Snakes Are Great!

Please tell me that you have days when your little ones just have NO interest in reading!!!I dread those days when my students lay across the reading table because they are "too tired" to read or ask "is this the right page?" to which I reply..."umm no dear, that is the front/back cover of the book." So what do you do to keep guided reading groups fun & engaging for those uninterested little darlings? Have you thought of using snakes?

One day I was browsing in my favorite teacher store, The School Box, and found these great little snake finger puppets for $2 for a pack of 10.  Now I am certainly not a fan of snakes, but I thought about using them as pointers for my beginning readers. Turns out they are fantastic! The snakes have their tongues sticking out so they make great pointers. You should hear those little ones begging to read now!

OK, so I am sure some of you may say "No way will I have snakes in my room!" I can understand that! So on another little visit to my favorite teacher store around Halloween time, I found these little monster finger puppets. We use these to have the monsters "eat" the new sight word before we read our new books.

Then guess what I found at Easter?!?! Little Easter Bunnies and Chick finger puppets. Turns out that those bunny ears make great pointers also! Now the chicks aren't as great but as long as the little ones are reading I can tolerate them. 

In this picture you will also see Magic Wands ($2 for a set of12 at Target in party section) that we use as pointers and "Whisper Phones" that my precious husband made for me using PVC pipes, PVC "elbows" and a $10 PVC pipe cutter. A total of $30 and he had made enough for the entire kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade classes!

So these are a few of my "magic" tricks for keeping my little darlings engaged & excited about reading! Now please, pretty PLEASE share some of your "magic "tricks by commenting on this post! Even better...if you are a blogger, check out Charity Preston's challenge to become a 5 star blogger here!

Be Blessed & Share Your Blessings!

Cheater, Cheater, Cheaters!

When I teach my students color words and number words at the beginning of the school year, they often get overwhelmed with so many new words! My solution is what I call "Cheaters". These are little strips of paper glued to construction paper or printed on cardstock and laminated and kept in a central location in my classroom. I then tell students that when they are learning new skills they are not expected to know them without a little help and I am going to let them "cheat" by using my Cheaters while they are doing their seatwork or working in literacy stations. As I notice a child no longer depending on the cheaters throughout the school year, I make a big deal of how smart he/she is by saying "Look at how smart Caleb is! He doesn't need a cheater any more!" And if you have ever been in a kindergarten classroom, you will understand that means that the competition for a compliment is on!!! In just a matter of a few days most of the students are telling me how smart they are and didn't have to look at how to read/spell red or orange, etc. Before you know it, they are no longer using the cheaters and just in time to be tested for mastery of reading these words! 

Get them FREE right here or by clicking on the pictures below!

As a side note, I do have the color and number words posted in my classroom but some students that are easily over stimulated with visual aids have difficulty looking around or up at the wall and then quickly finding their place on their paper once they look back down.

Highway Letters, Numbers, & Shapes

Yikes!!! I am excited and embarrassed right now!  I recieved an email from THE Dr. Jean and she very sweetly let me know that the Highway Letters and Numbers I had on my blog and TPT store were created by a teacher in Copperas Cove, Texas about 7 years and have been made into a book from Creative Teaching Press.

Oh my word, I want to bury my head in the sand!

If you want to download them for free please go to www.makinglearningfun.com  to download. Like I said earlier, it involves a bit of copying and pasting but is so worth the trouble.

But...

if you love things already done for you AND "cutesy" like I do, go check out the book and/or eBook! The pictures are colorful, ready to use cards and include starting points for forming the letters/numbers correctly. It even has lots of ideas from Dr. Jean for using them! I will definately be buying these soon to replace the black & white free version I have! 

I was fortunate enough to go to two, yes 2, conferences in November & December of this past year and it was at the Dr. Jean session that I found out about the website to download the highway letters/numbers...I must have missed the part about a book coming out with them in it!  So anyway...go buy the book!!! 

                       

                     

Freebie, Teaching Tip, and Home Living Center idea!

Freebie Alert!

I threw these together this afternoon because my kiddos need more work with reading AND writing simple CVC words and this is what I came up with. Of course they are not as cute when copied in black and white but they still do what I need them to do! Click on the pictures below to find them in my TPT store!

               

Just a random teaching tip...

