I don't know about you, but the closer winter break is, the more active my kinders get. I always start a little extra positive behavior reinforcement this time of the year. This year I created a little super bear punch card. I usually order cards from Vista Print, which I love, but this is a whole lot cheaper. Using Word, I put the JPEG on Avery business cards and hit print. I tell my kinder that they can earn a "punch" for doing things they should be doing anyway, like cleaning their supplies after they finish a project. Our classroom elf also gives out punches for good behavior that she sees too. Clip art is from Scrappin Doodles.
I'm going to have one of those years...you know the kind that makes you a better teacher in the end, but is tough to live through. I won't go into details. Every year Kindergarten teachers all over the country get a "class soup." Since these little ones are new, nobody knows who should or shouldn't be put in the same "class pot." My soup this year is just a little spicy.
We need lots of brain breaks during the day and thank goodness I have an Activboard to help me out.
My school system also blocks YouTube, but never fear...an answer is here.
I use RealPlayer Downloader. I find fabulous videos and download them right to a flash drive to play during the day. I thought I would share some of my favorite Youtube channels and videos.
If you haven't checked out Harry Kindergarten, what are you waiting for? Drop everything and tune in. He makes and shares the most amazing videos. Some are to our favorite class tunes and others to tunes he creates himself. Awesome stuff. This is one that we just started watching. Number Words Rap
I also like Have Fun Learning. They have lots of videos on Youtube for free!
Check out this one.
And...of course Sesame Street. I love love Sesame Street! Check out Bruno and the monsters!
With my videos ready to use for brain breaks, I might just survive my spicy soup year!
Sarah, congratulations! As soon as Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies verifies your entry, you will hear from us regarding your prize.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.
Oh my gosh...it comes in PINK! How fantastic is this....and Classroom Friendly Supplies donates $1.00 for each sharpener to cancer research and awareness. Awesome!
You can win a sharpener for yourself....only 9 MORE hours to enter! Check out my giveaway!Click Here
Woo Hoo! I can FINALLY get into my classroom. I was the VERY last classroom to be cleaned at my school. I am so nervous and excited to get started!
I also noticed I have 100+ followers on Bloglovin! Woo Hoo!
To celebrate, I am grateful that Classroom Friendly Supplies is allowing me to give away one of their very popular quietest pencil sharpeners!
They come it four fabulous colors and you will even get to choose your favorite! Groovy Green, Cool Blue, Firehouse Red or Midnight Blue. To make this giveaway even sweeter, I am adding 2 dozen of my favorite pencils. Ticonderoga #2!
I LOVE doing exchanges, buying presents, getting presents and meeting new friends. I found an activity I'm going to try and you could try it too!
Click on the button and check it out. You have to sign up by the 3rd of each month, you are matched up by the 5th and you send out your package by the 20th. Can't wait to get my match!
Sorry, I'm late. I've been squeezing in all the doctor's appointments I can since summer is fading away so fast. Here are my latest picture book finds.
Boot and Shoe were born into the same litter, and now they live in the same house. They eat out of the same bowl, pee on the same tree, and sleep in the same bed. But they spend their days apart—Boot on the back porch because he’s a back porch kind of dog, and Shoe on the front porch because he’s a front porch kind of dog. This is exactly perfect for them. But then a crazy neighborhood squirrel arrives . . . and everything goes topsy-turvy! I am going to use this book during my reading block. I will read about half the book and have the children predict what will happen to Boot and Shoe during the rest of the story. I will then read the rest of the book and we will check our predictions.
When a little boy’s of prized toy airplane lands on a rooftop, he makes several rescue attempts before devising an unexpected solution.
This is a wordless book that would be an awesome book to teach predictions. I will show my class the book up to the page where the airplane lands on the roof and then ask them to predict how the boy will get his airplane off the roof.
I start teaching prediction early in the school year, so I start off having my kinders draw a picture to show their predictions and then I write a short sentence under their prediction for them. Later in the year, they write their own sentence.
The summaries are from Amazon you and click on the links to purchase the books for your own copies!
Just a reminder....only a few more hours for you to enter my giveaway on my science blog. It easy---peezy to enter. Click on my button...HERE.
