tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57386093655935834402024-03-05T07:01:00.847-05:00Team Johnsona kindergarten blogMrs. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10129880193283863304noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-40781586962235892612013-11-03T22:31:00.000-05:002013-11-03T22:31:57.577-05:00Happy November! Looking Back on Halloween...So much fun stuff, so little time! I have been having a BLAST with my sweet kindergarteners this year! Can y'all believe it's already NOVEMBER?? I wanted to share some of the things we've been up to in October...<br />
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I tried to describe our kindergarten building's really cool common area in my last post, but there's just no way to describe it...here is one angle. All 3 kindergarten classes added spiders and bats to create a SPOOKY Halloween theme! LOVED the "Spooktacular Work" bulletin board set that our teammate ordered this year. It really tied everything together along with the black cob webs! :o) I believe the bats complete with one fact each "I learned that bats..." and the cute spiders came from Deanna Jump's units.<br />
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A mom from my classroom brought in the Frankenstein cardboard piece below that has a cut out where the head would be. Each student could peek thru that cut out or the witch version, and the teachers took pictures of all the students. They turned out so cute! </div>
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Here's the witch art project one of the other classes did. Too cute! I think their very talented teacher assistant came up with the design...I believe they added a glittery wart to each nose. Love it! :o)</div>
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Here is our other kindergarten teacher's door. She had her inspiration from Pinterest, back when Pinterest was just getting started and does this every year. I'm a little jealous because my door opens outward and I can't do this to my door!! Maybe I can figure out a way to create the Frankenstein version that's floating around out there somewhere...either way, doesn't this just make you smile?!</div>
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This is just outside my classroom in the "foyer" as we like to call it. My students and I graphed about if bats are creepy or not before diving into our Going Batty unit. You can also see our pumpkins we carved after pumpkin math...and you can see that most of us think bats are creepy...</div>
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We made a very very very yummy witches brew together. There were 13 ingredients...and because one student happened to be absent that day, everyone was able to add in exactly one ingredient to our brew! I bought a $1 cauldron at Target, brought my wooden spoon, put my witch hat on, and turned down the lights. They had a blast! (and so did I!).</div>
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There is a freebie for the poem, ingredient list, and ingredient bag labels:</div>
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Witches-Brew-162144" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to go to her TPT store and download your copy.</div>
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Then in the art center that week, each student made their witch's feet and cauldron. Under the cauldron flap is a spider, bat, or jack-o-lantern (the students chose what they wanted in their brew!). Here are some more cute spiders and the first of our witches brew art project. </div>
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I'm really annoyed with this...I ALWAYS want to give credit where credit is due..but I cannot find the teacher's blog or TPT where these patterns came from. My teacher assistant created and modified this for us, but it was directly based on someone else's adorable project. If you are reading this and you know where this came from, please leave a comment below or email me!! </div>
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Back to our bats...we kept some of our bat facts in our classroom to decorate and remind us of what we learned.</div>
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Feeling inspired, I created a schema anchor chart for day #1 of our bat chats. I introduced the word "schema" (told them it was a very important college word...they were so proud of themselves for remembering what it meant!), and we also learned what a "misconception" is. They were excited to find new bat facts to put into our "new learning" box. Even after I took this picture, we found more interesting facts about bats!</div>
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Our little man was a sock monkey for Halloween! He walked around saying "oooh oooh ahhhh ahhhh" in his monkey suit. I could just eat him up!!!</div>
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And a big congratulations to my dear friend Joelle and her fiance Michael. We celebrated their engagement this weekend and had so much fun! We wish y'all the very best and are always here for you!! :o)</div>
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Okay, I promise this is my last little side note...handsome and I have made a music choice change. Our once country music-rich household with a little bit of rap/hip-hop mixed in (I HAD to listen to the Weekend Blast Off on the Ace and TJ show every Friday just to be able to sing along with Ice Ice Baby, Run DMC's Tricky...really, you name it, I was boppin' my head to it)....we have decided to listen exclusively to praise and worship music. Our pastor's quote from last month was "Turn the crap off and the worship up" ...and I cannot say enough about how it has already started changing little things in my life. Right now my favorite song is <i>One Thing Remains... </i>so I'll leave y'all with this...it makes my heart smile! :o)<br />
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...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-9961463058855546072013-09-01T13:18:00.002-04:002013-09-01T13:18:38.220-04:00Classroom Tour 2013-14Happy Labor Day Weekend!<br />
Who has two thumbs and is excited to have a 3-day weekend? THIS GIRL! ;o) .......I know, I know...it's totally corny, but I'm in a corny kinda mood for some reason.<br />
I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but just in case I didn't...I moved classrooms this summer. It is my 3rd time moving in 7 years, so I felt a teeny bit prepared to make the move. Although even the mere thought of moving all of my <strike>CRAP</strike> wonderful array of teaching tools makes me cringe and have major anxiety every time. I have that teacher hoarding gene where when someone is giving their old stuff away, I can't stand the thought of it being thrown away, and I take it thinking that I can find something to do with it later on down the road. It's a great way to inherit great stuff, but it's also a way to accumulate as much stuff as a 30 year retiring teacher!!! With lots and lots of help from my assistant and the custodians, we packed every last pattern block and book away and moved it across campus to my beautiful new-to-me room in the kindergarten building! Home at last!! :o)<br />
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We went with a color scheme this year: aquaish, lime green, and black. I ordered all of our borders to coordinate as well as, well, just about everything else. I'm digging it so far. I think it adds a calmness to the craziness of kindergarten! ;o)<br />
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Feeling a little silly about it now, but I made sure to take my yearly night before kindergarten photos of our room and then didn't get a chance to blog. That was 2 weeks ago. So, without further ado, I give you our 2013-14 kindergarten classroom...<br />
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Okay, pretend like you walk into the kindergarten building. There is a large center room with all of our blue cubbies. The three kindergarten classrooms open up from this center room. When you walk up to my room, there is a little alcove (my assistant and I joked that it is our foyer and we were going to put her desk out there so she could act as our secretary). Here is our alcove with a storage armoire, entry table, and our owl tree...</div>
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Then as you walk in our official front door, straight ahead is this view:</div>
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(The curtains were my August project and turned out better than I thought they would! I'll post about them a little later...) All of this furniture was in the old room, but this rug was left behind! Love!!!</div>
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If you stay standing at the door and turn left, you get this view:</div>
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(student tables and my teacher area in the back...LOVING my storage!!)</div>
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Better angle:</div>
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New behavior chart:</div>
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(I made the green thing on top and the color cards, classroom rules are from another teacher...linked in my last post)</div>
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STILL standing at the front door, turn right, and here's what you'll see:</div>
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(Remember my last post and the brownie points? That's them along with a few other great Pinterest finds like the labels and class motto)</div>
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Loved how this turned out! I simply typed up the words "teacher helper," etc. and glued them to the pink paper. One of our K teachers had the letters for Helpers and is letting me use them.</div>
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View of my assistant's desk and the art center. MORE FABULOUS STORAGE!</div>
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More curtains...and my wonderful parking spot outside: about 10 steps from the back door! </div>
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{Spoiled Rotten}</div>
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View from my teacher area:</div>
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Grandma's rocking chair and my updated calendar meeting area:</div>
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Future word study/writing center in the little alcove in our room:</div>
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{Definitely needed the curtains so we can close them when other children are playing on the playground during center time!!!}</div>
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Computer/Listening Center:</div>
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{I think I'm going to switch this with the word study/writing center so we can utilize this bulletin board a little better}</div>
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So that was the set up two weeks ago...this is an updated picture from Friday. We put up the word wall and the alphabet cards that go with our reading series. Also, the blinds in our room only go down that far, so the sun shines in our eyes first thing in the morning on the carpet. Did some switching around and trying the rocking chair on the other side of the room. HOWEVER, I do not like my back to the front door, so I need to find a solution fast!<br />
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New arrangement:</div>
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New word wall and some student work:</div>
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Do you have a suggestion on what I should do with the big windows in the morning? I'm thinking about asking for another set of blinds to put on the bottom of the window.<br />
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Thanks for checking out our room! Hope your school year is going well so far! :o)<br />
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...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-33112939146875040932013-07-30T13:32:00.002-04:002013-07-30T13:33:11.625-04:00Happy Students, Happy Parents, Happy Teacher, Happy ClassroomHello all! Summer is just ticking away!!!! Where has it gone?? For us, it's gone to the beach, to the mountains of NY state, to the river, to story hour at our local library, to the pool, it's gone on walks, to cookouts....I guess it's gone a lot of places, so I can't complain one bit! :o)<br />
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Teachers, do you feel like you start a new job every August/September? I was reflecting on the <strike>anxiety</strike> excitement of meeting a new group of students each year, and how, to me, it's like beginning a new job every year. Each August I spend at least 3 sleepless nights before the first day of school going over my checklists and supplies in my head. I reflect back on the previous first days of school and try to squeeze every ounce of what-was-successful and what-FAILED...I'm already starting to do that now...make it stop! :o)<br />
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The real reason for this post: today I want to talk about classroom management. Duh-duh-duuuuummmmm!!! Y'all, I swear I have used a different form of classroom management every single year. Some have worked - eh. Some have worked - okay. But nothing has really struck me as the perfect method. Even what we used last year...it just wasn't the right fit for that group. It was a great theory...but just didn't work.<br />
