13 in 13

Kristin, Hadar and Traci are hosting a fabulous party to recap the year. I think I have participated the past few years. I'm trying to get back into blogging. I've kind of taken an unintentional hiatus. I've been taking some medication that makes me nauseous and it's been hard to do much at night. But I've missed blogging and I feel like something is off when I'm not blogging.

 So here are 13 things from my year:

1. Books I've read:

And 

These are two series that I have really enjoyed this year. I write down all the books I read. I read so much I can't keep up with it if I don't. This year I've read clost to 80 books.

2. Trips Taken:

Chris and I have been on several great trips this year. We went to a comic book convention in Charolette, NC with some friends. It was a blast.

Then we went on vacation just the two of us to Topsail, NC. This is us on our one year anniversary!

Right before school started we went to Charleston, SC with my family. It was a blast going to the beach with my sweet niece. 

Our last trip was a business one for Chris and I tagged along. It was to St. Simon's Island, GA.

3. Summer reading outreach program was something I'm really proud of.  My BFF Cassie and I started this program through the public library. We took books out and read with kids. It was loads of fun. 

4. Summers with Sophie

I was lucky enough to get to keep my sweet girl once a week through the summer. We had a blast on our Mondays.

Here we are the carousel at Dollywood.

Big girl panties were a big part of our summer.

5.  Big News 

We found out in May that my sister was pregnant and I was going to be an aunt again and soph was going to be a big sister. Here's a picture from the dinner where we found out the gender. 

Chandler - Kate will be here January 13. I can't wait.

6. New things I've tried in school this year

I finally cleaned out the sand table in my room and turned into a sensory table. Here's a pic with the corn in it.

I'm also really excited about the fourth grade buddies we've been doing. My friend Cassie and I have partnered up and it's been amazing. I need to post an update with all the fun and learning we've had.

Here are they are working on a Venn diagram comparing themselves.

7. Girls' ministry - this past Fall I started a high school girls group. It is something I had been wanting for a while and it finally all came together. It has been great. Here's a picture from one night where we made scarves from t-shirts.

8.  Favorite picture of the year has to be this picture  from Chris's birthday party Sunday.  We had both of our families over which meant both of the nieces were there. They haven't spent much time together but it's clear they both love their uncle Chris.

9. Favorite Activity with my class was our end of the year party. My class I had the past 2 years was my favorite one so far. It was really hard to say goodbye to them. I have a good class now but there was something special about this last one. I also had room moms that rocked. I could tell them my ideas and they would make it happen. We read the first Harry Potter and then had a Harry Potter party. They decorated wands, played pin the lightning scar on Harry, made owls and ate themed food.

10.  Favorite pin 

I love pinning clothes. I think I've been a lot more experimental with my clothing choices. This is just one of the outfits I love.

10. Instagram love

I've been on Instagram since 2012 but it was his past year that I really have gotten into it. You can follow me at mskerriskrazyklass. I love Instagram challenges. My bloggy BFF, Laura from Kinder Krazinesss  has one starting tomorrow. Be sure to join the fun!

11. My favorite blog post for the year was all about making colored rice for my sensory bin. Check it out here.

12. Goals for the new year

I want to read my Bible more, get healthier and get more organized. This past year I stopped drinking Diet Coke and gave up all forms of artificial sugars. So this year I want to work on exercising more. It has been over a year since I had my knee surgery and it's time to exercise more. 

13. One little word

I mentioned at the beginning of this very long post (I have been working on this for days now), that I've been taking medicine that makes me nauseous. I'm taking this medicine to help with trying to get pregnant. It has been a struggle and I'm hoping in this new year it will happen. My sister gave me a bracelet for Christmas with an anchor and a couple of verses about hope. So my word for the year is faith. I have faith that it will all happen in God's timing. 

Be sure to head over to any of the lovely hostesses blogs and see what everyone else has been up to. I linked up with Hadar at Miss Kindergarten. 

