Linky Party Fun!

I have been in a slump lately. I think it might be spring fever hitting a bit. I just haven't felt like I've had anything great going on in my classroom. We've started some things but I haven't taken pictures or I haven't finished it. But I really wanted to blog this evening. I am on the board for our local public library and we were suppose to have a meeting tonight. It got pushed to next week so I have a few minutes of down time before going to dinner with some friends. So I'm glad for a linky party. I saw this Get Aquainted one on a couple of blogs and ventured over to take a look. The blog is Flying into First Grade. It's bright and colorful and I'm glad to have found her. So be sure to head over and check her out.

The idea is to tell things about yourself using your initials. My initials are KEB. (This is one of the first times I've really written my new initials. )
K is for Kindergarten. I was having a tough time coming up with something to go with K. But here lately I've had kindergarten on my mind. It could be because I'm thinking ahead to next year. I'll be returning back to kindergarten. It is always a challenge to change grade levels espeiclaly when you do it every other year. Chris told me the other day he didn't want me to go back to kindergarten because I'm so stressed out at the beginning of the year. It is so hard. Kindergarten is literally the hardest thing I've ever done. Sometimes I think I would like to just stay in first grade. I think I'm a better first grade teacher than kindergarten. But I love my school. It's only 10 minutes away or less from my house and it's where I want my kids to go when I have them.
E is for ELL. I spent my first three years teaching ELL students. I loved every minute of it. I had a self contained class of 3rd graders. It was so hard but I love it. I have a third of my class or maybe more that are ELL students this year. I still love working with these students. They have made such huge gains and learned so much. It just makes my heart smile to see their growth. These particular kids all have great families. They are so sweet and work so hard for their children and their education. I feel very blessed to get to be their first teacher. I really work on trying to establish a good relationship with their families so that they are not scared to come in the school.
(E was a really hard letter for me to come up with something. I know this party is suppose to be getting to know you so this is getting to know me as a teacher)
B is for books. They are my passion. I have way too many books if that is possible and I don't think it is. My classroom library is always expanding thanks to Scholastic, Books are Fun, and a Donor's choose grant. I work really hard on having my students love books and reading. It's so important to me. My assistant has been helping me get them all labeled with AR quizzes. I love how I have it organized. They are organized by authors, topics, characters and types of books. I numbered each basket and then the books are numbered. The kids do a pretty good job of keeping the books where they go. The hardest thing for me to organize is when I get new books. I tend not to put the labels on it right away and then when the kids get a book out it doesn't always go back. I also have a lot of books at home. I have 3 bookshelves in my guest room and then one bookshelf in the bedroom. The ones in the spare bedroom are all books that I've read. They are a lot of children's books and other important books. There are also cookbooks and craft books. Then the bookshelf in my room is all books I want to read. Plus there is my kindle. I have so many books on my kindle to read. I signed up for a couple of emails where they send me the good kindle deals for the day. It is trouble. Ok I've rambled on and on about books now. I am bookworm for sure.
Ok it's time to head out to dinner which is good because I'm starving. Looking forward to pizza from Mellow Mushroom. Be sure to head over to the party and join the fun.

Randomness and a freebie

I have no idea what I'm going to blog about today. I just knew I wanted to share a freebie for Manic Monday on Classroom Freebies. It isn't that I don't have things to blog about. I'm just not in the best mental state right now. I'm a little overwhelmed by the end of the year stuff and the fact that my wedding is less than 5 weeks away. I know I'm not the only one who is overwhelmed right now. We have 10 more days of school. I'm trying to keep things as normal as possible but it's hard to do with kindergarten graduation practice and having to turn in all library items. And the fact that my kids are acting like they have lost their minds. I woke up this morning determined to have a good attitude and to have a good day. So here are 5 great things:
1. Summer is less than 3 weeks away.
2. I'm marrying my best friend in less than 5 weeks.
3. I finally have my voice back.
4. I already did the last school newsletter article for Kindergarten last week. One less thing on my to do list.
5. My kids have made huge progress since the beginning of the year. I think Daily 5 has changed my teaching for good.
Thanks for listening to me go on about negative things. I try not to but sometimes I need to let it all out. One more questions, I loved the discussion last week about math and common core. I have about 2 week left and I'm trying to figure out what to focus on in math. I haven't touched time and it's not part of common core. I'll have my kids again next year. I  can't decide if I want to touch on time a little or review addition and subtraction. What do you think?
Here's a completely unrelated freebie.
Rainbow Sight Words

What is Not Wrong!

