Five for Friday - March 27, 2015

Due to computer troubles, I have not posted in a while. My school laptop actually decided to DIE...can you believe that? So now it has to be reimaged, but thankfully I had just backed up my files and didn't lose them. Since I have been away for so long I am going to do a quick Five for Friday post today. Most of the pictures from this week are from my personal camera since I didn't have my school camera with me...OOPS!

My hubby and I finally went out to celebrate our anniversary last weekend. It was delayed because of us working different schedules but we had such a wonderful time. Of course, Miss M had to join us for dinner. She makes our little family complete and I am so blessed to have them both in my life!

The spring weather we have been having here in SC has been AMAZING. It has been warm in the 70's for the most part and sunny. M and I have been taking advantage of these pretty days and spending our afternoons outside. This kind of weather makes it difficult for me to get any housework or schoolwork complete since we just want to be outside!

My sweet "flowers" one of my kinders picked for me on the playground Wednesday. He was so proud of them and it was such a sweet gesture that brought a big smile to my face! I just love this age! They are so sweet and loving.

The Bradford pear tree on our playground has been in full bloom for the past week or so. It is beautiful to look at. This tree is the perfect tree to teach seasons to my kinders every year. Now the rain is washing away all the pretty blooms and making way for new green leaves.

Here is my only true school related picture this week. This week in one of my Daily 5 groups we worked on medial vowel sounds. This was a game I printed from Kindergarten Hoppenings blog several years ago but it worked out perfectly for this activity.

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other posts from this week! Have a great weekend!

What I'm Loving Wednesday - March 11, 2015

I have not posted a What I'm Loving Wednesday post in a while but I decided to start again! I love these posts because they make me so happy and I needed to share a smile with you today. 

1 - The pretty weather!
This week our temps here in SC have been in the lower 70's and have felt AMAZING! It is causing me to get spring fever. 

2 - The signs of spring!
The flowers are beginning to bloom and our lovely Bradford pear tree on the playground is getting ready bloom at any time. This is such a pretty season! M picked these beautiful jonquils for her GG (my grandmother - her great grandmother) this weekend.

3 - Watching Miss M grow and learn! 
I am amazed at all the new things she is learning and doing each day. Last weekend she was playing with her MegaBlocks and started sorting them by their height...putting all the short ones together in a line and the taller ones together in a line. I was totally amazed! She is only 21 months old and I have seen SOOOOO many kinders struggle with sorting.

4 - All the funny things kinders say!
This week my TA read my kinders a book about sloths. After she finished reading the book, one of my kinders raised her hand and said she didn't think sloths were the slowest animals in the world. She was pretty sure that grandmas were! HaHa! You never know what they are going to say n

So what are you loving this Wednesday? I would LOVE to know! Please leave me a comment!

The Truth About Teaching Kindergarten

Alex at the Kindergarten Connection is hosting a linky party about The Truth About Teaching Kindergarten. I loved reading her post and what she says is so true about us as kindergarten teachers. I just had to join this linky party!

When I am asked what I do for a living, I always respond that I am a kindergarten teacher and I usually get a generic response like "Oh you teach kindergarten, that must be lots of fun!" or "Kindergarten must be such an easy grade/age to teach!" These comments often get under my skin, but I have to remember that not everyone understands what goes on in my classroom on a daily basis and that kindergarten is not what it used to be 15 years ago.

Kindergarten in present years is an extremely busy place where a great deal of learning takes place. The current standards for kindergarten are more intense than those were for first grade 10 years ago. We do not only teach the letters and numbers anymore but rather we teach our kinders how to add, subtract, decompose numbers, read simple words by sounding them out, read sight words, read books, write stories, etc. 

I also love how people outside of the education world assume that our job is over at 3:00 pm and we are done! This is such a misconception. I often have to work over to complete my lesson plans, run copies, prepare for the next week, etc. Plus when I do leave, I do not forget about my kinders that I am concerned might not have a warm bed to sleep in or food to eat. They are always on my mind.

