Miss Heidi is coming, Miss Heidi is coming!!!

There are just SIX more sleeps until MISS Heidi comes to not only MICHIGAN, but to MY school! We chat on facebook and I feel like she's an old friend now! I personally can't wait to spend the day with her at the Michigan Kindergarten Conference!! Not only that, but Heidi has been so gracious to agree to spend some time with my little kiddos after school. But wait, it gets BETTER. My principal has arranged for transportation for all the kids who ride the bus for after the event! Can you tell we are EXCITED?
If you haven't heard of Miss Heidi, she's just amazing:) She's developed a great program(Heidi Songs) to help kids use singing and motions/movement to learn to recognize letters, numbers and sight words. She also has many other great products available! Check out her website HERE!

What I love about Heidi is she is the real deal. She's an actual classroom Kindergarten teacher in a high needs school! Plus she is not only creative and keeps making great products, but she has a giving heart! She has a great blog to that gives freebies to her subscribers. I love that!
 You can get updates on new products and freebies HERE!

I knew the power of song and movement quite early in my teaching career. HOWEVER, I really didn't use Heidi's materials to their full potential until last year. (I've had some of her items for the past 6 years!) Just recently I ordered Jumpin Numbers and Shakin Shapes. I've played the DVD for less than two weeks. My kids KNOW those songs and the motions! I can't wait to see how great this translates into progress for my littles who struggle with numbers!

I know this has been a supercharged advertisement for Heidi Songs. The truth is, when I really love and believe in a company and product, I shout it from the rooftops!
So if you haven't check out Heidi Songs, do it now!
(For the record, in a poll taken by three K classes in my school, our favorite songs are Black and 7!!)

I'll be sure to update with pictures from our meeting!

Whew! Conferences are over! (For the most part!)

November is always such a mad dash! Between wrapping up Halloween (and when Halloween is on a weekday having the over candied detox the next day) and finishing quarterly report cards, there are some REALLY long days!
We are moving full steam ahead with Daily 5. My kids do an AMAZING job. SO much so, that I worked my guided groups out, about 2 months earlier than normal! I have a "daily 5" purple folder (Yes, my theme is purple and white for KState Wildcats!) in their caddies/baskets. We also keep writing journals and crayons/pencils, etc in there. These caddies tend to get MESSY. When I had cubbies, I had a cubby fairy. Well, here comes the caddy fairy to the rescue! I made these cute labels for the clean caddies! I know I have ONLY one, so I will put this on their table in the morning, with four treats (treats that aren't out already!:)

 Grab it here!











This year's conferences were held in the cafeteria. While it was nice to sit next to other K teachers so we could talk ideas when not conferencing, it also meant not getting ANY work done in my room during down time! I did however do two new things at conferences this year.
1. I made song books from my Heidi Songs download for the Sing and Spell #1 cd. We are using this first list as our "base" word this year in my school . We practice the songs daily and I wanted something for the kids to use at home. Not only can they SING the words, but they can READ the words too! You can view this product here! (It's a GREAT purchase for $5!) If you haven't heard of Heidi Songs, check out her website HERE:) This is SUCH a great tool!!

2. I made word rings with the words from Sing and Spell #1. Basically I made a table with 25 blanks (3 per row, 8 rows plus one extra box). I typed each of the words in the table. Then I printed on green paper, laminated and cut apart. Punch a hole in the same corner for all words and attach to a metal ring. (I bought mine at Meijer for a little over $2 for 25!) Wahlah!! Then the ring goes home for practice. Once the student can read ALL 25 words with NO help, they go on the pizza party list!
In December we start our pizza parties for students that know all the sight words! This is a GREAT motivator. Once they learn the sight words and turn in their word ring, they get a NEW list. The great thing is they are then able to qualify for the NEXT pizza party if they learn the 2nd list! I usually have 3-4 students who make it up to 2nd grade words! We have parties 2-3 times more during the year so all students have a chance. I give up my lunch one day and we make it a PARTY! In the a.m, the participants make their own placemat on construction paper. I buy pizza, breadsticks, juice boxes and treats. Then I give those kids a "super star" sticker AND a pencil. This is a VERY cool reward for those kids!!



I can't believe November is already almost halfway over!
Have a great week!

Batty fun freebie!

Our field trip was AWESOME! We had sprinkling rain most of the day and found some muddy trails to the pumpkin patch but the kids LOVED the cider mill and pumpkin patch! It was so cool seeing kids who were new to our country stand in awe of a live pumpkin field!

