Read Across America Freebies

I'm so excited about this week. I love Read Across America week. We have a dress up day associated with a Dr. Seuss book each day. Today is multicolored clothes day for the book My Many Multicolored Days; Tuesday is green day for Green Eggs and Ham; Wednesday is Who hair day for Horton Hears a Who; Thursday is crazy sock day for Fox in Socks; Friday is crazy hat day for the Cat in the Hat. On Friday, our librarian has arranged a variety of readers from the community and school system to read to our classes. My wonderful fiance Chris is going to read to the 7th and 8th graders. Last year he did The Tell Tell Heart and they loved it. This is just another one of his many talents. He's pretty good at drama type things.
I'm going to read a different Dr. Seuss book each day and do a craftivity to go with it. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing for each book. I've seen so many great ideas on other blogs and pinterest. Our weekly reading homework is even Dr. Seuss. I took an excerpt from Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish.  a

I've updated the freebie to some clipart that is acceptable with copyright issues. I hope you can use it.
Click here to get that freebie. 
I'm even wanting to do some Seuss themed snacks. I'm so excited. What do you do at your school for Read Across America? Please leave me some comment love if you download this packet. I'm hoping to do some similar games with other themes so I would love some feedback.

New items and updates

I hate to promote myself. I'm was definitely not born to be a business woman. But I'm trying my hand at selling some packets on Teacher's Notebook and now on TPT. I'm trying to earn a little extra money. Right now I'm just using the money to fund my desire to buy units on TPT and Teacher's notebook. It would be nice if I could supplement my income during the summer. Since I'm going to be a newlywed this summer it would be nice to be able to contribute to our new family. So that being said, I have a new item up in my TN store and my TPT store. It's called Monster Mapping. The packet contains 8 different thinking maps to use with books or stories read. I've been using them in my class the past few weeks and my students are doing well with them. They like the monster graphics which is kind of funny. I think they think that I draw the clip art that I use for their different worksheets and activities. I tell them that I don't but they keep complimenting it. We've been working on filling buckets so they are full of random compliments like "I like your glasses Ms. Kerri." or "I like your hair." Now those are becoming, "I like your monster."
Anyway, I have a sample from my packet for free.

 

You can get all the thinking maps at either my Teacher's Notebook Store or my TPT store.  While you're there you might want to check out my Word Work Tools games. I updated it to include some short e and short i words. This is one of my kids favorite games. I'm partcipating in the Leap Day sale on TPT so if you buy any of my items on that day you'll get 20% plus an extra 10% when you use the Promo Code L2PY9

Click Here to Get your copy

If you download my freebie or check out my stores, please let me know. I can use all the encouragement I can get. Thanks for following and supporting me.

Freebie Friday (A day late)

I had every intention of posting this yesterday afternoon, but I was not feeling well yesterday. I think I have a sinus infection and I was feeling awful yesterday. I just came home and crashed.
We had a teddy bear day yesterday. One of letters of the week last week was b. So we read different things about bears all week long.
We started the day by doing our read to self as read to our bear. The kids have reached 15 minutes which was our goal for this year. I'm really proud of how well they are doing. I need to spend a little more time in some mini lessons before letting them read. I have one little girl who gets really upset during read to self. She was crying but seems to be adjusting. We haven't quite figured out what was going on with the tears. But hopefully she'll get used to it. Our poem of the week came from Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher. The kids did an awesome job with it this week. They were able to read it pretty fluently by the end of the week. We read A Bear Snores On and discussed some Text to Text connections.

Click Here to get your own copy.

Kristin had some other great ideas for Teddy Bear activities. I was inspired by her gummy bear activity to create my own. I was going to use hers but then I remembered my kids don't know how to subtract. So I gave my students 10 gummy bears to use as counters to solve the addition problems. So check it out here. The graphics are from KPM Doodles.
I'm working on one more post for my praise challenge to post hopefully tomorrow. But if you have a praise you want to share please comment below. If you grab my Teddy bear sheet, leave me a comment as well.