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I'm kind of convinced that the entire system of rewards in general just doesn't work. See, my goal is to teach children (or reinforce) that you behave in the classroom (and everywhere) because it's the right thing to do and you just have to do it. I cringe when there's a promise of a reward just because they did something they were already supposed to do. Take the rule of Respect, for example. You're supposed to respect your teachers. and other children. and all adults. PERIOD!!! I don't believe a child should get a sticker or prize for being respectful. I know, I know...there are many conflicting opinions on this subject. But in my personal opinion, children are going to grow up into adults. If you expect something in return of your good behavior, what kind of an adult do you turn out to be? Would you want to hang out with someone like that? Would that person be successful in the workforce? If you are a teacher who does the rewards system in your classroom, and it is working wonders for you, then I don't diss you for doing it. Especially in some of the schools in my county, there are children who have no idea how to behave because they were never taught to. So rewards, for them, at first, may be necessary. However, in my school and in my past 3 classes, the students have already been well groomed in the areas of respectfulness, waiting their turn, etc. So I don't have to teach them HOW to do this...I simply play off of what their parents have already instilled in them.<br />
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** Okay...stepping down from my soap box. ;o) **</div>
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I have always used the color system in my classroom, just in different forms. Last year I made this:<br />
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Y'all have seen this before...not new...totally borrowed from everyone else with the color system. Start on green, move up to purple for being superb, go down a color for breaking a rule, blah, blah, blah. Every week that a child was on either green or purple all week, s/he would go to the treasure box and get to pick a ticket like these:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Tnr-3-axGU/UffrS8kAeeI/AAAAAAAABgg/AEYVOpnNb-0/s1600/prizepasspic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Tnr-3-axGU/UffrS8kAeeI/AAAAAAAABgg/AEYVOpnNb-0/s1600/prizepasspic.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://first-grade-fever.blogspot.com/2011/08/welcome-to-my-classroom-pictures-my.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to go to First Grade Fever to download your free copy</div>
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They were really fun! Stinky Feet was a favorite (some of my little girls painted their toes in honor of using their stinky feet card! :o) And all of that was working all well and fine, but do you know what happened? They started doing extra little things just to go up to purple and get a reward for it. And once they were on purple, the extra wonderful behavior stopped, because there was no where to move up to after that. Just thinking out loud...am I crazy for being annoyed with well behaved children???? ;o) Do you understand what I'm annoyed about? Please someone stop me if this is ridiculous!! LOL...<br />
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Now for the consequences: We had certain things that would happen if the students went down a color (time away, limited or no recess, etc.). No matter what color a child was on, if it was blue or worse, a note went home. Every time. Yep, y'all heard right: every time a child misbehaved, no matter what, we sent home a note that had to be signed and returned. To make it more time efficient, I sent home something like this:<br />
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<a href="http://www.adsit.net/Download_Files/2002_01_idea.pdf" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to download (I don't know who this is made by...just found it by googling)</div>
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PARENTS: ***If any of last year's parents are reading this, and you have feedback good or bad on the frequency and content of the notes, will you please email me? I would love to hear how you liked/didn't like them.<br />
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For what it's worth, I think we sent home 20 notes total last year. If even that many. I don't recall a day where a child went past yellow (the second offense). And there were maybe 2 times someone went to yellow all year. We just didn't have behavior problems like we've had in years past. I don't know whether to credit that to the notes that made parents immediately aware of any could-be problems or whether our class was just that great.<br />
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We also use the Brownie Points system that is floating all around Pinterst. I made "brownies" (googled "brownie clip art" and printed a bunch and then made a sign in Word) and laminated them and put magnets on the back. Each time they received a glowing report from a resource class teacher (meaning not even one child got in trouble), they earned a Brownie Point, and we stuck one up on a cookie sheet at the front of the room. When they earned 12 brownies, we did something special. The students voted on what they wanted to do. Some rewards were Picnic Snack (we ate snack on blankets outside), Shaving Cream Party (I brought shaving cream, and let them play with it on their tables), Movie Party (they got on their rest mats all together at the front of the room and watched a short episode of Shawn the Sheep on my Netflix account), etc. So really all rewards were either free/fairly inexpensive, and they all had tons of fun with each one.<br />
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<a href="http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brownie-Points-250648" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to download brownie images and sign for $2</div>
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** THIS YEAR'S PLAN **</div>
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I found this over the summer and LOVE IT!!!!<br />
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<a href="http://www.funkyfirstgradefun.blogspot.com/2013/07/classroom-rules-and-motto-freebie.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to go to the original blog post, and download your copy. Check out her other posts too - love her!! This is from Kimberly Gillow at Funky First Grade Fun.</div>
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I haven't decided on whether to have anything displayed other than these two rules and the class motto that goes along with it.<br />
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I'm definitely keeping the Brownie Points. For the sake of our resource teachers if not for anything else!! ;o)<br />
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So questions: What works in your classroom? Should I use rewards for the very best behavior or bag it? Should I make a new display besides the color system that's a little more simplified? Keep the old one? Wait and see how this class's chemistry is? Any and all feedback is welcomed!!! :o)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-31176594615105934362013-06-08T16:43:00.000-04:002013-06-08T17:20:44.673-04:00Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes......How Do You Measure A Year???<br />
Not even going there. Not EVEN going to mention how I haven't blogged in over a whole year. Definitely not going to mention that my sweet baby boy is going to be ONE YEAR OLD in two weeks!<br />
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...In case you were wondering...I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, happy, sweetest-ever-in-the-whole-world baby boy three weeks after my last blog post (looking back at my last post, it kinda looks like something bad happened since I didn't say anything after 36 weeks of pregnancy...). Thank goodness that's not the case! I've just been blogging-lazy and very busy with kindergarteners and a brand new (not-so-brand-new-anymore) baby. Definitely not even going to show you a picture or two... ;o)<br />
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One of our first family pictures! (Is it inappropriate to mention that Nate was born intervention free? (like, no pain meds, not even an IV...just a mama, a very supportive daddy, an exercise ball, and a TENS unit!)...I'm just one proud lady that we planned all of that and it actually happened the way we wanted!<br />
For some reason, looking at this picture, I had some great memories pop back into my head...anyway, thanks for allowing that side-bar! ;o)</div>
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Newborn pic...Go Pirates! :o) </div>
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Nate at 11 months (during the Tropical Storm Andrea)<br />
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First time playing in his new pool the day after the TS</div>
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Now that I've got that off my chest and out of my system...WELCOME TO SUMMER, BABY!!! This has been my first full week of summer home with my sweet little man. Let me just tell y'all....I had the PERFECT class this past year. All I do now is sit back and just marvel at how wonderful a year we had together. I had 14 students - 7 sweet girls and 7 lovable boys. I would take any one of them home as my own child. And their parents! Y'all, let me just tell you about their parents! Anything we needed...anything AT ALL was done almost before we asked. Laminate cut, word study games glued and cut out, take-home-books sorted and stapled. My class mom was the leader behind the most wonderful parent cohort ever!<br />
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THIS is the dream class...this is about 2 minutes after the last parent left our classroom. You could have heard a pin drop!!!! Seriously!!! My assistant and I were literally standing in the back of the room pinching each other trying to get ourselves to wake up to meet our new class. ...we still haven't woken up! </div>
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LOVED our new document camera and projector this year! Made life with few magnetic manipulatives so much easier! Students and teachers alike loved the activities, video clips, and race games played with this throughout the year! ....and I just reminded myself of yet another blog post for this summer! My sight-word powerpoint race. LOVE IT! And hopefully you will too.</div>
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OMG, I have so much to share with you guys and gals! I think I'm going to do mini-posts this summer. I have to share all of my successes (and not-so-successes) from this year! I think I'll start with my behavior management plan from this year and plans for next year...y'all won't believe what I'm going to do! The horror! The nerve! Do WHAT?? ...some of the few comments I'm sure that will roll around in your minds when I tell you what I'm conjuring up for next year! ;o) These sweet children won't know what hit 'em! (okay...maybe it's not THAT strange...but strange for modern day classrooms). That's all I'm gonna say! ;o)<br />
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Mommyhood calls...Nate's trying to tell us that he is NOT going to take no stinkin' afternoon nap today! He's too excited about our dinner guests! :o)<br />
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...be at peace, and all will be very well...</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-17700871558378009272012-06-08T11:34:00.001-04:002012-06-08T11:34:41.691-04:00Behavior ManagementHello, all!<br />
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This is officially my 3rd Friday of summer! We get out a little earlier than the other schools in my area. Today's my handsome's official last day with his students. Yay for being married to a teacher!! It's almost time to start our 3rd summer of love! :o)<br />
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I wanted to show you my behavior management system. I've used four different systems in the past 6 years. This one seems to work the best...but as usual, next year I have a few tweaks to make.<br />
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To understand where I come from when speaking about discipline (and by the way, "discipline" is defined as a way of teaching the consequences to our actions, both good and bad), here is our class philosophy that I wrote this year and kept in the student homework folders. The first two pages are kept in homework folders to remind parents of the rules, what colors mean, and the consequences for the colors. The third page is posted in our room directly above the behavior chart. Feel free to use it or to adapt it to your own philosophy! :o)<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/96421009/Classroom-Rules-for-Folder" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Classroom Rules for Folder on Scribd">Classroom Rules for Folder</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_46747" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/96421009/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-15kwjhahlbo6zqdzxee" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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Each student in the class has a pocket with different color cards inside. Everyone starts on green each day and moves up or down the color system according to behavior. We use a calendar packet that has extra work for each day of the month. The students record the day's color on the front page of the calendar (calendars are adapted from Kelly's Kindergarten <a href="http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Homework/monthly_homework.htm" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to go there!). Here's a picture of our pockets in our classroom...they are attached to the side of my large filing cabinet.<br />
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The way our system works is that you can move down if you break a rule, but then go back up if your behavior improves. I've only done this for kindergarten. In first grade, you didn't move back up at ALL!! But with the color system, if a student has a warning and then breaks another rule, even if s/he improves the day, the highest color s/he can go to is green. Purple is reserved for those students who go above and beyond and do not need any warnings for behavior.<br />
