A "Life is Good" Giveaway

     Well, I've been MIA for a whole week because Holy Moly - what a week! On the tails of the Hurricane Irene clean-up, my bathroom pipes burst and rained all over my kitchen, we got a bunch of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Lee which flooded my basement, and we had the first day of school.  Never has the saying, "When it rains it pours" been more fitting!  I am exhausted!  The good news is that you often see a rainbow after the storm, and luckily I have - my pipes have been replaced, my basement is now dry and I survived the first week of kindergarten. My new class is an energetic bunch with a lot of personality, but I can already tell that they are going to be eager learners and I'm looking forward to an exciting year. Life is good!

     I thought I would celebrate my "rainbow" with a giveaway.  I've gotten a ton of emails this week asking about the sign I made for my classroom door.  I tried to make one with Wordle and Tagxedo, but I wasn't happy with the colors and formatting, so I just made my own.  It's super easy to make (I'll post a "how to" later in the weekend) and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it at school.

     Since so many people seem to like it, I thought it would be a great giveaway prize.  I will custom design a sign for the first place winner and have it made into a 16x20 poster.  I will either mail it or arrange for the winner to pick it up at their local Walmart (did you know they do 1 hour posters at Walmart??)
     What's a giveaway with only 1 winner?  For the 2nd and 3rd place winners, I thought I would offer a goody from another previous post.  So many people emailed or commented on the cute pencil buckets I found for my "Ready to Write" and "Sharpen Please" buckets.  Apparently they are pretty hard to find, so I picked up a couple of extra sets to give away.  I'll print and attach the labels and send them to the winners in the mail.

     So, what do you have to do to enter this giveaway?  No jumping through hoops for this one, just leave your name and email address in a comment.  I'll chose the winners with a Random.org generator at 11:59pm on Sunday, September 18th, so be sure to enter before then.

May you always see a rainbow after the storm . . .

Turned My Frown Upside Down!

If you've read my last couple of posts, you know that I made it through Hurricane Irene relatively unscathed. I consider myself very lucky not to have had the massive water issues and overall cleanup that many around me have had to deal with. But apparently some cosmic force with a warped sense of humor decided that I was not off the hook entirely.  I went downstairs last night to find it raining.  In my kitchen.  In. My. Kitchen! The plumber confirmed this morning that I have a broken water pipe in the ceiling and he's going to have to rip apart the kitchen to repair it. Yuck, yuck, triple yuck! Again, in light of what others are dealing with I know that this is no big deal, just an annoying inconvenience at a very busy time.  But I was still pretty bummed.  Then, I opened my email and found something that, in kindergarten teacher lingo, completely turned my frown upside down. Katie from Little Warriors chose my blog for a Top Ten award!

How sweet is that?  She really made my day and completely cheered me up.  You should definitely pop over to her blog and check it out.  She has some really great ideas and just posted some terrific Chicka Chicka Boom Boom centers that are awesome for the beginning of the year.  Thanks again for the smile, Katie!

A Roller Coaster Named Irene

     Well, it's four days after the storm and Connecticut is slowly getting back to normal.  Many of my co-workers and neighbors are still without power and/or water and the clean-up is taking its toll on everyone's spirits a little.  We've certainly seen worse storms, but this one was just so widespread that its just going to take time to get everything up and running.  That apparently includes the start of school.  Teachers were supposed to return to work this past Monday, and the first day of school was scheduled for tomorrow.  We had a slightly extended summer vacation when they canceled our work day on Monday but we went in yesterday for meetings and today to set up our classrooms. (Don't you love how they think we can really get it all done in one day?)  After a flurry of activity today trying to get everything ready for tomorrow, our principal announced that there were still too many downed power lines and road closures for the children to safely make it to school tomorrow so they have decided to push back the first day to next Wednesday.  Yikes!  I certainly could use some more time to get the room ready, but now we're starting the year with 3 "snow" days under our belts.  What can you do?
     I feel like I'm already joining the party late because so many of you have already posted pictures of your beautiful classrooms and mine is still not finished.  Since you've let me peek into your world, I thought I would post a few pics of what I've done so far so you can take a look at my home away from home.

The door to my classroom.

This is what you see when you first walk in.  Our school was completely remodeled a year and a half ago - how great are the cubbies?

The famous Pinterest clock wall with foam clocks from Target.  I LOVE this idea.  What a great visual way to remind the kids when things are going to happen while also supporting their emerging time-telling skills.

The front of my classroom with my BFF the Smartboard.  How did I ever teach without one?

My reading corner.  I still need to add some pillows (and perhaps a couple of Pina Coladas...)

