BOO!

Ok so it's not quite that time of year yet. But I've been awol so long I thought maybe I'd scare you with a post. LOL
This weekend I found some really cute pumpkin ice trays at the Dollar Tree. I think they'll be perfect for Halloween and Thanksgiving 10 frame/counting games. Just change up the seasonal "markers" for fun.

 

I actually found even cuter mini erasers at Target today-cute little ghosts. A peer teacher said she found mini pumpkins too. So, tomorrow after work I'll have to go hunt them down.

I bought ten of these trays so I could either use them in small groups with one ten or two tens when we work on numbers to 20. So many game options:

1. Roll a die and place an eraser in that many spaces. First one to fill their tray wins.

2.  Use two die and roll and fill to make sums. I'll make a simple pumpkin sums recording sheet for this.

3.  Fill all spaces and roll one die to subtract.

I'm sure you guys have lots of other great ideas too. If you do-share away, I'd love to hear them.

 

 

On another note, Kim from Lakeshore Learning sent me two great products to review. One is the Plinko Phonemic Awareness Game. This is an awesome language game where students identify beginning, ending and rhyming words. So simple, yet my students LOVE it. We've been using it as a whole group, end of day activity at this point. But I can see this being a wonderful independent activity a little later in my year. Check it out if you haven't seen this product. You won't be disappointed!

The other item is

Build and Learn Geometry Kit. This is pefect for helping to meet geometry core standards.

• Attributes of 2-D & 3-D shapes
• Identifying and comparing faces, vertices and edges

 

 

Hope you find something of interest in this post.

Happy Teaching!

Lisa

 

 

 

Never-ending search for Clip Art!

Are you like me-always looking for cute, kid friendly clip art? AND are you looking to create with your clip art to share or post on TPT? Well I recently purchased a year long clip art membership from Graphics From The Pond. Every couple of days I receive a special set of clip art created just for members. It's always such a special surprise to open the files to see what Mel has created for us!

Graphics From the Pond is having a giveaway. ONE FREE MEMBERSHIP!!! Go on over to her blog register to win and to check out the back to school sale!


Click here to  go to THE POND to enter to win!



Wishing you all a great start to a new school year!
Lisa

New Bloggers-Liebster Award!

I have received my 2nd Award this month!  

Thanks so much, Amy from Whooo Loves Kindergarten?  I'm so glad you found my blog and introduced me to yours. :)

This award is named for the German word "Liebster," which translates to "beloved" or "favourite", and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger."
Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you. Post the award to your blog.

2. Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers
3. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award.

I am giving the award to:

Miss A's Kindergarten

What I Learned in Kindergarten

Kindergarten Schmindergarten

Over The Moonbow

Hopping Into Kindergarten

I can't believe that I only have ONE more week of summer vacation before going back to school. WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO? WOW! 

Lovely Blog Award!

I have received the  Lovely Blog Award. Thank you to Sharon from Dog Day of Kindergarten.
Now for the rules...
1. Follow the person who gave me the award. I am now following Sharon and the blogs she shared with me.
2. Link back to the person that gave me the award.  Here is Sharon's blog link Dog Days of Kindergarten.
3. Pass to 15 new bloggers and then let them know they have received the award.

Here are the bloggers that are new (new to me!). Finding 15 NEW bloggers that haven't already recieved this award is a toughy! 

1. http://whoooloveskindergarten.blogspot.com/

2. http://overthemoonbow.com/  

3. http://krissyskindergarten.blogspot.com/

4. http://kinder-cuties.blogspot.com/

5. http://pawsmath.blogspot.com/

Happy Blogging!
Lisa

Quality Work and School Tools Rubric Anchor Chart

I was in my classroom today, trying to reorganize and get ready for a new year. Summer should go by fast!  I took a picture, as promised, of my quality work rubric anchor chart.




Click here for your FREEBIE!

Click on the anchor chart to create one for your room.  Print on legal paper and glue or tape to chart paper. I laminated mine after spending a week or two explicitly teaching/modeling and practicing how to use each school tool. I leave it up all year as a reference to remind students of the expectations.
I hope this is helpful to you all!
Lisa

Jumping Back in! Freebie too!

