Back to School Jitters Linky Party

I found this wonderful linky party this morning while I was checking up on my blog before heading in to school for a meeting.

It is the perfect party for me to join in right now. I always get nervous in the days leading up to meeting my new group of kiddos which usually leads to some sleepless nights and lots of to-dos for myself.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway for the Kindergarten Math CC Assessments Pack, please head over here to enter! The giveaway ends tonight!

Good-Bye Summer & Bright Polka Dot Binder Covers

Wow! I can't believe that Wednesday I officially go back to work for the 2012-13 school year. I can't believe that our summer break went by so quickly. In honor of the ending of summer, Peterson's Pad is having a Good-Bye Summer 2012 Linky Party.

Here's the rules:

Share 4 things about your summer!

1. A place you visited

2. A book you read

3. Something you did or made for your school class

4. A fun thing you did

1) A place I visited: This summer I visited the lake for a week on vacation with my husband. It was so nice and relaxing.

2) A book I read: I read many books this summer, but one of the best was The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks.

3) Something I did or made for my school class: I made so many things for my classroom this summer so here is a small sampling. I made several sets of quiet dice, a polka dot name canvas for my door, and a welcome banner to go above the classroom door.

4) A fun thing I did: I spent time laying on the beach, reading and relaxing. It was fabulous! This spot is on an island that can only be reached by boat. It was peaceful and quiet!

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This year, I am doing a very generic classroom theme with primary colors (green, yellow, blue, & red) and polka dots. I have seen so many adorable binder covers in blog land and I wanted one to match my theme so I decided to make my own.

I made these in PowerPoint. You can customize them by opening them up in PowerPoint and adding a text box with your name or initials. I also made a box at the bottom of the cover to add a text box with the contents of your binder.

I think these covers look adorable in my new binders. I can't wait to show them off at school! These binder covers are available in my TN shop and TpT shop. If you download them, I would appreciate some feedback! Thanks!

Sundays in the South: A New Product & My Teachers Notebook Shop -- Updated!

I have created a new set of calendar cards for a friend with pirate clipart so I decided to list this in my TpT store and TN shop. It is on sale right now for $1.50 but will be $2.50 tomorrow so be quick if you want to save some $$.

I have updated my Teachers Notebook shop with my other units and activities from my TpT store. Both stores now have the same items depending on which you are a fan of. If you have been considering making a purchase, I hope you will pop on over to one of my shops. Thanks!

**If you haven't already entered my giveaway for the Kindergarten Math CC Assessments Pack, please head over here to enter! The giveaway ends on Tues., Aug. 14th!**

Do You Use HM Journeys Reading Series?

This year our school district adopted a new reading series - Houghton Mifflin Journeys. I am amazed at the amount of materials included with this reading series. When I walked into my classroom, I had 8 boxes of materials including extra large flipcharts and a tub of big books and other materials for each of the 6 units. The materials look great, but I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials. 

Our kindergarten team has been trying to plan for the upcoming school year with this series, but I am still unsure. 

So here is my question for you:

Do any of you use this reading series? If you do, what words of wisdom do you have for a new teacher to this series?

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If you haven't already entered my giveaway for the Kindergarten Math CC Assessments Pack, please head over here to enter! The giveaway ends on Tues., Aug. 14th!

Giveaways Galore!

Boy there are a ton of giveaways going on right now in blog land, including my own so I thought I would share a list of them with you! It will also help introduce you to some great blogs if you don't already follow them.

Sunshine, Sand and Scissors is having their 1st ever giveaway. They will be having 3 winners: 1 for a a $10 Oriental Trading gift card, 1 for a $10 Target gift card, and 1 for a $10 Amazon gift card. The winners will be announced on Aug. 16th.


Keep Calm & Imagine is having a great giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card and a $10 Teachers Notebook gift card. The giveaway ends on Aug. 15th.


Starring in First Grade is having a giveaway to celebrate 30 followers to her blog. She is a new blogger and one to watch. Her giveaway ends on Aug. 14th.

First Grade Fairytales is haivng a 100 follower giveaway for a $25 TpT gift card. Her giveaway ends on Wed., Aug. 15th.

This is my giveaway of course. If you haven't enter yet, please head over to enter. The giveaway ends on Tues., Aug. 14th. Thanks!!

Kindergarten CC Math Assessments Pack Giveaway

Since it is getting close to the start of a new school year, I have decided to have a giveaway to my fabulous followers. I am giving away my largest TpT creation to date - my Kindergarten CC Math Assessments Pack. This is a $8.00 value on TpT and TN.

The giveaway begins today and will end on Tuesday, August 14th. I will draw and announce the winner on Wednesday, August 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back To School Books Linky Party

I found First Grade Found Me's Back to School books linky party today and of course I wanted to link up. I have so many favorite back to school books so here are some of them.

This is one of my all time favorite books. Pinkerton the pig always has to be first to do everything and in the end it gets him into trouble. It is the perfect book to teach sharing and taking turns.

This is a beautiful book that fits in perfectly in an early childhood classroom. I always read it the first day of school and explain to my kinders that is ok for them to miss their parents. I also end with giving each child a Hershey kiss in their hands.

