I'm still here!

Don't worry, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.  I am sure a lot of you were super worried about that.  I have just been busy and stressed.  To explain this, I should finally share some terrifying exciting news on here:  My husband accepted a position with Northwestern University in Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago).  It is going to open a lot of wonderful doors for him and really help him to expand his experiences.  

That said, the idea of moving has been creating a lot of stress around here.  Eddie (my husband) is trying to write his thesis to wrap up his doctorate while also working on things for his next opportunity (apparently there is a lot of work that already needs to be done).  Eddie's field is organic chemistry...so that means I usually just smile, nod, and say "uh-huh" a lot when he talks about all of the things he does or has to do.  I really try to understand, but there is just so much that is honestly over my head!  I mean, I teach kindergarten.  I spend half my time tying shoes and reminding my students to cough into their elbows (ok, ok, ok...not half my time, but it sure feels like it).  But seriously, we talk about letters, words, numbers, weather, our community, but we don't touch chemistry.  I have smart kids, but I think that's pushing them a little too hard. ;)  

Anyway, I have been so busy because I am working on transferring my license to Illinois.  Apparently this is no simple feat.  I have been completing all of the forms and paperwork over the last few weeks.  Also, I have been studying like crazy for the tests I have to take.  I actually took both of them yesterday.  I know I passed one, but I have to wait for the release of scores for the second test.  I am just going to keep my fingers crossed until then. Today I finally feel like I can breathe a little bit, so I am taking this time to blog.

We are working on addition in my classroom.  Have you heard of the wonderful idea of Addition Annie?  She is fantastic!  I found her on a blog the other day (some people were posting it on Facebook), but I cannot find it anywhere!!!  I want to give the teacher credit for coming up with them because HE/SHE IS A GENIUS.  My kids LOVE Addition Annie.  For those of you who don't know her, she is a superhero whose power is to put numbers together.  (Later we will meet Subtraction Sammie, the villain that takes numbers away!)  Addition Anne has made teaching addition a lot more memorable for my kids (we even use her to help us remember key addition words in word problems).  Do any of you know who came up with this idea?  If you do, please leave a comment so I can give credit to the appropriate person!  Thanks!

I also created a math center for addition (and subtraction).  

This is a hands-on center for students just learning addition and subtraction. Students use the visuals to help them solve the problems. This makes a great math center for introducing addition or independent work for review!

Head over to my TpT store if you're interested in checking it out.  Also, be sure to check back in the next couple of days because I am going to create an addition freebie soon!  :)

Teach2Love's SPRING into Learning Giveaway!

Teach2Love is having a SPRING into Learning Giveaway with both spring themed and year round resources!  The giveaway actually has two parts.  It has a K-2 pack and a 3-5 pack.

Here is a closer look at the K-2 stuff.

If you look closely, you can see my Just Print, Spin, and Dot pack!  :)

Here is a closer look at the 3-5 stuff.

I am so excited....in fact, I am going to go enter myself.  There are some really good things in these packs!

Thank so much to Teach2Love for putting on this amazing giveaway!  What are you doing still reading this??!!  Go check it out, and good luck!

Week of Compassion and a Freebie!

This week our school did a whole week of compassion.  It was so fun.  We kicked off the week last Friday with a convocation on kindness (and a dance party).  Then Monday the K-2 classes watched a short movie about teasing and how bystanders can make a difference.  Each day we wore a different color for compassion.

Monday - Blue to keep the blues away
Tuesday - School Spirit Wear (okay, so this isn't a color, but close enough)
Wednesday - Yellow to make new friends
Thursday - Green for pay it forward (this also went with a bracelet that the kids passed as they did something kind for another student then that student would pass it on)
Friday - Red for compassion

We also did several activities throughout the week.  We made a compassion quilt with the whole school, we made thank you cards for the people who help in our school, we had guests come in and talk about compassion, we read stories, we had discussions, we had a door decorating contest, and each class made a compassion flag for two students to carry during our compassion parade.

I thought our door for compassion turned out really cute, so I wanted to share this.  AND I ACTUALLY THOUGHT OF THIS ON MY OWN.  Now, I am not saying that I was the first one to do this (I have no idea), but I did not get my inspiration from Pinterest.  I thought of it while I was sitting in my classroom after school one day...it just came to me!  I couldn't believe how cute it turned out.  I am NOT CRAFTY OR CREATIVE.  It's my biggest flaw being a kinder teacher.  I always try though!!