Apologizies for my absence. It's been a whirlwind. After finishing up our year we began preparing for Common Core Standards. So I've spent some time this summer attending workshops and foraging other blogs and websites for CCSS ideas. While this will be a lot of change-I'm super excited about it too.
 One of the workshops I attended was by Sue O'Connell. She provided a wealth of hands on math ideas and modeled number talk very explicitely.  Our district VERYgenerously purchased her book for us, which comes with a CD of her blacklines for math games. All are editable for your needs. I'm looking forward to getting started with that. Here's her link if you'd like to check it out. http://www.qualityteacherdevelopment.com/teacher_resources.php
We are also getting these ten frame - which Sue O'Connell recommended for modeling in groups.


 
Magnetic Foam Ten Frames

Click here to see where to purchase these  magnetic foam ten frames!




Before cleaning up my room and preparing for summer, I sent many of our resources for the fall to the copy center. One of my favorite teaching tools, which my assistant uses with her small groups is my Alphaworks letter sorting book. There are 26 letter poems, circle maps for sorting letter sounds, and this year we included handwriting and sentence practice too. (The handwriting pages are from Scholastic.)
Here's what the book looks like after the copy center prints and binds it. Such a wonderful resource. Check it out by clicking on the picture.

Click on the picture to learn more.

Finally, I have created some word cards to go in a small apple pocket chart. We spend the first few weeks of the new year discussing quality work and how to use our school tools safely and properly. I display a Quality Work rubric/poster for the year as a reference to students of what quality work looks like. I think these cards will be a great addition to my poster and will also serve as a visual reminder of direction words as well. (Sorry I don't have a picture of my Quality Work poster-but I'll take one the next time I'm at school.)

Click for your FREEBIE!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Counting Down til the End of the Year!

I can't believe we are already 20 + days away from the end of the year! Seems like the year flew by -but I guess we always say that don't we?
We'll be getting ready for our End of Year Celebrations, practicing songs, and having our special T-Shirts printed.
 At the end of the year I put together a little memory book filled with pages that mark some starting points for kindergarten.
 I also give each student a Mr. Goodbar Candy Bar Award. Super cute and something for everyone.
Check out more about these end of year time savers here:

In The Rain With Baby Duck

Hi Blogger Friends!
 Have you been as busy as I've been? We're ramping up to begin CCSS next year so it feels like I'm working on this year and next year at once. Lots of new and exciting plans coming up though.
  Next week we'll be reviewing story elements and reading In The Rain With Baby Duck by Amy Hest. It's a really cute book, but there were no related activities in cyberland. So I created a unit with twenty different comprehension questions, a Build-A-Sentence Center (which my kids LOVE!),  couple of journal prompts and a cute Color By Sight Word page.
 If you haven't seen this book, check it out-great for this time of year. I also have a Raindbows and Raindrops Literacy and Math Unit on my TPT store. It's filled with April themed Write The Room Activites and small readers for your kids.
Let me know what you think if you check them out! Click on each picture to see more information.

Teachers Taking Care of Teachers!!!

It's been awhile since I posted to my blog. It's been busy- but I had to take time to share this post from Kreative in Kinder. Her post touched my heart and I want to do my part to help out. Here's a copy of her post:

A sweet blogstalker, Anne, emailed Teaching Blog Addict this week with hopes that we would reach out and help with the recent devastation in our country. She was not alone in her idea or passion to lend a helping hand. Many teachers felt the same way so what are we going to do about it?

On March 2^nd, several towns across the U.S. were devastated by the destruction of at least 44 tornadoes across 5 different states. At least 27 people died and there were thousands left without homes and even schools. I think the heart of a teacher is that of a giving spirit. It is our job to love all children even when it is sometimes hard, to work more hours than most professions, and give even when we feel like we have nothing left. This catastrophe is an opportunity for us to do what we do best, lend a helping hand, caring heart, and teach a lesson of love. My heart is that each of you will adopt a teacher in a school affected by the tornadoes. It could be as simple as writing letters of encouragement or having your team clean out your closets and ship out everything you can live without to a teacher in your grade level. I couldn't imagine losing my school! I have thousands of dollars of materials that I have purchased for my class not to mention the hundreds of hours I have spent making materials for my students. If you would like to participate, please leave me the grade you teach and your email address. I am on Spring Break this next week and will be contacting schools, getting names and addresses of teachers. Maybe you sell on TPT or TN and want to donate everything in your store. That would be great! I plan on doing that too! If you don’t have tangible items to donate, no biggy! We have all suffered through some sort of loss. It means just as much to receive a letter of encouragement and we are born encouragers!! I will send out an email with the school information that you will be assigned to.

