Alphabet Songs

I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day! We didn't do much, just got our storage unit set up and ready for our move on Wednesday and went to moms for some BBQ and good company.

I have a few things to share with you tonight! First up is Have Fun Teaching's Alphabet Songs! These songs are so fun! Unfortunately I am just hearing about them so I have not gotten to use them in my classroom. However, after listening to several of their songs on YouTube I can't wait to use them next year! They are a great resource! My kids this year loved learning things using songs and honestly I can't think of any kid that doesn't like music and moving! Check out this ABC Song!

I absolutely LOVE how it not only goes through the letters (showing both capital and lowercase) but also goes through it again giving the sound of each letter!

They also have videos for each letter! Definitely a fun and motivating way to introduce, learn, remember, and review letters and their sounds!

---Next on the agenda for tonight is to tell you about A-B-Seymour's HUGE 200 Follower Giveaway! She has lots of great things up to give to one lucky winner! Although I am crossing my fingers that I am that lucky winner, it'd be a great package for any of us teachers to win! So get over there and enter. You have until Midnight Wednesday to enter!!

---Finally, I wanted to remind you about my Memorial Day Giveaway! Everything at my TPT store is 10% off until tomorrow night! I've recently added some things and I'm hoping to get a few more things up before the sale ends. (Click on the picture below to head on over to my store!!)

Okay well I'm off to read your wonderful blogs before I hit the bed tonight! Tomorrow will consist of packing up the kitchen, tearing down the bed, packing up the rest of the odds and ends around the house, and getting the U-Haul set up for Wednesday! I'm ready for this week to be over!

Night!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend & Sale

For most of us Memorial Day Weekend means the beginning of summer! Cookouts! Swimming! Family Times! Watermelon! (okay, now I'm making myself hungry!!) 

However, the real reason of Memorial Day goes beyond summer and fun. For my family and many other families here where I live, Memorial Day is about REMEMBERING those that have served... those that have lost their lives while trying to protect the lives of others. 

 (This picture was taken on a trip I took to Washington D.C. in the spring of 2007. 

All of the men and women that are pictured here had already lost their lives in the War on Terrorism. 

Just think 5 year later, how many more people have been added to this wall?)

I personally have several family members and friends that have served... not because they were made to... but because they want to. My father was a Vietnam War Soldier. He always told me that he had the most important job in the military. You see he was the mail carrier. Now growing up I thought he was just being silly. I mean if he didn't actually fight on the front lines, how could his job have been the most important. 

Well, I get it now. You see during the Vietnam War there wasn't skype, there wasn't facebook, or e-mail, or even telephones. The only way that the soldiers were able to hear from those that they loved were by the letters that my dad delivered to them. Those letters gave those men and women the strength to go on, knowing that someone at home loved them and was thinking about them.

With the use of technology now, we can talk to those that we love and care about on a more regular basis. So rather the person that you love is sitting on the couch beside you or they are thousands of miles away, let them know that you love them. 

And if you see a military man or women, make sure you tell them "Thank You!" I have seen men and women tear up over those words and it always lets me know that they appreciate that we appreciate them!

So THANK YOU! 

In honor of Memorial Day Weekend, I am having a sale at my TPT store.

Teacher Tam's Life Cycle Review

I was given the pleasure of test-driving a wonderful new packet from the wonderful Tammy at Teacher Tam's Educational Adventures.

The packet you ask? A 76-wonderful resource that you could use any time of the year.

In October you could use this resource to teach about the life cycle of pumpkins. What about Easter? Well you can use the the life cycle of chickens. In the spring you can do butterflies! But the list doesn't end there. You also have life cycles on deer, hummingbirds, frogs and apple trees that you can teach using this packet!

 

What about Easter? Well you can use the the life cycle of chickens.

In the spring you can do butterflies! But the list doesn't end there. You also have life cycles on deer, hummingbirds, frogs and apple trees that you can teach using this packet!  

