Pinterest Inspired Bloggy Gift

Yesterday, I received my gift in the mail and I loved it. It was from Michelle at Apples and ABC's: Adventures in Kindergarten. 

She sent me a beautiful letter B since I'm getting married in a little over a month and my new last name will be Buckner. She also made some really neat magnets for my classroom.

I loved my gifts. Thanks to Michelle and thanks to Ms. Preppy and Sarah for organizing the exchange. If you haven't partcipated in one of these. You should. They are so fun.




Start following the blog so you'll know about the next one. Tomorrow I'll be guest blogging over at Kindergarten Lifestyle. I'm so excited. Be sure to check me out there and here. I plan to have some rain forest freebies for you.

The Good, The Bad the Ugly! and an update

Holly at Crisscross Applesauce is having a linky party to show the good, the bad and then ugly of our classrooms. Right now mine is just bad. It is a huge mess. I had intentions of cleaning up yesterday but I was mid project when I sliced my finger with some scissors. It gushed blood. Meanwhile, my class was lined up to go deliver a note of encouragement to some fourth graders. I thought I had stopped the bleeding only to have start back again several times. I thought I was going to have to go see Chris and let him stitch me up. (He's a vet.) Anyway, I came in this morning and saw the disaster of a room I had going on. I decided to snap a few pictures and share my mess. It's bad. I'm not sure I even see it getting much better til the end of the school year. I have too many ideas and too many things going on.

Since I took those yesterday, I spent some time yesterday straightening up a bit. But it's still pretty bad.
I wanted to share my new book bags. You can see them on the floor in the second picture. I was making duct tape labels for them when I sliced my finger open. But I got them finished and the kids were so excited about them today. We had been using ziplock baggies for book bags and it just wasn't working. I saw a pin on pinterest that had a coat rack and then cloth bags for book bags. I've been working on gathering bags to use when I found the Hawaiian ones at Dollar Tree. I might have to go back and get the rest of the class those. I think I like them better than the ones I got at the Dollar spot at Target.I still need a coat rack. I'm hoping to find one of those this summer pretty cheap.
I really don't know how people do all they do. I'm in desperate need of some tips for getting things done and organized. Since I've changed some of my instruction to small group rather than whole group, I feel like I have no down time in the classroom. I'm constantly on the move and making a mess in one area. Plus it takes more time to plan for the small groups. I have ideas in my head for units I want to make but they just don't get done. By the time I get home, I don't feel like doing anything for school. Here lately I haven't felt like exercising or cooking. I can usually muster up the energy for those two things but beyond that I'm wiped out. So, please share any great organization tip you have. I would love to get some new ideas for how to get things done.
Meanwhile, check out all the other Good, Bad and Ugly posts at Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade.

The Results of my Giveaway!

Thanks to everyone that entered and all the great bloggers that helped me out with this one. I'll be in touch soon Ms. Patterson with your goodies.

