Here is number 3! Can I just mention that I am proud of myself for getting these up on this blog??? It took awhile, but I persevered and did it! Just like I tell the kiddos - I kept trying! I worked hard! :)

Here is the second one!

Here is a retell we did of Joy Cowley's The Monsters' Party. The students made new pictures and then we retold the story to go along with it.There will be three different videos to watch because we had enough students to make three different retells.

Here is my favorite Thanksgiving song! Turkey Tango!!!! Always fun to sing!

This is the class singing Albuquerque Turkey after our Thanksgiving feast! This is one of my favorite days in kindergarten! It is so much fun to smell the turkey and the other trimmings all morning and  then enjoy feasting together! Thank you to all the adults in the class that helped in any way! You are all so busy and yet were willing to help with preparing/supplying a whole other part for our feast. What a wonderful job I have! I am so THANKFUL for my students and their families! 

Here we are singing another Heidi S ong!  It is the letter Cc!

  This is our class singing the "A"  song from Heidi Songs. It is definitely a favorite of the class. It has certainly helped with learning our letters and sounds. 

We practiced A,B,C, and D. We learned all their sounds also! We practiced writing them. We practiced how to behave in school. We sang a lot of songs. We learned the numbers 1,2, and 3. We read a lot of books! We had fun this week! We went to specials and met other teachers. We did a lot of projects! We played Duck, Duck, Goose outside. We also made a Jack and Jill book. We are excited for next week!

We sang the ABC song. We learned the letter Aa. Apples start with /a/. Our Student of the Day told us this! 

Ok all you pinterest people! Next week I will need you to go to Carson Dellosa and find the "Carson-Dellosa Bulletin Board Brag Contest – Autumn 2012” board. They are having a contest and I will be entered. :) You will need to find my picture and like it. The one with the most likes will win! "I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and I received this bulletin board set for free to try and review." thanks!! Don't worry - I will remind you again!!

I have received a Lovely Blog Award!! Thank you to Sharon at http://dogdaysofkindergarten.blogspot.com/ Now for the rules... 1. Follow the person who gave me the award. I am following Sharon! 2. Link back to the person that gave me the award. Sharon   Here is her link! 3. Pass to 15 new bloggers and then let them know they have received the award. Hopefully I can find 15 who have not received this award. I'm starting to hunt. 1. The Daily Cupcake 2. Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten 3 Kindergarten Tales 4. Mrs. Spatafora's Kindergarten Blog 5. Miss Kindergarten 6. The Very Busy Kindergarten 7. 'Lil Country Kindergarten 8.  Mrs. Jump's Class 9. The Polka Dot Patch 10. Kindergals 11. Sprinkles to Kindergarten! 12. Welcome to Room 36! 13. Time 4 Kindergarten 14.  Connecting the Dots: A Kindergarten Blog 15.  Mrs. Mayas' Kindergarten There are soooo many great kindergarten blogs out there!! Check them all out!

This is the before of the book closet! Well, just about before - I almost forgot to take a picture! This is a mobile cabinet that houses my books. I have 3 cabinets like this. These are the books that go with each theme/unit I teach. It is organized in order that I teach the units. But as you can see - I just put stuff in front or even on top of the books - you know, the books that you find after you put the rest away, or the one you buy but don't take the time to put away correctly! :) I finally decided how I wanted to organize it better. I figured out that those cute little baskets (top corner) fit two deep and and four across. AND... they are $1 a piece at Christmas Tree Shop! So I went shopping!!! They didn't have any at the one local store. :( So I went the opposite direction and went to another Christmas Tree Shop! They were out of them also!! I started to panic! I finally decided what I wanted to do to make it easier and more efficient and I couldn't!! :( So when m...

Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company I reviewed the Summer Bridge Activity Book for Grade K to 1. It is a great deal if you are looking for a resource to to help your child over the summer! It covers all the standards that were taught over the school year in my classroom. It is sectioned off into daily work that spirals through the different topics - phonics, letters, numbers, graphing, handwriting , etc. There are also great fitness ideas to get the kiddos moving! There are also many bonus activities for science and social studies activities! AND... you can get on line and register your book to get a free mobile app! How very modern learning has gotten! "I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and I received this book for free to try and review.

I can't believe that we have started our ABC countdown! Where did the year go? I love this idea of reviewing the letters in such a fun way! The kids were so cute showing their stuffed animals for A. Why didn't I take pictures? I need to upload the pictures from the bubbles. You would have thought I had given some of them gold! My favorite was one little one asked "Can we take these home at the end of the day?" Before I could get my answer out, another boy said, "NO, she will need these for next year's kindergarteners!" The look on their face was priceless when I said, "Of course you will get to take them home at the end of the day! They have your initials on them don't they?" That is what is so great with kindergarten! I think they are picking up the hint though that there are some goodies with the letters. After we tallied our favorite candy, one girl said, "This has made me hungry for candy." She had that look in her eye like pl...