I LOVE my job and wouldn't trade it. I was meant to be a teacher of little people. I have taught both first grade and kindergarten and I love to see the growth that these little people make throughout a school year. I do not do my job for the high pay (Ha Ha!) or the fame (Ha Ha Ha!), but rather for the little faces that come in to hug me every day!

So what do you think about teaching kindergarten??

Five for Friday - March 6, 2015

For today's post, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

This week, we have been concluding our Dr. Seuss unit. My kinders have LOVED reading so many of his books and even watching some of them through YouTube videos. It has been a fun but definitely busy week so take a peek!

This was a fun activity we did early in the week where they had to label Thing 1. They LOVE doing these kinds of activities but we don't do too many of them at this point in kindergarten. We did this one as morning work while the other kinders were coming in.

My TA and I had these shirts made for Read Across America day on Monday. Our kinders thought they were great and we were definitely the talk of the school. I am so blessed to work with such a wonderful TA! She makes my job so much better.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Wacky Wednesday. This little cute was so adorable in her wacky tacky clothes! She was a little embarrassed when she first came into class but I told her she was too cute!

This was a math activity we did this week after reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We have been working on composing and decomposing numbers to 10 and this was a perfect activity to align our math standards and writing. My kinders loved coloring their fish and then writing out their addition problem with words and numbers...a WIN WIN for me! 

These were the beautiful roses that my sweet hubby sent me this week for our 9th anniversary. There were 9 roses - 3 of each color to symbolize our 9 years! It was so sweet and I was so surprised to get the knock on my classroom door with one of the secretaries bringing them to me! 

Now head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching blog to see all the other photos from this week! Have a great weekend! Also don't forget to enter my Rafflecopter giveaway for a free set of Bug Emergent Readers. It ends Sunday and I will draw the winner on Monday!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Going Buggy for Reading!

I have been working hard creating new products for my classroom and have just gotten around to posting some of them to my TpT store and TN shop. 

I love using emergent readers in my classroom that my students can read and color themselves. This gives them some ownership of the books. We read these books during our Guided Reading portion of Daily 5 and then they have a chance at another point during the day to color the pictures. Once they have finished coloring their books, they add to them their book baskets to read during the Read to Self or Read to Someone portions of Daily 5. These books seem to mean a lot to my kinders so I have been creating more of these books based on my kinders current reading levels and needs. I created 2 new emergent readers to use next week during my insects theme.

The Bugs emergent reader (TpT)
The Bugs emergent reader (TN)

So Many Bugs emergent reader (TpT)

So Many Bugs emergent reader (TN)

These books are each $1.25 in my TpT store & TN shop. They would make a great addition to an insects or spring unit. 

Since these are new products, I thought I would do a little giveaway of these two books. If you would like to win these books, all you have to do is enter through the Rafflecopter. The giveaway ends on Sunday and I will draw a winner on Monday! Good luck and please tell all your teacher friends!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

March Currently

WOW! I cannot believe that today is the second day of March already! I don't know where the first two months of this year have gone! It seems that time is passing so quickly. 

I have not linked up with Farley's monthly Currently linky party in FOREVER, but I wanted to this month so here goes mine:

Listening: I am listening to the hustle and bustle of my quiet classroom after school. I am here by myself and am attempting to get some work done.

Loving: I LOVE how much my kinders' writing has improved during the first 118 school days. Many of them came in unable to write even the first letter of their names and now most are writing at least 1 complete sentence. Several are writing fluent stories with 3-4 sentences!

Thinking: I have such a long To Do list for this week for school and home. We have our annual curriculum night on Thursday so I am trying the plan for that and I have a lot of things going on at home right now too. 

Wanting: I am craving something sweet which I don't typically do, but boy would I love a piece of cake right now!

Needing: I am in desperate need of organization where my desk is concerned. It seems that no matter how hard I try it becomes the catch-all for all the paper documents in my classroom.

Spring Break Plans: I plan to spend time relaxing with my family. We will be enjoying Easter at home with our church and then we will be spending some much need time at the lake where we can relax. 

Now, please share with me what you are currently up to! 

Don't forget to head over to Farley's blog to read all the other Currently posts!