Five For Friday with a Confession!

Here is my five for Friday!

1. I have been back at creating teaching stuff!  Back in August I made raffle tickets to use as part of my reward system.  I decided to post them to my TPT store as a FREEBIE.  Grab them here!

2. I created a new sight word game to use with my kindergarten groups!  I know they will love it!  It is available at my TPT store!  Click here!

3. Read Across America is coming up!  My school is having students participate in activities each day.  I was asked to created a poster to hang up in the hallways!  This is what I came up with!  What will your school be doing?

4. I have started a new hobby!  My sister-in-law gave me a beading set for Christmas and I. AM. ADDICTED!  This week I had some time to make yet another jewelry set! 

5. Confession Time!  I have been watching my diet for about seven months now (with the exception of a couple of weeks at Christmas.  I picked up a bag of M&M's last weekend...and they are gone.  I went to the store today for another bag...and ended up with two bags since they only cost $1.20 each for 12.6 oz bag!!  

Thanks for checking out my Five For Friday!

Frog Freebies!

My class is learning about life cycles!  We started with the life cycle of a plant and are watching our little sprouts grow!  Hopefully they will stay alive and the kiddos can take them home for their moms for Mother's Day next week!  We are now learning about frogs!  Here are two freebies for you that I am using in my class this week!

The first activity is a Fr and Fl Blends Sort Worksheet.  Students will sort the eight pictures by the beginning blend sound.

To get this freebie click here!

The next freebie is for math!  My students need some extra practice on addition so I created these simple addition cards for them to practice with! 

The set includes 20 equations!

Click here to get this freebie!

I actually have some foam lily pads for the students to lay out like a number line on the floor.  That way they can physically act out the addition equations to find the sum!  It's May and their energy level is HIGH!  I've got to get that energy out!

If you download these freebies please leave a comment to show your appreciation! Also, be sure to follow my blog to find out about all of my freebies and products!

Be sure to HOP over to Freebielicious to find more great freebies!

If you are looking for more frog activities please check out my Fun With Frogs Pack by clicking on the picture below!



My First Linky!

I am joining in my first linky!  I am not exactly sure what I am doing but I am so excited to figure this all out!  Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits is hosting a Hall Pass Linky! 

                          
So here I go!
Product: My favorite product that I have made is my Dental Health Unit!  I had so much fun teaching this unit!  My students loved the Uh-Oh! Cavity game so much, they even asked to play it during recess! 

I am also excited about my Sentence Scramble Pack!  I made a Sentence Scramble Freebie and it seemed to be doing really well, so I made a whole pack! Check it out!

Area: My favorite area in my classroom is my carpet area!  It is the place where my class gathers for calendar time, stories and working on the Promethean board!  I also love my rocking chair.  Last year my rocking chair was so uncomfy, but this year my mom made me some comfy cushions for it and it is perfect!  I wish I had a picture of it, but since I am snowed in on this snow day I will have to post a picture of the rocking chair later!  Here is a pic of my carpet...it's the best I have for now!



Signal: The signal I use the most is "Stop, Freeze, Eyes and Ears on me, Please!"  My room becomes very quiet when they hear this signal.  This way I can let them know of any changes or announcements that I may have.  I also use "1,2,3 Eyes on Me".  Though these aren't the most original or clever solutions, they work for me! 

Sanity: I love the days that I have a few extra minutes to grab a sweet tea on my way to work.  Sweet tea gives me the boost of sugar that I need to get my energy going!  Also, whenever I am having one of "those" days the easiest way for me to catch a breath is to throw in a book on CD!  I have a shelf of them in my room and I can just grab one off and it gives me a couple of minutes to regroup while the kiddos are engaged!  Youtube videos of fun songs (Harry's Kindergarten has some of my favorites!) also give me a minute to get that extra breath in!

That completes my Hall Pass! 

Piggy Bank Freebie!

This week I started a unit on coin recognition and Presidents.  These two just go hand in hand so well.  We discuss a president and learn about the coin that he is on and then spend some time talking about the value of the coin.  My students are still needing some practice with addition and subtraction so I wanted a way to tie in money and using the plus/minus signs.  I made this cute piggy bank to solve the problem!
                                         
Students rolled a cube that was labeled with either plus or minus amounts.  They then added or subtracted pennies from their piggy.  The first students to get 20 pennies on their bank was the winner!  The students had a great time and hearing them use the words "plus", "minus" and "cents" was so wonderful!  Here is a pic of one of the groups playing!

You can grab the freebie by clicking on the link below!

