Rainbow Fish Freebie

We read Rainbow Fish and then made our own with torn paper!

Here is a quick freebie with the pattern!

Brag Tag Giveaway!

I LOVE Brag Tags, so when Boost Promotions contacted me and asked me to host a giveaway, I said YES!  The tags are GREAT for rewards or as incentives on Bulletin Boards, etc.  They are so much fun and kids are excited to put them on their backpacks or wear them as necklaces!

The winner will get 100 Brag Tags 
(25 of four different designs) of their choice with the ability to personalize them!!

These are some of my favs!

 Visit Boost Promtoions' blog and website to learn more!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom Bulletin Board

I had to come up with something new for the hallway bulletin board, so what better way to get kinders focusing on the letters in their name than one of our fav books!

My students got a cardstock cut-out of the first letter in their name which they colored and decorated.  

Oh, and here is a random picture of my own Kindergartener in his classroom =)

Come Take a Look! and Teddy Bear Day

I am so honored to be Carson-Dellosa's Best Blog of the Week!  

I love their products and am thrilled to have been chosen! 

Carson-Dellosa is just a fabulous company, and if you don't already follow them on Facebook and Pinterest, you SHOULD!

And here are some random shots from our Teddy Bear Day today...we were celebrating the letter Tt!

We made headbands and read to our Teddy Bears!

Hot Dots Giveaway!

I am not sure if you guys realize how much of of a fan I am of Hot Dots, but it has been a LIFE SAVER this year when I was moved to Kindergarten at the last minute.  I had to have my stations up and going in like 'no time quick'.  And there is no way Kinders are ready for my old first grade stations at the beginning of the year. Just NOT gonna happen!

Hot Dots saved me, because they are easy and fun for kids to use.  There is no prep work involved...Oh, and the pens have a mute option! 

Needless to say,  my Kinders LOVE going to Word Work now!  Yay!!

Educational Insights has been kind enough to let me review a set AND give one away to my readers!!

The winner of the giveaway will get a
Hot Dots Getting Ready for School Pack and a Pen to go with it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pumpkins and a Winner!

Here is an oldie, but goodie....my pumpkin glyphs from last fall!  

Included in the pack: the pumpkin glyph direction poster, templates for the pumpkins and materials list, a tree map, a writing activity about pumpkins, and a couple of ideas for other pumpkin art activities....also included are some journal prompts and an even/odd math station activity. 

Hope you love it!

Find it at:

TPT

Teachers Notebook

Oh, and before I forget, we have a winner for the Binding Machine:

Karen R.!  Congrats!  I just sent you an email!! =)

Real World Geometric Shapes Giveaway

Over the summer I was contacted by Learning Resources to review some of their items.  I decided to try out their Real World Folding Geometric Shapes and I was not disappointed!
They are super cool! They are clear plastic and you can choose from a wide variety of inserts in order to recreate shapes from the real world!

 Here are a few of my kids using them to explore 3D shapes!

3D shapes can be somewhat challenging to differentiate from flat shapes, however with these shapes, kids can see and touch the 3D shapes...plus see how they translate into the real world!

(plus they are so much fun to play with and explore!)

They are so awesome that they recently won the 2013 Learning Magazine’s Teachers’ Choice 
for the Classroom Award!

Learning Resources has been kind enough to offer one set of
Real World Folding Geometric Shapes™ to one of my readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kitty Cat Pack!

I have revised one of my packs and created an all new Kitty Cat Style Themed Pack.  It has a bunch of the old activities, but added some new ones for the following books:

Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward, Have You Seen my Cat? by Eric Carle, and Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore....and of course, still has some great activities for the Pete the Cat Books by Eric Litwin.  Let me just say, none of the materials in the pack are anything but supplemental materials and in no way replace the books.  The materials are original and SO MUCH fun!

If you downloaded the old version, you should be able to go back to TPT and download it again for the new materials (which is the reason I didn't create a whole new listing =)

Stations! and a Stamping Freebie!