Tomorrow starts our week of bat fun! I finished the emergent reader for "The Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat." I added color words to help kids practice reading the color words AND so we could make a retelling bead bracelet later in the week! (I had some kids sort my big bead container, great fine motor work!)
I wanted to share the reader and hope to take some pictures of the retelling bracelets this week.
Don't forget: B-b-b-bats, the only mammal to take to flight! :) (I can't wait to share that big book and song with my kiddos!!)
Click  HERE  for this freebie!

I've gone batty!!!

Wow! The first 6 weeks just flies by! I went from 17 kids (12 boys and 5 girls) to 25 kids (17 boys and 8 girls) in a matter of weeks! My room is MUCH more crowded!! I'm wearing tennis shoes to keep up with all the boys!! We are going full steam ahead with Daily 5 and so far have conquered Listen to a Story (Thanks to my DonorsChoose Cd players!) and Read to Self. Getting to Read to Someone Else tomorrow and Working with Words next year!
It's mid October and we are looking forward to heading to the cider mill/pumpkin patch soon! Our school has a large population of ELL students. This means doing traditional Halloween activities might not work. I've always done a few days on bats, but this year I'm going batty and doing a WHOLE week!
So I've got big plans!
1. I'm working on an emergent reader for "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat". I remember last year how amazing the Gingerbread emergent reader/retelling bracelet from Kindergarten Crayons worked for retelling. Fran used beads on a bracelet for retelling, using one color for each character. That's my plan for this book too!!Last year I had students who could retell weeks after based on looking at that bracelet!!
2. I have seen the games where you put programmed cards in a pocket chart and hide one little card behind one of them. The kids read a card and try and find the hidden card. Well, I've made one using numbers and BATS!!

You can get your free copy HERE
3. We will be doing a schema/new learning/misconceptions chart. Can't wait! Plus I am going to make a labeling sheet!
Hope you are not quite so batty as I am:)
Susan

Reinventing the wheel.....

Sometimes I easily find JUST what I want . I'm not a fan of reinventing the wheel and there are many amazing K teachers out there making things I LOVE.
We've been working on recognizing color words. My collection of color word worksheets seem to be a bit hard this year. Actually, every year they tend to be hard for many kids. I really wanted a sheet with pictures for just ONE color, not mutiple. Right now we are on blue.
I searched TPT and google and never found JUST what I wanted.
What's a K teacher to do? MAKE MY OWN!! (Even though I am fighting a sinus infection and REALLY need to go to bed.
What's a super cool K teacher to do with that sheet?
Why SHARE it of course!:)

Click Here to get your copy!!!

SWEEET things for my classroom!!

I spent today putting together things at home to get ready for working in my classroom again. Basically I stopped procrastinating and finished some projects!

First up: LAMINATING! 
I don't know about your school, but our laminator is constantly either out of film or broken! I found a deal on amazon.com about 18 months ago for a pocket laminator by Scotch. WOWZA! This thing ROCkS! It only cost me $16 and it's great! Yes, I can only get an 8 1/2 x11 sheet in , but it works FABULOUSLY! Plus, I found 5mil laminating pockets on amazon for under $20. Seriously, this is the ONLY size to go with! (You can use plain printer paper and not tag board and still get great results!! )
Here's a link to the pockets I use:
5 mil laminating pockets, 100 for under $20!

Then you can purchase the laminator also!:
Right now it's $30, but keep your eyes out, it sells for less often! (Some stores carry it too!)
Scotch laminator


One of my favorite papers to laminate was this  pete the cat freebie from Heidi songs! Can you see my new Pete the cat I ordered from Amazon too? My littles will LOVE him!!  I need to get velcro on the pages (see Heidi's post) but that can wait til later this week!

 Another project I finished up was my gumball sight word center. I purchased a gumball from where else...AMAZON. :) I used gems and homemade modge podge recipe from Pinterest to add sight words. My helpful hint would be to print the words REALLY small, cause those gem suckers are super small ! I also did numbers and letters...

Finally, I found this GREAT sign on Pinterest!! I laminated it and put it in a picture frame. I sing this song with my kiddos daily for the first few months and they LOVE it. I have a book with pictures, so this will be icing on the cake!!

 Click  HERE to get this great freebie!
Hope your year is off to a fabulous start!!

Helper chair covers AND a freebie!!

Who ever thinks teachers don't work during the summer has not been a kindergarten teacher!
I've pinned ALL summer! LOL! I also made a pinterest project (gumball letters and words) and sewed new chair covers for my daily helpers!