Praise Challenge day 4

I'm probably going to post twice today. I know that it's against all blogging ettiquiete but I want to post about the praise challenge and I have a freebie to offer for a math activity. I can't do my post about praise at school because I have a youtube video to share and I left my math activity on my portable hard drive at school. So I apologize ahead of time.
Today's post is going to focus on ways to praise God. I've focused on things that I praise God for the past few days. But it's so important to praise God for who he is. I've been reminded of that by all the wonderful comments other bloggers have left. I get a lot out of worship and praise music. I have no musical ability what so ever but when listening to this music I'll belt it out. I've gotten in the habit lately of listening to christian music while getting ready in the morning and in the car. It just helps me focus on what is important to start my day.
I'm going to share a couple of my favorite praise songs and I hope you'll comment with yours. I'm always looking for new songs to add to my ipod.
My all time favorite is "Amazing Love." I get choked up at the idea that my king would die on the cross for my sins. I praise God everyday for loving me that much when I know I don't deserve any of it. For the past 5 years I've been helping with youth in some capacity. I love it. I was never in a youth group when I was a teenager so part of me feels like I'm having that experience now. Last year when Chris and I started dating, I started going to church with him. He works with youth at his church so it was natural that I would help there too. I still worked with the kids I had been but then eventually it was time to just go to one church. The kids that were my first group of youth will always be a special part of my life. I'm still close to several of them and most of them are in college now. But I'm also really enjoying being a part of this new group. I praise God for giving me the opportunity to work with such amazing kids. The group I work with now has a youth choir and I've been introduced to several great songs. I am in love with the song "Glorious Day" by Casting Crowns. When I hear it, I have to sing along. It's such a great expression of how God and Jesus loves us.


The last one I want to share is "Blessings" by Laura Story. There's an eighth grader at church that sings this song and she has a beautiful voice. This song is just a great reminder that God works in all things. Things that don't seem like blessings God will find a way to use.


So what are your favorite ways to praise God? What praise and worship songs are your favorites?

Praise Challenge Day 3

So far this challenge is going great. I've really been thinking about ways to praise God and trying to stay positive and joyful. I'm so thankful that I'm able to share this with other bloggers. It makes me so happy that I have an outlet for all my thoughts about everything. Today I'm really praising God for the blogging community. I really feel like being a part of this community is part of God working in my life. I really needed some support and rejuvenation in my teaching this year. Blogging has been the answer to that. I had someone leave a comment yesterday about praising God everyday through Lent. Her son and her were going to do this and she asked me to join her. I love it. I had just been thinking yesterday about Lent. I don't like to give things up that seem pointless or have no impact on my spirituality. So I try to add something to my walk with God. As I've been thinking about praising God everyday during the season of Lent, I thought of starting a praise journal. That's a project I'm going to work on and hopefully have some things to share this weekend with you.
I had intended on today's post to be about ways to praise God and especially through music. But I read a post from 3AM teacher today that changed my thinking. She shares a really personal struggle that has been in her life. It just made me think how thankful I am to have this community. I praise God that he's giving us ways to come together even when we are no where near each other. We have the opportunity to find healing and growth through blogging.
What are you praising God for today?

Praise Challenge Day 2

Yesterday I presented my challenge of praising God each day. I loved reading the comments from others about what they were praising God about. So keep the comments coming. I think on Friday I'll have a linky party so you can post on your own blog about the challenge. You're more than welcome to use any of the pictures that i created with the Bible verses and the challenges on it. The graphics are from Graphics From the Pond.
Here's today's verse:

If you haven't checked out Tamera from Teaching with TLC and Annie from The Moffet Girls, 7 week study to transform your teaching., you need to. Check out the newest post here. They are looking at the fruits of the spirit and how it relates to parenting and teaching. This week it was about Joy and how this is something that comes from God not our circumstances. I felt like that fit in perfectly with what I was thinking with this praise challenge. We are facing a lot of challenges in education, but I strongly believe this is what God created me to do. So I need to remember that so I can remember to have joy and to praise him through all the challenges.
So keep the praises coming this week.
Today my praise has to do with my wonderful fiance Chris. I've blogged about him a lot but I feel so blessed that God brought us together. He's truly God's choice for me. My mom and dad were both praying that I would find the right person since I moved back home 5 years ago. They both feel like God brought Chris into my life. I praise God everyday for bringing us together. We try to keep our relationship Christ centered. He's my number one fan. He encourages me in blogging, teaching, creating materials. He listens to me talk about things he doesn't know anything about and goes with me to find the materials I need for some idea I saw on a blog or pinterest. Last night, he and my dad were being sneaky and it turns out they were working on honeymoon plans. But I was a little annoyed with him because they didn't tell me what they were doing. I went home and was in bed reading, when he brought me some flowers before he went to his house. It was so sweet. He even put them in some water for me. I should've taken a picture this morning because he creatively used the juice container he had emptied the night before. But here's a picture of them in a vase.