This is such a cute book about a teacher's fears about the first day of school. It is great to show the students that they aren't the only ones who are worried about school starting.


This is my newest addition to my collection. I have read it with my nephew and he loves it. I can't wait to use it with my kinders this year.


This is an adorable book about how crayons and kids need to work together to make things better. It is a great book about cooperation.

I Heart Donors Choose & The Opening Of My TN Shop

Donors Choose is such an awesome organization for teachers. We write a proposal and donors choose which projects they would like to fund. A teaching friend of mine just had a projected fully funded to get a new Nook to use with her middle schoolers. It will be a great addition to her classroom. Since I am still on summer break, I thought I would take the time to write a couple of proposals as well. I have 2 new active projects on the Donors Choose website.

Wild About Writing

This project is for journals, pencils, and crayons for my kinders. I would love for them all to have the supplies they need when we begin formal journal writing.

Loco for Literature

This project is for leveled readers for my kinders. I am asking for 5 sets of leveled readers (levels A-C) with nonfiction and fiction books to help keep all my kinders interested in reading.

There are usually match codes available that will match what a person's donates to an active project. This means that your donation is worth twice as much! In order to find one, I just use a search engine and look for Donors Choose match code.

Now, I want to know you think of Donors Choose. If you have not written a proposal before, I hope you will visit Donors Choose and try writing a proposal of your own.

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In other news, after being persuaded by some great friends, I have finally decided to open a Teachers Notebook shop. I have listed a few freebies and also my Kindergarten Math CC Assessments pack in my shop right now. I will be adding new items as well. I hope you will pop on over and visit my new shop! I would love to hear what you think.

Monday Made It - Quiet Dice

I am once again linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Folics for her Monday Made It linky party.

This week I made the quiet dice I have seen on other teacher's blogs. I found the foam dice at Dollar Tree in a pack of 50 for $1.00 which I thought was a great purchase! I bought 2 packs so that I would have lots of blank dice to make different types of dice to use in my classroom.

Since we use the EveryDay Math curriculum, these dice will fit in perfectly. There are so many games and activities in the lessons that require dice and it can get very loud with 24+ kinders rolling dice on tile floors and hard tables.

To make the dice, I used the foam blocks and a black paint pen, but I am going to try out a permanent marker on the next set and see how they turn out.

I made the traditional dot dice with 1-6 dots:

I made number dice with numerals 1-6:

I made letter dice with vowels on red dice and consonants on blue dice:

I still have plenty of blank dice left and I am sure I will be making other kinds of dice as I think of ideas. Does anyone have any other ideas for dice to make to use in kindergarten?

Kindergarten Common Core Math Assessments Pack

Whew! I have finally completed one of my largest projects of the summer. I have created a pack of math assessments for the Common Core standards for kindergarten. These assessments are printable sheets that can be used for documentation for each student. Some of the assessments use other materials or manipulatives while others only use the sheet in the pack. There is a documentation sheet for every standard in the Kindergarten Common Core Math standards.

Right now the pack is on sale for $4.00 through Wed., Aug. 8th when it will return to the regular price of $8.00. If you would like to purchase this pack, please click on the picture below. The picture only has a few sheets pictured, but the document has 17 pages of assessments and 7 pages of coversheets and section coversheets for a binder.

I hope this will be a useful document for you. I have already printed and copied mine. I already have plans to use it with my new group of kinders.

BTW: I have a giveaway coming up and I am hoping to have 250 followers by then so please let your friends know about my little kindergarten blog.

August Currently

WOW! I can't believe it is already August and about time for school to start back. It is a bittersweet time for me. I love summer break and the time it allows me to spend with family and friends, but I also miss seeing my sweet kinders every day. I am looking forward to meeting my new group for this year and seeing what the school year holds.

So now it is time for Farley's August Currently. I enjoy linking up with her and reading everyone's posts. 

If you have not participated in Farley's Currently linky parties before, now is the perfect time. I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to Currently!

Summer Bucket List Update

So back in May, I linked up with Teri, Hadar, and April for their summer bucket list linky party. You can check out the detailed list by clicking here. Here is an update of my progress so far.

1) Read a few good books I have been wanting to read
Done! I have read about 12 books this summer and loved every minute of it!

2) Organize my monthly materials into the correct binders and boxes 
I have been working on this one. I think I have most of my materials in the correct locations now. YAH!!!

3) Some trips to the beach 
I have taken several day trips to the beach and spent some time basking in the sun with a book in my hands thanks to some great friends and family!

4) Create some activities and units for my TpT store 
I have been really bad about this one and haven't gotten any units completed. I really need to get busy before getting back into school full time.

5) Create a photobook of our wedding on Shutterfly 
This is a work in progress. I can't decide where to put every picture and I am so much of a perfectionist!

6) Learn more about my new Nikon d5100 DSLR camera
I have learned so much this summer from Pinterest and just playing around with the settings.

7) Some day/weekend trips to Lake Moultrie 
Actually, I got to go this past week for 5 days which was fabulous!!

8) Organize my classroom library  
I completed this about a month ago. I used slats from my window blinds cut in half to divide my books into themes and made labels to stick on each divider. It looks fantastic!

I think I have done pretty well so far. So now how are you doing with your bucket list??