Praying for Oklahoma

Nikki at Melonheadz is so amazing.  This picture says it all.

With that being said, Teachers Notebook has an AMAZING deal happening right now.  You can get over $2000 in teaching resources for a $20 donation.  Of course, you can donate more, but that is a smokin' deal!

I donated the "My Favorite Food" pack.  I did it with my kinders this week and they LOVED it!

Click on the banner to help the families in Oklahoma.

Hug your kiddos a bit harder, and make that donation.

Eight More Days! But who's watching the clock?

We have eight more days of school until summer break.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty about counting down and being excited in my head, but then I think about how my students are doing the same thing, and I don't feel bad.  I'm looking forward to spending time with my own kids, organizing my house, and relaxing.  I know... most of us have not relaxed for most of the school year.

I've been focusing on getting ready for the next school year.  Most of the teachers at my school are changing classrooms, which is an exciting thing for me.  First of all, I don't have to move.  Second of all, my principal made a "free table" where we can put all of our unwanted supplies.  I have told the ladies in the front office that I am not allowed to go over there any more, but I break my own rule several times a day.  I've gotten a case of 16 count crayons, pipe cleaners, brads, construction paper, and more.  Now, I LOVE office supplies, so I am like a kid in the candy store.  I swear I've gotten more than I've put on the table.  Oh well...  I won't need to buy pipe cleaners or crayons for several years.

My "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" pack is the Daily Deal on Teachers Notebook on Saturday (5/18) and Sunday (5/19).  For less than $5, you can e-mail a file to parents to help them get their child ready for kindergarten.  There are activity suggestions, clickable links to videos and websites, and so much more!

Speaking of time, I made an "I Have, Who Has" game that works with time to the hour, half hour, hour and half hour, and to the quarter hour.  I'm in a GREAT mood today, so that's going to be my freebie.

Click here to download.

Have a GREAT Friday!

More new stuff

I have three more products to tell you about.  I'll start with my favorite.  As you know, I LOVE Scaredy Squirrel.  The book Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend (by Melanie Watt) is hilarious!  The minute I read the book, I knew I had to make something for the back to school season.  Kids aren't always sure how to make friends, so this book opens up some valuable conversations about how to make new friends.  For more information, click here.

The next product I'm really excited to share is the CVC letter match up.  This would work great with phoneme segmentation, first sound fluency, and letter sounding.  This pack includes three differentiated activities that practice CVC words.

-Match magnetic letters to the printed letters (capital and lower case versions)

-Fill in the first sound using magnetic letters or a white board marker (capital and lower case versions)

-Fill in the sound boxes with magnetic letters or a white board marker

There is an answer key and two recording sheers (one for first sound and one with sound boxes).  

For more information, click here.

The last product I want to tell you about teaches about Arizona symbols.  If you teach K-2 in Arizona, this pack is for you.  It has anchor charts, a book about Arizona symbols and surroundings where the kids illustrate some of the pictures, and worksheets on Arizona symbols and leaders.  For more information, please click here.

Finally, I'm going to post my Squirrel craft as a Manic Monday freebie.  

Click here to download.

And, I'm off to a busy week of meetings, kindergarten celebration songs, and lamination.  I'm changing the theme in my classroom.  Have a great week!

I was busy this weekend

I've been working on quite a few projects this month.  I think about the back to school season, and I get all inspired to find new ideas and new ways to teach things.  School hasn't even ended, and I'm in back to school mode.  I know... I'm nuts.

Maybe it has to do with our incoming kindergarten testing that has been going on.  Those little peanuts seem so small compared to my almost first graders.  It makes me think back to my first goal as a kindergarten teacher: Walking quietly in a straight line.  Anyway, we are using my "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" pack, and we've gotten some great feedback.  We e-mailed it to parents because it has clickable links to great videos and resources.  We simply asked parents to give us their e-mail address, and our wonderful registrar sent it off for us.  If you are interested in learning more, please click here.

I've also been working on a sight word speed reading pack.  I wanted something where the kids could graph their progress, and see how far they've come.  I figured that I could draw the line on the bar graph and the kids could color it in.  While I was making that pack, I thought about DIBELS, and I added nonsense words.  So, the pack includes Fry's first 300 words, nonsense words, graphs for each, and certificates for your speed readers when they meet their goals.  If you are interested in learning more, please click here. 

While I'm on the subject of sight words, I created a game to practice them.  "Pop" contains Fry's first 300 sight words, nonsense words, capital and lower case letters, along with Spalding's first 70 phonograms.  The clip art popcorn is in black and white, so you can print on yellow cardstock or paper.  For more information, please click here.

Don't worry... You can still read.  These are the nonsense words.  :)

Whew!  There is more to come... I need to take a break because I'm being pampered by my husband and kids.  They cleaned their playroom and have been loving me all day.  My husband made all of the meals and painted my toenails.  I'm one lucky gal!

Holy Smokes, Batman!

How much do I love Teacher Appreciation Week?  Teacher discounts, extra hugs from the kinders, and breakfast at Paradise Bakery from Student Council.... yes, please.  Today's theme for the breakfast was a super hero theme, so I was able to wear my Batgirl shirt... cape and all.  The kids love it, and I secretly (or not so secretly) do as well.

So, to top off my day, I was browsing through Teachers Pay Teachers, and I found some AWESOME products.  As I was spending a bunch of money, I noticed that my store had 99 followers.  Wowza!  I made a Facebook plea, and Breanne Simons was kind enough to become my 100th follower.  Holy smokes!  I can hardly believe it.  I remember when I was so excited to have one follower (Thank you to the first person that believed in my products!).

In celebration of this momentous occasion, I have created a really cool freebie.  I have fallen in LOVE with Scaredy Squirrel this past year.  I always know it's a good book when I laugh out loud when I read it the first time (which I ALWAYS do with that series).  In celebration, I have created a Scaredy Squirrel freebie.  All of the pieces are on separate pages, so you can put the masters in the copy machine.  I'm going to be honest...it bugs me when people don't do that.  I need things to be easy with all of the chaos in kindergarten. So, when you buy one of my products, it will always be copy machine friendly.

Click here to have your own fun with Scaredy Squirrel.

If you want to check out some of my work (and the sale ends today), please click here.

Thank you so much for your support!  It really means a lot to me.  :)

Teachers Notebook Sale

I can hardly believe that the year is almost over.  I love teaching kindergarten for the fact that it is one AMAZING year of growth.  I think about the group of kids that walked into my room last July, all tiny and a lot of them scared.  Now, they can count to 120, write three sentences with pronouns and adjectives, and their pictures are amazing!  They can walk down the hallway in a straight, quiet line, and they no longer get lost on the way to the bathroom.  They have learned my catch phrases, and learned about manners at school.

So, when you feel under appreciated, underpaid, and overwhelmed, think about the major impact you have had on a child's life.

With that being said, enjoy 40% off all items in my Teachers Notebook Store from 5/4-5/8.  Teachers Notebook will give you an additional 10% off at checkout.

Even though I don't know you, I appreciate the hard work and effort you put in to educating your students, and making the world a better place.