Saturday, January 28, 2012

Will You See Your Shadow? Groundhog Day Song {Freebie}

Be REALLY glad that you can't me hear me sing when I'm making up songs or pretty much anytime I'm singing. I'm one of those people who really can't sing, but LOVES to sing anyway. :) Sometimes, my class and I will be singing a song and the para in our class will be singing along and I will stop so the kids have to fill in the missing part of a song and she will keep singing and we both laugh. It's only funny because she CAN sing and I'm, at best, very pitchy. Ha!

Everyone in my family can sing well. Hmm, maybe I am adopted. 

Somehow, singing with kiddos is amazingly fun! They are so enthusiastic and carefree! However, when adults have to hear me, I want to fore worn them to cover their ears and to please not judge me. I remind them that the kids don't seem to mind how horrible I am. 

Well, if you've made it this far, I'm rewarding you with a freebie song for Groundhog Day that I made up this evening! Thanks for sticking with me! :) Click on the picture below to get your copy.

So, what kind of singer are you?

Groundhog Day and Mini Shadow Unit

Last night I created an emergent reader for Groundhog Day and couldn't stop there. I have added a new mini unit to my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook stores. I'd be thrilled if you took a look! The mini unit is 19 pages long and is only $3.

 

This mini unit contains all of the following:
Groundhog Facts
Groundhog Facts Recording Sheet
Super Groundhog Sites
Groundhog Headband Template
Groundhog's Shadow Activity
Groundhog Shadows in Relation to the Sun/Light (Cards and objects to manipulate)
Guess the Shadow
Little Groundhog Down Below Emergent Reader
Little Groundhog Down Below Shared Reading Prediction Sheet

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Even More Hundreds Charts for Holidays and Activities

 ***Update...Due to a seller bundling my items and offering them for sale via another web site, I am no longer offering these items for free. I'm sorry! I hope you understand.***

I had so much fun creating the upcoming holiday and celebration hundreds chart activities that I decided to make some more hundreds chart items for spring and a few for previous holidays. Click on each picture to purchase these charts from my TpT store.

To view the previous hundreds chart post: Click here





Monday, January 23, 2012

Favorite Follower Award

I got a sweet comment from Sara at Kindergarten is a Hoot. She let me know she was awarding me the Favorite Follower Award! How sweet was that? You have to go check out her cute blog. She's adorable!



Winners of this award are to pass it on to four of YOUR favorite followers... the ones who are always sure to leave you some love, and who make you feel really good about whatever it is you posted!

I would like to say this was hard for me, but it actually wasn't this time. I love that I can give someone an award for being a loyal follower! Who doesn't love followers who are supportive, compassionate, friendly, kind and have a heart for teaching?  I love that these women give me honest feedback and take the time to connect with me through their comments and emails. Plus, they have amazing ideas to share!

That being said, I appreciate each and every single one of my followers! I am always thankful when people reach out to give me advice, constructive criticism and to just plain share the love! :) 


I chose the following ladies for being such amazing followers!


Can Do Kinders




Cheryl from Crayons and Curls



Congratulations!!!

Friday, January 20, 2012

200th Post Giveaway Winners!!!


Congratulations to the following winners in my 200th Post Giveaway! I wish I could give something to everyone! I truly appreciate all of your entries and enthusiasm! You are all the greatest!

A special thank you to the Williams' Sisters at Kinder Friendly for sharing their wonderful February and Valentine's Day sets. I am thrilled they participated in this giveaway!

#1 - Rachell Crockett
You win a $10 TpT gift certificate!

 #2 - Jennifer @ Keys4Education
You win a $10 TpT gift certificate!
 

#3 - Malarie
You win two wonderful Valentine's sets from the Williams' Sisters at Kinder Friendly! 

All three winners have been notified. If do not hear from them within 48 hours, alternate winners will be chosen.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

3D Shapes Poem {Freebie}

Thanks so much to each of you who commented on my last post about needing help with ideas for 3D shapes. I am going to try to implement lots of them this week. I also found a poem and made it a little more kinder friendly. I'll probably add it to our Reading Binders and try to recite it the rest of the week. Click on the picture below to download a copy for yourself.


WARNING--Do not read the following statement if we're teetering on the edge of friendship, because I promise this will automatically put me in frenemy status for unnecessary grossness! :) You have been warned!

On a somewhat unrelated note, several people mentioned using toilet paper tubes as a match for cylinders and I can't get a little scenario out of my head.

I can't remember who said this, but I was in a workshop and the presenter mentioned not asking for students to bring in toilet paper rolls anymore. She suggested asking for paper towel tubes and then cutting them to size. The reason: most people change the roll while still on the, ahem...'pot',  before they've washed their hands. Then, you put them up to your eyes for binoculars and make cute crafts out of them and you know for a fact where a person's hands have been. EEEWWW! I've never looked at toilet paper tube activities the same again.