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I will say that the downfall to this approach has been successfully communicating the ENTIRE day to the parents. A student would get down to blue, but then have a great rest of the day and end up on green. Unless it was an honest child, the parent potentially never knew there was a problem. THAT is a problem for me. I feel like it taught my students that they could mess up but then if they corrected it, no one would ever know and they could continue to act out... Did I communicate this to the parents? Yes. Did it improve these students' behaviors? No. Keep reading if you can...I have a solution... ;o)<br />
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I don't know about you, but I LOVE pinterest!! It is so cool! So in my surfing of the site, I found this fabulous tool that I'm going to start next year. I'm going to adapt it to my own classroom rules and colors. PLEASE check out the link to see.<br />
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<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/224124518926249804/">http://pinterest.com/pin/224124518926249804/</a><br />
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If you click it, you will find a wonderful send-home note that is not only extremely informative, but it is super quick to fill out at the end of the day. I didn't have pre-written notes, so I would DREAD having to write out a note at the end of our busy day.<br />
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For next year, I'm thinking that I will create one of these notes for each "bad" color (blue, yellow, and red). They will all look the same as far as the behaviors they list, but the heading will be different. Even if a child is on green at the end of the day, if s/he went down because of a misbehavior, a note will go home to alert the parent. The reason why I love the choices to check on this specific note home is the way it's worded. "I CHOSE to blah, blah blah..." Every single one is "I CHOSE." Because it's true. I (as the teacher) didn't choose to act that way...the child did! No one took control over the student and MADE him/her make that choice... I love the wording!! :o)<br />
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The unfortunate reality is that as sweet and caring and kind and loving and ADORABLE as these children are, they learn to LIE!!! They learn to lie so quickly!!! They are SO SMART, and they totally understand that if they did something wrong at school and their parents find out about it, they are going to get in trouble at home. This sucks!! And they know it.<br />
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I had several students who rode the bus home in the afternoons, and if there was any kind of note in their folders, a select few would hide them in the crease of their seats on the bus! So I started recording notes home on carbon copy paper. However, this paper is expensive...so one of my moms in my class had an absolutely brilliant idea! Listen to this: write a note home and make sure it goes home with the student. BUT, before you put it in his/her folder, take a picture of it with your camera on your phone (don't tell me you can't do this - it takes 2 seconds and is VERY affective). Email or text message it to the student's parent either right that second or after school (I know some schools are strict about cell phones, so you could do that OR ask permission from your administrator). That way, the parent knows something is coming home AND their child has to be responsible to give it to mom or dad. LOVE IT!!! Thanks again to that mom for the suggestion. :o)<br />
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So I think that's it...we go to the treasure box every Friday afternoon. Only the students who had purple EVERY DAY get to go. I'm obsessed with John Rosemond, and he is a stickler for not rewarding bad behavior. It seemed to work well, because we have super great treats in the treasure box, and the students who didn't get to go truly seemed to work harder the next week.<br />
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It's not perfect...if you have any further advice or suggestions, PLEASE let me hear them!! I need all the feedback/constructive criticism I can get!<br />
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...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>
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Oh, PS: 36 weeks preggo!!! Only 2-6 more weeks till we meet baby Nate! :o)</div>
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Pinterest inspired "mobile" above his crib - Handsome worked hard to put these up and I am in love!!</div>
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-60378617762757185082012-04-24T22:29:00.001-04:002012-04-24T22:31:23.294-04:00Happy Spring!!!Remember the "chia pet" heads we made last year? Well, this year, we out did ourselves! This is how they turned out this year...so cute!! ;o)<br />
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<a href="http://sothentherewere2.blogspot.com/2011/06/cutest-project-ever.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to find that post for directions.<br />
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This year, we put velcro dots on the back of our friends' eyes...and also to their puff ball noses. :o)<br />
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Around Easter time, just before Spring Break, we had this as our Word Study Center. Again, it's a free printable from Shannon. The plastic eggs were left over from last year. :o) They LOVED them! I typed up word cards to go into the eggs and color-coordinated them to the color of the eggs. This helped the students tremendously. They spun the egg, read the word, determined if the word was real or nonsense. Then they recorded them on their "Egg Family" sheet.<br />
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Click the button to go to Shannon's page for the free printable...<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-68591184176472058652012-04-24T22:13:00.002-04:002012-04-24T22:13:53.619-04:00All About March...Here's March in pictures!<br />
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Happy 100th Day of School!<br />
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Counting by 10's ice cream cones...<br />
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Counting by 5's to 100...we hid these candies all over the room when the children were at specials. The candies had a circle label with a number on it. The students came back and could each find 5 pieces. They matched their pieces to the numbers on the 100 chart. They had a BLAST...especially when we got to eat some! :o)<br />
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I know we've all seen these...but I LOVE THEM!! Two students at 100...<br />
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Then we made pizzas. We split up into 2 small groups and sorted the pizza toppings. They counted the toppings and recorded them. When finished, they put the toppings all over the pizzas. LOVED IT!<br />
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Happy St. Patrick's Day!!<br />
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(Writing Center)</div>
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Leprechaun Traps...<br />
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Footprints!! He came in through the window and stepped on our art project paint!!! ;o)</div>
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Some of our traps...</div>
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...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-76068822780079794702012-04-24T21:58:00.003-04:002012-04-24T21:59:46.062-04:00All About February...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This school year has been so much fun! My students have absolutely blown me out of the water watching them take everything in. They have come a LONG way since August. I know we teachers, especially kinder teacher, say this around March/April of every year. BUT this time, I REALLY mean it!!</div>
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Here is a "picture snack" of our February main projects/events. ...Well...the ones I got pictures of...</div>
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First, to celebrate Groundhog's Day, we read some of our favorite books and then created this class graph. It was inspired I THINK from Mrs. Jump, but I honestly can't remember...</div>
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Here are our Valentine Cookies! We practiced addition before we learned how to add as a class. They rocked!!! :o)</div>
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This is a complete copy from Pinterest. I mean completely copied. I LOVED how these turned out! These are our owls that we made for our parents for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the "caption" that the students wrote and put right underneath the owl. </div>
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It said "Owl Always Love You."</div>
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CUTE!! :o)</div>
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We practiced letter writing, so I wrote a love letter to my handsome. We talked about the opening, body (which in a love note HAS to include something you like about the person) ;o) and then the rest all of y'al know already...</div>
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I told y'all about Shannon's blog before...Shannon, if you read this for some reason, please understand how much I LOVE YOU!!! For this tired, preggo, kinder mama, you have been a God-send! I know I can't say any of those things to you for sympathy...especially when you were cranking out posts preggo and almost ready for the hospital, but still, THANK YOU!<br />
This is one of Shannon's amazingly cute printables. We used it in our math center when we were learning about money. In this game, the students read the number and then match that many pennies. Then they record their matches on their paper...they tally the amount of pennies on the card and write the number that matches.<br />
Every printable she makes that we use, we print out two sets and mount each set to different colors of construction paper and laminate. This was the light pink set...there was a neon pink set as well. :o)<br />
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February was Dental Health Month. We talked ALL about teeth, and then we did this science experiment. I can't remember where I got the idea from, but it's a great idea!! The experiment is to see how soda affects your teeth. We took eggs and left them all day in small cups filled with Pepsi. That afternoon, each student took his/her egg and observed how it had changed to a brownish color. They discussed what we could do to fix them (one answer included "take them to the dentist! He'll know what to do!") ...I love my job! :o) Finally, they decided that maybe we could try brushing them. We needed a little water, some toothpaste, and toothbrushes. After a lot of scrubbing, they whitened right up!!<br />
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**If you do this, please make sure you hard boil your eggs first. We did it last year, but I had the bright idea to forgo it this year. Disaster!! We had 3 egg casualties. And 3 student casualties (aka meltdowns). So promise me, hard boil the eggs!!<br />
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Oh yeah, I almost forgot! We graphed what kind of toothpaste we use at home...<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-22467101304352504312012-04-24T21:21:00.001-04:002012-04-24T21:21:41.718-04:00MIA...and then some!!Good Lord in heaven....I never meant to completely neglect my poor little blog. I don't know if it loves me anymore.<br />
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SOOO much has happened since December! I'm going to do some picture posts to show what we've been up to for the past how many months?? I literally had to count...it's been FOUR months!! So sorry everyone. Blog, I'm so sorry.<br />
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Anyway, I've been taking pictures along the way with the hope of having the motivation to pick things back up. Thank you to Jessica at http://mrsstanfordsclass.blogspot.com/. She emailed me the other day, and I realized I have got to get in gear! ;o)<br />
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So before my classroom posts, here's a personal post about what's been going on in our at-home life! Remember last time where we're Prego? Well it's DEFINITELY showing now! I am 30 weeks preggo...10 more to go until we meet our little man! That's right...IT'S A BOY!! We went in for our last ultrasound today and got to see his sweet little face! This mommy is in love. No other way to describe it. He has his daddy's mouth...we're still trying to figure out where the rest of his features stem from. ;o)<br />
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Pictures every 2 weeks...starting at 15 weeks :o)<br />
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27 weeks and now 30 weeks!</div>
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Introducing Nathan Lee "Nate" :o)</div>
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(his hand is in his face)</div>
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...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-4934572180244276062011-12-24T11:43:00.000-05:002011-12-24T11:43:17.842-05:00Christmas in July...Merry Christmas Eve, y'all! :o) The pumpkin cheesecakes have been put in the oven for their hour-long warm and toasty nap. The oreo balls for tonight are finished. ALL our presents are wrapped. Starbucks hot chocolate is long gone. I have to apologize to y'all - I have been very sporadic in my postings this school year (I feel like I say this every time I post!)...but the truth is, things have been a little different for this kinder teacher this year. I have to say, I'm very grateful for Christmas Break. I have been exhausted this first half of the year. Surprising as it is, my tiredness has not come from my kindergarteners.<br />
