New Year's Goal Setting with your Students

     

As the new year approaches, we all look forward to setting new goals for ourselves. We all want to start off with some fresh new ideas and begin this new year off on the right track. These final few days of 2013 will be a mad rush to organize and clean my home and classroom. Tomorrow I plan on spending some time in my classroom to clean and organize and get things ready for the upcoming weeks. I've also been busy working on my Smart Goals and Educational Portfolio this week. If you are a teacher and you also have this week off, you are probably doing much of the same things. This week I've decided to work on developing some sheets so my students could also set goals. We all know that it is important to teach youngsters to learn how to set goals. This is an important lifelong skill that is sure to bring our students some success. I developed some sheets for students to set goals and track their success on charts. This product includes charts to track letter naming, letter naming for upper and lowercase letters, letter sounds, counting objects, writing numbers up to 20, and high frequency words. I thought it would be nice for students to have a visual representation that shows their progress as they learn new skills. Students will be motivated to color in more squares on their graphs as they master skills and show off their success to their classmates, parents and other teachers who may work with them. Students will also complete a couple of writing prompts to discuss their goals and how they will be achieved.


Set goals for yourself and work hard at achieving them. I hope you and your students reach your goals this year!

Happy New Year! Let's hope for a healthy, happy, and prosperous year!
Check out my newest product at:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Goal-Setting-In-Kindergarten-1033431
or
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/goal-setting-in-kindergarten

Winter Break Giveaway Celebration!

Are you excited as I am to have this week off? What are your plans for this week? How many days do you have off? Leave a comment for a chance to win two of my latest winter themed products. Check them out at my store. No preparation required, just print and go. Please consider becoming a follower so you can get updates on upcoming sales and new products posted.

I will be drawing the winner on Christmas Eve morning out of a Christmas Stocking. Good Luck! Happy Holidays!

Teen-Numbers-Winter-Fun-Print-and-Go
Winter-Theme-Number-Stories-Word-Problems-KOA2-1OA1

Do you want a second chance to win. See my Facebook page. I am hosting the same giveaway there as well.

Twas the Week Before Christmas

I found this poem on Facebook and it just says it all. It has been a crazy, hectic yet fun-filled week. Just one more day to go before our Christmas break. All the holiday gifts for the parents are finally wrapped and ready to be sent home. Students were busy with lots of literacy and math holiday activities these last few weeks. Our class enjoyed several holiday books and learned about Winter holidays from around the world. Tomorrow is Pajama Day  for our entire school. Students will donate 1.00 for a worthy cause as they come in with their PJ's. Oh boy, the excitement of holiday cheer and a full moon this week are sure to add to the craziness of this joyous time of year! I am sooo looking forward to Christmas break.  

December Facebook Frenzy~Lots of Freebies

Wow!! The holidays are right around the corner. I can't believe that December is almost here. This weekend we have something to help make your holidays even sweeter as many fabulous teachers have donated some amazing activities to liven thing up in your classroom and keep your students actively learning. 

It is time for the December Facebook Frenzy.-Woo Hoo!! This is my first Frenzy and I am super excited to be a part of it. 

Simply hop through all the Facebook pages and grab up the amazing freebies along the way. It is a great way to get some new classroom resources and find some amazing teacher friends and bloggers as well.

You can check out my freebie by going here.

You can download the clickable version here to get started depending on what grade levels you are interested in.         Frenzie Map 

It is the most wonderful time of the year! ***SALES****

Tis the season to go shopping. Did you shop til you dropped this weekend?  I just started my shopping this weekend and found some fabulous deals on some electronics for my boys. I still have some more to do but I feel accomplished as I purchased the major items on my list. Tomorrow, I may start some holiday decorating around my home and then I plan on getting to work early on Monday to begin decorating my classroom. I hope you found some great deals shopping this weekend and saved lots of money.  If you are looking for more ways to save some cash and want some fun, motivating math or literacy ideas to jazz up things this holiday season in your classroom, please check out my stores. This week I am having a sale at Teacher's Notebook and I contributed a few products to add to the bundle deals that are available. You can put together a bundle and get up to 50% off.  On Cyber Monday and Terrific Tuesday, there is an awesome sale going on at Teacher's Pay Teachers. Use the promo code Cyber to get 28% off my entire store.  Please see the links to both my stores on the side of this page.  I hope you can find that special something that can make your life easier and most importantly get your students involved in some active learning.  Happy Shopping! Happy Holidays to all my followers.   