That is 7, yes SEVEN, times during the year that you could use this packet!

Each one of the life cycle sets includes 2 sets of cards (DIFFERENTIATED!!!), posters, a cut and paste activity, and a teacher cheat sheet.

How much you ask? $4.00!! Ya'll for such versatile use, this packet is at a price that makes it feel like a steal!
 

So hurry onto her TPT store and grab a copy of this packet for yourself!!!

*All opinions are 100% mine!*

Untitled

Its Monday May 21st at 4:14 in the afternoon. The rain is pouring down on the roof as I sit inside my empty room. As I look around I see boxes filled with art supplies, math worksheets, and manipulatives of every kind. My heart breaks because my classroom which was once full of laughter and children playing and working hard is now silent and bare. The walls which used to hold children artwork, anchor charts, and other posters full of knowledge is now down laying on the floor. They tell me tomorrow is the last day of school. They tell me that summer is now here and that the school bell will not ring for the next 8 1/2 weeks. Yet, within that time another person will move into my room. They will decorate it to make it cheery instead of staring at the barren walls.
My kids ask me "why are you destroying the classroom?"
                          "Why are you taking that down?"
                          "Why can't you be my teacher next year?"
                          "Seeing the boxes make me sad."
Hearing these innocent children say these words makes me sad. Knowing that after noon tomorrow I will never see them again breaks my heart. These are my kids. They have grown so close to my heart. Even the ones that have driven me crazy at times will always be apart of me.
I knew that this time must come. I knew that one day they would leave me. I knew that my time with them was short.

But they have helped me in so many ways that it hurts to see them go.
They helped me heal in September. They gave me the strength to go on, a reason for getting up in the morning, when my dad passed away. They were my rock. Even if they never know it.
They made me laugh when I was feeling down.
 They made me smile at their innocence.
They taught me to be a better teacher.

I will never forget this class.
I will never forget their smiles....
I am blessed to have been their teacher.

Today we did not celebrate the end... but the beginning of the future.

EOY Blues + Freebie + Mini-Giveaway

Do you find it oddly insane that the school year is over? I, personally, just feel like it has started. I feel like it should be November... or maybe January.... but May??! This school year has FLOWN by! And as much as I'm ready to wake up on my own and not because the alarm clock told me to.... I'm not ready to give up my daily schedule. Maybe I'm a little OCD... but without work I always feel lost. I never know what to do. The boyfriend tells me I'm a workaholic... and he might not be lying.

Most Fridays I stay at work until 7/8 o'clock. Last night I was there until almost 9. Not doing Friday's usual, which consists of lesson plans, gathering resources, and making copies... but packing. My room looks and feels empty.

I started taking down the calendar board and one of my kids saw me and told me I was "ruining our classroom." It about broke my heart. Another little boy, who has been one of my toughest behavioral kids looked at me yesterday morning and said "I'm going to miss you."

Break. my. heart.

On Thursday I had to say goodbye to one of my little angels. She is going on vacation to see family, I believe her dad is getting ready to deploy so she has been out a lot lately. It tore me up to say goodbye to her. Then she told me she would come visit me next year.... I don't think she understood I would never get to see her again. (I'm moving...)

Last year I cried like a little girl when the buses rolled out on the last day of school... I have a funny feeling that this Tuesday will be no different. *tears*

Do you get this attached to your kiddos? Or am I just suffering from the want-to-be-a-mommy-so-bad-it-hurts-that-my-kinders-become-my-kids syndrome? Needless to say, I do NOT want 20 kids of my own... :)

This weekend I'm going to be super busy, I am about to get ready to go to the boyfriend's Nan's house for a little b-day celebration.... then when I get back I will be finishing up E-O-Y stuff... I'll try and take pictures and post them tomorrow!

If you still need something to give to your room parents... here is a little tag you could attach to anything... we attached the round ones to suckers that looked like Hawks (school mascot). They were super cute... but I was not able to take a picture of them :(.