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If you read back to my very first-ever post, you will find out that ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a mommy when I grow up. I wrote that post almost one year ago. We weren't quite ready to make our two-some a three-some back then, but guess what??<br />
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This was our announcement picture! We took about a million of these, and we were going to put up the calmer version, but I laughed to the point of tears every time I looked at handsome's face in this picture, so this was the winner. :o) This was an idea I found, where else?, Pinterest!<br />
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So as the post title says, our Christmas will be in July. I'm due July 1st - officially out of the first trimester and finally getting my energy back! So maybe I'll be able to crank out more posts when we start our week of nothing next week. :o) <br />
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Please, if it's your thing, offer up some prayers for our little lovey. Everything is going great, and I pray and hope that it continues this way. Being "Prego" is awesome! But, it is such a huge responsibility, and I get very nervous about doing everything just right for this sweet little baby. Thanks for all your love!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-11830828436274748072011-12-24T11:17:00.000-05:002011-12-24T11:17:42.345-05:00An Award :o)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5XhoDj7hjCk/TvX3WiuBlPI/AAAAAAAAAkE/pHyk5FOVE7A/s1600/liebster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5XhoDj7hjCk/TvX3WiuBlPI/AAAAAAAAAkE/pHyk5FOVE7A/s1600/liebster.png" /></a></div><br />
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Thanks to <a href="http://mrsfutchsclass.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Mrs. Futch's Class</a> for awarding my blog the "Liebster Blog" award. :o)<br />
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<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Coming Soon'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">The goal of this award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Coming Soon'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">The rules are:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">{1} Copy and paste the award on your blog.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">{2} Thank the giver and link back to them.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3} Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is hard , tried to pick great blogs that did not already have the award! :)</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here are my top 5 Picks...</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><center><a href="http://www.lifesateach.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m511/JenaSnowden/lifesateachbutton.png" /></a></center></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><center><a href="http://kinderkaren.blogspot.com/"><img alt="KinderKaren" border="0" height="125" src="http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i366/dreamlikemagic/button-701.png" width="125" /></a></center></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><center><a href="http://smilescrayonsandendlessstories.blogspot.com//"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_7hUXz82tg_TjG3QwLOcVEdjkrS6033M5PLKycZZ6GiqGJcrUUbN2fmQ2HmvarJEPb4HlZE5cD8lp1KKPre9zwY-Eh_yXEqXgUWNWtTdHqcKXTbdVHC4wX2DfEWG3k9xVNjbDON3L2Y/s1600/bestblogbutton.gif" /></a></center></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://wardswayofteaching.blogspot.com/2011/11/text-connections.html" target="_blank">Ward's Way of Teaching</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://kindercreations.blogspot.com/2011/12/upside-down-candy-canes.html" target="_blank">Kinder Creations</a></span></div></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-83534348425336024972011-12-11T22:40:00.002-05:002011-12-11T22:53:26.366-05:00Amazing Last Minute Printables!Y'all, go to this girl's site. Right now. :o) <br />
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I think I've blogged about her before, but it's worth another look! She is about to have her first baby TOMORROW and just put up a post with all kinds of cute and very free printables to download. Talk about a Super Mama and Super Teacher!<br />
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Anyway, she started her blog around this time last year, so a lot of her cute ideas from last year can also be used now. I've used a lot of her printables for my learning centers, and my students always eat them right up! <br />
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One more blog definitely worth mentioning is Mrs. Cupcake's "A Cupcake for the Teacher"<br />
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<center><a href="http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/"><img alt="A Cupcake for the Teacher" border="0" height="125" src="http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i366/dreamlikemagic/blogs/button-164.png" width="125" /></a></center><br />
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She's having a giveaway right now that is totally worth checking her out. Also, she has some really cute craft ideas and cute items on TpT. Go ...right now! :o)<br />
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Sooo....what's your countdown? Mine is t-minus 5 days left. Last day of school is Friday with a 1/2 day. How am I going to fit all my fun stuff in??? :o) Wishing you all very happy thoughts on these last few days before a well deserved break for spending time with family and friends.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-24667919358715631582011-12-07T17:56:00.000-05:002011-12-07T17:56:05.055-05:00Elf UpdateSnowflake (our Elf on a Shelf) has been so sneaky these last few days... Check him out... :o)<br />
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Tuesday we came in to find him just finishing up a bath in our sink...the water was still warm!<br />
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This morning he had made a campfire and roasted some marshmallows. He's so sweet, he even shared them with us! :o)<br />
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...Thanks, "Santa!" :o)<br />
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Did I mention how much I am blessed? Last year we named our little elf Jingle Bell, and he did his duty of watching and reporting, and then flew back to the North Pole on the last day before Winter Break.<br />
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Our class elf made his first appearance this year this past Tuesday morning. He was hiding on the Christmas tree with his Elf on a Shelf book in the read aloud chair beside it. We read the book together (only 2 of my students didn't know what it was), and voted on a name. His new name this year is Snowflake.<br />
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Then on Wednesday morning, we found him on the top shelf of our Writing Center. He even colored and elf picture for us! He left it under the tree with a letter from Santa the next morning.<br />
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On Thursday morning, he was in the middle of reading one of our favorite books, <u>Merry Christmas, Splat</u>. Some of our other classroom friends were listening to the read aloud! :o)<br />
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Friday morning, Snowflake was camped out in his stocking-sleeping bag, reading his Elf on a Shelf book. We think he really likes to read!<br />
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This was a combined idea of mine and something I saw on Pinterest. Snowflake has brought us some "Elf Kisses" ...can you see him eating one of them?? :o) I'm using these as an incentive...students earn an Elf Kiss when s/he finishes the day on good behavior OR s/he demonstrates an over the top nice behavior to another student or teacher.<br />
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I'll let you know how the elf kisses go. This is what they'll find tomorrow morning when they come in. :o)<br />
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Do you have an elf in your classroom? What is it's name? Go to pinterest RIGHT NOW to get some wonderful and hysterical ideas for your elf. Or just Google "Elf on a Shelf" and go to the images results.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-41659146550004634922011-12-04T18:45:00.000-05:002011-12-04T18:45:03.131-05:00Smiling's My Favorite!...Y'all, we have entered my favorite time of year!! My most favorite holiday of them all is Christmas. There just isn't enough time to get in everything I want to...not enough for all of the books I want to share, not enough for all the projects and fun activities...but we pick and choose and hopefully help to deliver some cheer each year to our students.<br />
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Last weeks centers consisted of the following....<br />
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Art Center (inspired from a pin on pinterest! A Santa's beard Advent Calendar. My assistant made her own version of the patterns, and each student cut them out and put them together. The circles on his beard are a guide to where to put each cotton ball. It's ordered at random like a calendar with doors.<br />
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Each afternoon, my assistant and I put a Glue Dot on the next circle. When they come in the next morning, after they unpack, the students stick their next cotton ball on the correct number. We put them all under the board at the front of the room like this...<br />
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In the Math Center, just because we wanted them to put together this project (we read the book When Santa Lost his Ho, Ho, Ho, and made a Santa that looks just like him)...it's a Santa puzzle - starts out with the rectangles jumbled up. The students have to cut them out and glue them into a rectangle on the red paper to put him together. Then they color him.<br />
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Then in our Word Study center we have a Christmas Tree Beginning Sounds activity. They color the pictures, cut them out, and glue them onto the circle with the beginning sound. It looks like ornaments on the tree. They only put the glue at the very top of the circle, so a flap is created that we can check. I actually created this last year due to a lack of Christmas-cheery educational word study activities (clearly I had yet to discover the world of teacher blogs!).<br />
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Happy Sunday, everyone! :o)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-58080712074930996772011-11-27T22:20:00.001-05:002011-11-27T22:20:48.861-05:00Turkey is All Gobbled Up!Happy Sunday, everyone!<br />
So this blogger is just being plain old lazy! I've been extra busy and extra tired these days...but not when I'm in the classroom (well, we're busy, but I don't have time to be tired in front of the kiddos!). We brought back some great projects for the kinders this year, and we had a blast reading our books and making connections with them!<br />
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Before Halloween, we talked about farms and how scarecrows "protect" gardens...we made these scarecrows and they've been in our windows since the beginning of October. (Thank goodness they don't scare away the birds at the bird feeders) :o)<br />
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Here are some of our favorite Thanksgiving books...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eIHyLuVeCm0/TtL19oAFpyI/AAAAAAAAAgU/U5UfGdOV3Gg/s1600/The-Littlest-Pilgrim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eIHyLuVeCm0/TtL19oAFpyI/AAAAAAAAAgU/U5UfGdOV3Gg/s200/The-Littlest-Pilgrim.jpg" width="182" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68vJRNxzOmM/TtL19IjEpGI/AAAAAAAAAgM/gODrynBv5SU/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68vJRNxzOmM/TtL19IjEpGI/AAAAAAAAAgM/gODrynBv5SU/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mhl2JTN4cLs/TtL19-860hI/AAAAAAAAAgc/Ln0tejHBEFU/s1600/who+will.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mhl2JTN4cLs/TtL19-860hI/AAAAAAAAAgc/Ln0tejHBEFU/s200/who+will.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1X6UFkY36FU/TtL182LGFjI/AAAAAAAAAgE/R6uI_O1_dx4/s1600/40623834.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1X6UFkY36FU/TtL182LGFjI/AAAAAAAAAgE/R6uI_O1_dx4/s1600/40623834.jpg" /></a></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psDXRp-KVsY/TtL18mmnLuI/AAAAAAAAAf8/lkxgWqNgQC8/s1600/5170Z5EVZ1L._SL160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psDXRp-KVsY/TtL18mmnLuI/AAAAAAAAAf8/lkxgWqNgQC8/s1600/5170Z5EVZ1L._SL160_.jpg" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rBFcFlAmcek/TtL18QOhfhI/AAAAAAAAAf0/4joBRehrZRc/s1600/51AfiQqosZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rBFcFlAmcek/TtL18QOhfhI/AAAAAAAAAf0/4joBRehrZRc/s200/51AfiQqosZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">After reading Turkey Trouble and Run, Turkey, Run, we make turkeys with our families as an "At-Home Project." They decorate their turkeys to look like anything else to hide them... (I know that just about everyone in blogger-world does these, but I just had to share mine!!) :o)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Can you find...the ladybug, Santa, 2 football players, Hula Dancer, Ariel, 2 bunnies, "tree turkey," a hunter, The Cat in the Hat, a Native American, and a clown? They did so well with these!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Next, we made turkey picketers much like the Chick-fil-A cows. Here is the banner above them...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