I am using the @Carson-Dellosa Publishing Big Gun Ball Machine Bulletin Board set. It is very colorful and cute!   It came with the gum ball machine, an overlay for the machine door, a bubble gum header and 32 gumballs in bright colors.   It also has a reproducible of a gumball machine. I am using it in my classroom as an incentive for reading! I have written the student’s names on the gumballs. I put the names on with clips. I emailed all of the staff at my school and let them know about this bulletin board as you walk into my classroom. The staff can pick a student’s name off the machine and get that kid to read them a book from their book baggie in their chair pockets.   I put a small box on the bulletin board for the “used gumballs”! That way all of the children will get picked before a second round. I can use the reproducible as a take home note to let the caregivers know that the students were reading to an adult.   My students were VERY excited about ...

The new Learning Spot Lesson from Carson Dellosa that I have used in my classroom is the Introduction to Phonemic Awareness. I like the set up – first we have whole group time to introduce the activity and the skill. Then I can have the students use the student activities independently during centers. It follows the same format so the kids are familiar with what to do.   It practices beginning, middle and ending sounds! You could get a free lesson by going to www.CDLearningSpot.com/BA   I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and I received Learning Spot Lesson product for free to try and review.

This is so exciting! I've been tagged by another blogger! Thank you Mrs. G at http://its-grow-time.blogspot.com/ WOW! The first time ever:) Sorry that it took me so long to get around to this! I'm not sure what - but it's been busy! So here goes... You must post the rules. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged. Tag 12 people and link them to your post! Let them know you've tagged them!  12 Fun Facts about me - I hope I can think of that many! I will be married 25 years in June to my best friend! I can't believe that it has been that long! That is a great thing!:) I love to scrapbook! I just wish I had more time to work on my albums. I love teaching kindergarten! I taught second grade and loved it too, but kindergarten is my passion! I would love to go back to school and get my doctorate. Anyone know where to get one in Earl...

Well, I only got to two shelves this week. BUT - that is two shelves more than last week! I think they look pretty good! I need to go back an inventory what is on them, but that will be easier because I can see what I have!  This pile went to two VERY grateful friends that teach first grade! The teacher who got there first was very happy to get new center activities. These were things ordered because they said "K" - but, alas, they were not! There are sight word pages to write on and wipe off, sentence stamps, sight word games, etc. Teacher one had a few of the things, so she left the rest for teacher number two. :) Teacher Two - was ECSTATIC! She couldn't believe that I was sharing with her! Some things weren't even open. Well, there was no reason to open them when they wouldn't have been able to use them! This pile - three VERY old things! The two small activities I had when I was teaching second grade at another building! The box was a left in the room box! :...

Here are my rules to declutter those cabinets of mine! :) If I haven't used it in 2 years - it's gone! If it's from someone else's room, it's gone! If it's "old" and/or "outdated", it's gone! If I have something else very similar, it's gone! Can I find the resource on line? Could I borrow one if I need/want it? Does it fit with what I want to do? Am I required to keep it/ use it? Could someone benefit from it more than me? Is it taking up valuable space in my classroom? Do I really love it? If I didn't feel quilty, would I still keep it? JUST GET RID OF IT!!!

My Donors Choose cabinet came!! It is AWESOME!! I am soo happy and excited to have it! I don't have any pictures yet though. I had to leave early - well, on time:) on Friday and didn't have a chance. It's on the list for tomorrow. I moved all the center materials into it and it is GREAT! I also got rid of 4 rolly carts! :) My room feels so much more open. :) YEA!!! Now, onto cleaning out the clutter in the cabinets. Thank you Donors Choose and all the wonderful supporters!!

Oh my goodness! My little blog got an award! I can't believe it! Sue Lattea at A Rainbow Of Teaching blog sent it to me!  http://arainbowofteaching.blogspot.com/   Woo hoo! Life is good!Thank you Sue!! Here are the rules: 1.  Thank the person who nominated you!  Thank you so much Sue!!!:) 2.  Tell 7 things about yourself. 3.  Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they received the award. 7 Things about myself: 1. I will be married to my best friend for 25 years in June. How did 25 years fly by? Definitely fun! Hard to believe though. We have 2 wonderful teenagers too:) 2. I taught second grade and now kindergarten. I LOVE teaching kindergarten. 3. I would love to teach college also. 4. I love planning and making things for the classroom:) 5. I love to scrapbook and stamp- especially with my circuit. 6. I want to be even more organized:) 7. I finished doing a pilot program for Carson Dellosa. Ok - now to pick 15 bloggers! T...

The Closet Abyss!This is the closet with the language arts materials - alphabet recognition, rhyming, beginning and ending sounds, sight words, oh my! It was looking better till I bought more stuff and tried to put it in here! It is somewhat organized- rhyming stuff on one shelf, abc stuff on another, sight words on another, for the most part!This is the only large cabinet I have like this. :(   Is it any wonder why I don't use all that I have? AND when summer gets here - everything in the classroom has to be packed away - which means even more is shoved into all these closets! This is above the hooks for the kid's coats. It is organized but not pretty. These cabinets hold my literature. The bags are letter bags. I have one for each letter. The other stuff on top is stuff that doesn't fit into a cabinet. This area of my room is what I call the mud room. When you come into the classroom, this is where you come first. Then there is an opening right at the snowma...

I love organizing! I think I am pretty good at it but one can always improve!:) So.... I am going to follow along and see what I can learn. She wants us to write some goals. So here it goes: 1. Find the materials in the small closet that holds my center/language arts materials. 2. Use all the materials that I have bought and/or made over the years! 3. Save money and time but not buying more but using what I have! Plus all the ones that are on her blog page:)