End of School Year

Yesterday was our end of school awards day. The families came to see their kinders get their awards. We had quite a crowd (standing room only!)! Wow!


After our grade level awards, my kinders and their families came back to my classroom to get their end of year treats from me. Each child got a new book to read this summer and a bag of Pop Rocks with a tag that read "Hope your summer rocks!".

I received some super sweet gifts from my kinders too! Here are the two that I took pictures of:

My sun hat with my initials!

A beautiful vase of flowers!

For many of my kinders yesterday was their last day since attendance will no longer be taken. I will miss their smiling faces but I know they will go far in their educational journeys! They sure left footprints on my heart.


I also had a great kindergarten teacher to share my closet with. Leese helped me relearn kindergarten and was always willing to share her ideas. I don't know what I would have done without her! 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Here's what I am loving today!

This week I am sharing with you my summer essentials since my summer break is beginning VERY soon (3 more days!). YAH!! Boy am I ready for some rest and relaxation!



Neutrogena Ultra Sheer spray sunscreen -
This stuff is the best! It doesn't break my skin out and doesn't feel greasy!

Sonic Strawberry Fruit Slush

My Sanuk flipflops! These things are the best!
The top of the flip flops is made from a yoga mat so they feel like heaven on your feet!

My Mixed Bag Designs beach bag!
The bag is made from paper but it resists water which makes it perfect for the beach/boat.

My Costa Del Mar sunglasses!
These were a birthday gift from my hubby and I LOVE them!



Rockin' Resources Linky Party

I have just found a wonderful linky party that I am joining. It is hosted by Kelley at Teacher Idea Factory. It is her first linky party and I'm so excited to join!!

It is about the things/resources that we couldn't live without in our classrooms.  Here are the things I couldn't live without:

1) Dr. Jean cds
I use them every day at multiple times. My kinders always remind me if I forget to do the songs during our calendar, math or the beginning of our literacy time. They are always a favorite.

2) Donors Choose
I don't know where I would be without this wonderful resource. It has provided me and my classroom with many wonderful resources. I have received a digital camera, guided reading books, a bookshelf, monthly educational magazines, and other valuable resources that I could not afford to purchase myself.

3) BrainPopJr.com
This is a fabulous resource that our school subscribes to. It has very kid friendly videos and explains topics in a way that my kinders can truly understand. There are videos on language arts, science, social studies, and math topics. I also love the characters Annie and Moby. Moby is always the favorite since he is a robot.

4) My favorite children's books
I have amassed quite a collection of books over my years of teaching. I try to keep them organized by theme so they are easily accessible when I am teaching about a certain topic.

Memorial Day 2012

Happy Memorial Day 2012 everyone! I hope that you are enjoying a nice relaxing weekend with your families and friends. Here are my plans for this weekend.

I am making these to take to a picnic with close family friends this afternoon.

Tomorrow my hubby and I will be spending the day on the lake. Hopefully this will make for an enjoyable, relaxing day of reading and tanning.

The weather here in SC has been very warm (90+ degrees) and sunny so far. The wind has picked up today as Tropical Storm Beryl is looking to make an approach to our coast. Hopefully we will just get some rain. 


Remember the reason for this holiday is for the veterans who have fought for the freedoms we enjoy so much. Their service and sacrifices have made our country what it is today. Thank you to all former and current military service members. Your service will not be forgotten! 

Top 10 Pins of the Year linky party

Views from Room 205 is having a linky party. This sounded like a great linky party to me. I have been addicted to Pinterest since I discovered it. I have found so many new teaching, crafting, cooking, and househould ideas on Pinterest.

Here are my top 10 pins:

1) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436484471/

This would be an adorable Mothers Day gift for the moms from their child.

2) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040435853339/

I will definitely be doing this for next school year. It makes so much sense to have extras for the new students that ALWAYS show up the first day/week/month of school.

3) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436020872/

These are bacon cheddar pinwheels. I can't wait to try making them! They look delicious!!

