Sunday, January 31, 2016

Peek at my Week- Nonfiction Project!

Happy Sunday friends! I'm linking up with Deedee from Mrs. Will's Kindergarten for a Peek at my Week.

 Well, I haven't had a REAL day of school since January 20...  Snowzilla hit and we were closed for 6 days!! I was bored out of my mind friends.  Ridiculous!  We finally went back last Friday, with a 2 hour delay.  And I only had half of my kids.  So, I am sooo looking forward to this week!

To keep myself occupied during the break I did some creating!  Here is my newest reader pack which you can find HERE:

And my latest version of CVC Spell It! which you can find HERE:
I'm working on the CCVC version of this also :-)

This week brings us back to Nonfiction and I am so excited!!  The kids will be collecting information about either Polar Bears or Seals.  Then, our Technology Integration Specialist will be coming in to record the kiddos reading the facts they collect by using some App that she knows and I don't... Anywho, she's fantastic and the kids adore her!  THEN, next week she's going to come back and run a center where they are going to listen to the other videos and record information from them.  I am so excited for this! 

I am also excited for Guided Reading this week because now that we've have 6 (UGH!!) snow days my students have plenty of background knowledge for reading this gem, which you can find HERE:

Wow, I've never linked so many things in one post... But I've been busy lately ;-)

Here are the plans:





Hope you have a great week.  Happy Teaching!

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Giveaway Winner!

Happy Sunday friends!  Thanks to Snowzilla I have another snow day tomorrow, so there are no lesson plans going up today.  I'll do them tomorrow I guess ;-)

Today is much more fun though. I have a winner for my Reader Pack Giveaway!  Congrats to Carolyn K!! Check your email for your files! 

If you missed out you can check out my Winter Reader Pack HERE



And my Snow Day Reader Pack HERE




My kiddos will have all sorts of background knowledge for this one after the weekend we had! See you tomorrow for the plans :-)

Friday, January 22, 2016

Five for Friday- Short Week & Giveaway

Happy snow day #2, I mean Friday!  So, I had a 2 day week this week thanks to an inch of snow that shut my city down (see below) and #snowzilla which started about 4 hours ago.  But I do have things to share (and a Giveaway that ends tonight!) so I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday fun!!



 I'll start with this to just cut to the chase- I'm having a giveaway that ends tomorrow (Saturday night!)  You can win both of my reader packs:

Click HERE to go to my post about them and the rafflecopter.  You'll have great chances because so far no one has entered because no one sees my little old blog! LOL!
 On Tuesday we did our next Table Olympics event!  They had to write letters A-Z as a team:

Unfortunately that was the only event this week.  We had to skip Wednesday because of behavior... It was like the first week of school yall! I was ready to tear my hair out!
 We finished up our sink and float unit by making clay boats. This was the first year we used the right kind of clay.  That stuff is tough!!!





The day after smooshing them and making boats we tested to see if they floated and to see how many bears they would hold:

These ones sank... 

These ones were more successful:


Mine just happened to do the best and held 7 bears! LOL

 We were having a good week at centers.  I use colored folders to differentiate my math and lit centers.  These three friends are working on two different levels of the same activity. LOVE


We got .7 inches of snow on Wednesday evening... This is what it did to traffic:
 Took my husband an hour and 40 minutes to get home.  Usually he sails home in 20... Ridiculous!  So, needless to say NOONE is on the roads right now as we begin getting our blizzard.

Hope you have a great weekend everyone! I'll be playing in the snow with my dog!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Snow Day Emergent Reader Giveaway and a SALE!

Happy Tuesday!  EXCITING news today!! Have you heard about the TPT sale?? YES! What a good way to ring in 2016 and celebrate our friends in Australia and New Zealand going back to school.  I love it.  (I love any sale really, especially on things I love to buy. hehe) 


 That's 28% off everything in my store as long as you use code START16.  I've forgotten the code a couple times... It's very sad...  So don't forget!