What's your praise today? Leave me a comment and keep praising the Lord for all the good he gives us.

Praise Challenge

A couple of Sundays ago, I was sitting in church listening to the sermon. Our pastor loves preach out of the Old Testament. I've learned quite a bit about stories that I never knew existed because of this. One of these stories has to do with David and when Saul was searching for him. (I'll have to look up the exact reference when I get home. It's in my Bible at home.) In this story, David flees to Samuel to find out what to do and is hidden in a place of worship. When the soldiers come in to get David, they instead begin to praise God. This story amazed me. The idea that you could be in the middle of a battle and you stop to praise God is just so inspiring to me. It got me thinking about how education is kind of a battle. Especially these days. We're getting attacked from so many sides. The government on all levels, the public, parents and sadly even sometimes other teachers. So I was inspired to create a praise challenge. This week I am going to work really hard to praise God in the middle of whatever challenges I'm facing. I've also been inspired by Tamara and Annie's challenge to change your teaching in 7 weeks through the fruits of the spirit study. So I'm bringing my challenge to you. Each day this week I'm going to present a verse and a praise. I want to invite you to either post about it on your blog as well and link up (I might not get the linky party up today) or to comment on this post. Tell me how you're praising God through the challenges.

My praise today has to do with my mother. She had mammogram on Thursday and they found some nodules. We went back to the doctor yesterday and they told her they were benign cysts. I'm so thankful and praise God to have healthy parents who support and love me in everything I do. Both my parents are always willing to help with field trips or parties at school and that means everything to me. What are you praising God for today?

So Thankful for the Weekend

I am so happy to have a four day weekend in front of me. I've been exhausted for the past couple of weeks and I think I'm fighting off a cold of some sort. I'm looking forward to catching up on my blogging, watching some more of the kindergarten expo, and reading my Patricia Cornwell book today. Throw in my fiance's laundry, my laundry and fixing lunches and I feel like I'm quite the happy housewife. Saturday I'm participating in a middle school retreat that's an overnight er. So I need all the rest I can get today. Monday I'm heading to Knoxville with my mom to see my sis and sweet niece. My wedding dress is in so we might go by there Monday. Although my sleeves are not. It has barely been a month since we ordered it and I'm shocked it's already in.
We had a pretty good week at school celebrating Valentine's day and learning about weather. It's a weird combination I know. I have had 2 students move in the past week so my class size seems really small. When my 6 ELL kids leave to go to ELL class, I only have 9 students in my room and this week some of them have been absent. (Those of you that just added up that I only have 15 students, please don't hate me. I had 18 at one point. I'm apparently going to be a revolving door this year. And only 4 of those kids are girls.) On Valentine's day we decorated our bags to distribute our valentines, made a valentine for our parents, and played my puppy love cover up game. The kids seem to have a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures of their valentines but they were nothing super special. I had bought some foam hearts and put their first day of kindergarten pictures on it. They just decorated them. I was really proud that most of my students had actually written their names and their friends' names on their valentines. That was something I asked the families to do so they could practice. I was also really proud of how well they read their friends' names. I think this year I've done more with names that I have in the past so they know each others names. Technically I'm a half day kindergarten where some of my kids leave at 12:30. That afternoon I only had 1 girl and then the rest of the kids were boys. It made me laugh a little because at one point they were all doing crafts. They had their choice between all the free centers and they chose to make stuff out of hearts. I was inspired by someone's blog who gave her students hearts to make animals out of. I found some felt hearts in my stash of stuff. They used them to make pictures. They turned out pretty well. One boy made a butterfly for me and then attached some paper from the writing center with a picture he drew of us and labeled. It was pretty cute.
I just finished watching Crystal's presentation from Kindergarten Expo on writer's workshop. I'm super inspired to go back to school and implement some of her ideas. If you haven't checked out the expo, you definitely should. I just purchased my ticket to the primary expo. I am loving this professional development on my own time in my pjs. 