Giving Thanks Giveaway

Happy Thanksgiving!  I donated a product at Life over C's for the Giving Thanks Giveaway. Head on over to http://www.lifeovercs.blogspot.com/ to get a chance to win fabulous prizes. 

                        1 lucky winner will receive:

$25 TpT Gift Certificate

$25 of products of your choice from Life Over C's 

23 more great resources!

1 runner up will receive:
$10 TpT Gift Certificate
$10 of products of your choice from Life Over C's

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Thanksgiving Fun

I am really excited to share a few of my Thanksgiving activities. The students in my class are having fun with these hands on activities. Now that my students have developed number sense, they can show different ways to represent numbers using ten frames, number words, counters and tally marks. At literacy centers, students have  been working hard on reading two letter words. I have a chart hanging in my classroom with all two letter words and we practice reading them everyday. We look for two letter words in the text we read. Students are amazed by how often they show up in sentences. I let the students know that if they can read two letter words, it will help them read three letter words and larger words. The two letter turkeys have become a big hit in our class. Check out my new products on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook. These activities are all kid approved and have helpful recording sheets for you to track their understanding of these concepts. Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful new followers. Thanks for visiting my blog.

                    


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Turkey-Number-Match-Fun-926823
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Turkey-Ten-Frame-Match-Numbers-1-10-934707
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Two-Letter-Turkey-Match-Bingo-954390

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/turkey-number-match-fun-1-20
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/turkey-ten-frame-match
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/two-letter-turkey-match-amp-bingo

Thanksgiving Hop

We are celebrating all that we are thankful for and that includes teachers!  We want to show all of you how much we appreciate you.  Teachers do so much and this is our time to give back and say thank you!  Thank you for following!  Thank you for participating!  Thank you for collaborating!  Thank you for sharing!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Join us by hopping through each blog and gathering lots of Thanksgiving and autumn freebies.  In each freebie you will find a picture of a pie with a word on it. That word will tell you something that teacher is thankful for.  Record all of the words on your recording sheet and follow each blog along the way so that you can enter the amazing giveaway at the end!

You may start anywhere along the hop, but if you would like to start at the beginning you may go here.  This is also where you will go in the end, for the giveaway!!

Wow! You have made it to the final blog stop number 25. Do not forget to
check out the links below to enter this amazing giveaway.

Your students will have fun with the "Turkey Ten Frame Number Match," Students will enjoy matching ten frames to turkey numbers and number words on these adorable turkeys. There are a couple of follow up recording sheets to go along with this cute activity. I am a kindergarten teacher and I have many high quality activities that align with the common core that you may be interested in. Please check it out and consider becoming a follower. 

                                                            Ten Frame Turkey Match

  .

      

Now hop over to enter the giveaway. Best of Luck to all of you.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

                                   

                                                               Giveaway Entry

Join in on my first Blog Hop

I am so excited to be a part of  this amazing blog hop. I've donated a cute Thanksgiving Turkey Ten Frame Match game. There are so many great activites that are being offered to teachers. Don't miss out on this opportunity to grab some freebies and have fun filled activities for your classroom. You will also get a chance to win even more great prizes from this Thanksgiving hop.

