Time to Celebrate

Hi Everyone!

     I don't know what the weather is like in your part of the country, but here in the NE it is HOT!!  I've been out of school for a week now and I feel totally recharged.  I gave myself this week to be a complete lazy bum because from this point forward, this summer is going to be a busy one.  We're planning my sister Squeebie's September wedding (so happy about this!) and at the same time getting ready to help my Dad go another round with the Big "C" (so worried about this - I can't even type the actual word.) I am completely optimistic that both will go off without a hitch and we'll all be smiling in the end. 
     In the meantime, I realized two pretty cool things.  First, today is the one year anniversary of starting this blog.  Happy Blogiversary to me! I've had such an amazing year sharing with, connecting to and learning about teachers from all over the world.  I am a better teacher because of it, and I thank you all for letting me be a part of it.  I've really enjoyed taking a peek into your classrooms and showing you a little piece of mine. The second really cool thing I noticed was that I hit 1000 followers.  Holy Moly!  How did that happen? 
     Thinking about all of the above,  I feel the need to celebrate.   I want to celebrate lazy summer days and busy ones. I want to celebrate bloggy milestones and sharing with friends.  Most importantly, I want to celebrate new beginnings (Squeebie) and happy endings (Dad). Are you in?
     First, I have a summer freebie for you.  Teaching money can be especially challenging for K-1 teachers, so I made a cute little math station game to help the kid practice adding coins. You can grab a copy down below the picture if you think you can use it.
     Then, the celebration really kicks off tomorrow with a monster giveaway .  Over 25 fellow bloggers have generously donated prizes so the lucky winners will have a whole bundle of terrific new materials to start the school year off with a bang. Be sure to check back in to enter!

Click Here to Download

     Again - thanks for the terrific year.  May you have many milestones, new beginnings, happy endings and lazy summer days of your own to celebrate!

PJs, Thunderstorms & Freebies

     Ahhh. . . There's nothing like the first Monday morning of summer vacation without the 5am alarm clock ringing. Happy, happy, happy!  It was a very dark, stormy day and I took advantage of it by staying in my jammies all day long.  I even took an afternoon nap snuggled up with my sweet beagle, Sally.  Again, I have to say ahhhh. . .
     I wasn't a complete sloth however, I took some time today to work on some requests I've had to modify some of my past freebies.  So, put on your jammies and grab whatever you think you could use!

     First up are the playdough labels I made for the first day of school last summer. (Here's the original post.) 

     There's apparently been a lot of pinning going on (It makes me a little giddy when I see people pinning my stuff - I'm such a dork!) because the original post had 1084 views yesterday - holy moly! I've gotten a bunch of emails and comments requesting labels with grade levels other than kindergarten, so you can find First Grade labels here and Preschool labels here. 

     Next are last summer's backpack tags that say "Class of 2024 It all starts with Kindergarten..."  My kids LOVED them and they lasted all year because I laminated them.  Eager teachers who are already planning for the fall have been itching for new tags, so you can grab the updated, class of 2025 version here.

      To match the backpack tags, I made labels to put on little bottles of bubbles as an an end of year gift for my class.  I got the three packs of 4oz, bubbles from Dollar Tree and the labels fit perfectly!

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     Looking ahead, I thought some people might like them for an Open House favor or first day of school present, so I made these also.

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     Well, that's all for tonight. I can't be overly ambitious on Jammies Day, after all.  If you see grab something you think you'll use, I'd love a comment!

Have a Great Night!
 

So I Cried...

It was the last day of school yesterday and
I told myself that this year, I won't cry.
As attached as I am to my energetic little gang,
I thought I was ready for them to move on.

Then, right before dismissal
We were gathered, for one last time, in our meeting area
Backpacks on, ready to go.
I thought, "I'm really going to make it - no tears for me."

Then came a surprise from the music teacher -
Our school song began playing over the loud speaker.
I was caught off guard - I wasn't prepared!

