Currently

It's that time of the month again, Farley's Currently linky party. I'm so glad she posted this today. I was wanting to post but I wasn't sure what to post about and I don't have the brain power for a meaty post today.

So a Currently is perfect.

I've been married for almost 2 months and I'm loving it. I truly have the best husband. He's away this weekend with the boy scouts. He's a scoutmaster and they've gone backpacking for the weekend. This is our first time to be apart overnight since getting married. I'm already feeling a little lonely and he wouldn't even be home from work yet anyway. But I haven't gotten to talk to him or anything. Anyway, enough sap. I  borrowed The Help from the library and plan on watching that working on some units I need to finish. I can be on the computer all night and not feel the least bit guilty about it. I have been in the process of working on the second unit of my sight word packets I plan on using next year and just haven't been able to motivate myself to finish it. I also have a few ideas for some scoot games using the common core. So hopefully I'll get some of it done this weekend while Chris is gone. I also have a few craft projects to work on. My back to school must haves are glue gun, ribbon and sheet protectors. I am super excited about some projects I worked on with my glue gun yesterday in my class. I plan to show them off on Monday Made it, which I might actually get posted on Monday. Anyway, that's all I've got for you today. Hopefully I can get a math and reading post ready soon. Meanwhile, check out Farley's party

Product Swap

I am so excited to be partcipating in this product swap. Not only did I get a great product from my partner, I got a great bloggy friend. My partner was Holly from Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade. We had emailed some before about Daily 5 but it was nice to get to know her a little bit better. Check her blog out and follow her if you don't already.


The product I chose from her store was her Parent Night Teacher Toolbox.

This product has everything you need for a successful parent information night. Here's what her description says on TPT:
Product Includes:
*Community building puzzle piece printable
*Healthy snack list
*Student stars and wishes - find out how your students feel about their academic skills
*Magic playdough at-home activity - build excitement for that first day of school!
*Parent email form
*Introduce child - parent perspective
*List of other ideas to include in parent night packet, PowerPoint, online resource
*Template for parent to write letter of encouragement. Parent writes and leaves on desk of child for a happy surprise the next day!
*Recipe for literacy - cute printable
*The giving tree - print, adhere to construction paper, laminate. Write wish list items on mini sticky notes. Parents take any stickies home for what they'd like to donate.
*An apple for the teacher poem - small printable to place on each desk with apple. Reminder that this is a team effort!
*Writing box printable - ideal gift for the beginning of the year!

The things that I liked best and have all ready for copying for registration night are the giving tree, recipe for literacy, the community puzzle pieces and a parent email form. Holly was nice enough to add a few things to the parent email form and it saved me from having to make my own. Some of these things I won't use this year, just because I loop with my kids and I am already familiar with most of them and their families. But next year I will be using the introduce child- parent perspective, and the magic playdough activity for sure. 

 Here is my giving tree. I printed it when my printer was doing weird things so the color looks a little funny. But I added scrapbook paper and laminated. I added the die cut apples because I already had those ready. This is hanging right outside my door in hopes that parents will pick an apple when they come by.

 This is going in my registration packet. Holly added a place for the parents to check off if they want to receive the newsletters electronically and if they want to join our class shutterfly account. I was so excited she was willing to do this.

 This is going to be sent home as their first piece of homework or home project so we can talk about how we all fit together like a puzzle.

I loved this reminder of what it takes for kids to succeed in literacy at home. I plan on putting this in their notebooks that go home every day. This product is good for new teachers and veteran teachers. So be sure to stop by Holly's blog and start following her and her TPT store. She also has some great word wall letters. She posted this item after I had chosen my product for the swap but I had to have them because they fit my theme perfectly. They look great on my word wall. Thanks Jessica for hosting the swap and Holly for sharing your great product with me. Now I'm off to see what other great things are out there!

Monday made it on Tuesday!

