Sunday, February 12, 2012

Wow! I don't know how Deedee Wills does it!


(Click on the pictures above to grab a copy.)

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.

27 comments:

  1. Your plans look great Marlana! I adore Deedee's "peek at my week" posts and I have no idea how she does it all! Wish I had the tech skills (and time!) to create organized planning pages like that! I never write my centers in my planbook-but I wish I did-just think how nice it would be next year to be able to look back on pages like this and see what each of your centers was each week of the year! Maybe someone will give some good tips for an easy way to make these plans!
    Keen on Kindergarten

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    1. Meredith, that's my goal to get things done so I don't have to keep doing them each year. Especially since we've started implementing Common Core Standards. I'm hopeful I'll be able to use these things for awhile :) If I was to do this each week, I'd definitely have to have a better system. It took me a long time just to search for everything I needed, which was especially hard when I was trying to keep most everything free. :)

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  2. I really enjoyed this post! I'm also contemplating how to organize in this way so it is easy to access next year. Thanks!
    kcahcrim@comcast.net

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    1. Ha! Thanks, Christine! Wouldn't it be great to be able to just use the same things next year? Fingers crossed that I come up with an easier system for myself. ;)

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  3. Wow, thanks for sharing so many great resources!!

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  4. You are so sweet! How do I do it? I have my guys help me laminate and cut on Sunday night. Hubby and son are pretty good at it!! Great job! Looks like you are ready to take over... it's all yours now! LOL!

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    1. Well, it looks like I'm going to need your hubby and your son to come with you, too! Ha! My 5 year-old daughter is helping me with my laminating tonight, but she wants to play all the games herself and then all the sudden, my partner is in the floor playing and I'm doing all the work my myself again. :) I would think it's her strategy, but then she's generally disappointed when I accidentally forget to let her get the paper when it comes out of the laminator.

      I was barely even ready to post this! I'm seriously in awe of what you do!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  5. I am hoping to be at this point next year with Houghton Mifflin Journeys centers for Kindergarten!! You are both an inspiration, and I use you both as resources!!!

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  6. Looks great! I wish I could get my act together and complete something like this. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. The only reason I did this today is because I'm apparently in denial that we might actually have to go to school tomorrow. I think it's going to snow enough to let me stay home tomorrow so I can start planning for the next week since this one took me so long. Ha!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  7. You did a great job!! I have a feeling that this summer will be filled with Powerpoint "to-do lists" galore! Really, we need to pace ourselves when summer begins or we won't have any kind of vacation, lol. :-)

    ReadWriteSing

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    1. Thank you Chrissy! I totally hear you about pacing ourselves! I enjoy my summertime, but I do end up planning a lot when I should just be enjoying the time off. Luckily, I enjoy planning, too!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  8. Hi Marlana,
    I am so excited to share my newly finished blog with you! I hope you can come share my teaching adventures as well!

    http://kristinlynnsworld.blogspot.com/

    Kristin

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    1. Thanks for sharing, Kristin! I'm a new follower!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  9. I create something similar. I just don't have the time to post it using all the links and pictures. Mine is simply making a table listing the centers name, the activity and what students are expected to do. If the activity is from a purchased unit or a freebie, I list the name of the unit and author so I will know where it came from for future references. I love your chart and I look each week for Mrs. Willis's Peek at the Week. I don't know where she gets the time to create those fabulous ideas plus make those weekly station charts.

    Rose
    "The Wonderful World of Kindergarten"

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    1. Rose, I think I will likely have to start just documenting what I'm doing and go from there. It took me almost 4 hours to find and compile everything I needed just for one week's worth of stations for this post. Yikes! Deedee obviously has a great system. Plus, she makes lots of her own stuff. Again, I'm so jealous!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  10. o em gee! I don't have a blog & I can't keep up. You ladies are terrific! It takes both me & my husband (we are empty nesters of 3) to keep things printed, cut, laminated, cut, organized. We went to the lumber yard & got 2 organizer/cubical things this past week-end so hopefully now I can really get things FLOWING. Our school is up for state evaluation this year so there is tons of paper work & tweaking in all areas. I owe you talented, generous ladies big time for sharing so much! ALL OF YOU.

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    1. Thank you for your sweet comment! Good luck with your school's evaluation this year. I'm sure that's stressful. I feel like I tweak things every year and we aren't even being evaluated. I have started throwing things away a lot more this year. I think I previously had a resource hoarding problem. Ha! This summer I think I recycled an entire tree's worth of paper.

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  11. Once again my friend you AMAZE me! I love reading your post and all your wonderful freebies. It is such an inspiration. I just want to know what program you all use to develop your units? Word? Illustrator? I am looking for a user friendly one. Any suggestions? Thanks for sharing your work and always, you are such an inspiration.

    Blessings,
    Jeannie

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    1. Jeannie, you are always just so sweet! I always look forward to seeing your comments. :) I use Word to create everything. Mainly because when I had to replace my laptop at Christmas, I didn't want to pay for the entire Office program, so the only thing I use is Word and if I have to do anything with graphics or images, I use Paint. I know it's archaic, but it works for me right now. :) I know a lot of people use Publisher and PowerPoint. I guess it's a matter of individual preference and existing resources. Mine would be the latter.

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  12. Being organized is the hardest part. I too spend hours just trying to get everything ready for the next week. I'm trying to store a lot my activities in binders using paper protectors. I found the idea off of someone's blog. So we will see how it works.

    You're doing a great job and I really enjoy your blog.

    PS. I was able to have 2 snow days!! :D I hope you got yours too!

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    1. I agree about organization. I'm organized at school, it's the stuff online that is all over the place. I have things saved in too many places or tagged or pinned or you name it. It's crazy! I store my activities in sheet protectors, too. It helps with all the little pieces and keeps the response sheets from getting bent.

      Thank you for your message! We did get two snow days, too!

      Blessings,
      Marlana
      Lil' Country Kindergarten

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  13. Great ideas!

    http://upanddownthehall.wordpress.com/

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