Pumpkins Everywhere!

It is that time again for our annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest! Each classroom is given a small pumpkin to decorate as they wish and all of the pumpkins are set up in the main hallway at school. During the month of October, students and parents can vote for their favorite pumpkin for a $1 donation. The classroom with the most "votes" wins a pizza party and the classroom teacher wins a half day off from work!

Here are a few of the pumpkins in the competition! I'll post the rest when they are finished. 

 Despicable Me Minion

 

 Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty

 Adorable Ladybug

Rainbow Fish

 Spider

Lollipop Ghosts

 

 Mr. Pumpkin Head

Cinderella

 Basketball

Duck Dynasty

 Mickey Mouse

A Hedgehog

 Witch

Cute Girl

 Curious George Goes to a Costume Party

 Minion with a drum

 Cowgirl

 

Which one would you vote for?

We're Not Afraid of Anything!

Ahhh, October! My most favorite time of the year! There are so many fun themes to use to teach the Common Core standards during the month of October and this activity is one of my favorites! To kick off our Scarecrow unit we read the book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything and had the students make predictions using the text evidence and retell the story using the props below.

 Ok now say it with me…”THAT IS SO ADORABLE!” One of my kindergarten coworkers has a toddler that is always dressed so cute and she brought in some of his hand-me downs. They are so cute and are the perfect size for our PVC frame!  

 

 

Here is the frame we started with. My handy man husband only spent $6 on the PVC pipes & elbow pieces (easy to take apart for storage.) He also drilled a hole in the bottom of my pumpkin bucket so that it fit perfectly on the frame.

 

 

I think he is too cute to spook & the kids loved it!

 

 

 

 

3D Shapes Don't Scare Me!

Let me be honest up front! The truth is, I threw together this 3D Shape Scarecrow freebie really quick to share just so I could write a blog post and share a little more about Logan's road to recovery. You are more than welcome to just grab your freebie and then go on about your way without having to stick around to read the rest of the blog post about my personal life:)

We will be doing an awesome Scarecrow unit next week and I don't have a lot of 3D shape practice pages so I hope this will work out well for me. Click on the picture below to download it.

 

Enjoy!

 

Now to those that chose to stick around....

 

Today has been a surprisingly wonderful day! I only got a couple hours of sleep last night but somehow I woke up bright eyed and ready to tackle another day. When I got to school and looked at my lesson plans, I wasn't too impressed with what I was supposed to teach so I decided to "wing it". 

 

Best teaching day ever! 

 

The lesson fell together and flowed wonderfully.  The kids were engaged, had a blast, AND I still covered the standards for the day! The lesson wasn't anything new or fancy but I just felt "adventurous" and "free". Yep, I even pulled out the clay for each child to create their own 3D shapes! While it took some time for the little ones to figure out how to make a sphere, cube, cone, and cylinder, they did it and were so proud of their masterpieces! 

 

Then I got THE phone call! It was Logan so yes, I did step outside my classroom door to answer it. He said "bet you can't guess where I am". My mind goes wild... did he go outside and get the wheelchair stuck in the grass? Did he fall trying to use the toilet?

 

Nope! None of the above!

 

He said "I am UPSTAIRS in my room!" (with the help of his physical therapist of course). My tears could not be contained! It felt like a toddler taking his first steps. My heart was swelling up inside my chest. The therapist let me know that Logan had a great attitude today (no more anger or frustration) and was working harder than ever before. By the time I got home, his homebound teacher said he WALKED to the door to answer (using his walker) rather than sitting in the wheelchair. His Facebook status said that "Today is the day that I start working extra hard to be able to walk again.  I'm going to stop waiting and hoping to get better. It is time to move on. I'm done with sitting in this wheelchair."  

 

There is the determination that we have prayed so desperately for! The road to recovery just took a turn onto a much smoother route!

 

Friends, it's a good day indeed!

 

 

P.S. Come back soon! In the next couple of days I hope to find time to tell you about an experience that we had on this journey that involved a fellow teacher that was once a stranger!  It will give you goose bumps!   