I go back to work 2 weeks from today and I don't know where the summer went. I've been at school a little bit each week for the past month and I don't know what I've been doing. I am starting to feel like I need to get it in gear. I have a slight problem in that I need a couple more bookshelves. I have used all my bookshelves for my classroom library and now I'm trying to figure out how to make a math corner. And what to do with all the random knick knacks the kids have given me over the years. I used to use a tall bookshelf to keep all these things and my teacher's books but I'm trying to give my kids more of the room.I'm trying to put into practice some of the reading I've been doing in Daily 5, Debbie Diller, and Reading Workshop. I'm trying to make my classroom more about my students and less about me. But I do like having all the knick knacks. They remind me of the students I've taught and the impact that they've had on me and me on them. So I guess I just need to get creative. Since my last Monday Made it, I've worked on two craft projects. Here is the first one:

It isn't as cute as some of the ones I've seen on pinterest. But I found this frame at Hobby Lobby, and had another craft I wanted to make with it. I'm wanting to turn this into an earring holder by putting window screen in it. So I just hot glued the letters on there and hope it will work for the first day of school.The second project is below.  I covered these letters in scrapbook paper and added some ribbon. I wanted to make the read letters that I've seen all over pinterest, but I could never find the letters. So I thought I'd try it with Math. It would go well with the math corner I'm working on putting in my class this year.

So I uploaded those pictures using my blogger app on my phone and they are not cooperating with me so let me tell you about them. The first one is my author's corner. I'm focusing on one author a month as an author study and hope to do a take home bag of this author as well. (Look for some upcoming posts on this topic). First up is Kevin Henkes. I'm pretty excited about it. I need to do the research part to find a picture of the author, some facts, and then make a list of the titles to let the students vote.Sorry these pictures are really terrible. The second picture is my word wall all done. It already has words on it because those are the words from Kindergarten and their names. We put those on last year when the kids were in kindergarten and we'll add to it in first grade. I used the word wall letters from Holly at Crisscross applesauce in First Grade. It looks great with my theme. I wish I had thought to put black paper behind them before laminated but oh well. I'll be reviewing another one of her products tomorrow as part of the product swap. I'm excited.
The last picture is my super work board. It really looks good in person. I added clothespins I had hot glued thumbtacks to. The last touch will be their names on stars. I'll be sure to show a picture when I do a classroom tour.
So that's what I've been making. Check out other Monday Made it's by heading over to Tara's blog.
And before I've got another random question for all my friends out there. I'm working on making a new play list of music for my students to start the day off. I want it to be energetic not necessarily typical kid music. So give me some suggestions please.

New blog design and reading workshop

In case you haven't noticed, I have a beautiful new blog design that I love. Thanks to Erika and Misty at Honey Bunch Blog Design! They are wonderful to work with. I thought it would take much longer to get together than it did. They sent me a variety of choices on Monday and I had the new design up by Saturday. I love it and think it fits me perfectly. Chris calls me his little bookworm all the time. I am changing the name of my blog to Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Klass since I switch back and forth between kindergarten and first grade. I would love it if you would replace my old button with the new one, if you have my button on your blog.

Ok. So I'm finally going to post about something actually school related. I finished read Daily 5 week before last and have been super excited to start this come the new school year. But my interest has also been really piqued in reader's workshop. Kindergarten Kindergarten has had several posts here lately about reader's workshop and how she does it in her classroom. (You can check out the first of the series here) Inspired by her, I ordered the book, Growing Readers by Kathy Collins. I was excited to see they had it for the kindle and I got it about half price and I didn't have to wait to start reading it. The joys of reading on my kindle. (or maybe it's dangerous. I'm not saying.)

I'm only 18% through the book but I've already been inspired. I really like Kathy Collins' style of writing. She offers great insight and shows how it works on the classroom. Here are a few things that I have learned already:

The structure of readers' workshop is:

• Minilesson - 10 minutes 
• Send students to go read for 20 minutes. During this time the teacher is offering indivdualized reading instruction
• Partner reading - 10 minutes - Teacher confers with small groups of partners
• Share time - 10 minutes - This share time is the teacher sharing what she observed as opposed to the kids sharing.

As I read this, I saw how this fits with Daily 5 and how they could work together. There are some differences. If I followed a readers' workshop structure, I probably wouldn't allow for as much choice in what the kids are doing like in Daily 5. Not sure yet, how I would do this.

Another structure I liked was the reading conference. This is something I experimented with last year. I like how Collins outlined the conference.

• They should last 3 to 5 minutes.
• Observe the students as they read and jot notes.
• Start by offering a compliment on something the student did well.
• Teach one skill or strategy, demonstrate it and then let the student try it out.

Collins suggests keeping notes on these conferences. You keep track of the compliment you gave the student, the teaching point and what you need to work on with the students. I've made a little sheet to help me keep track of the conferences. It's just the first of a project I've started to get my reading notebook together. You can download it if you would like to use it.