I had a fabulous time and came home with a bag full of goodies! The amazing Heidi at Heidi Songs sent gifts for everyone. I came home with Jumpin Numbers 11-30. I am very excited to use this DVD to help my kinders with their tricky teens!
Thanks Heidi!
Lucky for you... Heidi also sent enough for us to give YOU a chance to win a CD too!! LOVE ya, Heidi! Just follow my new friends and VA bloggers from the meet-up for additional chances to win the Singable Songs for Letters and Sounds CD!
To enter....you need to visit Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten Blog for all the details. CLICK HERE!
I always have lots of good intentions to post more often, but I don't know what to post and I have lots of trouble committing to a subject. So, I am going to put myself on a schedule. Every Tuesday I am going to post two new picture book titles that I LOVE. Here are the first two titles.
I found these two new books that I am adding to my Science class library! Click on the captions to go to Barnes and Noble and order your own copy!
Dirty Gert
Little Gert loves to play in the dirt so much that she turns into a tree. Gert loves dirt. She plays in it and even tastes it. One day Gert is delighted to discover that she is becoming a tree. I'm going to use this book while teaching the needs of a plant.Dirty Gert by Tedd Arnold
Wake up—it’s springtime in the swamp! As 999 young frogs awaken, they panic to find that all of the other animals are still asleep. First they wake the biggest frog… then the tortoise, the lizard, and the ladybugs. But when they hop down a hole and all pull together, they find someone they don’t want to wake—a big, long snake. Don’t wake him up! I am going to use this book while teaching about hibernation..999 Frogs Wake Up by Ken Kimura
The summaries are from Bibliocommons and Barnes and Noble.
I don't know about you, but my school year seemed very stressful. We got new reading curriculum this year, new math curriculum last year and the whole standard 7/ data collection thing started for us this past year too. Change is a good thing, but that much change all at once made for a stressful year.
I felt like I just kept my head above water. Something had to give and it was the blog. But I'm BACK baby! I resolve to post more this year. I love my little blog and it and all of you make me happy!
Now for the FUN! I am linking with up Fifth in the Middle with her blogs by state. Virginia is for blog lovers baby!
AND I am happy to share that Karen and Kelly are celebrating Christmas in July with a Virginia Blogger Meet-up. Woo Who!
Well, I got my answer....No, stomping on the cookie did not make the impact I had hoped for. My little dude stepped on a journal and a water bottle today and we had another chat. It ended with my little dude having a one day suspension for threatening bodily harm to me So no I won't ever stomp on a cookie again.
This little dude really doesn't have empathy. I ended my character lesson with ....if it doesn't belong to you, don't step on it.
I am very very sad tonight and feel like I have let my guy down.
Sigh...
Don't freak out, but I got fired on Friday..by a six year old. So now the story...I have a little one who steps on things or breaks things that don't belong to him. He doesn't seem to have empathy for others. So, I jumped at an opportunity. He stepped on a student's cookie that was left by the hallway bathroom after lunch. After I asked him why he did this, his response was, it didn't belong to anyone. (It didn't have a name on it.) Well, my sweetie had part of a cookie of his own which he had put in the snack bin. I looked in the snack bin, found the cookie part and mentioned to my guy that this cookie didn't have a name on it, so it must not belong to anyone either. I proceeded to stomp on the cookie. The look on his face...priceless. He was SOOOO mad! I asked him how he was feeling and he fired me. "You're fired!" Wow! We then talked about how it felt to have your cookie stepped on and how mad he must be feeling. We talked about how sad he must be feeling since he didn't have a cookie to eat. We talked about things you could step on and things you shouldn't step on. We talked about how everything belongs to someone, even if you don't know who. He then went to Music and I went to buy two new cookies. I never found the owner of the first cookie, but a co-worker played the part very well. My little dude then went to apologize with the cookie he stepped on and a new cookie to replace the crumbled one. When he returned, I apologized to him and gave him a new cookie. And...he left for the long weekend. What do you think? Would you ever stomp on a cookie? I wonder if it made the impact I was working for...or not.
