Happy Leap Day!!! 

I wanted to remind you again that many TpT stores, including mine, are offering 20% off of our products today. Plus Teachers pay Teachers is offering another 10% off! You save up to 28%! Use Promo Code: L2P9Y

The 10% from TpT is taken off after the seller's already discounted 20%, so that's why it's 28%.

Click on the picture above to take you to the sale on 2-29-12! I'm offering 20% off and TpT is offering a discount, as well! You'll save 28% altogether! Just be sure to enter the code L2P9Y for the best savings!

Just popping in to add a freebie for your Math Work Stations for March. I hope everyone is doing well and getting lots of new ideas for March. We are gearing up for our Dr. Seuss celebration and I'm loving all the great ideas I've seen on everyone's blogs and through Pinterest. I have way more resources accumulated that I'll ever be able to use and I'm loving that!

March Math & Literacy Stations Linky Party! 

I apologize that my little ol' blog has been a snoozefest of activity the last couple of days. We were out of school Monday and Tuesday for snow days and Wednesday was our Valentine's Party. My list of things to share with you is a mile long and I feel like every single thing is important, but I haven't been able to drag myself away from my family.

I've enjoyed EVERY single minute with my kiddos and husband that I can while I've been home. My babies have shared icky upper respiratory germs, so there's a whole lotta coughin' goin' on at our house right now. (My poor babies!) 

So, instead of posting about teacher relevant things, I'll share with you a few pics of our fun in the snow on Tuesday.

(Don't judge that they don't have their hats/earmuffs on in all of these pictures. I made them take them off for less than 5 seconds per picture so I could get a few clear shots. My daughter's face kept being hidden by her ginormous, furry hood.)


This isn't even our dog, but she has adopted us and we really like her. She showed up one day a few months ago just skin and bones. We fed her and she hasn't ever tried to leave. She almost matches our other beagle so we call them Copper and Non-Copper.
Were any of you able to enjoy some fun in the snow this week?

Last night, I stayed up way too late thinking that we will most likely have a snow day today. Unfortunately, it's well past 1:00 A.M. and I can't get to sleep because of the sheer anticipation that there could be the slightest chance that we could not have to go to school tomorrow. It's bad, I know. :) So, I at least tried to be productive.

I created a small Presidents' Day Math and Literacy Work Stations unit. I have it in my TpT shop for $2 if you need a few last minute activities for this week or next. I also added some of my freebies to the end of it in case you haven't seen them

So, just for insanity fun today, I decided to create a version of a 'Peek at My Week' for literacy and math work stations like THE Deedee Wills from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. After finishing up, I decided I truly don't know how she keeps up with it each week. She's amazing and has all of her things all lined out each week and actually has it on her blog for others to see. Like, every week!

Here's where I'm at. I did finish a Literacy & Math Stations of the Week document, but I can't imagine that I would be able to change it every week. Mainly because it took me forever to print everything, add everything to the lesson chart and I haven't even done all the cutting and laminating. Deedee, how do you do it???

Can't we just figure out a way to clone these fabulous Kindergarten teachers and have them by our sides everyday to get us in a greatness routine? Please!!!

Plus, I'm trying to stick with my goal of paying off our land this year, so we'll be completely debt free. Therefore, all of the links I have listed were things that I was able to get for free. (This might help you, too! Just one of the stations would cost you anything, but it's well worth every penny!) When my debt free goal is met, I'm totally buying every great unit I see! Ha!

Have any of you tried creating plans like Deedee's? Do you have any secrets for me? I'd really like to figure out a way to embed my Pinterest pins in a Word document to make them clickable links. Then, I could do the picture and link part all in one step. Any suggestions for how to make this work?  If I do this again, I might have to just compose all of it in a blog post so it's a little easier.

Just thought I'd share a little freebie that I'm going to start using with my kiddos during The Daily 5. I hope it is useful for you, as well. Click on the image below to download a copy.

 

What an amazingly great day today! I received a super sweet gift from Michelle from Apples and ABC's for the Be My Valentine Exchange hosted by Ms. Preppy and Kindergarten Korner. The thoughtful gifts that Michelle sent are above. :) The polka dot cork board she made is super cute and she sent some colorful heart stickers. I love that she decorated the cork board herself. Won't this be cute to hold little pictures or notes by my desk?


