Fonts??

Do any of you FABULOUS teachers know where I can get some awesome free fonts? Particuarlly the dotted fonts that are used for students to trace?? I have some ideas that I want to make for my precious kiddos! And if I can find some cute, free to use, images, I will post them on here! Most of the things I make are just fonts... simply because I don't have the dough to buy cute clipart! Although one of these days I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to buy some DJ Inkers stuff! Because after setting up my room this year, I realized that everything I bought at the teacher store was in fact DJ Inkers!! :) I couldn't have been happier.

Have a great weekend! I off to see if I can find some chart paper anywhere around this town. My hand writing on the board is HORRID!

Clutter Free Classroom... YES Please!

I have recently found a new blog that I just LOVE! Have you heard of Clutter-Free Classroom? She is AMAZING! Right now she has a classroom management series going, which she gives out TONS of GREAT ideas in. Right now (if you click this link) you can read about how she takes attendance. Although this is something that sounds simple, she has an interesting take on it. Go on over to her blog and check it out. Then go to her TpT site here and pay only 3.50 for a list of 180 *YES! That is one for EVERY day of the school year* of attendance questions to get the kiddos engaged starting from the beginning of the day!!

Everyone is a Winner

Teacher Tam is having a giveaway where EVERYONE is a winner. If you would like some awesome kindergarten or first grade items, head on over to her site and check out her TpT store.

(Sorry for the VERY short post. I will tell you this, I am thinking about having a freebie/giveaway soon. However the giveaway will have to wait until after payday.)

Going Buggy.

W.O.W. What a day! I had a group of 6 today. All adorable. But... oh, oh, oh, (a Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten reference... get it??) today was R.O.U.G.H. rough. But its okay. I'm gonna look into a bag of tricks and find SOME way to make this group love kindergarten and still behave at the same time. Because I can't be having days like today. I will say though that I was super impressed with one of the students academic ability! This child knew all of their lower case letters and was able to write both their first AND last name. Now, that is IMPRESSIVE--especially for a four year old!! I'm looking forward to this year.  My students are adorable and they will LEARN to behave. Somehow. That is me being optimistic. I hope your first week went amazing as well... with little to no problems! My biggest problem was the ant infestation! Can you say gross??? I had kids screaming and a hollering... and honestly I was with them on this. My classroom theme may be ladybugs... but I don't want any real bugs in here. LOL. I'm now going to go drink my half full bottle of water.... because after today I need something refreshing!

Have a great weekend!!

Classroom Tour

Let me start by apologizing. I am sorry I have been MIA lately. I've been working hard on my classroom, and then last Thursday school started. I can hardly believe the first week has already gone by. My kinder friends are absolutely ADORABLE! and SUPER smart! I'm looking forward to getting to know them over the course of the year. I'm about to head to bed to get some rest. Tomorrow is spirit day, which means BLUE JEANS and a T-SHIRT!!! YAY!! But before I go I wanted to leave you some pictures of my classroom. :) If you can't tell I LOVE LOVE LOVE ladybugs!

 This is the view looking AT my door. The "Look Who's Been Spotted" board is my board for good work! I love how it turned out.

 This is my writing center. I'm doing 8 centers (+me!) this year. So hopefully it will work out where there is only 2 children per center. (I have 22 students right now and climbing.)

 

This is my Popcorn Word board. I got the adorable letters from Teacher's Notebook for FREE! I can't remember who's store they were from though. If they were yours please let me know so that I can give you credit... and a BIG thank you!

 This is my calendar area. I love how it turned out. :)

 This is the view of my teacher center. I have all of my stuff (well most of it!) in the black rolling drawers and on top of the red cubbies that I will need for literacy centers. 

On top of the cubbies are stuffed ladybugs that I've gathered over the past 5 years (my sororities mascot was the ladybug and it inspired my LOVE of ladybugs!)

 This is my library. I got the black carpet at the Dollar General for 12 buckaroos. And the red pillows I got for FREE from the "Free. Take what you want" bucket in our school's copy room. I was wanting to make the cute crate seats, but I just haven't done it yet... and I'm beginning to think that will be a task that waits for next year.

This is my desk and storage area. The white bins hold manipulatives that the students will use for literacy/math centers.

I hope you enjoyed my classroom tour! I love it.... and I hope you do too!

A steal and a Giveaway!

Just wait... your gonna be jealous when you hear what I'm about to say! While I was out and about yesterday after school running chores I decided to stop at 2 local thrift stores to see how good their stuff was. I was very impressed. Especially at one particular thrift store when I went to the books sections.

Introducing evidence A ....

and evidence B...

Thats right... I got 9 books written by Dr. Suess and 7 books that have been awarded Dr. Seuss awards, all of which are in practically brand new condition! The kicker, each book was originally priced .99cents. Yet because the store was 30% off store wide, I got them for .69cents each. Oh... wait and it gets better. Because this is TN's tax free weekend, I got them and didn't have to pay tax on them! How much better does it get??

While I was leaving I remembered someone saying that when I get some money I should invest in the Dr. Seuss books. I guess I didn't have to have as much money as I thought I was going to have. :)

Giveaway!
Also, DeeDee and Little Warriors  are linking up to have a fabulous giveaway! Go over to Little Warrior's blog to see what you could win and how you can enter!

