Morning Routine Linky

In an effort to get back into the habit of blogging, I'm taking advantage of all the linky parties going on this summer. Kelli over at Castles and Crayons is having a schedule linky party all summer long. It looks like a great party for getting some new ideas for how things work in other classrooms.

This week's focus is all about the morning routine. The kids at my school can come in at 7:30. They either go to the library or to the cafeteria. There is a teacher at each spot they can be and everyone has one day a week they have morning duty. I don't have morning duty though because I always have bus duty. The bell rings at 7:50 and the kids are dismissed to their classes. My students come in and unpack their backpacks. They put their notebooks in their cubbies after taking out homework and any notes and putting them in the completed basket. (Two years ago when I was in kindergarten I didn't have the kids take things out of their binders but when they are in first grade I do. I think when I go back to kindergarten in the fall, I'm going to train them to put their homework in the basket too. ) They take their chairs off their desk and all the desks in their group. They sit down and get busy on their journals. This is the first year I've done journals in kindergarten or first grade. This was what I did when I taught third grade. I used Rachelle Smith's Journals through the year as the covers of my journals. I also liked her prompts. I started the year in first grade just having the students use popcorn words to write sentences. As the year went on, I gave them prompts or had the students write in response to books we were reading or topics we were learning about. I think this is my favorite way to do morning work. They get writing practice and they stay engaged. As I'm going back to kindergarten I'm trying to figure out what I want to do during this time. I had my assistant go ahead and make journals for August - December. I loved the idea that Kelli had with their journals. She had her students copy a sentence and illustrate it for the letters. I'm thinking we'll do journals a couple of times a week but probably not everyday for the first semester. They work on these from 7:50 until about 8:15. I also have each group take a bathroom break during this time. When my students finished their journals, they would go to read to self. I discovered a few of my students weren't doing what they were suppose to in their journals so I started having one group turn in their journals each day and I would read through them and leave a note. I also used their journal writing to guide my writing and language lessons. It was great to see the growth in their writing.
So that's my morning routine. I usually have a large coffee in my hand while their working and do attendance and other things like that. Be sure to head over to Castles and Crayons to check out the party.
What do you have your kids do when they come into the classroom?

Book Talk Linky and update

So summer is here and I had hoped to get back in the swing of blogging again. But it's been a week since I've blogged. We've been so busy this past week. We had a blast in Charlotte for the Comic Book Convention and then we were on a youth trip Sunday - Wednesday. My hubby and I help with our high school youth at church. They are truly a great group of kids. I have to brag on one of them. Yesterday we went to one of the city pools in our county. It was packed. One of the boys who just graduated high school was raising a 6 year old boy down the slide. When they had raced a few times, the little boy asked our youth if he would be his best pal. The youth said sure and proceeded to swim and play with him the rest of the time we were there. It was so sweet and cute. Made my heart smile!
Anyway, Chris and I are home for a couple of days and then we head to the beach. I'm so excited to get away and relax. We will also be celebrating our 1 year anniversary on Sunday. So I'm trying to get caught up on some blogging. I had seen this fun linky party over at Reading Towards the Stars.

One of my favorite things about summer is that I get to read a lot. I read a lot anyway. I usually read before I go to bed. But summer lends itself to pool time and beach time which means more reading. And I can stay up later finishing good books. I just finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and loved it. 

I love fantasy books and especially young adult fantasy books. I had bought this one on my kindle a while back but just got around to reading it now. 

Percy is a sixth grade boy who has been kicked out of multiple boarding schools because of his behavior. He isn't a bad kid but things seem to happen around him. He also has ADHD and some learning issues. His father died when he was young and his mom remarried and lives in New York. Percy gets attacked by one of his teachers and no one seems to believe that it happened. Everyone forgot that the teacher even existed. On his way home from school, he has another weird experience. When he and his mother go on a vacation, they get attacked by a monster from Hades and Percy finally figures out who he is, a demigod. His father hadn't died when he was a kid but was a Greek god. I enjoyed the story. It moved past and the characters were likable. I'll be reading the second one while we're on vacation. Have you read any of these books? From what I've heard, the movie isn't really anything like the book but I'm thinking I might check it out. I'm linking up with Reading Towards the Stars. Be sure to head over there and see all the book recommendations. I'm hoping I can link up weekly or at least every other week. 

I would love for you to leave me a comment on what you are reading. I'm always adding to my list of books to read.