Tomorrow we have a snow day! Yippee!  I am hoping to spend some time working on many of the projects I have started for TeachersPayTeachers but just need to put the finishing touches on.  Of course, I will also spend some time cuddling with my boys and drinking hot cocoa! 



Valentine Activities Complete!

I just added my Valentine activities to TeachersPayTeachers.  Next week will be a busy week with an inservice day, an assembly and of course the big Valentine Party!  I created some fun activites to go with all the fun!  Here are a few of the activities included in my unit:
 

A fun gameboard that can be used with a dice or spinner.  I have included some simple addition cards (with sums up to five) for my students to use with the game board.

 

Valentine's Day just isn't complete without those heart shaped cookies!  This activity works on addition, ten frames and tally marks.  It includes 10 cookie sheets and four cookies to go with each one! Yummy!

And then there is the always popular candy conversation hearts!  This activity has students estimating and counting!  I have included some hearts that can be cut out and glued on if you want the sugar free option!

All of these activities plus more are in my unit!  Click here to get yours!

I have also included a freebie for you!  After my groundhog digit activity (here) I decided to make a similar activity for Valentine's Day!  Click on the picture below to get your freebie!

I love being able to take the same activity and differentiate it for all my students' learning needs! 



How I Use Ordering Cards

Tomorrow is Friday!!  I have been counting down the days until this Friday for quite some time.  It is the day I get to go on a Women's Retreat with a group of friends from church.  I am long overdue for some girl time! So excited!
I have finished my February Ordering Card Set!  You may be asking, "What are ordering cards?"  For me they are cards that the students put in order.  This past summer my husband helped me install a thin steel rod in my room.  I then put little plastic chain links on the rod (26 of them so the alphabet would fit!).  Now my students can hang up little cards in the right order!  I used to put magnets on the back of the cards but that seemed to get bulky to store.  Now my cards lay flat and storage is so easy...plus taking the time to place the magnets on the back became time consuming too.  Now just a quick hole punch and they are ready to use!
Here is what the rod looks like:

It hangs above my listening center table.  When students finish listening to a story they can spend some time ordering cards.

This is how the cards fit on.

This is a close up of the rod and the cards.  The orange thing is just a foam stringing bead that I placed on the end so that the rod wouldn't come off.

Now that you know what Ordering Cards are...you can head over to my store at TeachersPayTeachers and pick up my February set!  It includes four different types of cards!

Valentine Lower case letter ordering



Coin patterning

Click here to get the set!

You can also download the Valentine Lowercase Letter Ordering cards here for free!

Now I better head off to bed, since tomorrow night will have more chatting than snoozing!



Dental Health unit...with a freebie!

Wow!  It has been a busy week!  Yesterday we celebrated Kansas' 152nd Birthday and then today my class celebrated the 100th day of school!  Two days in a row of fun activities that keep us from our normal routine...I am exhausted!  Tomorrow we start learning about Groundhog Day!  If you haven't picked up my Groundhog Freebie you can download it here.
Next week we learn about caring for our teeth!  I am excited to have my Dental Health unit complete!  It has some fun games and I always love it when kiddos are having so much fun that they don't even realize they are learning too!  Take a look at some of the activities in the unit:

A pocket chart activity of putting together sentences.  There is also a recording sheet to fill in the color words.

A fun activity of making letters using toothbrushes and smiles!  I can hardly wait to see my class doing this activity!  There is also a recording sheet to write down all the words that they made!

This is the recording sheet to the spin and tally game!  My kiddos are still struggling with making those tally marks!

To purchase the unit click on any of the pictures.

One of my favorite books to read during our study on dental health is Robert Munsch's Andrew's Loose Tooth.  I love having the kiddos make up their own funny way to get a tooth pulled out! 











I have made a freebie of the writing page I use in my class.  If you would like to grab the freebie click  the picture below!

Enjoy!  If you download it please leave positive feedback at my store!  I would love to hear what ideas your class came up with!









Let the Blogging Begin!

I am so excited to be entering the blogging world!  I have been a blog stalker for quite a while now and have decided to start blogging about my own journey!  As the mother of two young boys it isn't like I need something else to do.  The laundry piles are endless and the dust is piling up, but I have decided to start blogging about my love of teaching kindergarten. I am eager to start sharing my thoughts and ideas with other kindergarten teachers.  I recently started my own store on teacherspayteachers.com and am so excited to share my ideas that way.  I hope that this blog will allow me to share more thoughts and give me a place to reflect on my lessons.  Thanks for joining the journey with me!  Below is the latest freebie I have posted to my store. Check it out!  If you download it please leave positive feedback!   
                                                      Click here:  Sentence Scramble

I hope to add a complete Sentence Scramble Packet in the near future!