I'm working on a blogging challenge for next week so be sure to check back.

Giveaway Results

This is just going to be a quick post about the results of my giveaway. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to share some things we did this week. I'm out of school so I should have some time for some blogging.

 

So congratulations to Amy from The Resource(ful) Room and Heather from Mrs. Shelton's Kindergarten.  I'll be in touch soon about getting your goodies to you. Amy will get my pinterest inspired bracelet and Heather the pinterest inspired coffee cup cover. 

I used graphics from Graphics From the Pond to spice my post up a little bit. I love her stuff if you haven't checked her out you should. Here's the link to her TPT store. She offers a ton of stuff free.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Graphics-From-The-Pond

And now for the Sugar Coma

This is the first year since I've been teaching that I haven't gone over board with the sweets at school. We didn't have an official party so that helps. But my assitant made some toffee hearts and my dad brought me chocolate covered strawberries and my sister made homemade snickers. I had to weigh in for Weight Watchers last night so I was pretty good until after wards. Then I might have overindulged a bit. Anyone else experience a sugar coma yesterday?
I had planned on my giveaway ending on Valentine's day but I read my post and I never put that in the post. So you have until midnight tonight to enter my giveaway. I'll post the results tomorrow.
Did you check out the Kindergarten Expo? It was awesome. Well what I've watched so far has been awesome. Crystal at Kreative in Kinder did a presentation on Writing workshop. I haven't had a chance to watch all of her segments but I got a lot out of the first segment I watched. She talked a lot about interactive writing. I've seen this concept on a lot of blogs and I do a little bit of it. But after watching Crystal, I decided to incorporate this into my writing. I really am wanting to implement a writer's workshop system in my class but it just isn't working for me. So I'm taking some of the ideas that I'm reading abuot on blogs and making it work for me. Starting with interactive writing.
I've always done some interactive writing as part of my morning message. I share the pen. They have to fill in blanks in the message with popcorn words, dates, and other words. I use this to teach some about mechanics and review material we've already talked about. I also take advantage of this time to work on stretching out words and talk about what we do when we don't know how to spell something.
Last week we did a bubble map about our trip to the aquarium. I had the kids write the words and helped them a little with the spelling but mostly I let them stretch the sounds themselves. Then on Tuesday we drew a picture of our trip. I was so excited because a couple of the kids labeled their pictures without me even asking them to. Then the next day they wrote their sentences. We talked about how our sentences should match the pictures we drew. What I noticed by working through writing this way, was they didn't ask me to spell things as much as they have before. They used the bubble map we had created and stretched words out on their own. I was very pleased with their writing.
Here are some samples of there writing. I planned on taking a couple pictures of our chart but my battery died in my camera.

I love his labels.

This student struggles a lot with writing. But he did pretty well with this assignment on his own.

This is one of my ELL students. I didn't have to help him at all.

In a perfect classroom, I would let the kids write about whatever they want to write and they would be in different phases of their writing. But I just can't get that method to work for me. I have my kids for 2 years so maybe next year they will be able to work a little more independently if I can lay some ground work now.
Now I just need to find some time to finish watching all those presentation from the Kindergarten Expo. Maybe Friday when I have the day off.
How do you do writing in your class? Do you use interactive writing?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm feeling very loved today, after all the commenting love I got yesterday on my post. My favorite had to be from Ms. S who told me to stop having a pity party. I laughed out loud at that comment. It was a complete pity party and I'm glad someone called me out on it. I really was truly worried people thought they could a virus from my blog but I'm glad to find out no one is thinking that.
Because I'm in a lovey dovey mood, I'm liking up with Buzzing with Ms. B and How'd you meet your Hunny?
Chris and I actually meet when he was  sophomore and I was a senior in high school. We both swam on the swim team and he was good friends with some of my good friends. I thought he was super nice and funny guy but that was really the extent of thinking about him. He had the cutest girlfriend all through high school. They were really very cute together. I add this part in because he likes to tell people now that I wouldn't give him the time of day in high school. But we were friends. I didn't really think a ton about him after high school. I still kind of knew things about him because of mutual friends. I knew he went to Vanderbilt and I remember when his mother passed away and I found out he was a vet because my pastor took her dog to see him.  But I didn't see him or anything. (Only to figure out now we did all go to the movies once during college.) Fall of 2010, I got a message on facebook from Chris. He just said thought he had seen me driving to school one day and asked me a little about living back at home. I was seeing someone at the time so I responded but that was about it. Meanwhile, the guy I was seeing then and I broke up and it was Chris's birthday at the end of December. I sent him a birthday facebook message and about a week later we started messaging on facebook. I asked him if he wanted to go to dinner and catch up sometime. I beat him to the punch on asking me out. He suggested an Italian place and then ice skating. We've been together ever since. Which is only just over a year. I have never been one to believe in all the lovey dovey mushy stuff. In fact, I might or might not have a t-shirt that says Love is Lame. But I knew there was something special about Chris from our first day. He impressed me by praying before the meal and his involvement in church and youth. He supports everything I do and I feel so lucky to have him in my life. He's definitely my other half and it's a total God thing we got together when we did. I can't wait to get married on June 16th.
Hopefully, a romantic story was just what you were looking for on this Valentine's day. Check out other stories at Buzzing with Ms. B. If you don't have a hunny, don't give up. Chris and I didn't get together until I was 29 and I've definitely learned God's timing is perfect.

