Teacher Appreciation Sale

Visit my TPT store during the Teacher Appreciation Days and use the Coupon Code ThankYou to get 20% off!  I just uploaded my new Dinosaur Literacy Stations.

Halloween Literacy Stations

Halloween is in full force at my house! We decorated the house with pumpkins, Nightmare Before Christmas, and lights on the porch. I need to get my classroom ready for Halloween! While the decorations may not be out at school, my literacy stations for the rest of the month are ready to go! I just added my Spooky Stations: Five Halloween-Themed Literacy Stations to my TPT store. 

It's actually more like ten stations in one- there are five sets of cards, or activities, and one of the stations includes four differentiated activities!  Another station can be used three different ways! I'm set for the rest of the month! :-)

Visit my blog again on Friday for a Halloween freebie and blog hop!

Wacky Hat Word Sort

I just uploaded a product that  I am pretty excited about!

Some of my kiddos are struggling with sorting words into their word families. I created this activity I plan to use during Read Across America Week. 

Students will read and sort the cards onto the cats in hats on the sorting mat. They can record their sorting on the worksheet.  To extend the activity for the fast finishers, I will have those students think of more words that would fit into the word families. I can give them note cards or another record sheet to write their new words. 

Click here to see my Wacky Hat Word Family Sort on TPT.

Five For Friday- 11/22

                                                     

I am so excited for our classroom elf to make an appearance! Only three more school days until we have a new addition to our classroom!

                                                      

                                                       

I received good news this week- I am going be awarded a grant to add a Hot Dots literacy station to my classroom!

                                                           

Seven years ago this time of year, John and I were getting ready to take our honeymoon to Disney World. The castle is beautiful at Christmastime! I love all things Disney and all things Christmas! We can't wait to take our girls there for the first time someday!

                                                      

Not to brag, but I have my December lesson plans done! I am excited to use my Christmas literacy stations during my small group reading lesson. Visit my TPT store to get your copy. I have a wonderful aide who laminates for me and some awesome mom volunteers who cut apart the materials.  I am so thankful for them!

                                                                
I am so excited for Thanksgiving!  I love this time of year, eating, and spending time with family. We are going from my in-laws' house to my parents' house on Thursday. Lots of good food and good company packed into a busy day!  I am so thankful for my silly little girls!

 Isabella could hardly walk in my tall black boots!

 Olivia decided that sitting in this bin would be a good place to read a book! 

Thank you, Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this fun linky!

Sunday Edition of Five for Friday

After a busy weekend, I'm a little late to share my post for Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five For Friday Linky Party.

1. Olivia celebrated her first birthday on Saturday. The poor little girl was feeling a little under the weather, though. She's had a fever on and off since Friday. I took her to urgent care and the doctor said it's either a cold and/or teething.  We see the pediatrician tomorrow. Hopefully she'll get Olivia on the mend!

2. Isabella took her first riding lesson. She was on cloud nine! Bitsy is an amazing lesson horse. She's 28 but still had spunk while being very gentle.

3. Last week we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and made these cute coconut trees with the letters from their names racing to the top. I spent an hour last weekend on the Cricut machine cutting letters and sorting them into envelopes by tables. The kids had to find the letters in their names and spell their name before gluing the letters on to their coconut tree.

 4. My class LOVED playing the "Bird Game. I made a little bird that I hid behind the letter cards. The kids took turns guessing where the bird was hidden. They had to ask what letter it was behind. To differentiate the game, some kids had to name the letter and tell the sound it makes.  Get your bird cards here from Kinder Doodles.

5. The literacy stations from last week.

 

My aide and I spent time with the small groups. The kids have done an amazing job building stamina and working hard!  I liked working with the kids doing the cupcake match.  We talked about the  way the capital and lowercase letters look alike and look different (we use D'Nealian) as well as the sounds that they make. 

{Last Week's} Literacy Stations

I have a Post-It note on my desk every day with a list of things to do. Taking pictures for my blog always makes the list, but rarely gets done!  I get so involved in literacy stations that I forget to do anything else during that time!  Here is a peek inside of the 45 minute literacy station time in my classroom from last week. Maybe I'll remember to take pictures tomorrow to share the current literacy stations...

I have ten stations. The students visit two stations per day for about 20 minutes each. By the end of the week, they will visit all ten.

1. Computers: The students are getting familiar with using the netbooks. They may explore the games on starfall.com during this rotation. Next week I will begin using readingeggs.com. 

