Summer FREEBIES

Hello fabulous followers! Summer is quickly approaching, and I am sure you are just as excited as I am. Because of this excitement, I have a couple of FREEBIES for you! A summer center freebie as well as a flash freebie. Make sure you scroll all the way through this post so you can snag them both. =)

When we return to school, my class will be using my Sizzlin' Summer Centers. There are 6 math and 6 literacy centers in this set, and my kiddos are already looking forward to using them. Click the cover page below to check them out!

Now for freebie number one... this is an addition center that goes perfectly with my summer centers shown above. It includes a cover page with visual directions and a recording sheet. Click the picture to grab it for free!

And now for my first FLASH FREEBIE. My school is requiring a "summer homework packet" to be sent home at the end of the year. So, I made one... and I am really pleased with it! There are 40 pages that include multiple skills on them. It will be a quick and easy review for the kiddos. Not to mention, it will help make sure that all the hard work we did teaching them all year is not lost! It would also be great to use as morning work for the end of kindergarten or beginning of first grade. You can grab it for FREE for the next couple of hours only. All I ask is that you please take a second to leave some feedback after you grab your flash freebie. =) Hurry and grab it while it is still free! Click the picture to check it out.

I hope you can use these and you have an amazing week!

Five for the Never Ending Friday (April 26)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

1. I took a "nap" after school today, and I just woke up. Seven. Hours. Later. Oops. It has been one of those weeks.

2. For some reason some of the kiddos in my class love to stick their fingers down their throats and make a "throw up" noise. I have told them and told them that if they keep doing that they will really throw up. Guess what happened this week? Yep. One of them finally did... and it was at lunch of course. I was NOT happy about that. I bet they won't try that again at least. Oh, the glamorous life of a teacher.

3. I had a observation scheduled for today... the last day before we have a ten day break from school. The perfect day for an observation because the kids are always on their best behavior the day before a break, right? Of course. =) I was really nervous about it all morning. Then, I find out we have church service for our school today and it is supposed to be a "quick 10 minutes". What they meant to say was TWO HOURS. I felt so bad for my poor kiddos because I had told them it was only going to be ten minutes long. Oops. They were miserable. Not to mention, the service was so long that we didn't get to have specials or my observation that I had been stressing about for a week, so now I have to reschedule. Ahhh. It was no ones fault, just one of those things.

4. Here is part of my lesson that was supposed to be observed. We read The Tiny Seed this week and talked about beginning, middle, and end. I made the anchor chart below and we added one part (beginning, middle, or end) per day. The kids really liked the train visual and I hope that it will help them remember BME.

I also found a train worksheet that the kiddos could fill in themselves, but we didn't have time to use it. Here is the sheet if you would like to check it out. (It's free!)

5. I have been working my hiney off on a summer homework packet for my class. It is actually pretty fun, but time consuming. I can't wait to get it finished and posted. =)

I now have a week to relax! Thank goodness!! It has been a long one.

Survival Kit Giveaway!

The lovely ladies of Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten and Learning with Mrs. Leebly are having a fabulous giveaway! Be sure to enter! Just click the picture. =)

AND if you blog about their giveaway by 10 tonight, they'll let you pick an item ($5 or less) from their TpT store for free! Amazing, right? Go do it now!

Earth Day

We had lots of fun starting our Earth Day mini unit today. We will be celebrating all week long!

This morning, we planted flowers outside of our school. The kids thought it was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Here is a look at some of the centers we are using. They are from my Hip Hip Hooray it's Earth Day set. Each of the centers have a recording sheet even though most are not shown.

This center is a true or false addition sort. The kids decide if the addition sentences are true or not and sort them under the correct "recycle bin".

Here the kiddos practice skip counting by 2.

The kids find the number that is missing in this center.

Here the kids practice subtraction by using the pictures shown on the cards. They cross out the correct number of flowers and then record their subtraction sentences. They LOVED this. Why are dry erase markers so fun?

Don't forget to grab my Earth Day freebie center if you haven't already. Just click the picture.

Happy Earth Day!

Seasons and Five for Friday

We have had so much fun learning about the seasons this week. We talked about one season each day. I ordered the Weather and Seasons Common Core Collection from Scholastic a couple of months ago and my favorite book is A Tree For All Seasons. It was perfect for the seasons book we made! (I am not sure how I feel about the Common Core Collections they have now.  I like the books, but the "guidebook" seems kind of pointless to me. What do you think about it?)



Each day when we talked about a season, we added to our anchor chart and then the kids made their own page in their seasons book.

Here is the finished anchor chart.

The trees look a little crazy, but the kids thought they were "beautiful".

That's all that matters, right?

We tore up construction paper for leaves on the fall page.

For the spring page we drew flowers and leaves with crayon.

We cut a big green tree top for the summer page.

We used cotton balls for "snow" on the winter page.

Here's a look at all of the pages before I stapled them into a book.

You can download the book for free from Kindertastic here.

After we learned all about the seasons, the kids picked their favorite one to write about. I found this cute idea on pinterest to make it look like you are look out of  a window. All I did was draw the two black lines or "window panes" on construction paper and cut some curtains for each student.

You can grab the writing portion by clicking here.

I am linking up for Five for Friday as usual.

1. This was what one of my kiddo's lunch looked like this week.

Ya think she packed it herself?

2. This week one of my student's parents came to talk to me after school. Of course my first thought was "uh oh, what is going on...", BUT he came just to tell me how much he appreciated me and that he thought I was doing a great job. It made me smile big time. It is always nice to hear that you are making a difference.