Loving small group instruction

Since I started blogging back in July, I have been trying all kinds of new things. I'm sure I say this weekly on my blog. But it's true. I've been introduced to so many new ideas and been inspired to give things a try. I started the year by really working on my literacy centers. I got Debbie Diller's Literacy Work Station book. I adapted some of her ideas and started making it work for me. I also tried to do Guided Reading. I've been struggling with these concepts since I've started teaching. I've never been able to get either one to work for me. This year was the first year I had really gotten literacy work stations or centers to work for me. But Guided reading just wasn't happening. I was starting to work with my kids some one on one and I enjoy reading with them and working on what they needed. In January, I introduced Daily 5. Well actually I just introduced Read to Self. We built up our stamina. Now I was struggling with doing guided reading, literacy center and daily 5. Oh and by the way I wanted to introduce math work stations. I read a blog post from Mrs. Patton's Patch about how she wasn't doing guided reading anymore but reading conferences. This stuck with me and helped me to finally be able to let go of something. But I still was having trouble getting everything I wanted to do done. Before spring break, I really looked at my schedule and completely reworked it. I decided to do my phonics/word study lesson in groups rather than whole group. While I've only done this one week, I can say I love it. I feel like I'm slowly making things work for me. Here's my new schedule:
7:50-8:20 - Morning work and bathroom break. As I check their work, they start going to read to self.
8:20-8:35 - Read to self - During this time I meet with several of my kids. I also have a list for my assistant to read with too. I worked this into my lesson plans. I made a plan of what kids to meet with on each day. My goal is to have them read to someone every other day.
8:35-8:50 - Morning meeting and calendar
8:50-9:15 - Whole group reading and phonemic awareness. We practice a poem everyday and do some kind of activity with that.
9:15 - Snack and go over letters and sounds.
9:20-9:45 Literacy centers and small group work - During this time I am lucky because I only have 10 kids in my class. My ELL students are in their pull out class. I have 6 out of 16 students out. But next week I'll get to see how this works with a larger group. So my group is split into 2 groups. One is approaching and on level. I work on what is in the reading basal usually with this group for phonics. The other group is  my above level group.
Here's an example of what I did with each group on the day we introduced the letter v. My students for the most part know all their letters and sounds because we go over them all everyday. The first group we read a book about v, worked on a circle map of v and then did the workbook page together. The second group we added to the circle map of v and then they made a little book. On each page they wrote a sentence and used a v word.
On another day, we sorted different words and wrote sentences with them. This was great for differentiation because I used cvc words from on and approaching group and then some harder words for the other group. I was also able to use this time to work with them on writing.
 9:45-10:00 - We work on writing. I would like to meet with kids during this time but it's not happening right now.
10:00-10:15 - Sight word practice
10:15 -10:50 we do math. This is my next small group area to work on. I want to do a whole group lesson and then during their math station time meet with some students on specific skills. But I haven't gotten it together with that.
We're technically a half day kindergarten. So most of my instruction is done by this time. But I only have 3 kids that leave at 12:30. The rest of my class stays in the extended day program. I use the afternoon time to do a lesson with my ELL students. I usually do the phonics lesson I did with the on and approaching group but try to increase the vocabulary part of the instruction.
I am in love with this! I feel like I'm working really hard all day long but it's so rewarding. I am so glad that I'm laying the groundwork for this method for next year when I'm in first grade with these kids. I feel like I'm really meeting my kids where they are at.
I'm also so excited I finally found a way to make this all work for me. I think that's the biggest part of incorporating new ideas. There is no one way to do things. You have to take a little bit here and there and eventually it works for you and your class.
What is something that you've made work for you? How do you do small group instruction in your class?
Don't forget to enter my giveaway. It ends tomorrow night. Click here to go to the post.

200 follower Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed. 

So I had plans on posting yesterday about my new schedule and differentiated instruction in phonics and reading conferencing. But I was wiped out. I ended up taking a nap at about 6 pm last night and just couldn't get any energy up later in the evening. So that post will have to wait. Today I'm celebrating reaching 200 followers. I noticed over spring break I was really close and set the goal of reaching 200 by the end of spring break. I'm not really sure how I planned on reaching that goal but I did! So I'm super excited about this giveaway. I've teamed up with some great bloggers who are helping me out. This is what you could win:

A $15 dollar gift card for the Dollar Tree from me!
And you can pick 2 items from my TPT store. 








The 3AM teacher is offering her brand new alphabet set.

 

Miss T from

is offering her How many Coins set?

                                                                       Crystal from

is offering her brand new plant unit.



 Lacey from





is offering any item from her store.Click here to check out her store.
So those are all the goods that you can win. Here are the rules:
1. Follow my blog and TPT store.
2. Follow 3AM teacher blog and TPT store.
3. Follow Journey of a Substitute Teacher and TN store.
4. Follow Kreative in Kinder and TPT store.
5. Follow Wild about Teaching and her TPT store.

So you have 5 opportunities to enter the giveaway. Winners will be announced Monday morning. So you better enter now.