Last year Chris brought in a couple of birds from his vet office for the kids to see.

This is us camping and hiking. We love being outdoors together.

This is an owl they rescued at his clinic that he brought in for the kids to see.

Where's the Love?

This is going to be a kind of ridiculous post. I'm admitting it upfront. But if you stick around than I'll have a freebie for you at the end.
First things first. I don't seem to be getting many comments lately and I'm not sure if it's because I'm just not saying anything worth commenting on or not. I'm ok with it if that's the case. But last week Lori at Cachey Mama's posted that she thought a virus had come from my blog. But it's not true. Lori blogged later that it wasn't the case and I'm not blaming her. So I'm just all paranoid now that people are avoiding my blog because of it. With that said, please leave me some comment love. I'm even having a giveaway and there have only been like 7 people enter it. Check it out here. I feel super pathetic for writing this post. So please leave me some love to make me feel better. I'm feeling like the needy girlfriend who just needs to know you care.

Anyway, last week in math we finished up our measurement unit. I found several great ideas on different blogs for creating some measuring activities. We did a round of centers that focused on measuring different way.
1. Measuring Mouse Tails from Love those Kinders. She had a great idea that didn't require a ton of prep work.
2. Measuring volume using cups cubes, and marshmallows. I got the idea and recording sheet from Mrs. Patton. I never did go to Mcdonald's to get some cups but used some I had around the house. They used cubes and then marshmallows to find out how many they would hold.
3. Measuring Weight - I got this recording sheet from Keen on Kindergarten. Check it out. My kids had a ton of fun using candy hearts to weigh different classroom objects. Funny thing, the hearts I bought had messages in Spanish. Didn't even know they made them.
4. Measurement fun with shoes. I got the idea and some of the materials from First Grade Fabulous Fish. Check her post out here. I took her fabulous ideas and made my own recording sheet that worked for my kindergarteners. So get that freebie here.
The kids had a ton of fun with these activities. They worked well together. Even though they didn't all do every activity just right, I think they got a sense of different types of measurement and explored with the manipulatives.
Here are few pictures from our fun:

In other news, I'm having a sale at my Teacher's Notebook store until tomorrow. There are some fun Valentine's day math and literacy activities. So check it out.

Love and All that Mushy Stuff plus a giveaway

I'm feeling extra mushy and gushy this Valentine's Day. It could be because I'm engaged and I have the most wonderful fiance in the world to spend Valentine's Day with. It could have something to do with the awesome Valentine Blogger Exchange. I got my present yesterday and it was awesome. I've been trying to figure out the blog that my friend has so I can contact her. Amy did an awesome job making me feel very special. I should've taken pictures before I got into it all. She sent me some socks in a cup that looked like an ice cream, a super cool picture frame post it holder with 2 pens, my favorite resees' hearts in a cutie pie mailbox, and my favorite thing, a picture frame.