I also made a "How many days have we been in school" sign for my calendar area. I'm giving you a free copy!! Click on this link for your copy!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-CnVuZ5ZdeBX2s4TjQwNnlJMW8/edit

Hope your back to school is an easy transition!

Kindergarten teachers are all sorts of colorful!!

Today I had the great opportunity to participate in The Color Run in Grand Rapids! (Michigan). It was a ton of fun and I got to share it with my friend!

I also thought I'd blog about the experience of doing a 5k, just in case you're like me: not in awesome shape and pretty much a newbie!!:)

So here's the story:

I signed up for this event a few months back, I had heard about it from some online friends. Sounded way cooler than some plain old 5k!!

I also liked that the color run advertised that it was not a speedy race, but more about FUN! (and who is more fun than kindergarten teachers?)

I talked my neighbor into doing the run with me. Let me say that Grand Rapids is about 1 hr 15 min drive from here......

So we had GRAND plans of training..Then summer and all the stickyness and busy schedules came!

So, I think we walked 2 times? We also did some zumba classes (toning and aqua, her much more than me!)

I offered to drive. The alarm was set for 5 am. OMGOODNESS! I NEVER get up at 5am unless I'm going to Cedar Point or Cancun!! LOL!

I did okay going to sleep early last night, until the thump thump of the dog in the bathtub at 2a.m..... Let her outside, then flopped for a good 30 minutes before falling asleep.

Checked the weather in the a.m.: It was a forecasted 71 degrees! How AWESOME!

Drove to GR and my neighbor (and awesome friend!) spotted a SWEET parking spot in a lot one block from the start! (and it was FREE! Teachers LOVE FREE!) The best part of the sweet spot is that we could grab our color run tshirt and put it in the car! Put our towels on the back of the car seats to prep for the ride home, and  slammed a 5 hr energy drink on the advice of my teacher friend, Ann. (she's not only a runner/super athlete, but she's a middle school science teacher, so she had to be RIGHT!) Here we are all pristine and white..LOL! 

We walked up to get checked in. The paperwork we were emailed said, "get there early! The lines will be long!" Well, apparently most of GR picked up their packets the night before! It was super fast and we had time to take pics, walk around and let this small bladdered teacher find the porta potties..

We lined up in Wave 2. Did I mention there was 11 THOUSAND people participating? Oh my goodness!! Tutus, bride dresses, babies, littles, bigs, so cool!

SO there I was, NERVOUS as ALL get out. I knew I couldn't run it. I had only jogged maybe a 5 minute stretch once on the treadmill when doing C25K earlier this year. I hadn't run more than 1/10 of a mile since probably college! So, we got all pumped with the music, and saw the first wave GO!

There we were...and then the second wave (US!) moved up and were off!

Did I say I don't run? Or really jog? Well, I totally impressed myself folks. I decided that no matter what I should start and end the 5k jogging!! So, we jogged most of the first kilometer. The first color explosion area came up pretty soon!!  It was purple (my favorite color! Go Kstate!) There is no explaining the color zones. Okay there is, but until you DO it, you won't really get it!:) You walk by and tons of volunteers use bottles of colored corn starch powder and spray it all over you! The first station wasn't too dusty!

Well of course right after that my right leg started having a shin splint issue. I walked as fast as I could and the 2nd color zone seemed to take FOR EV ER!! After we got pummeled with orange, I stopped and did some ankle circles and stretched for a second. Oh my that ankle was TIGHT!

So on we went. I jogged every down hill of the race:) We got blasted with Pink and Yellow:) It was super!! The weather was gorgeous and a bit cool was awesome!

One of the coolest parts was the road back when you saw later waves of runners with their VERY white shirts compared to our very NOT white shirts!!

We jogged one more downhill, and I pushed myself around the corner of the next light. We walked one block and then I realized we were close to the FINISH!

So I kicked it in high gear and RAN the rest of the way (when there was a clear path!) . It felt GREAT to run across a race line!!

Did I say I was proud of myself yet? It felt GREAT! (and truthfully , if my leg didn't hurt I could have jogged a lot more, breathing wise I was doing great!)

After we finished we moved up onto the plaza. Every 10 or 15 minutes they would do a color throw. Each runner got a packet of color. Brandy and I had already thrown ours, so we went up to benefit from the big throw. It was COOL, Crazy, and a bit scary for a second!:)

AND we got COVERED! (as you can see in my pic above!)

So, there it is, Kindergarten teachers ARE Colorful! (and I think I'll sign up for another 5k and run a bit more next time!!)

