiving activities I want to do. There are so many good ideas out there and packs I'm interested in. I don't even know where to start. What's your got to do Thanksgiving activity you're planning? Maybe that will give me some ideas.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What I'm loving Wednesday!

Last week, I shared a top 10 list of what I loved about blogging. 10 was a little ambitious and I think I might have just said the same thing over and over. So this week I'm sharing my top 5 ideas that I've gotten from other blogs that I use and love.
1. Math Journals from Mrs. Wills. I've blogged about these several times before. They are my favorite. My students like them and they don't take a lot of time. I also can reinforce skills we're working on already and stretch some of my higher kids with a little higher order thinking. We're already writing addition problems and using that vocabulary this year. I don't know that I've ever introduced it so early. But it makes sense presented in this format.
2.Fran at Kindergarten Crayons Sight words to Rock your room packet. Not only do I use her activities but they've inspired me to create some of my own that are very similar to her stuff. I haven't offered it on my blog because I feel like some of it is a direct copy of her stuff.
3. Ms. Miner's Popcorn word packet. She uses the same reading series so our words are the same and we call them popcorn words too. Love this resource.
4. Carpet Bags from Kindergals. I call mine gear bags but I love this idea. It works so well for the class. I just tell them to get their gear bags and then they can get their materials out from there. I think it makes things run smoother and more efficiently.
5. There isn't one source for all the thinking maps that I'm using now. But I credit blogging with the great ideas, I've gotten for thinking maps and graphic organizers. I've been using the tree maps a lot with a variety of subjects. I think it's helped my kids think about different topics and organize their information.
So those are my top 5 favorite ideas or products I've gotten from blogging. What is the best idea you've seen that you use?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Peek at my centers this week!

Last week was the first time, I had my students go to two different centers a day. It went much better than I anticipated. The goal is to have 16 centers and only have to change things up every two weeks. I only do centers 4 times a week. Fridays we usually do different kinds of centers or science activities. Currently I have about 10 centers going and I'm about to add 2 more. I have been trying to add them a little at a time. So here's what we're doing this week with a few freebies thrown in there.
1. Play dough center - I've been having the students make different letters and words. I have a recording sheet in a previous post but I'm noticing I need to change it up a bit. So this rotation, I'm going to add some cookie cutter letters and have them make their popcorn words that way. We'll see how it goes. You can click here for a copy of the recording sheet I made. You could use this if you use letter tiles or some other way for students to make words.
2. Stamping center - I've updated it using new sight words and some color word sheets from Work Smart Not Hard in Kindergarten. 
3. Math Game - Right now they are just working on using counters to make different combinations of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. They shake the counters and then draw it on a whiteboard. Eventually I'll add a recording sheet but right now they are still exploring.
4. Math Exploration - They are going to be making a number book from Fran at Kindergarten Crayons. I found it this summer and can't find the exact post. She has awesome things if you haven't checked her out. The kids will use bingo counters to make the numbers in ten frames.
5. Promethean Board - They do a center of flip charts that we've already worked on as a class.
6. Computer - They can go to www.starfall.com or another game we have a license with.
7.Reading corner - Surprisingly enough my kids love to go to this center and I have nothing too special over there. I have some pointers they can use to find words they know and big books we've read. This week we have Mo Willems books and David Shannon books. Last week we were working on Mo Willems and this week it's David Shannon.
8. Listening center - I'm using an old ipod and they can listen to two different stories. I'm wanting to add a recording sheet element but I haven't had a chance yet.
9. Write the room - I created a sheet for the kids to use to record different words they find around the room. The get to use clipboards and wear silly glasses so they are happy. I would share the sheet but I haven't bought the license with scrappindoodles yet but when I do I'll be sharing it.
10.Art center - They are creating an i with scraps of paper and glueing them down.
11. Writing center - We are working on a class book to go with Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus. I made a sheet for the kids to add to and draw another vehicle. I also made a picture dictionary of transportation words.  Class book for Pigeon and Vehicle words
My last center was going to be a science center but it hasn't all come together yet. I have a "brain" in a jar they were going to draw and observe. I might still be able to get it together but we haven't modeled using the recording form yet and I usually like to model first.
That's the plan for this week in my classroom and my centers. Check back later this week to see how they went and maybe I'll remember to take some pictures.