Five for Friday: We are in a groove..both at home and in the classroom!

I have a few carpet pickers! LOL! It's been a VERY busy week but I am SOOOOO glad we have a few weeks under our belts. The kids understand the routines and move through the day with more confidence everyday. They are the sweetest group of kiddos. I just love them!

We LOVE "Pete the Cat" and read all of the books. It worked well into my colors unit I have been doing in helping the kids spell their color words. We had some very unique cats when all was said and done. We do have our work cut out for us in the fine motor department =)

I am just tickled that we even got rotations going in the afternoon with computer log ins, ipad instructions, fine motor development, interactive notebooks, and color words. This generation is mostly tablets so it took a lot of time and patience explaining to my lil kinders how to use a desktop. Two weeks in and they still have difficulty pushing the correct side of the mouse but we will get there!

Our home has been non-stop since school has started between soccer, everyone at their own places, dental and doctor appts plus homework. I love our dentist! They take all four of us at the very same time and really cater to the kids (as you can see =). So thankful we all made it out looking good!

My middle schooler had to walk over to my building one day and really entertained my class at dismissal time. He made up the Headbandz game using his iphone.  I love this little guy's face as he is trying to guess the picture from the clues they were giving him. LOL!

Our travel soccer team had a game on Sunday, practice Monday, ball boys at the Varsity game on Tuesday, and practice again on Wednesday. They had a blast working the big game!

I quickly learned the needs of my kiddos within the first day. We definitely need to review color words so I am finishing up the last of the colors this weekend but I posted this FREEBIE in my shop. Check it out!

Learn Your Colors

I have always had requests to make a full year bundle of extension activities but it was going to take  a lot of work. I finally finished it up and it totaled over 2,200 pages! It does make it easier to have it the teacher drive rather than doing the unit bundles. I'm relieved to have this program going in its third year as its like riding a bike at this point. Now, we are implementing a new Science program so that will be my learning curve for this school year. 

Wonders Reading for Kindergarten FULL YEAR Bundle of Extension Activities

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday: We're Back!!

OMG! I had such an awesome first day with my new class of kiddos that I am afraid to blink. They did so great!

My room prep was ready for Open House before school began. I always wish that we would have it after the year started so I had some art work to hang up but the kids are always so excited to come check out the room. We originally had 58 kids between two classes but they added another section so I have an ideal class size. I was able to even take two of the tables and transform them into a writing and math station.

A wide angle shot of the room.

I found these dice at Five and Below. They are HUGE and bouncy. The kids love them!

My back to school books that I absolutely adore. 

Everyone earned a brag tag for having such an awesome day!! 

I finished my own set of brag tags and made them so that you can save your colored ink. Check out my pics below!

Brag Tags: Save the Ink!

We celebrated my youngest son's birthday with a quick trip out of town to visit a science center. We couldn't go to Columbus without visiting my alma mater, Ohio State. I just love and miss that place so much!

We had to take our annual back to school pics. I am thrilled the first week is short just to help us get back into the groove. I can't believe that I will have a high schooler next year. We actually will have one son in each school in our district. Craziness!!

I found an amazing blog that helped me to make a rotating banner in my TpT shop. If you are interested in creating your own, check out the link to her blog below. I was so proud of myself for making it on the first try but really it was the excellent details she gave!

How to make a rotating banner on TpT!

Have a great weekend!

Catching Up!

OMG... this is how I feel in the month of August with all of the back to school craziness and schedules! LOL!

Hello!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer. I have been a bit AWOL from blogging since school let out but I have been keeping busy reading educational materials and making/designing packs for the beginning of the school year! Let me share some of the things I have been up to....

I worked really hard last school year focusing on thematic units and incorporating more anchor charts, hands on, and scientific studies. I began posting with my pumpkin unit last year so I just completed my apple one just in time to prepare for the upcoming school year. I tried to keep the consistency with my others. So glad to have this done and checked off my list!

I have had this blog for a couple of years now. I'm not sure how many people ever use anything from it but I like that I can go back and look through to see what I have done in previous years. I also have a FB page as well but noticed in the past week that there was an interest in some educators collaborating about the reading program that our school works with called 'Wonders' by McGraw Hill. I began a FB group page for anyone interested in talking about the program throughout the year at this link : 

Wonders Reading for Kinders

There has already been some great discussions for those that are just beginning the program that hopefully some of us veterans can help with in regards to suggestions, what has worked or not worked thus far, and storage options. Feel free to join us! 

I have read several books this summer that were really informative and they were all by Ron Clark. My highlighter was on super speed as I couldn't get enough of everything he had to say! He has done great things and is very inspirational but I am shocked with the donations and dedication of all his employees. I have been doing lots of research and things that I would like to implement in my own room this year. One of them is BRAG tags. I think it sounds very promising and something my little kinder friends would love. I have been making my own to fit the needs of my classroom and building. I bought bright neon paper to print them on and then have been laminating as I go. I did buy an organizer to sort them all. I just hope I can keep it that way =)

Punch Card Progress! I compiled these cards all year as we went through the standards and I am working to make them available to you! I'm matching the standards to the exercises so that they align correctly. I am so glad that I will have these ready for the new school year as it was a lot of work making them but I used them for so many things! I particularly liked the mini conferences I had with each kiddo to gain their understanding of the material, I used them as portfolios to gauge progress, attendance each day, and I pulled them out during parent-teacher conferences plus so much more! It was great to check off their knowledge of the standards as we moved along. In case you don't read my blog, here is a summary of how I used them =>

I am SO VERY sad that I only have two weeks left of the summer. Every year, I pull out of the parking lot on the last day and know the days will fly by with my little guys. Here are some of the things we have been up to....

My littlest guy will be turning 5 next week. I can hardly believe it! He is so funny and has added such a wonderful dimension to our family. We did Tball for the very first time this summer and he did great. We will venture back into soccer for all three boys in the next couple of weeks againl He will be going to a TK "transitional kindergarten" program this year for those kiddos who have a summer birthday. We are so excited and hope that it is an awesome year for him =)

My middle guy has had a busy summer between swim team and fishing. We visited many parks so he could fish while I explored with Jax. This will be his last year of elementary school but he will be going to his home school with the neighborhood kids. He has been with me at my school only because we had been in the middle of moving and building a home. Now that we are all settled and he has met some neighborhood buddies, we are hoping this new venture is good for him as well. Lots of changes and I thrive on routine. EEK!

My oldest has been busy with band camp and finding pokemons. LOL! I had to take this picture so that we remember what a craze this has been. He's finishing up his last year of middle school and then all THREE will begin new schools the following year.  They are getting so big!

Have a great weekend!