Then, I got an email from Mary at Sharing Kindergarten. She included her super cute Valentine Candy Sorting Jars Activity just for following her blog and TpT store. You’ll definitely want to check it out. You can’t pass up a freebie like that!

        
If all of that wasn’t enough, I got an email from Rachelle at Life Is Sweet…In Kindergarten saying I had won her birthday giveaway! She sent me her Lucky Leprechauns unit on HER birthday. (It feels more like my birthday now!) The units are HUGE and they cover a variety of standards. I cannot wait to get them printed and start using them. I especially love the reader with the Leprechaun unit. I didn’t have any St. Patrick’s Day little readers…until now! You can purchase both of the items by clicking on the pictures above. They are each $8 through Rachelle’s TpT store.

Can you believe all of this? Then, a few days ago, I had asked Shawna from The Picture Book Teacher’s Edition if she would mind to make a blank Beginning/Middle/End foldable like she had created in this post and guess what? She made it and sent it to me and didn’t even ask me to pay for it. How generous was that? If you haven’t checked out her blog and started following her, you really need to. She is so very kind and she creates HUGE units and  shares lots of freebies, too.

All of this couldn’t have come at a better time. My little man is sick and it is sooo cold outside that there’s nothing better to do than stay inside and drink hot chocolate and print lots of fabulous resources. Opening my mail and emails has definitely made this a wonderful day! Thank you ladies! 

I posted on Facebook last night that I LOVE that there are sites devoted to basically rhyming dictionaries. That makes me so happy! I know you have probably been using things like this forever, but it was a new find for me. :) I like www.rhymer.com and www.rhymezone.com.

All I can say is WATCH OUT! Now I'm going to feel compelled to make all kinds of songs that don't truly have the right number of syllables to match the tune, but it's not going to stop me from creating! Ha!


I created a song for Shared Reading called We Celebrate Presidents' Day to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic. (In case you aren't familiar with the tune, you can find a midi file here.) I created three copies to be used. Click on the picture below to purchase this song through my TpT store.

Well, the infamous third quarter 'comfortables/crazies' have kicked in my classroom. You know where students aren't really worried anymore about self-control, they are absent all the time because everyone shares their germs and support from parents tends to wane a little because their child 'never acts like this at home'. Behavior and germs and denial, oh my!!! (Oops, did I say that out loud? Sorry!)

So, I took a nap tonight and regrouped. Then, I was all motivated and ready to create something fun for my wonderfully fabulous, talented, supportive, witty, amazing and faithful followers because I LOVE you all!!!

Head on over to my TpT store to purchase a copy of my Valentine, Valentine What Do You See? Emergent Reader. 




Also, if you haven't checked the February Math & Literacy Stations Google Doc lately, be sure to see if there's anything you can use. Almost everything that everyone has added is free. Yay!!!

On my last post, several of you mentioned that you would like to learn how to add pages to your Blogger blogs. I promise it is super simple. :) Instead of coming up with something myself (that would likely be way too drawn out), I just did a Google search and found the following link to be the most descriptive. Plus, I'm a visual learner, so I like the pictures for each step. Let me know if you have any questions.


http://shabbyblogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-add-pages-to-your-blog.html

Good luck! Be sure to come back and comment if you added pages to your blog. I'd love to check them out!

Last night while I was at school (super late) getting ready for my new little guy today, I was working really hard on setting up a few more word work stations for my students. We have had the Slide and Learn Word Families sliders above from Really Good Stuff for about two years now and up to this point, I had primarily only used them for whole class activities. I had them available for stations, but there was no accountability other than the child sliding the blue rime and pretending to read. Bad teacher, I know.  Basically, only students who could read or those who wanted to have something play with would even pick them up.

So, I decided to make a recording sheet for the students to complete as they are working with the sliders.  I also made two rings for differentiation. One ring holds our regular word family words and the second ring has a little bit harder rimes. Click on the picture below to get your copy of the Word Family Sliders recording sheet. . 



If you are interested in purchasing a set, here's a link to the product. They are $29.99.


You can always make your own, too. I like the colors of the paint chips below. However, you can make these out of white paper, construction paper, scrapbook paper, cardstock or whatever your little heart desires.