When I first began teaching I was always afraid that I would give a student my original worksheet by accident and lose the worksheet forever! I kept extra "back up" copies of everything until my filing cabinet was ready to bust and I discovered this handy little tip. I use a yellow highlighter & write "original" on MY original copy. When the worksheet is copied the highlighter does not show up! How awesome it that?!?! This makes it so much easier to keep my original copies safe and sound! It also helps my parent volunteers keep the originals seperated when they are making copies for me. ALWAYS test the highlighter brands in a small area first because some of the cheaper brands will show up a little bit when copied. Yellow seems to be best but some of the other highlighter colors work as well. 

And now time for a new Home Living Center idea...

I'm sure that this isn't a new idea to most of you but when we study identifying the coins, I turn the Home Living into a store. Yep, I take all of those empty junk food boxes and tap or/glue coin amounts on them (1cent, 5 cent, etc), add a toy cash register filled with play coins, and a few paper bags. Students can then write out a shopping list and then "buy" the items from the store. Their partner will then be the cashier and collect the correct coin for each item. They love this and it is so cute watching them correct each other if they try to pay with the wrong coins.  

  

Well I have procrastinated doing my graduate class homework so it is time to get to work on that and stop playing school now! Do you have any good random ideas to share? If so, leave a comment below... 

Have a wonderful week!

Never Ending Laundry

I have been on Spring Break this week and while my friends have been living it up at the beach and/or at Disney World or taking their mini vacations I have been super busy with Spring Cleaning! Yuck! I have spent the entire week cleaning out closets and weeding out all of the clothes that my boys have outgrown and washing all of the dirty clothes I found hidden in their rooms and in closets. Boys!!! Well the results are in and so far I am up to 9 garbage bags and 2 boxes of things to take to Goodwill with only my husband's closet left to go. Where did all of this "STUFF" come from?!?! Normally I would hold on to it all until the neighborhood yard sale but there is just too much stuff to store in the garage & I want it GONE!

So with all of the laundry theme consuming my Spring Break, I decided it was time to redo and put my Laundry Day Learning ideas for a Home Living or HouseKeeping center on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click on the picture below & get it quick because it won't be free for long! I'm in a giving mood today!

If you download these, please be so kind as to leave positive feedback and it would also be awesome if you could share with others by pinning it on Pinterest! Thank you & Enjoy!

Are You Having An Un"Bear"able Day?

So the end of the school year is near (Praise the Lord) and it is the time of year that I begin to think of all of the things I can't wait to do better or differently next year. The one thing that has been a constant for me in all of my years of teaching is my behavior system....the Bears! All of my former students ask me if I still do the bears & say they loved the bears...that's what they remember most about my class?!?! Really?!?! So here is how it works....

 

Each student has a set of 4 die cut teddy bears in a pocket chart labeled "Who is Having an Un'Bear'able Day?" Everyone starts with brown on top and then the colors of a traffic light... green, yellow, & red.  If someone breaks a rule (rules are posted close by) they have to pull the brown (warning) bear and put him in the back. If another rule is broken then the green bear is pulled and the student misses 5 minutes of recess or play time. Yellow bear is next and 10 minutes of playtime is lost. Notice the brown bear's smiling face gradually turn to a sad frowny face....just like Mrs. Young's face!

If a students gets on red bear, they get a Sad Red Bear note sent home for the parent to sign and return. They will also lose half of their playtime. During this time they can sit or stand in time out or walk the walking track that goes around the playground. This is a picture of the Red Bear note that goes home...I don't know where this poem & picture originated but I have put in a request with my clip art lady to make me a new sad bear so I can redistribute it.  

Brown Bear- Way To Go

Green Bear- Oops! That's OK!

Yellow Bear- Oh No! Be Careful!

Red Bear- Oh No! Your Behavior is Un"bear"able!

The poem on the Sad Red Bear note says...

Many days I try real hard and do the things I should. 

But today I wasn't trying, my behavior wasn't good.

My teacher thinks I'm special but she doesn't like the way

I kept the class from learning when I misbehaved today.

So maybe if we talk it out, tomorrow will be good

Because you helped me to remember to do the things I should. 

The parents enjoy getting this "gently" worded sad note & it reminds students that everyone makes mistakes. Over the years I have tried other Behavior management plans but none have been as effective as this one. I hate that it is so big and takes up such a large space on a wall (althought it is over an AC unit that I can't put anything in front of anyway) or on a door but there is something about it being public that encourages the students to be on their best behavior since they can monitor their bear color. At the end of the year I send the bears home in a memory book that I make for each child. Those that never pull bears love getting them and the parents of those well worn bears get a kick out of seeing how worn out their child's bears are.