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</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">It came from Mrs. Jump's Thanksgiving Unit. She rocks! <a href="http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/2011/11/pilgrims-and-thanksgiving.html" target="_blank">Click Here</a> to go to her Thanksgiving post on her blog.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;">(Turkeys on the left: "More Pumpkin, More Corn" Turkeys to the right: "More Soup, More Pie.")</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
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We've been working on vowel sounds and CVC words, so we were trying to get them to listen to their vowels when they made their turkey signs - I was one proud teacher! :o)<br />
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Do you know how many school days are left between now and Christmas Break?? 15! 15!!! It might sound like I'm excited (I kinda am), but that's me kinda upset because we're faced with the same problem as years past: how do we fit all of our fun stuff in????? And y'all keep posting MORE cute stuff! :o) Hopefully I can share our projects BEFORE we do them this time around. I appreciate you stickin' with me through my laziness!<br />
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Two more pictures for the night... "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." ...at my house! :o)<br />
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The stockings are hung with care and the tree is up and decorated! Yay!!!<br />
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-16322538587874254842011-10-16T20:53:00.001-04:002011-10-16T20:54:22.407-04:00Our Month in Pictures...Hello? Are you still there? Oh my goodness, I have been so MIA from my blog that it's already been a MONTH since my last post...a MONTH! So, so, so, so sorry y'all. Life has definitely been very busy around here, and I just simply haven't had the blogging time that I had before. But, I am a creature of schedules (not habit, just schedules), and I have finally put my life back onto a schedule! (insert loud applause here....). Plus there's the added benefit that handsome had 2 Fall Baseball games to coach this afternoon, so I got ALL of my big kindergarten bag of stuff finished before the last inning...this is the time I usually break it out, and I am very very happy that I brought it with me to the game! Oh, one more added yay for today...tomorrow is our Fall Break (just Monday off), so I get an extra day to tackle my to-do lists.<br />
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We have be SOOOO busy in kindergarten! I may be the only one, and if so, that's totally fine with me...but, it seems to take me a little time to get used to my sweet babies each year. Let me clarify: I fall in love with my classes each year, so the following year I miss my old students like crazy. Especially when the new group comes in and we have to learn the rules/procedures all over again AND get to know each other. Now don't get me wrong...I LOVE my new students, but there always seems to come a point in the beginning of the year when it finally starts feels like a "team" and the new feeling wears off (hence our class name: Team Johnson).<br />
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It happened a few weeks ago. We were learning about bus safety, and we were singing "The Wheels on the Bus" song. We made a makeshift bus at the front of the room using the student chairs. We talked about the rules on the bus and stuck them to our GI-NOR-MOUS bus that my wonderful assistant made last year. We sang each rule to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus" except the song is called "The Students on the Bus Should..." and they loved it!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JYBJsbGI0M8/TpsXkyfJO7I/AAAAAAAAAY0/c4o5fXGxVAU/s1600/DSC02327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JYBJsbGI0M8/TpsXkyfJO7I/AAAAAAAAAY0/c4o5fXGxVAU/s320/DSC02327.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Then we made these buses (inspiration from Mrs. Jump) in the art center that week. On Friday afternoon, we wrapped up Bus Safety week with our song and makeshift bus again. This time, the students replaced the "b" in "bumpity bump" with the first letter of their first names. This student's name begins with "E." We brought our buses down to our whole group meeting place on the carpet, and took turns singing the song to each student's name.<br />
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They had a blast! Then we displayed it outside of our classroom like this:<br />
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Onto fire safety and community helpers from there...however....I kinda didn't take pictures of that stuff :o(<br />
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So, on to Fall and Leaves we go!<br />
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First we brainstormed about fall together, talking about all of the things that we LOVE about the fall...cool weather, FOOTBALL, :o) watching the trees change colors, etc. We honed in on the leaves on the trees part. We made a circle map to list the different things we already know about leaves...<br />
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We read some books about leaves...our favorite were...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHN78WkOPV4/Tpt7f-5B5ZI/AAAAAAAAAbs/wWjRIss7SXo/s1600/DSC02323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHN78WkOPV4/Tpt7f-5B5ZI/AAAAAAAAAbs/wWjRIss7SXo/s200/DSC02323.JPG" width="200" /></a><i>The Leaf Man</i> is a super cool book about how the leaves blow all over the place and create new images. You have to look close and you have to have an imagination to see each "thing." We made our own leaf things on Friday from leaf stamps. The students could pick between making fish, turtles, and/or trees from their leaves. We let the paint dry and then practiced labeling. Through interactive writing, we figured out together how to spell each thing. I left the words up so that they could write their labels on their pages. If you go ALLLLLLL the way down to the bottom of this post, you can see our <i>Leaf Man</i> art project. I'm sorry...I forgot to get a closeup! But they turned out really good!<br />
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In math, we have been learning about numerals...how to count them, how to write them, and how to use a dice. This activity was PERFECT! It's from<br />
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...they have a teachers pay teachers packet called Happy Fall Y'all! And it made this teacher VERY happy! It has TONS of very cute and very appropriate kinder games. Too much for us to make/use this year, but we definitely used about 1/2 of this 100+ page packet. VERY worth it, I promise! :o)<br />
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Here is the first part of the packet we used...it comes with a poem that I cut out, mounted on red paper, and laminated. It was a very simple and quick poem for my students to learn...<br />
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These leaves were spread out on the floor in front of the pocket chart (we made a 1/2 circle around it). Each student came up and turned over a leaf (they were just copied on leaf-color paper and laminated). S/he had to tell us quickly what number the picture represents. We did this 2 days in a row, and by the end of day two, they were very competitive on who could recognize it the fastest! :o) (Please ignore my orange toes! I was trying to give some kind of size reference...the leaves are the size of your palm.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jY5ZQWjH3Qc/TptzitfgYJI/AAAAAAAAAa0/JGaPQQjILAI/s1600/DSC02314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jY5ZQWjH3Qc/TptzitfgYJI/AAAAAAAAAa0/JGaPQQjILAI/s200/DSC02314.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4h7BgLPAX7E/TpsaUB-o0_I/AAAAAAAAAZs/JViMz86H1S0/s1600/DSC02315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4h7BgLPAX7E/TpsaUB-o0_I/AAAAAAAAAZs/JViMz86H1S0/s200/DSC02315.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />
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THEN! I found THIS super cute Graph-a-Leaf math activity. We did this on Friday. We did everything whole-group, because it's technically a first grade math activity. Most of my students were able to complete it with no help, but I still had a few who struggled with the questions at the end...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n7ZWBbST8PA/Tpsae3H98-I/AAAAAAAAAZ0/D8hxWL5KyDQ/s1600/DSC02316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n7ZWBbST8PA/Tpsae3H98-I/AAAAAAAAAZ0/D8hxWL5KyDQ/s200/DSC02316.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WTM-67r-P-M/TpsaoR7B2aI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/hrQsco55ZkM/s1600/DSC02317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WTM-67r-P-M/TpsaoR7B2aI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/hrQsco55ZkM/s200/DSC02317.JPG" width="150" /></a></div><br />
If you like this, go to Mrs. Oakes blog and then on to her teachers pay teachers page. She rocks! Thanks Mrs. Oakes! :o)<br />
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<center><a href="http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e62/caralesley/MichelleOakesButtoncopy-1.png" /></a></center><br />
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As Fall Intro/Leaves week came to a close, we read that book up there called <i>The Leaves on the Trees</i>. It is a WONDERFUL book that describes the different shapes/colors of leaves on different trees. It names a different tree on each page, and is sung to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."<br />
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Here are some leaves a parent sent in with her daughter (mom is a science teacher at our school and has so much cool stuff to share!)...we were able to look at them and point out the different parts of a leaf (stem, blade, veins). Thanks Catherine! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9wl4kgWXZs/Tpsay33NxOI/AAAAAAAAAaE/R9yssxLjNIA/s1600/DSC02319.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9wl4kgWXZs/Tpsay33NxOI/AAAAAAAAAaE/R9yssxLjNIA/s320/DSC02319.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
She also sent in leaf rubbings. I have never seen plastic ones like these before. Aren't they cool? We didn't have any time left in the day on Friday for each student to try it out, so it will be in the Art Center for them to try when they finish their art project.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8v7pXjmYI/Tpsa9lXsmSI/AAAAAAAAAaM/Vexi7iTJamY/s1600/DSC02321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7M8v7pXjmYI/Tpsa9lXsmSI/AAAAAAAAAaM/Vexi7iTJamY/s200/DSC02321.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpjVp-9TTM0/TpsbICAWYSI/AAAAAAAAAaU/V_jrMG6fauo/s1600/DSC02322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpjVp-9TTM0/TpsbICAWYSI/AAAAAAAAAaU/V_jrMG6fauo/s200/DSC02322.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />
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During our last science meeting this week, we came up with a tree map about leaves. I have to say a HUGE thank you to Babbling Abby. Girl, I saw your post about bats and was totally inspired! I have never, ever seen a tree map like this...with the "can, are, have" words at each branch. I fell in love! We did this with leaves, we will do it for bats and spiders in the upcoming weeks, and I'm sharing it with every teacher I know! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNHRwalxEP8/TpsZokrpjjI/AAAAAAAAAZM/9i1nde60rRs/s1600/DSC02310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNHRwalxEP8/TpsZokrpjjI/AAAAAAAAAZM/9i1nde60rRs/s320/DSC02310.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Go to Abby's teacher blog "The Inspired Apple" to see her thinking maps about bats. If you check back here next week, you'll see that I just about copied it point-blank...I know my students will love it! Click on the VERY cute bat tree map to check out her stuff! :o)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/2011/10/groove-less-and-going-batty.html"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8MY9G36wv9A/Tpt4MuNX0nI/AAAAAAAAAbM/CLsImfrnRfM/s200/tree.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
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On a very separate note, I created this bulletin board to display some student work. We started the year with a Monster theme, and I thought it was appropriate to have a Monstrous Work board! Still haven't been able to put up the title...ugh! This is all work from our learning centers. We have 5 centers going each week...one is the art center, so that automatically gets put up around the room or outside. This bulletin board shows SOME of the great work from the other centers. I switch them out almost daily so that everyone has a turn. They love seeing their work up on the board. :o)<br />
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And here was my desk at 5:30 on Friday...last thing left to do was to put up the leaf learning in the hallway before I shuffled on home for girls' night out! Whew! I leave my big calendar on the left side of my table, and my lesson plan notebook (aka my LIFELINE at school) on the right side. Every Friday before I leave literally everything else must be gone from my desk. Nothing can be left for Monday (it comes home with me). You can also catch a glimpse of my newest and most beloved coffee cup....<br />
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Here's the display I just couldn't leave school without finishing....<br />
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Anyway, once again I have created a terribly long, drawn-out post, but I hope it helps with planning either for this year or the future! :o) Happy Sunday night, and I hope you have a wonderful week!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="goog_2117856046"></span><span id="goog_2117856047"></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-76400830530103693042011-09-18T14:30:00.003-04:002011-09-18T22:21:56.829-04:00Yard Sale, Anyone?Happy Sunday everyone!<br />