I don't know why these pictures are this way. I rotated them and then saved them. So sorry for that. The picture frame was so thoughtful. I'm getting married June 16th and our colors are going to be red and turquoise so a wedding picture will be perfect. Until then, I'll just leave this sweet quote in the frame. So, Amy if you happen to read my blog, thank you thank you thank you. I loved all of it. It was so creative and thoughtful. Chris said he think us bloggers are crazy going to all this trouble for people we don't know. But I feel like I do know the bloggers I follow.
Anyway, I'm going to have a pinterest inspired giveaway. I have no real reason for a giveaway except I'm feeling the love. Here's the goods I'm giving away:
I made my valentine blogger partner a pinterest inspired bracelet. I've made several of them now. Here's the pin:
One lucky winner will receive a bracelet like this. The ribbon will be black with pink polka dots.

Source: tinysparklythings.blogspot.com via Kerri on Pinterest

Another lucky winner will receive a coffee cup cover like this pin.

Source: bhg.com via Kerri on Pinterest

Only it will be valentine inspired. Here's how you enter:
1. Follow my blog and leave me a comment telling me that you do.
2. Follow my teacher's notebook store and leave me a comment telling me that you do.
3. Leave me a comment telling me how you're spending valentine's day either at home or at school.
While you're visiting my TN store, check out my valentine's day stuff. It's all on sale.

Currently . . .

I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade. I love these linky parties. They are fun and easy to post and I love reading what everyone else is doing. Makes it feel more like all my blogging friends are friends. I especially love that this one has a mustache on it.

So check out the currently posts on Oh Boy 4th Grade.

What's going on this week:

Before I give you a peek into my week, I wanted to clarify something from my post yesterday. I'm not opposed to varying opinions. I think we can learn a lot from each other when we're honest and we take the time to listen. I think of the blogging community as a place I go to seek encouragement and ideas. I get negativity in the real world. I really hope I wasn't negative yesterday because that wasn't my intent to be negative or discouraging. But I chose to stop following this blogger because I have read several posts that made me feel discouraged after reading them. I don't need that so I made the choice to not expose myself to that anymore. I'm not saying anyone else has to do the same. I just was sharing what I was thinking. I hope that I didn't offend anyone because that wasn't my purpose.
Anyway, after watching Fran Kramer's presentation, I have some things I planning on trying put this week. Starting with 2 bingo games I made. My kids love bingo and I never thought about making my own. But I made one with sight words and then one with sort a word families. I'll have then to share as soon as I print them to make sure I have cards for all the words so check back.
I also want to try out here ideas about partner matching with the abc cards and putting them in alphabetical order. I found some free Valentine themed Abc cards on Growing Kinders. I just need to print them out and laminate them. We've pretty much got recognizing our alphabet down, we're still working on getting all the sounds. Today I used my sound cards and had them line up in Abc order. I also had them find sight word partners using our flashcards. I feel like I need to watch the presentation again to process more of her fantastic ideas. I am also planning on wearing a sight word necklace and having the students do a variety of activities with that. I just remembered that while I was typing this post. I need to get up and make it right now.
This week we're finishing up some winter activities that I've been wanting to do and just haven't had time. So our centers have some of the snowmen games I've bought and found for free. We're also going to read Snowballs by Lois Elhert and make those name snowmen I've seen all over the blog world and pinterest. Now that I've located my camera, I should have some pictures of these activities. I'm using quite a few games from Crystal at Kreative Kinder in her Snowmen pack. I love her units and my kids love the activities she has in them. She's also nice enough to change the sight words if you need her too. Then in our writing center we're going to work on some Valentine cards from DeeDee Wills February Writing Center pack. She's another one who I love her stuff. Those two I know when I buy something from them, I'm going to love it and use almost all the activities.
We read The Mitten a few weeks ago and my kids loved it. I've had plans to make a take home bag to go along with it since we got back to school. I finally got it done this weekend and it's going home with a student today. My kids have done a great job with these in the past and seem to love it. This bag contains the book, some retelling pieces with real pictures of animals, and a story map to complete. You can check out what I send home by clicking here. The Mitten Take home bag. If you grab it, please leave me some comment love. If you would like to adapt it for your class, let me know and I'll be glad to email it to you in a word document.
What are you up to this week in your class? I'm looking forward to doing Valentine's themed stuff the next week. We need a pick me up for this dreary but warm winter we're having.

