I'm so excited to be getting together with my Kindergarten co-workers, Lisa and Robin, tomorrow! We get to meet Robin's new baby boy and we're going to work on planning the first few weeks of school.  

This year, we got our class lists super early, which has been really nice! I've been going back and forth for the last month on exactly what I wanted to send, a letter or a postcard, to announce to my new students that I would be their teacher. I finally decided to create a postcard that went along with our Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) theme this year, which is Beach/Ocean. This is what I came up with.


I created the postcards in Word and Paint using Scrappin' Doodles and Happy Heart Creations graphics. (Can you tell I don't have PhotoShop?) I printed the cards on my Canon Selphy photo printer using postcard paper. I hope to get them mailed tomorrow if I can finish all the writing in time. I will be mailing out a another letter for families before school starts that includes our school supply list, Open House details, etc.  


I recently ordered several $2.99 self-inking stamps from ArtsCow.com and I can't wait for them to arrive. I'm especially excited for the 'I showed good GRRR behavior' and 'Ask me how I made a good choice today' stamps. I think they will be great for hand stamps for my students to help with positive behavior. (GRRR stands for Get Safe, Respectful, Responsible and Ready to Learn--our PBIS expectations that go along with our bear mascot.)


If you are interested here are the details for getting the name stamps for $2.99 each.

***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.***

Several readers have requested summer, beach or ocean hundreds chart pictures and I think I finally came up with one. I hope you like my Sailboat Hundreds Chart! Click on the picture below to purchase a copy through my TpT store for only $1!

Check out my latest unit There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell on Teachers pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook! The colors are so vibrant in this unit that it makes me want to head to the beach for a little relaxation time. This would be great during your ocean unit or just plain fun to finish out the school year!


I would love to send this unit to the first three people who comment and include an email address. :) Thanks, ladies!


Here's a little freebie that I created to go along with this unit. I hope you like it! It's a class graph and results response sheet called Have you ever built a sandcastle? Click on the picture below for your copy.

One of our K Teachers is doing a unit on Oceans the week after Thanksgiving because she's teaching the sound /o/. Although it seems a little strange to teach about the ocean about the time we're changing into winter weather, the theme covers a huge amount of GLE's, so I'm getting kind of excited about teaching it. I have never taught an ocean unit except in summer school with mixed age kiddos (K-2). Here are a few of the things I will be using in addition to the file of ideas I already have.

Sounds
http://soundbible.com/tags-ocean.html

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/sound-library/index.htm

Hello Ocean Lapbook
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/hello_ocean_lapbook.php

Emergent Readers
http://mrskilburnkiddos.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/what-lives-in-the-ocean-emergent-reader-book.pdf


Tons of ideas - I like the ideas for There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Shell.
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/OceanPrintables.htm

Shark Tangram
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.makinglearningfun.com/Activities/MathIdeas/MathTangrams/Tangrams-shark.gif

Sea Animal Sort
I have lots of land/air/sea animal manipulative freebies from Highlights that I can use to let the kids sort, graph, classify, etc. 

Theme Unit Ideas
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/ocean.html

What are your favorite ocean activities?