I am trying VERY hard to post more often. I found this linky that is perfect for me. Thank you "Swimming in Second" for this fun linky. Best Books for Boys Linky Party (Click here to link up) I work part time as a children's library reference assistant on weekends. Every librarian has a few go-to books for reluctant readers. Most of the time, those readers are boys. I usually try to offer some books that are part of a series. That way, if they like one...they might keep reading more. Here are a couple of my go-to books for boys. The Hank Zipzer series. There are 17 books in this series. These are written by non other than Henry Winkler (The Fonz). Lexile 610 Suggested grade: 2nd and up.
For Hank, fourth grade does not start out on the right foot. First of all, he gets called to the principal's office on the very first day of school. Then the first assignment his teacher gives him is to write five paragraphs on "What You Did This Summer." Hank is terrified-writing one good sentence is hard for him, so how in the world is he going to write five whole paragraphs? Hank comes up with a plan: instead of writing what he did on vacation, he'll show what he did. But when Hank's "living essay" becomes a living disaster, he finds himself in detention. Strangely enough, however, detention ends up becoming a turning point in his life
Inspired by his own experiences with undiagnosed dyslexia, actor/director Henry Winkler presents this new series about the high-spirited and funny adventures of a fourth-grader with learning differences. When Hank Zipzer has to write an essay on what he did over the summer, he decides instead to "show" what he did.
Snakes by Nic Bishop (One of many nature books written and photographed by Nic Bishop)
Lexile 1050 YIKES!!! Join naturalist Nic Bishop for a closer look at scaly, scary snakes!
Snakes are scaly, scary, silent predators. They use powerful venom or crushing strength to overwhelm their victims. Then they swallow them whole!
With breathtaking full-page images, Sibert Medal-winning photographer Nic Bishop introduces the terrifying and beautiful world of snakes. The simple, engaging text presents both basic information and captivating details about the appearance, habits, and remarkable abilities of these amazing reptiles. An index and glossary are included, along with an author's note detailing his research and the fun stories behind the photographs
Description by Barnes and Noble.
The Gregor the Overlander Series. Written by Suzanne Collins. (She wrote the Hunger Games)
Lexile: 630 Age range: 8 and up.
This irresistible first novel tells the story of a quiet boy who embarks on a dangerous quest in order to fulfill his destiny -- and find his father -- in a strange world beneath New York City.
When Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it -- until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. Reluctantly, Gregor embarks on a dangerous adventure that will change both him and the Underland forever.
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.
Description by Barnes and Noble
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Lexile 1020 Suggested age: 9 and up. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness. More than a survival story, Hathcet is a tale of tough decisions. When all is stripped down to the barest essentials, Brian discovers some stark and simple truths: Self-pity doesn't work. Despair doesn't work. And if Brian is to survive physically as well as mentally, he must discover courage.After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
Description by Barnes and Noble.
I've never had a bad review on ANY of these books for boys.
Happy Reading!
This is my first currently...so if you see something I should do differently, please let me know.
It is 2:18 in the morning on my last day of winter break. I've enjoyed my time home so much and I am sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow. We only had seven days off for winter break.
The house is quiet except for the kitties playing upstairs in the kitchen. I should probably go check on them, but it is more fun to try and guess what they are doing.
I love having all my chicks back home for a while. Everyone lives at home, except for my oldest. She is 23, but her presence this week makes my home feel perfect. I love having her home even though having three girls at thome means girl drama.
I'm thinking I should be writing lesson plans right now for tomorrow.
I'm wanting more time home....I probably don't need to say anymore.
I need to find my work/ teaching clothes. I've enjoyed all the pj days and jean days. Gotta bring out the fabric steamer and find something cute for tomorrow!
OLW: Priorities. After a few days off, I realize that I need to put my priorities in order. Family should be first always. My girls are getting older and I need to enjoy my time with them. Like most teachers, I haven't found the balance between work and home.
Come link up with Oh' Boy 4th grade and share your thoughts....
Hi! I'm Cindy. It is very nice to meet you. I am a 40 something Kindergarten teacher. I returned to the classroom at the age of 40. Prior to returning to Kindergarten, I worked as a library associate/ programmer at the public library. Oh...and I still work at the library on weekends. I also homeschooled my own children for 11 years. After my own family, my passions are Kindergarten, science and children's literature.
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