A Makeover and A Freebie

So, don't faint, but I am actually blogging.  I'm not sure why I stopped blogging. Life has just gotten busy and time has gotten away from me.  I sent my youngest to college this past year and adjusting to that seemed to take up a lot of my time.  But I am back.

I have actually found time this summer to begin working on remaking some of my first products that I created. Hopefully, they will look better.  After looking through my TpT store, I was embarassed about how some of my products looked.  I had created them with Word instead of Powerpoint.  So I decided to recreate them in Powerpoint.  I have finished my first product makeover.  It is the featured product in my store and a freebie, so I thought I should begin with that one.

It is a graphing activity.  The students graph their favorite type of apple.  I realize that graphing isn't in the Common Core standards for kindergarten. However, my students take the MAP test from NWEA. I was surprised how many questions about graphing that there were on that test.  I don't believe in teaching to the test, but if I can have my students do some activities that help them to do better, I try to do that.  Besides, when they are graphing they are still counting with one-to-one correspondence, writing numbers and telling more than and less than.  All of those things are objectives that I am supposed to be teaching. So by using graphing in my classroom, I am getting a two-for-one deal.  (Kinda like shopping at Kohl's)

Here is the freebie if you would like to get it for your classroom:

Click here to get the freebie.

I hope you like it and can use it in your classroom.  Be sure to watch for my more updates to my product.

Thank you for stopping by my little blog.

Pics of My Classroom (Better Late Than Never)

Happy Saturday!

I realize that it has been a SUPER long time since I have posted to my blog.  (More than 2 months, actually.)  So I have decided that I am not very good at posting regularly, but I will forgive myself and post when I have time.

I haven't shared pictures of my classroom yet this school year.  So here are a few of my beginning of the year bulletin boards.

This is my favorite bulletin board.  As you can see, it is my job board.  Instead of having a list of jobs on the board with my students' names next to them, I just have one helper each day.  (His/her name is on a dog bone that is attached to Clifford's collar with velcro.)  That helper does whatever I need done.  They lead our "Manners Song" at snack time, push the lunch bin down to the gym at lunch time, take names off the attendance board, etc.  I have 16 students so they are able to have a turn every few weeks.  I just feel like this is a much easier way for me to handle jobs in my classroom.  (P.S. My student teacher did an awesome job of tracing a picture of Clifford for the board.)

This is a bulletin board I used to display our art activity from the first day of school.  I found the activity on Kindergarten Days blog.  Click here to see the idea.

My calendar wall.

I hope you have enjoyed a little peek at my classroom.  Thank you for stopping by my little blog.

WHEW!!! I Made It!!!

So, I have been planning on blogging since the end of August.  Unfortunately, time got away from me.  I found out that instead of teaching just kindergarten, I am teaching kindergarten/first grade.  Also, my oldest left for college Labor Day weekend.  Who knew it took so long to get one kid ready for college?  (Not to mention, that it would cost so much.)

I know I'm a little late.  But I would love to share some pictures of my classroom from the beginning of the year with you.

Here we go!

This is my calendar wall.  It also has my Phonics Dance cards above the bulletin board.  My aide is always so depressed to see me put the #1 on the Days In School chart.  Ha Ha  She makes me laugh.

Here are our cubbies labeled with binder clips and circle cut outs that I found on clearance at Michael's.  (Did you know that if you present your teacher id at Michael's you get 15% off?)

The wall with our birthdays on it.

My school has a theme each quarter.  Each teacher has to decorate the bulletin board outside her classroom to go along with the theme.  The theme this quarter is Where Is Waldo?  This is my bulletin board.  Can you find Waldo?  Can you identify the other book characters?

This is my favorite wall in my whole room.  My aide used the patterns from The Kinder-Craze blog to make the letters for the wall.  Since I'm a K/1 classroom this year, my kinders are going to bring in pictures to glue to each letter and I'm going to use the letters for my word wall for both the 1st graders and the kindergartners.  Click {here} to visit the blog to get the patterns for free.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my classroom.  Hopefully, once my life settles down a little, I will be blogging more.

See you soon,

My Bulletin Boards

Woohoo, I woke up this morning and checked my blog to find out that I have 100 followers.  YAY!  I'm so excited that 100 people have chosen to follow my blog.  Thank you so much for your support.

I promised earlier this week to share my bulletin boards that are in my classroom with you.  So here goes....

I made this bulletin board based on one that I found on Pinterest.  It is on Mrs. Saylor's log.  One of the teachers across the hall let me borrow her Dr. Seuss bulletin board stuff and I printed out the words and attached them to Dr. Seuss scrapbook paper that I found at JoAnn Fabrics.

Here is another one....

This is my Family Tree bulletin board.  My aide cut out the apples on our die cut machine and she made leaves for the tops of the apples and wrote each students' name on an apple.  I took pictures of my students and their families at our Meet the Teacher/Ice Cream Social night.  I am going to print them out and put them on the tree so my students can see the pictures on the first day of school.  I'm hoping it will help some of my kinders not miss their families so much.

