Freebie Linkup!

Today I'm sharing a Freebie as I am linking up with LiteracyMath Ideas!

Before you shop for more FREEBIES, you can have your students also go Shopping for Syllables. Check out my Freebie here. Also be on the lookout for some FABULOUS things happening on my blog and store COMING SOON! I am glad you stopped by and I hope you will check out my previous post to enter an Amazing Giveaway! You will not want to miss out on this opportunity. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog! You can link your FRIDAY freebies at LiteracyMath Ideas!

I've teamed up with some  blogger friends and donated one of my products to one of the fantastic prize packages! You can enter to win a huge selection of creative and unique classroom Spring resources for Elementary teachers and or  enter to win the newest Thirty-One Utility Tote Bag Plus and an Amazon $30 gift card!
  Here is the product I donated to inspire your students to write what they know about spring. 

                                             Spring Writing Fun

You can check out this SuperLeap Blog giveaway by visiting the Tidy Teacher's blog. (Giveaways are open now through 11:00pm EST on Monday, February 29, 2016 (LEAP DAY!) Winners will be announced March 1, 2016. Good Luck!

100th Day, Valentine's Day and Last Day Before Winter Break~ OH BOY!

Tomorrow is sure to be an exciting, fun-filled yet exhausting day as our class will be celebrating the 100th day of school, Valentine's Day and getting ready for our week long winter break.  I know for certain the kids will be bubbling over with enthusiasm for this exciting day!  Since we had a couple of snow days recently, our 100th day just kept being pushed back and sure enough it will be taking place tomorrow. Before leaving for school I did my best to prepare myself for this big event. Here are just a few pictures of the centers they will be doing tomorrow.

Students will all receive a 100 dollar bill in which they can draw their own face in the middle and write about what they would do if they received $100.00.  It is always so fun to see the great ideas that they come up with.

Students will cut out the busses as they count by tens and paste in the correct order as the busses lead to the school house.

Students will write and draw to answer the following: I would  love to have 100...  and I would hate to have 100...

This year I decided to make 100th Day necklaces with this great looking badge to decorate rather than 100th day crowns.  With all the excitement happening this week, I just can't imagine going around and measuring heads with constructions paper and stapling 22 crowns on top of each student's  head. I just need to save some time and my sanity.

In the afternoon we will be sorting all of our 100th day collections that the students will be bringing in from home into ten groups of ten. 

I did not forget about Valentine's Day! We have been working on Valentine projects throughout the week.  Student valentine bags are hanging from our white board ledge. Students have been bringing in their cards throughout the week and sorting them on their own into their classmate's Valentine bag. Hopefully, this will safe some time and it will be less chaotic at the last minute. 

Here are just a few pictures of some of the centers students were busy at this week. 

My students just love playing any type of word bingo. Here is one of the Valentine Bingo games they played with a focus on short a, short i and short o.  I also have the students work on a recording sheet to match their bingo card. I just love this idea. Since the bingo cards are all different, students can't copy each other's work as they complete the sheet. You can check out my store for some word bingo games that students will enjoy. I also have one for St. Patrick's Day. 

At the art table students had fun creating animal creatures using hearts. I just put out a bunch of heart stencils in different sizes and cut up construction paper from a variety of colors and I let the students use their imaginations to create these fantastic animal creatures.  

Today for writing I had the students answer the following: I love my family because...
I did explain to the students how all families are different but they do love and care for each and every one of them. I had them think about all the special things their families do for them and explained how appreciative they should be. On Valentine's Day they can show their love and appreciation.  We also discussed how it is important to be loving, helpful and caring throughout the year and not just on holidays.

My students did an awesome with their writing and I think their families will love it!

                   

I am looking forward to the winter break for much needed rest and relaxation. They are predicting some really frigid cold temperatures. I will be so happy to be at home cuddling under my blankets and being able to stay in my soft cuddly pajamas. 

