Catching up...and a freebie!!

Oh wow.  It's been like a week since I've been on the ol' blog.  I have no clue where the time goes.  Seems like I just left school on Friday afternoon and here I am getting ready to head back there in about 12 hours.  Where did my weekend go?!  And then as soon as Monday gets started it will turn into Friday and I'll end up wondering what happened to all of the days in between.  Busy is good, I guess.  It means summer will be here even faster!  We have 50 days left this year and they all just flying by!  It's crazy!

Last week my team started doing something new--we make our kiddos call home once they've received their third behavior mark.  WHY didn't anyone tell me how incredibly empowering it would be to make those calls in the middle of the day {and for some kids, before 8:10 in the morning...}?  Seriously.  It's the best thing I've ever done.  They DO NOT want to call mama at work, so some of my worst offenders have been good as gold the past few days.  We'll see how long that lasts...

Another thing we're starting is a fun Friday reward for kids who have excellent behavior all week.  How many of you do this every week?  What are some of the activities you do?  We were thinking about showing a short video, playing some games, making a craft, or making some sort of edible craft.  I'm just hoping that making these phone calls during the day and having an awesome reward on Fridays will help the crazy behaviors that have been going on!  Gotta get through these next 50 days without pulling out all of my hair!

Before I go check out all of the awesome Dr. Seuss activities you guys have planned for the week, I thought I would share a little patterning activity with you.  I'm having my kiddos make a little lift the flap book about patterns with these:

Click here to download.  Hope you can use them!  Alright...off to blogstalk and finish up my Lifetime Killer Marathon.  Oh, how I love my Lifetime Sundays.  

Spring fever...already?!

Today was pretty much jam packed with LIVE ACTION!  {Speaking of live action, a super fab KY blogger friend commented today to say that.....

--wait for it--

.....she lives near the Turtle Man.  I imagine she can hear his "LIVE ACTION--YEEYEEYEEEYEEE!!!" squeals from her front porch.  And I'm kinda jealous.  I would have to hunt him down and invite him to do an assembly at my school.  That way he could see what live action really is.} 

{Speaking of Kentucky...last night I went to Wal Mart.  That's always an experience 'round these parts.  Anywho, I was walking into the store and there was an old man just standing in the middle of the parking lot.  He jumped out and me and said BOO!  And I almost peed my pants.  I kinda wondered if I was on Betty White's Off Their Rockers prank show.  But I don't think so.  I think it was just a regular night at a KY Wal Mart.}

I think my friends have a touch of spring fever.  In February.  They're just way too busy playing and chatting it up right now.  I've never seen anything like it.  Seriously.  Today I had one kid doing that whole "you can't see me" wrestler thing while I was doing calendar.  {I forget who the wrestler is because wrestling doesn't come on E! or Lifetime, so...}  And I looked at him and said, "I CAN see you.  And for some reason, you're playing while I'm teaching.  What's up with that?"  I'd like to say he stopped, but he didn't.  This story did not have a happy ending. 

Another thing about my friends.  I don't think they are friends.  I've never seen a group of kids bicker and fight the way they do.  There are 29 of them and there aren't enough places in my room to separate all of the ones who need to be on opposite ends.  It's really sad, to be honest.  They're in kindergarten.  And the way we're set up, they will be together until 2nd grade.  So they better start lovin' on each other now.  How do you make kids like each other and get along?  How?!

On a happier note, they're totally movin' and groovin' with skip counting.  Skip counting always makes me nervous, for some reason!  But they always totally blow me away!  They LOVE the Exercise and Count By 5s song by Harry Kindergarten.  Like they can't get enough of it.  I can't find the CD with my favorite 2s song...something about twoooooooooo shoes, yeah {I like it because we get to use our jazz hands}.  So if you have a favorite for counting by 2s, let me know!  Here's a fun little freebie if you're working on skip counting too.

Grab your copy here.