This is my job board.  I have the students' names on hands attached to popsicle sticks.  Then I put the popsicle stick in one of the job's pocket to show the students who is doing which job each week.  I purchased the banner at the top at The Dollar Tree.

This is my Parent Information board.  My classroom theme is children's literature so I found The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric on Ebay to use for the top and bottom border.  The banner at the top I purchased at The Dollar Tree for a $1 of course.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today.  I hope to see you again soon.

It's a Freebie Friday!

Happy Friday!


I hope that everyone had a terrific Fourth of July.  Mine was full of family, food and fun.  Who could ask for anything more?  I have linked up with Teaching Blog Addict for their Freebie Friday.  (I have to admit, I love all of these freebies and I love sharing with others.)








My FREEBIE is a center that I sometimes use in my writing center and sometimes I use it as my pocket chart center for the week.  The students make sentences and then record them on a worksheet.  (I don't know about you, but if I don't make my students accountable at a center like this one, they soon figure out that they don't really have to do anything.)

Making Sentences Center

While you are visiting my blog, take the time to enter my giveaway.  It ends at midnight tonight.  You can get a head start on your Target Dollar Spot shopping with a $10 gift card.  

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Beginning of Year Assessment

Happy Sunday!


I know that I just posted yesterday.  But, I came up with a great idea at about 4:30 this morning.  I'm not sure why I get my best ideas during the night or in the shower but that is usually how it happens.  Anyways, I was thinking about the assessment that I give my students on the 1st or 2nd day of school and then again at the end of each quarter.  (This isn't an original idea, I have it on another teacher's website several years ago and of course I don't remember where I found it.  If you know, please let me know so I can give that teacher credit.)  The assessment shows how the student writes his/her name, draws a picture of himself/herself, and writes the letters and numbers he/she knows.  The paper has 4 different boxes for the students to write/draw in.  The boxes have shapes in the corner so the student can easily find the correct box.  Before, I just drew the lines to divide the paper into 4 parts and drew the shapes in the corner.  But early this morning, I thought it would be a great idea to make a worksheet that looked more professional.  So that is what I'm sharing with you today.


In the box with the circle in the corner, the student writes his/her name.  In the box with the triangle in the corner the student draws a picture of himself/herself.  In the box with the star in the corner, the student writes all the letters he/she knows.  In the box with the heart in the corner, the student writes all of the numbers he/she knows.  As the school year progresses, many of my students can write more numbers than fit in the box.  I let those students turn over the paper and write the numbers on the back of the paper.  Also, don't forget to write the date the students take the assessment on the papers.  This makes it easier to put them in the correct order when sharing with parents.


My school has student-led conferences at the end of the 1st quarter and the end of the 3rd quarter.  Even my most outgoing students can become VERY quiet when 2 or 3 adults are listening/watching them.  So this assessment is a great way to get my students to talk during the conference.  Both the parents and students (and I can't lie, me too) love to see the students' progress during the school year.  Many of my students come to school barely able to write their names and by the end of the 3rd quarter the student is able to write his/her first and last name (with correct letter formation). 


 Here is a link to get the freebie.

Assessment Freebie

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

I have linked up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday.

Classroom Freebies

Finally Finished!!!!

Last night, it was time for our annual Ice Cream Social / Meet the Teacher Night.  It began at 6 P.M. and luckily I had everything ready by about 5:45 P.M.  (After realizing that I only had 24 name tags on the tables and 25 students in my classroom.  Thank goodness, I have the best classroom aide in the world.  She hurried and laminated the name tag and cut it out for me.)    Most of my new students visited the classroom. 


Here is what my room looked like:

                                                                
                                                The right side of the classroom.

                                                               Part of my calendar wall.

                                                           The rest of my calendar wall.

                                                                        My Library

          The boys and girls are going to bring in pictures of their families to put on "Our Family Tree" on the first day of school.  I "borrowed" this idea from another blog.  But, of course, I can't remember which one.  If you know please let me know so I can give the blogger credit.


 I also had some goodies for them to take home.

The bookmarks came from the A Place Called Kindergarten blog.


The "Ready Confetti" came from the Sunny Days in Second Grade blog.


I hope you enjoyed visiting my classroom.  Now that my room is ready, I need to finish up my lesson plans.  I'm hoping to post about my lesson plans soon.

A Beginning of the Year Freebie

I know its late and I  am getting up early and going to school to assess my incoming kinders tomorrow.  I'm sad that my summer is almost over, but I'm very excited that I will be meeting some of my new students and their families tomorrow.


So, I know another blogger had a worksheet on her website to have a student write his/her name and draw a picture of himself/herself.  But, of course, I couldn't find it.  I even used Google Reader to search "ALL" of the blogs that I follow.  So, to solve the problem, I made one myself.  I thought I would share it, in case someone else "lost" the same worksheet.  (Note to self:  I need to print these things out, or pin them, or save them to my Dropbox with a good label.)


Anyways here it is:

A Picture of Myself

I hope you can use it.