 

4) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436507983/

This is Tricia Yearwoods's key lime cake. I love anything Key Lime flavored so I think this will be a hit. My dad also loves Key Lime so I am thinking I may make it for Father's Day.

5) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436105301/

This teacher took composition notebooks to a home improvement store and had them cut the books in half. These would be perfect for math or science notebooks for next year since the students only use about half a page at a time. I am going to try it out!

6) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436274357/

These are mini-greenhouses made out of clear plastic cups. I know the kids will be so excited to see their plants grow. This will fit in perfectly with our plants/life cycles unit next year.

7) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436558308/

This is a cute experiment. I am very excited to try it out this summer with my nieces and nephew. If it works, I will definitely be doing it with my kinders next year.

8) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436248791/

This is oh so true! I want to make a poster of this quote for my classroom.

9) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436231457/

These would be adorable on my front porch. I am going to try to make them this summer.

10) http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436015736/

Twice baked potato casserole! This sounds delicious!!

So what are your top 10 pins from Pinterest?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Here is what I am loving this week!

1) The beautiful yellow roses my husband brought home to me for no reason! My husband has always been very sweet and he sent me lots of flowers when we were dating and just married but this is the first time I have gotten flowers in a while. It was so sweet and he knows yellow roses are my favorite!

2) The Glades' season premiere is on June 3 (9 pm) on A&E! This is one my favorite TV shows and I am so excited for its return. My husband even enjoys watching it with me.

3) That this is my 100th blog post! I can't believe I have already posted 100 times to my little blog since starting it back in September. Meeting so many great people through my blog has helped me become a better teacher.

Under the Sea Unit Giveaway Winner

The winner of my Under the Sea Math & Literacy Unit is...
Kelly Beam Brown!


I will be emailing it to you shortly! I hope you enjoy it and will leave me feedback in my TpT store. If you didn't win this giveaway, you can purchase my unit in my TpT by clicking on the picture below. It will be on sale for the next 2 days for $4.00. Click on the picture below to go to my TpT store to purchase.

I plan to have another giveaway when I reach 150 followers. Right now I am at 134 followers so I am hoping to get some more in the next couple of weeks so please tell your friends!

Giveaways Galore!

I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend which is the reason for my lack of posts. I promise to try to post more but with the end of school right around the corner, I don't know how much blogging I will be able to do.

In other news, Mrs. Stanford's Class blog is having a Just Because Giveaway! She is having 3 winners: 2 for a free TpT item and 1 for a $10 donation to their Donors Choose project. Click on the picture below to enter her giveaway!

Also, don't forget that my Under the Sea giveaway ends tonight at midnight. If you haven't already entered you have 2 ways to enter: (1)follow my blog and (2)follow my TpT store.

Under the Sea Unit Giveaway

First of all, one of my sweet kinders brought this note in to me yesterday morning and made me cry.

It reads:

Dear Mrs. A,
Your (you're) the best. I love you. You are a good teacher. Next year I'll miss you but I'll see you some time. Win (when) you hug me I smile. You're the best I had yet. Have a great summer.
Love, M

Now isn't that the sweetest thing ever?? She has made such progress this year and I am so proud of this little one. It will hurt my heart to see her go.


Onto my giveaway. I have created a new unit to post in my TpT store that is based on an ocean theme. It covers many Kindergarten Common Core standards and has activity sheets as well as center activities that you can use. I would love to give away a copy of this unit to one of my wonderful followers. 

Since Rafflecopter was so easy to use the last time, I will be using it again for this giveaway. If you would like to win, please enter using the Rafflecopter below. You may still leave me a comment to make me smile but they will not be entered in the drawing.


You can earn 2 entries:
1) follow my blog
2) follow my TpT store


The giveaway will run from today until Mon., May 21 so get busy entering. I hope you will tell your friends as well! Thank you in advance for entering my giveaway!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mothers Day update & Good Reads linky party

I totally forgot to post about what we did for Mothers Day this year with my kinders. This year, I made a magnetic photo for the moms. I used old puzzle pieces from a 500 piece puzzle, a foam circle and a magnet for each child's frame. I also did the handprint poems that I posted in a Friday Freebie a few weeks ago. Both were quite a hit! 