 

...and then I will try to keep my posts more educational and less personal!

 

Be Blessed!

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Surprise! A TPT Sale!

I spent a beautiful fall day in the mountains with my family today with no cell phone service. In light of all of the chaos the last 6 weeks of life threw at us, it was so nice and peaceful to be "unplugged" and with family for a little while. Now imagine my surprise to come home tonight to check my email and find out that TPT is having a surprise sale! The sale is running Saturday & Sunday, but since I missed Saturday, I am all in for Sunday! Use the code FB100K at checkout and get 10% off everything in your cart! I am also adding an additional 10% off of everything in my store to help you rake in some extra savings! Click on my blog button below & Enjoy!

 

 

Blessed Beyond Measure!

 

Kelly

An Unbe"LEAF"able Blog Hop of Freebies!

Grab your virtual rake and get ready to bag up some "tree-rrific" freebies! Just float through all ELEVEN blogs to catch ELEVEN fall items. In addition, every time you "fall-ow" a blog, you can enter to win the grand prize. It's a bushel basket full of October goodies. The winner will be announced next Friday, October 18.

 

You'll have to visit each blog to see the freebies, but here's a peek at the items in the grand prize. If you just can't wait to see if you'll win, you can click each pic to go straight to TPT and make your purchase.

 

I actually have 2 freebies for you to choose from! The first is Pumpkin Patch Fun that includes games for numbers 1-10 using ten frames and color words. 

 

 

The 2nd freebie is a set of sight word worksheets that go along with the McGraw Hill Wonders Reading Series.  These are also Dolch & Frye Sight Words so maybe you will be able to use them even if you are not using Wonders.  This includes units 1-3 right now but units 4-10 is still under construction.

 

 

 

Don't forget to follow my blog and enter to win the grand prize!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To keep filling your basket, go to the next blog:

Fall Break At Last!

Please don't misunderstand me...I love my job, but I am so glad to have a week off for fall break! I think that I put so much time & energy into my job during and after school hours that I just neglect everything else. Never more true than in the last 5 weeks since Logan's accident.  He is home now and we are so happy to no longer have to make the 45 minute drive one way to the hospital.  I miss the round the clock nursing care & 3 hot meals delivered daily but I am so thankful to have the comforts of home!

I spent my first official day off finishing up my 2nd set of morning work. I am almost finished doing the first set my own students so I was in a panic to get this one finished soon! Click on the pictures below to go get it from my TPT store.

Update on Logan

Thank you all for the sweet comments, emails, and messages concerning Logan's accident! Three weeks in and Logan is finally using that anger and depression to work harder so he can get home. The femur, collar bone, and sternum are healing up nicely and the bruises are fading but the bones in his right leg are taking their sweet time trying to decide if they are going to cooperate or not. He is learning to move himself from the bed to the wheelchair and has been able to put some weight on his new "good" stainless steel leg with lots of help from the physical therapists. He will most likely be in the hospital for 6 more weeks until the cast comes off the right leg and then he will head home to begin physical therapy on the "bad" leg. The daily 40 minute drive to and from the hospital, sleeping in a hospital room, and eating fast food is taking its toll on us but when he is home we will not have round the clock care so we are trying to be patient & use the time in the car to pray & praise our God for His blessings. The road still seems sooo long ahead of us but we still consider ourselves blessed as a family in our community is making arrangements to bury their 13 year old daughter that was killed in a car accident this weekend.  I'll take this path I was given!

Here is my boy smiling when we brought our dogs to visit him at the hospital.

My heart is full!

Thank you again for all of the love! ...and Barbara I am watching the mailbox for that book!

McGraw Hill Wonders Sight Words & Wondering Where I Have Been?!?!