Halloween Number Stories

Get into the Halloween spirit with these fun, spooktacular number stories that are sure to motivate your students as they solve word problems within ten. It is important that your students learn to apply their math skills by solving problems rather than just simple computation. Getting students involved in how addition and subtraction apply to the real world and why it is important to know can be a challenge. We all want our students to develop higher level thinking. Presenting problems that are of a high interest level will peek their curiosity. Kids at this age are very egocentric as what matters to them is of utmost importance. Halloween is a huge event in their minds and they are all anxiously looking forward to this big day. Incorporating Halloween into a few lessons will motivate students. My number stories have been my biggest sellers. They give the students the opportunity to show their work with drawings and writing equations. These number stories are perfect for kindergarteners and first graders and they align with the Common Core K.OA.2 and 1.OA.1.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Number-StoriesWord-Problems-KOA1-1OA1-902263
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/halloween-number-stories-word-problems-k-oa-2-amp-1-oa-1


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Wow, Another TPT Surprise!

Teachers Pay Teachers just announced a special promo code to be used this weekend in celebration of reaching 100,000 Facebook fans. I just found out a few moments ago and quickly put my entire store on sale to coincide with this amazing offer. Congratulations to TPT on this amazing milestone. This offer came out at such a surprise. It was not announced on their site. It was only announced on their Facebook Page. Use promo code FB100K at checkout to cash in on this amazing offer. Hurry this sale is happening now Oct.12-Oct. 14th. Don't miss out on some tremendous savings.  I hope you are all enjoying your Columbus Day weekend. This kind of deal makes this weekend even sweeter.

Fall Is In The Air

Don't you just love all the fall colors and the refreshing crisp air that autumn brings. It is a fun time to integrate fall themes into our lessons as we can easily tie in science with math and English language arts.  Students are back into the swing of things and settling in to our classrooms and most are eager to learn about fall themes such as apples, pumpkins, fall foliage, Johnny Appleseed, Christopher Columbus, and all the fun, spooktacular events that  Halloween has to offer. I have designed a few fall activities for my classroom and I can't wait to get started on introducing them to my students. If you are looking for some fresh new ideas with a fall twist, please check them out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store or on Teacher's Notebook. Students will have fun learning about owls and bats as they do research and read books about these amazing creatures. They will enjoy filling out the graphic organizers, diagrams and writing prompts as they share what they have learned. Students will learn about decomposing numbers and solving simple math word problems with these motivating fall lessons that align with the Common core. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Theme-Number-Stories-Word-Problems-CC-KOA2-1OA1-763309
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/fall-number-stories-word-problems-cc-k-oa-2-amp-1-oa-2


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Owls-Writing-Activities-Graphic-Organizers-744340
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/all-about-owls-writing-activities-graphic-organizers

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Decompose-Numbers-Apples-in-A-Basket-
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/decompose-numbers-apples-in-a-basket-common-core-k-oa-3

Common-Core-KOA3-742954http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-Bats-Writing-Activities-Graphic-Organizers-873959
http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/all-about-bats-writing-activities-graphic-organizers

Pinterest Collaborative Boards Join In

I am addicted to Pinterest. I think I spend way to long browsing about and looking for great ideas to use in my classroom as well as home improvement, recipes, health, fashion, gift ideas and more. There are so many awesome ideas out there that are so unique and helpful. Each day I am amazed at all these treasures I find.  Now, if only there were enough hours in the day to actually implement more of these fabulous ideas. I decided to start a couple of collaborative boards for teachers to pin their very best creations and educational finds. My first board is for all my fellow kindergarten teachers and it is entitled "Kindergarten Express." My second board is for teachers throughout the primary grades(Pre K-5) and it is entitled "Primary Grades Fun & Learning."  I would love for you to join in on the fun and learning!! Please leave your pinterest url for me to invite you in the comment section below. You must be a follower to these boards in order to join in as a collaborator. I can't wait to see all your innovative creations.Please be respectful and only pin up to three paid products per day. I would also love to see educational resources, quotes, videos, bulletin board ideas, etc. Happy Pinning!  

