Look What I Bought…

I love a good sale and was so excited to fill my cart during the TPT 3,000,000 teachers strong sale!  Here’s a look at what I just had to have…

I love all the Interactive Readers by Maria Manore!  We are working on number words in my class so this set is just perfect for that.

Deanna Jump’s Bump & Jump games are great for small groups and those early finishers in my room.  I bought the Numbers & Phonics versions.  Just need to print & they’re ready to play!

Kindergarten Morning Work by A Teeny Tiny Teacher has 3 months worth of printables that cover both language arts & math skills.  I copy these half size to save paper and they’re perfect for skills review during our morning arrival work!

The Sight Word Construction Mats Bundle by Karen Jones has an activity mat for every word on the Dolch pre-primer and primer word lists.  I love these for small group intervention work!

I was in need of some new word work activities for centers this month and Caitlin Clabby Kindergarten Smiles’ March Word Work Pack is filled with wonderful ideas.  I’ve already gotten several of them ready to go for this week!

We have 3rd grade buddies once a week and have discovered that the children love to color mystery pictures together.  I needed some more of these to use and Lauren Thompson’s 100s Chart Mystery Pictures pack is just what I was looking for.  It is filled with many seasonal and holiday mystery pictures to choose from.

I have many more great resources on my wishlist but, alas, I could not afford them all this time.  However, I am so excited to start using all of my new products!  I hope you were able to get many of the things you’ve been wishing for, too!

Link up with Blog Hoppin’ to share what you bought!

Take Care,

Back To School Sale!

Hello Everyone!  I’m back after deciding to take the summer off from blogging (following AND writing).  There were 2 reasons for my hiatus:  (1) My boys are very active in sports making our summer overwhelmingly busy with baseball and (2) I was just feeling like I needed a break from school. 
Last school year was my 17th year of teaching but felt like my first all over again thanks to common core, new electronic grading, and our district cutting Young 5s giving us MANY children not yet ready to be in school.  It was tough!!  I’ve slowly been easing my way back into “school mode” and can say that I am feeling excited to get back in the routine!
I won’t be getting into my classroom until late next week and hope to share photos soon.  In the meantime, don’t miss out on the Annual Back to School Sale at TPT going on August 18-19!  My wishlist is huge! 

My store will be included in the sale and I just posted new number signs for the numbers 11-20.  These go along with my number posters 0-10.  Both sets are available in a bundle at a discounted price!

I hope you find many great sale items to help you in your classroom this year!

Take care,

Still here...

It has really been waaayyy too long since my last post.  I feel like I'm starting all over.  My school year has been very busy and there's never enough time in the day! 
My new goal is to post weekly and share all the wonderful things we have been doing this year.  With implementing the new CCSS it feels like my first year of teaching all over again!  Hopefully next year will be smoother...
The blogging community has made my teaching so much better than I even knew it could be and I hope that I will be able to help others in the same way.  I just wanted to say "Thank You!" to my followers for sticking around and I will definitely work harder at keeping up on my posts.  :)

Krazy in Kindergarten!!

I think I should rename my blog "Krazy in Kindergarten" because that is what these first 5 weeks of school have felt like!  We have a new math series, new online data system & report cards, full implementation of CCSS, and no more Young 5s program (which means an influx of 4 year old kindergarteners)!  It has been cuh-raaaazy!!!  I feel like it’s my first year of teaching and not my 17th!!!

 

I’ve had so many things on my blog to-do list and never enough time in the day to get to any of them.  Soon I hope!

 

I did get to cross one big thing off my list, though.  I finally finished some projects I’ve been working on and uploaded them to my very own TPT store!  I’m so excited (and a little nervous, too!)

 

So far I have 3 products available:

Number of the Day Practice Pages

 

 

Number Posters for 0-10

 

 

Roll-a-ColorWord

 

In honor of my new store, I am offering 20% off my products from today through Monday, Oct. 8th!  If you find something you like, please leave feedback and let me know what you think!