Twelve loonnng days ago my life turned upside down. My 16 year old son was in a terrible car accident when someone pulled out in front of him. He suffered 2 broken legs (left femur & both bones in right leg). a broken collar bone, and a cracked sternum. He had to be cut from the car while I watched) and airlifted to the nearest trauma center where he stayed for 4 days and was then moved to Siskin Rehab Hospital where we will be for the next 6 weeks. These last 12 days have been excruciating for Logan to endure and for us to stand by and helplessly watch but we are grateful for the blessing of life and know that God has a great plan and purpose for Logan's life (Jeremiah 29:11) & everything works for the good of those that love Him (Romans 8:28). We have been overwhelmed with all of the love, support, and most of all the prayers that have been lifted up for Logan and our entire family.

Look at how close he came to hitting that huge light pole!

Before our world began spinning out of our control, I was working on several big projects. One of those projects was sight word practice pages to supplement our new McGraw Hill Wonders Reading Series. I only have units 1-3 finished right now but if you want to download it for FREE click on the pictures below. I will update it again when I get all 10 units completed and then add a small price tag to it but you should still be able to get the updated version for free if you have already "purchased" or downloaded the incomplete FREE version. If not, just come right back here and let me know and I'll be happy to email it to you....just don't hold your breath until it is finished because there is no telling when I will get to it!

With this ring....

Just one more reason I love teaching kindergarten! 

 

 

Isn't that the sweetest note ever?!?! This precious gift came from one of my little darlings on the second day of school. A boy that gives jewelry to women...that is a boy whose momma has taught her boy well! 

 

Write the Room & Math in Motion

Last year, I implemented a Write the Room literacy center and it quickly became my favorite literacy based center. So much so, that this year I have also implemented a Math Write & Count the Room called Math in Motion. I was a bit nervous about how in the world the kids would be able to keep them straight but surprisingly they have not had any trouble at all! 

 

I use center wheels to rotate my students through their literacy centers and match stations so I used a yellow center wheel for the reading centers and matching yellow library pockets for the Write the Room. For the math stations, I used a blue center wheel for Math and matching blue library pockets for the Math in Motion. 

 

 

If we are doing the yellow centers (reading) then the kids know that if they are in the Write the Room station they will do the yellow envelope. If we are doing the Math Stations (blue wheel) then they will do the blue Math in Motion pockets.

 

 

For the first week of school I knew that I had to have something easy in these centers so that we could just focus on how to move around the room to find the pockets and then fill in the recording page. For Reading, I just added some different colored die cut letters in the library pockets and had them find the matching letter on the recording sheet and color it the same color as the die cut letter. I did capital letters the first week and lowercase letters the following week.

 

 

In our Math in Motion station, I added colored shapes in the pockets so students just had to find the shape from the library pocket on the recording page and color it the same matching color.

 

This week the kids will find a shape and then draw it on the recording page. That should be interesting since I have a few students that have evidently never held a pencil before coming to kindergarten. To help those precious ones, I will show them how to lay their paper on top of the shape and trace the shape. 

 

 

I do have my library pockets numbered 1-12 but for these activities it is not necessary for the students to complete the recording page in any particular order.   

 

I have been working on a Write the Room & Math in Motion activity packet but it does not have very many beginning of the year skills in it just yet. I hope to get it finished up in the next couple of weeks and listed on TPT and TN but for now enjoy these activities for free by clicking here!

Miss Reading Across the USA Fashion Show

We are already entering our 2nd week of school and I am totally exhausted! I always forgot how hard those first few weeks of kindergarten can be! 

Our Accelerated Reading theme is Reading Across the USA this year and each classroom selected a state to represent. We decorated our classroom doors to represent our chosen state and on Friday we had our Accelerated Reader kickoff. Well now with a theme like Reading Across the USA, what better way to kick off the school year than with a Miss USA contest! This was a lot of fun and a great reminder of how creative my coworkers are! Some fun facts were read about our state as we walked down the runway. Here are some pictures from our Fashion show...can you guess the states?

 

 

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Miss Potts and Chip representing the Boston Tea Party!

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I guess it is no surprise that the students chose Miss Louisiana, (aka: Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty) as the winner of our Miss USA contest!