Monday Made It- August 12

Very excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It!

Last week I showed you all my fabulous purchases from Target- you can find that post here. So I bought these notecards:

I used them to make an early finishers activity for the beginning of the year!  On the cards I wrote down skills that we will be working on at the beginning of the year.  They will be able to go through these by themselves or with a friend.  I also wrote the answer on the back so that students can self check!

This set includes letters, numbers, shapes, feelings, and the peach colored ones with the sentence "This is ___" will be colors- I just don't have any crayons or markers at my place right now!

You can see I used some sentence frames on the cards- this is to help my ELLs with language acquisition. Me and my para will introduce these cards before students use them independently, so they will be familiar with the skills and the sentences. 

Since there were 3 different sets of colors, I took 25 cards from each set and made them all a little different.  Here is another:

Each set repeats letters and numbers.  I repeated color cards in this set- again no crayons or markers!  I also included a counting activity and a school supply activity- this is the pink card that says " I see a ____".  I have school supply stickers at school to add to it.  For example, I'll put a pencil on one so the kids will say "I see a pencil."

And the last:

Letters, numbers, counting, complete the pattern, AND ______????  I need help!! I can't think of anything to do for the last 5 cards.  I would like it to include a sentence if possible, but it's not necessary.  If you have any ideas for me please leave a comment below!

I still have a ton of cards left over so I will be able to make new cards as the year progresses!  Hope the kids like them!  Make sure you visit 4th Grade Frolics to see more Monday Made Its!

Five for Friday- August 9

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for my very first Five for Friday!

1.Got to hang out with one of my very best friends on Monday!  It was a short 8 hour visit but totally worth it!

2. My Vera Bradley bag (you can see it in the pic above) broke!!! I was so bummed :-( So I took it to the Vera Bradley store to see if they knew a way to fix it, AND they replaced it for FREE! That is why they are the best!

3.  I finally decided to share my blog with my friends on facebook.  I was so nervous.  But they have all been so supportive!  Thanks everyone!!

4. Does anyone else watch Real Housewives of Orange County?? I LOVE those ladies even though they are ridiculous!  My hubs and I were dying during the season finale! So many fights!  HAHA  And you are more than welcome to put your feet up at our place :-)

5. I leave for vacation TODAY!  (I actually wrote this yesterday...) We have a 10 hour drive ahead of us BUT it will be worth it to see family, friends, and hang out at Lake Michigan! This will be my view for the next week:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Oh Target!

Ran into Target to grab something for the hubby- that was STUPID! (I knew going in I wasn't coming out with just 1 thing!)

Oh how I love the dollar spot!  Picked up some great things:

 I love these little Bingo games!  I picked up Alphabet Bingo and Spanish Bingo (because I usually have so many spanish speakers).  I was going to give them away either at Meet the Teacher day or Back to School Night, but now I'm thinking I will give the Spanish ones to my level 1 ELLs (those just beginning to learn English) because they have the word in spanish and english.  And giving the Alphabet ones to a couple of kids who did not go to preschool and need more exposure to letters. Here's to hoping the parents actually use them!

 Isn't this little bucket SUPER CUTE?! They had a bunch of different ones but I liked this one best!  I'm going to put in popsicle sticks with the different types of cheers for learning site words so that my "little teacher" (student who does my calendar time) can pull one out at random.

These pencils were 8 for $1 and I just couldn't walk away!  I'm going to give them to students when they come in before school to meet me.  Hopefully I can get all their addresses early so I can send something home saying that they get a prize if they come that day! (It never hurts to bribe parents into coming to school)

Lastly, these little gems were $2 each in the school section.  They are called Myndology and are multi-colored pieces of cardstock, about 2"x3.5" and come on a ring.  They recommend using it for vocabulary, note taking, etc...  I have a GRAND plan for them- but you will have to check out my Monday Made It next week to see what it is for sure!

Hope you are enjoying back to school shopping but are not spending too much!

To School for Cool...

That's right, I'm a huge school nerd and I have two days before going on vacation- so what am I doing?  Planning for the new year of course! 

I was looking back at my plans from the beginning of the year last year and realized I didn't actually save my plans from the first week!!! AHHHH!!  SO- starting over from scratch, but that's ok, it's good to mix things up.  

Here are all the books I grabbed from school that I am looking at for the first couple of weeks:

Quite the stack!  Lots of letters, colors, and all about me.  AND I realized that I didn't grab any number or shape books, so I will have to keep those in mind also...

Last year I read The Kissing Hand on the first day, and want to continue with that.  The problem is that 50% of my kids last year were ELLs (English Language Learners), a couple of them just learning English, and the story was difficult for them.  So this year I am going to reword the story so it will work for us a little better.  I'll share this when I'm done.

To go along with The Kissing Hand I found a wonderful freebie by Kinderbabies FULL of easy centers for early kindergarten skills and perfect for my population because a lot of my kids don't go to preschool.  You can find the freebie here.  I can't seem to find her blog- it says it was removed... But if you know anything about her let me know so I can link it up! Thanks!

Lastly, this year I am SUPER excited for the Back to School Math Stations Galore and Back to School Word Work Galore by Marsha McGuire over at A Differentiated Kindergarten.  All of her stuff is amazing and I am just waiting for the TPT Back to School sale- does anyone know when that is?!

Leave a comment if you have a book you absolutely love at the beginning of the year so I can add it to my list! Hope your back to school planning is going well!  

Monday Made It!

Happy Monday!  I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for my first Monday Made It!! 

So, I've become a little obsessed with Washi Tape over the past month or so.  Noone can deny the cuteness of it!!  I saw a blog post where someone decorated a wooden K with school inspired scrapbooking paper to use for pictures on the first day of school and decided to make it with washi tape! (I have since lost the link :-( But if you know which one I'm talking about PLEASE pass it along so I can give some credit!! Thanks!)