 2. Read to self: The kiddos may grab a reading buddy (aka a Beanie Baby) to read with while in the classroom library.

 3. Listen to Reading: I received a grant last year to have a listen to reading station in my classroom. The kids loved listening to How Do Dinosaurs Go to School. I love the Kidz Gear headphones! They seem very sturdy and have a volume control for each student. They can also be sanitized easily by wiping down with a Clorox or rubbing alcohol wipe.

 4. Play-Doh letters: They enjoyed making long ropes of Play-Doh to form capital and lowercase DNealian letters.

 5. Rainbow Writing: I had the kinders writing some of the high frequency words they will learn this year.  My main goal for the week was to have them learn how to do rainbow writing (write with crayon, then with marker, and finally with colored pencil) and to copy words.

 6. Magnets: The students had to find a magnet to match the letter on their white board.

 7. Whiteboards: They practiced writing capital and lowercase letters.

 8. Writing: I gave them a variety of styles of writing paper and their one instruction was to write and draw a story for me.  Some of the kids really got into it and made some really great stories!

 9. Cupcake Alphabet: I had these cupcakes on my Word Wall last year, but when I revamped my Word Wall, I thought they could be used in a literacy station. (They are just cardstock cupcakes with a letter sticker stuck on it.) The kids loved this station! It was a great teamwork activity to but the cupcakes in ABC order.

 10. iPads: The kids got to practice writing capital and lowercase letters in D'Nealian while using the Alphabet Board app. I love that you can turn on the arrows so the students can see which direction they write the letter. It even tells you the letter name and sound!

Color Sight Word Cupcakes Freebie

Thank goodness for a sleeping baby and play date with Mimi. Olivia had a rough night last night = I had a sleepless night last night! She has been napping for 2 hours! It started in the car and she made the transfer to her bed. That NEVER happens! Isabella is at a play date with Mimi (my mom.) The house should be getting clean, but instead I'm eating a delicious pink champagne cupcake and making cupcake themed centers.

I created this Cupcake Color Sight Word Match to use as a literacy center. The kinders will read the color word and match it to the cupcake with that color frosting.  I plan to print it on cardstock and laminate. Then I will cut each cupcake apart between the frosting and the wrapper.  I usually have three to four sets of an activity in a center. (Have I mentioned I usually have 28 kids in my class? I like to have 10 centers a week- students visit 2 per day- and need enough materials for 3 to 4 students at each center.) I color code the materials by using a Sharpie to draw a shape or dot on the back and put that color on the baggie that stores the materials. The kids can easily determine which pieces are theirs in the event that pieces get mixed up.

Click on the picture above to grab your freebie at my TPT store!

Five for Friday

 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  for a Five for Friday Linky Party. I love finding new blogs to follow through linkies!

 

 1. Have I mentioned I LOVE summer!? It was a beautiful day today... sunny skies, warm (upper 70's) and a light breeze. Perfect for a day outside!

 2. I took my daughters to a local park today. Tower Park is perfect for my three year old!  She can do most everything by herself this summer. There are swings, too!  My girlies like to swing side by side for hours!

3. We found this itty bitty toad today. Isabella, my three year old, was scared of it and didn't like Mimi (my mom and fellow kindergarten teacher) holding it! It was adorable and I had to snap a picture of it!

 4. We saw a magic show today while visiting my grandma. She lives in the memory care wing of assisted living home. It was heartwarming to see how the residents were so focused and animated with the magic tricks.

5. One week away from school and I'm already planning for the upcoming year!  My students will use this literacy station to match capital and lowercase letters. My school system teaches D'Nealian manuscript, so I start from the first day of school introducing D'Nealian writing. 

Cupcake Alphabet Match

One week into summer vacation and I'm already planning for back to school! As a child, I always loved getting ready to go back to school. I remember my mom telling us we weren't allowed to even buy new school supplies until after the fair was over! (What can I say? I'm a planner! I love organization and planning!)

I am excited to introduce new literacy stations in my classroom in August. I recently was awarded a grant to have a Listen to Reading station. I am so excited to be the proud owner of an iPod touch, KIDZ GEAR headphones, a Rockstar splitter to have up to 5 students listen to the iPod, and lots of books and CDs from Scholastic.

I want to get my new class excited about literacy, so I made this Cupcake Alphabet Match literacy center to match my cupcake-themed classroom.  The students will match capital and lowercase letters to make a cupcake. It's available in my TPT store!

Out of This World Space Stations

I asked my class what they wanted to learn about after we finished the reading series. The majority voted for outer space. I made these literacy stations to use in my classroom during the final eight days of school.

It is available in my TPT store!