I’ll be back soon to share pics from my classroom and the “kraziness” in kindergarten!!

Take care,

Kindergarten Common Core

Whew!!!  I survived the first 2 weeks of the new school year!  How do I always forget what kinderkids are like at the beginning of the year??
 

 This year our district is fully implementing the Common Core State Standards and it sometimes feels a bit overwhelming!  I just came across this book today and decided to check it out.  I’m so glad I did! 
 

 

 It’s a huge resource (over 600 pages) full of great posters, activities, and/or centers for each of the kindergarten standards.  They are colorful and engaging!  I can’t wait to begin using them in my own classroom!
 

 If you’re looking for a great all-in-one resource for teaching the English and Math Common Core, then you should definitely check out the Kindergarten Common Core Workbook!  It’s priceless!

Technology Tip Tuesday

It’s Technology Tip Tuesday for Teacher Week at Blog Hoppin’!

If your school is anything like mine, budgets are tight and the costs of copies are at a premium.  In order to save money (and paper), my colleagues and I often copy student work pages and center activities in half-size (2 to a page.)

I will show you how you can do this in Adobe (it also works in a similar way in Microsoft Word).

1.  Open up the document you would like to print and click File, then Print (or just click the printer icon in the toolbar).  This will open up the dialogue box shown in step 2.

2.  Click the Properties button next to your printer name.

3.  A new box will pop up and you will first click on the Layout tab. (Yours may look a bit different depending on the brand of printer you have, but it should still say “Layout”).  Next, choose Multipage.  Check to make sure that 2 is the number showing under Pages per sheet.  Then click OK.

4.  Finally, choose Pages and then type the page numbers (separated by a comma) that you want to appear half size.  If you want 2 copies of the same page on one sheet, then just type the same page number twice separated by a comma (EXAMPLE:  To print page 1 twice on the same paper, type 1, 1).  Then press OK and it should begin printing.  :)

Clear as mud, right??  I hope that wasn’t too confusing and that you find this tip as useful as I do.  If you have any questions, email me and I will do my best to answer them!

Now, hop on over and share your own Tech Tip!!

Teacher Must-Haves & More Freebies

It’s teacher week at Blog Hoppin’ and I’m linking up for Must-haves Monday.

Here are my “must-haves”:

1.  COFFEE!!  I have to have my morning coffee with my favorite creamer!  I make my own every morning since I live only 30 seconds from my school and pass no coffee shops on the way!

2.  My laptop computer – When I started teaching, we didn’t even have computers in our classrooms and maybe one or two school-wide!  I’m so grateful for how much easier it  is to prepare lessons using technology!

3.  My Kindergarten "Peeps" who are also 2 of my best friends!!  I couldn’t imagine having to teach without them on my team!  (I don’t have a pic of all of us & I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want me posting it anyway! )

4.  Mechanical pencils – My favorite kind of pencils especially when I’m in a meeting or testing and can’t get up to sharpen dull/broken leads.

 

5.  My Droid RAZR – I just got it in May and it’s my first smartphone.  I LOVE it!  It’s great having my Google calendar, email, and blogs all at my fingertips!!

What are your “Must-haves”?  Link up at Blog Hoppin’ and share!

And now for the freebies!!

These are two forms that I give to the parents at Open House and ask them to return on the first day of school.

This is a student information sheet that I keep in a binder all year and refer to it often.  I copy it on colored paper to help me keep track of it with all the beginning of year paper work being turned it at one time.

This one is a transportation form that the parents fill out to let me know how their child gets home daily.  I keep this on file all year and the parents know that any changes to what is on this form need to be done in person or in writing.  We only have 2 options for our students (pick-up & bus).  If you would like another option added, email me & I would be happy to make changes for you!

I copy this onto yellow paper and there are 3 on a page to save copies!

I hope you find these useful!