Technology Tuesday

I love using technology in my classroom and have wanted to blog about it for a while. But sitting down and making me do it is another story. So I'm going to try to blog about it on Tuesdays. Mainly because there is already a linky about Technology on Tuesdays and because I really like alliteration.
Recently we've been able to get youtube videos in the classroom if you don't go directly to the site. If I email them to myself they seem to work better.
So here a few videos we've been enjoying lately in my room. They aren't anything earth shattering.
One of my teammates found these videos on YouTube for each letter and my kids have enjoyed them. This one we watched this week.

My kids are obsessed with this video. We're a little late to the What does the Fox Say craze and this one makes a good brain break.


We enjoy this brain break as well. During the Olympics I enjoyed getting on NBC website and showing the kids the different events and talking about them. I love using videos in the classroom. A short clip can help get them interested in a topic and supplement your activities.

Over Christmas break, my donor's choose project of an ipad was funded and fulfilled. I've been enjoying using it with my students and allowing them to get on there and play games.
One of my favorite apps to use with my kids is Abc - magnetic letters. Check the link out here. I bought the version for $1.99 and have it on both my classroom ipad and my personal ipad. I like the paid version because there are lowercase letters and I don't want my kids to only use uppercase letters. We have been using this app with my small groups and tutoring.
Here are some activities:

• building words with the magnetic letters
• making sight words
• Scrambling sight words. I put all the letters they need for a word on the board and then they put it in order

I thought I had some pictures of the kids using this app but it appears I've deleted them. In this version there are also pictures kids can use. These would be perfect for story problems and practicing addition and subtraction.

We also use the Doodle Buddy app a lot for small group work. Here is a picture from tutoring of the kids writing their sight words. It isn't anything earth shattering but it is a different and a little more engaging way to practice our sight words.

I'm always trying to think of new ways to use technology in the classroom. What new apps or videos have you used recently? I would love to hear from you. I'm linking up with the Technology Tailgate for their weekly party

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Technology Tailgate

Five For Friday

It is amazing but I'm actually posting this on a Friday evening. I can't believe it. It's the new computer. I enjoy coming home and getting on the computer now. No matter how tired I am. It makes a world of difference having a computer I love and that is easy to use. It is always set up. I don't have to get it out and figure out where to set up. Anyway, I was not good about taking pictures this week. It was kind of a weird week. I went home a half day Wednesday because I wasn't feeling that great. I haven't really felt great since then. But you gotta do what you gotta do. It's too much work to be at home sick.
So I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly party of fun.

1. First up is my beautiful new computer. I know I know. I've already blogged about it but I haven't actually shown a picture of it in all it's glory. I'm in love! We have it set up on our dining table. We don't eat there unless we have company so for now it will work.

2. As much as I love my computer, I love this man even more. This picture is from last weekend when we kept Soph and took her to a special place. We went and threw rocks in the creek. They had a blast. Chris is truly the best husband and uncle a girl could hope for. He knew how much I wanted a new computer and made it happen. He also is so great with our nieces. He laid in the floor that night and watched Frozen with us.

3. During the last TPT sale I bought Deanna Jump's Nonfiction Interactive Reading Journal (Click here to check it out. ) This week was the first time I tried it out. This particular journal was about main idea and details. We had read about baby animals in our reading book. So we did this together. I did an example using the elmo and promethean board. The students did pretty well with coming up with what to go under the tabs. The hardest part was cutting it out correctly. A lot of them cut out on the dotted lines instead of the dark lines. But we got it all figured out. 

4. Back in February I got the opportunity to review some products from Creative Teaching Press. I've been using the materials for the past month and plan to post a review this weekend about what I got. This is just a sneak peek. I used these Chevron 6" Cut outs and made a word of the day sign for the door. I post a sight word here everyday for the kids to practice when they come in the room. Be sure to check back this weekend to see all the fun things I've gotten to try out.

5. I really didn't do a good job taking pictures this week of what we've been working on in class. But I do have this fun picture to share. My parents' neighbor gave these masks to Soph yesterday so we had to try them out with silly faces. 