http://pinterest.com/123kteach/kindergarten-express/

                                           http://pinterest.com/123kteach/primary-grades-fun-learning/

Back To School Sale 20% off Entire Store

This weekend I've decided to have another big sale  on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook just in case you missed last week's sale. My enitre store will be marked down 20% off. Hurry and don't miss out on this great opportunity. The sale is Aug. 24th-Aug. 26th. I have 16 new products in my store just in time for back to school.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/123kteach and 

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/123kteach

Owl Theme Editable Storage Labels

All week long I've been very busy setting up my classroom for this upcoming school year. Each year is a new beginning and a fresh start. As teachers, we are all looking for ways to be better organized and become more efficient with our time. This morning I worked on decorating and organizing my rolling cart storage bins. I have three of them in my classroom and I know several teachers have them as well. You can easily find them at your local Walmart, Target or any major department store. I designed these adorable owl, chevron, editable labels to go on them. I think they came out really cute. These labels will also work well on any medium or large size storage bins you have in your classroom. Pick and choose the labels you want to customize your needs.

If you like them, check them out at my store. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Owl-Theme-Editable-Storage-Labels-841763 or http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/owl-theme-editable-storage-labels

Get ready for back to school with some amazing savings. Remember to use the promo code BTS2013 at checkout. You will receive 28% off my entire store. Please check it out. This summer I've added 15 new products. Have a fabulous school year. Happy Teaching!!  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/123kteach
http://pinterest.com/pin/186336503306005825/

Common Core E-book Free

I am so thrilled to see my page was published in the free"Common Core E-book for ELA grades k-2." This book is filled with outstanding resources to assist you with aligning your lessons to the Common Core. Each page has teacher tips, free resources along with paid products from several amazing teachers that took the time to share their work.There are already close to 4,000 downloads.  Here is my page.

Here is the link to the free ebook
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/COMMON-CORE-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE-ARTS-FREE-BACK-TO-SCHOOL-EBOOK-FOR-GRADES-K-2-795478

It is Time for Back to School!

     Just a couple of more weeks left and I will be back to school. This summer I've been very busy putting together lessons that align with the Common Core. I put a lot of thought into what needs to be addressed during the first few weeks of school as I developed these lessons. As a kindergarten teacher, I want to first begin by developing a positive classroom community whereby children feel safe and good about themselves. I want students to learn to make wise choices as they follow classroom rules. I developed a couple of products that will support classroom climate and make my job easier as I begin to address academics. These products get the kids thinking about their behavior and gives them an oportunity to write their thoughts. Students will also love recieving incentive cards on their desks for positive behavior. These products can be used throughout the year as the students develop better writing skills. It is great for upper grades as well.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Making-Wise-Choices-Desk-Incentives-Writing-Prompts-789826 or http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/making-wise-choices-desk-incentives-writing-prompts

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Safety-Tips-Home-School-Community-766676 or http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/safety-tips-home-school-amp-community

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The children have so much to learn in kindergarten. At the beginning of the year, the focus is on letter recognition and beginning sounds. I developed a product called "Alphabet Soup." Children will have fun finding letters in the soup and practice writing them on letter graphs. This ties in nicely with math as they learn graphing skills while at the same time learn to recognize and write letters. Beginning sounds is the focus at the beginning of the school year for kindergarteners. Therefore, I put together some cool looking school bus mats for sorting picture cards to match beginning sounds on the windows of the bus.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Soup-Graphs-Upper-and-Lowercase-letters-788954 orhttp://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/alphabet-soup-graphs-upper-and-lowercase-letters

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beginning-Sounds-School-Bus-Sort-CCSSELARFK2d-813158 or http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/beginning-sounds-school-bus-sort
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At the beginning of the school year in math, my goal is to develop number sense using numbers up to ten. I put together 40 worksheets that tie in nicely with the new Common Core Standards. We are no longer using our current math series since it is outdated and does not address many of the new standards. I have a feeling that several school systems are in the same dilemma. Teachers are scrambling around trying to find the right lessons that address these new Common Core Standards. Both Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook have been a blessing for many teachers as they find new and exciting ways to teach math while being sure that it is aligned to the new standards. Please check out my new "Number Sense Fun in Kindergarten."  It may be  very helpful with getting through these first few weeks of school.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Sense-Fun-1-10-Printables-Common-Core-Aligned-814500  or  http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/123kteach/number-sense-fun-1-10-printables-common-core-aligned

Congratulations to the winners of my giveaway.

