May Currently

This is my first time linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her Currently linky!

Can you believe it is already May?! I can't, but I am pretty darn excited that it is!

Listening: to Lost. I have been Netflix crazy ever since I've gotten it. I think I have watched more than five full seasons of shows already...

Loving: that I get to see my family today. In a couple hours I'll be heading to my parents house for the weekend! I love when I have time to visit them.

Thinking: about all the decisions I have to make. Let's just say, it is going to be a busy summer!

Wanting: an Ipad. I think everyone that doesn't have an Ipad wants one. I have no good reason for one, but I can still WANT one, right?

Needing: to finish packing. I don't have a lot to pack for the weekend, but I still hate packing. So what do I do? Procrastinate, of course!

Summer Bucket List: vacation. I look forward to it every year (68 days!). Move--first I have to figure out where to move. I really don't like moving... probably because there is endless packing involved!

Create... I hope to have a very productive summer. =)

Don't forget to link up!

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!