Hook and Engage Your Students: Teach Like A Pirate

 Does this picture spark your curiosity and interest? Are you wondering what the #1 top secret is? Did I hook you in to wanting to read this post and know more? Teachers can use their message board or have an enticing picture up on the screen as students walk in the door that will create a buzz and hook them into the lesson that is about to be presented. Today I went to the most amazing presentation and it was by far the best professional development teacher workshop I've attended. Dave Burgess who is the author of "Teach Like A Pirate" came in his full pirate costume and had us all hooked into to his awe inspiring presentation that had the audience of teachers throughout our district fully engaged throughout his presentation.

David was willing to sign a copy of his book after
the presentation.

David's passion and energetic style was fabulous as he presented techniques to engage all students and even these most hard to reach students. The teachers in our district were so lucky to have seen him in live person in order to get the full impact of his enthusiasm, intensity and strong passionate drive as he shared his own personal stories along with ways he made content come alive in his classroom.  David spoke about how an engaged student is rarely a behavioral problem. During his presentation he fully engaged the audience as he addressed what the acronym PIRATE stands for and explained in further detail some awesome techniques used in this system. 

                                P-Passion 

                       I-Immersion                       

                       R-Rapport                        

                       A-Ask and Analyze   

                       T-Transfomation                       

                       E-Enthusiasm   

Here are just some of a few quotes and personal notes that I took away from the presentation. I just can't wait to get started on reading the books. 

* Safe lessons are mediocrity, be willing to take risks

*Be more concerned about the learning that takes place than the actual performance of your students.

*"Preheat the grill," Add mystery, buzz, and anticipation in order to hook students in.

*Deliver the key core of your instruction during the peak moment of instruction.

* Use props, imagery and music.

* Use storytelling and dramatic buildup that is emotional, powerful and memorable.

*It is not what you do;it is how you do it.

*You can know a lot about your content, but if you do not provide the energy and richness to your lessons, students will not be hooked in. 

*Don't just teach a lesson; make and create an experience. 

*Make it memorable and come alive!

*We can't just be good teachers; we need to be remarkable! 

Here are the two books I purchased. You can find them on Amazon. I can't wait to read more and learn ways to "Take my content and turn it into pirate treasure."

               

                        Teach Like a Pirate                                       P is for Pirate 

                                                                     

If you have seen David Burgess do a live presentation or have read his books, please comment below and let me know how it has impacted you and your teaching style. I'd love to hear from you. 

  

Successful Week~It Feels So Good to Be Back!

Happy New Year! May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and personal growth.  After a much needed winter break, my class was eager to come back and they have shown me that they are ready to learn. It is a time to start out fresh and feel invigorated as we set personal goals for ourselves and our students.  Starting off the new year is the perfect time to re-establish classroom expectations and procedures.  Over the winter break I took a look at some of the data I have collected on each student and I made some changes to my RTI groupings in order to best suite the individual needs of my students.

Students always come back from vacation with so much to say. It is important that you take the time to let each student share something that they did over vacation. I also give them an opportunity to write and draw about their experiences in their journals. It is also very important that you go over classroom expectations in these first few days.  We also had a new student  begin in our class and he felt welcomed and I am sure he also appreciated the fact that we took the extra time to go over the routines to help ease his transition. By mid week, I felt as if the students were right on track. They were settled in and ready to learn and we were able to get so much accomplished. Prior to Christmas vacation the kiddos were just too excited and bubbling over with enthusiasm and it was difficult to get much done. It felt sooo good to finally  get the ball rolling again and strengthen the rigor of the curriculum. 

This week my students were very busy doing some fun-filled winter activities. Center time is always my favorite part of the day. It is a chance for students to show off their knowledge as they work in small groups. Here are some pictures of some of the things we did this week. 

                              

Each week students get the opportunity to do an art project and write sentences or copy a short poem about their art work. 

Students loved finding sight words in the snow. Then they cut out snowballs and wrote letters on each snowball to build the word and then write the sight word. 