Rachel, Lisa and Paula are super excited to be receiving lots of cool products that have been donated to this giveaway. Thanks so much for all who participated in this special giveaway.

100th Follower Giveaway Clip Art/ Grades 6-12

This is my final giveaway with another batch of incredible products from creative and talented teachers. You will receive some beautiful clip art to dress up your work from several artistic clip artists. There are some great lessons included from teachers 6-12. You will also receive one of the most sort after teacher binders to help keep you organized this year from Mrs.Hildebrand. Don't miss out this opportunity to win some fabulous products. This giveaway is live until midnight. Good Luck!

Clipart

Ink n Little Things winner's choice

Glitter Meets Glue

Away With The Pixels winner's choice

Dandy Doodles

Dancing Crayon Designs

Poppydreamz Digital Art winner's choice

Whimsy Workshop Graphics

Oddball Science

Rebekah Brock

Click on the links below to see the prizes you will receive.

Grades 6-8

Lovin Lit

Texas Science Gal

Teresa Tretbar

Miss S's Sixers

S.O.L. Train

MrsHildebrand

Giveaway is Live for Grades 3-5, Lots of Prizes

Don't miss out on your opportunity to win lots of fantastic prizes from some amazing teachers from grades
 3-5. The giveaway is live up until midnight. Tell all your teacher friends. Hurry!

Amazing Giveaway

Wow!!! It is time for the fun to begin. There are over 50 prizes in all that will be given away this week.  My giveaway is live for grades Prek-2 starting now. July 27-July 28th until midnight. Check out all the fabulous prizes. You won't believe it!!! Don't miss out. Fill out the form on rafflecopter to enter for over 30 prizes in grades Prek-2. This includes the five products of your choice from my TPT store. On July 29th-July 30th, I will be hosting the giveaway for grades 3-5. July 31-Aug.1st will be the giveaway for the upper grades plus some amazing clip artists.

Graphics Credits for this button 
are from  www.mycutegraphics.com andwww.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Wizard-Of_Boz

Here are Some Amazing Teachers~ Thank You!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF THE AMAZING PRE K-2  TEACHERS

WHO DONATED TO THIS GIVEAWAY !

I am truly amazed at the response I have so far, especially for this age group. Tomorrow the giveaway will start live. Let's give credit to these generous teachers. Check out these stores

and you will find some extraordinary products for your classroom.

Be sure to click on each of the links below to see which prizes are being donated. You won't believe the generous donations. Be sure to check out their awesome stores and become a follower so you will be aware of new products and upcoming sales. The winner will receive prizes worth well over $100.00.

Silly Sam Productions

Jill Bell

Mama Pearson

1stgradefireworks

Teacher Gems

Kindergarten Katie

Katie Lesseman

Schroeder's Stars

Relax With A Book

Jennifer Drake

Class of Kinders winner's choice

My Fabulous Class winner's choicee

Najat Murillo

Mizell Multiage

Zoom Zoom Classroom

Krazy For Kindergarten

The Teaching Files

Differentiated Instruction winner's choice

ECU Pirate Teacher

Heather Rice-The Bag Lady

Mrs Lindsey

MrsMc 

Owl Things First

Annie Brown

Superteach56

Brittani Black winner's choice

Spelling and Technology

Be sure to click on each of the links below to see which prizes are being donated. You won't believe the generous donations. Be sure to check out their awesome stores and become a follower so you will be aware of new products and upcoming sales. The winner will receive  prizes worth well over $100.00.