Valentine's Day Units

I've been working on a couple of units for Valentine's day for forever now. I really wanted to get it done before February 1st but it just didn't happen. I have Valentine's Literacy Activities and a Puppy Love Math unit up on my Teacher's notebook store. I have a couple of freebies for you from them.

Click Here for preview activity

Click Here for a Preview Activity

 You can check them out in my Teacher's Notebook store.


I'm really torn about selling stuff on Teacher's Notebook. I just recently read a blog post about everyone selling things and no one sharing anymore.When I read this post, it made me feel bad for selling things. It made me feel like I wasn't sharing my items anymore. But that's not true. I shouldn't feel bad for trying to support myself and for being compensated for time and clip art that I've bought. After reading this post, I decided that I wouldn't follow this blogger anymore. I didn't need to feel bad for trying new things. It makes me happy to create and offer some freebies but also it is exciting when I sell stuff.  I still see lots of freebies out in the blogging world and I try to still offer freebies every week.  I totally understand people selling things. Now that I've been working on a few units of my own, I can see all the hard work that goes into it. It has taken me forever to get this Valentine's Day stuff made. I made it as a response to things I needed in my classroom. I started some tutoring last week and I plan on using these activities with my small groups. I want others to be able to use my stuff and love to share my ideas. But I also like to buy things on Teacher's Notebook and TPT myself. It's been nice to be able to use the very small amount of money that I've made to buy other materials. The most expensive things I have on my store is $3.50. I chose that because that's about what I like to spend on items. I don't really like to spend more than $5.00 on stuff but some of the packets are worth it. I am going to spend money on books and things for my classroom, I would rather spend this money supporting other teachers. What do you guys think about selling stuff versus offering freebies?
 I would love to hear what you have to say about this. Also, if you grab one of my freebies please leave me some love. I need all the encouragement I can get in this venture.

So Glad it's the weekend

I have been exhausted this week. I think I've just had too much going on. I had a formal evaluation on Tuesday and my fellow kindergarten teachers have been out this past week. We went on  a field trip on Thursday. So it has been a busy week.

I have a freebie and meant to post it to yesterday but the day got away from me before I had time to post one. So here's a freebie in honor of Pam from the Vintage Teacher. I definitely took advantage of her Freebie Fridays. I created a reading calendar for the month of February. I know it's a few days into February but hopefully you can still use it. The graphics are from Scrappin Doodles and Graphics from The pond.

Click Here to get this freebie.

This idea is adapted from a calendar I found on Dr. Jean's website. I couldn't find them after I downloaded the January one so I had to make my own.

If you teach Kindergarten and you didn't attend the kindergarten Expo, you should have. I didn't have time to watch the videos last weekend. But I did watch Hadar's about Routines and Rules Sunday evening and then part of Crystal's on Writing Workshop. This morning I took the time to watch Fran's about Standards Based Fun. It was awesome. She's an amazing woman and I really don't know how she gets everything done. I took about 5 pages of notes and have tons of ideas of things I want to implement and create. I hope to get a few things made this weekend. So check back later this week for some freebies. You can still purchase a ticket for the event and check out the presentations. They are so worth it.

What is Not Wrong!

So I'm a little late linking up on this one but better late than never. It's been kind of a wild week and I've had a few rough days so I thought I needed to stop and look at what is not wrong.

So here are 5 things that are not wrong:
1. It's not wrong that we're going on  a field trip today to the aquarium. This is one of my favorites. Here are a couple of pictures of what we saw.

2. It's not wrong that I only have one more teacher evaluation left this year and I've now gotten the one I was dreading out of the way.
3. It's not wrong that my wedding is basically planned.
4. It's not wrong that my kids love my new game that I created. The Hammer game. Here's a couple of pictures of them playing this game.

I found these hammers in the dollar section at Target because I knew I could come up with a game. So I made some cards with nails on them and different popcorn words and word family words. My kids are loving it. I started tutoring yesterday with a few kids and we played in the afternoon. I call out a word and who ever hits it first with the hammer gets to keep it. You can purchase this in my Teacher's Notebook store. It's the Tools for Word Work packet. You can get it for $2.50.
5. It's not wrong that some of my kids are reading and writing up a storm. One of my kids outside today wrote about 13 different superhero and villain names. He did a decent job spelling them all too.
Anyway, link up with Carried Away in Kindergarten to celebrate what is not wrong.