Off to work on making the next set of stations for kindergarten.  We're going to be working on how many more/how many fewer.  If you've blogged about anything like that or have an amazing resource, please point me to it!  Save me some time--and save my poor brain from exploding.

I {Heart} Number Bonds...

{...well, that's not entirely true.  Our relationship is more on-again, off-again.  I heart number bonds when all of my sweet little friends are pickin' up what I'm puttin' down.  But when the number bonds throw them...well, that's when I don't heart the number bonds.  Thank God this year's bunch is getting it.  Otherwise I would have pulled out all of my hair by now and I'd be forced to wear my Jessica Simpson hair every single day.  And I'd have a permanent bruise on my forehead from banging it against the wall.}

Anyway...I just wanted to share a new little game I posted on TpT for just $2 {this includes all game cards and 3 fun worksheets}!  There are several different ways you could play/use this fun little valentines-themed number bonds resource.  Take a peek...

And because I heart you, here's a freebie from the I {Heart}Number Bonds activity pack!

Grab yours here!

And because I really, really heart all of you party people, I'm going to give away two copies of these little games!  They will go to the two people whose comments are the numbers of tonight's winning score.  Soo...if the score is 21-17, my friends who posted comments number 21 and 17 are the lucky winners!  {Make sure you leave me your email address!}  I'm not ashamed to admit that I will have to google to find out the score.  Because I for sure will not be watching the Super Bowl.  The only sports I care about are shopping and running Lifetime movie marathons.  So I will be watching the Nora Roberts movie marathon on Lifetime AND shopping online.  Who says you can't have it all?

Oh!  I'm also super excited to be part of this AMAZING giveaway for second grade teachers!  There are like a KAJILLION bloggers teaming up to give away sooo many fun things!  Head over and check it out:

Make sure you enter the I {heart} 2nd Grade giveaway at Swimming into Second {not here!}!

The one with gas, sad vocal chords, and a freebie

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a real blog post!  I have missed catching up with everyone.  I'm about to make a BIG DENT in my Google Reader.  Hope they have good insurance...  {I know.  I think I'm so funny.  It's sad.  Laugh anyway.} 

The children have been keeping me busy and cracking me up.  Bless their hearts.  They must know that if they didn't keep me laughing all day, I'd pull out my hair.  We've recently had some uh, gassy issues.  Last week there was the WYDTIFOJB incident. {I'm working on bracelets for all my party people.}  The very next day I was able to use that line on a kindergarten darling who totally let loose and ripped one on my carpet.  Like I think I saw her lift up off her spot on the carpet.  It was ferocious.  And of course everyone had to hold their noses and express their disdain for the fact that this {seemingly sweet} little girl just polluted their air.  I was trying to maintain my composure because I'm five just like them and can't help but laugh when someone passes gas and I looked back to see my assistant's head turned around, shoulders shaking with laughter.  {So relieved that I'm not the only immature adult in the room.}  I fought the urge to crack up and started to explain to the class that everyone does it and there's no reason why we should carry on like that.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, one of them screamed out, "IT'S ALL THE BEANS!"  At that point, it was over for me.  It's all the beans...  It's time for me to have a serious chat with our cafeteria manager.  Smells Sounds Seems like we need to back away from the beans for a while.

Fast forward to today, when I woke up with NO VOICE.  Doesn't my body know how much I love to talk?  That is why I became a teacher, after all.  You know, so I would have a good excuse for yakking all day long and have a captive audience 5 days a week, 7 hours a day {Although, that's still nowhere near as much air time as the Kardashians...}.  Luckily my wonderful assistant taught kindergarten for me, so I just had to find a way to make it through first and second grade.  I struggled with my sweet firsties.  They took full advantage of the fact that I had to walk to them to correct their behavior.  I wised up with second grade though.  I gave them gum.  Magical gum.  Gum that would keep their mouths busy so they wouldn't need to talk.  And guess what?  Silence.  And amazingly wonderful behavior.  For almost two hours.  Aaahhhhh....  I will have to break out that magical gum more often.  But then it would probably lose its power.  I'm going to stay home tomorrow to rest my voice so that I can hopefully chat it up non-stop again on Friday.  Send vocal chord healing vibes my way, please. 
Finally, here's a little prize for you!  My second graders can always use extra practice with place value.  Here's a fun little activity you can do where they have to put the digits in the correct order and write the three digit number on the line.  Some of you may be able to use this with your first graders.