How else can you help? Spread the word! Link up! I think with all of the negative buzz about education, the strikes, the stress we are facing with job losses and budget cuts, this could be a good distraction and also a way to show people that we are here, united and strong! We care about teachers and education. We have chosen to be in a profession that most say “I could never do that all day!” but unfortunately if feels has become the least valued. So, I am choosing to not be sad about the way things are changing because there are teachers that are hurting and we need to help them! Who’s with me??

Save this picture to your computer (right click, save), and attach the link of this post to the pic when you post to your blog.

Wishing you all Happy Teaching!

Lisa

BLONDE MOMENT!!!

OMGoodness! Okay, I hate to admit this...but I JUST realized I had a gmail account. I KNOW! I KNOW! How could I not? Well, I could call it a blonde moment, or a "brain spaz" since I just turned 50...whatever it is I want to apologize for not responding to all those emails! :)
I promise I will respond to you guys much more quickly now that I know I have this email account.
I'm so embarrassed-"laughing" through it though.
:)
Lisa

NO Snowdays Here!

Since we rarely see even a bit of snow here-I thought I'd add that winter feeling to my students' lives by combining our number work this week with these cute little snowmen . Use this snowy packet to order numbers, recognize and write numbers 1-20 and identify missing numbers 1-20. Great homework, classwork or even as an assessment piece.
Please check it out by clicking the snowmen!

PASSING ON THE LOVE!

Passing this link and post on from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten Blog. I think it such a worthy cause to help out our fellow teachers and students. Check it out!

Love to Joplin Linky Party Posted: 13 Jan 2012 02:52 PM PST It is hard to believe that it has been almost 8 months since the devastating tornado ripped through Joplin, MO. This week I got an email from a very sweet kindergarten teacher from Joplin. Here is what her email said: I teach in Joplin, which made worldwide news last May when our town was cut in half by an F5 tornado. Many of our elementary schools were destroyed or damaged, and as teachers, we have had a roller coaster year. I came from a meeting yesterday where many are struggling with the weight of all we are dealing with. My request is this: would you be willing to donate a created pack of your choosing to give away at a drawing at our upcoming district Kindergarten grade level meeting? The meeting is Monday and I am sorry for the short notice but I did not realize until the meeting how down everyone is feeling. Well, of course, I said "YES!" and filled her email inbox with goodies. Then I started to think (scary), I bet there are other teachers (besides kindergarten teachers) who could use a little love. Want to help? Here is how: 1. Send your TpT product or Teacher's Notebook to Erica edoennig@joplin.k12.mo.us 2. Then link up here Wouldn't it be awesome if we filled her email with signs of love? Fill free to grab the heart above to share with your readers. We have to act fast! Thank you in advance!

Gingerbread Men Are Coming To Town! FLIPCHART FREEBIE!

Gingerbread Men will be filling my classroom and lessons starting next week. I love this unit! To get things started I created this Gingerbread Man Attendance Flipchart for my students. We use the slate and ActivInspire since we don't have a promethean board, but I hope you guys can use this too.  Click on the Gingerbread Man to download your free flipchart~ (If you do not have ActivInspire software -or similar-this file will download but will not have a preview available.)

Enjoy!
Lisa

SUNSHINE AWARD!!!

I've received the SUNSHINE AWARD!

Here are the rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.
2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them.

1. Thanks so much to Dee of Over The MoonBow Blog  for awarding me the Sunshine Award! It really means a lot:)

2. My answers to the questions:

Favorite color?  BLUE

Favorite animal? Dog

Favorite number? 14

Favorite drink? iced Chai Tea

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook

Your passion? my kids

Giving or getting presents? Most definitely giving presents!

Favorite day? First day of SPRING!