I went over to Michaels- I found one about 10 minutes from my school- NOT GOOD!  And I got a wooden K and lots of washi tape.  I even found some with numbers on it! SO cute and perfect for K!

So I took out the tape I wanted on my K and got to decorating!  It's super easy to do- just cut, stick, and wrap it around onto the back so it stays.  I started by having the tape go in all sorts of different ways, but decided it did not look good at all!  So I took it all off and started again.  The best part was that I was able to reuse all the tape I had to take off- this stuff is awesome!  In the end I decided that having the tape only go in 2 different ways looked much better.  Here is the finished product:

YAY! I love it!  So, on the first day of school (or 2nd or 3rd depending on how things go), I'm going to have each kid hold it for a picture with a background saying My First Day In...


If you want more Washi Tape inspiration you can follow my washi tape board on pinterest by clicking here.  Make sure you check out my other boards too- lots of good Kinder ideas and some wonderful food on my delicious board!!

Happy creating!

Currently August

So excited to be linking up with Farley for my very first Currently!!

LISTENING

To the ABC Nightly News (or is it World news??).  Yeah, I watch the news every night- nerd alert!  I like to know what'g going on in the world.

LOVING

My Blog!  Just started it on Tuesday and it's going smoothly so far.  Please leave me some love if you stop by- it would make me feel good :-)

THINKING

About what to make for dinner.  I LOVE to cook.  Will most likely be making lasagna, because I just realized it's getting a little like to just start BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches…

WANTING

A massage!!  I usually bring my laptop home from summer school, BUT I decided to leave it at school and have been using our desktop.  My shoulders are killing me!  You know that pain you get when you hunch over too much- ouch.

NEEDING

Tomorrow to be over!  It is the last day of summer school and I am ready for 2 1/2 weeks of chillin and vacation!  We have to go in any 2 days during the week of the 19th, and teachers go back full time on the 26th.  No kids till after Labor Day! Woot!

B2S MUST HAVES

1. Learned about Wikki Stix in Vegas as the I Teach K conference and convinced my principal to buy a bunch for all 8 kindergarten rooms! They are so neat and will be a fun way for the kids to work with letters, numbers, and sight words!

2. I am in some serious need of Dry Erase Markers for the year!  All of mine are dying and it's making me very sad :-( I use them ALL the time.  In fact, I am also in need of them for my students!!! They go through them so quick.  

3. Back to School Math Stations Galore by Marsha McGuire from A Differentiated Kindergarten!!!!!

I am pretty much in love with everything she makes and own most of it!  It's so engaging for the kids and the activities cover so many topics! You MUST check her out if you haven't before!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back!

Liebster Award

Thank you Tracie from the kindergarten penn for nominating me for the Liebster Award! 

The Liebster Award is for blogs with less than 200 followers in order to promote that blog, show appreciation, and hopefully draw more followers. To accept this nomination, you need to do a few things first:

1. Link to the person who nominated you. 

2. Answer questions from your nominator. 

3. Share 11 random facts about yourself. 

4. Nominate five or more blogs with less than 200 followers. 

5. Pose questions to your nominees. 

Questions from Tracie:

1. What's your favorite school supply?  I can't pick one- I've always been obsessed!  Starting from the time I went into my mom's office and saw the supply closet!

2. What animal describes your teaching style?  a Pig because I don't mind getting dirty with the kids!

3. How many years have you been teaching?  5- preschool, preK, and Kinder

4. What's your favorite restaurant?  I really like to eat- so this is a hard one! BUT I would have to say Ping Pong Dim Sum here in DC.

5. Which season do you like best?  Fall!  I love the cooler weather, the beautiful colors, and all the scents from Bath and Body Works.

6. Do you have a TPT store?  Not yet… But I am addicted to buying other people's things!

7. What subject do you most like to teach?  Math.  I've always loved math!  You can do so many different things and the centers are so fun!

8. Do you have a class pet?  No, but I did have an empty fish tank in my room all last year so I'm thinking about actually using it this year!

9. What's your favorite part of your classroom?  Hmmmm- my carpet area where we meet because there is plenty of room to move around and I have an AMAZING double sided whiteboard easel on wheels that has awesome storage in it!

10. If you could hire anyone in the world to teach your class, who would it be?  Debbie Clement!  She is so creative and the kids would have a blast with the art and music!

11 Random Facts:

1. I'm originally from Michgan

2. I LOVE Ice Cream

3. I'm a chapstick freak and have been known to throw a fit if my lips get too dry (they are starting to right now…)

4. I studied abroad in New Zealand- You should go!

5. I always got severely homesick when I was young, which makes #4 a big deal

6. I played the clarinet for 8 years

7. My parents just got a puppy and I'm obsessed with it even thought they live in Michigan

8. It's about to thunderstorm and all my windows are open

9. I kill all the spiders in my apartment because my hubby is too scared 

10. I secretly love a good vaccuum! (but have no idea how to actually spell the word…)

11. I love to cook!

Now I'd like to nominate a few blogs for the Liebster Award. If you'd like to participate, answer these questions and link back. What a great way to connect with new bloggers!

Teaching and Lovin' It

Kicking It In First

What's Working This Year in Kindergarten?

Kindergarten in Ms. Horn's World

The Traveling Teacher

My Questions for you:

1. How long have you been teaching?

2. What is your favorite color?

3. Why did you start a blog?

4. What is your current favorite blog?

5. Do you have a TPT store?

6. What is your favorite food?

7. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

8. What is your favorite thing about the beginning of the year?

9. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be?

10. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?

And don't forget your 11 random facts and linking back!

Have fun!!