I'm linking up with Carried Away in Kindergarten for her What's not wrong? linky party. This is one of my favorite posts of the week. Midweek is a good time to stop and reflect about what is good in our lives. So here my 5 things that are not wrong.
1. Zumba is not wrong. Last week I went to zumba class for the first time and loved. It was so much fun and I got a good workout. I returned this week and have decided to make it a weekly thing on Mondays. It's nice to do something different rather than running.
2. Birthdays are not wrong. Sunday we celebrated my mother's birthday with my family. My niece was hilarious sticking her finger in the cake before it was cut. Then Monday was future sister in law's birthday. We celebrated with her family Tuesday night. I made chicken and dumplins, apples and a chocolate cake. It was the first time one of the nieces has been to my house since they're mobile. My house needs some child proofing big time.
3. Shoe shopping for my wedding is not wrong. Saturday my mom and sister and I are going to do some shopping for the wedding. I need to pick up my dress (That story actually is wrong but I won't go into it today.) Get shoes, makeup and Chris's clothing for the wedding. Less than 3 months away!
4. DeeDee Will's Math journals are not wrong. If you haven't checked out her math journals, you should. They are the best. My kids are doing so well with a variety of math skills because of these journals. Click here to see a post she did in October about them.
5. TPT Credits are not wrong. Have you seen where you can redeem your points on TPT for products now? It's pretty awesome. I've traded my points into for 2 or 3 products already.

Anyway, what is not wrong your life this week? Link up and check it out. I would love to hear what is going great for you.

What is Not Wrong!

I love Mrs. Davis at Carried Away in Kindergarten's linky party for What is Not Wrong! It's great to be able to focus on the positives in my life instead of dwelling on negatives. I think sometimes as teachers we get caught up in all the bad things that are going on.

1. The weather is not wrong. It has been in the 70s and sunny since Saturday and I'm loving it. I've been out running and enjoying spring.
2. That as of tomorrow there are only 3 months until I'm getting married and I become Mrs. Dr. B!
3. Being an aunt is not wrong. I'm super lucky to be the aunt to 2 little girls who are so stinkin cute and funny. My sister has an 18 month old and Chris's sister has a 10 month old. Last week I got to spend a day with Sophie and then Tuesday we hung out with Kaley. They are so much fun. I love being KK!
4.  My kids reading and excited about books is not wrong. I started Daily 5 in January and while the only component we do regularly is Read to Self, I'm seeing huge growth with my students. They are really reading and sounding out the words. They can tell you why it's important to read and what we're working on with practicing and building up stamina. It's awesome!
5. Getting my grant for an ipod touch in the classroom is not wrong. I applied for a PTA grant back in the beginning of February. I found out yesterday it was approved and I can't wait to get the ipod touch centers going.
Come link up with Carried Away in Kindergarten to celebrate was is not wrong! Be sure to remember Mrs. Davis in your prayers and thoughts as she helps take care of her dad during his treatments for his Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

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.

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.

Say Yes to the Dress

Disclaimer: This post will have absolutely nothing to do with teaching.
I'm getting married on June 16 and have only been engaged less than a month. I want a super small wedding with just immediate family only. So it works out to be about 14 people (that includes me and Chris and our 2 nieces under 2.) Well I thought it would be easy to find a place to get married. Originally we were planning to go to the beach but then my parents made an offer that couldn't be turned down. They offered to pay for our honeymoon to the Keys if we just go married somewhere around home. So we thought about it and decided that getting married in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park would be good because we spend a lot of time there. We first thought about a place we like to camp but that idea was kind of shot down. As I was looking at places on Friday, every place I looked was booked on the day we wanted to get married. I finally found something that I thought would work except it was really expensive for what you were getting (which was nothing but a place and some tables and chairs.) and it was booked on our day. Well Saturday that idea was shot down as well. I was really really discouraged and in quite a funk on Saturday.  But Chris being the wonderful guy he is wouldn't let me have a bad attitude. Sunday we set about finding a place and we did. We're getting married at The Buckhorn Inn. It's a b and b that is beautiful and surprisingly enough was about the same cost as getting married somewhere in the National Park with catering. And better yet they had the date we wanted. So yesterday, we went dress shopping. I'll be real honest. I was not super excited about it. I need to lose some weight before the wedding and I wanted a short dress. I was really worried that I wouldn't find what I wanted and with the wedding 5 months away I didn't have a lot of time.

