It's been awhile, I know. I had an unexpected trip to NYC with my son to go to the Paul McCartney concert at Yankee Stadium - thanks to my cousin!! :) AWESOME!!! So that put back the schedule a little. Oh well, well worth it. So we started doing some shopping for back to school supplies for the kids. While at Walmart today I found these http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=482&ProductCategory=198   These are to put spiral notebooks in or two pocket folders fit also. I am thinking of using them for games or puzzles - since we all know the boxes never last long. I know most of the game boards won't fit but some might and other center type activities will fit. I got one red and one blue. I did contain myself by only buying 2:) Although I am sure we will be back at Walmart before school starts:) Puzzles would be great in here too - can tape the box cover on or lay it inside so they know what it is - or take a pic of it after the kiddos put it together:)  They were $

http://ladybugsteacherfiles.blogspot.com/ Here is another great giveaway!! So much to share with everyone but trying to catch up on emails right now and finding new blogs:)

I heart Ikea!! Actually got out of there with very little today but still a fun trip with my son and fellow teacher friend! So last year I bought the round rugs at Ikea to spruce things up around the room and add some fun. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=round+rug    So they matched the colors of the tables. I ended up not using them too much because we had 27 k's in the room when we started so I needed to rearrange and put anything extra away. We ended up hiring a third k teacher and we dropped down to 20 kids. By that time though I never really got them back out. Now with the Math Station blog going on and the mind going.... when I went today I found these bath mats ( washable:}) and the mind clicked! http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=bath+mat I can use the ones from last year and this year as the places for the kids to take their math station to work on. :) I can use the shapes and the colors to distinguish where they should go! Nice to be able to think of a reas

Ok I am getting into this blogging thing! I love finding all the other blogs to check out! Although I have blogged away a few afternoons this summer by stalking! lol I wanted to share one of my favorite web things! Portaportal! This is a site where you can save and categorize your bookmarks! I was always frustrated when I would find a site at school and then get home to work on something and couldn't find the same site! Then I found portaportal:) I heart portaportal! You can make categories and put the sites under the category you want - centers, math, reading, BLOGS! Then you can access it from any computer!!!!! I have been at in services and used other people's computers to find a site we were talking about, I have been at a grad class, and I have been at home on any of the computers and been able to get to the site I wanted! You can also add notes - you know to remind yourself why you liked the site! You can even add little icons:) I can also share my portaportal with st

Place Value: I like the idea of getting to know numbers first. This will be the basis for year. I always start counting by 10's, 5's and 2's before the Saxon series does. This is a great thing to practice in those minutes when the kids are lined up and ready to go on time:) I also try to use that idea of counting eyes, ears, etc. that Debbie Diller mentioned. I also open up both hands as we count by 10's -get it? The hands are closed and then we open them to show 10 fingers. I also alternate that as we count by 5's. I remember my dad doing this with me when I was little. It still makes me smile when the kids count their fingers to get to 5! I love the idea of the paper clips in groups of tens with the calendar. I am trying to think if it would work on the smart board - or should there be something there for them to physically see and touch?? Glad to hear that the 100th day is helpful! Like we would have stopped celebrating! lol Geometry: I like using the Math dv

Story Problems and Story Mats! That is what we are all about in kindergarten! The students love making up stories to practice some, some more and some, some went away! This will be easy to incorporate into the stations. We do these types of  lessons often. The biggest part - as always - will be to model, model, model appropriate behavior for doing this activity in stations.I love watching the kids while they work with these mats - you can really see them click when they get the concept of what they are doing and not just moving bears on and off. :) I think that my motto for this year is to relax and NOT worry about taking the extra time to work on stations and behaviors and activities. Somehow there is always that little voice in the back of my head reminding me about the extensive curriculum that needs to be covered. I need to just remember that it will all get done and better to be done well than done in a hurry!

OK - things are somewhat quiet today :) I have really enjoyed this book. It is making me rethink my entire math time. I loved Kindergarten Crayons blog  - tons of great things! I know that I really need to work on developing beginning number concepts. I am hoping to incorporate more numeracy centers into my classroom. This will need to include vocabulary to go along with it. I already had plans in my head to make more book baskets in the reading library that have a math theme. This will help with the math vocabulary and a math station. I am really thrilled with the technology of sharing documents from these different blogs and saving them in google docs. Technology is fascinating! Thanks for all those who share! I am hoping to be able to share somethings one day....

This is another great site with a Heidi Song give away!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed:) I'm loving this Math Stations Book Blog to help find all these great resources! What a great sharing community!