Here is my door.:

And here is a close up of the hearts:

I had each student do one hand print, so they had to work together to make one heart.  Luckily, I have some super helpers during the day so this craft was easy to manage.  

Also, since yesterday was Valentine's Day (and with the snow, the buses at school were all late...yeah, late on Valentine's Day), I did not have time to create a new freebie, so I am just going to feature one of my old freebies from my store.

Here is my featured freebie for the week:

Happy weekend!  :)

Moments Like This

I just came upstairs to write a quick blog and check my email.  When I checked my email, I realized that my cousin tagged me in a post on Facebook.  So, of course, I immediately had to head over to the world of Facebook.  When I did, I found this article tagged with "Lee Ann Hall This is for you and the impact you make on your students EVERY DAY!!!"

Wow.  I love this article, but what is most interesting is that I was on my way to blog about moments that make teaching worth it.  How crazy is that?!  This article really sums it up.  The impact we have on our children by being supportive, compassionate, thoughtful, and ourselves is what the students will remember and what they appreciate the most.

I was going to start by saying how some days in teaching are just tough.  They are exhausting, they don't go as planned, and they may even get a little messy.  But it doesn't matter.  When you get something from a child that touches your heart, every piece of work, drop of sweat, and ounce of love that you have ever put into your job immediately becomes trivial to what you have meant to a child.  I wanted to take a moment to share two letters that made me feel this way today.

Love these letters.  :)

Friday Freebie! Better late than never...

Okay, so today is Saturday.  I was planning on participating in Teaching Blog Addict's Freebie Friday.  Well, Friday was...exhausting.  We had a "dance" convocation to kick off our Week of Compassion, and the kids were nuts.  Seriously.  They loved it, and it was tons of fun, but reigning them back in was exhausting.  then, combined with doing some extra work at home, I was out of time by the time my husband was ready to go to dinner...and I am completely useless after 9 p.m.  So.....I could have summed all of this up in one sentence, I am doing Freebie Friday today.

My freebie for this week is my tens and ones freebie.

Click the picture to hop on over to my TpT store and grab your copy!  Please leave me some feedback if you get it.  Thanks!

Don't forget to check out all of the other freebies by heading over Teaching Blog Addict.  There are some great things!  Actually, I am heading over there now to check out some more of the great FREE products.  Happy weekend!

Spinner Love

My kids have been in love with centers where they get to use spinners...you know, the kind where you use paperclips and pencils?  Yeah, they love those.  Honestly, I think it's because they just like paperclips.  Regardless, they make centers really engaging for my kids, so yesterday (a snow day) I decided to create a new spinner pack.  This pack focuses on language arts.

None of the pages require any more prep than printing, copying, and grabbing enough paperclips.  That's it!

There are two beginning sounds pages, one ending sounds page, and a syllable page.  

Also, there is one word family page for each vowel.

I am really excited to use the word family pages with my kids in two weeks.  (We have had so many delays and snow days that I am wayyyy ahead in planning - this never happens!!)  I think they're gonna love them!  :)

And if you're kids are as crazy about these spinners as mine are, be sure to check out my spin and dot pages.  They cover both math and language arts common core standards.  They are lots of fun, too...perhaps more.  These pages add the excitement of bingo daubers!!!

Our January Writing

Every month my kids write in their keepsake journals.  These journals document their writing over the course of the year.  At the end of the year, they will be able to see how much they have grown and learned as writers.  They will also get to take them home, and their parents will have a very concrete idea of just how much change has happened in one year!  :)

This month (well, last month) with all of the two hour delays, we ran out of time.  So today, instead of working on handwriting, we worked on our year-long journals.  We wrote about our January Me's.  I try to encourage them to write about any things they liked to do, special people, special events, or things they especially liked the most during the past month.   This month, my kids mostly wrote about snow, cold weather, and two hour delays (I know we've had our fill of them).

Well, as I was walking around and looking to help kids, I noticed something:  my kids are becoming writers.  MY kids are becoming real WRITERS!!! I love this time of year!  Despite the cold, miserable, icky, dreary, annoying, frustrating weather, you can really see your kinders starting to TAKE OFF!  :)  I feel so proud.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of their writing with you.  Here are a few of my favorites from the day:

I love that most kids spell drink with a j no matter how many times you talk about blends....  Also, notice the ING in drink.  We've been working on the ing sound in some of my groups.