This is the bed and breakfast from the back.

This is going to be the view from where we're getting married.

My mom, sister and future mother in law went with me and it ended up being a great experience. The first place we went to they were really nice and I felt like I was on "Say Yes to the Dress." I tried on the long, more traditional dresses and they were pretty but not for me. I tried on a dress that I liked but it didn't feel real bridal. Which could be because it was a bridesmaid dress. The next place we went to, the lady that greeted us wasn't very nice but the girl that helped us was. I've watched a lot of Say yest to the Dress. I should've learned that you don't try on dresses that you can't afford. They had 2 short dresses and I tried them both on. The last one I tried on was so pretty. It had a sweetheart neckline and laced us and was made of 100% silk. Yeah it was $2300 and I just couldn't fathom spending that much on a dress. So we left it behind. But no worries, the last place we went to they had a great selection of short dresses and I found the dress. It's beautiful and special and not what I thought I wanted at all. It's a short dress but long in the back and covered in lace and beads. If you saw my pictures on my A day in my shoes post then you saw what I was thinking. But I love it and it makes me feel  bridal. I said yes to the dress and don't feel guilty about the price either.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me on this post. I know it's not teaching related but I feel like my friends in blogland are on this journey with me. Plus I was thought of Kristin at Teeny Tiny Teacher and her posts on The Bachelor and figured I could go for a non teaching post. Back to school today. I think I can, I think I can.

What I'm loving Wednesday!

Last week, I shared a top 10 list of what I loved about blogging. 10 was a little ambitious and I think I might have just said the same thing over and over. So this week I'm sharing my top 5 ideas that I've gotten from other blogs that I use and love.
1. Math Journals from Mrs. Wills. I've blogged about these several times before. They are my favorite. My students like them and they don't take a lot of time. I also can reinforce skills we're working on already and stretch some of my higher kids with a little higher order thinking. We're already writing addition problems and using that vocabulary this year. I don't know that I've ever introduced it so early. But it makes sense presented in this format.
2.Fran at Kindergarten Crayons Sight words to Rock your room packet. Not only do I use her activities but they've inspired me to create some of my own that are very similar to her stuff. I haven't offered it on my blog because I feel like some of it is a direct copy of her stuff.
3. Ms. Miner's Popcorn word packet. She uses the same reading series so our words are the same and we call them popcorn words too. Love this resource.
4. Carpet Bags from Kindergals. I call mine gear bags but I love this idea. It works so well for the class. I just tell them to get their gear bags and then they can get their materials out from there. I think it makes things run smoother and more efficiently.
5. There isn't one source for all the thinking maps that I'm using now. But I credit blogging with the great ideas, I've gotten for thinking maps and graphic organizers. I've been using the tree maps a lot with a variety of subjects. I think it's helped my kids think about different topics and organize their information.
So those are my top 5 favorite ideas or products I've gotten from blogging. What is the best idea you've seen that you use?

What I love about Blogging Wednesday!

This is my own take on what I love Wednesdays. I was thinking this morning about how much I love blogging and how much it is improving my teaching. So I decided to make a list and a linky party to see what others love about it as well.
1. I am a lot more creative in my teaching. I see wonderful ideas out in blog land and I'm inspired to try them and to come up with some of my own. Also, I've been inspired to start my own teacher's notebook store. While I don't have a ton going yet, I have lots of ideas in the works and cooking.
2. It helps me remember why I'm a teacher. I love to teach kids, adults anyone. It's nice to be sharing my resources and ideas with others who appreciate it.
3. I've made lots of new teaching friends. I have a whole new support system when I have issues and problems to get information from.
4. I'm growing a ton professionally and my students are really gaining from it. In trying some new things, I'm stretching my students more than I have in the past and they are meeting the challenge.
5. You can win things. :)
6. I'm learning more about my abilities artistically. I think my drawing has improved because I've been stretched to do more drawing with my students. I also am making new things on the computer and learning a lot more about technology.
7. I'm a nerd and I love to learn new things. Blogging feeds into that.
8. I have found a lot of new books to read for myself and for the kids. Remember #7 I'm a nerd.
9. It gives me an outlet for writing.
10. I'm a better more excited teacher because of blogging.