Thank You Labels One more thing before I go... I just uploaded my Buggy For Calendar Pieces to my TPT store.

I priced them at 2.50... but here's the deal. The first 2 people that blogs about these calendar pieces and leaves me a comment with the url to their blog post will get these for FREE! 

Well peeps, I better get going. Have a fabulous Saturday.

So sorry!

I want to start off by apologizing for my absence. This past week has been crazy busy and I haven't been feeling that well. I've had lots to post about... like

my fabulous lunch that the PTO bought us last Wednesday from Zaxby's!

or I could tell you about all the crafts we made for Arts in the School Night.... which I really do wish I had taken more pictures of!  (I just took a few from our PTO website. If you'd like to check it out more you can find more pictures here)

We learned about Australia and made both land and ocean animals. We also made boomerangs, aboriginal artwork, and flags. Here are a few pictures of what we did. (If you look above you can see one of our whales sitting behind my food.)

Or I could tell you all about Saturday and all 3 major events that I had going on...
   Let's see.... I woke up at 6 on a Saturday morning to make it to a Rutherford County Job Fair. I passed out 20+ resumes and talked to lots of principals... including Becky's, from Teaching, Learning, and Loving, principal. Also ran into my middle school band director who is now a principal at a middle school... he remembered me and gave me a hug. I was told I was smart from one principal because I graduated from Austin Peay here in Clarksville... and then we got started talking about names. I was questioned by one principal who thought that I had been non-renewed, so I had to make sure she realized that I was moving because I need to be closer to family... although another principal thought I was "one of those people who follow the husband."

      

Then there was my childhood best friend's wedding. She made a beautiful bride and I am super happy for her. I just wish that we had stayed close when I moved away for college... growing up we used to talk about being in each others wedding... so it was sad that I was not in the wedding party. But I'm glad that I did get to share in their day by being there..... And the band that she had was A-MAZING! Rubiks Groove.... check them out!
  



  I learned something about myself during her wedding though.... I can't watch father-daughter dances anymore. They break my heart. One of the last things I said to my dad before he passed was that I'm glad we got to have ours at my prom. (Yes.... I know.... prom?? My parents were there to watch the seniors walk the stage... as a lot of other parents were. And knowing then that I may never get to have my father-daughter dance at my wedding, no matter where I was.... if my daddy was there, I made sure to get a dance with him.) I also have realized that my own personal wedding day is going to be bitter-sweet. I'll be excited to marry my best friend... but super sad because my daddy won't be there to give me away. (Okay.... enough on this topic. His birthday is coming up on Friday and I'm doing my absolute best to hold myself together. So moving on....

Lastly my best friend turned 25 that day. Unfortunately I did not really get to celebrate this. By the time I got home from the wedding it was too late and he had a headache. But he did enjoy his present.... and because he knew EXACTLY what he was getting he got it in a "gag-gift" way. He is a gamer, and asked for a 17 button mouse. He's been talking about this mouse for months.... and because I wanted to make sure I was ordering the right mouse, I even asked him about it before I ordered it from amazon. However, he was never sure if I ordered it or not because I kept telling him it was way too expensive. But... I guess you only turn 25 once... right?? Anyways when it got delivered to my school, I borrowed a toy mouse from the Pre-K room, took out the mouse (controller) and put it in my school bag. I then wrapped the toy mouse in the box. When he opened his present later he couldn't help but laugh... and look at me like I was crazy!!

But instead of telling you all of that :) I will simply tell you that I am sorry.... and I will be back tomorrow with something school related for you.

Happy Wednesday Evening!!!

What I'm Pinning Wednesday and Mother's Day FREEBIE

Okay.... so I haven't pinned a lot lately... I don't know what is wrong with me?!? So I had to dig back into the archives and find some things that I thought would be good. So here it is....

 This coin flip book came from Classroom Freebies. It was created by Diane. I will be doing this activity next week since I have decided to spend the last week of school reviewing coins and working on counting money. I feel like this is a skill that my kiddos really need to work on.

