SALE for World Teacher Day

Happy October, friends!

In celebration of World Teacher Day on Monday, October 5, 2015, swing by my TpT store for 20% all products - including bundles!

Be sure to head over to iTeachKinder to enter the giveaway for a $25.00 gift card {you have a choice of 6 gift cards to choose from if you are the winner}

Have a great week, y'all! 

Back to School Kinder Math and GIVEAWAY

Hey, friends!

To kick off Kindergarten math, our first unit is Geometry! 

We spent two weeks learning about 2D shapes, three weeks learning about 3D shapes, and 1 week reviewing and discussing how 2D and 3D shapes are alike and different!

As a lot of you know, this is my second year back in Kinder after spending four years in first grade. I forgot what the beginning of Kindergarten was REALLY like! There is nothing like that first week! :)

The first week our math consisted of Calendar time! We did the wall calendar, the Starfall calendar on the Promethean board, and sang some fun songs

The second week, we dived into number writing. LOVE Simply Kinder's number writing poems and pages. We did two numbers a day. Such a cute way to learn number formation! 

The third week, we began studying 2D shapes. We also launched Math Work Stations this week. The kiddos started out with pattern blocks and picture cards in their tubs. 

Shape units have been on my to do list for quite some time! They are finally complete!

Please comment below for a chance to win!

I will choose 3 winners!

Perfect Planes {2D Shape Unit}

Super Solids {3D Shape Unit}

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a great week! xoxo

Colorful Kindergarten Days

Hi, y'all! Second and third week of Kindergarten are in the books! Whew! I have sweet, sweet babies, and they are catching on so quickly! What a great Bunch I have this year!

I blogged about the first week of Kindergarten {here}. 

For the second and third weeks of Kindergarten, we had color days! 

I dabbled in color days last year after my move down from first grade, but I wanted to hit the color fun full force this year! My kiddos loved it and so did I! It provided just enough structure and fun for the second and third weeks of Kindergarten!

{Wake Up Work}
We did color word tracing, writing, and coloring for our morning work. These pages are included in my new Colorful Kindergarten unit!

{Morning Meeting}
We kicked off every morning meeting these two weeks with the Color Train song and book by Dr. Jean! Love this tune!!! After we listed to the whole song, I would teach them the verse for the color of the day. 

Then, we would head over to Storybots to watch the video for our color of the day! OBSESSED with Storybots! 

{Read Aloud}
During our Social Studies time, we would read the read aloud for the color of the day! 

{Snack}
The kiddos LOVED the color snacks each day! I did a Sign Up Genius for the snacks and my sweet parents took care of me!
Most of the snacks were quick and easy! 
Our last color day, White day, we read Mouse Paint and mixed colors with food coloring on white frosting! YUMMO!

The Colorful Kindergarten unit includes:

*EDITABLE dates on Color Days note for parents - You must have 

Power Point to be able to edit the dates on the Color Day letters


{2 options}

Colorful Kindergarten Days {color and black/white}

Color Days -to be used for other grade levels {color and 

black/white}

*Color Word printables {tracing and writing color words, color 

pictures}

{3 options}

Color word printable option 1: trace, write, color pictures

Color word printable option 2: color pictures only

Color word printable option 3: trace, write, create picture

*Full page color posters {8 1/2 x 11} 


{2 options}


Color poster option 1: polka dot border 


Color poster option 2: plain :)

For the first 48 hours, this unit will be 50% off! Grab it for only $2.00 Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29. 

TGI-almost-F, friends! 

First Week of Kindergarten FAVORITES

Hi, friends! I am 10 days into Kindergarten and am LOVING my new Bunch!

While it is still fresh in mind, I wanted to recap some of favorite activities, resources, and ideas that I used to survive the craziness that is the first week of Kinder!

It makes me DIE when they say hilarious things like, "What is a book bag?", "What is a binder?" or "What does have a seat mean?" HAHAHA! Such sweet babies!

{POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT}

Skittles, people! Get you some! One big bag is great - I started weaning by the end of the week. But for the first few days -- they push their chair in and come to the carpet nicely, they get a Skittle! They put their paper in the basket and come to the carpet, they get a Skittle! They walk nicely to line up at the door, they get a Skittle! I was only giving about 4 - 5 a day the first few days, but they work like a charm! By Friday, I was down to one Skittle a day and started the second week Skittle free! 