So that's my week. Not too exciting but it was a good one. Be sure to check out the party over at Doodle Bugs Teaching to see what everyone else is up to.
I'll be back this weekend to tell you about the goodies from Creative Teaching Press and to give you a peek in what is coming up with my week. (Maybe. We're going to Asheville tomorrow to look for a new tent for camping. I'm so excited.)

Fourth Grade Buddies and the Kid President

Check me out. Blogging two days in a row. Must be the new computer. It is so nice to have a computer set up all the time. With my old laptop, I would have to get it out and set up anytime I wanted to do something and it took forever to load. Plus I was never sure if it would come up or not. Maybe the newness will wear off but probably not for a while.
I am working on a new set of activities for math with a garden theme. I am so excited. I'll be trying one of the activities out tomorrow and I can't wait. I'm also really excited about fourth grade buddies tomorrow. We always meet on Wednesday afternoons. I look forward to these afternoons and so do my kiddos. Usually the idea for what we are going to do is something that Cassie and I have talked about for a few days. Tuesday we finalize our plans and get anything together that we can.  This week the idea started on Saturday when I heard about the newest Kid President video.

I hadn't watched it or anything but just heard the beginning. The video is about what a newborn needs to know about the word. So I sent the link to Cassie and told her this is what we should do. So today we watched the video (this was my first time to give it a listen all the way through. He suggests making your own video at the end) and came up with a questionnaire for the kids to work on together. Cassie typed it up and then I prettied it up. It is my downfall to have to make everything pretty. You can check it out here.
Here's the plan for tomorrow. We will watch the video on the promethean board and discuss the video. Then the kids will work with their buddy to answer the questions. The questions could be a little deep but I think it will be interesting to see what they come up with. This week will be all about preparing to make a video. They can work on a script and practice what they want to say.
Next Wednesday we're going let them practice for the video and then we're going to use our iPhones to video it. I'm pretty excited. I think the project will be a lot of fun! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. I've been on the computer since I got home besides eating dinner so I should probably go spend a little quality time with Chris before it's bedtime. He's watching The Doctor and I'm listening. Time to go see what is going on.

Reading Plans for the week and my new love.

So I'm so excited. I am blogging from my brand new computer. Yesterday Chris took me to the Apple Store and we brought home a 27 inch iMac. I'm in love with it already. We traded our mouse in for a track pad and I love all the things I can do with it. Although I don't always remember how to do what I want to do with it. As soon as we got home, Chris got it set up for me. I've been playing on it ever since. Well, other than that pesky thing called work. There was part of me that really wanted to just stay home and play on the computer today. I figured out how to load my fonts, installed my clipart and have been playing around with iPhoto. If I can figure out how to get all my photo stream photos I'll be good to go. I was using a tiny dell netbook for the past 7 years or so. This is what I was using (or basically)

This is what I have now.

It is pretty amazing. I pulled up pinterest yesterday and I was a little overwhelmed by how many pictures were there. I will probably use my iPad for pinterest. It is a little more manageable. 

So here I am finally on my computer ready to do something. Hopefully this will inspire me to get creating some new things and to get to blogging more often. 

I tried out Keynote using my Visual Plans powerpoint file. It took a little work to figure out somethings like hyperlinking and then exporting to an image. But I think I'm going to like Keynote as well as powerpoint. Or at least well enough so I don't have to buy Microsoft Office right now. So here's what we are up do in reading this week. 

I'm not uploading this file to google docs right now because I plan on adding our centers to the week but I haven't gotten them all together. I'm on a weird rotation of centers. We have 12 centers so it takes about 12 days to get through them. We've had a couple of weird weeks thrown in there so we'll be changing out centers in the next day or two.
You can find the story maps and sequencing maps we're going to use in my Monster Mapping Unit on TPT.
This has taken me way longer to write than I thought it would. It could be because Chris got home and started playing with the computer while I finished up dinner. Then we ate dinner and then I had to figure out downloading pictures and inserting hyperlinks. So that's a taste of what we plan on doing this week. Hopefully, I'll remember to take a few pictures and I'll be back later this week with our centers.
If you use a mac and you have any great tips to share, they would be much appreciated.