Grab your copy here!  Have a wonderful Thursday.  And think of me when you want to scream, "If I have to tell you one more time..."  Because right now, I would so welcome the opportunity to say something one more time.  When I finally get my voice back, I may end up talking to myself.  I might have to get on here and post my phone number when it starts working again.  You guys would call me so I wouldn't have to talk to myself, right?!

A Splendiferous Soap Net Sunday...and a freebie!

Oh, I love Sundays.  Especially when there's a marathon of The Lying Game on Soap Net.  Seriously, life couldn't get any better.  {Well, I guess it could.  I could not have to hear my alarm in the morning.  That would make life exponentially better.  Love my job.  Hate my alarm clock.}

I'm gearing up to teach a whole entire week for the first time this year.  Thank God it will be followed by a three day weekend!  I really need to know why school has to start at 7am.  Why can't we start at 10?  I would be so well rested at 10am.  I would probably even have time to put on a full face of makeup instead of cheating and using Whoorl's "five minute, five product face".  Win-win situation.  {As if the kids care about my face.  But then again, they do have to look at it all day.  Maybe some fun costume makeup would result in more time spent with all eyes on me?}
Anyway, like I said, I'm gearing up to teach this week.  I'm introducing bar models to my second graders.  Whewee.  This is my second year bar modeling and let me tell you, bar models make me want to head to a bar!  Do any of you use Singapore math or Math in Focus?  Any awesome bar modeling activities?  I'm trying to find some inspiration to make my own, but asking you guys just feels easier.  I'm just really into my stories right now and can't pull my eyes off Soap Net long enough to make anything.

I do want to share a few things with you party people though!  I found a super fun new blog over the weekend.  Please take a look at this adorable clip art:

You need it, right?!  Lauren over at The First Grade Diaries has a darling little Etsy shop with some cute clip art!  Make sure you go show her blog and store some love; I know I'm always looking for new clip art that doesn't come complete with a wishy washy legal team.
And for sticking with me through this ramble-icious post, a little freebie.  I'm teaching number words to my little kinder friends this week.  Thought you might be able to use these worksheets too!

Download them here! 

Have a super fabulous Monday, my friends!

Let it Snow!

Yesterday the first snowflakes of the season fell!  They were big and fluffy and absolutely beautiful.  It didn't last long or stick but it got the kids {and me} excited.  Even though I knew it wasn't going to accumulate, it made me hopeful for a snow day.  Oh how I just love a snow day.  It's the only time that I actually enjoy being awakened by the phone ringing at 5:30 in the morning.  Ahhh, knowing I can turn off the alarm and roll back over and drift off to sleep is just so nice.  Some people do not like snow days {bah, humbug!}.  But I really don't mind having a few make up days added at the end of the year.  We go the same amount of days regardless of whether or not we get a few unexpected days off sprinkled in here and there.  I would go to school until June if I got a month off during the cold winter months.  I hate being cold and just want to stay snuggled up on the couch all winter long.  {But I love snow...go figure!}

Because I am crazy, whenever they call for snow I have a ritual I do to guarantee a snow day.  I tell all of my students to do it too.  You know, because it's more likely to work if there are lots of people doing it.  {That's what I tell myself.}  I wear my pajamas inside out and backwards, flush a cup of ice down the toilet, and put a spoon under my pillow.  And it works!  Promise.  But I'm scared to death that one day my ritual is going to stop delivering results and I might need a new game plan.  Do you have a tried and true way to get a snow day?!  I need to have a few more tricks up my sleeve so please share!