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Yesterday I went yard sailing with my very avid-yardsaling-mama, and I want to share our experience with you...<br />
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Each Saturday at half-past dark-thirty, she and her friend Johanna and Johanna's mom and Johanna's mom's dog Sophie go Yard Sailing. I catch a ride every blue moon to stock up on classroom items and home goodies. Sometimes we end up with zilch. nada. nothing. And then other times we hit the JACKPOT!<br />
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Letmetellyou that yesterday was a jackpot kinda day! It was awesome...no, spectacular! I spent $25 yesterday. Here is my loot! Yay! :o)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tf7icvIPB_c/TnYuP1xE0eI/AAAAAAAAAX4/CPhj3CpaEV4/s1600/DSC02206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tf7icvIPB_c/TnYuP1xE0eI/AAAAAAAAAX4/CPhj3CpaEV4/s320/DSC02206.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Okay, y'all...Everything in this picture was 25 cents each!! $1.25 for EVERYTHING! Two Halloween doormats (gave the one standing up to my kinder-friend Cindy), an Easter doormat, Halloween stencil, and a mini-Christmas tree. All for the classroom.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Halloween mat that I gave Cindy was the first one I purchased. I found the "Trick or Treat" mat at another yard sale and liked it better. It will sit outside my classroom door in a few weeks.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J9qrLxy0MsY/TnYuU3Zd-3I/AAAAAAAAAX8/UHe6zTAUqxo/s1600/DSC02207.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J9qrLxy0MsY/TnYuU3Zd-3I/AAAAAAAAAX8/UHe6zTAUqxo/s320/DSC02207.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">ALL of the books were 25 cents a piece (I usually like to pay 10 cents, but these are in such great condition, I couldn't pass them up!). I LOVE Dick and Jane books. I have so many now that I'm going to have to make a separate book tub for them. My students love them for the repetitious nature like Dr. Seuss has. I love them because of the repetition AND the nostalgia.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">On the top step in the middle is a Vowel Pattern game from Scholastic. I almost bought the very same one last year for $14.99. It was $1. Ha! :o)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Total here...$3.50.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">By the way, two of these books are so cute - they are "What to Expect..." books for children who are going to be a big brother or big sister. Two of my students became big sisters/brothers last year, and I have a little girl this year who will big a big sissy soon! :o)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J-a_0-gy4jM/TnYuZuG40sI/AAAAAAAAAYA/3kV81iYck3s/s1600/DSC02209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J-a_0-gy4jM/TnYuZuG40sI/AAAAAAAAAYA/3kV81iYck3s/s320/DSC02209.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">My mom asked me to take a picture of just my Dick and Jane books for her yard sale blog. She loves them almost as much as I do! :o)</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Markers for 10 cents (brand spankin' new!) and two like-new binders for 25 cents a piece. Total? $0.60!</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YariP4HAbxg/TnYuiTjqGLI/AAAAAAAAAYI/Mn0Wrvqus6s/s1600/DSC02211.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YariP4HAbxg/TnYuiTjqGLI/AAAAAAAAAYI/Mn0Wrvqus6s/s320/DSC02211.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">The first yard sale we hit had the red sweater. 25 cents! Bonus? It has shoulder pads! As soon as I laid eyes on it, I knew instantly that I had found my tacky Christmas sweater for this year. I should have kept this secret (I won the contest last year, so this will give my competitors an advantage...), but I'm in so much love that I couldn't resist. Now it's on to find the perfect tacky leggings, wooly socks, earrings, and the rest of the ridiculous accessories! :o)</div><div style="text-align: center;">The black dress is for Halloween...I want to be the Wicked Witch of the East this year. This dress was $1. It was at a yard sale I found on my way home.</div><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Some Christmas decorations for my classroom (I am in LOVE with snowmen!) - both were 25 cents a piece! And two terra-cotta pots (again, 25 cents each!!) to clean, paint, and monogram. I have some over-grown house plants that need to be separated.</div><div style="text-align: center;">For 10 cents I picked up those little black hangers. They are for my house. They are stocking hangers that work like those purse hangers. They don't fall down! I picked them all up for 10 cents. I want to find some snowmen to hot glue to them so they look a little more festive! :o)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">So that's all for the classroom...here is the rest of my stash for my house/ my veryownself....</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqtiXmFYy60/TnY1DcmpeLI/AAAAAAAAAYc/JBXEjtw4SlM/s1600/DSC02213.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqtiXmFYy60/TnY1DcmpeLI/AAAAAAAAAYc/JBXEjtw4SlM/s320/DSC02213.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Y'all, I have been dreaming of owning and collecting a Christmas light-up village for about 1/2 of my life. BUT when Christmas rolls around, I can't afford the dag-on stuff! I have kept my eyes out for this at yard sales through the years and have always come up empty-handed. Until yesterday. Oh. My. Goodness! All 5 of these were $10!!! Like, $10 for the whole set!!!!!! They came with their original boxes...and each box is marked between $19.99 and $34.99! Yay!! These are from an estate sale where the mother had passed away, and her children were selling what was left. I assured them that these would be taken care of and were going to a good home! Now I just have to find the accessories and a place to display them at Christmas! :o)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGaWVtRrt3Y/TnY1IRDyB2I/AAAAAAAAAYg/uKijx0H80Is/s1600/DSC02214.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGaWVtRrt3Y/TnY1IRDyB2I/AAAAAAAAAYg/uKijx0H80Is/s320/DSC02214.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Boxes for the Christmas village.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dbhLN6oArO8/TnY1NQOOwYI/AAAAAAAAAYk/OgZelOIL8tY/s1600/DSC02215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dbhLN6oArO8/TnY1NQOOwYI/AAAAAAAAAYk/OgZelOIL8tY/s320/DSC02215.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">I just finished the Twilight saga. It was my summer love affair (aside from my handsome of course!). I spent countless hours diving into each book and went into mourning the day I finished Breaking Dawn and realized that the books would be no more. I bought the first two books at Goodwill, borrowed the third and fourth, but want all four for my bookcase (and future re-reading). Yesterday I found Breaking Dawn - hardback, mind you - for $1!!!!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I also found two Nicholas Sparks novels that I haven't read yet (I have a weakness for him too) for $1 each, and also The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (I've been wanting to read this for a while). The Girl was $1 as well. THEN I found these TOO CUTE handbags for $1 each.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The matching candlestick holders were $0.50 each at the estate sale where I found the village.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Total...$7! :o)</div><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On a side note, I'm stuck on the couch today, but not the same reason as my last post. This time I woke up feeling just absolutely ICKY! ...one of the only drawbacks of being a teacher: getting germy germs from my students. Anyway, my laundry is mid-cycle and the dishwasher is mid-washing...here is a reminder of the harsh realities of house-work (look closely at the sign above my sink...then look at the sink...) :o)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">High ho, high ho, it's off to work I go...</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Check out my mom's blog by clicking <a href="http://saturdaymorns.blogspot.com/">HERE</a>. If you are considering yard sailing, read her blog - she has many helpful tips if you are new or do not go EVERY Saturday like she does.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">...be at peace and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-53723172063518968452011-09-11T12:53:00.002-04:002011-09-11T16:51:58.708-04:00Lesson Plans......I've been debating on whether or not to change the layout and title of my blog...trying it out today - what do you think??<br />
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Y'all, I have been searching for almost 5 years for a decent way to organize my lesson plans. I have never once been 100% satisfied. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I am a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>TAD</b></i></span> bit OCD, type-A, CDO (that's OCD in alphabetical order - the way it should be!)...get the idea?<br />
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So when I taught first grade, our "special" class time was at the same time each day. So everyday we would have the same amount of time for our planning periods. It made lesson plan templates very simple. My mentor shared her template with me, and I was able to organize all of my plans easily and quickly each week. I was in CDO heaven!<br />
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Now in kindergarten, and a different and bigger school, I don't have that luxury of the same planning time each day. Our school ranges from Transition (preschool) to 12th grade. Our "special" teachers have to work us and 12 other grade levels into their schedules. I have a special place in my heart for our music teacher who has the difficult task of creating these schedules. I would NEVER want that job! ;o)<br />
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However, my poor CDO-self is still adjusting to having special classes at a different time and sometimes a different time-frame each day. Last year was my first year teaching kindergarten, and I wrote out my lesson plans for each day (so one page of plans per day). I really took a lot of time to plan out my lessons so that I could get acclimated with what I needed and wanted my students to learn. Now it's year two, and it doesn't take QUITE as long to plan...still takes a lot more than I would want it to, but again, this CDO teacher is trying to get it just right for her students.<br />
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Here is a run-down of the materials we use...<br />
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Reading:<br />
We use Open Court Imagine It series. I take what I need from this - I use the Morning Message and Phonemic Awareness portion as well as the Letter Knowledge and Penmanship part right now (we're teaching the sound AND handwriting techniques right now). I also like their Book and Print Awareness concepts - but most of the time I pick my own Shared Reading book and use the Imagine It's concept to learn (I hope that makes sense!).<br />
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Not this week but next week we will start Guided Reading (I haven't finished my back to school assessing yet). I bought "Become a Guided Reading Guru" from Lesson Plan SOS this summer. Oh. My. Goodness. It is awesome! I was raised a guided reading teacher from college all the way up through teaching 1st grade. I love it. I swear by it. I didn't get to do it like I wanted to last year, but this year we are kicking it up a notch! If you are still struggling like I am to make Guided Reading everything you want it to be, go check this TpT packet out. It's only $8 but it's worth EVERY PENNY!<br />
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<center><a href="http://lessonplansos.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e62/caralesley/LessonPlanSOSbutton-1.jpg" /></a></center><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Math:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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Scott Foresman is the adoption we use for math. I like it a lot because it focuses on so many hands-on manipulatives. We basically follow this lesson-by-lesson unless there's a wacko lesson that we skip (there is one in chapter 2 that is just crazy confusing for the teachers to understand let alone the kinders!). So when you see the math part in my lesson plans, I basically just include the title of the lesson and what the students should do (practice on the handout is what most days say). In between all of that is the "good stuff"...I just don't have enough room on my template to spell out what we're going to do. I have sticky notes all over my teacher's manuals to remind me of what went well last year and what I need to change this year.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Writing:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/public/aJpcLW3B1Qx0GHNITll9Sn09UflzfhhZUBeEH4X-ZCUNzGj-YNKnStOPqg2dlBMelB_pY74Xv0blXmkYFCuRbp1KuRrYVohEujH-DS3FLxUtMgxQ0gYNYMAc8g2IpcyAhFiHiGS9LlFvFzoJSRAKPfdg1iQWowjOAwM3GCUGkgzf" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/public/aJpcLW3B1Qx0GHNITll9Sn09UflzfhhZUBeEH4X-ZCUNzGj-YNKnStOPqg2dlBMelB_pY74Xv0blXmkYFCuRbp1KuRrYVohEujH-DS3FLxUtMgxQ0gYNYMAc8g2IpcyAhFiHiGS9LlFvFzoJSRAKPfdg1iQWowjOAwM3GCUGkgzf" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Last year I purchased a book with my bonus points from Scholastic called <i>The Complete Year in Reading and Writing</i> for kindergarten. I loved it, but couldn't start it up right away and had to pick-and-choose lessons to get us through the end of the year. Our Reading adoption has writing plans built in, but I just felt like I wanted to step it up a notch in my classroom.<br />