Oh Target, you temptress....

I LOVE me some dollar zone deals at Target!! I wanted to share with you some of my new favorites that I found!
First up...

This super cute tray for papers. I use a tray each day for morning work. This one is super cute and at only $1, I'm okay if it doesn't last!!

Next up:

Oh my goodness! Are you KIDDING me? I sewed some seat covers a few years back and need to redo my helper covers. But these are nice cheap cool ones to give to a hard working students..and $1 !!! WOOT!

Finally, thanks to my teacher friend posting her purchase, I got some of these:

 

It's a cute little 2 pack of magnetic erasers.

I saw someone post a picture of dry erase sleeves in the dollar section. You KNOW I'm going to go look for those tomorrow!! I also bought some little caddies. I am really going back and forth on how to arrange my table tops this year. Last year I did a spinny caddy from Target. It got messy quickly and I couldn't store folders at the desk too...This year I found the SMALL four pocket caddies, those might work! So get your Target on and pick up some great deals!!

QR Codes ROCK!!

So, on  pinterest I saw that someone made a QR code to put outside their room with contact information at the beginning of the school year. 

 (Here's the link: http://pencilspaperandpd.blogspot.com/2011/09/finallymy-home-away-from-home.html)  

How SMART is that? 

Okay wait, you may not KNOW what a QR code here. Take your smart phone (If you have one, if not, borrow your friend/coworker/child's) and find a scanning application (There are quite a few free ones, I use Red Laser or Scan Life from the App store.) Go ahead, scan my QR code! 

 Now I do work in a very urban school, but I know quite a few parents still have smart phones!
SO I googled QR codes and found a great website!! You can add text or email or links or anything! So cool! Here's the website I used (because I'm all about making your life easier, right?)
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

I also think I could make QR codes and post them on the wall (sight words) all around the room. I have ONE ipod touch for my room so the kids could take turns scanning the code to see the word!!
Oh wait, I would NOT post them around the room, I would put the codes in a baggie, then make a sheet for the kids to write the words that came up!! (just the thought of the possibility of a kid dropping the ipod scare the heck out of me!!!)  I've got to get on that!

So go make a QR code. You could add a little note, or just do the basics such as name, school phone and email. Not only are you making your parent's lives a bit easier, but you look SOOOO tech savvy!!

Happy coding!

School Supply Sales are Here!!

My husband knows me....He knows that one of the GREAT joys of being a Kindergarten teacher is SCHOOL SUPPLY sale time!! Of course, this coordinates quite nicely with the birthday extravaganza month in our house! (Three birthdays in one week!) 

So today I hauled my own two littles (who are NOT so little anymore) and went to Walmart. I heard a rumor that glue sticks were 10 cents. I was expecting to find rose art glue sticks for 10 cents.

Then I saw THIS sign:

Hmm...Two years ago it was 20 cents, then last year it went up to 40cents..NOW...50 cents for a two pack...Making it hard for educators to purchase much needed supplies, right?

Well, not so fast now.. Then I saw THIS sign:

JACKPOT!!!

I get ya Walmart, you're hoping people won't notice and will buy the two pack, right? NOT SO FAST, you have  a very savvy teacher shopping today!! 

Now, being the great mom, I made the kids help me scour for an empty box, cause no one enjoys trying to play the "keep the glue sticks from falling out of the shopping cart" game!

I also made my soon to be second grader figure out how much money 45 glue sticks would be:) He did great btw!

So head out to your local Walmart and grab some cheap glue sticks (okay, well at the price from two years ago!!) I LOVE me some great deals!!:)

Happy shopping!

Apache, jam on it....jam on it...jam on it....

We had a CRAZY warm-up this spring in Michigan. I'm talking mid 80's!! So, the berries budded early and many farms worked all night when freezes came in mid May. Lucky for me, the strawberry farm we visited last year (Huhn Strawberry Farm in Eagle) had some late blooming! It's my first REAL week of vacation (no training, classroom is packed up!) so I grabbed my daughter and two of her friends and headed to pick berries! It was INSANELY hot this week (upper 80's to mid 90's) so we headed out at 9am. Last year the berries were NOT really sweet, but great for freezer jam. This year was completely different! The strawberries were gorgeous! Not only that, but they were delicious!! My helpers ate quite a FEW berries while picking:)

I made cherry freezer jam a few years back and was amazed at how EASY it was . Really, the hardest part is cutting all the cherries and getting out the pits! Last year I did strawberry jam and with my frugalness, had jam until April!! YUM!