Five for Saturday

 Maybe one day I'll blog throughout the week. But right now Five for Friday is a good way to recap my week. We did some fun things with sight words and place value this week.  I am writing this post as my niece takes her nap. Chris and I are keeping Soph today. We've already been to the store, a lacrosse game and the playground. So now it is nap time for her and blog time for me.

1. I've worked though our math book on all the topics that are common core related. But there are some major gaps and topics we need further work in. We use plan book edu for our lesson plans and I could look at all the standards and how many times I have taught that. The place value and numbers 11-20 is one standard that needed a lot of work. So this week we got out the base ten blocks and explored with those. The first day we used some ten frame cards with a St. Patrick,s theme and just practiced writing the numbers. The next day was all about exploring and talking about what they represent. Day 3 I made numbers on the Elmo and they helped me count them. Then they practiced making numbers with the blocks.  I would write a number on the board and they would make it. I introduced the idea if teen numbers being written as 10 + the ones.Thursday I made a number on the Elmo and they wrote the number on their white boards. Friday they made numbers and a partner wrote the number. Then they completed a sheet for assessment on matching base 10 blocks to the number. It came from Teacher Laura. Ladybug Place Value

2. I have been off of social media for about 2 weeks. I really thought I was going to have a hard time with no Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest but it has been doable. I am going back to Pinterest tomorrow. But since I haven't been attached to my iPad or phone the past few weeks I've been working on a new blanket. I love the colors.

3. Sight words have been a huge focus for me this year. With journeys my kids have 6 words a week for the second half of the school year. That has been a lot for them to learn. So I am always trying to think of something fun for us to do. We usually play tic tac toe once a week.

4. Another way we practiced our words this week was by making a paper chain. I use to love making those as a kid. Before Christmas we made one with our fourth grade buddies to practice sight words. We did the same thing using rainbow colors this week. The fourth grader picked a word off the word wall and wrote on the white board. If the kindergartner could read the word they wrote it on the construction paper. 

This student is using some of the first grade words. He already knows all the kindergarten words. 

5. This picture is from centers. I made roll and graph games for each week in the journey's series. You can find it in my Wild About Words  pack on Teachers Pay Teachers. I love this as a staple center. I change out the words and they always know what to do.

 

Wild About Words Wild About Words

So that's my five for the week. I hope you got some ideas. We're continuing with place value this week. Be sure to head over to Doodlebugs Teaching and check the party out. 

Five for Friday!

I really had intentions of blogging during the week this week but we were way too busy and I was way too tired. I'm sure I'm not the only one suffering through the time change. Hate losing an hour but love having the daylight. I took this past week off social media, specifically Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. It is just something I needed to do for myself. I'm continuing it for another week. I haven't missed it as much as I thought I would. Well until last night when Chris was watching something I wasn't interested in on tv. I ended up reading a little bit. Anyway, here are five pictures from this week. (No one has seen them since I haven't been on Instagram.)

1. Sunday Ck was christened. My sister asked me to be her Godmother so I got to stand up there for the deal. 

2. This is from one of my after school tutoring. I tutor on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about 45 minutes. Sometimes I wish I was done for the day but then when I start working with the kids I love it! I love working one on one or in a small group on specific skills. This is from Marsha at differentiated kindergarten's word family packs. By far one of my most favorite products!

3. During fourth grade buddies this week, we finished up our Horton Hears a Who projects. They turned put really cute. 

4. Here is one of our centers this past week. It is from the pokey pinning pack from From the Pond. My kids love these.

5. We planted tomato seeds last week and I wasn't all that confident they would grow. I have a black thumb. But the master Gardeners that came knew what they were doing. THey have grown a lot. I think the plastic wrap that created a mini greenhouse is the key.

So that is my five for Friday! Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and check out everyone else's Five for Friday! We're off to do some hiking this morning. I'm hoping tomorrow to get some blogging done. It is suppose to rain so I'll have to be inside!