 I've seen this idea before but I still love it! In order to keep the kiddos from throwing the dice... putt them in clear containers. Have the kids roll the dice, and look through the clear bottom to see what was rolled. I really like these because of the pop of color. Super cute! (Could not locate the original posting. If you posted these, let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due!)

I really like this craftivity from The Kinder Wife. Kids love anything that they can use their hands + paint for.... plus painted hands make most things so much cuter (this definitely being one of those things)!! I'm keeping this in mind for when I teach ocean life next year.

 Okay... so I know Mother's Day isn't over yet... but I only have one more week until I have to have Father's Day stuff accomplished. This bookmark from Creative Family Moments is adorable and any dad that likes to read is sure to love this!

I love the idea of card games being used for math. I've been wanting to get my kids playing War... but then I think about all the other fun things you could do... like I could have kids add the cards together... or figure out the biggest number then subtract the cards... I'm half tempted to make all of my math centers card games next week. I mean... come on! Super fun! And this paper alliGREATER is super cute! Thanks Wendy @ Living Creatively for sharing this on your blog!


Okay... just one more thing before I go tonight! I just created a cute Mother's Day Card and uploaded it to my TPT store! In honor of TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK I decided to make it FREE for TONIGHT ONLY! In the morning I will be changing it back to $1.50 (which is still a really good price). PLEASE leave me some feedback if you download this product! Thanks!

We will finish our tomorrow.... Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures so that I can show you the finished product.

Craziness.

So today is Tuesday... I should be rushing around trying to make sure that I am ready and out the door by 7:15. I should be eating breakfast right now and putting on my shoes. I should be a jumbled mess. Instead I think I'll relax for the next 10 minutes and finish getting ready in a minute. Yes... it's 7:05 and 10 minutes would put me at 7:15, the time I would usually be leaving on Tuesday mornings for our lovely faculty meetings... but guess who just checked her e-mail to find that there is no faculty meeting this morning. That's right. This girl! I mean... we did have TWO faculty meetings yesterday. 1 in the AM and one immediately following buses. Neither one particularly good news. :( We found out that we have a brand new principal next year. We have been expecting to hear that our Asst Principal would step up... but we found out yesterday that she will be staying in her role as Asst. Principal. I think she was the best candidate for the job... but what do I know? Anyways, it does sound like a good person will be taking over as principal next year... they tell us we will be lucky to have her... that we will love her... and I'm sure we they will. I guess it doesn't affect me much since I plan to be moving and will be getting a new principal, asst. principal, building, co-workers, and kids next year. Whew... all of that new scares me. But I'm I think I am ready for the change. I'll be closer to family... I'll get to help take care of my mom and watch my nephew grow up... and he'll get to know me unlike my cousins kids who have no clue who I am. :(

Anyways.... so let me tell you about yesterday. I found out that I have the BEST KIDS EVER. This week is field day... yippee!!! Well our schedules have been changed so that we can still get a break. Well it came time for my break... then it was 5 minutes past my break.... and at this time I REALLY had to use the restroom. The specials teacher calls me and tells me to bring my kids to her. No problem. I can do that. Well we line up, I take them in the hall. And I get what looks like a signal to tell me that they have them. I even ask to find out if she was sure... and again I get the same signal. So I run walk to the rest room. About 2 minutes later I come back out into the hallway... and my kids are still in a little neat messy line.... RIGHT WHERE I LEFT THEM. I felt horrible. I was confused. I thought they were going to specials. I thought I had been relieved.  Guess we had cross signals. I'm just glad they continued to stand there... in line... and be good. No one was screaming. No one was running down the halls. And when I did a number count... they were all there.

What I think is funny is that there were three adults standing in the hall, and no one realized that there was a class of 19 kids just standing there.

Craziness.

I have to say that with just 9 1/2 days left I am really sad to see them go. I'm gonna miss them. One of my girls told me the other day that it wasn't fair. My kindergarten class from last year still gets to see me... so they don't understand why they won't be able to see me next year.