Summertime

Today is day 3 of summer vacation and it's the first time I've had a chance to be at home in the morning. But it's been a great start to a summer. Tuesday I got up to go walk with a friend and then we got to work on our summer reading project. She's a fourth grade teacher at my school and we're both on the board of our local library. She came up with a great idea of taking books out into the community and to the weekly rentals we have in our town. Several of the motels in town have been turned into week by week rentals. There are a lot of kids that live in these places and they are considered homeless. So through the library, we've been working on a summer program to bring books to these kids and read with them once a week for about 5 weeks in the summer. I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be great for our community and a great opportunity for us to give back. Tonight we have our first training for the volunteers. So this is a big chunk of how I'll be spending this summer.
The next big chunk of how I'm spending my summer is keeping my niece one day a week. It is so much fun. She's 2 and a half and a riot. Yesterday I got up earlier than I normally do for school to go keep her. We had a blast going to the park, getting ice cream, target, and just playing. It amazes me how much she has learned and how much she retains. She loves Pete the Cat and Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. (I'm pretty sure that I have something to do with that.) We watched the ad video on Youtube for Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons like 15 times yesterday. She could recite it before the day was over.
This was right when she was telling me not to take my picture.
The next way to spend my summer break is to do some professional reading. This always seems to be my plan and I don't always get to it. I was reading some old posts from last summer and I had several books on my list that I never got to. So maybe this summer will be the summer.

Here's the stack. I'm not sure where to even start. I'm thinking either the Math for All or In Pictures and In Words. Those were on my lists last year and they didn't get read. Chris and I are headed to a Comic Book Convention this weekend and then to our youth retreat. Then we're home for a few days and then we go on our vacation. Busy Busy. But in a good way. I'm trying to keep myself organized. I've been wanting an Erin Condran planner for a while but I just can't seem to spend the money on one. I saw this pin on pinterest the other day that had a filofax planner and some great color coding. The filofax planner was just as expensive but this pin gave me an idea. So yesterday while wandering around target I found a planner I liked. It is made by Mead and has a page for each day and then a month calendar. I also got some flair pens to do some color coding.

That's the month of June all color coded and filled out. I have purple for personal stuff, red for school related stuff, green for library/reading outreach stuff, blue for scouts and church and then orange for all blog and creating stuff.  It's all well and good for now. I hope that I'll be able to stay organized and color coded. I'm such a nerd when it comes to school supplies and pretty pens.
I haven't figured out what projects I want to work on for school yet. I know that I want to work on materials for our new reading series. Our system has adopted Journeys and I'm pretty excited about it I think. It is at least going to give us the rigor that is expected in common core. But with any new adoption comes a learning curve. We don't have our teacher's editions yet but I was able to access some things online and get started on a document with themes, words, and letters. I hope to get some sight word items together and some flipcharts made this summer. I also know that I want to implement a sensory table for next year. I have a sand table for my classroom that I have never used. Something about sand just grosses me out. But thanks to some of my friends in kinder, I've been swayed to use the table as more of a sensory table. I've been pinning like crazy some ideas. But that's more like a July project. I need to be able to get in my classroom and get the sand table cleaned out. We are getting new floors in our rooms so I had to pack everything up more so than usual. On Monday during our half day, my room was emptied of all furniture and stuff. It was so weird. I had everything labeled but it still makes me nervous about it all coming back to my room. I think it was making me nervous because I'm going back to kindergarten and I switch out materials and furniture with the teacher next door. Hopefully they will get things back where they belong.
Well, I guess I should get off this computer and get busy on getting my house in order and things packed for our trip. I would love to hear about how you're spending your summer and what's on your list for summer reading.

Currently June

Hi friends! I've missed you. I've been MIA for a long time. The end of the school craziness just got to me. Between school and home, I just haven't had it in me to blog. Plus the heat. The heat kills me. It's just the beginning of June and I'm already having issues with the heat. It makes me not want to do anything. I've told Chris that when I'm pregnant I'm going to have to live in an air conditioned bathroom. :) So to ease back into blogging after this hiatus, I'm glad to join the party over at Farley's. Currently is one of my favorite parties around.

I still have a half day left of school tomorrow but my brain is already in overload thinking about next year. I've been thinking about what I want to try to get copied for the beginning of the school year. I have quite a few copies left and I don't want to lose them. I know now for sure that I'll be in kindergarten next year so I'm thinking about what I want to make over the summer. We're getting a new reading series and I've already made a list of all the sight words for the series. I was hoping it would be July before my brain started thinking non stop about next year but so far I'm already there. Chris and I have some trips planned in the next few weeks so hopefully I'll be able to do some relaxing then. My essentials for vacation are pretty self explanatory. I have to have my kindle. To me a vacation is a good book and the ocean. I try to keep my self sunscreened up while sitting on the beach and the perfect thing to wear after sitting at the pool or beach is a sundress.
Be sure to check out the party over at Farley's Oh' Boy 4th Grade blog.

Currently and what are you wearing

Since it's been so long since I've blogged, I'm catching up on some fun linky parties. I love Farley's monthly currently party. I look forward to it all month. But I'm a few days behind on the party.

