Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Printables Challenge from Teaching Heart {I've Included Freebies!}

Yesterday, I came across the Amazon Gift Card Giveaway at Teaching Heart. I loved the challenge of only being able to use Microsoft Clip Art and having limited topics. As you can tell, I'm quite the Scrappin' Doodles lover, so I felt a tad bit intimidated and limited by only being able to use MS Clip Art, but thrilled to be able to get myself out of the little box I tend to get in creatively. :) 

By the time I found the giveaway, I had to go pick up my son from school and I had an appointment to get my hair highlighted, so I was really anxious to get back home and start working on as many things as I could in a short amount of time. See what I came up with below. :)

All of these printables have multiple pages, so you can click on the picture or the link and it will take you to all of the pages. I just added a picture of the first page of each one. Enjoy! 






Sunday, November 27, 2011

Christmas Freebies {Linky Party}

I took a much needed break and spent lots of quality time with my family over Thanksgiving break. However, that means I didn't spend time creating anything fabulous yet for Christmas. So, since I haven't been creative, I want to at least share some of the fun freebies that others have been generous enough to post. :)  I encourage you to please join my Christmas Freebies Linky Party and link up to your amazing freebies or others that you've found!


Santa's Sleigh Drop Subtraction Activities by From the Pond

Jingle, Jingle and Teddy Bear Patterns from The Resource(ful) Room

Christmas Math Centers by Kindergarten Katy

Lots of great Christmas learning plans at 1 + 1 + 1 = 1

Plus, check out all the free Christmas things to download at Teachers Pay Teachers.





Like Miss Kindergarten's Facebook page and get a great snowman freebie! Thanks, Hadar!

Winter/Snow Books for Sale

Winter/Snow Books for Sale

I have one lot of books left for sale if anyone is interested. I lowered the price by $5. I have checked each of them and they have no markings on the pages that I can see. They are all good to excellent condition. I have labeled or written my name on the front inside cover of each book.

The books will be shipped Media Mail. At this time, I will only be able to ship to addresses in the United States.

Set 2: 14 Winter/Snow books
IMG_3671
(Click picture to enlarge)

$15 + $5 Shipping = $20



Titles Include:
  1. Let it Snow
  2. Snow Angels
  3. The Snowman Mystery
  4. Polar Babies
  5. Clifford: The Snow Dog
  6. The Biggest Snowball Fight
  7. The Little Snowflake
  8. Snow Music
  9. Sadie and the Snowman
  10. The Biggest Snowman Ever
  11. Frozen Noses
  12. The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly
  13. Teddy’s Snowy Day
  14. Winter Poems

Saturday, November 26, 2011

You light up my {teaching} life!


 Thank you so much to the following bloggers for sharing the Sunshine Award with me. I appreciate it more than you know!
Class Full of Special Kinders

Chrissy at ReadWriteSing

Rules for accepting this award:
1.  Thank the person who gave this award and write a post!
2.  Answer the questions.
3.  Pass the award to 10-12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs, and let them know!

What is my....
  • Favorite color?   Red to wear, burgundy/dark red to decorate
  • Favorite animal?  Dogs
  • Favorite number?  4 - The number of people in my little family!
  • Favorite drink?  Dr. Pepper, Sweet Tea and Sonic Cherry Limeades
  • Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook
  • Passion?  Spending time with my family, making baby bows and teaching!
  • Giving or getting presents?  I LOVE to give! 
  • Favorite day?  Friday-Sunday (It's too hard to pick just one!)
  • Favorite flower?  hydrangeas and sunflowers
I would like to pass on this award to the following bloggers. The list of blogs I love is HUGE! I am so inspired by all the blogs I read and I've become a better teacher from all that I've learned. It's so hard to narrow it down, but here goes. (Obviously, I love the bloggers who awarded me above!)



My list actually goes on and on. I am a people pleaser and only listing a few of the many great blogs I love is very hard on me. :) Am I the only one that has a hard time with things like this?

Friday, November 25, 2011

Scrappin' Doodles 40% off Black Friday (and Saturday) coupon!!!


When I found this coupon in my email this morning, I was giddy with excitement and had to share!!!