One other interesting idea, she offered was switching up the order of your day sometimes. By teaching math in the morning and literacy in the afternoon every once in a while, you offer your students who might not be as successful in literacy the chance the to be successful right of the bat. I like this idea. I'm not sure how it would work out with my schedule but it's something I'm going to think about it.
As I read more of the book, I'll keep sharing some ideas and share some more freebies. Thanks so much for all of you that answered my questions yesterday. I got some great feedback and it was nice to hear what other people do. I'm still on the hunt for the spelling program that will work for me. I've gotten a few ideas. Thanks for sharing. If you do readers' workshop, leave me a comment and let me know how it is in your room. Hopefully, I'll be back on track with offering some more educational posts this week.

Blogiversary winner, flash freebie, and some random questions

So I promised yesterday that there would be some educational value today, not sure how much I'm going to fulfill the promise. But first things, first. I have a winner of my giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So congratulations to Janine from Faithful in First.  

Next order of business is my flash freebie. I hope that you've enjoyed these flash freebies I've been offering this week in honor of my blogiversary. I've enjoyed giving them to you. I just am constantly amazed at the generosity of teachers out there in blogland. It means so much to have this supportive community in my life. I've been thinking a lot about why I blog and why I make things. I love this community. I love sharing my ideas and hoping that I'm helping someone along the way. I've gotten some really sweet comments from followers about how I've inspired them and they hope they can create things like I do. That means so much and makes me feel so good. I've been concerned here lately with my numbers. The number of people following me, the number of things that I've sold on TPT, the number of followers I have on TPT. This summer I have been a part of a wonderful Bible study.

It's a great Bible study for a group of women if you are looking for one. Most of the group of women are employed by the school system in some way. It's been nice to be a part of this group. I've made some new friends at church and also been forced to examine some things in my life. One of these, is why I do what I do. This past year, there were times that I felt like people didn't know about all I was doing and I got all upset about. This summer, I've been discouraged by my lack of sales on TPT. Well, yesterday, I realized my focus was all off. I needed to be focused on serving the Lord. If I focus on pleasing him, then I will be doing all the other things I want to do. Like help people and sharing what I love to do. So all that said to say, I'm going to start offering a flash freebie from my store once a week in hopes that I will help someone. I'm still going to try to offer freebies once or twice a week of things that are always free. I'm still going to try to sell things on TPT because I'm making things for my own classroom anyway and I gotta find a way to keep up with my habit of cute clip art and units. But I want my focus to be on helping other teachers and sharing what I've done in my classroom. I need to stop focusing on the numbers and remember that even if just one person reads my blog I've helped one person. Even if it's just a laugh for the day. Ok so now that I've rambled on. On to the flash freebie.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monster-Mapping
This flash freebie was available from 7/28 at 9:50 AM until 9:18 PM

Today's flash freebie is the Monster Mapping set. This contains a variety of story maps to use with students after reading a story or book. My kids enjoy these story maps and thinking maps mainly because of the monster graphics. The freebie will up for most of the day so be sure to check it out. I would love it if you would leave me some feedback and a comment.
Now the last part of this of this post, random questions.
I thought about starting a linky party to answer some questions about school. I enjoyed reading everyone's Tell me more posts and finding about people personally. Maybe that's just the nosy part of me. So I was curious about some school things. So here are some random questions I would love to hear your answer to:

• Do you have a dress code at school for teachers? Can you wear jeans when you want to or flip flops? We don't have a very strict dress code at school. It's pretty casual. We can't wear flip flops though. I find myself not dressing very professionally. I go back and forth about it. I read Ron Clark's The End of Molasses Classes last summer and he talks about the importance of dressing professionally. I would like to dress more like a grown up but at the same time, I spend a lot of time on the floor with my kids and I seem to wind up with paint and other things all over me.(I've had mayonnaise in my hair and fruit roll up all over me before.) So I'm curious about others.
• Do you do your lesson plans weekly or at a chunk at a time? I do my plans a week a time because I seem to need to make changes as I go. But it might be more effective to do it a chunk at a time. 
• Do you use daily 5, literacy workstations, reading workshops or something else? I'm going to implement Daily 5 this coming school year but I've been reading a reading workshop book and I'm thinking of doing a combo. Just not sure how that will all work.
• Do you number your students? I did this when I taught 3rd grade but I've never done it kindergarten or first. If you teach those grades and number your students, can they remember the number?
• What do you do for spelling? I would love to try out words their way but I just don't have the money for the book. I might be able to get our librarian to order it but I'm not sure. So other than words their way, do you have any suggestions for differentiating spelling instruction? I read someone's blog post about taking their spelling from their writing. I'm interested in that but I need a little more information. 
• If you've moved to common core this year, are you still teaching money in kindergarten and first grade? 