My Kinders are busy getting used to their station routines.

Here are some pictures I took last week:

Letters and Sounds Station, where kids are putting their ABC's in order (it is a worm, you just can't see the head!!) and using magnet letters to spell their names!

Here my kids are at Word Work, reading Big Books and using Hot Dots!

Writing Station where my kids are stamping words and writing letters on dry erase boards

Listening Station

 Reading Station in the loft!

To celebrate getting my stations up and running, here is a little freebie I just made to use with my letter stamps at the writing station (it includes more than just the pages below =)

Snag the pack here

Binding Machine Giveaway!

I was contacted recently by MyBinding.Com to review a product of my choice.  I thought long and hard over what to review, but finally settled on trying out one of their binding machines.  We have one at our school, but it a super big hassle to find it and then carry it down to my room because it weighs a ton!

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box, because what I found was not heavy at all! Even though it didn't weigh a ton, it is still very durable.  I used it immediately and didn't even have to read the directions!  I know, bad teacher, bad teacher!!  But it has a handy dandy little reference guide on the machine, so it is very easy to use.  Since I am in Kindergarten for only this year, I used the machine to bind materials that aren't things I will use past this year...but for now they will be easily kept together, without having to buy something to keep them together.

I plan to use the machine to bind my students' portfolios at the end of the year.  It will also be great to bind our Mother's Day Writing activities into a keepsake for our moms =)

MyBinding.com was sweet enough to offer my readers a chance to win their own Binding Machine!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends Tuesday 9/25/12!

Square Cat and a Freebie!

Have you seen the book, Square Cat?  

The author, Elizabeth Schoonmaker was sweet enough to mail my class an autographed copy her book,

Square Cat!!

I love the fact that the story integrates so many things....

flat shapes like squares and circles, but then also includes elements of social dynamics, too!  Learning to be happy in your own skin (or shape) plus being sensitive to your friends and the 

differences among them!  

And it is a cute story on top of all that!

I loved the ideas shared by Chalk Talk about making Square Cats

...and graphing our results!

Here is a little freebie 'two-fer' (not sure if that's a word??)  to go along with the book:

Grab your freebie here or click the pictures above!

Eula (the square cat) even has her own blog!!

Check it out here!

http://www.eulathesquarecat.com

I am in love with Eula!!!  Go buy the book and you will love her, too!! 

(my own kids don't want me to keep the book at school, so I have had to buy my own copy for home!!  That's how good it is!!)

Show Some L*o*v*e

To all my teacher friends...

This HAS to be shared...there is a mother who was diagnosed with cancer, stage 3

...her father just passed a few years ago with this same cancer. Tiffany's daughter is ONLY a year old, just heartbreaking.  One of my blogging friends, Alisha, The Bubbly Blonde,  has set up an AMAZING packet of things you can get if you donate money to this mother...to help pay for her bills and mortgage while she is in the hospital.... Here is the link to the blogpost - you can see everything that you will get once you donate $20. There's over $200 in products!! 

It is SOOOOO amazing how all these bloggers came together to help out - and even MORE amazing how many people have donated money to help her out.  Please take a moment to click the link and see how many amazing items you can get for just a small amount of money!!!

Kindergarten Common Core

I just HAD to join in on the party, being new to Kindergarten for this year only, I am having to address Common Core Standards for a grade level outside what I am used to.  (story of my life, right?)  

I was excited when I saw about a million posts from fellow bloggers about this new resource:

This Workbook includes over 600 pages of Kindergarten Worksheets, Activities, and Posters that teach all the Kindergarten English Language Arts Common Core Standards and all the Kindergarten Mathematics Common Core Standards!

Kindergarten Common Core even has a sample download for you to check out what the workbook is all about.  I already downloaded the sample, and let's just say....I liked what I saw!

Check it out for yourself:

Kindergarten Common Core

(cute cheerleader by MelonHeadz)