Scrappin' Doodles has a 40% off Black Friday coupon good through midnight Saturday, November 26, 2011. 

Click here and use coupon code BLACK2011 at checkout. 

Be sure to join the mailing list, too!


Denyse has added some adorable sets this week, too! You won't want to miss out on this amazing coupon. I cannot wait to use it! 


Monday, November 21, 2011

Stone Soup and Kindergarten Cuteness!

Today was our annual Stone Soup celebration. I think this year's pot may have been the biggest one yet. I don't think a single person was able to finish an entire cup of soup. We were all so full! Do you and your class participate in a feast or Thanksgiving tradition at school each year?

I just had to share the following two pictures because I thought they were cute! The fact that two students chose their teacher to be thankful for absolutely made my day! I told them I'd take a picture because it was proof that they were automatically going to first grade. :) Of course I'm kidding, but how sweet are these?



Sunday, November 13, 2011

Stone Soup {Printables}

The Monday before Thanksgiving, our Kindergarten classes always get together to read the book Stone Soup and then watch the movie. Two weeks before that, we begin asking families to send in canned or fresh vegetables for us to make our own version of Stone Stoup.

I created the following printables to go with our day full of Stone Soup festivities!





I'm such a woman! Here's an easy way you can help me email you back!

Only two comments into using Disqus again yesterday and I've already removed it. See what I mean about my love/hate relationship? I have the right to change my mind constantly though, right? :)

Many people don't have Disqus accounts and I don't really like the generic, no picture, anonymous posts that people tend to leave with Disqus because they aren't registered or don't want to link their other accounts like Facebook to their comments. I'm right there with you! I rarely link my Facebook, Google, or Yahoo! accounts if I can help it.

So....back to regular comments through Blogger for the blog.

However, here's a way you can help if you have a Blogger profile.

  1. Go to your Dashboard
  2. Click on the Edit Profile link next to your picture.
  3. Click to put a checkmark in the Show my email address box.
  4. (See pictures below if you aren't sure what the pages look like.)





Then, when someone tries to reply to your comment, they can actually do it through email, as opposed to seeing the noreply-blogger@comment.com in the To: part of the address line of an email. It will actually show your email address and I will be able to respond to your comments personally.

If you don't have an email address listed, I try to track you down through your profile or blog first. Otherwise, the best I can do is use an @ sign in front of your name on the post you commented on and hope that you might come back and read it. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer. Obviously, the choice is yours as to whether or not you are comfortable having your email address on your profile, but if you do, it will be much easier to contact you!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Christmas Candy Math Flip Book {Numbers 1-20}

I can't help myself! I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but Denyse at Scrappin' Doodles is making so many cute graphics that I have to get busy using all of them before Christmas sneaks up on me! The Christian radio station I listen to is playing Christmas music right now, but only on the weekends and I've been LOVING it! I've been in the mood to put my tree up for awhile now. I'll wait until Thanksgiving though. :)

Tonight, I created a Christmas Candy Math Flip Book that covers the numbers 1-20. You can bind it to use it as a flip book or cut apart the pages to create a matching game. I hope you like it!

Click on the picture below to download the printable or click here

Update: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie Emergent Reader

Several people mentioned having problems with the emergent reader printing with only one copy per page instead of two copies per page. For some reason, it keeps happening to me when I convert the files to PDF. So, I went back and totally changed all the settings for it and tried to force it to work right for you. If you have any trouble with it not printing two copies per page, let me know.

Here's a link to the original post with other activities included. 


Check out School Sparks for lots of free Kindergarten Resources

Image Source: www.SchoolSparks.com

I was recently contacted by Renee at School Sparks about the wonderful resources she has created that are available FREE to Kindergarten Teachers. Renee is a retired preschool and Kindergarten teacher and it's obvious she knows a lot about early childhood education and what teachers need to help students succeed. I am so glad that she made me aware of her wonderful site!

I highly recommend you check out School Sparks to find something for your classroom or recommend the site as a resource for your students' parents. Be sure to check out the Kindergarten worksheets page for resources covering skills like fine motor, alphabet, auditory processing, visual discrimination, letter/word awareness, phonemic awareness, math/number awareness, social/emotional development, holiday themes and Kindergarten themes. 