My hubby and I teach a Sunday school class for young adults. I always joke that it should be called Nerds 101 because there is a lot of comic book talk. But we've been studying the book of Romans and he's been tying in the Lord of the Rings. It is pretty cool the way you can draw some biblical truths and lessons from these movies. We'll watch a clip or two each week. This has inspired us to rewatch the movies. I'm thinking about rereading the books this summer.
Last week was testing and I'm so glad it's over. It is a lot to ask little ones to do. This year is the first year the state has mandated that K-2 participate in the testing. Our county has elected for 1st and 2nd for a while, so we knew what to expect in first. I hated it for the Kinders though. It was way too much on them. I was so happy on Friday to have my room back to usual and be able to do some normal lessons.
We have 16 days of school left and there is a lot to do. I still have things I want to teach and do with the kids. Plus awards day, field day, social studies fair, and report cards one last time. I also need to pack and organize my room. I don't know why I'm listing all these things. You know what's up. You have all these things to do too.
My wanting and summer bucket list are kind of all related. I want to learn how to use a DSLR camera before Chris and I have kids. I want to be able to take good pictures. I would settle for a decent used camera. I want to get my house all organized and start sewing again. These things are related to the fact that I want Chris and I to be thinking about starting a family. I need to get our extra bedroom all cleaned up and organized first.
The second linky party I want to join is the Share Watcha Wear party at Closing the Gap in a Cute Outfit. I've been wanting to post about outfits for a while but I just wasn't sure. I wasn't sure anyone would want to see my outfits. But our guidance counselor a few weeks ago suggested I blog about my clothes and then I saw this linky party. So I figured I should join up. I got the hubby to take a couple of pictures of my outfits last week. So here they are:

Since we were testing, I went with my most comfortable and slightly stylish shoes. My chacos. I have had these shoes since I did my student teaching. So that means I've been wearing them for about 10 years now. They are black and they go with everything. I need to get them resoled but I have a hard time giving them up. Be sure to head over to Farley's for the Currently Party and Closing the Gap for the whatcha wearing.

The Best Pencil Sharpener

So for as long as I've been blogging I've been wanting one of the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpeners. I entered so many giveaways for them and not once did I win. So in January I got the opportunity to receive a sharpener to review them on the blog. They got it to me quickly but I've not been good about getting the review up. I wanted to have the opportunity to really use it my classroom before I shared an opinion. I'll be honest. I wasn't crazy about it at first and neither was my assistant but it was because I hadn't watched the video to find out how to use it. That was not a smart move on my part. Once I watched the video, I was clear on how to use it. That made all the difference. I'm just as in love with it as I thought I would be. It sharpens all pencils even those pesky decorative ones that no other sharpener can get sharp. I got a pretty red one and I love it because it matches the decor in my classroom.

Isn't it beautiful? It was great to have this past week in getting ready for our standardized testing. My assistant ended up taking it home to sharpen pencils for several classes. It worked better than her electric one that would have overheated and needed to rest with that many pencils. Our pencils stay sharpened and we can use all kinds of pencils with no problem.

 Be sure to head over to the website and order your own pencil sharpener. http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/
The opinions expressed in this review are my own. I did receive a pencil sharpener for this review.

Long Time, No Blog

It has been a while since I've blogged. I don't really have a good excuse I just haven't been feeling it. Then last week was testing week and it was crazy. I keep thinking of things to blog about but when I sit down at the end of the day, playing tetris on my phone seems like a better idea. (Don't buy tetris. It is highly addictive.) But I'm hoping to get back in the groove because I have been missing blogging. I've missed reading blogs as well. I have no idea what is going on in the blogging world. I did take the time to convert my instagram account over to a blog instagram as well. I don't think I could keep up with 2 so there will be personal picture as well as teaching and blogging pictures. If you want to follow me my name on instagram is mskerriskrazyklass. If you leave your name, I'd love to follow you as well. It is so fun seeing all the picture of my blogging friends. Speaking of pictures, I have taken pictures the past few weeks even though I haven't been blogging. I had all kind of ideas for posts but instead I'm going to dump all the pictures into this post and then start fresh.
This first picture is the last activity we did for Oviparous animals. I had some other pictures but I can't remember what I shared and didn't share. But I know I didn't share this activity. It was a scavenger hunt from Shuna Patterson's Let's Get Cracking unit.  I put the clues in plastic Easter eggs and hid them around the room. The kids worked with a partner to find a clue. Once they found it, they read the clue to figure out the animal. They had to draw a picture of the animal and write 2 facts about it. It was a great way to finish up our unit on Oviparous animals. The next week or two was suppose to be about plants but we really didn't do all the activities I wanted to do. We got busy reviewing for our standardized test.

But this past week we did take a little time to read one of my favorite books about plants, Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. I had bought a unit on TPT from Julie Lee to go with the book. (Click here to check it out.) We had fun creating our own hare or bear and comparing the characters. It was so nice to have fun reading a book and having the time. We did this Friday after our tests were complete.

This picture is of our math workstations we've been working on for the past few weeks. They are from my Spring has Sprung Math Workstations. My kids really enjoyed the games. They also are using the ipod for math games, doing some exploration with base 10 blocks and on the computer. I loved having these in place for the week of testing. They were a fun but still educational activity for them to do in the afternoon.

This last picture is of one of the art projects we did after we finished testing for the day. They used magazines to cut out shapes and make a picture. I thought they turned out pretty good. 

So that in a nutshell is what has been going on with my class the past few weeks. We have 18 days of school left and a lot going on. This coming week we'll be learning about insects. Hopefully I'll be back later this week to show you what we've been up to. I also have several products to share with you.