{WAKE UP WORK}

7:30 - 8:00

SIMPLE coloring pages so you can be free to help them unpack, dry tears, give hugs, and chat with parents!

I used some of these from TpT!

{MORNING MEETING}

8:00 - 8:30

Pass a stuffed animal around and share their name and something about them!

"Hi, my name is Kelli and my favorite color is pink"

We shared the favorite color, animal, sport, food, and holiday the first week of school. 

We sang and danced too!

We sang The Mack Chicken Dance, Rise and Shine by Dr. Jean, Welcome to School by Stephen Fite, Tooty Ta by Dr. Jean, to name a few!

Read Aloud: We did a fun read aloud for our first week of morning meetings! We did Pete the Cat Rockin in My School Shoes, Five Little Monkeys, etc. Something they could listen to and look at with the story! 

{BATHROOM BREAK}

8:30 - 8:45

The first of many! :)

{MATH}

8:45 - 9:15

We did our wall calendar and the Starfall calendar during this time. Next week, calendar gets shifted to the morning meeting time, but for the first week, learning our calendar routine is our math lesson!

{LUNCHROOM PRACTICE}

9:15 - 9:30

We went down to the lunchroom and practiced walking in the lunch line, holding our tray, and putting our number in at the end of the line. It really helped for them to practice while it was quiet and not crowded! :)

{BATHROOM BREAK}

9:30 - 9:45

Again!

{PHONICS}

9:45 - 10:15

We played the Can You Guess My Letter? game from Babbling Abby!

We did 5 letters a day {6 on Friday} and it was SO much fun! 

It was also a great informal assessment to see who could identify beginning sounds!

The first week we focus on all the letters in the alphabet as we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Monday: Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Tuesday: Listen to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Wednesday: Watch Chicka Chicka Boom Boom DVD

Thursday: Read Chicka Chicka 123

Fun Friday: We made a coconut tree craft with their names and made a coconut tree snack! 

I got the Cinnamon SchoolBook Alphabet and Number cookies from Trader Joe's! The kids LOVED them!!!

{BRAIN BREAK}

10:15 - 10:30

Go Noodle for the win!

We started with the Koo Koo Kanga Roo channel! 

Wiggle It, I Get Loose, and Ninja Training for our first week faves!

{LUNCH AND BATHROOM}

10:30 - 11:15

{SOCIAL STUDIES}

11:15 - 11:45

Cool to be at School

We used the David series to talk about good and not so good manners at school!

{SPECIALS}

11:45 - 12:30

Whoo! Take a breather!

Mark behavior, pack up and pass out binders!

{PACK UP, SNACK AND BATHROOM}

12:30 - 1:00

{KINDERGARTEN STORYTIME}

1:00 - 1:30

We have a para pro who does a phenomenal story time with all our Kindergarten classes! 

She does a great hitting the response to literature CCSS and aligns the stories with our Social Studies and Science themes each week! We also do Zero the Hero during this time! 

{RECESS}

1:35 - 1:55

{DISMISSAL}

2:10

I will be back with the second week of Kindergarten ideas soon! 

Have a RESTFUL weekend! 

Classroom Setup 2015 - Day Two

Happy Hump Day!

I finally got to start decorating!!! My favorite part!!! 

Here are some progress pics!

I added a new animal alphabet this year from Lavinia Pop! 

It is a FREE download! I adore that every letter has an animal to go with it - perfect for my jungle theme!

She has a precious leaf border, but I wanted to bring more animal print into the room, so I cut off the border and glued onto leopard and zebra scrapbook paper! LOVE how it turned out!!! 

I also LOVE the Animal Themed Reading Strategy posters from Nicole Bunt! I searched high and low for ones that I loved {cute animal clipart and fun fonts!} and these fit the bill! And wait for it - they are FREE!!!!! 

{SOURCES}

Links in pink! 