Here's a little snowy patterns freebie I made to use with my kindergartners this week.  I try not to use too much color ink at school for fear that it might run out and we may never get another color cartridge again.  So it's black and white.  But I'll print it on pretty cardstock.  Cut apart the cards and put the pattern name cards in a pile.  Students draw a card and use the snowflakes to create that pattern.  I'm sure there are many other ways to use it too.  Please share if you come up with something different!  Grab it here.

Deck the Halls {a confession}

I have a confession to make.

I never took my Christmas tree down last year.  It's been up almost a full year.  Sometimes I turn on the lights.  Even in July.  Do not judge.  It makes me happy and it's always nice to have some extra lighting.  Plus it made me feel like I was living in a Pottery Barn holiday catalog every single day.  And you just can't beat that feeling.  And it made me hopeful for snow days even in the heat of May.  Hey, it could happen.  You know what they say: Christmas ain't over til the crazy lady undecorates.  Wait.  Do they say that?  Well, they do now.

You see, last year I got a fabulously huge Christmas tree.  It's absolutely gorg.  It took me about two weeks to get it up and decorated to my liking.  And I liked it so much that I couldn't just take down all of my hard work a few weeks later.  That's the worst part about Christmas.  I love all of the decorations but they have to come down so quickly.  So I intended to leave it up until the end of January.  The end of January came and went and I planned to turn it in to a Valentine's tree.  Well...the hearts never made it on my tree so I decided I would give a spring tree a shot with butterflies and flowers.  Spring sprung and before I knew it I was out of school for the summer and my tree was still up.  At that point, I saw no reason to take it down only to put it up again in a few months.  Right??

Throughout all of this, every single family member and friend thought I was an ABSOLUTE NUT.  But guess what?  Here I am, relaxing on the couch looking at my beautiful tree while all of my friends and family rush around, climbing up attics and dragging decorations out of basements and garages because it's suddenly socially acceptable to deck the halls.  Chances are, I'm the smartest one in my crew.  Sure, the tree may have been a bit out of place in July but really, the way time flies these days, the season came 'round again before I knew it.  And now I don't have ANY holiday decorating to do.  I am beyond brilliant.  Beyond! Brilliant!  So THERE!  I'm totally onto something.  I imagine I'll be starting a trend here pretty soon. 

Whew.  Feels so good getting that off my chest.  Maybe that helps some of you understand exactly why I was planning a Christmas gift exchange in October...

I want to know...when do you put up your decorations?  When do you take them down?  Have you ever left yours up all year-or known anyone who has?  And will you still be my friend even though I just shared some of my crazy with you?

Here's a little Christmas tree teen numbers freebie for those of you who will continue to be my friend, even though I'm slightly to moderately crazy.

PS: Don't forget that I'm running a sale over at my TpT store!  20% off everything, including some of my new holiday products!  Use the code CMS28 on Monday for an additional 10% off! 

Assist, please!

OK, you guys are like the biggest, bestest staff lounge EVER.  So I know you'll have some tips and tricks for me on this one.  My team is in the process of hiring a new kindergarten assistant.  We love the sub we have right now and hope to make her a permanent part of our team.  Even though things have gone very smoothly over the past couple of days, I'm still a little uneasy about this transition in the middle of the year.  Have any of you ever hired a new assistant mid-year? 

I am also really interested to hear how all of you use your assistants.  In the past, I've just had mine kind of hang out in the room and help as needed.  But this year with half of my 28 kindergartners needing interventions, I know I can use her more wisely.  Please tell me what you do!  Does she pull small groups?  Does she lead some whole group instruction while you do small groups?  My 90 minute math block with kindergarten looks like this: 20 minutes of calendar, 40 minutes of whole group, and 30 minutes of stations.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  How do you use your assistant?