This student has shown a lot of growth, and I am so proud of his writing.  I wish the picture had been closer up, but I was trying not to interfere too much with the work that was going on.

Again, drink with a j...

Pretty close to perfect!  :)  Getting there....  could add more detail, but there isn't much room on the page.

Blue snow :)

This kid was a move in and didn't know many of his letters just a few months ago.  He did all of this without ANY of my help...whoa.

He was tired of the two hour delays.  Me too.

Writing is getting so much better!  I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year brings - so much more learning ahead!  Also, I did not create these journals, and I would LOVE to give credit where credit is due, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I got them.  I will look at them when I get to work tomorrow and try to figure it out.  If you recognize these journals, please leave a comment!  Thanks for your help!

Valentine's Day Linky!

Okay, I know I just finished one blog post, but I am going to be gone the rest of the day, and I just joined some teachers over at A Chocolate Dudley for a Valentine's Day Linky Party!  So, just bear with me for one more post for today!!

For the linky, I added my Kindergarten Valentine's Day Pack which I blogged about a few weeks ago.

It's 90 pages of math and literacy activities with a valentines theme.  And the best part, it is only $3.00!!!   It is really a good deal because it combines two of my other packs (math pack is $2.00 and my LA pack is $2.50 - it's like getting the math pack for only 50 cents!).  

Here are some pages from inside the pack:

I also have a few other Valentine's Day packs over at my TpT store if you are interested in checking them out.

Head on over to A Chocolate Dudley to checkout the rest of the linky party!!  :)  Look around, there are tonsssssss of great resources!

No Pressure

There is nothing like doing things on your own time, without anyone's expectations, and without any pressure to do things a certain way.  In today's world, or at least in my life, I feel like this rarely happens.  You always have some sort of time restraint and someone always has a certain expectation (most likely, it's yourself).  Well, yesterday was Saturday and my husband was working all day at the lab (yes, I know, sad for him and I shouldn't be happy that I had a day to myself...), but I had no concrete plans and nothing that HAD to get done.

So I woke up early, because I always wake up early, and decided to work a bit on a new idea I had during the night.  I wanted to create easy, printable pages that were super engaging for a few math and literacy standards.  I don't know about you, but two things my kids LOVE is using spinners (even the kind with pencils and paper clips) and bingo dauber markers.  I have no idea what is so appealing about those things, but they really like using them.  I guess it is that they are different than normal markers, crayons, and pencils.  Regardless, they encourage my students to be very engaged.  Here is what I came up with:

Each page has a spinner in the top right hand corner and each answer is inside of a small bubble.
(Oh, and I have finally figured out how to include what the pages look like in my post!!!!!  YAY!  I am not sure if I feel proud that I figured it out or embarrassed that it took me this long.....)  Here is what a few of the pages look like.

Anyway, back to the no pressure thing, before I finished (yeah, I just left right in the middle of everything I was doing) I went to the gym.  I love going to the gym on my own time and NOT AT 5:30 a.m. like I usually do.  Getting up and heading to the gym at 5:30 on Monday mornings is the worst feeling in the whole world not very fun.  But yesterday, I went around 10:15 and didn't have any specific workout I wanted to do.  So when I got there, I ran.  I was only going to run a mile or two, but once I got going (I wasn't going to do any intervals, I wasn't keeping track of my speed, and it didn't matter how far I went), it felt SO GOOD.  Running can be such a freeing experience when you have no pressure.  It is so much more fun.  I ran for a little over an hour, and it was a whole lot more fun than 30 minutes of intervals on the treadmill.  Then I spent about 45 minutes lifting some weights, and again there was no pressure.  It was just a nice trip to the gym!  I wish every day could be like that....

Then I came back home, had lunch, and decided to finish the Print, Spin, and Dot pack.  I didn't HAVE to finish it, I had plenty of time, and I had no where to go.  Did I mention that I feel so much better without any pressure?  I think I do better work without pressure, too.  :)  I think this pack turned out great!  I can't wait to use it with my kids, especially the tens and ones pages (since that's what we have been working so hard on). If you have time, hop on over to my TpT store and check them out.  If you do get them, please leave me feedback.  I would love to hear what you think of them!!