3. These are some of the blogs who have provided me with hours of browsing for ideas and a gold mine of resources.


1.  Donna at Kinderglynn


2.  Amy at Whooo Loves Kindergarten?


3.  Julie at Ms. Lee's Kindergarten


4.  DeeDee at Mrs.Wills Kindergarten


5.  Fran at Kindergarten Crayons


6.  Crystal at  Kreative in Kinder




7.  Kathleen at  Growing Kinders




8.  Joni at Laughing and Learning with Kinderkids




9.  Maggie at Maggie's Kinder Corner Blog




10.  Katy at Kindergarten Katy

CYBER MONDAY---Starts TODAY!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed your time with families. With all the madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I thought I'd start my sale early to give you all chance to save big and browse leisurely through my TPT store. I've marked everything down 20% from now until Monday!
Happy Holidays!
Lisa

                          20% TPT SALE!!!!!

Join Me for CYBER MONDAY SALES!

TPT and I are throwing a big sale on Cyber Monday (11/28) and we'd love for you to enjoy the 1000's of products that will be on sale.  Save time and money on classroom items for the upcoming holidays and more! Click HERE or on the SALE icon to get started. 

Turkey Fun! Measurement Unit

Next week we will be reading A Turkey for Thanksgiving, and decorating a turkey with a sign that says "Eat More.....". We'll also be having our Corn Feast and creating turkey headbands to wear at the feast. I'll be reading "Turkey Trouble" and students will identify the problem and solution. So with all that turkey fun planned, all I was missing was some  Turkey Fun Math.  Since we're working on measuring using non-standard units-I created this new file. Click on the Turkey to download for FREE!  It's a great addition to my Gobbling Good Thanksgiving Literacy Unit too!

I hope you guys can use and enjoy it with your students too!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Lisa

Gobble Up Some Goodies Giveaway!

It's  a Gobble, Up Some Goodies GIVEAWAY! One of my favorite things about blogging is meeting and interacting with amazing teachers from across the United States. I have teamed up with a few of my blogger buddies to host a bountiful giveaway just in time for Thanksgiving.  We are all thankful for you and the support that you have given us on our blogs, pinterest, TPT, facebook, etc.
It’s quite simple to enter. All you have to do is follow each person’s blog and TPT store. Write a comment for each person you follow and a comment once you follow everyone’s TPT store.… That’s 9 chances to win. ( 8 chances for each blog + 1 for following every TPT store)
Write a comment for each blog and TPT store you follow and get a BONUS entry if you blog about this giveaway on your blog or facebook page!
Giveaway ends Tuesday, November 15^h, 2011 at 8 p.m. eastern time. The winners will be announced on Tuesday Evening!!
Click on each picture to take you to each blog! WHEN YOU GET TO THE LAST STOP...LEAVE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS. THE “WINNER” will be chosen from Mrs. Freshwater’s Class.
Directions:

• Click on each picture, go to the blog and start following.
• Click on each TPT page and begin following.
• Return HERE and leave comments for each blog and one stating you follow everyone’s TPT.
• If you blog about this giveaway or post on FB. Leave link in a comment for a extra BONUS

Additional Point:

Follow all 8 TPT Stores and leave a comment:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Melissa-Freshwater

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donna-Glynn-Kinderglynn/Products

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Erica-Bohrer

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Michelle-Oakes/

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Over-The-MoonBow

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Doodle-Bugs-Teaching

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Katie-Mense

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Morrow/Products

THE “WINNER” will be chosen from Mrs. Freshwater’s Class.

Don’t forget to leave your comments!!!!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

(That’s Good Luck in Turkey)

Gobbling Good Thanksgiving Literacy Centers

I've been home for two days enjoying my Fall Break, which totally got me into the Thanksgiving holiday mode. So I created a few of my students favorites. My students LOVE Write The Room. This is our Friday literacy center each week. You can see my Thanksgiving Write and Stamp the Room and my Gobbling Good Thanksgiving CVC center here.

Hope you and your students enjoy these activities as much as we do!
Happy Fall~!

My OBSESSION!

Have you ever become so obsessed with something you "need" for your classroom that you can't stop looking for it? Well here's my obsession. I've decided I need one of these overalls pocket charts-which of course have been discontinued. I've almost gotten lucky twice with two teachers who thought they had an old one laying around. So - here's my last ditch effort. Does anyone have one they aren't using -and wants to part with it? Please let me know.

What's your obsession?    :)