I am linking up with Mrs. Sanford at her blog for her Good Reads linky party. I love to read so this was the perfect blog for me! I am a hopeless romantic and I have lots of books that I want to read this summer. Here is my list:

1) The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

This is a new author and book series for me that is based on Charleston, SC which is only about 1 1/2 hours away from me.

2) The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

This is the only book by Nicholas Sparks that I have not read so I have to read it. His books never disappoint and they are always better than the movies based on the books although those are pretty good too!

3) Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank

This is the newest book by one of my favorite authors that comes out in mid-June. I have read all of her books so far so I can't wait to read this one. It is also based on the Lowcountry of SC (Sullivans Island).

4) The Charleston Trilogy books by Sherryl Woods: The Backup Plan, Waking Up In Charleston, & Flirting With Disaster

I have loved every book that I have read by Sherryl Woods so I am sure these will be fabulous!

Here are some books that I have read in the past that were great:

1) The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

2) The Sweet Magnolias series (Stealing Home, A Slice of Heaven, and Feels Like Family) by Sherryl Woods
3) Flamingo Diner by Sherryl Woods
4) Home Front by Kristin Hannah

BTW: My new giveaway starts tomorrow so come back for a chance to win my newest unit!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Here is what I'm loving this week!

1) Spending time with family! I was able to see my aunt who lives 3 hours a way this past weekend. I was also able to spend valuable time with my mom and mother-in-law during Mother's Day. I also have both of my grandmothers still living close by and saw them too. These women are so special! It means so much to spend time with the people who are most important to me. 


2) Planning our end of year kindergarten celebration! The kindergarten team is planning an end of the year cookout for our kinders and their parents. This is the first time we have done anything like this so we are hoping it will be a lot of fun for the kids and parents too!


3) That my kinders are finished with our end of the year MAP testing! We took our last part of the math MAP test yesterday so my kinders have now taken all 4 parts of MAP they are required to take by our district and let's just say it feels fabulous for their teacher! They did great - I was the one who was stressing over their scores!


4) Only 2 more days until our final field trip! I think I am as excited as the kinders since I have never been to this place before. It is a swamp that has a learning center. We are going to visit the butterfly house, learn about reptiles like alligators, and go on a paddle boat ride of the swamp. I can't wait!

On another note, Color Me Kinder is having a giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a Carson Dellosa Summer Learning gift pack. Click on the icon below to go enter!

Oceans of Fun

Since we still have 12 more school days, we are beginning our ocean unit so I wanted to share some of the activities I am planning to use during this unit. Maybe you can use some of them too!

Crab Counting by 5's - Cut & Paste

I am going to use this activity sheet during independent math time. I will have my kinders cut apart the crabs and count by 5's to glue them down in order. The sheet goes up to 50.

Counting up to 20 activity sheet

This activity sheet helps my kinders keep up their counting skills up to 20. It will also give them more practice remembering what a particular number up to 20 looks like and how it is written. This is a difficult skill for some of my kinders. Some still write numbers in reverse (ex. - instead of 12, they will write 21).

Syllable Counting Activity Sheet

This activity sheet will be used during independent small group time. My kinders will look at the picture, say the name, clap the syllables, and the circle the correct number of syllables in each word. This goes along with the Kindergarten Common Core standards.

If you download any of these activities, I would love for you to leave me a comment. They always put a smile on my face!

My Summer Bucket List

Happy belated Mother's Day! I spent the weekend with my wonderful mother-in-law since this is her first Mother's Day without her mom. We lost her back in October. She also has 2 boys (my husband and brother-in-law) so she doesn't have any girls. We had a great time in Charleston, SC. Then on Sunday evening my husband grilled hamburgers for my parents, his parents, and brother's family. It was a great weekend with my family!

I have only 13 more school days until summer break! Actually, the teachers has 14 days, but only 13 more with kiddos! Woo hoo!!

Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher, Hadar from Miss Kindergarten and April from A Modern Teacher are having a great linky party right now about everyone's summer bucket list of things they would like to get accomplished over the summer break. This sounded like a great idea to me so I had to join in the fun!

1) Read a few good books I have been wanting to read - I can't seem to read very much during the school year since I work and then want to look over all the great teaching blogs I have found when I get home. Not to mention that I fall asleep as soon as I stop to read something, so I plan to do some catching up this summer with these great books!

2) Organize my monthly materials into the correct binders and boxes - I started out pretty well but I need to work on the 2nd half of the year. They are pretty disorganized!


3) Some trips to the beach - I only live about 45 minutes away so it is an easy trip for me to make! I plan to spend some time with my toes in the sand and a book in my hands.

 4) Create some activities and units for my TpT store - I am envisioning some fall themes and beginning of the year activities that correlate with the Common Core standards. I have also purchased some cute clipart that I want to use to create some useful acitivities!

5) Create a photobook of our wedding on Shutterfly - I figured this is an important summer project since I have been wanting to do it since we got married over 6 years ago! Wow! It has passed by so quickly! My photobook will be similiar to this one:

6) Learn more about my new Nikon d5100 DSLR camera - I want to learn to take better photographs using my fabulous camera my husband bought me for Christmas! I need to better understand all the photography lingo and how it works too. I plan to keep this camera in my hands over the summer since so many fun activities will be happening!

7) Some day/weekend trips to Lake Moultrie - My husband's work company has a place on the lake with a beach, dock, boat landing, and campsites right on the water. I can't wait to go for a visit. My nieces and nephew love to go too!

The sunset on the lake!

8) Organize my classroom library - I really want to get my books organized by themes and then catalog them all on my computer so I won't buy books more than once. I hate to spend money on books that I already have when I could spend them on different books. This pin from Pinterest is my inspiration: 

http://pinterest.com/pin/39688040436248553/

So needless to say I have a lot of things on my Summer Bucket List! I sure hope to get them accomplished!

A Splishin' and A Splashin' (Freebie Friday)

I love teaching my ocean animals unit so I have been busy creating activities to use with this unit. Here is one activity that I created to use with small groups and as an independent center activity.

Ocean Syllable Sort

This activity sheet has the kinders sort the ocean pictures by the number of syllables in each word. They each get a copy of page 1 and there are 2 sets of pictures on page 2. I used it as an independent activity during my guided reading small group time.

Please leave me a quick comment if you download this freebie. Your comments make me smile!

And the winner is....

Graphic courtesy of:
 The 3 am Teacher

Now that my giveaway has ended, I would like to thank everyone who entered my very first giveaway. It means so much to me that you support me as I learn all about blogging. You guys are the best!

The winner of the giveaway is...
Heather! 

Congratulations Heather! I will be emailing you your free copy of my Lovely Ladybugs unit. I hope you will enjoy it!

If you did not win a free copy, you can still purchase the unit by clicking on the ladybug below.

Thanks again for entering and have a wonderful rest of your week!

All About Hoo? linky party

I am linking up with Mommy & Me Creations for her All About Hoo? linky party .

1) Are you a mom? And if so, how many kids do you have?

I am not a mom yet. God hasn't said it is time, but I do have a 4-legged baby named Chloe!

 2) What is your most favorite thing about your mom?

The way she is always willing to listen. I call her almost every morning on my way to work just to say good morning and every afternoon at some point just to chat or vent. 

My mom, me and her 4-legged baby - Mothers Day 2011

 3) Name 3 of your favorite things that you have done with your mom.

-Going on a mother-daughter weekend trip to the mountains

-Going shopping together: We give very honest opinions and know each other really well!
-Talking on the phone with each other

4) Do you have a special gift to give your mom? If so, what is it? Do you dare share?

I do have a special gift for my mom. I have created a personalized photo book from Shutterfly.com with photos of my mom's family in it. It has pictures from when she first had me and then my brother up until this year. I can't wait to give it to her this weekend!

5) What are your plans for Mother's Day?
Go out to eat with my mom; spend time with my mother-in-law