Freebie Friday!

When teaching my kinders to write lowercase letters I teach them Tall, Fall, and Small. Tall like a giraffe, because the neck reaches the top line (or the tree top). Fall like a cat, because the tail falls below the line. Small like a mouse, because the mouse fits under the middle line. I created this page to for the kids to practice which letters are tall, fall, or small. They cut out the letter and glue it in the correct column. Hope you like it.

I have not gotten real fancy with my stuff yet, so all my clip art is from Microsoft, but today I am thankful for that because I know a lot of you are having to change your freebies and items on your TpT because of TOU changes! Yikes!!!

Pinterest Thursday

Pinning has become such an addiction for me while off on leave, I am really worried that I might suffer withdrawals when I return to work next Wednesday! As long as I am looking for school stuff it should be okay to pin while I am taking my pumping breaks, right?!
Anyway here are this weeks pins!!! YAY!!

This one is for school! I love Debbie Diller. I use her ideas in reading and plan to use them in math soon (again with the plan to change my math and didn't get to it!). Also I get to see her this summer, and I am so excited!!

Source: loryevanspage.blogspot.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

This one is a favorite of mine. I used to live in Cookeville TN and there was a restaurant there called Thomas Andrews and they had this amazing appetizer that is so much like this salad. As soon as I found this I went out and bought the stuff for lunch!!!

Source: everythingfab.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

And my last one is for my babies, but it comes with a question:

Source: pearls-curlsandasoutherngirl.tumblr.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

So is it bad to dress my little girl up as a football for a picture!?!?!?!?

Happy Pinning!!

Christmas is over!

I love Christmas, but this year took a lot out of me!! It just seemed like it would never end! I have totally neglected my blog because we have had something everyday since last Friday. Last night was my last one, and it was a good way to end. It was Christmas with my coworkers, adults only (of course my 7 week old came, but she doesn't say much so it was okay!!). I know most of you out there are thinking, man my break is almost over, I don't want to go back (that was what I heard lots of last night!), but not me. I am so ready to be back at work and be on a normal schedule. My son has developed a really bad habit of keeping the babies schedule. He is staying up until almost midnight and then taking these incredibly long, ill timed naps during the day. I am hoping that going back to work will put us all back on track.

Today's post is supposed to be about math, I had grand plans of completely redoing my math while I was off but that hasn't happened yet! Maybe next week when the babysitter comes back to work. Until then I thought I would share with you the great math poems I found from Debbie Diller and while I am at it brag a little that I get to see her this summer at the ETSU Early Childhood Summer Institute!!! YAY!!!

Source: debbiediller.wordpress.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

Good news is I have Pins planned for tomorrow and a freebie for Friday so I should be good for the rest of the week!!

Pinterest Thursday!

I have to start with some BIG NEWS!! I had my first Donors Choose project funded!! I am getting 2 Leapster Explorers and a game to add to my Leap Frog Center!! Yay! The kids will be so excited. It is one of their favorite centers already!

I have to say I kinda love blogging on Thursday because it is all about me and what I am obsessing over on Pinterest. It's my me time. Which I got released from the doctor today so I can start really exercising again, not just walking in circles around the mall. Although I will totally keep doing that because it is a great way to spend time with my babies and exercise, plus that double stroller is kinda a workout to push!

So my first pin is for me and anyone else out there who just had a baby and wants their body back

Source: babyfit.sparkpeople.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

My next pin is something I want to have made for Jan. 10. I am hoping I can share them with my friends to celebrate the new National Champs. I am a Alabama Freak. I just bought my 6 week old daughter a dress just to wear for the game, and I am looking for my son something to wear too!

Source: Uploaded by user via Markeeta on Pinterest

This last one is for Christmas. We started a family tradition last year of exchanging pj's on Christmas Eve to wear that night. This year with our new edition we decided to let boys buy for girls and girls buy for boys! I love this idea to get Christmas sacs and use them every year to wrap

Source: oopseydaisyblog.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

Sorry no school posts this week, but I have thought about school so much on my leave I thought I would take a holiday break! No worries though I am still working on a Friday Freebie!

Happy Pinning!

Holiday Break!