What about you? Do you have a behavior management plan that you absolutely love?

Have a "Bear-y" Good Day!

Hoppy Number Lines

We have been working on addition & subtraction and working towards being able to do it fluently thanks to Common Core Curriculum. Not an easy task for kindergarteners! If you are fortunate enough to have an ActivBoard then check out my free Bunny Hop flipchart for using number lines by teaching students to "hop" forward and/or backwards on the number line. Of course I needed something hands-on for my kiddos so I made these cute printable versions of the number lines and a matching addition & subtraction worksheet for each. Get them for only $1.50!

       

        

If you have any fun, hands-on activites for addition & subtraction please share! Pretty please!!! I did find a cute idea that I can't wait to try! Students will go "Bowling" using empty water or soda bottles. Students take turns bowling and writing the subtraction equation.

9 pins, 4 hit: 9 - 4 = 5
Give each bowler 2 turns.
So the second turn would be
5 pins, 2 hit: 5 - 2 = 3

or you could reverse the system and have them add to find the total pins toppled in two tries.

This will be great since we have an end of year reward trip to go bowling! Love it!

I also made a Summer themed Addition and Subtraction flipchart for ActivBoard because it looks like we will be working on this for a while longer!

  

   

Be Blessed & Enjoy Your Weekend!

Number Word Buzz Freebie

Buzz right on over to my TPT store and snag up this quick number word freeibe! Don't forget to "pin" it on Pinterest and/or Google +1 it to help me get more traffic to my store:)

 

While you are there, check out the new Growing in a Spring Kinder-Garden learning center games packet and ActivBoard users will want to check out the April 2012 Calendar for ActivBoard and Easter Punctuation Games and Free Bunny Hop Addition and Subtaction with a Number Line!

I'm a member of a great group of relatively new bloggers who decided to come together for a great giveaway. But giveaways are more fun if they have a little twist. So, we've also made this one a blog hop. Each blogger will be running the same giveaway on their blog. So after you enter here, head on over to each of the other blogs and comment to enter there as well!

Here's what you'll win:

1. From Tales from Outside the Classroom: Captain Cool, which practices addition and subtraction in function machines.

2. Ms. Fultz’s Corner: Egg-citing Math Bundle, which practices addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

3. All that Glitters in First Grade: Shape Fun, which practices the basic shapes circle, hexagon, octagon, oval, pentagon, rectangle, square, and triangle.

4. Ms. McDonald’s Fourth Grade: Decimal War, which practices decimals from tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and mixed decimals.

5. Young and Lively Kindergarten: Growing in a Spring Kinder-Garden Learning Center Games, which practice beginning sounds, color words, rhyming, number words 0-14, counting 1-20, real/nonsense words, reading CVC words,punctuation, & Time to the Hour.

Here's how you enter to win:

1. Follow Tales from Outside the Classroom's blog and TpT store. {1 entry}
2. Follow Ms. Fultz's Corner blog, Ms. Fultz’s Corner TpT store, and Ms. Fultz's Corner TN store. {1 entry}

3. Follow All That Glitters in First Grade's blog and TpT store. {1 entry}
4. Follow Mrs. McDonald's blog and TpT store. {1 entry}
5. Follow Young and Lively in Kindergarten's blog and TpT store. {1 entry}

This means you can get up to five entries here and up to five entries each by commenting on the other blogs as well. That's 25 chances so go get yourself entered to win! Entries will end on Sunday, April 1st at noon CST. Winners for each blog will be announced that night.

Other Easter Blog Hunt Pages:

It's a Party!!!

Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyles is putting together a linky party for kinders- 2nd grade and putting lots of blogs together in one place! Click on the picture below to head on over there. Sign your blog up and/or search some of the blogs there to find some fresh, new ideas!

Woo Hoo! I got an award from Lori at Teaching with Love and Laughter! I love how bloggers are so

sweet to one another & love how networking helps increase followers and collaborating!

 

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you ~ Lori at http://teachingwithloveandlaughter.blogspot.com/

2. Pass the award on to 5 other Lovely bloggers ~ This was fun to do. I just started following these great blogs. Many of them are still fairly new at blogging like me. I even visited some of their teacher stores and pinned lots of great activities.