In other EXCITING news I've finally finished my first new product in, hmmm, how many months???  Well, the fact that I've been lazy outside of work doesn't matter. The fact that it's officially done does matter! Just in time for the sale.  It's my newest Emergent Reader Pack:
I've been dreaming thinking about snow days and it inspired this leveled reader pack.  There are 4 different readers: 
Emergent- comparable to a Level A. With and without dots for help with concept of word if your little friends need it.
Emergent Plus- comparable to a Level B. The verb on each page changes to match the picture.
Advanced- comparable to a Level C. For those who are ready for a challenge. Complex text for those who already have concept of word. 

Here's a couple sample pages of the different levels:




Just a couple samples for you.  You can find it HERE- remember the sale starts tomorrow, January 20!  You can also enter below to win a free copy of this reader pack AND my original Winter Reader Pack (which you can find HERE). You have until Friday night at midnight (as in Saturday morning). I'll announce the winner on Saturday.  Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, January 18, 2016

Peek at my Week Jan 19

Happy Martin Luther King Day! Hope that you all had a 3 day weekend.  I know I enjoyed mine. And now I'm linking up with Deedee from Mrs. Will's Kindergarten for a Peek at my Week!
 This week brings more penguins, reviewing character, setting, problem, and solution, AND focusing on Teen Numbers!! I am very excited about the teen numbers! Last year we started using Math Expressions.  We don't follow it lesson by lesson. Instead we jump around a bit because of the way we have to write our lesson plans for the state (we're a focus school) but have hit most of them this year. The Teen Number lessons though are FABULOUS!!!  I've never been good at teaching them...  But all my kids understood it after last year's lesson.  It's alot of 10 and ___ more, which of course makes complete sense to teach it that way now that I've done it.  LOL  As you can see, I'm looking forward to it again.

We are getting a great groove with Guided Reading.  I do it in a laid back way through December and then really hit it hard and follow a strict plan for myself after winter break. The kiddos are doing great with it and are so excited that they are reading books by themselves!!! Even my level 1 ELLs have read books by themselves and were so proud of themselves.  It was good to see.  SO, in honor of that and winter and wanting snow, I made a new reader pack all about Snow Days!  Here's a little preview:

It will be up on TPT sometime tomorrow after school- just a few finishing touches to be made.  Check back with me tomorrow and I'll show you all about it and there might be (will definitely be) a giveaway!

Here are the plans:




Hope you have a great week.  Happy Teaching!

Friday, January 15, 2016

Five for Friday- Jan 15

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday fun!!


 We started the Table Olympics this week!!!! WOOOOO!!!  What are the Table Olympics you ask?? Well, just an awesome way to learn about the Olympics, how to handle not always winning, and have some fun beating the cold cold weather while inside! BOOM! We started on Wednesday and had 3 total competitions this week: stacking 12 cubes into a tower, linking 20 links, unlinking 20 links.







 On Tuesday and Thursday we did a little differentiated math work at the end of the day.  The kids had a GREAT time walking around "adding the room."  I promised them a super special snowman sticker if they got everything correct- it worked!!! Handed out a sticker to most students today!







Today we took a little time to slow down and relax and just do something fun.  My group this year really loves to do art, so I taught them how to cut out snowflakes.  We went through so much paper!  They loved it and now the room will look awesome (once we hang them up that is...)



 
Today was also the Winter Talent Show!! We have some super talented kids at our school.  From dancing, to singing, to drumming- they can do it all!  Here is our principal doing the Whip and Nae Nae on stage with some students. 





Did you see the video of Ron Clark dancing with his students?? Who didn't, right? He's amazing.  Well, I MIGHT have posted that, which ended up with my principal being roped into it BUT he was more than willing! (I might have been on stage too...)
Lastly, here's a little non school love for my dog Allie who ran like crazy with her sheep dog friend Frances at the dog park on Monday! They are so cute!  And some other shots of her.  Enjoy!





Happy 3 day weekend!!