I thought today I would talk about my one and only day at school before break, try not to hate me to much! I promised the kids I would come in for their Christmas party, which was today (the half day before break). It was great, I slept until 7 took my time getting ready and didn't leave the house until 8:30, why can't everyday be like that?! Anyway I got there just in time to see the chorus perform, then it was off to party! It was at 10:15 in the morning, lots of classes did breakfast foods, my class did cupcakes and cookies!? What? at 10:15. Oh well, I wasn't going to have to keep them all day, and really I could leave any time I wanted, and again I why can't every day be like this?! Moving on, after the party I went to a faculty meeting! At this faculty meeting our Principal gave us a little holiday cheer before sending us on our way. So that is what I am giving to you. I was fortunate not to have to experience the holiday craziness this year, but for those of you who were not as lucky as me enjoy this!!!!!

Reading Tuesday

When we go back to school in January we will be on the story Bunny Day in the Scott Forsman reading series. Each day for my whole group time we complete part of a Power Point. These Power Points were originally created by a team of teachers in my county. I have taken them and completely changed them to fit the way my whole group runs. I thought I would share with you. On pages where there are music notes I link to songs that go with our reading series (songs about the amazing words and building background). Also on the pages about the letters I have a letter in the corner. That links to the Frog Street song for that letter. My kiddos love the letter songs. All day long while we work I hear the hum of what ever letter song we are doing that week!

Bunny Day

Management Monday

Well wouldn't it be great if this week I did some great tool for classroom management, one that would really change your teaching world forever?! Sorry, I have been on leave since before Thanksgiving and now most of you are off too, so enough with school for now (don't worry I am back to school topics tomorrow!). Today I thought I would link up to the Currently Party over at Oh Boy 4th Grade for the first time! Yay!

I just love Kristin over at A Teeny Tiny Teacher, she makes me smile every time I read a post!




SOOOO, you should head over and link up yourself!

Pinterest Thursday and Freebie Friday

Yesterday I felt awful. So I did not get around to posting my favorite things for the week from Pinterest. I will include it today with the Friday Freebie!

Some of my favorite things this week are:

For school I would love to try this out

Source: ihomeeducator.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

My little boy is in love with Elmo (in fact one of his Christmas gifts is tickets to see Sesame Street Live with passes to meet the characters before the show!!), he also LOVES fruit. He will spit cake out for a piece of fruit. So this is so perfect for him!

Source: forums.weddingbells.ca via Markeeta on Pinterest

And my last pin for the week is one for me. We have this really long hallway and I have been looking for something to put in it. I think having our Nanny/Photographer/Web Designer (you remember the one who made my button!) take "photo booth" pictures of us all and doing this in our hallway!

Source: manditremayne.blogspot.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

Now moving on to Freebie Friday!!!! This week I am giving you an activity I did with my kids using egg cartons. It is working with numbers that are more than and less than. Enjoy!! and let me know what you think!!!




Click to download!

 Have a great weekend!!!!



Math Wednesday

First of all my super amazing Nanny/Photographer/Web Designer, Hillary created a button for me today. I am super excited!





Moving onto today's post. When I go back to work in January I really want to start doing Guided Math. It has taken me a few years but I feel like I finally have Guided Reading down and running smoothly, so I am hoping this step will go easily. This is kinda where I am now for a schedule. If any of you out there in blog land are using Guided Math (especially with the Envision math series), let me know if this is the flow you go with.

Start math as usual with whole group lesson, video tutorial (included with our series and my kiddos LOVE them!!!) Do a small whole group activity. This whole process should take maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Then break into groups.

That is as far as I have gotten for now. I am still not sure how I want my group rotation to go. I like the way I have it in reading but I am not sure from a time standpoint that would work. So I am looking for ideas on how to do a Guided Math small group rotation. Let the commenting begin...

Reading Tuesday

Okay so being off work I have no idea what story we are on! I know, I know I wrote the lesson plans and it's the same stories in the same order as last year, but my brain is mush. In fact I have to check my phone before I write to see what day it is. Next week I plan on working on things for when I go back to work so then I will have kindergarten reading stuff for you. This week though I am going to talk about, more like ask about my son.
Carter is my little man. He is 20 months old. He has mad reasoning skills, but still isn't talking. Now I am not worrying about it because I know boys talk later, first children talk later, ect., ect. He will talk when he is ready. That doesn't stop me from wanting him to know his alphabet and numbers. Here come my two questions! Are you ready?!

First, how should I decorate the walls of his playroom, because I have seriously considered decorating it a little like my classroom! Does that make me a crazy teacher mom? (Okay so maybe that was two questions!)

Second, I came across I pin on pinterest (and if I weren't on my iPad I would link it for you, maybe an edit will come later!) from a former teacher turned stay at home mom that has created units for her toddler to do. It is all really fun stuff, they focus on a letter for a week or so at a time, plus have a theme they work on. It is all games and such. I am considering creating my own or borrowing hers and asking our nanny to do them with him. I just feel like she could do more with him if she had a topic to focus on. So my second question is the same as my first just for a different reason, does this make me a crazy teacher mom?

