The Appreciation Continues. . .

     Well, it's the end of Teacher Appreciation Week and I hope you feel as appreciated as I do.  Our PTA went overboard this year!  They treated us to breakfast on Monday, lunch on Tuesday, a manicurist in the Teacher's Room on Wednesday, a dessert bar on Thursday and a masseuse on Friday.  How great was that?  They also organized surprises for the kids to do each day.  One day they brought in fancy school supplies (boy did I get some cool sticky notes!), one day they brought in a handmade card, one day the brought in a little something sweet. It took a lot of time and effort to organize such a fabulous week, and it certainly made us all feel very appreciated!  I'd love to hear how you were celebrated at your school so leave a comment if you'd like to share.
     To show my appreciation to everyone who takes the time to visit my blog, I thought I would end the week with a bunch of freebies. 
     First up is a little end of the year goodie.  I usually do an end of year slideshow for the kids and their families and for the last song I use "Movin' On to First Grade" by Stuart Stotts and Tom Pease.  You can listen to a clip of it here - it's the CUTEST song!  The kids all sing along and the moms all cry. To match both the beginning of the year badges (here) and the 50th Day badges (here) that I made earlier in the year, I made similar ones for the kids to wear for the slideshow.  You can use them a lot of different ways, so grab a set to send your kiddos off in style.

Click Here to Download

   The next thing I have to share is a game I made in honor of one of the boys in my class who said he was "so over" all of the flower and butterfly themed spring math and literacy stations that have invaded our classroom.  He was totally right, so I made this baseball themed sight word game.  It's played like the old classic game, Bang!, and the kids love it!  Grab a copy below the picture for your anti-butterfly crew.

Click Here to Download

   The last freebie is something I pull out and dust off when I'm writing last minute sub plans. Yesterday I had a surprise curriculum writing work session to attend (yes, that tragically means I missed my massage...) and left this for my sub to do during Math.  It's a basic number Bingo, but the kids have to first fill in the missing numbers on their boards.  It's great for both counting and number writing practice and the kids never get tired of it. Detailed directions to leave for the sub are included.

Click Here to Download

     I hope you all had a great Teacher Appreciation Week and my wish for you is that you feel appreciated year round for all that you do.  Have a great night!

Room for Another Freebie?

After yesterday's Jackpot and blog hop are you going cross-eyed too? I spent hours downloading the most awesome freebies!  Everyone was so generous, I definitely feel appreciated, how about you?  Well, if you have room on your hard drives, here's another quick freebie that your kids might enjoy.  My kindergartners love to solve secret codes, so I made one for us to do this week in honor of Mother's Day.  Following the key, they have to find the matching flowers and write the letters to spell out the secret message.  It's great not only for emerging reading and writing skills, but it also strengthens visual discrimination. Click below the picture for a copy.  OK... I am now walking away from my computer to give my hard drive and my tired eyes a bit of rest to recover from yesterday.  Have a great night!

Click Here to Download

Jackpot!

As most of you know, there's a HUGE Teacher Appreciation Jackpot going on here in teacher blog land. I've spent the last 2 hours downloading some really great stuff. Teachers are so generous!  Click here to see where the K-2 hop begins.

I missed the sign-up to join the Jackpot, but I still thought I would offer a freebie.  Like many jackpot items, it is one of my best selling items from my TPT store.  The 80 page Ready for Summer Math and Literacy Centers is normally an $8.00 unit, but you can grab it today for free - it's just for today, so don't dilly-dally! If you download a copy, I would love a comment to hear what you think!

Click Here to Download 

Stay tuned all week - I'll have a whole bunch of freebies posted in honor of Teacher Appreciation!

A Little Teacher Appreciation

     If you're a fellow blog stalker there's no doubt that you've heard about the Teacher Appreciation extravaganza happening over at Teachers Pay Teachers this week.  TPT is spreading the love with a 10% off coupon (TAD12) and many sellers are offering an additional 5-20% off, adding up to a whopping 28% off!  Woohoo!  I already have 14 things in my cart and I've just started to browse - yikes!
     Be sure to pop back and visit often this week, I'll be posting a bunch of freebies to show how much I appreciate all of my fellow hard-working teachers!  If any of my TPT products have been on your wishlist, be sure to grab them in the next few days - everything will be 28% off from May 6-8.

Wishing you a great night and a whole bunch of appreciation!