For those of you who read my blog in a reader, I wanted to let you know about a new page I created. It's very new, so please do not pay attention to the fact that I haven't entered much yet. :)

The new page is titled Themes, as you can see above. I wanted to my blog to be more functional for myself and those of you who visit that like to see what I might be doing in my classroom. Unfortunately, blogging about a new link every time I find a great activity isn't something you would probably like to see. My posts would be even more out of control than they already are on a daily basis. Ha!

So, I decided to create a Google Docs form to help me submit links that would also allow me to organize freebies and paid items by month, subject, lesson, etc. Check out the new page tab underneath my header and let me know what you think. As I mentioned, I just created it a few minutes ago, so I haven't submitted much yet. I'm getting a new IEP student tomorrow, so I need to go to school for awhile tonight and get a few things ready.

So, what do you think? How do you organize all the great ideas you get? 

Click on the book above to view a sample

For those you of you who implement a letter a week into your Reading curriculum, you'll definitely want to take a look at Cindy Johnson's ebook, Alphamania: An Alphabet Resource for Teachers and Parents. It is full of ideas that go  along with each letter of the alphabet. The ebook format is simple, easy to read and well organized.

You will find activities for crafts, snacks, movies, books,  geographic locations and songs that correspond with each letter of the alphabet.

Categories for each letter include:

• Crafty Creations 
• Activities
• Tiny Tastes
• Special Guests and/or Road Trips 
• What to Watch 
• What to Read 
• Letter Stretchers 
• Creature Features
• Where on Earth?
• Musical Notes 

My favorites for Kindergarten were Letter Stretchers, Where on Earth?, Creature Features and Musical Notes.  I love the idea of extending the curriculum beyond the regular letter of the week activities from year's past. The great thing is, you don't have to go out and purchase a lot of materials to make these lessons come alive. The majority of the ideas are very simple and easy to implement right away.

In my classroom, students have really enjoyed reading non-fiction texts to study different animals. The Creature Features section of each chapter includes a list of animals for each letter. The Where on Earth? portion is great for using a globe, map or a SMART Board or projector to find different geographic locations on Earth and expose students to new cultures around the world.

This ebook would be a valuable resource for parents and educators who teach a letter a week or those who need additional activities to reinforce what you are already doing. I would definitely recommend this ebook to others.

You can download a sample to view for free. You can purchase the ebook for only $5.99. There are a variety of formats for download, too. Check it out here.

*I was given a free copy of the ebook Alphamania: An Alphabet Resource for Teachers and Parents in exchange for posting a review.

If you're looking for a few last minute things for Groundhog Day, check out the Groundhog Mini Unit from 2 Teaching Mommies. My favorite pages are the Groundhog Parts and Groundhog Size Sequencing. My students will love labeling the parts of the groundhog.


Don't forget these two freebies I posted earlier:
Will You See Your Shadow? Groundhog Song {Freebie}
Groundhog 100's Chart Activity

I've also created a Groundhog Day and Shadows mini unit for Teachers Pay Teachers that includes an emergent reader.


Here are a few things I found that others are using:





Lots of fun ideas can be found on the following Pinterest Board: Deb @ Living Montessori Now.

Thanks to The Very Busy Kindergarten for finding this YouTube video. It's perfect for me since I'm in Missouri. :)





Okay, I realize this is a commercial, but the hand shadow puppets are absolutely amazing!

Mary at Sharing Kindergarten was kind enough to send me her wonderful unit, Light and Shadow Science Discovery Unit, to review. I'm so excited to be able to share about this fun unit!


In this unit you will find links to relevant videos, book suggestions, activity ideas and pictures to show you just what you need to get ready for a mini unit on lights and shadows. This is perfect to combine with Groundhog Day this week and even better for prompting students to have discussions about what makes and blocks light. You will appreciate the higher level thinking that your students will be asked to do, as well.

This lesson covers five days of content. The format of the unit is very easy to follow, with pictures of the texts that will be read with each lesson. There are also printables to go along with some of the activities.

Right now Lights and Shadows is on sale in Mary's TpT store for only $4! The lesson planning is already done for you and all you have to do is assemble the materials for each  day. You've got to love something that makes your life simpler so you can focus on the bigger things and this unit does just that. Mary has done all the hard work and you just print it out, get your books and charts ready and prepare your students for a fun filled unit that they will be sure to love!

Head on over to Mary's blog, Sharing Kindergarten, or take a peek at her TpT store.