From my kids, looking up at me
Came this sea of little voices
Sweet, sweet kindergarten voices

Voices that I have spent 181 days with
Voices that I have laughed and cried with
Voices that have called my name 872 times
Voices that have said "I love you"
So I cried. . .

I cried because
These voices won't bounce around my classroom anymore
These voices will soon call somebody else's name
These voices will learn and laugh without me
These voices will now only speak of kindergarten as a memory
So I cried. . .

I cried with the hope
That these voices will hold their sweetness
That these voices will keep laughing as they learn
That these voices will stay strong against the world
That these voices will always have someone to tell "I love you"
So I cried. . .

Then the song ended
Someone said "Cha cha cha"
And we all laughed. . .

Giveaway Winners

Just a quick post to announce the winners of the Goodbye from Pete Giveaway. The lucky winners of the Pete's Summer Vacation Math and Literacy unit are:

1. Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies
2. Kristy Helms
3. Jennifer from Herding Cats in Kindergarten

To spread a little more "Pete Love' I picked three more winners for a bonus prize.  This cute little autograph "craftivity" is a great end of the year activity and my kids loved making it!

The winners of the craftivity are:

1. megandw
2. Lisa R. from Learning is Something to Treasure
3. Amy Mc

Congrats, ladies!  If your email address is not in your comment on the giveaway page, send it to me so I can send your prize!

Have a great night!

A Goodbye from Pete - Giveaway and Freebie

     This year my class was obsessed with Pete the Cat. To say goodbye to the year and celebrate our love for Pete, I wrote an emergent reader for the kids titled, Pete’s Summer Vacation about all of the things I imagined Pete would do with his days off. I try to base my math and literacy stations around books we love, so it was pretty neat when the kids asked if our last bunch of stations could be based on this book. So I went to work and came up with a pile of math and literacy stations, as well as a cute autograph craftivity. I think it’s the perfect way for my class to end the year. Since I know many of you love Pete too, I thought I would share a freebie and have a quick giveaway so you could have some summertime fun with your kiddos, too! 

First, for the Giveaway:

Click Here to Download the Free Preview from TPT to see all of the goodies that are included.

The 100+ page unit includes an original emergent reader, 12 Math and Literacy activities designed to celebrate the end of the school year in a fun yet meaningful way & a cute autograph craftivity. If you think your class might enjoy it too, enter the Giveaway up to three times by:
1. Leave a comment if your class loves Pete.
2. Leave a comment if you're a follower of my blog.
3. Leave a comment if you follow my TPT store.

The Giveaway will run through Tuesday, June 5th at midnight and I'll choose at least three winners at random.

Now for the Freebie - a student version of the emergent reader to use either for guided groups or independent reading.  The repetitive text and picture support helped even my most beginning readers read independently and my kids loved coloring in the pics.  Click below the picture to grab a copy.

Click Here to Download

On a side note, the background and clipart for the Emergent Reader picture above came from my new favorite Clipart Designer, Melanie from Graphics From the Pond. She has the cutest stuff, allows commercial use for teachers and has a bunch of freebies.  Check out her Blog or her TPT store.

Have a great night!

163 Days Later...

     We're in the home stretch - 163 days down, 18 to go! While I'm feeling the usual mix of bitter and sweet to see another group of kinders go, this year seems to be much more intense.  In my 13 years of teaching kindergarten, this has been my most challenging class by far. (Some might say it's the universe's way to pay me back for last year's class- my BEST ever!) Sometimes you just get a funny mix of kids. Over the course of the year, I've come to see little groups forming.  There's:

1. The very innocent group of younger boys who still love Thomas the Tank engine,
2. The rough and tumble bunch who still struggle with keeping their hands to themselves,
3. The super sensitive girly girls who cry that "She's being mean to me" if someone says "I don't like pink."
4. The crafty girls who say "I don't like pink" after they find out it will make the others cry - just to make them cry.
5. The bunch who learns things from their older siblings and are kissing behind the bookshelves and asking how to spell sexy!!
6. The few stragglers who don't fit into any group but just try not to get involved with the drama. And boy is there drama!