Ok so I think those are the only random questions you have. I hope you'll offer me your answers in comments or even blog about it. If you think it would be a good linky party let me know.

Flash Freebie

Click Here to get the freebie! 
THis was free from July 27 2012 at 12:14 until July 28 at 9:00 AM.

I had every intention of posting a good post today with some educational and teaching related, but I just got home from Bible study and next up is a picnic with my dad. Yesterday was his birthday and we're having lunch today. I offered to take him out but he wanted to go to the National park for a picnic and card game. I thought I better at least post my flash freebie. I'm offering my word work tools activity for free today for probably most of of the day. This picture below is from an old post. It's been pinned a ton. It's a picture of my kids playing this game. I found the hammers in the Target dollar spot and this game was born. My kids love it! So be sure to download it today while it's free. Leave me some feedback and a comment. Thanks to all my bloggy friends who were so encouraging after my negative feedback. This is why I love blogging so much. The positive and encouraging environment I choose to be a part of!

Today's flash freebie is my word work tools activity.

Monday Made it, just a little late plus a flash freebie

So I've been meaning to link up with this party all week long but I still had finishing touches to put on a few projects. I still have 3 weeks until school starts back. I've been slowly working on getting my room together and I'm making progress. I try not to put a lot of pressure on myself until August. I made all these things to go with my black, red, and blue them, like a voice level chart, transportation chart, scheduling cards, and clock numbers. Well when I went to print them out on Tuesday with my new ink cartridge from Amazon, all the red printed out yellow. So while it isn't what I was going for, it doesn't look bad. So here's a peek and what what I've been working on.

I made these tags and used ribbon to attach them to bubbles. I have one small problem. I only have 12 things of these bubbles. I'm still on the hunt for more of them.

Here's my version of the transportation ribbons. I have boys and girls club, car and bus. These were suppose to be different colors but thanks to my printer, I have what I have.

I also got my Teacher's notebook all set up so I'm ready for school start. Again, the yellow was suppose to be red. You can get all these freebies, by going to this post.  If you download these freebies, please leave me some comment love.

This is a recycled crystal light container. I saw this on What the Teacher Wants blog. Check out the post here. I bought her Journals through the year pack last week and I'm excited to use it. It's going to be what my students do when they come in the room each morning. She put her prompts on Popsicle sticks. I just printed mine on cardstock and laminated them. They are to be used when the kids can't come up with anything. I've found a variety of prompts from other blogs that I will add to this collection.

Here's another freebie that I've been working on. This will go on the top of my work bulletin board. I had big plans of getting all this put up before posting but I decided I didn't want to go into school today. I just wanted to hang out at home. This freebie can be found here.

 These are some schedule cards I made. They were suppose to be red, blue and teal instead of mustard yellow, teal and blue. They don't look bad but they weren't what I wanted. I also realized I left some things out of the line up like lunch and our special classes. So I'll be adding those.

I'm really excited about this project. I have had a voice level chart pinned forever and I'm finally gotten around to making one of my own. I printed them out on cardstock, then lamintated, cut them out and attached them together using ribbon. Again, these were suppose to be red and black, not yellow and black. Now, imagine these numbers around a clock. I'm excited about this one too. I have had some apples I made like 7 years ago surrounding my clock. So these will be a nice change and they printed the right color.
I've made a few other things to go with this theme but they will be shared better put up. I made some objective signs and signs for an author corner. I'm thinking about bundling all these projects together and selling them. Would anyone be interested?

Ok on to the flash freebie portion of this post. In honor of my one year blogiversary extravaganza, I'm offering a flash freebie each day until Saturday. So check it out. I'm a little discouraged. The freebie I offered yesterday was downloaded over 100 times and only got 3 feed backs. One of the feedback was not so positive. It hurts to hear sometimes that your product isn't what people want. I took the feedback and made a few changes. So if that person happens to read my blog and wants the updated copy, please let me know. I printed the numbers off and hung them up in my classroom. They look good to me.

Click here to get my Puppy Ten Frame Scoot game for free at TPT. I would love it if you would follow me on TPT and leave me some feedback or at least a comment. This product will be free until this evening, most likely. Hope you enjoy it!
This item was free from July 26th 2012 at 11:59 until July 26th 2012 at 5:15 pm.