And instead of a penny for your thoughts...here's a freebie for your advice!  We're working on teen numbers right now in kindergarten and this will be part of our stations next week.  Enjoy!  I also have a fun Turkey Teens counting book in my TpT store.

A little fall fun!

Is it really only Wednesday?!  I swear, yesterday feels like forever ago.  And I'm still nowhere near ready for tomorrow. 

But even though my stack of school work is taller than I am, I wanted to share a little fall freebie with my friends! {Blogging is so much more fun than grading papers.}  This is going in my math stations next week as a little review of the ways to represent numbers.  There's a good chance I'll make a worksheet to go with it, but I haven't gotten there yet... {you understand, right?}

Cut them apart and the students match up the different representations of the number!  Quick review, fun, and cute!  Click here to grab a copy.

Oh, and a little funny to get through the rest of the week:

So I have my little kinderfriends lined up and ready for the hall when all of a sudden, this teeny tiny little one with glasses that slide off his nose ALL.DAY.LONG. and the sweetest, softest, most precious and hilarious little voice runs up to me...

"Teacher!Teacher!IleftmyjacketI'mgoingtogogettit."  {That is totally how he talks. All strung together and rushed and breathy.  Hilarious.  And yes, I still have 2 friends who call me teacher.  Even though I refer to myself in the third person eleventy million times a day.}

"Wait.  Where exactly are you going?"

"Tothebaffroom..."  {with one foot out the door...}

"Why is your jacket in the bathroom?"

He thought for a second and slowed down to tell me: "Well, I took it off so I wouldn't get poop on it."

All I could do is nod and point out the door, giving him permission to retrieve his unpoopy jacket.  I don't think I want to know what exactly was going on in that stall for it to be rough enough to take off his jacket.  Ohhhh, the children...they keep me laughing.

PS: If you're not signed up for Holly Bloggy Christmas.  Do it!  Now!  The first of NINE giveaways ends this Friday and you must be a participant to enter.  Check it out here.

 

Rake it Up with Regrouping!

Hey gang!  Like the rest of you, I'm super excited that fall is here!  Two of my favorite things about fall: no more dripping sweat during recess duty (can I get an AMEN!?) and cardigans.  Oh, how I love a good cardigan!  One of my friends asked to borrow a pink cardigan and I brought her 12 different pink cardis.  Obsessed?  Perhaps.

Fall also brings beautiful leaves...which was the inspiration behind this fun freebie I'm about to share with you.  I'm getting ready to introduce regrouping to my second graders and I've been trying to come up with some fun games.  Here's what I came up with:

This includes directions and number leaf cards.  Students draw 4-6 leaves (depending on whether they're creating a two or three digit problem) and create an addition problem with the numbers they draw.  Their partner will help them check their work with a calculator.  If they get it right, they keep their leaf cards.  The partner with the biggest leaf pile at the end of the game is the winner!  Click here to download your own copy!

I'll leave you with a little funny:
{a freebie AND a funny?  Man, you guys are lucky!}
I was reviewing with my kiddos before a test the other day and we were going over all the different addition strategies we had learned.  I was writing them on the board and we were having this great discussion.  I called on one of my friends and asked him what strategy he liked to use... "God."

"Oh, ok!  Yes, I guess we can use God." I started to call on another student, but this particular friend is a wee bit persistent...

"But Ms. Preppy, you can call on God in times of stressness," he explained.

"Yes, you can absolutely call on God in times of 'stressness'."  I tried moving on again...

"Um, aren't you going to write that down?" he asked, kind of hurt that I didn't give his strategy a spot on our chart.

So I wrote it down.  I now have a poster that has addition strategies such as counting on, using a number line, using your fingers, and God.  Because you can call on Him in times of "stressness".  And apparently math is crazy stressful for first graders.

Halloween Freebie, etc...

I've enjoyed two rainy days at the beach...  Of course that's how it would work!  But I'm hoping for prime beach weather today!  The sun is trying to peek out as I'm typing...