I know you wish I wouldn't have mentioned that, but now you'll have the same visual so now I can get it out of my head and put it into yours. Ha!

Are we still friends?

Monday, January 16, 2012

Help! I need ideas for 3D shapes!

I started teaching 3D shapes last week and I need ideas!!!

We have several sets of  plastic and wooden 3D shapes to manipulate and we've cut 3D pictures out of magazines to sort. We're also singing HeidiSongs 3D shapes songs daily . I just printed Penguin Playtime 3D Shape Review from Ketchen's Kindergarten. The majority of my students have caught on very quickly. However, I still have a few that cannot remember the names of the shapes at all. They can tell me characteristics, but have no name recall whatsoever. (Unless it's the 'spear' aka sphere.) Ha!



Ketchen's Kindergarten


I'm looking for activities for the following shapes: cube, cylinder, cone and sphere. 

Please comment with any great ideas, links or products you have that are free or for sale. I would love to support fellow bloggers. :)



Kindergarten - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Presidents' Day Emergent Reader

I just added a Presidents' Day Emergent Reader to my TpT store. I had to purchase quite a bit of clip art for it because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for free or that offered the availability of commercial use. I wish there was a site that had links to all kinds of sites for teachers that everything was available for commercial or freebie use. Maybe we need a linky party for that! :)


 I hope you like it!

***I'll send a free copy to the first three people who comment with a link to something you find amazing for teaching Kindergarten students about Presidents' Day. It doesn't have to be your own idea. :) Be sure to include your email address.  Thanks Gladys, Constance and Miss Nguyen's Class for being the first three to comment! I have sent each of you a reader. Let me know if you don't get it for some reason.



Kindergarten - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Candy Heart Skip Counting

Just something fun for skip counting by tens. I included a color copy and a black and white version. I just spent $60 on ink for my home printer and I'll probably use half of it over the next 24 hours printing out all the fabulous things I've found for winter and February. :) I will likely print this once in color and have black and white copies for students to put on a sentence strip or pre-cut construction paper.
Click here or on the pictures above to grab your copy.

I'm celebrating my 200th post with a GIVEAWAY!!!

I'm so excited that this is my 200th post! How better to celebrate than to have a giveaway!!! I would like to give two lucky readers each a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card. I have also teamed up with the Williams' Sisters at Kinder Friendly and they are generously offering two of their February units to one lucky winner! That's 140 pages of ready to use centers for your Kindergarten classroom! 

Be Mine Valentine ~ Math and Literacy Centers for Kindergarten and Valentine Hearts Counting with Tally Marks

***Be sure to include your email address in your comment(s) so I can contact you if you win!***

You will get one entry for commenting on each thing you do below.
1. Follow my blog.
2. Follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
3. Make my shop a favorite on Teachers Notebook.
4. Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your post.
5. Become a fan of Lil' Country Kindergarten on Facebook or become a NetworkedBlogs follower.
6. Follow Lil' Country Kindergarten on Pinterest.
7. Follow Kinder Friendly's blog.
8. Follow Williams Sisters on TpT.

This giveaway will end on Friday, January 20 sometime at 6 PM CST. The winners will be chosen using a random number generator.

Check out this great new Kindergarten blog!

 
Last night, I stumbled upon the blog Kinder Friendly and I know that you will want to see it, too! I received two wonderful gifts in my email this morning for becoming a follower and leaving a comment! I want to encourage you to head on over to Kinder Friendly. I will be teaming up with them on my next post for my 200th post celebration! I'm thrilled!!! You're going to love what they have to offer!

Here's a link to their store if you are interested in purchasing some of their wonderful items! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Williams-Sisters 

***Update: I just printed the Winter Whimsy: Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers for January and it is EXCELLENT! I seriously can't tell you how wonderful it is and how much you will get for the price. So many skills are covered and everything is bright and cheerful. My students are going to love this next week!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

February Math and Literacy Stations {A tiny bit early!}

I know I just finished the Winter Math Work Stations Linky Party, but I’ve decided to go ahead and get a jump start on February station ideas for Math and Literacy. Maybe this will give everyone enough time to get things added, as well as, time to get things printed and assembled for February. I’ve added a freebie tonight, just to kick it off. Click on the picture below to download a copy of the chart and self-check sheet.


Click on the picture below to take you to a Google Doc filled with lots of great ideas from amazing bloggers.

Visit Lil' Country Kindergarten

If you would like to include a link to your own items, please fill out the form below. Your activities can be free or for sale. You can link to as many products or activities as you would like.

Scholastic Dollar Deals are Back!

I'm so excited about Dollar Days again! I just had to share! I am shopping right now! Is there anything that's a must have that you recommend?