Grades 3-5

Sweet Integrations

Ashley Cook winner's choice

A Sketchy Guy

Jenifer Stewart

Rick's Resources winner's choice

Growing Smart Readers

Janet Rainey winner's choice

Green Grubs winner's choice

Shari Beck

The Fabuous Life of an Elementary Teacher

Rock Stars in the Classroom winner's choice

Reading and Writing Redhead

Jessicca Nielsen

The Teacher Team

Jennifer Dowel

Mrs Ds Literacy Lab

Wow! Check out the amazing Clip Artist Donations Below.

Clipart

Ink n Little Things winner's choice

Glitter Meets Glue

Away With The Pixels winner's choice

Dandy Doodles

Dancing Crayon Designs

Poppydreamz Digital Art winner's choice

Whimsy Workshop Graphics

Oddball Science

Rebekah Brock

Click on the links below to see the prizes you will receive.

Grades 6-8

Lovin Lit

Texas Science Gal

Teresa Tretbar

Miss S's Sixers

S.O.L. Train

MrsHildebrand

100th Follower Giveaway

It is an exciting time as I approach 100 Followers at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. I will be hosting a giveaway starting next Saturday. I am currently taking donations from amazing sellers at Teachers Pay Teachers for this exciting giveaway. The winner will receive any five products of your choice from my store  and whatever products I get from donations that I will be collecting all week long.  When you donate products it is a win for you because you can gain more followers. I will set up my giveaway so that when the person is entering the giveaway, he/she will have the opportunity to gain more entries by following the links that you provide me to your store. It is a win, win for you and the person entering the giveaway. If you want to join in on the fun and donate a prize, please click on the link below and fill out the form to get started. I am currently taking donations from grades 6-12 only since I have so many so far from the lower grades. Thanks so much!!  
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ljSosBHHYcN9gMNWdQ5IMx1ednTMNpQGWioRn9nFpkM/viewform

Graphics Credits for this button are from www.mycutegraphics.com andwww.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Wizard-Of_Boz

Word Problems

Not only do word problems provide higher level thinking for young children, but they bring meaning to real life situations. Children learn quickly why it is important to learn how to add and subtract because they need to in order to solve problems that they may face in the everyday world. It is important to create word problems or number stories that students can easily relate to. Students should begin solving simple number stories with tangible items found in the classroom. Once the students have lots of experience with adding and subtracting with manipulatives, they can move on to picture representations to assist them in solving problems. I have created a few number story booklets that will motivate students as they practice solving word problems. These booklets have both addition and subtraction number stories within ten. Students will be able to solve the problems by drawing pictures to show their work. Next, students will write an equation to go along with the number story .I have found that by teaching students to look for key words such as {in all, all together, are left}and highlighting them with a yellow crayon or circling them can be very helpful when deciding which operation to choose as they write their equations. When students are solving subtraction problems, I often teach them to X out the ones that leave with a red crayon. They can then easily count the X's because they are distinguished easier with the red crayon and they don't get lost in their drawings. Below is an example of one of my number story booklets that I created. It is currently my top selling item. I just created a new number story booklet with a fall theme for back to school. These activities align nicely with the Common Core for both the end of the year in kindergarten and the for the beginning of the year in first grade.
Common Core: K.OA.2  &  Common Core: 1.OA.1

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ocean-Theme-Number-Stories-Addition-Subtraction-Word-Problems-CC-KOA2-607945

Classroom Videos

I have been collecting several educational classroom videos since I started on Pinterest. My collection has now reached 160 videos. The kids in my class love them. Not only are they entertaining and capture their attention, but they provide learning in a fun way. My collection includes several English language arts, storybook, character education, holiday fun, math, science and movement video clips. The majority of my videos are only a couple of minutes long and are geared towards the early primary grades. These clips are perfect for introducing a lesson or you can use them for a review. Before I start separating them into different boards, I thought I would share them with you. Please follow me on Pinterest so you can be aware of the new videos I find. Below is just a sample of one of the videos you will find.