I am LOVING it this year. It tells you what books to use, it has great units of study, and it also has pre-made lesson plans for teachers like me who are not very good at breaking down the components of writing. I adapt the lessons to fit "Writing Workshop" guidelines. We have a 5-10 minute mini lesson and then they get 10 minutes to practice. Then we close with a 5 minute share. I LOVE to write (as you have noticed), but I'm still learning how to teach my students to write. My handsome purchased this same book for 4th grade and is loving it too.<br />
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Science and Social Studies:<br />
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We create weekly and monthly units of study for science and social studies. Right now we are in the middle of "All About Me" ...getting to know differences and similarities in each other. This week we will continue that as well as talking about family life and the components and structure of different families. We are blessed with a Science Lab at the school and as a "Special Class." Students get to have wonderful hands-on experiences with live animals and different objects each week. LOVE the science lab!<br />
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Okay, here are my plans for this week...in all their glory (yeah right). I am always looking for new ideas and constructive criticism, so let me know if you do something similar, or if you have tried something in the past that works better...<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/64587375/Johnson-Lesson-Plans" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Johnson Lesson Plans on Scribd">Johnson Lesson Plans</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_41513" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/64587375/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-jwmw0gdhbwdcf108o1v" width="100%"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
</script><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This post was inspired by Mrs. Lochridge's post:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Lesson Planning in the 21st Century...go check it out!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<center><a href="http://firstgradefactory.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e62/caralesley/ALiciaLochridgeButton-1.png" /></a></center><br />
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Happy Sunday, y'all!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-72883838258822124482011-09-10T12:05:00.004-04:002011-09-10T19:36:33.781-04:00While You Were Out FreebieHappy Saturday, blog world! Ahh it is almost noon on this glorious Saturday...confession? I'm typing this in the middle of my unmade bed, still in my pj's, and it is SO NICE! :o) Handsome has already turned on the world of college football, and we have t-minus 3 hours until our Pirates play. Arrrgh!!!<br />
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One of my students was absent the other day, and as always I pulled out my "We Missed You" page to attach to her missed classwork. I wanted to share it with you. It has made my life SO easy! I used to use a regular piece of notebook paper just listing the assignments, but it took FOREVER! I just couldn't find a printable that fit me, so I would continuously write the same template over and over again as students missed school.<br />
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Last year I finally broke down and took all of 3 minutes designing this:<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/64522477/Student-Make-Up-Work" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Student Make-Up Work on Scribd">Student Make-Up Work</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772727272727273" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_21215" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/64522477/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-7uhxvtbzms7z0b1nfmd" width="100%"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">
(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">**I just changed this so that it doesn't talk about being sick - I think I'm actually going to start using this one instead - thanks for asking Janae! :o)</span></b><br />
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All you do is fill out the form, put the date somewhere up at the top, and then staple any missed work to this sheet of paper. I usually send home the shared reading book and put it all in a gallon size ziploc bag. <br />
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If you grab this and like it, let me know by leaving a comment. If you need it to say something different, I can change it too :o)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">GO PIRATES!!!</div><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FUbXSy5_ETU" width="560"></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-63411383523712773402011-08-30T14:16:00.000-04:002011-08-30T14:16:07.045-04:00The Aftermath of Irene...Happy Tuesday! We are VERY happy here in the south that life is getting back to normal after a horrible hurricane. We endured almost 48 hours straight of rain and wind. It. lasted. forever. We thought the rain wouldn't ever stop! All over our city and surrounding cities and towns you can't drive a block without seeing at least one HUGE oak tree uprooted.<br />
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As the storm came over us on Friday night, my sissy and I camped out in the living room. She's staying with us as she gets ready to move to Florida. For some reason, after only one glass of wine, we started singing a song. That somehow lead into trying to remember (successfully!) all of the words to "Part of Your World" sung by none other than Ariel herself! THAT lead into changing the Pandora radio station to "Disney." A little more wine, a little game of Scrabble, and we were in full Disney singing mode. Here's sissy and my dog Kody and kitty Hank.<br />
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On a side note, like many girls our ages, when we were little we OBSESSED about the newest Disney animated film. When she was 3, sissy "officially" changed her name to Princess Jasmine. I remember our aunt called us one afternoon and asked for sissy, and sissy wouldn't come to the phone until our aunt asked to speak with "Princess Jasmine." I can also fondly remember our family road trips to vacation in New York or to Florida (we live right smack in the middle of those two states, so our road trips were usually no less than 10 hours one way). Our poor parents suffered as we sang at the TOP OF OUR LUNGS to every single song on every single soundtrack (on cassette tapes of course!). We had to strike up compromises between "adult music time" aka NPR and "children music time." Looking back, I feel like we were out-compromised because it was something like "y'all can listen to 2 songs and then we'll listen to NPR for an hour. It's totally the same thing." We were (and are still) so naive that we didn't ever figure out the difference!<br />
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My favorite moment of this Wine Scrabble Disney was "Hakuna Matata" ...somewhere in the middle of the song we were crying harder than we were laughing as the lyrics struck up some hilarious memories! Love you, sissy! :o)<br />
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Handsome and I were blessed because we suffered very minimal damaged as compared to many others around here. Saturday morning we came upstairs to find our bay window leaking...no make that dripping water. We stuck pots, bowls, and cups all along the window sill to try to keep our walls and carpets dry. Turns out the water was coming in through the molding at the top and was behind the walls, so some of the spots in the walls are ruined. See those drips running down the wall? The one furthest to the right is NOT coming from the window sill. It's seeping out from behind the wall. Hopefully shouldn't be a big deal to fix.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nunMw0VVL6A/Tl0mlfg0PUI/AAAAAAAAAXY/NPp9iPxhbHo/s1600/300107_10100189122818373_22218631_46912671_4718162_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nunMw0VVL6A/Tl0mlfg0PUI/AAAAAAAAAXY/NPp9iPxhbHo/s320/300107_10100189122818373_22218631_46912671_4718162_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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As soon as the storm let up a little, we headed to handsome's parents house for the night. We lost power, and so did they, but they had the *da-da-da-daaaa* generator!! That same day their big tree in the back yard went down. Luckily it didn't hit the house - it went the other way and landed on their two storage barns. When the weather cleared, lots of friends came to help start the tree-removal process.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NYVZv1sz1XM/Tl0lA7LHbaI/AAAAAAAAAXM/kHm-ckc8BXQ/s1600/DSC02151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NYVZv1sz1XM/Tl0lA7LHbaI/AAAAAAAAAXM/kHm-ckc8BXQ/s400/DSC02151.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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I helped the girls work on the front yard and back yard - my in-laws have lots of wonderful shade tress in their yard...but we all know what happens to those wonderful trees during a storm. Yep! Nature prunes them! Here are our piles in the front...<br />
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And here is handsome helping us out in between cutting up the tree...<br />
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Because of this stupid storm, we have many friends and even some family dramatically effected by this storm. Handsome's parents and hometown still have no power. This is day 4 of no power. Yuck. Some have lost homes and/or vehicles. I am counting my blessings more than you know.<br />
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Luckily we get to go back to school tomorrow. There will still be some teachers and students who cannot come, but we're all going to get through this together! Please send up your prayers and think of all those involved. If you are going through this too, know that I'm thinking of you very much!<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-81213860668194078302011-08-21T12:57:00.003-04:002011-09-11T13:11:47.691-04:00Mrs. Johnson Gets Ready for Kindergarten!Here we go! We start Kindergarten tomorrow!!! I still cannot believe how quickly last year flew by. Now summer has flown by and it's almost time to meet my new kinders!<br />
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Let me ask the teachers out there: this is my 5th year of teaching and I have butterflies worse than EVER before. Does it get worse through the years? Does it let up a little? Can I expect all 30 + years of teaching to do this to me at the beginning of every year?? I was a wreck last week - a jittery, jumpy, OCD wreck!<br />
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I'm not nervous...no negative thoughts whatsoever...just very anxious. Anxious to meet each individual student. Anxious to watch this group's chemistry. Anxious to get to know them and love them and watch them grow for a whole year!<br />
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It took countless hours to get this classroom ready. I have mentioned my OCD-tendancies in past posts. Well, the monster OCD comes out at the beginning of the year. The room has to be PERFECT. Every way, shape, and form. Perfect. Period. End of sentence. Get it yet? :o)<br />
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My assistant has helped me so much in the past week. We were out at school until an un-Godly hour Friday night setting out all of our name tags, getting homework folders ready, taping down names onto the carpet (this is in lieu of a rug for assigned seating - works like a charm!)...Don't even ask me how many "to-do lists" I have gone through!<br />
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My friend Joelle came out on Saturday with me to bring my rocking chair and a few other things. She put up with me for 2 hours (I couldn't stop finding little things to tweak!).<br />