My heart broke. I love them. I really do. They have been my kinders kids for almost 180 days... and there will always be a special place in my heart for each and everyone of them.


ANYWAYS.... enough mushiness... it's be almost 20 minutes (where does the time go???) so now I'm gonna have to go back to being a jumbled mess so that I can finish getting ready for work! Today is field day - yippee!

P.S. KinderKids Fun is having her first giveaway. She is giving away her Lovely Ladybugs unit. The giveaway ends tomorrow (May 9th).... Go check out her blog!

and Lovely Mrs. Heather from Heather's Heart is also having a giveaway! If you do not follow her blog already...you need to go follow her blog! SHE IS AMAZING!!!

AND NOW I REALLY GOTTA GO!

Weekly update, Freebie, and Currently

The last few days have been long ones for me. It started on Wednesday when I was just too tired to go home from work, so I ended up staying at work with my head on the desk after I dropped my kids off at the bus. I was pitiful. I just didn't want to move. Obviously eventually I got up. Where did I go, you ask? Wal-Mart. Yea... it still baffles me too. If I was so tired that I put my head on my desk for like 30 minutes, then why didn't I just go home?? I have no answer for you. I guess I just realized that I had a few things I needed to get.

Then on Thursday we had Kindergarten Round-Up. This is a night that all parents of NEXT years kindergarten kids get to come with their new kindergarteners and check out the classrooms, ride the bus, and register. We had a really good showing. Over 100 kids, with 20 kids registered. So we know that one of us gets to keep our job. WooHoo! The office staff did do some math for us and if all 100 kids register then we will each have 14 kinders in our class. Wouldn't that be nice? Just 14 kids. It would definitely let us work one-on-one with our kids... which I think is a MUST in kindergarten. However, I doubt that we will just have 14 kids in our classes. With any luck, more and more kinders will show up... otherwise sadly there will be less kinder teachers next year in order for us to spread the kids a little thicker.

Then yesterday... well I still haven't made it home from work. Instead I drove 1 1/2 hours to see and spend time with my mom, sister, bil, and nephew. Sweet little boy has been sick with a 103 fever. We thought we were going to have to take him to the hospital. But thankfully it has gone down some. He's been pitiful all day long. While we (my sister and I watched him) I did lesson plans and worked on centers. Thanks to Graphics from the Pond I had everything I needed to quickly create 4 math centers for this week.

Here is one of my Literacy Centers. You will need to give the students magnifier glasses (my kinders love using these!) so that they can look in the doorway and see the CVC picture. They will write the letters of the CVC word in the windows of the house.  

CityCVCs
 Hope you like it.

So lastly I will leave you with my favorite thing (okay 2nd favorite thing... 1st is Payday!) from the beginning of the month! I present to you.... CURRENTLY

So tomorrow.... I will be heading home for the first time since Friday morning. I'm super excited to see the boyfriend.

What I'm Pinning Wednesday

I don't know about ya'll... but I am READY for summer! With only 13 1/2 days left it is time that I begin thinking about our End of the Year Celebration. So as I gathered which pins I wanted to showoff tonight I focused on great End of the Year ideas.

Tip Junkie has posted 34 End of Year Activities, Gifts, and Printables. 

I love this colored pencil vase. Too adorable! 

Mrs. Picasso over at Mrs. Picasso's Art Room posted this lovely End of the year craftivity. 

Its darling and I just love it! 

I just LOVE this End of the Year gift. It is more involved than bubbles or something simple that I was thinking, but a keepsake that they could keep forever. Something I'm thinking that is totally worth it. Unfortunately I can't find the original source.

Okay, so what are you serving at your EOY Celebration? I'm thinking cake... and particuarly THIS cake! Super cute! By Cake Central.

Okay so whatever you are doing for you EOY Celebration, I hope you have a GREAT one! How many more days you have... make them count! Your kiddos will never ever forget you!!