As tough as this kind of group can be, it seems that it's also the kind of group that you get most attached to.  So as we gear up for the end of the year I'm both ready for them to move on and sad to see them go.  Do you feel that way, too?

With so much curriculum to cover, there's just not the time that there used to be to foster the social skills that this group really needs. I try to fit in as much cooperative learning as possible so we can learn to work together, but it often leads to tears, broken pencils and a whole lot of nothing being accomplished.

Until day 163!  To end our Poetry Unit, we celebrated by writing group poems to share with the class.  My hope was that working in groups would foster some teamwork. We focused on the idea that "Poets feel with their hearts" and wrote about shared experiences that gave us strong feelings.  The plan was to brainstorm something that everyone in the group has experienced and then have everyone contribute at least one line to the poem. I was worried about the kids agreeing on a topic, including everyone in the writing process and just being kind to each other.  Well, on day 163, the stars aligned and we did it! Together!

Most of the poems were list poems, like this one:

Going to the Ball Game

People

Wearing hats

Screaming loudly

Having fun

Some of the work literally brought me to tears it was so inspired, like this one:

Lost My Grown-up

In the store

Can't find Mom

Pumpy heart

Sticky hands

I think I might cry

Really can't find Mom

Where is she, where is she, where is she

Turn the corner

Phew!

Mom

When we read them to the class, the kids clapped wildly for each other.  They gave compliments like, "Jack, I really like the way you put spaces between your words. That makes it really easy to read," and "That happened to me once and you really used your hearts because that is EXACTLY how I felt."

So, today I celebrate my little motley crew.  It might have taken 163 days, but somehow between the tears, the teasing and the broken pencils they've learned to respect each other, work together and cheer each other on.  They have become a team. My team.  And I'm going to miss them like crazy...

Happy Memorial Day - Have a great day off tomorrow!

Update 5/28/12
This year my class was obsessed with Pete the Cat, so to celebrate the end of the school year, I wrote an emergent reader for the kids titled, Pete’s Summer Vacation about all of the things I imagined Pete would do with his days off.  I try to base my math and literacy stations around books we love, so it was pretty neat when the kids asked if our last bunch of stations could be based on this book.  So I went to work and came up with a bunch of math and literacy stations, as well as a cute autograph craftivity.  I think it’s the perfect way for my class to end the year. I'm going to post the 100+ page unit to TPT as well as some freebies here, but I'm looking for 2 or 3 proofreaders before I do that.  If you have some time today and can get back to me this evening with any edits, I'll send you the unit for free in exchange for your help. I know it's a busy day, but if you have the time to help me out, leave your email in a comment.  Thanks!

Embracing Change (Well, SOME Change)

     I like to think of myself as being able to embrace change. I understand that fads will change and adapt over time, and most of them I can go along with.  I loved replacing my regular reading strategies with the popular “Beanie Babies” strategies. I found great educational uses for SillyBandz.  I even made Angry Birds math stations.

     While I can roll with these changes, I deeply value nostalgia and feel that there are some things that are harder to embrace.  For instance:

1. When did kids start adding, “Cha Cha Cha” to the end of each line of “Happy Birthday?”   Is that a local thing or do your kids sing it too?  It makes me crazy!
2. For decades, kids everywhere have settled playground tiffs by using, “Rock-paper-scissors-shoot!”  Lately however, all the kids say, “Rock-paper-scissors-SAYS shoot!” Says??  Says?? That’s all wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!
3. This one is my biggest pet peeve.  I’m all for learning from environmental print, but if my kiddos don’t stop writing “we” as “wii” my head is going to explode! (I made a poster for my writing center to help with this. You can grab a copy if your head is ready to pop, too!)

     So, I guess I’ll have to keep rolling with the changes, embracing some and cringing at others.  How are you with change?  What drives you crazy? I was given a glimmer of hope (and nostalgia got a point) the other day when one of my kids said, “Holy Moly, Jeff Spicoli!”  80’s reference anyone?

Click Here to Download

Have a great night!