http://pinterest.com/pin/186336503304724533/

http://pinterest.com/123kteach/classroom-videos/

Happy 4th of July

I hope you all enjoy a happy and safe 4th of July. It feels so nice to finally relax after a busy and hectic school year. I've been out of school now for almost two weeks. We said our final goodbyes and ended our school year with our " Kindergarten Moving On Day Celebration." The students did an amazing job with reciting a poem and singing a couple of songs. The parents especially loved it when we sang to the tune of Frank Sinatra's" New York, New York" while dancing like the Rockettes. We changed the lyrics to "First Grade, First Grade." The students all received a pail and shovel with lots of goodies inside. In the buckets the students brought home memory books, journals,  pictures and special awards. We ended the last day of school with a slide show I put together on Movie Maker and the students enjoyed some popsicles before saying so long for the summer. Putting together this end of the year program was a lot of work, but it was all worth it in the end. The parents were so appreciative and the kids had a blast. I am always amazed at the tremendous gains the students make throughout the year and it is not always easy to let them go.  Now that I am home, I can spend some quality time with my family and work on those projects that I've been putting off to get my house organized. This summer I signed up to take several technology workshops that will keep me busy. With this new information I plan on developing lots more lessons and activities that I can share.  

Parent Volunteers Are So Special

     The teachers at our school put together an amazing breakfast to recognize all the hard work the parent volunteers do throughout the year. The volunteers that come in to my class are so incredibly helpful during literacy center time and writing. My struggling students especially benefit from the individual support and attention they are given. The students enjoyed writing  a special thank you letter that we put in a big card for each of our volunteers. We made these adorable place mats to decorate the table at our volunteer breakfast. Each student made a yellow thumbprint to make the bees. We painted some brown paint on the bubble wrap to make the beehive.

Opening a New Store

I decided to open a new store in Teacher's Notebook as well as Teacher's Pay Teachers. Now you have a choice as to where you would like to shop. It will take some time as I load products into both stores. My plan is to sell the same products at both stores. It is a very busy time of the year as the school year winds down, however this summer I plan on putting together many new high quality learning activities and lessons. I can't wait to get started. I have loads of ideas floating through my mind that I would love to share. If you are interested in knowing about upcoming sales, be sure to become a follower.

Teacher Appreciation Day

http://pinterest.com/pin/186336503305420086/

Teachers work so incredibly hard throughout the year. Please take some time off and do something special for yourself. Take a moment to recognize all the accomplishments and growth your students have made this year.

I am having my biggest sale since opening my new store. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, my entire store will be having a 20% off sale. What makes this deal even sweeter is the fact that TPT will be taking an additional 10% off the sale price. This adds up to a 28% savings. If you have something on your wish list, now is the perfect opportunity to jump in on some big savings.

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY!

Mother's Day Necklace and Booklet

                             

Celebrate Mother's Day by having your students create this adorable booklet and necklace. Students will be able to give it to someone who is special in their lives for Mother's Day. They may fill out their responses on kid lined paper in the booklet to answer prompts. Students will enjoy creating a necklace to give to someone they love. This product is ESPECIALLY good for classes in which some students come from non-traditional families or who have a special woman in their lives who is not their mother.  If you are a mother or care for a child, I want to wish you a Happy Mother's Day! 

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mothers-Day-Booklet-Cute-Necklace

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/123kteach

Counting Sounds in Words

The ability to break up a word into individual sounds can be challenging at first for many kindergarteners.  Example: Tell me all the sounds you hear in the word tag. The student should respond by saying each individual sound or phoneme /t/- /a/-/g/  This skill is very important as students begin to learn to write using inventive spelling. Many school systems use DIBELS, and there is a phonemic segmentation section students are asked to do in the Winter and Spring. I have developed this fun activity to help students count phonemes as they say words slowly and listen for sounds. Students will begin to notice that not all words have the same amount of letters as there are sounds. An example of this would be the word egg. It has three letters but only two sounds. This activity is great to do during RTI or Literacy Center Time. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Circus-Peanuts-Count-the-Phonemes-or-Sounds-in-Words

or  http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/123kteach