1.   Monica at The Schroeder Page   Check out her Leprechaun Door idea! I can't wait to do this with my class! I even found a paper punch of tiny footprints & punched out tiny green footprints to leave scattered around the door as more evidence AN D I found a tiny dollhouse hammer (for working on shoes) to leave out on the second day for more evidence in solving our mystery.

Here are some newer bloggers...

2. Angela at The Daily Alphabet

3. Lisa at K is for Kindergarten

4. Robin at Little Blogfish 

5. Tonya Dye at Super Second Graders

3. Follow the person who sent it to you! Following you now Lori! 

Thanks again!
Kelly

The Leprechauns are Coming!

Ahhh....finally made it to another weekend at last! I'm counting down the days to spring break (10 school days) and working my tail off to get caught up on my homework. Can someone remind me why I thought going back for my master's degree would be a good idea? It is so time consuming! Well, enough whining but thanks for letting me get that out!

This should be a fun week as we get ready for St. Patrick's Day. We are NEVER at school on St. Patty's day...we are usually on spring break but this year it falls on a Saturday. We will fingerpaint shamrocks with blue & yellow to make them green, go outside to find a patch of clover and search for a four leaf clover, & the mischeivous leprechauns like to play tricks on us and we will do our best to get a hold of some of his gold! On Friday, he will leave us clues to finding his gold & we just happen to get a hold of some of his gold! I LOVE the kinds of gold he leaves for us (Rolo's, minature Reese's, Hershery's Treasures and/or chocolate nuggests, Twix, butterscotch, etc) They all look so yummy in his pot of "gold". I actually found some gold chocolate coins on clearance at Walmart last week that will get the kiddos so excited! I also found some tiny leprechaun hats at the Dollar Tree this afternoon! I'm sure the leprechaun will leave it behind as evidence of his presence!  I will post my leprechaun clues that he leaves for us to find the gold a little later in the weekend. I have seen several bloggers that say they have students make Leprechaun traps to set up to catch him. That might be a fun project to make during rainy day recess next week!  I never have much for St. Patrick's Day so I created a flip chart for my ActivBoard to use all week. It includes some basic facts about St.Patrick's day and some fun games to play & review skills.

 

  

What about you? How does your class celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Weekend Freebies

Well this weekend didn't go as planned. It was supposed to start out with a kid- free night out with my husband and then lots of homework while the kids were gone to a sleepover. However, my family spent all Friday afternoon and night in my parents' basement while several tornados ripped through my town. Praising God for His hand of protection...no deaths but many damaged homes but they can be repaired and/or replaced.

So since I have so much work to catch up on I just added a few freebies to TPT that you might want to check out. Click on the pictures below to go get them!

These booklets can be used to help students write their letters/numbers quickly & correctly. Just make 1 copy of page 1 and several copies of page 2. Cut in half & staple together to make each child a booklet. Next, set a timer for 3 minutes & have students see how many they can write CORRECTLY in the given time. If they write any backward letters or numbers they have to erase it and correct it. After a few times of erasing, they decided to slow down and do it correctly the first time. We repeat with 2 minutes and then 1 minute. I have been impressed with how much their letter/number formation has improved since I started doing this!

It looks like the link on my TPT store isn't working...hmmm. When I click on it, it just goes right back to the main page. I'll look into it and see what is going on. Sorry for the inconvenience! Here is the direct link anyway...I'll keep working on it!
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Race-to-Write-Alphabet-booklet
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Working-My-Way-to-20-Number-Writing-booklet

This is a simple (and short) fliphcart for Promethean board to practice distinguishing between story elements of characters & settings.

Shout Out to My "Secret" Group!

I have been selling things on Teachers Pay Teachers since mid October and thanks to Pinterest my sales and followers have continued to grow significantly. Then I was lucky enough to find a Facebook group called Pinning to Pin for Bloggers and my sales have exploded! This facebook page is a place to pin your things (blog  posts, Teachers Pay Teachers items, Teacher Notebook items, etc) and in exchange you pin other group member's things on Pinterest.  This will increase traffic to your TPT store or blog and it is so exciting to see how many emails you will get saying your pins have been repinned many times over.  Just thought I would share for any other bloggers out there that might be interested in joining us!