Letter Recognition Progress!

I just have to celebrate my little people!  In my classroom I use Marsha McGuire's (from A Differentiated Kindergarten) Top Banana Letter Mastery System:

 

I love it and so do my students!  And now 13 of my 18 kids are Top Bananas!!!

 So excited for these kids!!  The kid who passed today started school at the beginning of October, speaking no English, and has made so much progress! YAY!

My last 5 kids are all English Language Learners working at various levels within the WIDA scale- levels 1-4.  They are all making progress, even if it is happening slowly, which is reassuring.  To help these kids be able to practice both at school AND HOME I put together personalized flash card rings and started using them within the last week:
 

Sorry for the sideways photo!

 On the ring are all the uppercase letters that they know PLUS 3 letters for them to start working on.  Lowercase will be covered once all uppercase are learned.  The ring lives in their folder- going home every day to work on there and then coming back to school each morning to review at school.  That way I can add letters as need be.  OR AT LEAST THAT'S THE PLAN!  All 5 of my kids forgot them today... Looks like I will probably be making some calls home to remind them that the ring comes back to school every day. 

Here's to hoping for lots of success with this intervention so we can have our banana party!! (I hope that doesn't sound bad...)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

A Peek at my Teeny Tiny Week

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  I'm linking up with Deedee Wills from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten to share the plans for my teeny tiny 2 day week.  

 They are not super exciting- not gonna lie, not my best visual plans job... please forgive me... 

To download them to activate the hyperlinks you can click HERE!  Have a great short week if you do have to work!  And head back over the Mrs. Wills Kindergarten to see if anyone else is working this week :-)

Five for Friday- Did I do any teaching?

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

 Not gonna lie... Barely did any teaching this week!  Monday was normal.  Tuesday-Thursday I had a sub for our Debbie Clement visit and then interviews for my paraprofessional.  And today was a 1/2 day...

 WOO!  Done with conferences!!  They were all very smooth and made really good connections with 4 of my parents- it was amazing!

(insert witty conference graphic here that I don't know how you all find all the time!)

 This totally happened this week:

Do you know about Debbie Clement??  She is fantastic!!  We were very lucky to have her come and do a program for all 8 kindergarten classes and our PreK class!  We also gave a copy of her book Tall Giraffe to every kid!  You can see my blog post about it HERE and you can see Debbie's blog HERE!

 This also happened:

Priceless!!!!

 This was my view on my way home on the only day I actually got home before the sun set this week.  They are taking the scaffolding off the Washington Monument~- it's going to look so skinny when it's all gone!

Hope you all have a great weekend!! For those of you on Thanksgiving break- they actually give you those whole week off?!?!  We work Monday and Tuesday.  Now hop back over to Doodle Bugs Teaching!!

Debbie Clement Visit!

TUESDAY WAS AMAZING!  Tuesday was the day friends! THE Oprah, I mean Debbie Clement visited our school and did 4 programs throughout the day so that all 8 of our kindergarten classes and our preK class could enjoy the fun!  She is so fantastic and truly loves interacting with children.  You can check out her blog post about the day by clicking HERE!  

I was the photographer for the day- I took 550 pictures!!! YIKES! Totally worth it though.  Here are some of my favorites!

 

Isn't this picture amazing!!! Luckily all 3 are allowed to have their picture put online!!! Love those boys!

Debbie celebrated her very first "Oprah" moment when she got to hand out a book to every child, to keep, at home, FOR.EV.ER!!  So awesome!!

Don't you just love their little outstretched hands!!

Before the program, each class completed some sort of giraffe artwork.  Enjoy!

This one is from my class!

 If you don't know Debbie you can check out her blog HERE and her website HERE.  Give her a shout out and let her know I sent you :-)

I Made My First Sale!

Hi Friends! I just wanted to stop by and celebrate- I sold my first item on TPT yesterday!!! It was very exciting!  I have some freebies up that people have downloaded, but I finally sold something! LOL  

If you are looking for any last minute Thanksgiving activities you can check out my Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Roll Say Keep!!
 

Happy Monday!

A Peek at my easy but incredibly long week...

I'm linking up with Deedee over at Mrs. Wills Kindergarten for a peek at my week!

This coming week is going to be very easy but VERY long at the same time!  We have 2 full days and 3 days of early dismissal.  I have 3 days of subs, but will be at school.  AND we have 3 afternoons, and one loooong evening, of conferences!  So here's the deal:
 Monday- regular day
Tuesday- I have a sub all day so I can assist with the Debbie Clement visit!!! SO EXCITED!!!
Wednesday and Thursday- Early dismissal.  I have a sub so I can do interviews for my para position that is finally getting filled!! 
Friday- Early dismissal.  I will be back in the classroom! 

Here are my plans:

 You can click HERE to download the plans, making all the hyperlinks work!

Wish me luck as I look for a para and go through conferences!!!  Have a great week! And hop over to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten for more plans!

Five for Friday!! I'm Back!

WOO!  It feel good to be back on here!  I know it's only been a week and a half, but it feels like much longer!  I missed you all- I hope you missed me too :-)  I was super busy with papers for my grad classes and traveling for my best friends wedding!  So, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a fun Five for Friday!

 I went home to Michigan last week and over for the weekend for the wedding of my best friend!  She is basically a sister- been best friends since 1st grade- 23 years!!! AHHH!  I was the matron of honor and had to do a speech, which I like to think I rocked at! Isn't she beautiful!!

 While at home we got to see our ENTIRE immediate family! This is pretty amazing because we can never time seeing my sister and her hubby and my parents all at the same time!  Here are a couple pics:

Becka (my sister), Me, and Mom- we had a little family reunion at the hospital- my dad had a skin infection- but got better and outta there in time for the wedding!!

Dad and Oberon

 Got to play with this guy!!!

He has calmed down alot and has gotten MUCH bigger since the last picture I posted this summer! And yes, he does have the leg of the chair in his mouth... He's causes a little stress for my parents!

 I had 2 papers to write in the last week and a half! 2!!!! Maybe it's because I procrastinated a little bit... but I seem to work better with that little push.  Luckily one of my professors extended the due date till today for one of them, otherwise it would have been way too much to do before the wedding!

 BIG NEWS!!! HUGE NEWS!!!! I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS NEWS FOR MONTHS NOW AND THOUGHT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!  BUT IT IS!!!!  

DEBBIE CLEMENT IS COMING TO VISIT OUR SCHOOL ON TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited?!?!  I learned about her about a year ago, started following her blog and all that.  Then I saw her and met her in Vegas and fell in love! She is amazing!  The art, the writing, the music!! She is coming on Tuesday and to prepare we are reading, singing, and signing Tall Giraffe!













To prepare, we are creating a class quilt.  We made the background to our pieces, THEN we are working on adding a torn paper giraffe on top of everything.  Here is mine so far:

 Awesome, right?!  HAHA!  The dots will be added on Monday and then I will put the quilt together!  Don't worry- plenty of pictures to come next week!

Hope you all have a great weekend!  And just over to Doodle Bugs Teaching for more fun!