I am the child of a crazy teacher mom and look how I turned out!

Management Monday

Wow, what a day! Baby girl was up almost all night! Of course it would have to bee the night before hubby's off day. We also make plans for his off day. Today's plan was to finish cleaning out our office to make a playroom for Little Man. We got a lot done but it still isn't finished!

Obviously being on leave my biggest concern for school lately has been not being there. With that in mind I thought I would share my normal substitute binder. The cover and dividers I found on a blog awhile back. After searching today I can't find where they came from. If you know please let me know so I can link and give proper credit.

This is the binder cover. Nice and bright so it quickly gets noticed on my desk.

The first  section in my binder is classroom basics. This section includes a class list and a seating chart, shown above.



The next section is the daily schedule. Here I have a copy of my class schedule, as well as, my assistants schedule.



  

 

The next section is Lesson Plans. In this section I have 3 things. The first is a sub plan (middle picture). This is the overview of the day. The second is the calendar (left picture). This shows every slide in my calendar and what to click for the songs. The third is our reading powerpoint for the week (right picture). This shows how the reading should flow for each day. I change this out each week when we change stories.








The next section is the procedure section. This has a lot of information in it. It has daily classroom procedures, center procedures, school procedures. This section also has information on the playground rules. Emergency procedures are also found in this section.




The last section of information is an overview of my behavior management system. I don't expect a sub to do things exactly the way I do, but I would like for them do follow the same idea. I like for them to understand the apple colors and to give purples rather than take away greens. See a full explanation of my behavior management system here.



The final section of the binder is not informational. It is extra work. This is for those kids that always finish everything fast. If they can't just sit quietly (and what kindergartener can?), then the sub can pull from here. It has sight word activities and other review things, such as color words and counting to 10. One of my favorites in this section is a Write 100 words you find in the room! This keeps them busy for awhile, plus they get up and burn some energy. It also keeps them quite because they don't want anyone else to get their words!!

This goes in the front of the binder in a pocket labeled please complete and leave for me. This also came from the person who created the lovely cover and divider pages I use. Please let me know if this is your work or if you know who it is I would love to credit them!

Have a great week!

Freebie Friday

This is my first Freebie Friday. I am giving away an item I made for student assessment. I glue them in file folders and let the kids color their own during our conferences. This what I send home as progress reports. I make a few changes second semester (don't worry I will post that later!). Click below for your copy!

Pinterest Thursday

Before I get to what I am pinning today I want to mention a new blogger and the give away she is having. Molly over at Classroom Confetti is having a Holiday give away for a $20 Amazon card or a $10 TpT card!! Hop over and check her out!



Okay on to my Pinterest addiction. I am off on maternity leave right now and it seems all I want to do is organize, or plan ways to organize. These are some of the great organization tools I have found. They are not all school related but don't we all love to organize everywhere!!!

Source: Uploaded by user via Markeeta on Pinterest

Source: designfinch.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Markeeta on Pinterest

Happy Pinning!

A New Beginning

So I started this blog hoping it would make me more creative in my teaching and connect me to other teachers. Thus far I have complete neglected it. My posts have been sporadic and random. I have no focus and have not been consistent in my posting. I think it was because of several reasons: new school, new baby on the way, already having a 17 month old (when I started, he is 20 months now!). Well baby number 2 has arrived and I have been at my new school for 1/2 a year now, so no more excuses. I will blog more, create more, and share more. I will work on my TpT store and do what I set out to do in the first place, become a better teacher!

I am a complete blog stalker and have found so many I love and aspire to be like. One of my faves is Kinder Kraziness by Laura Starnes. She has preplanned a theme for each day to keep her focused and posting regularly. I am borrowing that idea! Here is my plan for posting:
Management Monday (this is a very popular thing to post about on Mondays, we teachers love alliteration!)
Reading Tuesday (I teach Scott Forsman, so most my posts will relate to that series)
Math Wednesday (We use Envision, which the jury is still out on, plus I am wanting to try my hand a Guided Math and Math Stations, so expect lots of posts and questions on that!)
Pinterest Thursday (I am so addicted to Pinterest so I will post at least one thing I find each week, I may go overboard with this one! and it may not always be school related!)
Freebie Friday (This will be a tough one for me, but it is a goal. I will create one item to give away each week.)

So that's the plan! Let's hope it works!


Saturday and Sunday belong to my family so I won't post much on those days