At the science center students worked on sorting pushes and pulls. You can find some great worksheets along with pictures to sort here.

           

We have two pocket charts in our class. At the red pocket chart the students sorted and wrote short a and short i words. At the blue pocket chart the students found pairs of rhyming words to match the mittens. They then wrote a few of their rhyming pairs on recording sheets. 

Here are examples of an "I spy" sight words worksheet and a winter themed cut and paste to make sight words worksheet.  I love the Shelby Kove website that goes perfectly with our Reading Street program. It has loads of worksheets and activities that I use for center work. You can visit this site here.  

For my early finishers, I encourage students to write the words they practiced on the front and write sentences using those words on the back. Once they have completed that they can work on a kindergarten news or choose a book to read or work on an available computer to work on literacy skills. 

Winter Break is Finally Here!

It has been a CRAZY, HECTIC but joyful week. It is tough to go to school until Dec. 23rd but we made it. Here in New England many superintendents learned from last year's harsh winter and decided to shorten winter break just in case we have another snowy winter.  Our entire school had Pajama Day and this just added to the excitement and craziness as we also had ugly sweater day, Christmas sock day and Christmas hat day earlier in the week.  

Students cheerfully came to school with cards and gifts and they were so eager to show off their Christmas PJ's. Our job was to keep these kiddos who were bubbling over with excitement in control. Needless to say this is a lot easier said than done. Our class did have an Elf on The Shelf that traveled around the room and reported back to Santa on how well the children were behaving. I even had the students write letters to the Elf to tell Santa why they thought they should be put on the nice list. Despite all my efforts, as you can imagine there were still quite a few chaotic moments and I came home each day exhausted.

Today I read the students one of my favorite holiday books "The Polar Express" as I took out our classroom bell and rang it several times during the reading. Students listened for the ring and learned about the true meaning of this special sound this time of year.   My students were eager to take home the ornament  gifts they made for their families. I was also showered with so many thoughtful gifts from the students and their families and I felt so appreciated and thankful to have such a great group of students.  

It truly is a magical time of the year, but I am so thrilled to officially start my winter break.  I look forward to not having to set an alarm clock and get up so early. It will be nice to stay in my pajamas and not have to go to work in them like I did today. I especially look forward to spending time with family and friends. 

I hope you enjoy the holidays and find time to relax with those you love. 

Cyber Monday Holiday Sale!

I hope you enjoyed spending quality time with your families this Thanksgiving and you've recovered from over eating all that delicious turkey and fixings along with shopping till you drop on Black Friday. For many of us, it is time to head back to school tomorrow, but let's turn those frowns upside-down and SMILE! Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday and Terrific Tuesday Sale and you can save up to 28% off products at many different stores. My entire store is now fully stocked with many new holiday and winter themed products that are sure to bring a SMILE to your student's faces while they practice their skills. I have even put my Bundles on sale as well to save you even more money. Many of my new products are teacher friendly "PRINT & GO" activities. I know how overwhelming this time of the year can get and teacher's do not have time to be spending hours and hours preparing materials for their classrooms. Time is so precious and it should be spent with your families. Shop now and save a bundle. Be sure to use the promo code SMILE at the checkout in order to take advantage of these super savings.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting to school early and start decorating my room. I also need to find my elf on the shelf and special letter that I have to read to the class. It was such a big hit with my students last year and I can't wait to get started with my current class. I let the students know that the elf will be watching over my class and reporting back to Santa on how well behaved they are. The elf will move around the classroom each night and my students will have fun finding him as they arrive each morning. As an added incentive, the students will also get a chance to write letters to the elf as well as Santa. You can find a wide variety of holiday writing prompts by clicking here.

        

  I hope you have lots of  joyful moments with your students during this holiday season. Each day can get so hectic but if you can do your best to stick to a schedule and  do your normal routines while engaging students in activities that they are excited about, the days will go by much easier.