The Best thing since Sliced Bread!

So today was a day I've been waiting months for. Today was the day I was going to see Dr. Jean. It was everything I hoped for.  (Actually this was yesterday. I started writing my post but then realized I left my notes in the car.)She's so amazing and energetic and nice and funny. One of the things that impressed me the most is that she tries to do a free concert every week in Charleston where she lives. She still volunteers at schools as well.  She shared so much. I made sure to write down some quotes that struck me as important. Here are some of them:
"You shouldn't teach small children if you can't put a smile on your face."
"Children take it in, take it in, and then something comes out."
"You learn on your feet, not on your seat"
"We think we have to give children the state fair, but in reality less is more."
She also talked a lot about how one thing or another was the best thing since sliced bread. Hence the title of my post. If you haven't checked our her website or blog, you should. She has a ton of great ideas on there.
Her blog is http://drjeanandfriends.blogspot.com. Her website is http://www.drjean.org/.
I was also really impressed that she had the research to back up what she was saying. She's big on brain research and what she does she can tie into the research and the common core. Here are the top 5 things I took away from this professional development and how I"m going to incorporate it in my class:

1.  She sited some study that tracked kids who knew nursery rhymes. The statistic given was 4 year olds that could say 8 nursery rhymes were the best readers in 3rd grade. - I've been incorporating some nursery rhymes into oral language but I need to step it up a notch. I plan on devoting the last bit of school this year to nursery rhymes. I'm going to finish up the reading series the first week in May. I see a unit in my future. 
2.  There are a ton of ways to make books in the classroom using things I already have. I'm limited on my copies this year and have to hoard copy paper sometimes. But I have a ton of brown paper bags. She showed us some cool books, backpacks and cameras to make from these bags. She also showed books made out of gift bags and napkins. This is exactly what I need for the rest of the year. If they write it, they'll read it.
3. Story Sticks - Dr. Jean showed us a sock with tongue depressors inside the sock. On the sticks you write the different story elements. Students pass the sock around and pull out a stick. You can use character, setting, beginning, middle, end, problem, solution, who, what, when, where, why.
4. Start everyday with song and a smile. I got some new cds that have some great movement songs on them. I try to do different songs everyday already with my kids but it's great to have some new songs. And to see Dr. Jean do some songs I already have and see the hand motions.
5. Interest Boosters - This was  a list of a variety of ways to read things and repeat things out loud. You use different voices like the three bears, or read with different emotions, or with different motions. We read a poem everyday of the week to practice fluency. This is a great way to wake up the reading and engage the kids.

 I did get a picture with Dr. Jean. I have it on my camera but I can't currently locate my camera cord. I'll have to add the picture later. My favorite part of the day had to be when we sang the banana dance. This is my kids favorite song we sing. We even sang it in the talent show before Easter. I was sitting on the end of a row and Dr. Jean grabbed me to tango with. (I'm such a nerd for being so excited to tango with Dr. Jean) It was truly a worthwhile professional development. I was engaged the whole time and had a blast.

Spring break is over!

I'm riding in the car on my way back from Nashville and I'm so sad spring break is coming to an end. But I had a great week and a great get together with other TN bloggers. It was wonderful to meet fellow bloggers. I loved being able to talk about the bloggy exchange and the person I was talking to didn't think I was nut for sending someone I don't know a present. It was fun to talk about blogging stuff and others know what you were talking about. The underwear bandit in Jennifer from Herding Kats might have been discussed. This meet up only confirmed what I already knew. There are some wonderful, supportive and generous teachers out there. I plan to give a shout out to everyone and a couple of new bloggers on the block sometime this week. But I'm doing this post on my phone and I haven't finished my plans for next week and i'm going to be out Tuesday to see Dr. Jean so it might be a few days before I get all my pictures together.
I did reach my goal of 200 followers today. I'm hoping to do a good giveaway so if you would be interested in participating leave me a comment. Hopefully I can get it together before the weekend. Happy Sunday night!