Dollar Deals are Back!

Love to Joplin

While watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Joplin) last night, I kept thinking how blessed I am and how lucky our family was that we were not affected by the devastating tornado that ripped through Joplin on May 22, 2011. I live in Southwest Missouri and I remember not being able to get in touch with a friend who lives in Joplin and feeling scared for her and her family. I also remember crying for days for people while feeling so completely helpless. The stories of loss were beyond heartbreaking.


I was thrilled last night when I read that Erica from Joplin had reached out to Deedee Wills to ask bloggers to send some of their items to help lift the spirits of other Joplin teachers. What a wonderful thing she is doing for her co-workers and what a blessing it is that Deedee continued the generosity by offering the same opportunity to other teachers. I hope that you will all feel compelled to email Erica with something that you might find beneficial to Joplin teachers. I'm sure it will be appreciated. If you do, be sure to link up to Deedee's blog by clicking on the picture above.
 
1.  Send your TpT product or Teacher's Notebook to Erica at edoennig@joplin.k12.mo.us
 

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sweeter Than Sugar {Part 2}

I wanted to give a shout out to the following two ladies for awarding me the Versatile Blogger Award. :) I am so thankful for their kindness and support. I continue to be humbled by the generosity of other bloggers.

Now, go check out these great blogs!

Thank you, Patsi from ABC123Kindergarten and Dee from Over the Moonbow.




See my original post here. I'm a rule follower and I don't want anyone to think that I'm not following the rules by passing this great award along to other bloggers. I promise, I did! :)

Winter Math Work Stations {Linky Party}

I've tried to make good use of my time today, so I've been searching high and low for some fun winter math work stations and I thought I'd share all the freebies I've found. If you have created something for sale or for free that fits this category, please feel free to fill in the form below to be added to the Google Doc.

Click on the picture below to take you to a Google Spreadsheet with links to 40+ winter math work stations.








Our First Snow Day of 2012!

Living on a gravel road and teaching in a rural school district definitely has it's perks! We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning and we got the call at 5:50 that school had been canceled for the day. It continues to snow, so who knows what tomorrow will bring? I kept waking up all night looking out the window to see how much snow had accumulated because 16 of my individual barometers were definitely indicative of a snow day yesterday!

I vow to get some lesson planning done today. Sadly though, I left everything at school that I need. I might have to sweet talk the hubby into taking me to town. :)

This week we read the book Footprints in the Snow and used it to make predictions. It is also a wonderful story for making inferences. Especially if you stop right before the wolf starts getting hungry. :) Click on the picture below to download the freebie.

Have a great day!


Kindergarten - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Mini Envelope Template {FREEBIE}

After my last post, I got to thinking that the mini envelope template I created could be used for many things, so I made a blank one for you to use. Click on the picture below to download the template from Google Docs. If you make something with it, I’d love for you to come back and comment about what you’ve made.  

Mini Envelope Template 1

Nuts About Numbers: Activities for Math Work Stations {Freebie}

I finally had the chance to sit down a create a freebie for the squirrel mini treat envelopes I talked about in this post.  I realize that not everyone may have a Dollar General nearby to be able to get these exact envelopes, so I created something similar for you to print and fold. It won't take a lot of ink for the envelope, either. You can always print it out in grayscale and copy it onto construction paper, too. I hope you like it! There are 25 pages in all.




Click on any of the pictures below to download Nuts About Numbers from my Teachers Notebook Shop.


 
 

Kindergarten - TeachersPayTeachers.com

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sweeter than sugar!

I wanted to take a minute to thank the following super duper sweet bloggers who awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award. I’m so thankful to have such a great group of bloggy supporters and friends. Thanks for making my week! Without you to read my posts, this wouldn’t be nearly as fun! I am still thrilled each time I get a comment, a new follower or even an email from another teacher! An award is just like the cherry on top of the already yummy icing on the cake in my book! Anyone feel like a group hug? Ha!

1. Thank the person who presented the award to you and link back to them.
Thank you so much to these ladies!  Go check them out at the links below. If you aren’t already following them, I would jump at the chance if I were you! Looking at this list just makes me smile!


 
Photobucket
 
Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Kindergarten
 

My Button
2. Tell seven things about yourself.
  • I don’t want to totally bore you with this again, but check out this post where I posted 7 things about myself for a previous award.

3. Pass this on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received the award.
Sorry, I couldn’t stop at 15! I thought it would be hard, but I’ve found so many new-to-me bloggers lately. I’m so excited to pass it on! I know each of these ladies would love your support, too! If anyone would like to take on a little project creating a button for one of the links below without one,  let me know. It would be a great little surprise to them! I’m going to try to do a couple of them myself. Shh, don’t tell!