3. I finally ordered some clip boards for my classroom. I don't know how I've lived without them this year. I got these from amazon.

4. I am road tripping to ATL this weekend and am SO excited! I am going to see Taylor Swift (Judge away. I have no shame.) and go to Six Flags with my sister. I can't wait!! We have so much fun together.

5. I have been thinking about trying to do my own linky this summer. I really have no idea how to do it but... I thought it could be fun. =)

Have a great weekend!

Earth Day and a FREEBIE!

I finished my Earth Day set! Woohoo! For some reason, I could not find ANY motivation to work on this, so it ended up only being math centers. To make up for it, I have given you a literacy center freebie! Scroll to the bottom of the post to find it. =)

Included in my Hip Hip Hooray it's Earth Day set are 5 Common Core aligned math centers that cover skip counting by 2, addition, subtraction, before, after, and between numbers, and time to the hour and half hour. Click the cover to find out more!

As promised, here is your freebie. It is an Earth Day themed real and nonsense word sort. Included is a cover page with visual directions as well as a recording sheet. I hope you can find some use for it next week. Click the picture to grab your freebie!

We have been learning about the seasons this week and I am excited to show you what we've been doing in the next couple of days.


Now off I go to cut and laminate my little heart out!

Skittles Game... Let's Get Acquainted

I am linking up with Latoya for Let's Get Acquainted again!

TOPIC - Skittles Game

Here is the code:

Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

Orange- Favorite Memory from College

Yellow- Favorite Sports Team

Green- Favorite Fast Food Place

Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)

Red

My favorite ice cream flavor would have to be cheesecake. I LOVE cheesecake. Of course I love everything that is terrible for me.

Orange

My favorite memory from college would have to be memories I had being on the dance team. We were so close and had so much fun together!

Yellow

I'm not good about keeping up with sports. I do have a few teams that I will always root for when I do watch.

I always have to root for my Alma mater even though they may not be the best at sports...

I love the Braves because I grew up going to their games.

My parents went to the University of Arkansas and I was born there, so I always have to root for the Razorbacks.

Aaannnd I always root for Memphis and Grizzlies basketball because I am from Memphis.

I have a lot of favorite teams for not keeping up with sports, huh?

Green

My favorite fast food place would probably be Backyard Burgers. SO GOOD! I have been trying not to eat fast food though. =(

Purple

(Wild Card)

I am SO happy and relieved that taxes are done. I thought I was going to owe money, and I ended up not having to. Greatest. Feeling. Ever.

Be sure to link up by clicking the picture at the top of this post!

Giveaway Winner!! and more!

Today has already been an amazing Sunday. I woke up to find my Springy Skip Counting Freebie in today's Teachers pay Teachers newsletter! Ahh so exciting!

(They have my name listed as "Jennifer Drake", but the link is right so I am definitely not complaining!)

Click the picture below to download it if you haven't already.

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway! I hope to do many more in the future. The winner is... 

Congrats Cori! You get to choose any two items from my TpT store! Be looking for an email from me today. =)

Have an amazing week everyone!

Click the picture above for more great freebies!

Five for Friday (April 12) with a measurement FREEBIE!

Friday!! Yay!!! It has been one of those weeks. I think my kinders feel summer creeping up, because they have been wild! We still managed to have a fun and productive week.

1. My kiddos started talking about santa again this week. I kept hearing, "Remember, santa is watching!". Just a little early, but hey whatever works. It made me giggle.

2. Have you heard of We Give Books? If not, you should definitely check it out! At their website, you can read TONS of childrens books for free. I use it all the time in my classroom. I don't have a document camera, so it really comes in handy because I can use the projector and everyone see. It doesn't have a lot of really new popular titles, but it does have some and it is definitely worth checking out. It is also great to send home the website info with parents so that they can read at home! Click the picture to go to their website.

3. We started talking about measurement this week. Of course, we opened with a brainpop video. My kids LOVE brainpop. We also read Inch by Inch. Love Leo Lionni!

Then we measured the room. My kiddos worked in pairs to measure five different things. Scroll down to grab the free recording sheet. I picked things everyone would have in their classroom, so it should be an easy, no-prep activity that is still meaningful for your kiddos. =) Here is what this activity looked like when we did it:

Click the picture below to grab your measurement freebie.

4. Don't forget to enter my 50 follower giveaway! It ends tomorrow. I am going out of town this weekend for a wedding, but I will try to contact the winners ASAP!

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5.  Now I have a funny story to share. One of my boys came to school this week with a fancy schmancy new outfit. New shoes, new pants, new belt, the whole deal. We will call him new pants boy. During restroom break one of my other boys (We will call him reporter boy.) comes and tells me that new pants boy is crying in the bathroom. I figured he shut the finger in the door again. (My kids do this ALL the time. Someone tell me mine aren't the only ones?)  So I send reporter boy to bring new pants boy to me. Reporter boy comes back alone and tells me that new pants boy can't come out because his pants are stuck. So... I'm not sure what to think. WHAT is stuck? I go to the bathroom to find new pants boy with his pants stuck below his little booty. He was just standing there with his pants belted at his knees and his spiderman undies ALL the way out. He didn't know how to take off his belt, so he pulled his pants down with it still on, and then of course he couldn't get them back up. It was one of those situations where I felt bad for him, but I also had to try really hard not to laugh. And guess what happened the next time he went to the bathroom that day? Yep, same thing. This is one thing I love about teaching--it is never boring.