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Here it is...in all its glory...my classroom for the 2011-2012 Kindergarten School Year!<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I loved our "Johnson" door last year so much that I brought it back!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Welcome, Team Johnson!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Clothesline outside our door just waiting for brilliant kinder-work! :o)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBurerod2ng/TlBizCw9DyI/AAAAAAAAAVw/FsEjXrNraH0/s1600/DSC02128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBurerod2ng/TlBizCw9DyI/AAAAAAAAAVw/FsEjXrNraH0/s320/DSC02128.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Here's the view from just inside the door! Drop off your bookbags and come on in! </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YT4FDT9up_c/TlBi2CkZvuI/AAAAAAAAAV0/Lvlp1PzItvo/s1600/DSC02129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YT4FDT9up_c/TlBi2CkZvuI/AAAAAAAAAV0/Lvlp1PzItvo/s320/DSC02129.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Our behavior cards...they are color coded...maybe I'll blog about these later in the year...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IW-R01aQp0/TlBi5QYChXI/AAAAAAAAAV4/vbvq530G13k/s1600/DSC02130.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_IW-R01aQp0/TlBi5QYChXI/AAAAAAAAAV4/vbvq530G13k/s320/DSC02130.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">The wall of cabinets and a view of the Math Center! Remember what the inside of those cabinets looks like?? They are still happy cabinets! :o)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_bkTzO7Xm7k/TlBi9ZmSDpI/AAAAAAAAAV8/fL4kQwY5XJ8/s1600/DSC02131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_bkTzO7Xm7k/TlBi9ZmSDpI/AAAAAAAAAV8/fL4kQwY5XJ8/s320/DSC02131.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">My teacher spot in front of our meeting area! The newest addition is my grandma's rocking chair...I could sit in that all day it is SOO comfy! It's making me a little emotional right now looking at this picture. And to think I was fine when I carried it into the room...I miss her so much...She rocked me in this chair about a year and a half ago...and now I get to rock my kinders in it.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Our Calendar Meeting area...plus our monsters on the floor...this is assigned seats for the students. They are far enough apart that it's a comfy fit.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Our story time side of the front of the room. Here's my new Big Book easel! The rocking chair over here is from my mother-in-law! Love her! :o) Also, the pink table is new to this room, but it's not new to me: I had it when I taught first grade in my old school, and the teacher I gave it to didn't want it any more. It is PERFECT at the front of the room!</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Our Reading Center! Complete with the yard sale rug I found last year! :o)</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">View from the front of the classroom.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Our "Ducky Helpers" in front of my assistant's desk.</div><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Our Art Center and student cubbies. Also, I took some magazine storage boxes and turned them into my planning boxes. I put all of our projects, supplies, manipulatives, and copies for each day of the week in each box (can you find where they are on the counter?). Just started it this year. I'll let you know how I like them.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RQk4h-MUZYc/TlBjcQxQsaI/AAAAAAAAAWY/L-hV9eYUZvc/s1600/DSC02138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RQk4h-MUZYc/TlBjcQxQsaI/AAAAAAAAAWY/L-hV9eYUZvc/s320/DSC02138.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Waiting on a table, but here is the Writing Center! We will add items to work with as we introduce this center in 2 weeks. This is another yard sale find from a few years ago. I LOVE this bookcase. It has the letters A, B, and C cut out on each level. If we are blessed with babies one day, this bookcase may have to come back home with me!</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UGFRUZTZU1Q/TlBjhN6bJUI/AAAAAAAAAWc/T_6PsPJv5V4/s1600/DSC02139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UGFRUZTZU1Q/TlBjhN6bJUI/AAAAAAAAAWc/T_6PsPJv5V4/s320/DSC02139.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">My group table and storage! I got rid of my teacher desk this year and will be operating from here. I NEVER sit at my desk, and I have plenty of storage and drawers (as you can see), so I decided to just go with this table. What do you think of our Mon-Stars bulletin board?</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--2fxMHvwO5Q/TlBjl9kzGcI/AAAAAAAAAWg/KSiX3Hmzw38/s1600/DSC02142.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--2fxMHvwO5Q/TlBjl9kzGcI/AAAAAAAAAWg/KSiX3Hmzw38/s320/DSC02142.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Our Center board. I still have to add a header to it as well as their names when we figure out our learning center groups.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">View from my chair at my horseshoe table. I'm in love! :o)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Please be aware that our students find out who their teachers are on the first day of school upon arrival. I have blurred out any place in our room that has a name for privacy reasons (as I always do), but this time it's extra important to secure the element of surprise! I hope the blurs don't completely ruin the view! :o)<br />
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This post is a part of a linky-party on TBA! Check out other classroom picture too...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2011/08/classroom-photos-galore-party.html"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiABSMl_5kdlhLeF1PXjVILa3XxO7k1E6d-yNxyycGkB_8yTPiBSP6hkT5VotQ86Ac8KJVR_dJGvCxZF55kIhyphenhyphenFNZ1lU2AFCXKXyscOgY4gLdae2epQ1YlWSDontnxTdIP8j3hqVRXLoh3r/s320/classroom+link+party+pic+small.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">...and all will be well, and all will be very well...</div></div></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-60207933324966241862011-08-20T22:35:00.000-04:002011-08-20T22:35:59.994-04:00The Kissing HandWe're almost ready! Holy guacamole! Here it is - my very first post about the first day of school! We start on Monday and have a full (half) day of school prepared and ready to go! And I owe most of it to my blogger friends...get ready for LOTS of tags and links to other teachers' sites. Here is our game plan in all its' glory...<br />
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**Before I get started...I found this CUTE scavenger hunt for parents and students to complete when they first come in. If you do an Open House before you meet your students, this would be an awesome activity to provide while you talk to your families. We have our Meet and Greet on the second day of school (that night).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/2011/08/freebies-galore-for-your-meet-and-greet.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y-Cr0kwgzvs/TlBlJ935i-I/AAAAAAAAAWs/WHWr9Tg2d0c/s320/DSC02141.JPG" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click on the picture to go to<br />
Little Warriors<br />
Download this for free! Love!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
The first day will be centered completely around <i>The Kissing Hand</i> by Audrey Penn.<br />
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We will read the book together and put together a card for our parents. This was also a blog freebie!<br />
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<span id="goog_2080033910"></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://peacelovelearning.blogspot.com/2011/08/kissing-hand-freebie-and-some-help.html"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3NBCrqu1QOJW6WsgOes2TtkmaVpM3BXQHs9UoXrpbz_mLtSmjHQqT4FWsRRllIJROoqybwclp0W0xrBQ85bAGnm3_4ACR31Va3ZLLhCMEE7So_JeQEmj_c9ho0v7ZhwDQpnYaGC-nVB1c/s320/Kissing+Hand+Art+Freebie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span id="goog_2080033911"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Made by Donna at Peace, Love, and Learning!</div><div style="text-align: center;">Click the picture to go get this cute freebie! </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Here's what mine looks like:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_LDPBML3nEA/TlBo1y6sEaI/AAAAAAAAAW0/85mard8iQQM/s1600/DSC02125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_LDPBML3nEA/TlBo1y6sEaI/AAAAAAAAAW0/85mard8iQQM/s320/DSC02125.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>If you are doing The Kissing Hand activities, go check out Little Giraffes' website. They have a page-long list of things to do to reinforce the book! :o)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://littlegiraffes.com/teaching-ideas/95/the-kissing-hand-activities/"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9UAyoqu8qW0/TlBmeP9QugI/AAAAAAAAAWw/SOAnc100hyI/s320/kissinghandpuzzle.gif" width="163" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Click on the picture to go</div><div style="text-align: center;">to Little Giraffes' website</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I loved this idea - I ordered enough puzzles for all of my students. On the first day we will get them to put a handprint on each puzzle and stick a heart sticker in the middle (I didn't think to look for these cutie-patootie stickers with the name of the book on them! Darn!!). I downloaded the sweet little poem from the website and printed it off. We will put the puzzle pieces in a paper bag and send them home with the poems on the front of the bags. LOVE! :o)<br />
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The second day of school we are going to have a Kissing Hand scavenger hunt to get to know the "special people" around school. This teacher has put together another AMAZING website with great ideas for the first days of school. There is a link there to download these cute clue cards. She lets you download them in Word so that you can customize them for your own school.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sc.jeffco.k12.co.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=144053"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hUDq4AVT5RY/TlBsp3yp1RI/AAAAAAAAAW4/mRp25sBnLRc/s320/kissing+hand+clue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">See! I told you they're cute!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While we are on the "hunt" for Chester, the students will wear raccoon headbands made from a raccoon picture and a sentence strip. They are on the same website as the clue cards.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aA0TZwUatV8/TlBttYiEMoI/AAAAAAAAAW8/mi5KF4xr_I0/s1600/chester+headband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aA0TZwUatV8/TlBttYiEMoI/AAAAAAAAAW8/mi5KF4xr_I0/s320/chester+headband.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CUTE! :o)</td></tr>
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<div>When we come back to the classroom at the end of the hunt, we will find heart shaped cookies with the final clue (Chester goes back into the book until we read it again another day).</div><div><br />
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</div><div>I am SUPER excited to share this with our kinders! Oh, and P.S. Barnes and Nobles is hosting an online reading of <i>The Kissing Hand</i> read by Audrey Penn herself! Yes, her veryownself is reading it while the illustrations fill the screen! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! :o)</div><div><br />
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</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-54576179835641778722011-08-13T12:53:00.000-04:002011-08-13T12:53:39.152-04:00CUTE Clothespins!Happy Saturday!<br />
Handsome and I just finished our lazy movie morning and now it's breakfast-for-lunch followed by some family time this afternoon... so before we start all of that, I wanted to take a minute to share with you my classroom clothespins!<br />
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I wanted to share this VERY quick project with you...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">I bought these wooden cut outs at our Michaels store....</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tp4SvhciIzk/TkanBSpwQHI/AAAAAAAAAVU/laFZ2WpLO7g/s1600/DSC02121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tp4SvhciIzk/TkanBSpwQHI/AAAAAAAAAVU/laFZ2WpLO7g/s320/DSC02121.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Materials needed:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">one clothespin per cut out</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">one magnet per cut out</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">hot glue gun</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2hXhI1Ue30/TkanGLwovZI/AAAAAAAAAVY/-4gxHj5dayU/s1600/DSC02121_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2hXhI1Ue30/TkanGLwovZI/AAAAAAAAAVY/-4gxHj5dayU/s320/DSC02121_2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Step One: Glue the clothespins onto the back of the cut outs...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L63FKv560Yo/TkanK59hvlI/AAAAAAAAAVc/l9ElLSA3Ry8/s1600/DSC02122.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L63FKv560Yo/TkanK59hvlI/AAAAAAAAAVc/l9ElLSA3Ry8/s320/DSC02122.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Step Two: Glue a magnet on the back of each clothespin...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WXAA4K1vmms/TkanPhZIUjI/AAAAAAAAAVg/n3N3zKGJcLo/s1600/DSC02123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WXAA4K1vmms/TkanPhZIUjI/AAAAAAAAAVg/n3N3zKGJcLo/s320/DSC02123.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Step Three: Use these cuties to hang up your examples, handouts, word cards,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...the possibilities are endless!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WEsFW1rfqew/TkanUR0tCHI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vULbsGLzr_A/s1600/DSC02124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WEsFW1rfqew/TkanUR0tCHI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vULbsGLzr_A/s320/DSC02124.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">**Another spin on this idea is to hot glue push pins onto the clothespins instead of magnets. Then you can use them to hang up stuff on your bulletin boards!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Countdown...t-minus 9 days and counting till I meet my sweet new kinders!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">...be at peace, and all will be well...</div><br />
<span id="goog_1747659366"></span><span id="goog_1747659367"></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5738609365593583440.post-18846641553704504512011-08-13T12:03:00.000-04:002011-08-13T12:03:31.579-04:00Awesome Blog!Please go check out Growing Kinders. She has posted printables for her Calendar Notebooks she uses with her students. I started this a few years ago, but because we started Saxon Math and just didn't have the time in our schedule, I had to stop it right away. Now that I am at my new school and have a little more flexibility in my schedule, I can start it again! I cannot wait to do this! PLUS her print outs are super cute! Much cuter than the ones I used before. She will re-post each month with the new things...LOVE HER! Thanks Kathleen! :o)<div><br />
</div><div><center><a href="http://growingkinders.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e62/caralesley/KPedersenButton-1.png" /></a></center></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1