I wanted to share a little Halloween freebie with my bloggy friends!  It's a little game called BOO!  I cut out all the addition problems I want to use and put them in a bucket (think Halloween pumpkin bucket) along with the BOO! cards.  The kiddos take turns drawing a card.  If they can solve the problem, they get to keep their card.  If they get it wrong it goes back in the bucket.  Whenever they draw a BOO! card, they have to put all of their cards back in the bucket.  They love it!  Now...I like to recycle this game again around different holidays, so the addition problems aren't themed, but the BOO! cards are.  (Around Thanksgiving they become Gobble!).  Just a way for me to conserve my cardstock!  Grab your copy here.

I also wanted to share a new blog I discovered during my rainy days here at the beach:  Cole's Little Pups!  Mrs. Cole actually teaches in a neighboring district.  It's so cool to meet people on here who live so close!  She teaches kindergarten and has some super cute ideas on her blog, like this fun game hammering initial sounds.  I'm totally adapting this for some math concepts!  Looks like so much fun.

From http://coleslittlepups.blogspot.com/

 I hope you'll head on over to her blog and check her out!

I also hope you'll head over and check out the Holly Bloggy Christmas gift exchange!  If you haven't already signed up, you won't want to miss out.  We have lots of super fabulous bloggers who are already getting in the Christmas spirit with us!  Sarah and I are also planning some amazing giveaways for participants!  You definitely won't want to miss out on them!

Freebie Friday!

It's Freebie Friday over at Blog Hoppin'!  I've been waiting for this day all week long.  Love finding new stuff!

I'm absolutely OBSESSED with sorting activities (they're totally perfect for my construction station)!  Here are a couple I've made to go along with our math series, Math in Focus. 

This one is a number bonds sort for first grade.

And here's one for second grade over standard, expanded, and word form.

Happy Friday!  I have a feeling my printer is going to be working overtime tonight...

Where It All Goes Down...

Well, I'm 15 days into school and my classroom is a hot mess! has that nice "learned in" look.  I got in like 6 sets of new textbooks last week and I have 28 kids so there's NO EXTRA SPACE.  Seriously, if I get any more stuff, I don't know where it will go!  So I'm going to take this opportunity to share some pictures of the Project CHILD elements in my classroom.  (Project CHILD highlights...we work in "clusters" of 3 teachers, each specializing in a content area, we keep our kids for 3 years, and our kiddos work in stations daily.)  Here are a couple quick pictures of the whole shebang:

Every day, our kids go to stations.  (In the pictures above you can see the station signs hanging from the ceiling.)  They choose their station using the station assignment board:

They can go to computers, textbook (paper/pencil activities), teacher (small group instruction), challenge (a game), exploration (working with manipulatives), construction (cut and paste activities), or to the library.  Our library is free flow, so we don't have a set time each week.  They can go whenever they want!  Students choose their own stations.  They LOVE this!  The same activities are at each station for two weeks, so they usually have time to get to everything.  They record where they've been on their Passports:

I keep my station materials in tubs.  Each grade level is assigned a color and that color stays with them from kindergarten through fifth grade.  That way they always know which set of station tubs to use.  This is how I keep my tubs organized: 

Something new that we added last year is a College Station.  We work really hard to make sure all of our kids know that they WILL go to college.  Every year, all of our students go on a college tour.  Our kindergarteners go to the local community college and every year they get farther from home until they get to make the big trip to the University of Kentucky in fifth grade!  It's really exciting and so awesome to see my babies on a college campus.  But we decided to do a college station to help our kids explore more about college, the application process, campus life, etc.  Here's a picture of my college station (it's totally cramped and yes, I have a lot of STUFF!):

I'll share the activity that our kindergarteners do (because that's the one I made!).  This is based on the "road" to college.  We were supposed to tie in our content (math!), so I made it a patterning activity.

You can download it here.

I'm off to check out {and drool over} all of the other Blog Hoppers' classrooms!