Animal Alphabet from Lavinia Pop

Animal Themed Reading Strategies from Nicole Bunt 

Yellow ruffle bulletin board border ~ DIY with butcher paper 

Math Work Station banner and letters ~ DIY on Silhouette Cameo

Math Work station number labels on tubs ~ DIY on Silhouette Cameo

Green scallop edge magnetic boards ~ bought from Monograms Plus in Birmingham, Alabama

Found online in black, white, and pink 

Green book baskets ~ Really Good Stuff

Pink Math Work Station tubs with lids ~ Walmart, 2012

Colored buckets on tables ~ Garden Ridge {now At Home}, 2010

Neon Colored caddies {pink, green, blue} ~ Really Good Stuff

Purple Table caddy ~ Michael's, 2015

Yellow Table Caddy ~ Really Good Stuff

Bag of Books {Hanging on back of chairs} ~ Really Good Stuff

Storage cubes at back kidney table ~ Target, 2012

Jungle Theme Numbers ~ Made in 1st Grade

Mathematical Practice Standards ~ Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten

Storage cubes at back kidney table ~ Target, 2012

Large green storage tubs ~ Staples, 2014

Wild About Learning banner and letters ~ DIY on Silhouette Cameo

Tall Book and Binder Holders {for journals} ~ Really Good Stuff

Pink drawers for paper ~ Walmart, 2012

Thanks so much for reading!!! 

Be back soon with a full classroom tour! 

Classroom Setup 2015 - Day One

Hey, y'all! Hope you are enjoying your summer!

I head back to school on July 27 {LOVE our modified year round calendar}, so I have been up at school setting up my classroom for the 11th time {HOW is that even possible?!?!}

I am sticking with my jungle theme again this year - let's face it: I have way too many dollars invested in zebra and leopard print! :)

Here is a pic at the beginning:

Here is a pic at the end of Day 1:

I love getting the furniture into place! I feel you can really start to see the vision for your classroom! It is SO tempting to start decorating first -- all the freshly laminated summer TpT purchases!!! Ha!

BUT, I always find that I feel more progress when I put all the furniture into place on Day One. 

THEN the fun decoration can begin! 

I was able to get all furniture into place, all boxes unpacked, and fabric on the bulletin boards. 

Check back for more progress photos next week! 

Have a fun in the sun Saturday! 

Blending Boxes GIVEAWAY

Hey, y'all! I am up late tonight since we are having our second snow day tomorrow! Snow in the South is never taken lightly and I am ready for a comfy day in...Pinterest recipes ready to try and a list of TpT updates to make in my shop! 

I just posted my newest unit, Blending Boxes {Short Vowels}! I love Blending Boxes and used them every single week in my small groups in first grade! 

I use the Blending Boxes to introduce the sound in small groups on Mondays and then use the boxes to set the purpose of our small groups throughout the week. It only takes about a minute to have the children blend the words, but it is a great way for little readers to build their confidence. 

Blending Boxes {Short Vowels} includes 20 color pages and 20 black and white pages! There are four pages for each vowel - three pages have cvc words and one page has ccvc words. 

Now that I am in Kinder land, I am working on blending boxes for each letter of the alphabet. I still use the short vowel boxes and will use the blend and digraph boxes this spring with my Kinders!

Head over to Facebook to enter the giveaway for this unit!

Be sure to check out TpT's Teachers are Heroes sale TOMORROW, FEBRUARY 25!! You can save 28% with the promo code HEROES. I can't wait to load my cart UP!

Enjoy your snow day, southern friends!! 

100th Day Hooray!

Hello? Hello? Anyone there?

I am embarrassed by my blog absence!

 I will sum it up in two words. 

KINDERGARTEN. MOVING. 

Haha! Let me elaborate!

{KINDERGARTEN}

 When we moved to Georgia, I accepted a Kindergarten position. I have been teaching first grade for the past four years! After just four years, I COMPLETELY forgot what the first few weeks of Kinder is all about. Whew! I recovered sometime in October, but then it was time for the holiday trifecta! So, here I am!!!

{MOVING}

We moved twice in the past six months! We moved from Birmingham to Atlanta and stayed with my parents until our house was ready. Then, we moved into our house a few weeks ago! Simply said...boxes instead of blogging! 

I am thrilled to be back! I have seriously missed blogging and creating! I have kept tons of notes in my iPhone about blog post ideas and upcoming units! 

100th Day Hooray! is the newest mini unit in my shop and it is FREE! Please check it out! Nothing fancy...just some festive fun ideas, a Tootsie Roll Pop experiment, and printable prompts! 

Have y'all celebrated your 100th day already? If so, tuck it away for next year! I LOVE that TpT now gives you access to your free downloads. Such a time saver!!!

I am off to enjoy some Super Bowl leftovers {yummo dips}

Have a great week!