What has blogging done for you? Link up with your list of what you love about blogging.

It's been too long!

I haven't posted anything all week and it feels so weird. I spent Sunday and Monday night camping in the Great Smoky Mountains with my wonderful boyfriend. But I had no phone or internet for a few days and then spent the rest of the week trying to catch up from being out. I had big plans of getting caught up on my blogging yesterday but got sucked into pinterest instead. I just keeping pinning and pinning. It's crazy.
I can't really tell you anything we did last week. It was a whirlwind of just trying to get through with the insanity of Halloween looming over our heads. I did a terrible job with transportation and trucks. We just hit the high points.
Monday we're not allowed to have a Halloween party for the first time ever. We're a K-8 school and it is so distracting to the other grade levels to have the whole Halloween hoopla. But I don't anticipate getting too much done on Monday. We're going to read Stellaluna and do some activities about bats. We're also going to work on the -at word family a little bit. I'm working on a word family activity.  By the afternoon, I don't expect to be able to do anything so I'm hoping that my teaching friend will have The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for us to watch. I think I have some Scooby Doo and maybe Garfield Halloween to watch.
The rest of the week we're going to be working on the letter i and doing an author study on Mo Willems. I'm really excited about this author study. I've seen so many good ideas on pinterest and other blogs. If you haven't checked out his website you should.
http://www.pigeonpresents.com/index.aspx
There is a great pigeon teaching guide that has a lot of good ideas for using the pigeon books. I was a little frustrated though because I was trying to find the guide to drawing pigeon on the Hyperion Children's book website and instead kept being taken to the Disney books website. So if anyone knows how to get to that I would appreciate it greatly. We're going to be doing some writing using the pigeon character. You'll have to check back later this week to see how it turns out.
So while camping, we went bike riding. I'm really not a great bike rider. I didn't really ride much when I was a kid on a real bike. So I'm learning as an adult. I really enjoy riding my bike though. There were some places where I had to walk my bike up hills and we were on a road with a lot of traffic (It's Cades Cove. If you are familiar with this area, you'll understand). It was making Chris really nervous so he finally just sat me down on a pull off and biked on to get the car. I had to wait for about an hour for him to come back to my rescue. So I got a little bored. First I worked on singing the 50 states song. I use to know it really well but it turns out I was leaving like 15 states out. I finally got all 50 states in while waiting. I'm sure I looked like a nut sitting on the side of the road singing to myself. After I tackled that song, I started thinking of other songs I could sing using the sight words of the week. Our sight word for the week, was see which made me think of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? So while sitting on the side of the road, I came up with the Smoky Mountain version of Brown Bear with animals found in the park. I am working on a power point of the story that I hope to have ready to share this week. So check back. Meanwhile, I've got a few other things to share.
Letter book for t and i
t flipchart (You must have activeinspire software to open)
sight word stamping sheet
If you find something you can use, please leave me a little comment love. I love getting comments. Here a couple of pictures from the beautiful mountains I live in. It has been a gorgeous fall.

Make It Happen!

I saw an excerpt from this book on a couple of blogs and knew I had to read it. I love Ron Clark. I read his book The Essential 55 when I was in college and starting to teach. He inspired me. He was what I wanted to be. But as I've gotten bogged down in teaching, I've drifted away from his ideas and rules. I had already decided that this year would be different and reading this book was going to help. I had planned on participating in the book study with Faithful in First and was bummed when it didn't work out. So I decided to write some posts of my own about the book.
The first principle that has really struck a cord with me is number 9. "Make it happen. Don't give excuses; find solutions!"

I  love the idea of not making excuses for things but just making things happen. It is so easy to complain about things in our education system The negatives are right there. We don't have time to teach all we need to teach. We can't have fun in kindergarten anymore. Kids won't do their homework because their parents don't make them. These are things I've been complaining about. I want my kids to leave kindergarten and first grade (I loop) knowing how to read, loving school and learning,  being able to think and reason. I've set this goal for myself before school started. I decided this year would be different. I was going to have fun and enjoy the kids. Then school started and I remembered what little time we have to accomplish so much. I have found myself complaining and thinking I just can't do it. As I was reading this book on Saturday and got to this principle, I sent myself an email with the words Make it happen. I knew I needed to have these words somewhere so I could see them. I made myself a sign that hangs over my desk that says "Make It Happen."