So, I had big plans! Got some young ladies cutting and mashing!! Sent home a jar with each of the girls and still had 9 left!

The best part about freezer jam is it's EASY PEASY!! :)  Cut the berries, mash them (I leave them with big chunks). 2 cups berries, 4 cups sugar. Mix. Let sit for 10 minutes. Mix 3/4 c water and a packet of sure gel pectin in a pot, heat to boil, boil 1 minute stirring constantly. Add to strawberry mixture. Mix together. Then I put the jam in my glass measuring cup and pour into the jars. Let sit on the counter for 24 hrs, then it's off to the freezer for up to a year!! OR , you can put it right in the fridge to enjoy after the 24 hrs.

Hope you've got some fun summer plans up your sleeve!

School's out now that I've PURGED!

That's right!! It's Summer time !! I had SIOP training (for our new population of ELL students next year) all this week. On top of that, I went BACK to school to close down my room.
Since the fall of 2009, I've moved 5 times. It was time to go through items and do some PURGING. It's really hard as a K teacher , not to mention a teacher who's been bumped around to many grades, to PURGE. It's REALLY hard! I spent about 10 hours in total this week going through every nook and cranny of my classroom. The EXCITING news is I don't have to MOVE and I get to stay in K next year! AWESOME SAUCE!
So, I went through all the extra papers, toys, manipulatives, etc. The hardest thing is deciding whether to keep or pitch worksheets.
Not only do you end up with the extra few sheets (yes, my littles do NOT have great attendance!) , but you also have the sets of sheets that you didn't get to use, but think you MIGHT. I learned about 7 years ago from a great coteacher that you should put all your originals in binders with plastic sleeves. I have them organized this way:
Months, Addition/Subtraction, Math, Social studies, Science, Writing, Hand Writing, Sight words, Word sorts, touch math and more!.

I also have a great set of drawers like the one here that I keep all my ready made copies in. During the year I had moved things gradually from my old classroom (which was empty) and added to my bottom two drawers. My most recently used papers were on top, and the fall things were on the bottom. SOOOO, I took on the task of emptying every drawer! (Mine actually has 4 !) Sorted and got rid of (gave to a first grade teacher) the sheets that were too high level for my littles and organized the rest by time of year used! WHEW! Big project done. I did end up with a REALLY thick folder of extra papers that I still needed to sort into my binders but I was DONE DONE DONE!! I put them in my Wednesday bin (I have red bins for each day of the week to hold my items for that day) to work on in the fall!!:)

I do need to swing by next week to grab my fridge, I think I'll take some photos to show a bit more of my organization!:)
Happy summer to you!

End of year wrap up ....................

The end of school is here!!
I had a great end of the year with my students!!

I gave all my littles the "crazy cool" gifts and they LOVED them!

I also had the fortune of having my daughter (who just finished 4th grade) come to school with me on the last day (a half day). My son (just finished 1st) came too, but spent most of his time behind my desk, he's not a big social person with new people:)

Emmie reading Pete and his Four buttons!

Emmie read a book to kids and wrote the morning message. They LOVED having her there and she is a natural born boss, I mean teacher!

All week I've let the helper of the day pick their favorite book of the year to reread. Today we read ALL the Pete the Cat books, they can't get ENOUGH of them!

When it was a few minutes before the end of the day, we listened to "School's Out!" Then we left through this sign I made (sorry for the crummy picture!)

Hope everyone is having a super vacation, if you've made it there! I'm actually still working even though the kids are gone! I'll post on that tomorrow!

My thoughts on Pinterest...

Seriously, Pinterest has made me drop a few formerly visited websites....Pinterest is AMAZING for teachers and foodies! Actually a bit TOO amazing some nights!! BUT, I know that my family time is worth way more than a few bucks, so I let others do the work:) Come on, some of you think the same thing, right?

Countdown to Summer!

I decided it was was time to get our official countdown on!! Sometimes I just get this idea and then my OCD takes over. I didn't have time to wait and do it another day, I HAD to do it RIGHT then!! As you can see, my family members are a TINY bit into Star Wars....these images from Scrappin Doodles seemed PERFECT! This is a great way to let the kids help you count down the days until summer vacation!! Some people may wonder WHY it has "mommy and daddy" counting down with a different number of days. Well, we are a teacher family and sadly, the kids get out the day BEFORE us! BOO!! This could easily be used for a countdown BACK to school, but in our house , that's akin to swearing. (counting down to going back to school!)