I also love the Kindergarten Readiness Test she has for parents. I think it would be extremely beneficial for parents of our students to fill out during Kindergarten screening. I am going to recommend it to our counselor. Sometimes I don't think parents truly know how much is expected from their child throughout the Kindergarten year.

Check out School Sparks and tell Renee that I sent you. :)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Kindness & a Wonderful Pilgrim CVC Game

I am so excited! I woke up this morning and found out that I had won a $5 DonorsChoose gift card from Jennifer at Herding Kats in Kindergarten. She was originally going to choose two $10 winners, but she added two $5 winners, as well. How extremely sweet is that? The kindness she shows despite the frustrations she is feeling this week is very refreshing. Go check out her blog and give her some love this week. She could use some support and encouragement and I know you are all good about that! :)

Plus, check out the great Pilgrim CVC Game Jennifer created below. I think it will be great to use with my higher level students. I love the graphics, too! 
  CVC Pilgrim Game

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Check out this amazing blessing from Seat Sack!

Image: Source

I recently entered a Seat Sack giveaway on Facebook for a Teacher Tote and much to my surprise, I won! I was beyond thrilled and when I emailed the company with my shipping information, I mentioned that I would blog about the tote when I received it. I promptly received an email back stating that there would also be something in the box for me to review on my blog. It wasn’t a little surprise either, it was a HUGE surprise!

The box was filled with a class set of 25 red Seat Sacks, a leatherette File-n-Save Sack for my file cabinet and a brand new beautiful tote! I was giddy with excitement! My family thought I was crazy, but it was well worth it! Smile Check out this wonderful box of goodies!


For the tote, I went with Caldera Red and it is beautiful! I was very impressed with the quality and size of the tote, along with the lining, double straps, extra pockets, a place to add my keys, phone, etc. I thought I would use it for day to day items I tote back and forth to school, but found that it is the perfect size for my laptop. Yay! 

Check out the great selection of totes here. Right now, they are buy one get one half off using code BOGOTOTE. These would make excellent gifts for your teacher friends or your child's teacher.

Michelle H. at Seat Sack was such a wonderful representative of the company. She returned emails promptly and had excellent communication. I was very impressed with the entire experience and I certainly feel blessed to have gotten so many quality items to use in my classroom.

If you are thinking about purchasing Seat Sacks to save room at your desks or tables or just to organize your space at home, I highly recommend Seat Sacks. Also, now would be an excellent time to stock up, because they are selling the Seat Sacks for buy one get one 50% off using the code BOGOrange2011.

I feel like these are the most important features that  a teacher would look for in a Seat Sack:
  • machine washable
  • large variety of sizes to fit most chairs
  • slips directly over the back of a chair
  • organizes books, folders,  binders, dry erase boards, etc.
  • easy to clean
  • quality material
I encourage you to check out Seat Sack and see for yourself the amazing products they have available for your classroom.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie Mini Math and Literacy Unit

It all started with a quick glimpse of the Old Granny Who Swallowed Thanksgiving Dinner graphic set on the Scrappin Doodles Facebook page yesterday and I knew I had to get busy creating a few things for my Kindergarten kiddos. I LOVE all of the Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a … books. It seems like my students love them just as much.

Click on the picture below to take you to my TpT store to purchase your copy! 


This 50 page unit contains:
Shared Reading (Color and Black/White)
Magnetic Board/Mobile Retelling Pieces
Pocket Chart Sequencing and Vocabulary Cards
Syllable Sort and Self-Check
Spinner and Graph
Pattern Pieces
Emergent Reader (Color and Black/White)

To those of you finding this post via Pinterest, I'm sorry, but this unit is no longer free. So many people were having trouble downloading it through Google Docs that I have completely updated it and added an additional 20 pages and added it to my TpT store. I hope you understand. Feel free to check out the wonderful lesson plans that Deb at Writing Every Day Works created to go with the book and printables.  What an amazing resource!

You can find more activities or lesson at the following links:

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Mayflower Labeling Printable

Just a few pages to create an anchor chart for labeling the Mayflower, along with a student response sheet. Just click on the picture above to take you to the freebie.