First Day Jitters

I still can't believe today is the first day of school. My summer flew by. But I'm super excited to meet all my new kindergarten friends. The ones I met last night seem sweet. And I got to see my babies from last year! Its strange how much they've grown over the summer. I didn't recognize one of the girls. I looked at her in all seriousness, asked her name, she gave me her name, and I thought I don't have a "Brenna." And then it dawned on me. This sweet little girl was one of my babies last year. I got all excited and gave her a hug, and told her that she had gotten so much taller that I didn't recognize her (I felt bad that I didn't recognize her, but in my fairness I had her for one month at the end of the school year).

So I'm nervous about today. Hoping I don't mess anything up. I'm not good at public speaking. But I have all of my materials ready so it should go good! Wish me luck!

Sorry for the short post. Its 7:32 and I should be heading to school. :)

My very BIG day.

OMG. Am I exhausted or what?? I'll be back, I was just told it's dinner time. Anyways, as I was saying I'm exhausted. Today was the big day. And by big I mean busy. I woke up this morning at 6:30 because I had to be at school in an in-service by 8.  Did all of the required district training, had a great lunch offered by the PTO, crawled around on my knees trying to find my stuff that needed laminating, more meeting, finished my room, then open house. Yes... you heard me right, CRAWLED AROUND ON MY KNEES in the Educational Assistants work room. They are the only people in our school allowed to laminate things... and today was there first day back-we had OPEN HOUSE at 5! I've been trying to make sense of this, but I've come to the conclusion... it doesn't make sense. But it is what it is. So I crawled around looking for all of my stuff so I could make sure it was laminated. I still didn't know if it would actually be done, but it kinda made me feel better. You have no idea how excited I was when Mrs. Nancy brought me my stuff. I couldn't stop thinking her!! All week I've been stressing, and that moment made it all go away. Thankfully I got my room and hall display done. I still have to put up my shapes and colors, and put my nametags on the tabels... but it looked good!!! Very good! I had several teachers and parents tell me how good it looked! Oh... and to end a very busy day. Open House went really well and I am officially excited about the new year!

Currently I am...

  So today since I am EXHAUSTED due to working constantly on getting my classroom finished for TOMORROW nights Open House, I am going to post another fun linky party post! That may have been a run on sentence... oops! Oh' Boy 4th Grade is having a Think Share Write linky party where you write what you are currently doing. So sit back, relax, and get to know me a little bit.

 

I am currently...

listening

To Man vs Food on the Travel Channel. 

I love this show and am super surprised he doesn't weigh a thousand pounds! 

(WooHoo!! He just mentioned TN!)

 

loving

Coming home and relaxing with my boo after a long day at work!

thinking

  about how much stuff I still have to get done before tomorrow night!! 

:(

wanting

a nap! 

needing

more time left in my summer!

&

stalking 

Bethany Ann Photography

Babbling Abby

Tiny Snapshots

Snack Time=Socializing

How do you create an efficient snack time in your classroom so that you aren't using too much time up, but still making sure tummies are full so kids can learn?
Do you send a snack calendar or do kids bring their own snack each day?
Please share your tips and tricks so we can all get a glimpse of your Snack Time Successes!

Mrs. Bainbridge over at Teach, Laugh, Learn...Everyday is having a Snack Time linky party! So I thought I'd join my first linky party!! Super excited. Here's how I do my snack time.

I think snack is important for my kindergarten students. Not only does it fill up their little tummies, but it gives them a time to socialize. We have snack towards the end of the day after specials. Each day, while they are at specials, I lay out that days snack so that when the students get back they can sit down and eat. However, before we eat snack I make sure that we, as a class, thank the student that brought in the snack for that day. I really like this, because it puts a smile on the child's face. If a child forgot to bring in snack I pull out extra snack that we had left over in the cabinets and I still let the child get a thank you.

We spend about 10 minutes eating snack before going into our Unit time.  But during that 10 minutes, I let the students talk to one another. Of course there is no yelling and if the students have been particularly unruly that day, then they have to eat snack in silence. They don't like this, and honestly I don't either. I think it is good for them to be able to talk to one another as it builds important socializing skills.

Here is the note I send home at the end of the month for next months snack. I have a list of ideas for snacks that can be brought in, and if I have any students in the classroom who are allergic to something last year I had peanut and dairy allergies in my class I put it on here as a reminder. 

 If you would like this document, please leave me a comment with your e-mail address. I will send it to you. I can't figure out how to upload a document onto blogger. Sorry. :(

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I hope you will find it entertaining, and find some interesting things that you can try with you new kindergarten students this year! Can you believe that summer is over? I know I can't. In just 4 days I will be meeting my new group of kiddos. I'm getting super excited, but am a little nervous. Thursday night is Back ti School Night where the parents and their children will come and meet their new teacher. Then on Friday morning, I will get to deliver a speech (yay!), introduce myself, and help parents be a little more calmer about leaving there children at school for 8 hours, 5 days a week. Di I mention that I do not like public speaking?? Well...I don't. I get nervous. Very nervous. Hopefully with my cute power point behind me I won't get too nervous. Although I've taught kindergarten (at the same school) for a year, I've never done the beginning of the year with kindergarten. Last year I started in 3rd grade and then go transferred after Labor Day because the school I was at had hired to many teacher. Am
 I nervous? To say the least, yes!

I still have plenty to do though! I have to do my Welcome Back Board (which I think will be Buggy About Kindergarten :) with students names on ladybugs!), name tags, and plans, etc. etc. Woo. This week is going to be exhausting! I will post some pictures of my classroom this week, along with some fun Ladybug themed things that I have created based on things I have found on other teacher blogs! THANK YOU! You guys have been such a huge inspiration to me!