 My new Word Wall inspired by all of the great circle graphics Kristen uses at Ladybug's Teacher Files.

My favorite summer "makeover" project - my guided reading table.  My sister helped make the table skirt (and when I say helped I really mean came to my house and sewed it while I held the fabric) and I got the ottomans on sale at Target.  I'm very into teal and lime right now so I'm lovin' it!

I'll post some more pics when I'm finished.  I hope your school year is off to a less bumpy start than mine.  Have a great night!

An "After the Storm" Freebie

     I hope everyone who was in Irene's path is safe and sound tonight.  We fared better than expected here in Connecticut.  I live in a shoreline town and we had a good bit of rain and some pretty strong winds.  I have some major yard clean up to take care of (including the tree that split in half and fell into my neighbor's yard - oops!) and some water in my basement to bail out, but my family and friends are all safe so that's all that really matters.
     The good news is that today was supposed to be the last day of my summer vacation and oh how I mourn the end of summer vacation.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my job but I'm a summer girl at heart and not getting up at 5:30 am every day just thrills me . . .  Anyway, we don't have to report for our teacher work day tomorrow - woohoo!  One more day of summer vacation!  So, I'd thought I'd spread the love with a little freebie.  This Chicka Chicka Boom Boom game is going to be one of the first literacy centers I introduce and I thought you might like it. The kids spin their spinner, read the letter they land on, then find and color the matching coconut on their recording sheet.  (For those of you who picked up my TPT unit, this is great to use for differentiating with the lowercase version in the packet.)
     Again, I hope you and your loved ones are all safe.  Have a great night!

     Click Here to Download

A Little Back-to-School Goodie

     Once again I find myself working on cute, little, totally unnecessary things instead of tackling something more important.  Our first day of school is a week from today, so I realize that I need to get to work on the essentials, but for tonight my inability to prioritize led to a cute little project that I thought I would share.
     If your school is anything like mine, backpack tags are all the rage.  The kids come in with so many baubles attached to their bags that they actually jingle.  You know what they say, "If you can't fight 'em, join 'em!"  So, I made some kindergarten backpack tags for my incoming kids to decorate their new backpacks with.  I'm just going to cut them out, laminate them, punch a whole in the top and add a binder ring.  (You could also add yarn to make them into necklaces instead.)  If you'd like a set, click below the picture.  Now I promise I'll move on to more productive projects. Really. I will...

Click Here to Grab a Set

First Day of School Activities

     As I sit here planning for the first day, I'm remembering that I ALWAYS seem to over-plan.  Between wanting to make sure that I have every minute covered and forgetting just how long everything seems take in the beginning, I usually only get to half of what I have planned.  I thought I would share a couple of old favorites that I try to get in on the first day.
     The first is something that a lot of you probably do, too.  I have the kids draw self portraits of themselves on the first day of school.  It's a great way to assess their fine motor skills, name writing and attention to detail and it's something that all the kids can be successful at, regardless of their ability level.  I tuck away the finished portraits then we do a companion portrait on the last day of kindergarten.  I mount them on a large piece of construction paper, laminate them and send them home as a keepsake.  (Grab a copy below.)
     The second activity is a parent favorite.  I found a post on proteacher a few years ago about making a magnet to hang work on the fridge.  I made a little graphic with the poem and some clipart.  I photocopy onto cardstock and then have the kids each decorate one.  (They draw a little picture of whatever they want in the little paper - coloring pencils work best - and then color the rest however they choose.)  Then, I laminate the circles and hot glue a clothespin with a magnet onto the back.  Voila! Now you have a refrigerator magnet with a built in clip to hang papers.  If you want to give it a try, just click below the picture!
Have great night!

Click Here to Download

Click Here to Download

A Little Doh for a Little Dough

     Like many of you, I do a "Meet & Greet" before the first day of school. It's a great chance to meet the families, ease some anxieties and stir up some excitement for the year to come. I like to give the kids a little goody to take with them and I usually do the "Lucky Charms" goody bags because they're so cute (and inexpensive).  Because of the severe food allergies of a couple of students, I needed to come up with a new idea.  Aiming again for cute and inexpensive, I headed to - anyone care to venture a guess here- yup, the Dollar Tree and picked up a few 8-packs of Wonder Dough (Dollar Tree's version of Play-Doh.)

I came up with a little quote, created some cute clipart and printed up some "kindergarten-y" labels and voila!  Goodies for the whole class for the grand total of $3.00.  Can't beat that!

The tubs were not quite the right size to use standard self-stick labels with, so I just printed the labels on paper and glued them on.  If you'd like to make your own, click below the picture to grab a copy of the labels.  Enjoy!

Click Here to Grab the Labels