Join the Club

     Panicked. I'm absolutely panicked. Only 37 days of school left to squeeze in everything I can to get my kids ready for first grade and it's just not enough time!  Hence the panic. With the push to meet really monumental objectives like getting even my struggling readers to an F&P level D (yikes!) I find myself scrambling to fit in things like practicing sight words. Luckily, the kids only need to know 25 words, which I think is a really reasonable number. I just read on one teacher's blog that her kids need to know 75!  I'm curious to know - how many do you focus on?
     Looking for a little help with this task, I came up with a plan.  Our Pete the Cat's Shoe Tying Club has been so successful this year (I haven't tied a shoe since November!)  because the kids pestered nicely asked their parents to practice at home so they could make it into the club.  It totally worked and so far, 14 out of my 16 kids are in the club. Hey - I'm not above a little "Please Mom, please Mom, pleeeease Mom" pressure! Seeing how well this club has worked out, I thought I would start a Popcorn Words Club too.
     Like the shoe tying club, the kids are practicing at home and when they're ready, they try to read me all of their words.  If they know them all, they become an official member of the Popcorn Words Club.  Woohoo! They get an official membership badge, a certificate with their name gets added to the display on the wall, and their favorite part - they get a bag of microwave popcorn to share with their family to thank them for their help. 

     I'm totally psyched at how well it's going.  I did a baseline assessment before we started and only 2 kids knew all of the words.  Two weeks later, 10 kids are in the club.  The remaining kids are working really hard and the kids in the club are even helping them practice during free time which is just awesome.  They all cheer for each other when they get into the club and say things like, "That's OK, you're doing great - keep trying!" when someone doesn't quite make it.  It's really pretty adorable.
     If you'd like to start a club in your classroom, you can download all of the materials by clicking the link under the picture.  Included in the packet are a parent letter explaining the club, membership badges, a poster and certificates to hang on the wall and labels to put on the bags of microwave popcorn (I use the mini 100 calorie bags).

Click here to get your kit



I'd love a comment if you download the kit and you're going to give it a try. I'd also love to hear how many sight words other kindergarten teachers are tackling this year.  Have a great night!

Mother's Day Freebie and Giveaway Winners

     Just a quick post to announce the winners of my giveaway and to share a Mother's Day freebie I thought you might like.  The winners of the Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed craft, the Father's Day "World's Best Pop" craft and the Kindergarten Memory book are Andrea, Kelly B and Joni.  Congrats ladies - be sure to check your email in the morning!
     In honor of all the moms out there, I'm offering my newest Emergent Reader pack as a freebie so we can spread the love to as many moms as possible.  Like the others I've made this year, it has a large 8-page, full-color book for shared reading and two matching b&w student versions - one for  independent reading and one with missing text for students to fill in.  Repetitive text allows for even the most beginning readers to be successful.  Pocket chart cards and follow-up worksheets are included.  I'm planning on having my kids make the "fill-in" version for their moms as one of the gifts we'll be making.  (And if my own mom is reading this, I love you more than baby wildebeests love their moms. Family joke...)
     Click under the pic if you'd like a copy. I hope you'll leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Click Here for Your Freebie

Giveaway and Earth Day Freebie

   The countdown to the end of the year has begun for most of us and it's interesting to hear how different everyone's school year calendar is.  In parts of the country, it sounds like some of you are but a few weeks away from summer break.  Here in Connecticut, most of us go through the end of June.  In any case, it's safe to say that most of us are counting down to a little R&R.  I'm always sad to say goodbye to my kiddos, but I love that I can watch them grow over their remaining years in elementary school.  Reason number 632 why being a kindergarten teacher is so great!
   In honor of the final sprint, I'm having an end of the year giveaway that should add a little fun to your remaining days.  I'll pick three winners at random to each win 3 of my most popular TPT end of the year products.  Listed below, there's a Mother's Day craft, a Father's Day craft and my bestselling kindergarten memory book.  You can check them out by clicking the links in the right sidebar, and if you'd like a chance to win, just leave your email in a comment.  (If you blog about my giveaway you can enter a second comment!)  You can enter through Friday, April 27th at 8:00 p.m.

Giveaway Prizes

 

( I love having my class make end of the year books but most of the versions I've tried have pages with lots of questions and small lines. These were just too frustrating for my emergent readers and writers to do independently, so I created this easy to use version. Each page has only one topic, such as "My favorite field trip was" or "One thing I wonder about next year is" and a wide, ruled writing line. Each page also has picture support for even beginning readers to understand and the kids always do a great job! )

Now for the Freebie...

     Today is Earth Day and we've been learning all about taking care of the Earth.  We're going to wrap up the unit with a sorting and graphing activity tomorrow.  If you'd like a copy, click below the picture to download.  Happy Earth Day!

Click here for your freebie