I hope to add some pictures of what I want to make happen underneath the sign. If you watch the show Jerseylicious on Style, you'll know what I'm talking about. One of the characters, Olivia, makes a vision board of her goals and what she wants out of life. I got the idea this summer that I would do something along these lines. But I needed Ron Clark to remind of it. So this year instead of excuses, I plan to make it happen. What about you?
I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago before the book study started about The End of Molasses Classes. I reread it just now to see if I had other things I wanted to say about the part one. But with things that are going on with me at school, I feel like this is still the most thought provoking principle for me at this time. I think this is the kind of book you could read parts of over and over and depending on what is going on it would affect you differently. I was reading someone else's post as part of the linky party. I don't remember who it was  but I related to them saying that it was hard to read in some parts because it hit so close to home.

Wonderful Wednesday!

I can't believe it's wednesday already. My plan was to post all the positives in my life on Wednesdays and it just snuck up on me. Oh well. I'm feeling pretty blessed these days so I'll share.

• The first six weeks ends tomorrow and we finally seem to be getting in a rhythm. I scared to say the worst of the beginning of kindergarten is behind me but I think it is. We seem to be getting in the groove of school. Still have a few kids melting down every once in a while but it's ok.
• One of my good friends I use to teach with is coming to visit me this weekend. We started teaching together and I miss working with her and her friendship so much. I'm super excited to see her this weekend. Especially since my boyfriend will be out of town.
• I don't feel like I could go to sleep every afternoon when I leave school and I can carry on conversations again. There for a while I was feeling like I didn't want to talk to anyone after school because I was so tired.
• I got to be a guest blogger on TBA this weekend. It was so cool and I feel a little dorky for being so excited about it but oh well. Leslie from Kindergartenworks was wonderful to work with and so helpful and nice. Plus they gave me a cool button to put on my blog.
• I love the school I work at. We had a fundraiser 5k over the weekend and it was a lot fun. I actually ran the whole thing. I run but I hadn't been running since school started but I just decided to try it anyway. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful PTA that organizes things like this and great families who partcipated.
• One of my students who I've had a lot of trouble with had a wonderful day yesterday. He didn't just end the day on ready to learn but ended up on showing pride. I was so proud.

I'm sure I have a lot more positives and things to be thankful for but that's a good start. What is wonderful about your Wednesday? Link up with your wonderfulness and join the positive party.

I'm so excited!

Over at Rowdy in First Grade, Jennifer has challenged bloggers to post something positive today. This is my effort at meeting that challenge.
I have had a hard time staying positive so far this year. It feels like we go a step forward and then 2 steps back. But I'm determined to keep a good attitude. So here are some things I'm excited about:

• I'm really excited about scrapbook paper. It can make anything look prettier. I've redone my center chart using scrapbook paper and the kids pictures. I also took boring old coffee cans and turned them into pretty containers for markers.
• Today we used m and m's for math.The kids sorted them, counted them, and then ate a couple. 
• Blogging. I love reading everyone's blogs and getting great new ideas. I feel like I'm a much better teacher already just by using the ideas and inspiration found on other blogs.
• Pete the Cat and Pete the Cat Rocking His School Shoes. I introduced my class to Pete the cat last week and they loved him. When we had open house, one little girl had to show her grandmother the book. She gave me the money to get the new Pete the Cat book. We're loving them both in Ms. Kerri's class.
• Fall is coming soon. I love Fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving. I look forward to all the fun activities going on and beautiful leaves and decorations.
• Nieces. I have the cutest niece in the world. Sophie. Yesterday she was blowing me kisses when we left. Plus she really loves the Dr. Jean song "Banana Dance." We do the ketchup one all the time. My boyfriend also has the sweetest niece Kaley who is getting to be a lot of fun. She's almost 4 months old and she's so smiley.
• Dr. Jean songs
• That I'm finally starting to get in a routine at school. We've been through half a week of centers and it's going well.

I don't know why my pictures are so wonky. But those are some positives in my life. What's going well in yours? Join the linky party.