New Blog & a Sale

Hilary Lewis of Rockin' Teacher Materials recently contacted me asking if I would like to be an author on her newest blog ~ Who's Who and Who's New ~ a blog featuring new and "undiscovered" Teachers pay Teachers sellers.  Of course, I said yes!  I am so excited to be included in this project.  Hilary, a TpT milestone achiever, has brought together educators from all over to write posts for this new blog that debuts tomorrow. We are all scheduled to write a post about 8 - 9 times in 2014.  My first entry will be on 1/14/14.  I can't wait for this blog to get started.  Please hop over to it now & become a follower.  You won't want to miss a thing!

 

And, while you are hopping around cyberspace, pop over to my Teachers pay Teachers store and check out what's on sale.  Thanks!  

The words are returning...

I spent a couple hours yesterday going through my older posts ~ changing my captions to text.  I'm almost done (I think).  Geeze, I wish I had never written my thoughts as captions.

That being said, I have also been busy working on some new things for Teachers pay Teachers.  I want to finish up my new winter projects before we go back to school next week so I can use them.  Part of our first week back will be spent finishing up a few loose ends so I can get my report cards done.  Last year I had them done before Christmas, so I feel like a serious slacker.  Well, the 2 hour fog delay on the day I had planned to do the last part of our math test didn't help.

We are also going to spend some time discussing books ~ author, illustrator, characters, etc.  We do talk about them a lot, but I want to spend a little more focused time discussing these elements.  I have created a little set of posters to help my kiddos remember what is what.  I plan to do a little redo of some of my bulletin boards one day next week, and I want to hang them in an easy to see spot.

Here is a sampling ~ I have seven posters.  Click HERE if you want to check them out at my TpT store.

Another thing I want to do next week (I really don't plan to spend my remaining Christmas break at school, but I have lots of plans... We'll see what gets done for real!).  Oh, where was I?  Another thing...  I want to revamp my writing station. Now that my students have become pretty good little writers, I think it's time to pump it up a little.  One thing that they love love love is Write the Room.  They usually choose it during writing, and a number of Kinders would rather write the room than play during our free choice center time!  I like to keep generic write the room pages in their writing binders, but for our stations time, the kids like themed paper that goes with the current word cards.  One of the items I just finished includes the Write the Room my kids will use the first week back in January.  

 This set includes 3 activities: Write the Room, Spin & Write, and Roll & Write.  We use "Wonders" for our reading series, so most of the words are what we will be studying in the next couple of weeks.  

Click HERE to check it out at TpT.

Being the Busy Bee that I am, I also made this set for my Word Work Stations. Now, I just need to get going on my new math centers, and I'll be ready to move onto Valentine's Day!  

For this product I made one set of picture and letter cards.  Use them for four different activities to practice naming the medial vowels, and spelling CVC words.  I want to try to make more items that have multiple uses.  I love all of the cute cards, but it does take a while to prepare everything...  So, I began thinking about how to :work smarter," and this little product was born! :-)  Click HERE to buy.

Well, thanks for sticking with me through all of this!  Click HERE to get a little FREEBIE!

Restoring my Words

I was just looking through some of my old posts when I made the discovery that many of my words didn't appear!  I knew I wrote captions for my pictures ~ then I realized that was the problem!  My captions no longer show up on my blog (I can still see them if I go to 'edit' ~ how in the world did this happen?).  Visitors must have wondered why I was posting all of those pictures without any descriptions.  I figured out that I can copy & paste the captions under the photos, and then delete the captions.  It is going to take a while (unless someone knows an easier way...)  I'm not sure when I stopped using captions, and just typed under the pictures, but I wish it had been sooner than I did!  So, if anyone wants an explanation about any of my pictures, send me an email or comment. and I'll tell you all about it. 

My Christmas Cuties ~ Olivia, Amelia, and Isabella are waiting patiently as we snap photos before opening gifts. 

Fun New Linky & a Sale

I am linking up with The Primary Gal for her new Friday Free-For-All linky party.  She will be hosting this on Fridays - just in time to snag some freebies to use in your up-coming week's lesson plans. 

My freebie this week is a sample of my Snow Buddies Number & Ten Frame set.  Click HERE to get your copy.  If you like it, please take a moment to rate it.  Thanks!

And, while you're downloading your freebie, please take a look around my store ~ everything's on sale until 12/30/13!

Christmas is Coming! Watch out for the Elf!

I hope you all are having a fun December so far!  It can get crazy with Kinders the closer it gets to Christmas!  We have been super busy ~ trying to cover everything that needs to be covered, and indulging in a little Christmas fun.  We got to shop at Santa's Secret Shop which our PTO organized.  The kiddos had fun shopping for their families at school.  Next Friday our corporation superintendent will make his annual visit to read a Christmas book to us.  The following week we will have our Christmas party & Polar Express day.

And, now for my Five for Friday.



1. Here are some of the Literacy Stations we did last week.

The first three are from my Christmas Literacy Centers set, and the other two are from Sarah's Christmas set.

Find the elf write the room

 Syllable sort

 Naughty or Nice nonsense word sort

 Beginning sounds

 CVC spelling ~ I guess I put the wrong page with these cards!  Sarah's set has two sets of cards - each with worksheets for two different skills.

2. Some of our math stations.  These are from my Christmas Math Centers set.

 Gingerbread numbers

 before/after

 Skip counting by tens (my set also includes cards for counting by fives and twos)

 Making numbers 11 - 19 pocket chart activity cards

 Matching activity

 Making numbers with foam ten frames

3. Elf on the Shelf Linky

 

 Our elf, Mr. Gingerbread made his appearance on Monday.  Here are some pictures of him as he watched over the Kinders.

 It is so cute, the kids write letters to Mr. Gingerbread in their free time.  I have also caught them talking to him - from a distance so as not to take away his magic.  One little boy pleaded his case for a real, live puppy. Yikes!  I quickly explained that Santa had to talk to his parents if he wanted a puppy. 

4. Oh Christmas Tree!  Oh how I love my Christmas Tree(s)!  We put up five trees each year.  It takes a while to get everything up, and with Thanksgiving being so late this year, I am still not quite finished.  (Our real tree is still on the back porch.)

 Our "main" tree in the family room.  It holds all kinds of ornaments.  Many of them were made by my mother, grandmother, and me.

 The dining room tree is decorated by repro vintage ornaments.  I love the look of the old ornaments, but don't want to risk them falling onto my hardwood floors, so I put my vintage ornaments into this big glass bowl, and hang some from the light fixture.

 One of my vintage Christmas balls.

 The kitchen tree holds all of my fancy Diva Birds.  (The sunroom tree is peeking through the window.)

 Sweet Little Kitty & Macie under the Diva Bird tree.

 The piano room tree is covered in snowmen & snowflakes.

 Sweet Little Kitty and a tin soldier flank the foyer tree.  Santa ornaments will go onto this tree.

 The living room tree is just a silly little tree that stands by my antique library table covered in Santa figurines.

(Daughter Gabrielle painted the picture of a vase.)

 Tinsel trees on the coffee table in the sunroom.  The silver angels in the windows are from Germany.

 Upstairs landing tree is covered with glass balls - nothing fancy, but it brightens up the space.

 Downstairs landing tree and snowmen.  A friend made the snowman on the left for me several years ago - it lights up through the cut out star.  This little tree stays up all year (with the snowman, too).  When Isabella was a toddler she loved snowmen, so I left it up.  

5.  This should have gone into a post closer to Thanksgiving.  I love how Xbox, iPads, and other material items weren't mentioned when we brainstormed this list.